"Just in time" for summer...

Sometimes you just can't finish something in time for the end of cold weather. This is the case with a few of my recently finished projects, including some beautiful long gauntlets and a poncho. (Although the poncho is actually pretty light, I think it would be perfect for a cool summer night.)

First up: my glorious sock-weight gauntlets. I bought this beautiful brown variegated yarn called Pixie by Dragonfly Fibers back in 2014. I was in Silver Spring, MD visiting the husband, and I thought it was something cute to make a cowl out of. 

Well, I started a cowl, but it was looking limp and uninteresting. I also decided to do it in the round in stockinette stitch, so it was the most boring project to work on out of the few I had going, so I never worked on it.

Flash forward to about two months ago, and I decided to clean house with old projects. I frogged the entire thing (and I was about six inches in - in SOCK WEIGHT) and re-balled it, and decided to do something different with it. Instead of doing yet another cowl, I thought it was time to do some cool fingerless gloves, and I had enough to do these long gauntlets.

The only thing is that the yarn is tiny, so each glove took me about 15-20 hours to make. So I finished one at an all-day knit-a-thon for charity, and then I dragged my feet on starting the other one for a few weeks. In the end, they both turned out to be the same size (phew) and I like them a lot. I can't wait to wear them in the fall!

They are super dramatic and make me feel très européenne.

The next project I recently finished was this quick poncho, which I copied from a book that a friend was giving away. It's a lacy crochet pattern and I still need to block / stretch it, but I thought it was cute enough to take a picture today after I finished it on my lunch hour.

I was worried it wouldn't be big / long enough for my tall frame, but it looks cute. I think I'm going to wear it to this softball game tonight.

The yarn is a soft charcoal gray DK merino I bought from Loopy Yarns in Chicago, a.k.a. my favorite yarn store of all time. It's a more neutral, muted color than I usually get, but I need to buy more of that type of yarn so that it actually goes with my zany patterned clothes.

I'm also working on this poncho with some gorgeous magenta yarn from Yarn Con 2015, but I'm worried it won't fit and I'll have to frog the whole thing. Keep your fingers crossed for this Chicago knitter.