whew! even more to say !!!

this lovely stuff is new at my lys. it came in fresh today. there were lots of delicious color combinations, plus semi-solids ... and i snatched up the semi-black! it is black. sort of. it also has hints of the deepest, darkest, midnight blue. and the twist is very koigu. what will these little gems become? socks? perhaps. perhaps gloves. in all likelihood, they will marinate for a bit.


and this deliciousness ?! it's liisu's leili, a wool & mohair socken yarn. the colorway screams fall. perhaps, if i cast on, the weather will cool sooner?

many thanks to the secret agent that thought of me and knew i would love this yarn ! i love it love it love it kissy kissy lick lick ! mine !

cascade 220, colorway 4002
.... you'd think i'd have a fur ball by now .... so. here's where everything gets kinda muddled. i have been having these thoughts of fall. thoughts of wool. thoughts of sweaters. thoughts of SAFF.

i want a sweater. i want a sweater soon. i want an everyday sweater. i have a favorite sweater. it's old jcrew. it's a very basic cardigan, with a few cables here and there. it's quite warm. though, it's that hideous day glow red that grandma may have knitted for you, i love it (it keeps me warm warm warm in my cold cold apt. in the winter). and, it's classic.

so, i have been perusing ravelry. i love ravelry. it's such a great database. check it out. if you haven't added your name to the waitlist, go ahead and do that now. it's not about who's who, it's a database. seriously.

so, (i like to say "so") ... i have been courting two sweater patterns. the first, wicked by the zephyr girls, and bristow by ms. melanie.

both sweaters i would wear. i love both designs. they both have positive reviews/feeback. and i love both these versions of each (click ! each !).

but, there's always a butt, isn't there ?! but. i think i will be knitting the wicked sweater as i want something more like my favorite jcrew sweater. something very wearable, something very understated. something of which the pattern sizes (w/o tons of modifications) is closer to a bust size i can work with). something everyday.

note: the pattern for wicked does not give you instructions for converting the pullover into a cardigan.

i love bristow. i will likely end up knitting that design as well ... but not before wicked. i want both, but i only have two hands! and i must sleep! and i still have 17 orphans !


but, this mate is about to be united with its orphan
(i'm suppose to be cleaning house right now. and i will, as soon as i hit publish post. which means, socken toe will have to wait until tomorrow night.).

stuart thinks he's european ...

because he thinks in centimeters ! (they're more precise, right ?!)

anyhoo ... i am here to enable any special clothes making of the wee pixie. we had a little photo & measuring session here this afternoon .....


on the frontside .... stuart is only 16cm tall. he's kinda rotund. his waist is larger than his inseam. just around his pseudo-waist, he measures about 18cm. his inseam is about 4cm (not to mention the 4 cm gap between his legs). yikes!

the tops of his legs measure from 5.5 to 6cm in circumference (hey, is anyone perfectly symmetrical ?!)

from the tops of his legs to his wee arms, he measures approx. 3.5 cm vertically.

his total chest measurement is 19cm!

he doesn't really have shoulders ....


his underarm length is 4.5 to 5cm in length. he's 9cm from (if he had shoulders) shoulder pt. to shoulder pt. (the width across his back, just above his arms).

his arms measure just under 6cm in circumference where they're sewn to his body.

now, his tail ... it's just under 4cm in circumference, and is centered on his backside just 2.5cm from his crotch seam (ewwww !). his tail is a whopping 6cm long!

what? oh! his ears are about 9cm in circumfrence at the top if his head, and measure out about 4cm to the tips.

and, he measures about 5cm from just under his lower lip to his crotch seam.

whew ! i didn't know i had so much to say !

i am truly enjoying the knitting of hypoteneuse, and i'm not just saying that because anne is way cool. i so badly want it to be finished asap, though it's still a million degrees out, so i can block it and enjoy its wonderful drape!


and i wish it was going to be mine. and i'm kinda selfish, and it could still be mine ..., but i feel confident that corbett will love it too, so i know it's going to a good home.


and then, today, i was thinking, i bet jim (corbett's partner) would love some man-lace too, but perhaps something crocheted. which means, when this baby is off the needles, i will be shopping for a stitch pattern of something manly-crocheted. seriously.


stuart. stuart feels a bit neglected, because he's jonesing for something new too. but, i don't know what he really wants. well, i think he wants lots of things ... a sleeping bag, a man-shawl, new pantalones, pj's, etc .... but, what he'll actually get ... hmmm, i don't know !

ps. please feel free to email for measurements and favorite colors of my little pixie !

i could not capture the true beauty of this socken yarn. the colors are more vibrant, more green, more blue, more beautiful ! this is lorna's laces shepherd sock in 407 devon. of course, these little hanks will someday be a pair of socks.


and we save the best for last .... buttons !!! handmade by my lovely artist friend leanne. she's the same one who made my knitting bowl (which, i use all the time, at home, as i knit hypoteneuse).

these buttons are about 3/4" square ... but with one a bit longer on one edge at a whopping 1". i love them ! thanks troll !

gracias !

dear natashua of yarnia,

thank you very much for this very cute book!
i am a hooker, as you know ...
and i am especially excited about the little hamster.
(i know that sounds kinky)
.... but he's so CUTE !

muchas gracias,

senorita gris

... it's so excellent to get prizes in the mail!

8611

... that number represents the number of stitches i have knitted thus far on anne hanson's design hypoteneuse.


remember how i said in my last post that i felt like my head was going to explode? well, it did. and this is the result ... not as messy as one would/could imagine ?

i did not plan to make man lace. i was trying to get caught up on reading blogs, looking at pictures, etc. and i ended up on anne's blog. i had not read her blog in quite a bit, because her posts are so full of information and quality, i want to read it when i feel i have the time and capacity to really enjoy it. and one thing lead to another. and i was thinking about rhinebeck ('cause i'm not going to rhinebeck, but to SAFF instead) ... and i was thinking, "i bet corbett is going to rhinebeck". and then i thought, if i can't go, then maybe i can send him something to wear to rhinebeck.

crazy. i know.

so, the yarn i'm using is elsebeth lavold's silky wool. i purchased it almost two years ago to make the IK viennese shrug. needless to say, the yarn has been marinating in the stash.

it's nice to have a tremendous stash from which to shop in the wee hours of the night!

OMG !

i think my head is going to explode with thoughts of fall, wool, cables, sweaters, ravelry, flickr, patterns, yarn ....

trying to stay the course

it all starts so innocently ... the making of a socken mate. i mean, it's an easy pattern. i already made one, so there's no guesswork regarding what to do.


but, perhaps this particular socken is being made too soon after the completion of socken #1 ? perhaps this socken is cursed. or maybe, i have the attention span of a gnat? or, maybe, this yarntini is too irresistible ?


i've tried this before. but this time, i am using 2.5mm turbos (and knitting the smaller jaywalker). this time it's the right size! i am still considering changing to a smaller needle for the foot portion though.

hodgepodge

seeing as how i have several different things to share, i'm not even going to shoot for continuity. instead, i am purposefully mixing it all up!

first up ... something finished !


...sockens. purple heathered sockens. purple heathered wool/acrylique sockens knitted at a larger gauge. these are the socks that i knitted during the beginning sock class i teach at my lys. for teaching purposes, i've found that we can actually get a sock knitted if it's at a larger gauge. in the class, we use plymouth's encore worsted and whatever size dpns that will yield a gauge of 5 sts/inch. though the label recommends a US 8, i end up using a US 5. and in class, it's not uncommon to see each person using a different needle size.


i have been knitting on my aran blankie. now that i have air conditioning (which, for this season, has been for about a month) i won't die with a giant pile of wool in my lap as i knit on this baby. i went diggin' in the 66 qt. bin that houses this project and found my two finished smaller panels. in the picture, i have each smaller panel flanking the larger unfinished panel ... just to give me (and you) an idea of what this will look like someday. i figure i am at least 1/2 through this project, as i have 2 out of 3 small panels completed, and at least 2/3rd's of 1 of the 2 large panels. regardless, i realize that this is a long term project (and let us not forget i started this in 2000 !).

special note: this yarn color is called chartreuse. sometimes, depending on the light, it looks like tobacco. sometimes, pea soup. most often, it's the perfect shade of ICK. i love it. i love how the color changes depending on its light source.


stuart! stuart has a man-bag ! yay!!! i think agent aubergine loves stuart as much as i do ... as she made him a freeform spiral bag. he loves his bag. it completes his outfit. and he can pack his gun.


oooh! another sock. and not just another sock ... but a socken-mate !

knitting from the vault ....

i must admit, i am kinda stunned over the number of socken orphans i have .... i almost started a mate, i almost started another orphan, and i did wind a new ball of yarn into a cake. but, i did not knit a sock. instead, i sort of retreated.

i pulled out something from my archives ...


this is from summer 2000 IK. from the moment i saw this blanket, i just had to make it. i can't remember if i started it that summer, or sometime later within the year ... but, i will say it's probably one of my oldest UFO's ... not that there's anything wrong with that.



...if i knew then what i know now ..., i probably would had made a different yarn choice. i actually am using the yarn called for in the pattern, classic elite's waterspun. on its label, it is described as a felted wool. i remember then, people remarking that when they machine washed it, it felted more ! duh. the label says hand wash. the blanket is knitted with two strands held together (and takes a whopping 64 hanks of yarn!!!). if i were to do this again, i would substitute the yarn for plymouth's encore chunky ... which is machine washable and would only be single stranded.

so, i pulled this out today because the temperature today was actually under 100*. what a difference a few, or 10, *'s make!

i had made a mistake in one of the panels the last time i touched this blanket. today, i ripped back about 30 rows and fixed it. the cable of the center panel was a bit too complex for me to bother trying to drop down and reknit. also, it was good to get reacquainted with the other stitch patterns in the panel.

i'm not back to where i was, but i envision some smooth sailing as long as i don't stray away with long absences.

my previous posts are here and here. my status? well ... i've knitted one and a half narrow panels, and more than half of a wide panel. the blanket is three narrow panels with two wide panels. regardless, it is fun and satisfying. it's slow, but it's good.

gasp !

i've got a little 'dirty secret' to confess ...


... i've been knitting on lots of socks, but i haven't been knitting their mates. i keep telling myself that i will. but i don't. instead, i just cast on for something new ... because that's more fun. and now ... i have 18 orphans !

so, i think i should start knitting the mates ... maybe starting with one really old one and one rather fresh one, and maybe one super fresh not-seen-on-the-blog-yet one too.

we'll see how it goes. maybe.

i feel sooo ... sooooo .... virtuous* !

so, some sockens have been completed ... notes have been taken. mates will be knitted in due time. of course, the question is, which mates get knitted first? the ones most recently knitted, or the ones from the archives ? ... not to mention there are other sockens on needles still ....

* trust me, virtue is not part of my being !

ready, get set, TOEs !

i was hanging out with chak-a-kahn all day sunday, and had a goal to knit all my stinkin' toes !

she wouldn't even let me play on the laptop to see which hogwarts house i'd belong to until i finished my toes!

the good news is that i did finish my toes, and ... i'd belong in gryffindor ! ... not that i've read past the 1st book or seen but one of the movies. i was just happy to not be a slytherin (though, i did have some strong slytherin tendencies ;)