New look

That blue was hideous. :)

See ya, Mariah

I frogged the little bit I had actually accomplished on Mariah. It just wasn't right for the yarn at all. It's too woolen, and the cables didn't pop like I wanted them to. The color is all wrong, too. It's a heathered pink, and I love it, but it's just not right for a rock n' roll sweater like Mariah. I got the chance to see Sylvia's gorgeous Mariah up close and personal on Thursday night, and mine just looked like CRAP lol, so to the frog pond she went. I cast on Flashy Lace with the yarn, and I like it much better. Besides, it doesn't have a bazillion seams. And it doesn't have a zipper to figure out. And I have the stitch pattern memorized after only one repeat. So yeah.

The pattern pictures don't really show it that well, so here, have a look at Sara's Flashy Lace sweater. Isn't it to die for?

My first toe-up sock

And it sucks! Weeeeeeee!

I fell in love with the Baudelaire pattern in the summer Knitty, and I immediately searched the stash for appropriate yarn. I found it, and then actually read the pattern. Whoa! Toe up? Gulp. No problem. Heh. Heh. I can do that. Gulp. Heh.

I fought my way through a figure 8 cast on, which looks deceptively simple written out, but hot damn is it fiddly, and then patted myself on the back when I got through it. The stitches at the end of the toe were all loose and ugly, but I figured I could fix that right up with my handy dandy tapestry needle and the yarn tail. More on that later.

So I knit the sock. Loved the pattern. I love the way the heel came out. I go to bind off. I check the pattern to see what I'm supposed to do. Er, sewn bind off? As in sew? Pfffffffffft. I am a knitter, I say, and I do not sew. I was cocky. And we all know what happens when knitters get cocky.

So I scour the web for other stretchy bind offs to try. I find one that looks simple enough. Supposedly you just p2tog, loosen that stitch up, and then put it back on the left needle and do it all again. Well, apparently some people's definition of "stretchy" varies from my definition of "stretchy." Because that shit was not stretchy at all. I struggled to get it over my fat heel and fat ankle, but it would not go up over my fat calf at all. I let out a little whimper as I realized I had just knitted an entire sock that I can't wear.

So I did what any obsessive compulsive (and a little superstitious) knitter would do. I ripped out the cast off and about 4 rounds of ribbing, said a silent little apology to Cookie and the late Elizabeth Zimmermann, and redo it with the EZ sewn bind off that was suggested in the pattern, the one I would have used if I had not gotten cocky. Cookie? If you read this and you felt a twinge of righteous indignation this week for no apparent reason, that was most likely my "whoopsies!" energy heading your way.

So now the sock fits, and I'm happy with it except for that damned toe. I was way wrong when I thought I could fix it. It rather resembles a cold nipple. Seriously, it's so pointy that it's not allowed on airplanes. Ouch. See? I just poked my eye out with it. There's blood all over.

For the second sock, I'm going to use a different toe. I just don't think figure 8 is for me.

And I'd leave you with pictures of the pointy, bloody sock, but I have no idea where my camera cord is. I'm sure it's in a box somewhere. Moving sucks.

Crikey, he croakied

Sad day. We'll all miss you, Steve.

Socky yums and felting disasters

Did I ever post pictures of the finished Hedera and Cascading Leaves socks? I don't think so. These are scanned so use your imagination as to what they look like on real live feet.

Yarn info because I hate when people leave that out and I'm blog searching and can't find what I want:

Hedera - Pattern from Spring '06 Knitty, Yarn is Socks that Rock in the Lapis Colorway

Cascading Leaves - Pattern by Jeanie Townsend, available on her Yahoo group, yarn is JoJoLand Melody, and I'm sorry I have no idea what colorway.


Anyhoo. I just finished a Pick Up Sticks felted baby hat for... oh, I dunno. Someone. :) I'll post some pictures when I'm sure not to ruin a surprise. I also made some little matching booties. That was the first time I'd knit booties, and seriously, how much fun are they? They take no time, hardly any yarn, and they come out so freakin' cute!

So yeah, the disaster part. I had accidentally felted a kerchief I'd made out of Knitpicks Andean Silk, and after felting it was so soft and nice. So when I decided to do this baby hat, I thought oh yeah, Andean Silk for the baby head.

That was a bad, bad, bad idea.


It started out innocently enough. It was felting just as it should have, shrinking and shrinking. I put it through two wash cycles before I was satisfied that it was small enough. And then I noticed. "Hmm," I say to no one in particular, "This sure does look furry."

I rinse it. It's hairy. No, not just hairy, it's like Harry and the Hendersons hairy. Panicking, I wonder what on earth to do? Throw it in the dryer and hope the hair all comes off in the lint trap? NO! That will make it worse! Focus, Snappah. So I grab a pair of scissors and I cut. And I cut. Have you ever given a baby hat a haircut? It's not too much fun. And if I'd been thinking, which I wasn't, I would have used the clippers and saved my hand from the PAIN. Oh, the pain. I tell you what, there's a soon-to-be-new mommy out there who better appreciate this damn hat.

LACE SWAPPING!

Oh, YEAH!


Did you hear that? That was the sound of a yarngasm. My secret lace swap pal from Whose Lace is it Anyway was WAY too good to me.

4 skeins of Alpaca Cloud in Mist (how did she know? It's like my favorite ever!)
1 hank of Bare laceweight and Kool Aid for dyeing (yay!)
Rona Lace shawl pattern from Knitpicks, which I absolutely LOVE
Concert in the park shawl pattern, which is GORGEOUS.
My favorite chocolates, Lindor Truffles (drool)
This neat little tea thing that unfolds into a jasmine flower in your cup
Deliciously scented candles
Those awesome no-fuss rubber stitch markers that rule for laceweight yarn
A sweet card

So YIPPEE! I'm so in love with you now, Kelly. I truly am. Thank you so much.

To my pal, it's coming! I moved and the PO lost one of the packages that was coming to my house for you, but I should be getting the replacement any day now. Stupid holiday weekend and stupid post office closing. I feel horrible that this happened, but there's not too much I can do. So be patient, secret lace pal! You will be taken care of.

POP!

There went my spinning cherry. I made yarn!

It's uneven and it's wonky, but it's all mine. :-D

Sorry about the weirdness in the picture. My camera hates taking pictures of white things with the flash on.

Wooot! I'm hooked. Spinning is so much fun, and once I actually get good enough to do things on purpose, it will be so much fun to make yarn for what I want how I want it.


Oh, and I promised better pics of the shawl. Sadly, it went away to its new home the other day. Good news is my sister loved it. Bad news is she loved it, so it'll probably never come back to me. Waaaaaaa.