Slave to the Needles

She Lives!

Wow.  The end of the year got a little crazy, there.  I was scarcely knitting at all for quite some time.  Thank god for a week's vacation and a bunch of hockey. 

So, when you left our intrepid knitter, she had finished a cowl.  Since then, the following has occurred:

I finished up one of the Cashmerino baby hats I had lying around and gave it to Sadie.  It is unbelievably cute on her.  Disgustingly cute, even.  But it fits, which is the most important thing.

I finished a baby kimono for D & S's new little girl, Mallory.  Baby alpaca (ZOMG! I *heart* this yarn!) from Knitpicks in the pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting.  Went together like a dream.  I hope she can wear it for more than half an hour, 'cause it's TINY.

In October, I went to Scotland for a week, and met up with some old friends and their new family.  Of course that meant that I had to knit stuff up to give them, like Alex's scarf (some nice Merino from my LYS in a cool pyramid pattern - to the left, there),


Darren's Men's (not so) Cashmere Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts,



a frilly hat for Tatjana and



a nice striped beanie for Milan.





'Course, Darren just told me that they're moving back to Australia, so won't have much in the way of need for warm, woolen things, but ::shrug::

I also tried my hand at knitting with cotton.  I managed to complete the Moss Grid Hand Towel from Mason-Dixon Knitting, with enough yarn left over to make a matching wash cloth.  I'm mostly pleased wtih the result, but I don't think I'll do that particular pattern again.

As for ongoing projects, I've got a mental block about finishing the finishing on the little dress (I hates pieces patterns, I does), but need to get on that since the baby's due pretty soon. I started a quilt square for Mallory but didn't finish it in time, so it will probably become a pillow. I also tried to come up with something out of a minty bouclé yarn, but was thwarted, like, 50 times.  We'll see what comes of that. And this break from work has brought me a bunch of time to make some headway on my Ariann sweater (one sleeve down, about 1/3 of the other completed at this writing).  I also just bid on ANOTHER kit (to add to the lovely ivory kit I won a couple of months ago). This one is a beautiful heathery purple - I'll probably make something for Ma out of it since I look like barf in that color, but we'll see.

I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions, but I do intend to stay on top of knitblogging a bit better, because I intend to stay on top of knitting a bit better.  There was a severe rift in the Work/Life Balance towards the end of last year that I hope not to repeat, and working from home a lot ate into my commute knitting time.  But you know what they say about the Road to Hell...

Oh. Thank. God.

Hockey and knitting.  Two great tastes that taste great together.  A game this morning (LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks, live from LONDON!), and a double header tonight, featuring My Sekrit Boifriends, the Detroit Red Wings.  I'm working on a work project today, but tonight?

Me + Hockey + Knitting = Joy!

Follow up post! With photos!

Here's a pic of the purple cowl, in its completed state:

And, as a lovely bonus, here's a pic of a blue cowl I did a while back, ostensibly to teach myself how to knit lace.  It was WAY EASIER than I thought it would be, and managed to make more errors in the stupid rib pattern than in the lace part.  But it seems to have turned out well, regardless:

The hand towel is coming along, albeit slowly (I only knit on it on the bus, or at work during lunch).  If I like it, I'll try it again in linen.  I'm not as enthused about knitting with cotton, as compared with wool, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

I also tested my theory on the pattern interpretation of the little dress, and was correct.  And I still maintain that it's not clear in the book, so *sticks out tongue*  I'm nearly done with the front piece, and then it's just sleeves, putting it together and finishing.  Woo!

Another FO, and a Dork Moment

Finished the cowl.  I'll get a pic up ere long.

In other news, I was knitting along happily on the dress thingie when I became TOTALLY STUMPED at the pattern directions. It took starting another project (more on that below), a full night's sleep and an entire bus ride in to work pondering the situation before I realized what a MASSIVE DORK I am.  Although, I will continue to maintain that the pattern isn't supremely clear on that particular bit.  So I'll try it when I get home to see if I was correct in my interpretation.

Started the Moss Stitch Grid Hand Towel from Mason Dixon knitting.  Although I may just take the dimensions and make up my own pattern that I don't have to really count or think about, so I can do it on the bus.  Two super skeins of Sugar & Cream should net me a towel and matching wash cloth, if I work it right.  Then I might get me some linen and try it again with THAT.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Shiny New Skirt!

Well, the first one out of the gate turned out to be the "Autumn Gold" skirt.  Which is delightfully less alarming in garment form than in its organic state.  I still don't have a real idea of what I'll do with the yarn, although I'm still leaning toward the Chanelly Jacket thing from Greetings from the Knit Cafe. Meanwhile, a little brown jacket will have to do.

Brought in Handknit Holidays and Last Minute Knitted Gifts to work today, 'cause a few of us are starting a knitting group, and I thought the others might like to take a look at them. Maybe we'll get a few others interested, too.

Hello, Dr. Frankenstein

The skirt prototype, she is finished!

Spent much of the morning with Ma making sure the straight skirt pattern I wanted to use was, well, useable.  It is.  And now she's just as jazzed as I am to make skirts.  The first one out of the gate will actually be the Moss Green from the kit.  I just need to get thread, lining and zippers for the plaid and the tweedy houndstooth, and those'll be in the hopper too.

The sweater for the plaid, as you know, is done.  The cardigan for the tweedy houndstooth is OTN, and I hope to have it done before I go to Scotland.  I was going to do something out of Rowan Vintage Knits for the pukey green, but have since changed my mind and plan to do this one instead.

My queue on Ravelry.com has 65 patterns on it. If their "add to queue" widget worked in IE, I'd probably have WAY more in there, but I think 65 is a respectable number.

Tonight will be movies of my Sekrit Boifriend (Hello, John Cusack!) and maybe some Black Adder. And, obviously, some knitting.

It's a good day.  :)

An FO! And some WIPs!

I finally finished up one of the baby kimonos.  I'm not going to post a picture on the off chance that R reads this blog - I'd like it to be at least somewhat of a surprise at the shower.  If you're on Ravelry, though, the picture is posted there.  The other one should be finished up in the next couple of days, and I'll post the pic of that later as well.

But, just because I can, I'll put up the three other projects I have on needles at the moment:

Chic Knits - Ariann

Vintage yarn from a skirt/sweater kit

Debbie Bliss - Ribbon-tied Baby Dress

Knit Picks Andean Silk in Cornflower

Cashmerino Cowl (my own pattern...sort of...)

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in Eggplant

So now, I'm waiting to hear if CR is knocked up, so I can knit something fabulous and gothy for her spawn.  Won't that be lovely?

Change up

So I gave up on Tubey, and switched to Ariann from Chic Knits instead.  And had to start over for probably the fourth or fifth time last night.  The lace pattern isn't hard...I just lost track of the decreasing and bollixed it all up.

I've also determined another bus project - a cowl based on the eyelet pattern from Ariann.  We'll see how that sorts out.

Um...what else.  Oh!  I finished off one of the baby hats I had lying around.  I'll post a picture of that later tonight.  Otherwise, I've been off my knitting groove, lately, but hopefully that will change soon.  Christmas is coming, and all...

Frailty, thy name is woman!

So, here I am, about a third of the way in to Knitty.com's Tubey, when all of a sudden...

I'm not sure I want to finish it.  Well, I should say that I'm not sure I want to finish it with this particular yarn.

Which leaves me with the issue of determining which pattern, exactly, I would like to do with this yarn.

It's DK weight, but seems kind of heavy, somehow. That might be owing to its vintageness - it's lost a bit of elasticity, and seems to still have a fair bit of lanolin left in it. But I know myself well enough to know that if it's too heavy a sweater, I'm not all that likely to wear it inside, and pull-overs are pretty much a "put it on, and it's on all day" sort of proposition.

But the fabric! For the skirt! Is so lovely!

Maybe I can find a sexy little cardigan pattern or something.

::sigh::

I love being a Libra, but this is ridiculous.

Holy Finished Object, Batman!

So, while in my "finish things" jag, I...finished the Somewhat Cowl.  And took a picture of it.  With me in it.

Say hello to my torso and the girls!

As mentioned a few times, this was my third try at a sweater with this yarn, and my second try at this particular pattern. It was doing a weird bunchy thing in the armpits, and when I went to steam block it, I learned that it still had quite the lingering smell of mothball. So to kill two birds with one stone, I rinsed it in the sink with good stinky wool wash, and *gasp!* pitched it in the dryer. On Delicate, Low Heat.

The results? A slightly fulled (which I wanted, to soften the yarn a bit), fabulously flattering sweater.  Once it's completely dry, I'll give the cowly part a bit of a press, but ultimately?  I am quite happy with the end result.

I plan to do this sweater again in a FEKKING GORGEOUS forest green cashmere.  Envy me.

But first?  Must make sexy pencil skirt out of the matching plaid. HEE!