Even More Knitting

I finally had enough Silk Garden in my stash from gifts and sales at Little Knits and Webs to do a striped scarf a la Brooklyn Tweed for Hubby and me. Now I'm too embarrassed to go out in public with the matching outfit thing going on. I have been wearing mine only when I go out without him. He gets to wear his all the time and I think he's enjoying it. The previous scarf he was wearing around I made for him when I first learned how to knit and it's way too short. Sort of an Alpaca Cravat. Not a good look.




Ravelry Link

More Knitting

Socks in TOFUtsies sock yarn. Did two at a time Toe-Up and used the Waterfall Rib Stitch Pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. Ravelry Link. These Socks ate my soul (sole hee hee). The yarn was no fun at all.. splitty, no memory.. blech. I still haven't started another pair of socks since then. Sigh...the horror.


On the other hand ( I swear I'm not purposefully trying to be all puny) These convertable mittens made from Dream in Color Classy were a joy to knit with. LOVE LOVE LOVE this yarn. it has terrific yardage, beautiful non-pooling colorways, and glorious sproinginess. Colorway is Chinatown Apple Pattern Urban Neccesity. Ravelry Link

Oh ya I have a blog

Ok I really and truly suck at the blog thing.


Just need to start again....like ripping off a band-aid right??


Stuff I've finished in the last 5 months:

Washcloths for Christmas to go with our handmade soap. From Elan Adara and Camila. Ravelry link




Some hats for Stash and Burn's Seven Long project (pediatric chemo hats)

Ravelry Links: Koolhass out of Knit Picks Comfy and Crumpet out of Chameleon Colorworks Bambino. Both yarns were a joy to knit with and worked out really well for the projects. Lets hope they are truely washible and hold up to wear.

Summer is for Dishcloths

I'm refusing to make another summer cardigan or tank top this year as I will probably only manage to finish it right before fall hits. It really is too hot at the moment to continue my plan of knitting with wool. So I drug out my box of cotton dishcloth/washcloth yarn from Christmases past and decided to make some ballband dishcloths for my sister-in-law's birthday. After digging through the layers of hemp from the washcloths I gave away last year to the cotton left over from the dishcloths I gave away the year before, I unearthed my favorite tiny calculator I used to keep in my knitting bag before it disappeared. I stood there holding it in my hand trying to fathom why I needed it to knit dishcloths and then I remembered timing my self knitting a couple of rows and then calculating how long each would take me to make multiplied by the number of remaining recipients I had on my list to--shudder--. I really don't want to go through that again this year. Signing up for the year long gift along on Ravelry did nothing to motivate me into starting on this years batch of washcloths early. So I've decided to sign up for the Ravelympics under the Gift Knitting Pentathlon and see if I can crank out a few. My goal is 16 in 17 days.

Finally a Great Day at the Ballpark

First time in I don't know how long we had an absolute perfect day at the game. Got there early enough to score good parking, enjoyed an edible hotdog (purchased outside the park).



were not surrounded by drunk fans of the other team or seat kicking socially stunted teenage boys.



and our beloved Mariners did not embarrass themselves in the slightest.

Fall Collection

I had this grand scheme to knit exclusively for fall and winter during the late spring and entire summer months. For once when the cold weather finally creeps in I will actually have something to wear before the tail end of the season. A great idea until it hits 85 degrees and I'm sitting with an almost entire Tangled Yoke Cardigan on my lap. Rowan Felted Tweed is glorious stuff. The 25% alpaca content makes for a surprisingly warm sweater given its lighter than air weight. It does not, however, glide easily through sweaty fingers. The weather finally turned hot just as the end was in sight and only the button bands remained. I pushed on. I was a little unhappy with the floppiness of the first attempt at the button band so ripped out and went down to a size 1 from a size 2 needle (main body knit in size 3 and went down to size 2 for arm ribbing and accidentally picked up the smaller needle again when doing the yoke, but liked the results so went ahead with it). Finished up left side, was on bind-off row of right side before I noticed I did the second button band in the larger needle size. Arrgh heat make me stooopid. 1 row button holes do not frog easily. Finally finished though.

Other Stuff I Did Other Than Blogging

Wore my new hat to a weekend at Hobuck


Where we hiked to Shi Shi Beach

Brandy enjoying time with her new friend



found an intruder in the cabin



Finished my first ever century

Ok I Suck

Okay I Suck at this blog thing.... Stuff that happened during my
blogging awol It was super cold from May through June around Seattle in fact colder than Siberia I was able to get a lot of use out of my completed Central Park Hoodie

Other "Summer" knitting:



1) Finally finshed a Shedir that had been languishing around for ever. This is my second one. The first one ended up way to big to give to Cancer Care Alliance, ended up gifting to someone with lots of hair. I left off a pattern repeat in this one and looks about right. It seems to be fitting the melon it's wrapped around in the picture.
2) Some plain knucks out of Kroy sock yarn I've nicknamed "Hobo Gloves". These came in handy during a Mariner's game. I stuffed handwarmers into them.
3) Rockin' Sock Club's Leaflings. I wish I had made these longer
4) My first ever completed stranded project. Kauni yarn hat called "Hat with Small Leaves" from
a Ruth Sørensen pamplet called Knit A Hat.

There She Grows

Last week I made speedy progress on the Central Park Hoodie. I guess because it's such a simple pattern repeat and the action only happens every 10th row, I ended up hurrying up to get to the “action rows”. I sped through the back and up to the armpit shaping on each side in over a weekend. Then I had to put it down for a week because my wrists were killing me.


I had to pin to the blocking board to make sure it was stretched out width-wise before I measured it for length. I don't want to repeat the DOH! moment I had while making the Cabled Hoodie from Paton's Street Smart (currently in hibernation). I measured for length whilst it sat on my lap, later when stretched out to the correct width after binding off I was horrified to discover it only reached my navel.

Today is National Pie Day! This would be the PIE day (not the pi day 3/14).
A holiday brought to you by the American Pie Council. Apparently you can become a member of the Pie Council of America for one 35 dollar lifetime payment. Membership benefits include a subscription their newsletter Pie Times and access to the member’s only section of their website called Pie Talk.

Don't Leave Home Without Them

On to knitting resolution number two: finish a sock a week (or half a pair). Inspired by Kelly Petkun’s recent entry about knitting socks on the go I decided to pop into World Market and see if the have any of the cute bags she bought to carry hers around in. They had piles of bags to sort through and I couldn't remember what hers looked like. I ended up picking out the exact same type though because they are, well, the perfect sock size. The length is just right as well for hanging around my neck and working from. For me anyway. Someone who's less shall we say vertically challenged might find it a little too short. Added bonus: they were on clearance for 50% off. Yay. I got a pink one and a brown one. I managed to keep them with me for the last two weeks. I always knew in theory I could be getting more knitting done if I remembered to carry it everywhere I went. But holy gussets batman I’m amazed at how fast I got these done (a six hour round trip car ride the weekend before last may have helped). I’ve already cast-on for my second pair and was able to get a good chunk started and maintain some sanity at the same time during the 40 minutes we waited to be served Sunday brunch.

Details: Plain old garter rib socks in Regia Line Steps Color for my husband's gigantic size 11 feet. Knit 2 at a time from the toe up with yarn over short- row heels

New Year's resolutions

My New Year's goal, like millions of other people's is to lose weight. Yarn weight that is. After 3 years of knitting under my belt I've come to the realization that justifying a 50% off sale because I can never have enough good basic wool in a sensible color is a complete untruth. I can have too much, and I do. I don't have enough room left in my stash to squeeze in even one skein of something non-basic and non-functional i.e. what I'd actually enjoy knitting up. I know a lot of knitters, including me, are happily existing in a kind of imaginary 2nd life where we can actually complete in all the projects dream about, meanwhile merrily making the necessary purchases like we have all the time in the world. Unfortunately, perhaps because of latent feelings of unworthiness, I have not allowed myself a frivolous fantasy life. Choosing instead to labor under a delusion that I'm eeking out an existence on a windswept Scottish island and need to cloth a family of twelve with sock yarn described but with a single positive attribute: the phrase "wears like iron". The idea of organizing the stash and assigning projects to it so I can check them off like a giant to-do list sort of appeals to my masochistic nose-to-the-grindstone, no-dessert-before-dinner approach to tasks. This is, however, a new year. It's time to loosen up a bit. Actually to be honest I gave up the idea of organizing the stash in Ravelry because I stupidly gave my mother-in-law my Flickr account info and I'm too embarressed to continue taking pictures of it. Perhaps if I renamed the folder "pictures of other peoples yarn" that would fool her?

Tame That Stash

Back to the stash again- anyway, after much soul searching I have come to the realization that it's not the amount of yardage that's bothering me it's the amount of room it's taking up. Light bulb moment: to get rid of volume stop reaching for the fingering weight for a while (except socks of course) and go for the bulkiest stuff first! Duh! I don't remember the last time I cast-on with anything heaver than DK weight. But here is the worst offender in the you’re taking too much of my limited stash space please take up space elsewhere (maybe the closet) category:

9 hanks of Carodan Farm Worsted Weight in the Blackberry colorway. I don't usually like purple but this color is an exception, warm, varied with flecks of deep cherry, burgandy and a lighter heatherd gray that will mask any cat hair that makes it's way in. Rustic factor maybe a bit too high though, even for me. Smells pretty ripe, fairly full of chaf, and extremly scratchy. I cast on for a gauge swatch in hopes of doing the Central Park Hoodie with it last night and this morning awoke with what only can be described as rug burn on the tips of my left pinky and index finger. Not an encouraging sign. Seems to have softened up a bit in the wash. I'll try to reserve judgement until after the swatch has dried.