Camouflage Knitting

Are you familiar with the concept of camouflage knitting? Try this. The next time your at a knitting group look around and see how many people's clothing match their knitting. It happens all the time. I see this at spinning events too.

I once had a customer in the shop who was struggling with her yarn selection. "I don't know," she told me, "I like these colors but I don't know if I'd ever wear them."
"You're wearing them now."

I had to laugh today when I looked down at my knitting and realized it was the precise same shade of mauve as my shirt.



This is Monica in Cotton Classic. I am making two for Wes's cousin's daughters in LA. We stayed with them (family of four) in a one bedroom condo! They deserve a nice gift.

Tailored Scallops is almost dry on the blocking board.



I know this photo makes it look like it's also the exact same shade of mauve. It isn't. It's a slightly browner shade of mauve. I'm flexible that way.

My Life is So Glamorous

Here I am hitting the red carpet.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

I just realized I hadn't shared all of my Moscow fashion week picks. I thought I covered it in these two posts.


Is there actually a garment here? I see scraps of fabric over leggings.


This one has a sort of I Dream of Jeanie meets Gwen Stefani meets Fergie kind of vibe.


Nothing says fashion like animals skulls hanging from your belt.

I Am a Wrecking Machine

Last night while finishing up the last front of my Tailored Scallops I broke another Denise cord. That's two on just this project. In fact, something has broken on my Denise needles on nearly every project I've ever used them on. I'm just a brute I guess.

Another Big Seattle News Day

Raccoon causes power outage in Ballard

I particularly enjoyed the line, "they could tell by the smell that an animal was involved."

I'm Not Cut Out for a Trendsetting Lifestyle

So tired. So very tired.
Our trip to LA started on Saturday morning. Wes's parents agreed to come to our house and watch the boys for the weekend. We headed to the airport nice and early. Virgin America just started flying from Seattle to LAX. I highly recommend it. They fly from a different terminal than United, who I usually fly. Not only don't you have to ride the annoying little train but there was no line at security. No line. None at all. All the on-board amenities have been much hyped. There's a little touchscreen in the seatback in front of you where you can watch satellite tv (when it's working) or pay to watch movies or "premium" tv. There are music selections. You can create your own playlist but the choices weren't that great. There were some lame games, some music videos. The one feature I liked was the Google map that shows you where the plane is and how many miles are left in the flight.

In LA we stayed with Wes's cousin, his wife and two daughters in a one bedroom apartment in Little Tokyo. There was a big birthday celebration for Wes and another filmmaker, Michael Kang. We had a big dinner in Korea Town then karaoke back in Little Tokyo. It was, just by chance, across the street from where we were staying.

Wes's film screened at the Director's Guild of America. It's a very nice venue. There was a sold out audience and a very responsive audience.

A good college friend of ours and his boyfriend made us a wonderful dinner on Sunday night. Then we got up super early on Monday morning and flew back. I got home with about 10 minutes to shower and get ready for work.

I guess I forgot to set my alarm because my older son came bursting into my room and screamed at me, "IT'S 8:34!!!! GET! UP!!!" It's a lovely way to greet the day, I can assure you.

I forgot to charge my camera battery so the only photos I took are on my phone and Wes has the cord for that at work.

In knitting news, I have a few inches done on my Merino Lace socks and I finished all the pieces to my Tailored Scallops. I just need to assemble it and knit the collar.

One funny story from the trip: I was knitting at the restaurant as people were showing up to the dinner. One woman was asking me about my knitting and I was telling her that I made a baby sweater for Mike and his girlfriend. Another guy standing nearby heard just the tail end of the conversation, looked at my socks and thinking they were the start of a baby sweater said, "Are you trying to finish it up?" Later our friend, and knitter, Kristina Wong (you may remember the article about her [.pdf] in Vogue Knitting last year), came and I was telling her the story. When I said, "Are you just trying to finish it up?" Wes said, "At that gauge? Are you kidding??"

There is so much more I'm forgetting but I'm really tired and have a lot of catching up to do.

Off to LA

Wes and I are going to LA for his birthday weekend and a screening of his film. This will be my third trip to Southern California in '08. Before this year I had been there once. Weird, right?

Knit Your Cares Away

I started a Hemlock Ring Blanket for a shop model. It's a really fun knit. The beginning is a small bit of lace--nothing too complicated and then you feather and fan until the cows come home. I chose to start with a circular cast on using magic loop. I get really frustrated trying to keep four dpns from slipping or twisting when doing a circular start, especially on big needles (US10) like this. I quickly switched to a 16" circular. As I knit I noticed my blanket looked like an angry skull face.



It also strongly resembles the trash heap from Fraggle Rock.



It looked a little nicer once I got it on a 32" circular.

Pretty Much Sums Up My Feelings About Facebook

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

The whole counterpane thing is all well and good. But designers might want to spend a little more time thinking about the placement of the panes.



Even so I'm sure the model was happy just to be done with this ensemble.



If you cross the whipped cream appearance of the second outfit with the poor placement of the first you end up with this.

Soft Baby Cardigan

Pattern: Soft Baby Caridgan by Jennifer Hagan from The Knitter's Book of Yarn
Yarn: Henry's Attic Inca Cotton (impossible for me to photograph well)
Needles: US8 Addi Turbo
Notes: Another quick, simple knit. Check for errata.

Short Rows Wavy Hat

Pattern: short-rows wavy hat by Leethal
Yarn: Handspun merino spun from samples for a color blending class then Navajo-plied
Needles: US10 Clover Circulars
Notes: Instant knitification. Cast on in some crazy yarn, knit while listening to a few podcasts and you're done! A very fun knit which I highly recommend.