Foiled Again

Lloie's Cardigan has it in for me. I spent two days getting the yoke pattern established. The first go was off by one stitch but I didn't recognize the problem until I knit on it for a day. Then I ripped it all out and got it set up again. But my original yarns for the yoke did not have nearly enough contrast so I went stash-diving and came up with a skein of yarn labeled Felted Tweed in a great green. It has amazing contrast.



The only problem is it isn't Felted Tweed. When I realized it I couldn't believe I thought for a moment it was. I believe it's long-discontinued Rowanspun DK. It's a single and Felted Tweed it plied. How didn't I noticed this? I think I was too focused on getting the color and pattern right. Anyway, I don't have enough of it to finish the sweater. I'm going to try to find something that will work. I really wanted to bring this finished sweater to camp and I leave in three days!

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

This week is a mixed bag of random designs I couldn't fit into other posts.

As we all know, babies love to rumba and must be properly attired to begin the beguine at a moment's notice.



This design is just dripping in elegance. Well..it's dripping in something.




There are only four words required for this one.



YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!


I have to thank you all so much for all the hilarious entries into last week's contest. You made me laugh out loud many times. The winner, selected by random, is Michelle!



Michelle, my commenting system does not give me any contact information for you. Please send me an email with your address so I can get you your prize.

Now That's My Hair

My haircut, still damp and no flat iron, on day two.

Is This My Haircut?

I don't know how this happened. I went to finally--finally!--get some color added to my hair for a little grey coverage. But somehow through a miscommunication I was not able to get my hair colored. So I asked if they could give me a trim. After a bit of discussion about how much length to leave the stylist chopped off a ton of my hair but left a small whispy section the agreed upon length. She thinned out my hair all over and flat ironed it which I have never done in my life and will never do again. The result is I think I look like Joan Jett.



Wes says he thinks it's cute but then it's his job to say things like that. Younger son immediately laughed at me and said, "Is that your haircut??"

In more satisfying news, I joined the sleeves to the body of Lloie's Cardigan. I feel like I've been working on this sweater since the dawn of time. Okay, since February. This feels really major. I have a week to finish the yoke, steek it and knit the edging. I might make it.




Heading off to spin a bit for Tour de Fleece.

Tour de Fleece Thus Far

Day 1



Finished spinning Suri/BFL that I started months ago.

Day 2



Plied it. It's a 2-ply heavy laceweight. I lost count when winding it onto my niddy noddy so I'm not sure yet what the yardage is. I think I want to overdye it.

As Seen on Twitter

I'm not sure what the issue is here. I have been able to download it on my PC using Chrome and my iPad using Safari. A friend was able to open it in Firefox on a mac. I haven't made any changes to the calculator. Is anyone else having a problem downloading the file?

Touring Starts Soon

I have been really remiss in not blogging this.



This was my birthday present from Wes. (I gave him the web address and told him exactly what to order.) It's a cherry Hansen MiniSpinner with a Woolee Winder. I love it. It hums along spinning away at an even speed. The Woolee Winder loads the bobbins so evenly my spinning looks just perfect there. It fits into a tiny tote bag that comes with it. I love taking it to spinning on first Fridays at The Fiber Gallery. So much easier than taking my Lendrum. But since we got George I put it away, worried that he or Isabella would get tangled in the cord and pull it off the table, or knock it off, or in some other way damage it.

But tomorrow is the start of the Tour de Fleece and I'm on Team Footloose. My goal is simple, to spin. I will be away from my wheel for five days while I'm at camp. I just want to make a point to do some spinning every day I am home. I'll finish that suri alpaca/Bluefaced Lecicester I got from Toots le Blanc at Madrona that's on the bobbin. Then I'll dig out some other long-forgotten spinning project.

Who else is doing Tour de Fleece?

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

These two necklaces deserve a Madlib. Remember those?






A (type of animal) ate a (type of performer who wears a sparkly costume) and then (expression for vomited).

Should we make it a contest? Give me your best responses and I'll pick a winner for a prize.

Jaded, Like Me

At TNNA I noticed so much cool jewelry on the attendees. Melissa LaBarre has purchased beautiful cloth flower and bead asymmetrical necklaces* for herself and co-author Cecily Glowik MacDonald. She told me she got them on Etsy so when I got home I searched for "flower necklace." I didn't find the same necklaces but when I saw this one I let out a little squeak.



Plus it was called Jaded Birdie. And it was, in my opinion, very inexpensive. It's available now with free earrings! Check out the sellers shop.

*Thanks for the link, Melissa.

Start of Summer

The Seattle Schools let out on Tuesday. I took a few days off work and spent the balance of the week at home with the boys doing not terribly interesting things like getting them new sneakers and jeans. Because of bad planning (mine) and a bad tummy (not mine) we ended up having to make two separate journeys to the mall. We rounded out the weekend with a trip down to see Wes's parents while his brother, uncle, aunt and cousin were visiting, hosting a sleepover (younger son, going to a birthday party (also younger son) and taking George to two dog training classes.

I did manage to finish the second sleeve on Lloie's Cardigan and start the body.



My hope is to finish this in time for Knitting Camp which is startlingly soon.

Last night, to keep older son from disturbing younger son's sleepover, I watched Jaws with him. He's not like me. He doesn't scare easily. Watching it with him was just like watching Lord of the Rings with him--and endless barrage of questions. "Is he going to die?" "Do they get eaten?" "Are they all going to die?" In the end he declared the movie awesome. Which it is. But I doubt he'll be going swimming in the ocean any time soon.

Muppety Fun at the Webbys

Plus there's Ira Glass, OK Go and Zach Galafianakis.

Knitscene Preview

It's up. Congrats to Romi for landing the cover!
I'm seeing a lot of very knittable, wearable designs here. The Brise-Soleil Cardigan combines one of my favorite lace stitches with one of my favorite yarns, Portland Tweed.