I’ve been in a serious knitting funk! I was gifted some gorgeous yarn recently, though, and I dove right in with a new project. The yarn is 10 hanks of Blue Sky Alpacas Melange in a color I would, I’m sure, never have thought to buy for myself, but I’m completely in love with! To say it’s orange is to make the understatement of the century! It’s amazing! It’s like fire. Like citrus fire! Heh. I’m using it to make Clapotis. I looked at a lot of patterns. I knew I wanted a stole/scarf/something like that, and I had enough yarn to make something good-sized. This yarn just begged for something like Clapotis, though, mostly flat stockinette, but with a little interest, it really lets the gorgeous yarn be the star of the piece. Behold:
I can’t wait to start dropping stitches.
I’m using some cute little hair elastics as markers, they work really well:
I knitted these in a week! Fast! The yarn is some old Knit Picks Dancing, which is long discontinued, size 0 circular needles. The yarn isn’t terribly soft to knit with, but the socks are comfortable and they wash/wear/endure well.
The pattern for the bag is the Spacious Show & Tell Bag from The Second Treasury of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi. This is the second one I’ve made. All in all, I’m pleased with how it turned out. Parts of the “vine” aren’t as attached as I’d like and the pink flower got sort of distorted, the petals were more symmetrical when I sewed it. Or maybe they weren’t but they just looked better, they felted a little weird. Also the middle of the flower didn’t felt the way I hoped, so I added a big sparkly button to the middle. Wonky bits aside, I like the bag and I bet I’ll use it a lot.
Technical details: Single strand of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes knitted on size 11 circs, washed twice with two pairs of jeans, hot water, cold rinse. Minimal stretching and mushing to get it in shape after it was done felting. My experience with the first bag was that it really took a better shape after I’d been using it a while, the strap became nice and flat, the bag rounded nicely. So I imagine this will improve with a little use. I ended up not making a loop inside for my keys. I might try sewing something in there at some point. Maybe.
Before felting, with a book for scale.
After felting, same book.
There’s a pocket on the front! Perfect size for my phone!
Wonky flower with fancy pink jewel.
My lame attempt to take a photo of myself wearing the bag.
The socks I’m wearing today. They’re really old and I wash them frequently. They have faded over time, but they have held up beautifully and are very warm and comfy. I originally knitted these for Ed, but they were a little small, so, perfect for me.
My baby girl has been at her best friend’s house all weekend. At first it was … so beautifully quiet … but now I’m sort of … unsettled by all the quiet. Plus, we’re reading Akiko in the Castle of Alia Rellapor and we’re at an exciting part and I want to know what’s going to happen but I don’t want to read ahead without Becca!
I finished the second of the Guild of Specialists book, Operation Typhoon Shore and it was just as good as the first. I’m waiting for the third book. Meanwhile I’m reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which I am enjoying very much. It’s all letters, mostly to and from a woman named Juliet. It makes you want to write letters to people. Anyone want to be my penpal? Heh.
My bag is knitted. Amazing the knitting that can be done when you’re alone all weekend (Ed works weekends, so I’ve been really alone). I can’t wait to felt it in the morning!
I need to take photos of the caterpillars. Jonny isn’t actually living with us anymore. It happened like this. One day we found a larger version of Jonny in our planter by the front porch and we brought it in and put it in with Jonny. I really wanted to name the new one Pauline, but even after I played the song for her, Rebecca insisted on calling the new one Clifford, because it was so much bigger than Jonny. But about a day after Clifford came to live with us, Jonny started looking… slow. I put him outside in hopes that he just needed fresh air or something. Well today I found another Clifford-sized caterpillar crawling around on the wall outside my apartment. I swear we’re naming it Pauline even if Jonny is gone. No way we’re naming it Emily Elizabeth, we have a CAT with that name.
Any Saving Grace fans out there? Gah, the last episodes are starting tomorrow, I hope they’re posting them on the TNT web site, maybe like ABC, the day after the episodes air? Best show ever, I’m so sad it’s going to be over.
Any knitters read my blog anymore? I’m knitting a bag for myself and am probably over-thinking this, but the bag is felted. Like this one. I want to attach a loop inside to attach my keys, but I’m sort wondering if I just sew in a loop of I-cord, will it just felt to itself? I could just keep an eye on it and pull it apart if it starts to felt together, or to the sides of the bag or something?
Well, binding off this baby was… not that much fun. It wasn’t the most exciting knitting I’ve ever done, but I am really pleased with how it came out, and except for the last dozen or so rows, it was just fine, mindless knitting perfect for watching subtitled films or something, heh.
On the fence.
I know, my hair is a mess. It was windy, my hair was damp, and I really need a haircut.
With jacket.
Cuter model.
Not the best shot of the scarf, maybe, but the best shot of them all!
I’m facing a very real problem of what to knit next! I have a few odd hanks of lace weight yarns. I have enough sock yarn to make a few pairs of socks. And I have random odds and ends of yarns in various weights and fibers, not enough of any one yarn to make much. I might make some more toys, like the monsters, but they’re fast, in a day or two, I’ll be back here wondering wtf I’m going to make next, oy!
At first glance, it seems I’m in the home stretch of Citron, as I only have one repeat of the pattern left (there are five 20-row repeats, I was going to do seven because I wanted it bigger, but now I think I might only do six). But since there are 900 hundredy-quadrabajillion (yes, that’s a REAL NUMBER) stitches on the needles at this point, it takes me 48 hours to make it across one row and then I have to do five shots of tequila and rest my hands for a week before I start the next row, I’m thinking it might take me a while to do the last few rows. Holy crap.
The only thing that might save me from this mess is that Handy sleeps in my lap the whole time.
I made these monsters for Rebecca, the patterns are all from Danger Crafts and I highly recommend the patterns. I got the 5 patterns for $20 and it was a great value for nice patterns (I haven’t actually knitted the last pattern, though. It’s not a monster, it’s a narwhal!). I enjoyed knitting them and Rebecca adores the monsters.
I also finished Tesla, a couple of days after I posted about it last, but I haven’t blocked it yet. I’ve been wearing it anyway, blocking things is such a nightmare here, what with the cats and the crazy child. I enjoyed the pattern, although doing short rows in a lace pattern gave me a few fits. I will block it soon.
Now I’ve started Citron, in blue, the yarn is Knit Picks Shadow.
