a day at the office

I’m a veterinarian.

In my office today I saw a lovely 81 year old woman who unfortunately had to have me euthanize her canine companions. She was wearing a beautiful handknit (by her) jacket (chanel-type cut and buttons, except a very bright pink and orange and beige variegated yarn had been used) and during the course of my trying to comfort her I mentioned that I found knitting to be a comfort. Wouldn’t you know it, she got more agitated and explained that her beloved LYS had recently closed and she didn’t have one close by her home any more. I told her where I went and she remarked that they are nice there, but it is too far a schlep for her at 81 yrs old, and also there is no one there who groks sweaters like the recently retired proprieter of her prior LYS - which is true. I felt so bad for her. To cheer her up a little bit, I showed her the hat for my nephew, which I had just finished that morning (I even used suture scissors to trim the ends of the tassel). it worked - she smiled! I still felt horrible, though. and she was crying again when she left, holding two empty leashes and collars.

hat hat hat

(I keep hearing the song “hot hot hot” in my head except the guy is singing “hat hat hat.”)

So, that hat? It came out way too big.




I semi-felted (by hand, in the bathroom sink, with scalding hot water ouch, as my husband languished in bed waiting for me) it and am giving it to my friend Linda who is moving to Switzerland in 2 weeks. I think it will be nice and warm for her, and she was admiring it as I knitted it and she will be shocked to get it, so, it’s all good:



Please to be ignoring my frighteningly pointy nose in that picture, thankyouverymuch.

This is the inside of the hat for those who are into the insides of hats. I did, btw, consider felting it more and calling it a bowl, but, well - nah.



I made another hat for my BIL:





The hat is not crooked. I just put it on crooked. So sue me.

Because I am now on a roll and freaked out that maybe this hat sucks, I am working on a matching one for his little boy:



Now, please note: I realize the colors pooled in BIL’s hat. I’m not a moron. However, I gotta say, I LOVE the unintended “camo pattern” effect. So there.

Notice how I’m totally NOT mentioning the Shetland Triangle??

OK, not much of a break :)

L is just TOO CUTE in her matched sweater and booga bag set, IMO:



Last night when the kids had been put to bed, I asked my husband “did you get your brother a birthday present? His party is Saturday...” and he said “didn’t you say you were going to make something?” Um, no... I had previously asked if I SHOULD make something, and gotten one of those gung-ho enthusiastic “uh, I dunno” responses, so I hadn’t really planned on making anything. It’s HIS brother, he should have been in charge, right? Anyway. He said I should go ahead and make a hat. I found some Paton’s Merino in a colorway called “Forest” in my stash. I’m doing a K2P2 brim, then a stockinette hat with purl ridges about every 10 rows. I tried it onto my mom’s head while having lunch today and it looks SO CUTE on a head. Not so much off a head, but, whatever.



Also, I realized the other day that my parents were back from their cruise and I had no Chanukah present for my mom yet. I cranked out a scarf really fast using the Airy Scarf pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I used one ball of Rowan Kidsilk Night in a silvery sparkly color, held together with a strand of a fingering weight lavender colored alpaca yarn called Glimmer which contains an opalescent strand of something within it. The effect did NOT photograph well but take my word for it - it’s a frothy bubbly soft concoction and my mom actually LIKED it which is saying something.



I also knit myself a paw-print dishloth just to get rid of some yarn. I really don’t feel like MOVING this entire stash 0.4 miles to the new house. Easier to knit it all up and move the knitted items that are left after gifting reduces the haul.



So that’s about it. Now I gotta finish this hat. I have NO idea what i’m doing decrease-wise...

lilah's new bag

I finished felting it up while Bro and family were here for breakfast today!




That extra bluish purple stripe along the bottom? The girls insisted I use a piece of that yarn so I stuck it there where it wouldn’t really show ☺ It’s Lilah’s, so, whatever. Her first coordinating handknit bag and sweater combination!

quote of the week

“Secondly, I want to rant and rave about Knit Picks Needles! Sharp, fast, smooth and slick. Just like the perfect man.”

That’s from one of Kenny’s recent posts over at The Boy Who Knits blog. What a crackup ☺ Timely comment for me as my KnitPicks Options that I ordered with some of my Chanukah gift cash just arrived yesterday (and that might be the fastest knitpicks order EVER - I ordered at around noon on the 20th and they were here via FedEx at exactly 6 pm on the 22nd - and I did NOT pay for expedited shipping, in fact I got free shipping. WTF?

back in the saddle

that didn’t take long. while organizing with the professional organizer, I found two skeins of leftovers that had been missing in action - so I’m chugging along on lilah’s handbag, which I realize i cast on way too many stitches for, so it’s going to be a big bag for a wee little one but whatever, she’ll grow ☺.

I have decided I Must Have some of this yarn: I want this:
http://yarn.com/webs/0/0/0/0-1001-1294-1323/0/0/3359/ in forest green.
Of course, the yarn fairies aren’t paying attention. humph.

i was going to say something else but the percocet has stolen the idea from my brain. how very lame.

knitting standstill

I’m at a standstill for two reasons:

1. the handbag I’m making for Lilah out of my leftover Lamb’s Pride is on hold until I buy more wool because I ran out of leftovers!
2. i can not focus AT ALL on the lace due to a medical matter some readers know about and other readers probably would be happier NOT knowing about. Hopefully the medication I’ve started today will fix that up and I can return to knitting.

not much to report

But I don’t think I showed my calorimetry-inspired simple ribbed headband off. See, I made Calorimetry, which I do love, and then you know it was really quite unREASONABLY unseasonably warm for a few days - so I made the leftover yarn into a headband which I love and refuse to take off:

Please to be ignoring the crow’s feet, thankyouverymuch!



In other news... I think the folks at http://community.livejournal.com/knitting convinced me that I do NOT want to make my Peruvian Tweed DK weight alpaca yarn into a 2x2 ribbed sweater - so, I started the tiniest corner of a Shetland Triangle out of it. I’m of two minds. Me? Trying to knit a shawl? Because I have time to concentrate on this (to me) very complex pattern when? Because I have ZERO experience reading a chart. Because I have never been one for shawl-wearing... But, I do love the look of it and what the hell?

Now I need a new sweater plan though, because I have never knit myself a sweater and I want to do it!

deep breath in

I am going to swatch.
*deep cleansing breath*
I am planning a project and I AM GOING TO SWATCH.

I want to do SOMETHING with my dk weight alpaca tweed. I think that the knitting community at large has largely dissuaded me from trying to make my fantasy close-fitting ribbed v-neck pullover out of it. So now I’m thinking more along the lines of a somewhat slouchy stockinette pullover... perhaps with some ribbing at the sides a-la the ribby cardi from chicknits, I don’t know. But I do know first I have to figure out how many stitches an inch I’m getting to produce a fabric I like. So, I’m going to start a swatch today. Or possibly tomorrow if I absolutely must cast on for a hat for Naomi first but really, soon, I am going to swatch.

I think.

Unless, you know, I decide to put this yarn back in the bag and focus on the things that have to get done around here like packing and cleaning. But, no, I think I will swatch. For sure.

Unless, I don’t know, I might have to go pick up the orange I will need for when I do start Naomi’s hat since I am NOT making a 100% wool hat with a few small stripes of annoying acrilyc weird feeling yarn in there and the orange from her poncho is exactly that. If I do that I won’t have time to swatch I don’t think.

SIGH.

Swatch. I must swatch. I really want a sweater from this yarn!

the Shipley hat!

My son requested a hat in school colors.
This is in the Plymouth DK alpaca I used for his sweater - some of the leftover green from that, and a navy I got on clearance at my LYS. IIRC I knit it on size 5s but I’m not 100% sure. I cast on 96 stitches and did a little tiny bit of stockinette so it would have a rolly edge to match the sweater and then did 2x2 ribbing until it seemed big enough to decrease. Then I placed a marker every 16 stitches, and then every other row K2tog before the marker. After a bit I felt I wasn’t decreasing fast enough so I k2tog each row before marker. Then I was down to something like 3 stiches on each needle, and my needles fell out somehow, clattering to the floor quite loudly and yet not waking up Michael, whom I had found sleeping soundly upon my return from book club at 9:30 PM. Phew. So then it took me AN HOUR to get the thing back on the needles and when I did, it was a good inch or so back from the top AND my markers were gone AND some of the stitches were either twisted or not quite correctly picked up (my first post-picking back up round, I found one stitch I had to bring up from the blue stripe region!! aaaaaaah!). So then I said screw it and I just did K2tog all the way around until it was done! I deliberately left the little pointy nipple. He looks like a little elf in it.

O.M.G.

OK, this is IN SANE (like Crazy Eddie!) I just found out that this blog HAS AN AVID READER!!!!!
/me waves to avid reader
Hi! It’s SO GREAT to, um, write for you??

Anyway.

I cast on for a hat to match Jacob’s sweater. I cast on 96 stitches because, well - I don’t know why. It’s DK weight. I’m using size 5s. I saw a pattern that recommended 80 stitches for a kid and 90 for a grownup and they were using worsted weight and size 7 or 8 needles. So, I totally and randomly guessed. I knitted about an inch of stockinette to make it roll and match the sweater, and now I’m doing 2x2 rib. We’ll see. It should fit SOMEONE since I have bigger and smaller heads available.

calorimetry went fast and BIG

So I have a few pics of my calorimetry “in situ” with my so called scarf as an accent piece:

Top view:


Side view with cute little button snagged from extra button bag that came with ancient April Cornell cardigan:



And a couple of more “normal” shots. Yes, this is a big-ass head scarf. I, however, like it and am glad I used the full 120 stitches.

my so called scarf, calorimetry, and more

So, for some reason, when I started working on my so-called scarf I grabbed a bag I bought in Manhattan a couple of years ago for a few bucks from some sidewalk purse guy (I bought the bag to match an outfit at the last minute for a party; not sure what made me grab it now because it was lurking in the back of my closet all forlorn). I am loving the way it looks with this yarn, though:



So, yeah - that’s going to be calorimetry.

This is my weird skein of “worsted weight” Paton’s classic wool - see how the inside of the skein is worsted, but the outside is totally not?



And there is my so called scarf, blocking; and the cats ☺

weird Patons yarn

So, I ordered a bunch of stuff from Joann’s, because I was using the 50% off coupon to get a swift and I figured why not add in some sale yarn? It was just a few colors of Patons classic wool 100% merino worsted weight yarn. So, anyway, I got I think six skeins, and five were fine, and one (True Red) was weird. Looking at it, it appeared to be a skein of laceweight yarn. However, when I looked down in the center of the skein I could see that at some point it was correctly plied as worsted weight yarn. I called Joann’s, and they are sending me a new skein of this yarn, and I get to keep this one. Of course I have no real idea what to do with it (because I’ve no idea how much is laceweight and how much is worsted weight!) but I’m sure it will come in handy eventually. I’m happy Joann’s isn’t making me send it back. I wonder if anyone else has seen this sort of manufacturing defect? I will probably post pictures later :)

my so called done scarf

pre-blocking shots (also pre-weaving in ends, but whatever) from my cellphone:

Right side:


Wrong side:



I actually love it. I’m thinking I’m going to make calorimetry from knitty out of the remaining yarn!

Lucie?

OK. Here is what I think I might want to do. I want to take my Peruvian Tweed, and make a Lucie - except without that flappy neck, just a plain v-neck. I’m afraid to try to modify the pattern because I am a loser. Also I am not sure what size to make. If I’m being perfectly honest, I have a bust measuring 38 inches, and a waist measuring 30.5 inches, and hips measuring 38 inches. I don’t want a baggy-in-the-waist sweater but I don’t want to look slutty. I tried to write to the pattern author but she blew me off or was too busy or didn’t get my message, I don’t know, but she didn’t answer, so, darn it, here I sit.

I really want to use that yarn on a sweater for me.

I wish there were a sweater pattern lady here who would help me custom-design my own sweater. SIGH.

a few more pics

of the column of leaves:

more gratuitous cuteness

OK so you saw the baby picture and the new hat picture but you didn’t see big girl L wearing the hat before I fixed it!



Hee hee. See, it really needed the fixing, didn’t it??

On the needles today: beautiful dark purply-burgundy variegated Malabrigo rapidly turning into a “My So-Called Scarf.”

everything old is new again

When I was pregnant with Lilah, I knit a hat - the umbilical cord hat from SnB, actually. Lilah did wear it a little bit as a baby, but of course it was huge on her (she was a teeny weeny little thing) and by the time it wasn’t, it was no longer hat weather. This is the hat as it was then:


It was my first hat, and I was sad she couldn’t really get much use out of it.

Well, today, it’s cold out, and Lilah was rummaging through the closet, and she found the hat. She put it on and it was too small! So, I added an inch and a bit of ribbing, and an inch of stockinette to give another nice rolled edge. Here she is in her refurbished hat:


She loves it! I’m so happy :)

column of leaves - all done!

woo hoo! an FO post! ☺
Because it’s all about finishing, really.


3 balls plus a little more of Rowan Cashsoft Aran. I forget the color, but it’s a light dusty blue - I think it looks a bit darker in these pics because it’s wet. I will eventually post a dry, in-use sort of picture ☺ Ultimate destination still unknown. Originally planned for MIL, but I don’t know. I might keep it, or give it to mom or GMIL. I just am not sure. There’s another gift opportunity I have coming up too, maybe I will use this for that. We’ll see. Time will tell...

And also - my Mother Bear Project bear!
Leaning up against a roll of paper towels:



On my kitchen table - note tag with my name on it as per instructions. I just threaded it onto some yarn and ran it through the paw with a slip knot so they can take it off easily... Also hanging out with my food processor and rice cooker, and taking a ride in a booga bag!



...before reaching the penultimate destination of the knit-in organizer’s office sofa: