Doily Head

This was supposed to be a hat to go with my Cedar Leaf Shawlette, but the combination of the pattern, yarn choice and not doing a gauge swatch has resulted in something strikingly similar to a doily sitting on top of my head.

The yarn is the cormo from my CSA share and I LOVE how soft it is.  But not enough to wear a baby bonnet on  my head.

Frogging and trying something else.

My First Socks (Sort of)

I planned to make socks for Rob and thought I'd practice first with a pair for me.

I finished one nearly three years ago and now just finished the other. My tension changed in the mean time, so the most recently completed one is almost an inch longer than the other. Oops!

Rob's socks, of course, have been done for over two years. I stopped making mine so I'd get his done in time. Even then, I had to change it from a Christmas present to a birthday one. Sigh. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

Fingerless Mitts

I finished these a couple of weeks ago. LA had a cold snap over Thanksgiving and they definitely kept me warm while walking the dogs.

The pattern is available from Dancing with Ewe yarns.
I knit them with Jupiter Moon Spring 2009 cormo, which is also what I used to make my Cedar Leaf Shawlette.

I have about 2 ounces left, so I'm on the hunt for a way to make a hat with what is left! It's going to be close...Any ideas?

How many months later?

I've enjoyed this shawl all summer, but just now had time to take and post pics.

The yarn is Jupiter Moon, the pattern is Never Not Knitting and, of course, I found it on Ravelry.

To see it as a work in progress, click here.

Jupiter Moon's skeins are EXTREMELY generous, so I had enough cormo left over to make fingerless mitts. They are about a day from completion and will get posted in the next week or so. Promise!

Cedar Leaf Shawlette

Here's the first few rows of my Cedar Leaf Shawlette by Never Not Knitting.

I used the cormo wool from my Jupiter Moon share. Super soft!

The shawl is actually complete and being enjoyed. I'll get Rob to take a picture of me in it soon.

Martha's Vineyard...Uh, I mean Jupiter Moon Fiber Farm

My yarn from Jupiter Moon arrived back in November. It needed to be gently washed before being knitted, which bought me some time to decide what to make.

Here it is hanging in my bathroom after soaking in the tub. Oohh. Yummy.

I have to confess, I still haven't knit with this part of my share yet. The Cormo, on the other hand, has already been knitted and worn. I'll get some photos of that up in the next couple of days.

Like I said before, this CSA gives me all the benefits of being a shepherdess and none of the dirt. Woo-hoo!

Hippy Ring May Not Be...

...such a good idea after all. It felted tighter and tighter each time Rob washed his hands and then he got a rash from it.

I've scarred a wedding ring onto his finger!

Now the ring has shrunk so much it barely fits his pinkie. Guess we'll be making a trip to the jewelry store soon to get his "real" ring fixed.

Hippy Ring

I haven't posted in forever, but I have done a little knitting in the interim.

The guard broke on Rob's wedding ring, so I knit him a temporary one until we can get to a jewelry store. It felted when he washed his hands.

He calls it his "hippy ring" and he likes it better than his regular gold ring. Hm. Maybe I'll knit myself one that matches.

My First Socks

I started these socks for me late last summer, so I'd have practice before I attempted Rob's Christmas (okay, birthday) socks. I got one done and then stopped. Rob didn't love the yarn -- I'd originally bought it for a sweater, but he'd strongly discouraged that. I wasn't in love with the pattern and I thought the finished sock was too long in the toe and too tight in the calf. Rob and I joke that I have 50 pound ankles, but it's kind of true. I was thinking about frogging it, but then I tried it on again and decided it wasn't bad. Maybe I'll get around to knitting the other one...

Per Janice's Request....

A photo of me in my new hat!

This pic is after felting. The ones in the previous post were not. Felting smoothed out a lot of the rough edges and took out the curl in the brim that had been caused by my uber tight tension.

Just in Time for Summer

When I showed Rob the pattern for MK Carroll's Matilda hat, he said, "That looks like a hat you would lose."

He had a point. When we drove across country to see my family for Christmas two years ago, I left a very similar brown cloche in a pool hall in Memphis. In a strange twist, I found the exact same hat two days later at the French Market in New Orleans, only to leave it in a restaurant when we got back to Los Angeles.

Undeterred, I ordered enough black yarn last summer to make one for my business partner and one for me. I finished hers in a week, but as of March, I hadn't even cast on the one for me. I just couldn't bring myself to knit it in black. Brown is my color of choice for a cloche and I'd knit mine in brown no matter how much it tempted fate.

I had some chunky alpaca laying around that I'd been meaning to find a use for. I knit it on larger needles and used black to attach the brim to the top, for a slightly different aesthetic. I felted it slightly and will post pix of the final product once I get Rob to snap one of me wearing it.

I have a pretty tight tension, so the edge of the brim rolled a bit, but it worked itself out in the felting process! One bummer is that I ran out of brown a few rows before the brim was done. I used black for those last rows instead and wear the black patch over one ear. Surprisingly, it doesn't look like a mistake!

"Model" Dog

Here's Idget modeling the sweater I designed for him. Rob calls it his fag sweater because I made the neck so big it slides down for an "off-the-shoulder" look. Oops!

I made one for Toaster, too, but he has a heavier coat and doesn't get as cold as Idget, so he rarely wears it. I'll dress him up some time soon so I can get a picture up here.

And by the way, don't let Idget's, "I'm cute, yet suave" expression fool you. Ten minutes before I snapped this, I'd come home to find he'd gotten into the recycling bin, shredded a milk carton and pooped on the couch. Sigh.

Rob's Socks

I started these socks as a Christmas present for Rob. And then Idget broke one of my DPN's. And I won't mention what he did to the WIP. So then they became a birthday present. Urgh, were supposed to be a birthday present. I did FINALLY manage to get them done in time for Rob to wear to the opening of his recent art show. Is that normally a gift-giving occasion?

The pattern's available here.

Fingerless Mitts

My sister-in-law is always cold. She's a musician, so I thought Hither and Yarn's piano mitts would be the perfect birthday present. They were a hit!

Dad's Scarf -- Take 2

After abandoning the Henry scarf I was making for my father, I knit one up in a simple seed stitch. I'm not sure he liked it, though, from his reaction on the phone. And even though he raved over the gloves I made last year, he didn't wear them at Thanksgiving. Hm.

modeling credit: the vase Rob's Aunt Vonnie gave me for Christmas last year.

My Knitting Bag

In the 70's, my sister made a purse of an old pair of jeans. I decided to make a similar bag for my knitting. You know, the whole reduce, reuse, recycle thing.

I chopped off the legs and sewed them shut. The handle is braided strips of fabric cut from the legs. It's a great bag with lots of pockets for scissors, tapestry needles, etc.

I did make one HUGE mistake: I used velcro to keep it closed and my yarn catches on it all the time. Eventually I'll have to rip it out and put in snaps.

Rejection!

Knitty didn't accept my pattern. Given my history with magazines going under after accepting one of my patterns, that's a bit of a relief. I still want to submit this pattern somewhere, though, so I might have to pick a magazine I don't like! : )

They say bad luck comes in threes, so maybe after I get a third pattern published, and a third magazine closed, it'll be safe for me to get accepted at Knitty.

I Might Be a Jinx...

I sent a pattern for a "Man Purse" to Black Purl and they accepted it (Yea, me!) and now the magazine is no more. L'Tanya graciously included it in the last Essentia newsletter, but it's not archived on the site, so I might post it here as well.

I'm feeling cursed because MagKnits went kaput a month after publishing my Pentapus pattern. I just sent a pattern to Knitty and find myself hoping it doesn't get accepted. Bad luck comes in threes, and I'd feel responsible if Knitty went under after publishing one of my patterns!

Matilda Hat

I made this hat for my business partner for her birthday. She'd seen a picture of it on my blog a few months ago and admired it -- even mentioned preferred colors. I can take a hint.

I couldn't figure out a way to get her head measurements discretely, so I had to guess on the size. Luckily, I was right.

The pattern's available on MK Carroll's blog.

I used the recommended yarn, Peace Fleece, for the hat. It felt coarse while knitting but, as several people on Ravelry noted, it washes up to be quite soft. For the flowers, I used a bit of Lamb's Pride Strawberry Smoothie left over from a purse I made her for Christmas. The variegated yarn gave an illusion of depth to the flowers and ties the look together if she happens to wear the hat while carrying the purse.

Modeling credit: Half-empty bottle of garlic and basil olive oil bought at the farmer's market. Yum!

Pastoral Dreams

I like to joke with Rob about getting a sheep when we get a house, so we don't have to mow the lawn and I can learn to spin. I figure we could "loan" the sheep to the neighbors to mow their lawns, if we run out of grass.

That house is still pretty far away, but I'm living the dream vicariously -- I bought a share of Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farms spring shear. I get all the thrill of following my wool from sheep to sweater and none of the dirt. Woo-hoo!