Tag: Project Ideas

Stashin’ on Sunday

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July 5, 2009

5:12 pm

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Friday afternoon, this arrived on my doorstep:

Sappho I

Sanguine Gryphon Sappho I in “There You Are”, a lovely muted blend of blues and purples. That picture does not do it justice. I attempted to make a DIY Macro Studio out of a cardboard box and waxed paper, but I am having difficulty with the lighting source. Direct sunlight is clearly not bright enough. Out from under the waxed paper, the direct sun is too bright. I am still working on it.

I bought that skein from Gryphon’s online shop, along with a copy of the pattern for Call of the Sirens, and two bars of soap. Gryphon usually includes a little sample bit of soap in her packages. My first order from her (the yarn for the Chicago Illusion blanket) came with a bit of clove-scented soap.

I am building up a bit of a laceweight yarn stash to complement my sock yarn stash.

I’m looking forward to doing a bit of vacation stash enhancement next weekend, when I’m in Chicago for the ALA Conference.  I’m planning to be at Loopy Yarns around 12 Noon on Sunday (7/12) and Arcadia Knitting around 12 Noon on Tuesday (7/14). Going to be there, too? Drop me a comment! I hear there’s a Knit Night at Loopy Yarns on Friday evenings; I won’t be in town early enough to take part in that.

New Knitty, New Post… New KAL?

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June 10, 2009

4:01 pm

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The new issue of Knitty went up today, and it is full of cute things.

When I say cute, I mean really cute, too. Just look at The Deadliest Crab, who looks awfully cuddly for such a scary, scary name. I’m planning to knit one up for Little Miss just as soon as my orange Cascade 220 (which I ordered to make some other amigurumi knits) arrives. I’m going to embroider on the eyes, though.

Other items that made it into my queue include Annette, a sweet little short-sleeved lace cardigan that would be perfect to layer at the library, and Entomology, a beaded lace shawl in fingering weight yarn that drew me largely because of my butterfly/moth obsession.

Then, of course, there are the socks:

  • Mermaid’s Lagoon: a fairly basic lace-patterned sock
  • Outside In: a diagonal-ribbed sock with eyelets down the front that’s knitted inside out
  • Treetop: a cabled knee sock that’s one of the projects suggested for knitting in advance of winter

I almost missed Franklin Habit’s Lace Sampler Scarf, since I jump straight to the patterns and come back to the feature articles later. I really need to remember to check out the articles, especially since I love Franklin’s writing style.

And, finally, there’s Miss Honeychurch, a lovely A-line pullover with cable detailing down the sides, knitted in hemp yarn. The name comes from Forster’s A Room with a View, which I’ve never read. (I’ve never seen the movie, either.) I think this pattern is crying out for a Knit-a-long plus Read-a-long, don’t you? Are you interested? Drop me a comment!

Choices, Choices

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September 1, 2008

9:00 am

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Last week, there was a bit of a perfect storm on the Wollmeise front.  Sign-ups for her sock-club were open for three days, and then she did a shop update while people were waiting to find out if they’d gotten in. And then the Loopy Ewe split its Wollmeise shipment into three separate sneak-ups.

Oh, the feeding frenzy.

I entered the lottery for the club but didn’t get in.  (There were over 1000 entries for 535 spots.)  I had three skeins in my basket on her site, but left them, because I couldn’t quite afford both the club membership and the order from Germany.  I missed all three Loopy Ewe sneak-ups – I was in the car during the first two, and on the Reference desk for the third.  (I hear the third one lasted at least 10 minutes.)

I was offered two skeins by folks in the Loopy Groupies forum on Ravelry.   One Fluffy in Wilder Mohn, and one of the original 100% merino in Gewitterhimmel.  The latter arrived Saturday (along with some gorgeous nummanumma, which will be the subject of another blog entry).

Here it is posing with a baby banana tree in my yard:

Wollmeise and a Banana Tree

So, the question is: what do I make?

I’m thinking of making Helena from the Fluffy Wilder Mohn for Little Miss (although we’ll see how that works out as far as gauge, since the pattern calls for a DK weight.  It could be a little too lacy in the stockinette section to really work).  From the Gewitterhimmel, I’m thinking socks for me.  The Wollmeise has generous yardage (574!) and reportedly looks FANTASTIC is twisted stitch patterns.

I’m leaning toward the Estonian Socks from the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock Book.  But other possibilities are Kate Blackburn’s Catherine, SpillyJane’s Naive Socks, Kristi Geraci’s Froot Loop, and the Roman Rib Socks from Little Box of Socks.

Thoughts?

Goes Around, Comes Around

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August 24, 2008

10:43 am

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I don’t check all of email accounts regularly, so I was a little slow to the party that is the Knitter’s Fall Preview. There are some interesting designs in the gallery, but I was especially thrilled to see that the tabard is making a comeback.

I’ve been meaning to crochet this one for ages:

Tabard

I’ll have to get right on that.

The Ravens Have Landed

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November 13, 2007

6:27 pm

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ravens1

From left to right, we have Valkyrie, Haida, and Thraven, all in Socks that Rock Lightweight.

I am currently searching for just the right sock patterns. I have a hold on Socks, Socks, Socks from another library branch, because I saw a pattern on that looks good. I’m also thinking Pomatamus would be lovely in either Thraven or Haida.

It was quite the exciting mail day, since this also arrived on my doorstep:

spindle

roving

An Annie May spindle and green Corriedale roving, plus two ounces of fabulous rainbow dyed wool roving. Someone on (where else?) Ravelry was destashing. She also sent a copy of Spin It. Oh, yes, I am going to learn to spin yarn. Next, I’ll be keeping sheep in my back yard.

Lenore

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October 25, 2007

3:50 pm

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Since I didn’t get to go to Rhinebeck, y’all already know I’m not one of the cool kids, right? Well, I’m about to cement that with this admission:

I’m not in the Rockin’ Sock Club, either.

But I want to be. Especially since I saw the pictures of the latest shipment.

*whimper*

I love the yarn. I love the pattern (well, what I can see of it). I even love the name.

Alas.

Say, if someone in the club doesn’t like the shipment, is there a rule or anything about not selling it to somebody else? Somebody like me, maybe?

Not Rhinebeck

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October 24, 2007

12:12 pm

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I did not go to Rhinebeck this year (or last year, or the year before that, or any year you care to name, and will not be going for the foreseeable future), since it’s all the way over on the other end of the continent. But, I too, have lovely yarn that makes me want to jump up and down with glee. So, I’m going to follow the example of Girl on the Rocks and show off a little something from my stash.

DB Cashmerino Aran

Here we have two bags of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, purchased at a huge sale at an LYS a while back. I love this yarn; it’s so soft and squishy. I have big plans to turn it into a hooded jacket for Little Miss and the Cardigan for Arwen from Interweave for me.

Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino

And here we have a little more Debbie Bliss, this time Baby Cashmerino in a pretty pretty pink. I bought this to make the Lace Edge Cardigan from Simply Baby, but I think Little Miss may have already outgrown the largest size, so I’m excited to find something new to do with this.

Woo! Stash diving!

New Knitty

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September 16, 2007

10:34 am

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It’s that time again! The new Knitty issue is up. As usual, I’ve got my eye on several patterns. Muir, Neiman, Mr. Greenjeans, and Diamond Waffle are all in my queue, which is quickly approaching 100 items. (It was over 100, actually, but I go through it every so often and take out the patterns that I’ve decided, on further reflection, don’t really appeal to me.)

The Diamond Waffle pattern also includes a link to the Lighter Circular Beginning (scroll down) on Eunny Jang’s blog. I’m looking forward to trying it out on a pinwheel baby blanket first. I have a bunch of skeins of Lion Brand Homespun, and I’d like to use them up. Is it too cutesy if I take a skein of Colonial and a skein of Williamsburg and call it my Colonial Williamsburg Baby Blanket?

Also in this issue of Knitty are some adverts for the Year of Lace, which I would love to join, but I don’t quite have the cash. BUT! Enrollment is open until February, so, if they don’t fill up, maybe I can save up. Or convince someone to get it as a holiday/birthday present for me.

Ravelry!

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July 7, 2007

7:45 pm

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I can’t seem to stop playing with Ravelry. I took pictures of a bunch of my yarn today and uploaded them. Over the last few days, I’ve found pictures of projects I completely forgot about… and uploaded them. I’m actually using my Flickr account for the first time in about a year, and I even switched from Safari to Firefox.

I love, love, love this site. The design is slick and classy. Other people’s photos on there put mine to shame, but I don’t care. I’m just having so much fun chucking my stuff up there.

My favorite feature at the moment is that you can look up patterns people have made with a particular yarn. I have a few stashed yarns that I have no idea what to do with.

And then there’s the queue. This is a wonderful and dangerous feature for me.

Speaking of wonderful and dangerous, I learned today that Knit Picks was having a 40% off sale on books. I now have several books on the way. And also some yarn. For a couple of those projects in my queue.

Knit a Little

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September 11, 2006

3:29 pm

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Hey, yeah, remember knitting?

I remember it, too!  I’ve even been doing some of it.  I started working on a sweater for the baby while we were in Alaska, which then got pushed aside when I started working on a Secret Gift-Type Project.  And those Retro Rib Socks are still in my bag, waiting for me to work on them now that I have a second set of the needles.

Maybe for my next entry, I’ll even have pictures.

In the meantime, let’s go look at some pretty pictures in the new Knitty, shall we?

Let us start with Sherwood, which is so darn cute.  And then let us contemplate Serrano, which is lovely.  And, really, lacy cardigans might just be one of the few practical knitting items here in sunny Southern California.  And Diamante intrigues me with its promise of a heel turn that doesn’t result in a hole in the knitting.

There we go, three new projects to ponder until I manage to get some actual pictures of actual knitting progress up here.