Breaking news
SnB is back on!
I am going to school to be an Information Professional (
librarian, you know, with amazing SUSHING action) and the only time I could get a needed class was on Tuesday night--SnB night. It was the worst of times.
But through the miracle of drop/add I got the same class, same instructor on Wednesday night. The yarn is safe! It was the best of times!
So all of you SnBeeaches that had hoped that last week was the last you would see of me for awhile, good riddance and all....I'm baaaaack! The nightmare returns! The cat came back the very next day!
The test knit for
Melanie is finished and it is beautiful. Roll on Knitty submission and yarn superstardom! We can all say we knew Melanie when.....
Cheese!
Do you think it fits? This is the neckpiece from
Loop-D-Loop in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky that I found ON SALE at Letttuce Knit. I made the scarf almost immediately (it took maybe 2 evenings at 3 st/inch!). I have wanted to make this for a long time, more than a year. And finally the time was right.
I did make a mistake: I picked up stitches on the wriong side for the second piece; one of the sides is stockinette and the other supposed to be reverse stockinette. I like it this way just fine--hey, now its a design feature!
And the green Patagonia Nature Cotton that I bought at the same sale? (Thanks Jenn for enabling--she bought another colorway of the same yarn and could not stop knitting with it either!) Its becoming a top-down cardigan for a friend's toddler. It will be a good jacket for him since they live in Savannah.
I was working on it at SnB this week and made a mistake--I thought you left a big hole for the sleeves, knitted around it, like you do in a sewn-together cardigan. But NO--you just leave a few on a holder and then cast on some ease on the next row. WHOA. So I ripped and reknitted that mistake last night and then started a sleeve. So fun and so fast--13st/4 inches for a 2 year old is a fast sweater! No tears on reknitting that one. Thing2 has tried it on and it is VERY cute. Hope its ok for a boy.
Thanks for all the input on the corset. In spite of the votes, I think am going to rip it all. BUT I'll let it marinate/compost for a week to give me some emotional space.
Next project--simple knitting. I think I'm going to make a top-down cardigan for me out of some
Summer Tweed my dad brought me from the UK. I have the
Ann Budd book home from the library; she has a bottom-up that would work for me. Plus there are some more buttonhole bags in my future.....funfunfun!
Ribbit ribbit?
First, the yarn porn:
I have been working very hard the last month on small projects, trying to knit up some of the stash. But somehow (and we all know how this is......if I can admit it you can too) I found myself making excuses to run errands near Stony Point and OOPS here I am with no kids in the same shopping center as Lettuce Knit and WHO could have guessed it, they are having a big sale just like the sale postcard said they would and LOOK I have plenty of time to go in and browse.....
Sometimes I come out of sales empty handed but not this time. Above is the Patagonia Nature Cotton, hand dyed and very soft (one hank pictured, I got a whole bag at $5.00 a hank!) I had thought I would make the Leaf Pullover from
Loop-D-Loop but I think the varigation will hide the pattern. I still love it and its knitting at 13/4 inches for me, so I have cast on for a top-down cardigan for a friend's 2 year old. I have never made a top down and I am doing this one according to a formula, not a full pattern, so I hope I will not get stuck somewhere in the knitting and not be able to fix it.
I also bought some Babajoes Woolpack in blaze orange for my niece's buttonhole bag and some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky (FIBER CRACK! Really nice to kit with). This has already become the braided neckpiece from Loop-D-Loop and is blocking. When it emerges from its spa experience I will have pictures.
Now the question.
I tried on the Corset Pullover last night. WAY TOO SMALL! I was making the XSmall size knowing that the yarn would stretch, I wanted it to be snug, it was closest to my bust size, only a tiny bit of negative ease, read that smaller is better on the KAL, etc etc etc and it is not even close to meeting in the middle! I need maybe 2 more inches.
So the question:
Rip and reknit bigger for me? When I am close to done? Heartbreaking.
Finish and give it to my sister, who has admired it? Yet does a non-knitter ever understand the work that goes into a sweater? And then make another in a different color? Ok knitters, hands on the buzzers, its time to vote.
Give it to the sister. She is smaller. Merry Christmas! or
Rip it and restart. Why finish something that is not going to be right?
Let the comments begin!
Are you ready to SOCK THIS WAY!
My Sockapalooza socks are done!
Details:
1.
Holly Spring Homespun Superwash Merino in Autumn Scape, which I knitted at 6 stitches/inch. This yarn is very soft and a very high quality. I made my Claptotis out of this in a different colorway. I was very worried that I would not have enough yarn but I have a small wad left.
2. The pattern is a combination of two patterns. I used the basic sock pattern always use from Ann Budd's
The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. I mixed that with the Cable Rib Socks in IK 2005. They have 3/1 rib and a cable on either side, but the gauge was 8 st/inch which would never work with my yarn.
3. I love the colors (and I hope my sockpal does too) but the lovely varigation really obscures the cable work. Still, I wanted to give her something besides a basic ribbed sock. So at least I know the cables are there. Plus, cables are fun!
4. I have loved all the yarn/projects I have made with Holly Spring Homespun yarn. I will most likely make another pair of socks from this yarn--its fabulous. My BIL loved them and wanted a pair.
The ship-off date is September 15 and I have some stitch markers and a postcard to tuck into the package, maybe something else cute if I can think of it. I wonder what kind of socks I will get?I love surprises!
Tree of life
Presenting Ydgrassil! At MdS&W
Mira,
Melanie and I stumbled upon a tiny stall at the very back of one of the buildings. The owner had some great "knitterly" yarn and patterns (by knitterly I mean high quality yarn without faddyfunfur and fun-to-knit, creative but still classic patterns. ) The wool was unbelieveable and I could not stop touching it. The strange thing was that the wool in the hanks was rough, but the owner assured me that once I washed the wool it would bloom. And it did!
The shop turned out to be
Kimmet Croft Fibers and the pattern is by
Lucy Neatby, officially called The Emperor's New Scarf. The yarn is called Fairy Hare and comes in a 400 yard hank; I used most of the hank. The owner told me she raises her own rabbits for the angora and the yarn was spun by the same mill that does the Green Mountain Spinnery yarn (love their patterns; I've made two sweaters from their book.)
I made the scarf much longer and did not crochet the insides of the holes with a contrasting color; I left them as they are. Its a nice light scarf and will be a good one to alternate with the Clap, which is quite big and dramatic. I could get away with this over just a shirt, as just a fashion scarf.
I LOVE IT!
Now I am stuggling for my next project. I have the corset going, I finished my Sockapalooza socks. I have some Xmas knitting to work on (scarves and hats for kids) and I would like to make a top-down cardigan for Thing2 (I have the yarn). I am waiting for Melanie's test-sock pattern, so I don't want to start the
Wyvern socks. Maybe I'll just go up into the attic and meditate with the stash. Ommmmmmmm......
Baby bear
My cousin had a baby girl (hooray for Victoria Grace! I am going to try to sell the parents on a nickname, maybe Tory.) So of course I had to make her something.
I had already made a baby blanket out of Vanilla and Fuschia Cotton-Ease and a pair of tiny stripey socks from leftover sock yarn. And an Eyeore hat in purple, based on the bunny hat from Stitch and Bitch Nation (the mom is very into Eyeore and Pooh.) But I love making hats and I had some stash leftover from another baby hat.
Here we have Thing 2 posing with the hat. Its made out of Peter Pan Wendy (very very soft) from the Ann Norling Fruit Hat pattern (I use the basic formula to make most of my baby hats. I love working in the round.) I crocheted a flower from stash Cascade 220 for the edge and then ran two lengths of yarn through the stitches to give it a bit of a border. I love the way it looks--scabbed the idea from Erika Knight who used it in the
Knitting for Two book I just checked out of the library. Joelle Hoverson uses it too in her hat pattern in
Last Minute Knitted Gifts.
Anyone entering the fair with their knitting? Ann and Kay over at
Mason Dixon Knitting are having a fair-along. Loads of people have already won! If I did do it I would enter the sweater I knitted for my grandmother
The problem is prying it off her body. She has not taken it off since I gave it to her. That's the great part about being 91--you wear wool every day, summer and winter.
Any thoughts?
Mom? MOM? Are you talking to yourself about yarn again?
Have you ever found the kids/dogs/partner/plants staring at you, expecting you to say something, but you have no idea what was going on since you were thinking about handpainted merino?
Do you often find yourself planning your next project while you are driving to the grocery and find yourself in the LYS parking lot instead of Wally World?
Are the other residents of your abode completely mysified by your interest (obsession) with yarn, blogs and knitting?
Ok, so I thought it was just me. I always knew I was an alien.
I pride myself on being an independent woman but a girl has to have some knitting company. One night a week at SnB is
not enough. I need a blog too! Instead of talking to myself I'll be talking to myself and the computer and knitting blogland. That's better, right?
I know, I know, everyone is doing it. And I can hear all the mommies now, if everyone else was putting their hand in the fire would you put your hand in that fire too?
No mom, of course not. Except to save that last existing hank of Mongolian Cashmere I needed for this...oh wait, it would just be all burned up anyway.
And I need a blog! Who else is going to listen to my thriling tales of turning cables, clap for my Clapotis and cheer when I triumph over the dreaded kitchener?
So please come and harass me. Leave me knitlike comments and make me feel like I am not knitting alone.
Picture above is a real FO--Thing 1 posing with the Pinwheel Baby Blanket I made for a baby boy who is due in November. The yarn is Rowan Denim/Elann Den-im-nit. PERFECT for a boy (all kids really) because you machine wash and dry it, it fades with age and use, just like jeans. So it gets better with love. The Elann yarn I bought for another project; the denim was leftover from Thing 1's star sweater. After I shortened it I had 2 spare balls!
I am trying to use up the stash. All those unused balls of yarn are really bothering me.
