Another year, another... something

Hi!

I am knitting!

I am still knitting the Loopdigan shrug by SweaterFreak! It's so pretty! Except...

I've been working on it for a year. I'm working the front, which is 48 inches of fishnet lace.  Four feet. Of p2tog and yo.  Again. And again. In fingering.

It's such a clever pattern!  But it's draaaaaaaggggiiiiiinnnnnnngggggg. I'm further along than in the photo. I may be about 20 inches in.

I started it on my birthday last year.  My birthday is again in two days.

Oh but I did pause. And I did frog the whole thing, reset the yarn, and start over because I was rowing out. And I made a Sophia, and some AWESOME booties for my friend's new baby.

So.

Yay.

Fit for a duchess

Wharf.

I'm not a northeast US kind of a girl (there's something about this pattern and the sample that says NE coast to me), but I like this.

An easy knit. Much quicker than I thought it would be.

And gorgeous.

The yarn is my first from KnitPicks that didn't shed.  It did grow immensely with wetblocking.

And fun!

And the colors? I asked the Duchess' husband (the Duke?) specifically what color to use. As in, what's your wife's favorite color?  I didn't hear back. For like a week. So I bought the colors I thought suitable.

And then I heard back from the Duke. He texted that he had to ask her in a sneaky way. And she responded with a very romantic answer. The color of the sky just before after a storm-- blue and grey and bright and clear.

NAILED IT!

I hope she loves it. Because I love her.

Mo' moxie!

I've knitted so much! I haven't shown you.

The key has been knitting gifts.  When there's a deadline there is a little bit of an excuse to knit rather than doing housework, you see [sheepish grin].

So, first there was Antarktis. Such a lovely pattern. I made this for MamaFong, who lost PapaFong last year. She was going to Paris for the holidays to get out of town and away from all that would sadden her.  She said her favorite color was pink. Others said they saw her in bright colors. Sooo... KnitPicks Diadem in tourmaline!

Wow, it was bright.  It was a very easy knit, but despite that, I kept screwing it up somehow. This was made all the more frustrating by the fact that the yarn I used was loosely spun and kept weaving into itself, making tinking quite difficult without breaking fine yarn strands.  In the end, it was lovely. But it didn't grow with blocking as much as I thought it would. I believe I should have done it on bigger needles.  Anyway, here it is.  (My first project that I've really truly blocked.)

My friend had a baby boy. I dug out some penguin parts, knitted way back in 2006! and sewed them together. Stuffed 'til round and adorable, and voila! Cuteness!

Ms. Mendoza had a birthday. She likes red. Moebius braid! Squishy and soft and lovely! I made this with Knitpicks Shine worsted, in Serrano. The yarn sheds like crazy. Kuh-razee.  Wouldn't recommend this yarn.

Did I never show you the end result of the Smithson hat?  Woops.  Here you go.

He says it's his favorite hat of all hats he's ever owned.  He is prone to hyperbole, but I'll take it!

Stuff for me?  Yes, there's some stuff for me I'm working on.

Natsu. Oh, Natsu. For our anniversary, MoxieMan bought me some pretty yarn. But it was variegated. I'm trying to make a Natsu out of it. It's not going well.

There was also the Lucy Hat. Of course! I did this in a weekend fit.  LOVE it-- but it's not quite the right size to fit the way it does on the model in the picture. Who cares? It's great.

So, that's all for now. I've got another gift on the blocking boards as we speak... post soon!

Too much moxie, even for me.

Psychedelic swirl

The Smithson hat.  I really like it!

I got some of this crazy colorway on my latest vacation.  It's called Stone Temple, by Hanalei Strings in Kauai. I totally see why it's named that. The ruins of old stone temples tend to be dark black and grey, splashed with bright yellow-green moss.  I love how nature always wins over time.

Anyway, MoxieMan saw someone else knitting with it and said he thought it'd be great on a hat.  Off to Ravelry I went. So many choices.  Kinda stressful.  "Yeah, that's good."  "Yeah, that's pretty cool."  I couldn't get the reaction I wanted from MoxieMan, one that would make me sure it'd be a worthwhile endeavor.  But wait, there's this cool hat. It has cables, and other interesting textures.  Let's look at that. Oh wait, look! By the same designer, there's this spiraly one.

"That's it."

Finally.

My first glance at the instructions made me fret a little because it included stitches I wasn’t familiar with (namely, lifted increases). The abbreviations with their repeated letters intimidated me.

Once I got started, though, I found out the pattern is really fun. You know how some people enjoy making knit stitches more than purl stitches? I enjoy lifted increases more than other increases.

At one point the work got too big for my set of four double pointed needles, so I switched to magic loop-- and hated it. I quickly switched back to using a circular needle as a 5th double pointed needle. It doesn’t make those big holes where the gauge gets uneven from the “magic”.

Looks like I’m the first Raveler who did this in a variegated yarn. While I totally agree that a more solid color would show off the pattern better, Moxieman wanted this yarn and this pattern. It still looks really cool.  I can't wait to finish!

And I'm back! So what?!

So nothing, except it's AWESOME!

Since last post, that cowl was given as a gift.  It was stolen and now is being worn somewhere in Bolivia.

Coffee cosy #1 was given as a gift and no doubt is lost somewhere in a pile of junk, knowing the recipient. Cosy #2 was nibbled on by my doggie and now has a hole in it.  It still requires repair.

The coasters are in use. The potato chip scarf and the giant-needle shawl are hibernating. I'll likely frog the Ventura Wrap and re-use the yarn for something else.

My current fit is brought to you by the change in the weather. About September or so, the weather turned.  Not wanting to get too deeply into it, I worked on a couple more coffee cosies.  Learned lots of cabling techniques with that-- initially frustrating, but a pretty result!  Then I picked up that cowl again (the remake of Casu Cowl that was stolen in Bolivia) and did two balls of yarn worth in a matter of days.  And that was it.

Now I've got more projects on than I can count.  And on vacation, I bought yaaaaaarn, so much yarn...

HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

More soon.  One at a time.

Can't wait to show you!

Seized

I am once again seized by knitfever.

Since mid-July I have completed two coffee cosies, some coasters, and a cowl. I am midway through a shawl on giant size 17 needles. I am also experimenting with the potato chip scarf.

 I have urges to visit local yarn shops everywhere I go. I bought some variegated yarn today. Why? I don't know. I have nothing to do with variegated yarns. I have no desire to do anything fair isle, entrelac, or intarsia. But when one is ill, one has symptoms. And my symptom, evidently, is yarn consumption. 

The recent seizure began with a mid-July vacation, when it occurred to me that I have time to knit in the car. When a passenger, of course. And this time riding in the car is time that I definitely cannot spend doing other "constructive" or work-y things, so why not?

Watch out. Some ghetto-looking knit gift may be headed your way. I am out of control. 

(Don't worry. It won't last long. It never does.)

New nephew

I don't know why, but I have suspected it will be a boy.



Here, George models the first few inches of his present.