Trellis Start

Here's a little snap of the beginning of my Trellis Scarf.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

With school about to start tomorrow I can't stop thinking about this great ad.




My youngest son starts kindergarten tomorrow. I'm so excited I might wet myself.

Diamond Fantasy Shawl

Pattern: Diamond Fantasy Shawl by Sivia Harding
Yarn: Merino/silk, my first lace-weight handspun
Needles: US5 Addi turbos
Changes: I knit somewhere between the two sizes to use up as much yarn as possible but still have enough to finish!

I'm #1!

Someone came to my blog from a MSN Japan search for "top notch bitchers." I'm the first hit. That's bad, right?

Lace All Over the Place

The Diamond Fantasy Scarf/Shawl is all pinned out and drying. I also finished the Cocoon Lace Scarf that I have been knitting for the shop. I started it well over a year ago. It is next up to be blocked. I enjoyed the pattern. It creates little puffy diamonds on one side and a waving rib on the reverse. It's a simple pattern but any lace is difficult to knit with lots of interruptions. And at work I can't put someone on finger hold* until I "just finish this row." So it's taken a long time.

I started my Trellis Scarf last night. It's the new project for the Evelyn Clark Knitalong. I planned on knitting it using the Liqueur Kidsilk Haze I got to make River. But while digging through my lace yarn I found a skein of cochineal-dyed 20/80 alpaca/wool that I bought at the Seattle Knitting Expo (it's the one on the right). I knit the border then had to put it aside to watch Infernal Affairs. I can't read a chart and subtitles at the same time. The movie is a slick twist on the usual cops and robbers--an undercover cop and a crooked cop are both ordered to find the mole in their organizations. It's been remade by Martin Scorsese and will be released October 6th.

I tried to cast on for my Ribby Cardi while I watched the movie. The yarn was untwisting a lot doing my usual long-tail cast on so I switched to a double start cast on. It creates little pairs of stitches. As I glanced down at my work I would notice the occasional orphan stitch, rip put and continue casting on. A few minutes later I'd find another orphan. Rip, cast on, etc. Eventually I put it aside and just watched the movie.

*You know, when you your finger in the air and tell them to hold on?

All Over But the Blocking

Next up, the Trellis scarf.

Uh, That Would Be "Isle"

Memo to Banana Republic.

New Magknits

It's up. There are several really nice looking patterns. I particularly like the Snowflake socks.

Sock Monkey Madness!

Thursday seems the right day to post the link to The Rainey Sisters and the sock monkey creations they recently discovered.

Thank you to Vanessa for alerting me to these.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

"In an old house in Paris
That was covered in vines.
Lived twelve little girls
In two straight line.
They left the house at half-past nine
In two straight lines, in rain or shine.
The smallest one was Madeline."

So begins Madeline and the Bad Hat. And it keeps coming to mind as I look at knitting patterns lately.

There's a bad hat. Or is it a cute hat being attacked by multi-colored fur? Hard to say.


Whether embellished with a ribbon or flower, it's still a bad hat.


With flowers and feathers, it still doesn't fit on a human head.


Good hat for an infant. Bad hat for everyone else.


Bad.


Really bad.


Bad hat but excellent for dusting.


Something is not right!

Where Was I?

My knitting seems very meandering and unproductive lately. Just before leaving for the weekend I was satisfactorily completing the back of my Knot Cable Jacket. I seamed up the shoulders and started knitting the collar. It didn't work. I was crushingly disappointed, which is incredibly silly since absolutely nothing else about the pattern works. Why should the last part be any different? After spending some time with some graph paper and staring at my knitting a little voice said, "Why don't you check to make sure the sleeves fit in the armholes first?" Well, what do you know. They don't fit. I think a little ripping will fix the situation but once again the my enthusiasm for the sweater subsided. I left it at home to go to Fort Worden.

While away I worked on my sock and my shawl. The sock is dragging on for what feels like an eternity. I finished the leg, turned the heel and am halfway through the foot. Of the first sock. When will these be done? The shawl really grew over the weekend. And got a marathon session last night while I stayed up until 2 am watching the rest of season two of Veronica Mars.* Tonight at Seattle Stitch 'n Bitch I was knitting along when suddenly I was missing a stitch. Just one measly stitch in the edging. I've started to tink back two rows but it really bummed me out. I was hoping to finish one more repeat and be done. I've set a goal for myself that the jacket needs to be done for show and tell at the September Knitters Guild meeting and the shawl needs to be done for the November meeting. I can do this. I just need to marshal some focus and zeal.

*Is it wrong for a 36 year old to have a little crush on Logan Echolls?

Fort Worden '06

We went back to Fort Worden again with this weekend. We had eight families. It was a lovely, relaxing weekend. We hung out, went on walks, played on the beach. It's such a nice way to wrap up the summer. School starts next week!