A lesson in humilty

I finished a hat a while ago. The hat that I wasn’t very excited about in the first place, Ashley’s hat. As I finished it I decided not to sew in the ends, but not for my usual laziness reasons. My spidey sense was tingling, something wasn’t quite right about this hat. It still needed to be blocked, and although superwash yarns don’t usually grow when they’re blocked, the pattern needed to be stretched out quite a bit for all the lace to show. Well, I waited about a week so that I could have Ashley try it on and tell me what she thought of the pre-blocking size. With her go ahead I put it in the water. Lo and behold it grew as soon as it hit the water. Now it’s about five sizes too big, and I didn’t even bother to stretch block it, just let it dry. Take two will begin soon. ish.

In further humbling news, the March socks are doing alright, but only after a few tries. I love the color, but it was pooling maddeningly. There was a distinct light and dark side of the sock, and not in a way that I could deal with. Finally I decided that it just wouldn’t do and tried decreasing the number of stitches to see if that would break the pooling. Alas it turned into an aweful spiral. Take three had me using the inside and outside of the skein to alternate rows. It’s been the most successful, as well as my final attempt at getting this colorway to cooperate. You can see that there’s still a slight spiral of light and dark, which almost look like shadows.

And strangely, that doesn’t seem to be the case on the other side. I completely give up on understanding colorways and their strange behavior.

Look, it’s a flower! This is the first time in months that this African Violet has bloomed since the vicious attack it survive a few months ago. Apparently African Violet leaves taste sweet to cats. I give up on understanding cats as well.

Happy knitting!

New Year’s Resolutions

I finally finally finish the Java socks for Ty. I feel like they’ve taken me forever! I’m certainly not the worlds best planner, but really I need to make sure I know what I’m doing before I convert a top-down to a toe-up when I’ve never done a toe up or a heel-flap and gusset! And although the lonely foot of the first sock sat for months while I procrastinated figuring out the heel, once I sat down and put some thought into it, the second sock practically finished itself. And of course, now I’m an expert.

This moment of triumph inspired my first new year’s resolution of 2012. I will knit a pair of socks for Ty every month of this year. And to make sure I’m not starting the new year off on the wrong foot (haha), the Java socks don’t count, and Ty now calls them his ‘December Socks’. The January socks are started and coming along nicely, thanks to the brilliant fastness of stockinette in the round (with some stripes going on so I don’t get bored). I’ve yet to decide if I’m allowed to get ahead on my monthly sock making, but maybe I’ll wait for the January socks to actually be finished in January before I worry about that.

And for your viewing pleasure: better pictures of my January selfish knitting!

The cowl looks rather brown here, but I swear that it is in fact a pretty green.

Fuse Cardigan update: No joy on finding Shelter yarn in Faded Quilt, both in DC and NYC. Will have to wait at least a week. Boo.

Happy Knitting!

Weirdest thing I’ve ever knit. And turkey.

So a few weeks ago I had someone contact me on Etsy about making gloves for their father, who smokes cigars, and would benefit from a pair of these, but with the colorwork pattern that I’ve used with other fingerless gloves. Now I have to say, these are probably the weirdest gloves I’ve ever knit. Doing the colorwork for the fingers made them extra pretty, but a real pain. I think my biggest issue with them though, was that I don’t like smoking, and I don’t like people who do. And not just cigarettes, but cigars, hooka, pot, I don’t care – if it involves inhaling smoke, people who do it aren’t very bright. But all in all, these are rather gorgeous gloves, if I do say so myself!

Now onto turkey! Thanksgiving this year was our first holiday that we got to host, which is appropriate that it was also our first holiday as a married couple. Ty went way overboard with the cooking, making about 10 pound more turkey than needed, and about 5 pounds of extra potatoes. The only downside is that I’ve been eating Thanksgiving dinner for a week now.

We managed to cram seven people into our apartment and around our table, with only one person not sitting on a real chair, Bonnie got the lounger. There was plenty of wine, and as previously stated, way too much food, so I call that a successful holiday. And now I think Ty is addicted to hosting holiday. Mostly because it means he gets to control everything, and perhaps just a little because he gets to cook.

And here’s a super pretty picture of moss. Cause it was there. And yelling at me each time I went change the laundry. So I obliged and photographed it.

In the meantime. I’ve been knitting lots of men’s fingerless gloves for Etsy. Who knew they made such good presents for men. Oh, I guess all the people on Etsy did. Now I need to catch up!

Happy Knitting!

Where magic happens

This weekend I went to visit my friend in NYC and it was definitely the best time I’ve had there so far. I really got to see the city for what it was, and we visited a lot more of it than I’ve seen before. My friend goes to Columbia, in the Upper West Side, near Harlem, we walked all through Midtown and went out in the Lower East Side.

One of the best parts of the weekend was wandering through Central Park, which always seems to be a part of a good trip to New York.

And of course I managed to convince my friends that a short stop at Knitty City was in order. From my brief time there I can say it’s a great store, and I wouldn’t mind having it as my LYS. Of course, I’m always going to be spoiled by Looped, where I know everyone and they have huge open spaces with couches for open knit night. But Knitty City would be easy to get used to. There were plenty of people there knitting, and the staff were all very friendly. And of course the yarn selection was up to my standards, although I was only looking for Madelinetosh and Lorna’s Laces.

If New York City is where we end up living, I won’t be disappointed in the least.

Happy Knitting!

Fun Photos

 

Now you can see what fun I’ve been having with my new camera. I definitely think they’ve improved my Etsy listings.

 

 

 

 

The train station in Philadelphia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cats have never looked so cute!