quickie

... lots of disconnected thoughts for today, with pictures !

first up ...


this is sleeve #2. now, i've not finished the back yet. i think i will do that when this sleeve comes off the needles. i'm also thinking i'll knit the fronts at the same time on one needle.

i am thinking the sleeves might end up being a wee bit long, but i'm not going to worry about that until after blocking and assembly. it's not that big a deal to rip out some sleeve and reknit sleeve caps. besides, once you're in the cap, it's all decreases.


malabrigo merino worsted. plain jane. undyed. i got to thinking recently that i don't have (hardly) any plain and basic hats. most of them are knitted with variegated yarn, or are things like the devil hat. so, i think it's time for a grown up classic hat. i was originally thinking of doing a watchman's cap, or something with cables, but now i've really fallen for the texture of this hat.


fresh yarn ! ... courtesy of corbett. i wound a hank of it today. it's mystery yarn. he got it at rhinebeck, but the yarn didn't have a tag. i'm calling it sock yarn. i'm going to pretend it's handwash merino.


and i'm going to pretend it has at least 175 yds/hank.

i won a prize!

snarky and funny as hell kim of yarn abuse said i made her day ! thanks kim!

i urge you to go check out her blog ... besides being quite entertaining, she does knit. and she knits some really fabulous sweaters, always modified to fit her perfectly.

making progress

yet another sunday full of knitting, friendship, and food yielded great progress on my latest knitting obsession ...


that's the back of twist. that's how far my first hank of cascade 220 got me. i am very close to shaping the armholes. because i need to pin it out to measure, i went ahead and cast on a sleeve.


i also figured out how to cable without a cable needle. i found that very exciting because it's a pain to keep up with a cable needle.

i did not knit socks yesterday. that is unusual for me. i did not seam my chocolate pullover ... not so unusual. i thought about what hat i want to knit with my natural malabrigo worsted.

commitment ....

... to a sweater! no, i have not seamed my chocolate pullover ... perhaps tomorrow .....

but, i have my eyes on a fresh sweater. i have purchased and printed the pattern, bought and wound the yarn, and am about to embark on a project i hope to have finished within a month.

te presento, twist!


yarn pictured is cascade 220 shade 2434, heathered. i think it will look good with a reddish lipstick. seriously.

i considered so many sweaters ... enough to drive any knitter nuts ... but this design won because of its simplicity, lack of need of modifications, wearability, and it's a cardigan ! plus, i really wanted just another excuse to knit with cascade 220 again.

in other knitterly news, i finished weaving in the ends of the shawl. i finished a koigu monkey, and i drooled over other yarns today. yep. a day in the life of a knitter .....

something new ... something blue ......

... something french blue. i have mostly finished the susan lawrence spring things shawl. i still need to weave in the ends ......











specs:

spring things shawl by susan lawrence, knitted in louet's euroflax linen sport wt. (2 hanks, with leftovers) on size 5 turbos.

additional materials: 6/0 seedbeads.

modifications: followed kelp's instructions for a nicer transition from the allover pattern to the border design.

moving right along ...

... my shawl is very close to being finished! i only have a few more rows to knit before the bind off. i am eager to get this off the needles and see it blocked. and then, i'm even more eager to scrunch it up and break up the stiffness.

being nearly done is today's theme. i have a freshly started, and nearly finished new monkey orphan socken. this sock is knitted with some stashed koigu, colorway p511. as the ball gets smaller, i start to wonder if the toe will be the same colorway as the rest of the sock. i've made koigu monkeys before, and made it all the way to the toe. but, i always have my doubts.

and the sweater ! all the pieces have been knitted. i only have to iron the curly edges a bit before i sew the pieces together. i bound off all the top edges, as the pattern calls for, but, i'm going to take the bind off out and do a simple finish on the neckline instead.

i'm working on it ....

i am actually about 1/2 through the second sleeve. i knit on the sweater whenever i have time. unfortunately, a good part of today will be full of errands and tasks, but i might sneak in a row or two of knitting.


the yarn i'm using is a blast from the past (from the depths of my stash)(gotta love stash !), classic elite's rockland cotton. it's a heavy worsted cabled egyptian cotton, and my gauge is 4 sts/inch on 5.5mm needles. though this sweater may turn out a bit beastly, i'm going to wear it anyways!


someday (soon i hope) it will look like rowan's rosehip from _the summer tweed collection_.

i'm making a sweater!

and by saying that, i will never finish THE sweater ! but, i might. of course, i might never wear THE sweater. and i'm not working on my other sweater .... but if i do, you'll see it here first !

in other knitterly news, i knitted socks!


socks ... not sock. they are wonderful and warm and pretty and finished! i started these new years eve and finished last night. i could had finished sooner, but i was distracted by THE sweater and the shawl.


the shawl is quite satisfying to knit. just when i was bored with the all over pattern, i got to move on to the next chart. i went back to ravelry for a bit more inspiration, and found again the version that i adored.

she had made a modification that made the all over pattern flow better into the next chart of lace. i followed her links and made the "changes".


it's looking great. i've completed the first round of chart B. i have to knit that section (minus the mods.) two more times before moving on to the next chart ... but, i'm almost out of yarn. i left the second hank of linen at work ... so, unless i want to do a ninja strike on my lys tomorrow morning, i will continue knitting on THE sweater, or socks.

specs :

socks: mountain colors bearfoot in 'chocolate', 2.25 mm susan bates dpns, 64 sts.

shawl: louet euroflax sport in 'french blue', size 5 turbos, 6/0 seedbeads.

string art

have you ever knitted with linen or hemp? it's definitely an experience. right now, the linen (by euroflax) has a life of its own. the stitches don't scrunch up, but instead stand rigid and spread.


... not to mention it's anything but soft. sometimes, when i've knitted with hemp, i've ended up wrapping bandaids around my fingers.

after all is said and done, and the shawl is washed and blocked, and shaken and broken, it will be as fluid as melted butter.

this is the spring things shawl by susan lawrence. it should only take 2 (or less) hanks of euroflax sport weight linen ... and a number of beads vs. nupps. i'm knitting it as a shop model for my lys. eventually, it will be mine, and in the meantime, it might inspire others to pick up their needles and knit lace, or exfoliate their fingers with linen.

destashing

thank you for the well wishes. i think they are working! though i am not 100%, i am certainly much better off than several days ago.

i have found that yarn is the best medicine ....


i suppose this is a bit of a guilty pleasure, and i didn't really plan this acquisition. so, the story is ... i had a holiday party with the knitters i work with this past sunday. we decided to have an informal swap as well. i was excited at the prospect of destashing a bit. i did manage to get rid of most of what i took with me, but in the process, i kinda picked up a few rogue balls of yarn. all in all, it was a very good thing. i got rid of stuff i knew i'd never knit, and brought home socken yarn !

there's some opal and meilenweit, sisik (?) and seacoast, and tofutsies and a single ball of panda silk (and i know where i can get a second).

which to knit first?!

... the chaos continues .....

i woke yesterday morning glassy-eyed, snotty, and puffy (i could feel the puffy coming on, ... possibly due to the parotid gland ?). my cheeks were red, and on one side, i looked like a deranged chipmunk! did i mention i can't hear anything (sorry neighbors for the blaring television !!!) ?

i went to work, with my semi-gameface on (it's hard to look with it when half your face looks like a pufferfish). i received a phone call about an hour in, a conference call ... an intervention. my friends were calling to cover my shift. to send me home. i have some great friends!

so, home i came. and home was all day. did i knit? ... some. did i watch movies? ... of course! and i sipped hot tea and surfed the net, perused my IK's and knitting library, especially ravelry.

i knitted some on my socken ... my pretty fuzzy mountain colors stockinette socken ....







i danced around the idea of casting on for IK's spiral boot socks.



i revisited wicked.









i wound some yarn.

and where am i now? hmmm .... still on the sofa, wrapped in my quilt, contemplating the socks vs. the squares .....


... and contemplating breakfast, as i have to go to work today. sniff ...!

so incredibly disorganized!

... that has been my running theme since december 12th. since that date, i worked too many hours, didn't get enough rest, stressed about the holidays, forgot things (like, leaving my purse at work, or leaving my camera at my parent's home), and so forth. the result? no continuity in projects, and i am sick.


one good thing about being sick is the time dedicated to the sofa and the dvd player.


... and getting reacquainted with the kureyon for my someday/oneday lizard lizard blanket.

i started this last year, and picked it up again as the weather (finally) had a cold snap. hey, there were even flurries yesterday afternoon, on a mostly sunny day!

alas, i am highly disorganized, and i don't even know the colorways of the squares i've knitted. hmmm .... oh well. at this point, i have 10 out of 24 squares knitted. i have 3 more balls of kureyon left in my stash, plus all the leftovers. which means, at some point i will have to yarn shop ! ... in order to finish the project.

and since the theme is disorganization, i also have two new socks on the needles, neither of which i've taken pictures of yet.