Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Holy Hiatus!

Well, I guess that I can't complain about other bloggers falling behind considering how long it's been since I last posted anything. Sheesh - where does the time go?


I last left you with Stan, the birthday robot. My birthday has since come and gone and was pretty good as birthdays go. The BF's parents gave me a generous discoutn to my local yarn store and I have put it to good use. Mammals and I had a good time browsing the aisles and touching everything we could get our hands on. LK has some lovely new baby llama that has got to be some of the softest yarn I have ever felt. Needless to say, I want it. Piles of it. Enough of to roll around on in various stages of undress. Yes, it really is that soft. Go feel some, you'll understand. I picked up some Cascade 220 in a lively turquoise to knit myself this sweater and some Sisu in some earthy tones to knit my final Unbloggable Project and finally a ball of plain ol' navy Pattons Classic Merino, which I combined with some left over Pattons in another shade, to make this hat for my mom. Yarn bucks - one of the best gifts ever. The pattern is Center Square from Knitty. It was a quick knit - I whipped it up last night, though I did modify it a bit. I knit it as directed on 8mm needles, but wasn't happy with the way the ribbing turned out. At this point I had already finished the darn thing and was not about to rip it out and start over. I did what any sensible knitter would do - I cut the ribbing off. I snipped off the offending ribbing, picked up the live stitches and reknit it on a 6mm circ. I'm still not in love, as I like my ribbing tightly knit, but it's miles better than it was before. The pattern notes are right, the hat does fit snuggly, but I think the combination of knitting with the doubled yarn and he colour stranding will go a long way in keeping out the winter wind - a good thing as my mother informed me that she needs a decent hat for "walking the dogs, my ears are cold." This should do the trick.

I started these socks over the weekend when the temperatures dipped both inside and out. The heat was off in our apartment for most of the long weekend and boy howdy my toes were chilly. I figured patterned woolly socks were the answer. I've had this skein Opal 6-fach in the stash for a while and felt it that it was about time that it saw the light of day. I'm knitting it up in Cat Bordhi's Woven Ridge sock pattern from her book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I originally intended it for the BF's feet but was informed that it "wasn't his favourite." That is code for "I hate it. You knit me anything out of that and I'll burn it while you stand there crying." I know these things. So it rested, waiting for it's turn. I don't hate it and I like the pattern. Another bonus? Using it up means that there's more room in the stash for more sock yarn. Happiness may well be measured in sock yarn.
I'm about to plunge into my last Unbloggable Proejct of the christmas season, but I've got those socks and the turquoise sweater on the horizon to give me some blog fodder for the next little while. Now it's off to knit while I watch cheezy crime dramas on tv. Happy knitting!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Meet Stan



Greetings gentle reader! It feels like ages since I last posted. I've been diligently beavering away on the Grey Man Socks and one of the Unbloggable projects. There's really only so much one can write about GMS and the other is a secret - which leaves me precious little to blog about. So instead of writing about my knitting, I'll write about someone else's.

Meet Stan. Created by the lovely Mammals, Stan is an early gift for my birthday. I love him! He's green, he's knit and he's a robot - what's not to love? Mammals has knit a few of these nifty robots and I was pretty excited to get one - in my colour no less. I felt pretty special as Stan was accompanied by a pan of tasty, tasty Rice Krispie squares. Delicious. So far, it's been a great birthday and it's not officially until sunday. Some days, it's good to be me.

In other knitting related news, I got to meet Miss. J's new baby girl Frances Ophelia. Cute, cute, cute. And so little. It's not until you get to hold a new baby that you realize how small they really are. Needless to say, no knitting was accomplished. When little Frances gets a bit bigger, she'll have an enviable wardrobe of lovely knitted goods. Miss J. has made some fabulous little sweaters and I wish that I had taken some photos of the baby and her knits. I was distracted, what can I say?

Well, a quick post, short on content. I apologize and will try to tackle a project that I can actually share with you. Hope all is well out there in KnitLand. Happy knitting!