Project Notebook: The Cursed Ball of Yarn

As most knitters do, I have quite a stash, and some of it is pretty old. In the fall, I decided I wanted to knit some gloves for the girl (since her hands are finally big enough that I felt like I could stitch individual fingers without going insane) and I let her pick out the yarn.

She picked a ball of Opal Harry Potter (Ron colorway), which has been long since discontinued. Maybe there’s a reason for that, because this yarn has been nothing but bad luck for me.

The yarn itself is lovely, and I whipped up a pair of kid-sized gloves in no time.

And that’s when it all started to go wrong.

The first day she wore them to school she lost one.

So I knit another one.

I was sure we’d lost another one last week, right before our first snow, but I found it, thank goodness.

A while later I decided she needed some new knit socks, because her ones from last year are getting a little small. And I thought it would be cute to use the Harry Potter yarn again.

And though I measured and calculated and did all the things you’re supposed to do, she could not get the first sock on her foot.

The second one I think would fit, but the foot is too short.

So I’m still going to end up knitting three socks, just as I knit three gloves.

There’s some kind of dark magic here, no doubt.

Sigh. At least she probably won’t lose a sock. Maybe.

Have you had any exciting knitting adventures lately? I’d love to hear!

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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