Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The other knitting basket

Hello, basket of finished knits!


Unless you are a very generous person, you can't knit for this long and not have a pretty hefty selection of accessories to choose from every cold winter morning.  This winter I made a point of setting the current rotation into groups so that the night before when I'm setting things out - you have to do that when you leave home as early as I do - I can grab and go depending on just how cold the morning will be.

Temperatures just above freezing?


A slouchy sport-weight superwash wool hat and elegant accessories.

Cold with some walking and driving?


A superwarm but snug hat, with driving gloves and silk/merino blend scarf.

Cold with some walking, some driving, and later on some seeing a friend at a place where one might want to look polished?


The orange set - thick, warm, handspun hat, elegant driving gloves, and a slim double-evolution handwoven scarf.

Cold with a hankering for green?


Giant green superwarm handspun hat with neutral scarf and the gloves that more or less match.

Unbelievably cold?


Gotta be the yak-based giant scarf, which really, really needs a matching warm hat.

Both pairs of driving gloves are silk-lined leather and surprisingly toasty, but unless I have a busy day of subway riding ahead of me I put them into my bag once I've parked and switch over to one of these two pairs of superwarm mitts (one is sheepskin, the other twined wool and mohair), depending on the match factor:


I should add here that the black sheepskin mitts were a recommendation from Ady, who hails from Northern Ontario and knows from heat retention.  She told me nothing is warmer than sheepskin, and by golly, even on a very cold day my hands get sweaty inside these things.  Attractive, I know.  But a welcome side effect.

And when I get home, I toss the stuff into this huge Reisenthel basket.


I don't know why I never thought of this solution when I bought the basket a couple of years ago, because it's large and portable and smooth inside (unlike any of my many woven baskets, which can catch the yarn) and it keeps all my knits and other warm things in one place. I haven't lost so much as a hat since I put it to use in the front hall, so Thank You, basket of finished knits.

How do you deal with your knitting overflow - or are you a better person than I, and give most of your knits away?



No comments: