A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

March 27, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is this?

I will admit these are some of the least weird things I've seen a male model wear recently in a runway show.


But it does still make me think that Grimace was just cast in a remake of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.




Anyone else seeing that, or is it just me?

March 22, 2014

Linney in Progress

Linney is coming along. I just completed the body of the sweater. Two sleeves and an edging and I will have a new, very long, handspun sweater.



It's going to be a bit...er...rustic. That's okay with me though. I imagine this will be a hanging around the house sweater and I think I will get a lot of use from it.

March 20, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This

Congrats, guys. You managed to pair the world's least flattering sweater with the world's least flattering pants. The model, a svelte child, now looks five months pregnant. Also, who was in charge of her hair. Jeez.

I guess this is your special "Trashy Teens" issue?

Honestly, I would love to understand how these decisions get made.

March 17, 2014

Delirium Setting In...

Today I worked my eighth straight day in a row. Vogue Knitting Live came to "Seattle*" again this weekend. I worked all three days. I can't really tell you much about the event since I spent my whole time in our booth in the market. I did get to see a lot of people I love to see but rarely do. There was lots of hugging but not a lot of time to visit with people. I'm beyond exhausted. I'm finally taking a day off tomorrow.

I've barely had time to knit at all. My Linney is growing very slowly. But I'm already fantasizing about my next sweater. I dove into my stash a few weeks ago and picked out yarns for a 3-in-1. I'm pretty sure this won't be terribly flattering on me but it just looks like such a fun knit. And so long as I'm going to knit one sock yarn sweater I might as well pick out another. There were several great samples of Monomania at the show. What a stashbuster. You know I love a stashbuster. I'm going to look around this weekend and maybe do a little coloring on these great worksheets to see if I can come up with a good combo.

Now I'm going to sleep.

*It takes place in Bellevue, 10 miles from Seattle.

March 13, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

I...I can't even.


I mean...really! 





March 10, 2014

Another Weekend, Another Scarf

A long time ago I swapped a skein of yarn with the owner of Mountain Colors. She sent me a huge pile of Bearfoot mill ends. At the time I was knitting a Baby Surprise Jacket in mill ends and thought I'd use the yarn for more baby sweaters. But she sent me so much I thought I'd make an Adult Surprise instead. But the colors...well, they just weren't me and there were a lot of them. So the yarn sat in my stash. I've toyed with knitting a blanket too but this weekend I just knew I wanted to weave with it.

I tried to snap a few photos along the way with my phone as I started my project. I pulled out four mini skeins. 


I alternated two color for the warp. First putting one in every other slot.

Then going through adding the second color.


I also alternated skeins for the weft. Using one that was more blue for two picks then one that was more red. I added in new skeins as I ran out without fussing too much about the shifting colors.




Altogether I used 150 grams or 1.5 skeins of Bearfoot. The finished size before washing and without the fringe is 7.5" x 80". And I still have enough yarn for three more scarves!

March 9, 2014

Continue in Rib Until You Lose Your Will to Live


I'm working on Linney. You start by casting on the full circumference of the sweater and knitting in twisted rib (twisting every stitch) for 6.5". I'm getting close to the end of it but it's taken me days.

March 8, 2014

All the Dyeing Puns Have Been Used

Okay, I'm super excited about this one. Back in 2006 I participated in a hand-dyed yarn swap called Dye-o-Rama. I think there were groupings by skill level. I was in the beginner's group. My swap partner sent me two skeins of yarn. One I knit into socks. And one just sat unloved for nearly seven years.


Sorry for the old, blurry photo.

Until this week. I threw it in the dyepot the other night. I tossed in some Cyan and a little Worker Blue* and let it "cook" overnight in my crockpot (that I bought at a yard sale and only use for dyeing). I am thrilled with the result.



I love, love, love, love, love it! Now what to make with it?


*I only use Mother MacKenzie's Miracle Dyes from Judith MacKenzie.

March 6, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

Ah, Paris. The center of the fashion universe. The Olson twins took their brand, The Row, there to debut their fall collection. It lacks a certain elegance, I think.




This takes Big Ass Knits to a new drab, depressing level. Those granny shoes and ankle socks are just making it all so much worse.

But it should be a huge hit in among knitwear fetishists.

March 5, 2014

A Scarf Nearly Ten Years in the Making

Exactly nine and a half years ago I bought enough Jamieson's Shetland DK to knit Nicky Epstein's Floral Felted Tote. Years later the project got started then languished. Eventually I threw out the small bit of intarsia knitting I had done. There was no way to salvage the yarn because it was all in short lengths. The yarn sat. A little over a year ago I decided to use the yarn to knit charity hats. I discovered that once lightly felted it made a great fabric. I was looking at my bags of yarn and thought it would make a great plaid. It was time, I decided, to finally conquer weaving.

Well, that didn't turn out well. 

Now, another year later, I took another run at weaving, this time using a 10" Cricket Rigid Heddle loom instead of my 4-harness table loom. After initial success I felt ready for my plaid. I was also inspired by this great new book, Woven Scarves: 26 Inspired Designs for the Rigid Heddle Loom.

On Saturday afternoon I felt a bit of weaving inspiration and dropped everything I was doing and got started. I forced myself to go to bed with the scarf just a few inches from completion and finished it first thing Sunday morning. It's just what I imagined.



It's about 9" x 84" not including the fringe, which still needs to be trimmed. It's been washed but needs to be fulled more to soften it.

And it only took nine and a half years to make.

March 4, 2014

Cricket Weaving

Here are some much better photos of my woven scarf from last weekend.





I got so excited to full the scarf that I threw it in the washing machine without twisting the fringes. They felted and matted up like dreadlocks.



I'm going to cut them off and hope for the best. It should hold just fine.

March 3, 2014

Polar Hat



Yarn: Oddballs of Rowan Polar
Needles: US 7 and 9
Notes: I desperately needed a break from my Ravellenic project and grabbed the nearest oddballs to start a hat. Hat knitting is so therapeutic for me. Fast, easy, soothing.

March 2, 2014

More Plying, More Dyeing

Once I emptied the majority of my bobbins I discovered 8 oz of Shetland/Merino singles sitting waiting to be plied too. Cross that off the list.



While at Madrona a friend was getting rid of some Knitpicks Palette in several shades of yellow. I offered to take it to use for charity hats. I thought I'd hold a few strands together. It then occurred to me that I could make a cabled yarn from them. I overspun them on my miniSpinner then plied them together.

Here's a rough idea of what I started with.



Plied together (and wet and photographed with my phone at night) it looked like this.



And finally overdyed and dried it looks like this.



I'm not a fan of yellow or orange but I still think this came out kind of nice. It reminds me of a Tequila Sunrise.

I also swatched the Corriedale from last week and have picked out a pattern for it. I'll be making Linney by Amy Christoffers. It's simple and uses a lot of yarn plus I already own the pattern. Perfect!

March 1, 2014

Follow Your Arrow




Pattern: Follow Your Arrow MKAL by Ysolda
Yarn: Hazel Knits Divine in a Rogue colorway
Needles: US6 Addi Turbos
Notes: The pattern has five parts and each part has an A or B option. This is AAAAA. I did it as my Ravellenic project and finished just in time. The yarn, as the name suggests, is absolute heaven to knit with and to touch. I haven't worn the shawl yet but suspect the asymmetry will make it a little tricky.