Sunday, November 30, 2003

Holy Toledo!  Can tomorrow really be the first day of December?  Where did November go?

I took this photo through the car window on our way to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving with my parents:

Very cool clouds.  They looked like they were radiating (?) out of somewhere.  Pat on the back to me for such good focus at 75 miles per hour!  Sorry about the glare, though -- it was too darned cold to roll the window down!

There were James Bond movies on every night (sometimes two in a row!) (and all Sean Connery, the only true Bond), so I hunkered down in front of the television and knit to my heart's content.  Much Christmas knitting was accomplished. 

I finished knitting all of the pieces of 3xChic.  I suspected the sleeves might be lacking a little in the length department, but wasn't going to be sure until after I got back home and blocked the body.  Sure enough, they're about four inches too short, so I recalculated the rate of increase for the new length and am merrily knitting away on sleeve number three (of four).  Here's the body, patiently awaiting it's appendages:

Ain't it purdy? 

Sarah

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

I just finished sewing up the last seam on my Ribbed Jacket from Mango Moon.  Thank goodness I made the large, as it is rather close-fitting.  It could be a gauge issue, I suppose, but I'm sticking with it.  I still need to weave in ends, crochet around the edges, and find the perfect buttons, but that will all have to wait until after Thanksgiving. 

We're off to Pittsburgh tomorrow morning, returning Friday?  Saturday?  Sunday?

I'm taking 3xChic to work on, as well as some small projects to finish up.  And books to read, in case I find some quiet time. 

See you later!  Have a Happy Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it!

Sarah

Monday, November 24, 2003

I went out to dinner and to see "Love Actually" with my neighbor last night.  It was 60°F outside (6:30 p.m.).  Lovely, actually. 

Except for the torrential downpour on the way home (9:30 p.m.).

I went out to run some errands this morning (8:00 a.m.).  It was 34°F outside but clear. 

Here's a shot of the back yard this afternoon (4:00 p.m.). 

You should see it now . . . it's too dark for photos, but there's almost an inch of snow accumulated (10:00 p.m.)!

That's Michigan for you.  If you don't like the weather, wait fifteen minutes and it'll change.

Denise D. has joined the TKGA Knit-along.  Yay, Denise!

Sarah

Sunday, November 23, 2003

Umm . . .

I was interviewed recently for an article which appeared in the November 23rd issue of the Towne Courier, in the Holiday Preview section. I just read the article, and it says:

"Peasley said the best place to get a variety of yarns in the area is The Yarn Garden in Charlotte."

I did NOT say that, and felt awful as soon as I read it. I make a point of supporting ALL of our area yarn stores, especially since I teach at three of them!  The interview took place in The Yarn Garden, during a class, and the interviewer lives in the Charlotte area, so I suppose it was natural for her to base the article around the location.  I e-mailed each of the other area yarn shop owners with an apology. 

Coming up for air . . .

What a busy few days I've spent at the computer.  There's still work to be done, but I've updated my website, and the new class schedule is up!  I still need to get some patterns finished (as always), figure out the calendar page I'm trying to add, and finish updating my mailing list so I can send out an e-mail notification.

I've been knitting too, of course.  Here's proof, although it looks like a mess:

I'm on Sleeve #3 of my Mango Moon Ribbed Jacket (doesn't everyone knit three sleeves in order to get two good ones?).  I'm working the top-down set-in sleeve from my Sleeveless Sweater class, rather than torturing myself by having to sew in a set-in sleeve.  It's looking quite nice, thank you very much!

And there's this:

It's blurry on purpose, to mask it's true identity.  Let's just say I'm getting ready for the holidays.  Enough said.

Lookie at the TKGA Knit-along list!  It's grown!  Welcome Martheme, Betsy, Sharon, Kate, and Mari!  Whew!  That makes 20 knit-alongers!  Yee haw!  (Yee haw?  Where did THAT come from?  Knit-along, little dogie!)

Sarah

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

I was asked about the TKGA Master Hand Knitter Level 1 Knitalong today, and thought I should explain it again, to see if anyone else would like to join in.  But since I'm too lazy to write it all down again, I'm going to pull my previous description from my September 2003 archives (ooh, look -- purple!):

We're planning on starting in January.  I've never hosted a knit-along before, so I'm not really sure what to do.  I just figured I'd nag everybody constantly and see if that works. 

How much will it cost?  TKGA charges $30 for the Level 1 (Advanced Beginner) Master Hand Knitting Program.  You will also need supplies (yarn, tags, page protectors, binder), and Nanette warns me that there will be a need for a lot of reference books.  This is where I thought the knit-along would be helpful.  While it would seem odd for all of us to turn in the exact same swatches and answers, I think a pooling of ideas and technical know-how will make the process easier.  Not sure how that will work yet.  There are a lot of on-line sources we can use, too.  Nanette mentioned some of them in her September 16 post.

How should the timing work?  Level 1 requires sixteen (16) knitted swatches, fourteen (14) questions (to which they expect answers, I assume), and one (1) report on blocking.  If we worked on one item a week, that would take 31 weeks.  Too long, I think.  A swatch and a question each week would take 16 weeks (if the report counts as a two week project).  That sounds good to me.  Any other ideas? 

Oh, and if you ordered the Level 1 packet over a year ago, you'll need to contact TKGA to see if you have the most current information.  The revision date at the bottom should say 10/2003.  They'll send an update free of charge.

Okay, it's me again.  Anyone else interested?  I have fifteen knit-alongers so far, including me (see the list over there on the left?).  I'd be happy to try to answer any questions you may have.

I'm supposed to be putting together my class schedule for January through May, so that's what I'm going to go do now. 

See you soon!

Sarah

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Once again, I proved my theory that if I say I'm going to do something, I don't do it.  At least I'm consistent, right? 

I was too pooped to blog last night (nothing to do with the horse poop, though).  I'm blogging earlier than usual so I can get some sleep tonight. 

Thank you for waiting patiently to see my yarn non-purchases!  Without further ado, I present:

Top left corner:  I thought I had bought the last of the red Cascade Indulgence on my last trip, but this lone hank proved me wrong.  I had no choice but to bring it home with me.

Top right corner:  two more balls of Dazzle, for two more Ruffled (sausage!) Scarves.  Thanks for such a great pattern, Jenanne!  A lot of my knitting friends are making them now, too!

Bottom:  Six tutti-frutti hanks of Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille.  If you've been following Rob's blog, you probably know what those are destined to become.

Left:  A retractable (zip!) tape measure to replace my old Yarn for Ewe freebie that lost its zip.

Center:  Lucy Neatby's new sock book, Cool Socks Warm Feet.  Six patterns, 128 pages.  I haven't really looked at it yet -- I tried to this weekend, but I kept turning pages without looking at them -- a little tired, perhaps?  Lucy rocks, though, so I just had to have it.

It's a small pile, but a colorful one, and what it doesn't show are the 24 hanks of Cascade 220 in a luscious shade of dark purple that will become a cuddly afghan for yours truly someday.  Those are on order, so you'll see them when I see them.

Once again, these didn't violate my no-yarn-buying pledge, because I had a little credit with the boys.

You may have noticed, however, that a couple more violations have popped up over there in the top right hand corner of the screen.  I bought three skeins of a lovely light blue shade of Plymouth Galway, to use for my TKGA Master Hand Knitter Level 1 swatches (knit-along starts in January!  Let me know if you're interested!).  I also bought two colors of Jamieson & Smith Shetland wool to substitute into my Fair Isle Cardigan from Meg Swansen's Knitting.  I swatched for it during my previous Columbus trip, but didn't like the colors I had substituted, so now I'm substituting for my substitutions, and I think I'm going to be much happier.  I took out a pink and a blue, and added two purples (of course!).

And this photo is for Rob, to show him that I finally managed to get three different colors going for the body of my Mango Moon Ribbed Jacket. 

You're looking at the back, flanked by the left and right fronts.  No, the fronts aren't shorter than the back, so don't worry.  I'm working on the collar now, with all of the body pieces hanging off of a straight needle.  Not the smartest thing I've ever done to my wrists, but it will be over soon.  Incidentally, has anyone else made this pattern?  I'm finding some errors.  Stitch counts are off here and there, but I'm smart enough to figure out what they should be instead.  Otherwise, the pattern is great, and very easy! 

Those are Keiko's feet and nose in the lower corner.  She was laying in my usual photo-taking space, so I had to make do with this smaller, alternate spot.

And now off to our monthly Guild meeting!

Sarah

Sunday, November 16, 2003

Back home again.  All this weekend traveling is tiring!

The Basic Finishing Workshop at ThreadBear went well.  We took over the newly emptied upstairs, which was a tad chilly:

That's "Low" Helen (see Rob's blog entry from Friday 11/14), trying to warm up in her Obi and a Noro shawl.  I thought the cool air would warm up as the sun came up and the bodies (twelve of us) filled the room, but the sun never made an appearance, unfortunately.  Rob kept bringing up hot water for tea, and I fired up the steam iron (for blocking) later in the day, and there were some lamps for us to huddle under . . . actually, I didn't think it was very cold, but I was kind of nervous, which probably kept me from feeling the chill.

I had a little more material to cover than we had allotted time for, although some of the students stayed over and got the whole lesson.  Usually I teach this class in six hours over four WEEKS, and this time I tried to cover the same material in six hours over one DAY.  I cut the size of the project way, way down, but it was still more knitting than could be done quickly.  I'll have to tweak the workshop version of this class a bit more, I guess.  Live and learn.  I'm certain that everyone learned something though (right, Helen?), so that was a good thing.

Rob and Matt were excellent and accommodating hosts while Irene and I moved in for the weekend.  I'm guessing we were the first overnight guests in the new digs.  I felt right at home in the library my new bedroom, although I have to say I was a bit confused when I woke up with Tate after having gone to sleep with Connor (those are the ThreadBear dogs -- ThreadDogs? --  for those of you who don't know).

My friend Irene went with me as my travel buddy and unofficial personal assistant.  We (along with some other of our knitting friends) have traveled together quite a bit, and make a pretty darn good team.  Irene went way above and beyond the call of her unofficial personal assistant duty by helping me out all weekend long without my ever asking her for a thing.  She drove the first leg of our journey so I could try to finish up my workshop samples.  She helped set up the classroom Saturday morning, put together the goody bags that each student got, helped Rob and Matt around the store throughout the day, and brought a plate of food to the classroom for me at lunchtime (I sent my students down to get lunch, but forgot to get some for myself).  She picked Matt up and brought him back home when his car got a flat.  She handed me my sunglasses when we started the trip back home, and got my on-the-road fast-food-lunch out of the bag for me.  I could get used to this!  Remind me to double that woman's salary!  (let's see, two times zero equals . . .)    

THANKS, IRENE!

And what would a road trip be without a great story to tell?

On the way down I-69, we were playing leapfrog with a fairly large horse trailer which was carrying a fairly large number of horses.  From time to time, clods of something would fly off the back of the trailer and bounce off of our car.  What could it have been?  Eewww!  Horse poop!  We thought that was pretty funny, and continued merrily on our way. 

A short while later, a very interesting thing happened.  The only way I can describe it is to say that a firehose was turned on underneath the trailer, spraying an enormous amount of water down onto the road, which then splashed -- no, that's not a strong enough word -- it splooshed up and onto and over the hood and roof and back and sides of our car.  This happened not once, not twice, not even three times, but more like six or seven.  In a row.  We city girls didn't figure out what it was until after the second deluge.  EEEEEWWWWW!  HORSE PEE!  And we had nowhere to go, because the traffic flow was also very heavy at that point ("flow" . . . "heavy" . . . get it?) and we were trapped behind the trailer.

Thank GOODNESS the windows were closed.  And thank GOODNESS it rained hard that night.

Eeeww.

I'll try to post photos of my non-purchases tomorrow.  Until then . . .

Sarah

Friday, November 14, 2003

As of 2:30 this morning (yawn!), I'm ready for my workshop at ThreadBear Fiber Arts Studio.  I'm leaving the house in a few minutes to help set up the Scholastic Book Fair at the school, then dropping off homework for the kids in my Junior Great Books discussion group, then picking up my travel buddy Irene, then teaching at The Yarn Garden in Charlotte, then taking off from there for 703 Hutchins Avenue in Columbus, Indiana. 

It's going to be a long day . . .

If any Lansingites need anything from ThreadBear, just call or e-mail Rob and place your order -- I'll provide free delivery service (you're welcome!).

See you Sunday night!

Sarah

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Not much knitting lately.  Trying to get caught up.  Here's proof, for those who are interested:

That's another Toe Up Sock, worked on double points instead of one circular needle, to see if my instructions would work for either method.  They do, although the cast on round was pretty tight, but this yarn is cotton and acrylic with no stretch whatsoever.  Hence the ribbing, which was yet another variation I was testing out.  Those of you who were interested in a pattern for my socks with their upside down heel, be patient -- it's coming!

So is this:

These are pieces to a miniature version of my Beginning Finishing sweater, for the workshop I'm teaching at ThreadBear Fiber Arts Studio in Columbus, Indiana this weekend (yes, I'm hitting the road again!).  I'm hoping this isn't too much knitting to accomplish within the first few hours of the six hour workshop (what do you think, Rob?).  Yes, there's a sleeve missing, because that one will be worked from the top down once the rest of the pieces are assembled.  The blocking board is gridded in one inch squares, so you may be able to see that the sweater body will be 7 inches high by 8 inches wide, and the sleeve is about 4 and a half inches long.  I wanted the sweater to be small enough to be knit during the workshop, but big enough to get a good feel for the seaming and borders. 

Tomorrow I'll work on the workshop notes, and then I'll be ready!

Sarah

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

I'm feeling very sleeeeeepy, and my legs and butt are stiff -- the reality of the whirlwind two day trip is setting in, so this will be a very short post.

On the back of a Chicago city bus was this advertisement for Kenneth Cole:  "Make your presents felt."  I took that as a command to make felted items for Christmas gifts, which I hadn't been planning on doing, but who am I to argue with a bus's rear end? 

I'll have to re-think my gift list.

Sarah

Monday, November 10, 2003

I'm back!  I tagged along with my friend Preeti and fourteen of her Junior League friends on a two day bus trip to Chicago.  We left early Saturday morning, arriving in Chicago at 11:00 a.m. local time.  We started with a nice lunch at Tucci Benucch on the fifth floor of the Bloomingdale's mall.  We shopped in that mall for quite a while, starting at Mark Shale's, where we saw lots of fabulous scarves knit on huge needles with huge yarn.  I couldn't afford anything there, but I charted a few of the scarves when no one was looking! 

I had hoped to hook up with Theresa and Julie, but that didn't work out (pout!).  I did find the closest yarn store, We'll Keep You in Stitches, which was very tiny and very crowded, as was most of Michigan Avenue (crowded, not tiny).  Nothing there I hadn't seen before, so my no-yarn-buying pledge was safe.  I also found this:

Tender Buttons, a very cool button store.  Thanks for telling me about it, Theresa!

Did I mention that it was snowing when our bus rolled into the city?  I stayed toasty warm for two days of street walking (not THAT kind of street walking!) wearing my blue Limbo mittens, my red Shape It! scarf, and this:

I think it's from an old Vogue Knitting magazine, but I can't remember.  The yarn is Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash Bulky, in my signature color (purple, of course).  I made it eons ago, then didn't wear it because I thought I didn't like it.  I pulled it out this year, tried it on, and I love it!  What was I thinking?  I'm trying to see how long I can go before I have to find my winter coat, and wearing this over a couple of other layers (long sleeved tee and a wool cardigan) will get me pretty far.  The two vertical lines you see on the body on the left side are some badly woven in ends -- I'll have to fix those.

Lots of shopping throughout the rest of Saturday, including Filene's Basement, but I didn't get anything beyond a pair of pants and a Christmas present for my mother-in-law.  In the evening we drove past this:

-- the Ferris wheel on Navy Pier, on our way to a late night supper at Marche'.  Preeti had promised us well-built, bare-chested waiters in tight leather pants and suspenders, but apparently the onset of the snowy season causes them to don stylish shirts as well.  I wasn't sure I wanted my meal served by shirtless men, anyway.  Our (female) waitress looked like Sandra Bullock, Page somebody from Trading Spaces came in and caused a commotion at one point, the champagne was fabulous, and the salmon was excellent.  When we got back to the hotel, Preeti and I decided to sprint five blocks in ten minutes to the Esquire to see "Love, Actually".  We made it in time, only to find it was sold out.  Obviously we had no choice but to go bar hopping.  We hopped between a few very crowded night spots, starting at Gibson's, bypassing the Whiskey Bar and Grill, and finally settling in at the Zebra Lounge.  Very small, very loud, very fun.  A very diverse group of people:  tattoo woman in a tank top sipping martinis with her beatnik beau; a bachelorette party with one very inebriated bride-to-be wearing a tiara; a guy in a suit staggering around aimlessly; a woman looking endlessly for the coat she had left on a stool ("Are you sitting on your own coat?" she asked me very seriously); a beer-drinking patron who kept taking the mike from Tommy the piano player, and belting out the tunes his tired voice couldn't carry; the guy behind me who lit up a cigar (catching a glimpse in the mirror beside me, I thought my hair had spontaneously combusted), and was promptly asked to put it out by my hero/waitress; and many more I wasn't able to see -- all of this in a bar the size of a postage stamp.

A brisk walk back to our hotel was followed by lots of late night girl talk and a few hours of sleep.

We had an excellent Sunday brunch at the Cheesecake Factory, the decor of which was variously intrepreted as rising bread dough, meringue, or being inside someone's intestines.  Preeti and I grabbed a cab and took off for Marshall Field's, where they had just unveiled this year's Christmas window displays, all scenes from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I took a photo of each of them, but between the glare and the people, I didn't do very well.  Here's a favorite:

And in this one, you can see me taking the photo, with Preeti standing on my left (your right):

Then inside to see the tree, decked out in Waterford crystal.  Use your imagination to put the next three photos together:

Day Two of the whirlwind shopping tour took us to Nordstrom Rack, where I found my treasure:

No, not the American flag that looks like it's sitting on top of my head (nice photo styling, hon).  A cool PURPLE suede jacket.  Yahoo!  

What's on my head, if not the patriotic bow?  A little girly something I found and fell in love with:

The little jeweled flowers complement my silver hair nicely, don't you think?  (Ack!  I didn't know it was THAT grey!)

That's all the photos I have for you from my trip, because after that point my hands were too full of shopping bags.  We shopped at Nordstrom's, the Lego store, Niketown, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, and a bunch of other places I can't remember. 

I'll definitely have to go back, but maybe not in November or December again.  Bonne Marie wasn't kidding when she mentioned the throngs of women arriving on buses to do their Christmas shopping.  Every place we went was packed.  Even the sidewalks were overcrowded.  We, of course, were ourselves a mini-throng of women who arrived by bus, so we only contributed to the problem, but we certainly did our part to help the local economy!

As we rolled out of town yesterday evening, a full moon (or close to full, anyway) was shining across the lake. 

Sigh.

Eva, with whom I spent time at Rob's and Matt's a few weeks ago, has a new blog called Cheaper Than Therapy, and also has a cool new design with a fun name that ThreadBear will be offering for sale.  Check it out!  You need a button, Eva!

Time to go get caught up on some of my favorite blogs . . .

Sarah

Friday, November 7, 2003

I'm going to Chicago for the weekend, will you miss me? 

I'm really looking forward to getting back late Sunday night and seeing the 40 or 50 e-mails that will be waiting for me, promising to enlarge my male unit. 

See you then!

Sarah

Thursday, November 6, 2003

Here are the Fiesta Mittens from Lucy Neatby's pattern, which I made a few years ago, and which Rob had filed away in his encyclopedic brain:

Back (front?) of mitten on the left, palm on the right.  I used Koigu PPPM (and no, I don't have any idea what the color was, so don't even ask), and I forget what the solid black was -- sorry.  It may very well have been Koigu as well, but I can't remember that far back.  Heck, I can barely remember yesterday.

Here's a close-up of the pretty stitches:

I have the Fiesta Sock and Fiesta Vest patterns, too, but haven't made either of those yet.

To those of you who commented that you're taking the Blue Sky Alpacas sweater (Cardigan with Crochet Ridges) off of your to-do list based on my experience, here's (most of) the whole story:

I fell in love with this sweater when I saw a model of it at the Yarns by Design booth at Stitches Midwest in summer 2002.

Please go look at my July 2, 2003 entry, which shows photos of my sweater in progress, a washed swatch worked on the same size needle, and a washed swatch worked on a smaller needle.  I'll wait right here until you get back.

La la la, la la la.

Done?  Okay, let's go on.

If I had trusted my instincts and gone down one needle size, the stitch gauge would have been way off, but the fabric would have been much nicer.  I would have had to alter the pattern quite a bit, which I can do, but which I was trying to avoid.  I chose to continue on with the correct gauge, despite the fact that I didn't like the fabric.

At Stitches Midwest this year (summer 2003), I saw the exact same model in the exact same booth, and fell in love with it all over again.  I talked to the vendor, and she wondered if my batch of yarn was somehow faulty.  But I had used some other Blue Sky Alpaca in another color for a scarf, and was experiencing the same unevenness, so I didn't think it was a bad batch of yarn. 

Then Sweatergirl pointed out a review at Knitters Review, which pointed out the same issues I was dealing with, with yet another color of the yarn.  Aha, so it wasn't just me, and it wasn't a bad batch of yarn.

I chose to finish the sweater, complete with all of the crocheted edging (which I did very well, thank you very much!).  It seemed to look better after blocking and finishing, but still not like the model I had fallen in love with.  And when I tried it on, it just didn't look very good.  The collar is too wide, and the fit seems off.  If you ask nicely, maybe I'll model it for you so you can see.

But that model at the booth -- same yarn, same pattern -- it was gorgeous.  It must be achievable, because I saw it with my own eyes.  But apparently it's not achievable by me.

Sad Sigh.

In the middle of my Beginning Knitting class at The Yarn Garden in Charlotte today, I looked down and saw this:

That's 3 month old Purl, the shop dog, sound asleep on my unfelted Entrelac bag (which is sitting atop my felted Entrelac bag).  How cute is THAT?  Melted my heart, she did.

Happy Sigh.

Sarah

Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Sweatergirl brought her finished Entrelac bag to the Tuesday night knit-in at my house:

Here's the requisite piano bench shot (hmm -- looks like Son Number Two didn't dust as well as I'd hoped):

It's amazing how much smaller her bag is than the other rectangular ones.  Granted, she used Nature Spun, which is a much lighter weight yarn, but the difference is still huge.  My bag is on tour right now so we couldn't do a comparison, but I'm thinking we could fit at least four of hers into one of mine.  Regardless of the proportion (size doesn't matter!), it's a gorgeous bag.  The color combination is very nifty.

I started another pair of toe up socks: 

The yarn is Polo by Zitron, 60% cotton, 40 % acrylic.  No stretch whatsoever, so I'm doing a 2x2 rib to try to create some elasticity. 

I wanted to see if my circular needle version would translate to double points.  The verdict so far:  the cast on is very awkward, but doable, especially after the fourth try (don't ask).  I think I'm over the hump and can cruise on up to the heel now.  When these are done, I'll try to get my pattern written up.  I'm WAY far behind on pattern writing, and I apologize to everyone who is waiting patiently.  November is VERY busy, but I left December wide open, so I can try to get caught up then.

Well, okay, I don't think I'll ever get caught up, but I hope to get less far behind (reducing the knitting deficit).

Sarah

Monday, November 3, 2003

Enough of those little piddly projects I showed you yesterday.  Let's see some SWEATERS!!!

Finished but unloved:

Cardigan with Crocheted Ridges, using a Blue Sky Alpaca pattern and Blue Sky Alpaca yarn.  If you missed the earlier saga of this sweater, the short story is that I didn't like working with this yarn.  To hit gauge, I had to use a larger needle than I would have liked, resulting in a looser fabric than I wanted.  The yarn knit up unevenly.  The neckline is kind of wide.  The overall fit is strange. 

On a positive note, I think I did an excellent job with the crocheted ridges and trim (that was a helluva lot of reverse single crochet!), and I'm very proud of the buttons (I made them myself!).  The sweater does look nice hanging on Dummy Sheila, but crappy hanging on Smarty Sarah.

(Ooh!  Smarties!  Hold on while I go raid the leftover Halloween candy!)

Cruising along:

This is the front of 3xChic, and a little bit of the back.  I'm liking the look of this so far.  It's a 7x2 rib that knits up FAST.  I'll try to work on it during the Tuesday night knit-in tomorrow night, but the knit-in is at my house and the hostess rarely gets a chance to knit (it's like some kind of an unwritten knit-in law).

And my absolute favorite project right now:

This is the back of the Ribbed Jacket from Mango Moon.  It's a 3x3 rib, unblocked.  It's hard to see the texture and color in this photo, and you'll have to trust me when I tell you that this is soft, soft, SOFT!!  I wish all of the hanks of silk were this same color, but the shades all vary, so the fronts and sleeves will each look a little different.  There's a lovely periwinkle laceweight mohair that's knit along with the recycled silk, which ties the different silk colors together nicely.

I didn't get a chance to have my felting party this morning.  I have to quit saying "I'll do such and such tomorrow," because such and such never seems to happen.

I also didn't get a chance to start the new projects I was hoping to get on the needles today, which is a good thing and a bad thing, all at the same time.

Sarah

Sunday, November 2, 2003

Please don't hate me because I'm beautiful a prolific knitter.  I can't help it.  It's my addiction job.

Here's most of my output from this weekend.  Mind you, I only FINISHED the projects this weekend.  I started them ages ago.  Most of them.

Toe Up Socks #3:

These are for Nancy McRay, the owner of Woven Art in East Lansing, using my design and her hand dyed superwash merino (Kona).

Your Basic Bag from Sally Melville's The Knit Stitch book, using crunchy brown cording from Davidson's warehouse in Eaton Rapids:

I didn't double the thickness of the button flap or the handle (which the pattern called for), because the yarn/cording was so stiff to begin with.  As a result, the handle is longer than it was meant to be, but it suits the purse just fine.  I actually like this purse now that it's finished, even though it's still brown (some things just can't be tweaked in the finishing process).  It probably needs to be lined, and that button needs to be sewn on if I can't find a better one.  But the knitting is done, so off it goes to the finished projects page.

I guess I forgot to tell you I was working on a Lucy Bag (pattern from Two Old Bags). 

I used some unmarked yarn my sister had brought back from one of her trips (Hi Kathy!).  Since she often travels to exotic mountainous locales that are home to exotic mountainous sheep, I assumed this yarn was wool.  I even tested the fiber by doing a spit splice (pink), which worked great, so off I knit.  About halfway up the bag, at the end of the first ball, a spit splice (purple) was surprisingly unsuccessful.  Sunlight falling across the knitted fabric showed a little more of a sheen than I had been expecting.  A burn test didn't provide much help (but served to entertain my sock students immensely).  A felted test swatch was called for:

Oops.  We appear to have a blend.  Pink = wool, purple = not wool.  It looks pretty cool, though, so I finished the bag and will live with the results.  Here it is pre-felting, with a Tootsie Pop thrown in for scale:

I'll have a little felting party tomorrow, along with this:

Is it a chair cosy? 

Or a table cosy? 

No, it's the smaller version of my Entrelac Bag!

I finished my neighbor's thank-you gift (Just a Little Fizz scarf, using Mountain Colors Weavers Wool Quarters and Crystal Palace Fizz):

It's not reversible -- it's just olded in half for the photo (and then folded in half again to fit into the frame).

And the metallic Ruffled Scarf (using Dazzle):

And the other Ruffled Scarf (also Dazzle):

Geez, four of those finished projects never even made it onto the current projects list!

I finished one other project, but my camera battery died so no photo of that until tomorrow.  Or of the two other projects I'm cruising on.

And I'm fairly sure I'll have one or two other little things started by tomorrow night.

It's an addiction.  I can't help myself.

Sarah

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