stitch marker

gems for spring?

Every stop at the LYS is born innocent. We were looking for a pattern for my friend Kim. She had some luscious chenille already in her stash. Little did I know a whole new relationship might blossom, that it might be the first day of the rest of my life. I'd never seen Noro Gem Stones before. Or I didn't know I had (apparently it's used in a purse in SnB).



Across a crowded room, I saw a sample tee in the gorgeous, green--recognizably noro but without the usual weird inappropriate color jammed in--colorway, and I was hooked. I'm bound and determined to make something out of it. I almost bought one skein for sleeve-ends on my kyoto, but I am committed to using my expensive, frogged Colinette Giotto for that.

So what will happen with Gem Stones? And how will I earn the money? There may be some ebay listings in my future.

BTW, I spent ZERO DOLLARS on that trip to the store. Wow.

Kim spent more than zero dollars. She walked out with a pattern for a huge, voluptuous shawl and--to go with her chenille--two skeins of Donegal Tweed in golds, 2 skeins of magenta Gatsby, and 4 skeins of Diamusee. In the category of Why Do Sisters Do That?: that night at a family bbq, Kim's sis said--in front of her husband and god and everybody--"Wow? How much did you spend on all this?" I jumped in with my best academy award quality, throw-away line: "It was an amazing sale."

transwarp knitting

Both the cardi and these socks are moving so fast it's hard to believe. The one below is #2, with just a foot to finish. Knitted in bulky yarn from this ebay seller.



And with M out of town, I've watched 9 Voyager episodes in the past two days. I've gotten well into season 4 on my Voyager-In-Order marathon. We're now in the Sassy Captain Janeway phase (at first she was Dewy and later in the series she gets Bitter, but right about now she's pretty fun.)

kandy-o

Smiling tiger's post reminded me how much I used to love The Cars. Amazing. And those jellies shoes.

I've always been a sucker for shiny things. Today I put a down payment on a major investment, my own little kandy-o (the company calls the color kandy mango).



It's 20.15 pounds of love, what Rock Chick might call sex-ay. It's for this. I can't wait! For once I'm spending money on not-yarn.

p.s. Why is it that virtually every time I try to type yarn it comes out yearn?

p.p.s. Martin, here's our 1st Amsterdam flower...

my first cardi



And boy is it a fast one. I'm lovin' this. Two strands of Zelda in Zinc and size 13 needles. Mmmmm. Steel-y delicious.

you like me, you really like me



Thank you for all the comments! It's nice to know there are so many other knitters out there. The big winner was popsicle, with a great idea to include the green instead of the silver/gray. Silvergirl was a close second, and honorable mentions for prepschool and retroappliance. I'm going to use at least 2 of these combos, and I'll get back to you on how they look when I've got something to show.

Ciao!

is this thing on?

An utter lack of comments about my various and compelling sweaters, swatches, and pet shots has led me to wonder--again--does anyone read this blog? So I'm going to take a poll to see if anyone's around.

I can't tell you what secret project this is for, but for an accessory (not a main piece of clothing) which one of these combos do you like best? Just what you think is pretty.

beeline, popsicle, prepschool...


prepschool2, silvergirl, retroappliance...


Or any other combination of these colors that seems nice?

kyoto progress

Not on own kyoto, of course. But there are two blue names in the knitalong sidebar and two wonderful new handknit sweaters in the world! A finished kyoto by Marta, and another by Marcela. How's everyone else doing?

little finishes

The "his" of the his-n-hers miata blankets is finished, just in time for M's trip to racecar driving school on Friday. Here it is shown in the rare and wonderful sun, with pet for scale. And a detail of the cables. The yarn is Lion Thick & Quick for washability and very fast knitting.



Also finished, my first swatch for the TKGA Master Hand Knitter Level 1, also shown with pet for scale.



And my 5th afghan square, for the afghanalong at mason dixon knitting.



Now if only I could finish something big so I could, in all good conscience, move on to this.



I shudder to think, let alone make known here in public, that I am going to knit something out of Hollywood Knits with this beautiful yarn. I hate the book for its pomposity. I mean, Suss Cousins could go up against Sting anyday. But this yarn is truly meant for the Serendipitous Cardi. And I've never made anything with a button before, so I picked one just to meditate on for a while. My friend Kimberly says it doesn't contrast enough with the yarn. We'll see.

no. 1 sweater

Today I wore the very first sweater I ever made. A pilly, barfy colored blob of a sweater, which I love. I made it about 7 years ago (even though I've been knitting for about 30 years, the first 23 were strictly devoted to rectangles and freeform). It's a top-down one-piece pattern from Fiber Trends that I can't find anymore (please let me know if you have this pattern and want to sell it).

A couple lessons learned on this sweater still hold true:

1. A color that's really cool in the skein may be too much for an entire field.
2. Superwash is very wonderful for washing and drying but can be very stretchy and formless.
3. Well, this is really "rule no. 1" in my book: If a sweater makes a 5'10" 120 lb. model look dumpy, don't knit it.

Anyway, as I said I still love this sweater. I wore this today to dog agility class. I stopped for coffee on the way and I got a compliment on the sweater, from the barista. How cool that I can wear my lumpy old no. 1 sweater and still get a nice compliment.

let's face it

I'm never going to make the pippi kneesocks, and I'm removing the knitalong from my sidebar. In lieu of stripey good socks, here's a spring horror. You're supposed to be able to eat it (how, I know not).



I think it makes a better inspiration for something in peace fleece instead.









Thanks to Pop Culture Junk Mail for the link to this tower of springy, inedible Martha Stewartness.

not done, but...

I stuck a fork in it anyway, thanks to Heidi's lovely, delicate stitch markers. Now every time I finish a return row I get a little forky treat.



Here are a few more inches of cookie dough cables, of which I'm inordinately proud and very close to. Very strangely in love with.

lush + angel, 2gether 4ever



The red is Classic Elite Lush and the variegated hearts are Lorna's Laces Angel in Mixed Berries, the color chosen by my sis Lynette for her birthday present. I love both these yarns. They feel so soft, yet are springy and substantial. They work perfectly together, and when the Lush blooms it will match the Angel's aspect perfectly, probably obscuring my little hearts, but oh the beauty of the angora, who cares?

Thanks to Stephanie for the beanie pattern, and Kate for the hearts from cheesylove. I'd say this is a pretty cheesy, lovey hat.

small world

This is my next door neighbors' daughter.



Just thought I'd share that bit of weirdness, since I see her all over the blogs these days and her parents are not five feet from my back window. They just had a patio put in. And since I've been working so hard I've had virtually no time or energy to knit, this vaguely resembles knitting blog content.

kyoto-a-gogo

Look at this gorgeous thing.

cookie dough

When you cream together the butter and brown sugar, that's what this uros mocha looks like. And the edge in cream makes the whole deal look like Ben & Jerry's. I want to mix dark chocolate chips into it.



This is the beginning of b&b from Interweave Knits Winter 2003. It's too much fun -- my first real cables, and my favorite yarn. I'm twisting all my right side knits to keep it tight; between that and the charts this one is pretty much the opposite of kyoto (which it is lying on in this photo). Good to have both kinds of things to work on.

kyoto lessons

From Jeanne, a Japanese major, we learned that the main picture of Kyoto on the knitty website has most likely been flipped -- the neckband is supposed to be left-over-right according to the directions, but in the picture it is right-over-left. This is important because in Japan, kimono is worn left-over-right. Japanese ghosts wear kimono right-over-left. In the photo, the designer is toast. I'm hereby resurrecting her. Behold, the power of photoshop.



And from Becky, we learned to cast on a number of stitches divisible by 4 for the sash (rather than the number the pattern calls for). She tells us the numbers should be adjusted to 172, 180, 192, 212.

Heidi has a beautiful sash in the works, Marcela is getting very close to the finish line. My kyoto is still mainly a gleam in my eye; I'm just 2/3 of the way through my first block. How's everyone else doing?

kyoto inspiration

A finished one! Not by one of our knitalongers, but see here. And for a Japanese flavored alienation while you knit, see this (which I did last night and it is awesome! Thanks Netflix!) I think, though I'm not sure, she goes to Kyoto in one scene.

boobs in spring

Well today is truly a banff day in Portland, rainy and cold. But in an hour or so it may be a spring wonderland, so I present sweetness. I realized yesterday that I never posted an on-person picture of this one, and I think it's one of my best knitted works ever. I used the knitty pattern, and calculated some simple waist decreases and increases, and I shortened the sleeves to 3/4 length with a slight bell shape. It took 3 skeins of Manos in Wildflowers and 2 skeins in Black. I call this the boob sweater, thanks to the strategically placed stripe that makes me look voluptuous. (and yup, those are christmas decorations still festooning my living room).



I highly recommend this pattern. I want to buy every beautiful yarn I just really like and make one of these fast & furious babies with it. I love how the sleeves go in as you knit, so when you finish the neckline the whole thing is practically done (just a few minutes of underarm grafting, and you're good, but you can try it on instantly!) Thanks Amy and Theresa for this wonderful pattern.

drat and butt

A hard morning, hit my head while getting off the bus, the driver kept lurching and made me drop my laptop case, same time as I discovered 100 stitches dropped off my freaking denises. I made m. try to email me blog pictures and it took up hours of his day for nothing. So right now this is all I have to say:


congratulations. you are the "you smell like
butt" bunny. your brutally honest and
always say whats on your mind.


which happy bunny are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


(BTW, m. has been so sweet to me today, I'm putting this little pic in of us in Amsterdam. He's the best man in the world.)

in like a lamb (goat, bunny, silkworm)



Big knitting day yesterday. The Aran Box landed in all its weird glory, full of wonderful things and awful things in equal proportion. (And yes, that's what some tribes call sunlight hitting the carpet in the picture). I put in a lot of stuff that I didn't photograph, which included enough Tahki Soft Cotton in a rusty clay color to make a tank, fun fur, a knit check, bamboo circs, oddballs of cotton novelty yarn, and Sirdar and Ann Norling patterns. I took out these gorgeous things below (thanks Stonering, Lisa in Oregon, and Susan! (where's your blog? Susan?)



My haul: that's angora wolle in a pinky orange, for socks (mmmm), and a very pretty pastel-y Joslyn's Fiber wool that just called to me, oddly, since I usually hate pastels. It's just so soft and such obviously high quality yarn. Regia Sock yarn in my favorite kind of dark brown, and handspun mohair and silk from Susan. What gorgeous stuff. My herding doggie loved smelling these, since she doesn't get near real sheep or goats more than once a year.

I figure I took out and put in about $45 worth of stuff. I hope that's accurate. I may also go out and buy something nice to put in the box, since it's a little bit of a sad mix in there right now. Pretty fun, and my stash area is much neater now.

In other big news, banff is finished!



My sweet husband just doesn't like a lot of things I choose to knit so it's hard when I finish something and he's the only one around to show it to. At first banff seemed very unflattering, but it's growing on me. It's incredibly warm (1900 yards of Lamb's Pride is in there). I learned (re-learned) about seaming, which I haven't done for years, and I fairly successfully picked up and knit the collar for the first time ever. I'd call it a success. I'd love to have a slightly smaller-waisted version now, which may be a future project.

But right now I'm ready for B&B, pinup queen, and designing a few of my own works...

afghanalong

Hey, my 2 little squares are in the sidebar. I'm famous! To celebrate, I ordered more Peruvian Collection Uros, which magically reappeared at elann. Smelly or not, I love this stuff.