Easter 2009

Easter Sunday was a beautiful spring day in Minnesota (finally!). Busy, too. Church service and egg hunt in the morning, noontime meal at M&D's, then Kidlet was off to Grammy's fro the evening meal. Quite the haul was made - she had three Easter Bunny egg/nest/basket opportunities. Yikes.

I realize I never documented holiday knitting FO's very well. Oops. Since there's no time like the present to start setting things aright, here are the details for Kidlet's Easter shrug:

pattern: adapted from One Skein Wonder, by Stefanie Japel
yarns: body in Classic Elite Soft Linen (35% linen, 35% wool, 30% baby alpaca), trim in Rowan Kidsilk Haze (70% super kid mohair, 30% silk)
needles: Knit Picks Harmony interchangeables, US5 and US6
cast on: 27 Mar 2009
completed: 11 April 2009

FO parade, Page 1

I haven't posted any finished knitting projects in, like, forever - dude, my bad. Here is the beginning of my attempt to make up for lost blogging.

I mentioned last week that weaving in ends was the least of my knitting joys, in not so many words. Here is the evidence:

Not too rough...

... and the oh so nasty, a.k.a. "cat yack."

The end result was a pair of hats. Right and center view:

Center and left view:

The willing recipients, eWAC and Going40.

The project details:

pattern: based on Grassroots Hat by C Jane Knit
yarn: Cascade Pastaza (50% llama, 50% wool)
needles: US #5 AND #7 Addi Turbo circulars (only because my Harmony needles were occupied, and my Denise needles almost made me do grievous bodily injury unto myself. And yes, I did feel like a traitor.)

After knitting the logo chart twice, I learned a little something: working the lower half of the logo as a solid red field, then applying the white stripes in duplicate stitch makes for muuuch friendlier cleanup (10 ends to weave in, as opposed to 24).

More to come after sleeping.

The Love Boat, and then some

Do you remember watching Captain Stubing and his crew on Saturday nights? Oh, how I loved that show growing up – and how cheesy it is in retrospect! I don’t think there were many episodes where Shelley Winters, Charo, or Carol Channing weren’t sailing. (If you missed this gem of the ‘70s-'80s, the plot basically consisted of shipboard goofiness and chaos-turns-to-love.) The truer test of my adolescent mettle was if I could make it through the show that followed: Fantasy Island. Most episodes weirded me out a bit. Things haven’t changed much – no me gusta with the suspense or horror genres as a rule.

It's been a smidge of time since I last posted knitting pics, so feast your peepers on these:

pattern: back panel of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s “Heart Hat” (Spun Out #8 leaflet from Schoolhouse Press, or Wool Gathering #20 from same)
yarn: Frog Tree Alpaca Sport (conversation hearts and white arrow), Malabrigo Worsted Merino (arrow heart), Nashua Handknits Julia (dark pink writing, contouring)
needles: Denise Interchangeables US#10.5 (arrow heart), Knit Picks’ Options Harmony Interchangeables US#7 (conversation hearts), Fiber Trends’ needle felting kit (detail work)

I was inspired by a mini-clothesline of these hearts in various reds on display at the LYSTTS, and decided to learn the pattern (Malabrigo) to make Kidlet’s Necco-themed valentine out of something yummy (alpaca, natch). They knit up quite quickly; after the third heart, the pattern was basically memorized. note: The Spun Out leaflet contains five(!) hat patterns by EZ – a great addition to your arsenal for just over $2.00US.

Speaking of Julia, its creator, knitwear designer Kristin Nicholas, will be in the Twin Cities this weekend for the Knit & Crochet Out 2008. She is having a meet-and-greet-slash-book-signing at The Yarnery from 2:00-3:30 on Friday afternoon (that’s tomorrow - her yarns and newly released book, Kristin Knits, are available at The Big Y). Friday evening she will be delivering her main presentation, entitled “The Joy of Color,” at the Textile Center of Minnesota at 7:00 p.m. You can read more information here on her blog. After seeing – and then purchasing – her book, I realized my personal color choices tend to be fairly “safe” and conservative. Her yarn line and patterns use vivid contrast and lush, saturated colors, which I can hardly wait to incorporate into my own work.

Squee!! I just learned that another knitter of renown is coming to MSP. I'll post info as soon as the announcement is official...

Happy, colorful knitting to all!

Addendum: It's the Yarn Harlot on April 10! Check the LYS web site for more details. Woo-hoo!

Thrice three

Day 33 (25) of Blog365.
Bless me readers, for I have shirked. It's been two days since my last posting.

We've had a flurry of activity surrounding a certain Kidlet's birthday activities. Three years old, events spread over three days - God help us when she turns 16!

... and this is the hat made for the occasion. It's durn cute, but Kidlet had it on for approximately four seconds - long enough for me to see that it does indeed fit, but not long enough for a pic in action.

pattern: Meghan's Braids
source: One Skein Wonders
yarn: Malabrigo Worsted Merino
needles: Brittany US#6 dpn's

Happy Groundhog Day!

Another one bites the dust

The season of landmark life events continues. J (Kidlet's other mommy) celebrated her big Four-Oh today, and just like Going40 before her, has taken the very round number in stride. Emphasizing the year gone by, Grammy baked large numeric cakes (which narrowly managed to be rescued from the jaws of an inquisitive cocker spaniel with a sweet tooth.)

Kidlet has grown adept in her position as Gift Wrap Removal Assistant; a moonlighting stint as Musical Card Appreciator is also figuring in nicely. As luck would have it, Christmas and J's birthday immediately precede Kidlet's (next week!), so her gift-unwrapping pump is primed and ready for more...

Looky there - the finished Wavy!

The green button

Things currently moving on my needles (hibernating UFO's are for another day):

- Still the Wavy scarf for J, although length is visibly accumulating now - there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

- Cast on the Braids & Bobbles Hat AC-60 by Fiber Trends in Cascade 220 (the same green as my Wavy scarf).

- Kidlet's Christmas sweater now has the perfect buttons plus one. I found these cute yellow buttons at - where else? - The Yarnery. As I was stitching them on, she wanted to thread buttons, too. I let her play with some larger ones in my jar, and she grew quite fond of some big green 4-holes. She wanted them for her sweater, but I had to explain they were too big for the buttonholes, and there were only five buttons for the six holes. A compromise was reached, and now there is a lone green button on the left chest. Who am I to deny Kidlet's self-expression, just because she can't sew on her own buttons yet?

I realize you were promised contest details this weekend, my faithful readers; I know the prizes, I just haven't fleshed out the details of how to determine the recipients. Can you feel the electric charge in the air? Stash enhancement is on the horizon. I leave you with one tantalizing word:

alpaca. alpaca. alpaca.

got felt?

I typed the title of this post and started giggling (hello, inner 12-year-old child!), but throwing caution to the wind, I'm leaving it. On that note, any stray Googlers who landed here because of the title are going to be sorely disappointed - it's about the fabric.

A look back at my holiday knitting reveals quite a few - nay, many - felted objects. I'm prepared to call it a subconscious theme; you should do the same.

Previous posts o' mine mentioned that Going40 up and Went40 last Friday. To mark the occasion, his partner eWAC and I concocted a crafty display, inspired by this (ironically from a website featured on Going40's own Best of 2007 blog post). After felting many a thrift store sweater, I cut out letters and fashioned loops of Malabrigo yarn (40's fave - see the list again) to a rope of Misti Alpaca Super Chunky yarn and made this garland:

eWAC hung it in their home for Scooter to see on his natal morn, then transported it to the party that evening, where it hung above pictures from 40's childhood.

I really love how it turned out - squishy soft wool at every turn, and a recycled project to boot. What a wonderful world.

The home stretch

Thursday afternoon I finished teaching lessons until January, so it's off to finish some gifts. Pointy sticks at the ready...

Knitting pictures to balance out the holiday activity-centric blogging of late:

pattern: Fiber Trends' Felt Clog (one of what is to hopefully be gifted as a pair)
yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted

pattern: The Fiber Pirate's Mistletoe Ornament
yarn: Frog Tree Sport (leaves), Cascade 220 (berries), random rug wool (bow)

Shameless Marie-Mayhew-o-Rama to follow:

pattern: Woolly Gingerbread Cookie

yarn: Frog Tree Sport (small), Cascade 220 Heathers (large), 220 and rug wool as above (decorations)

pattern: Felted Nest Ornament

yarn: Frog Tree Sport, blue roving

The weekend promises to be fiber-rich, so stay tuned for further maniacal progress. Happy knitting!

Tricks, treats, and owies

Halloween came and went, and Kidlet thoroughly enjoyed herself. The fact that people open their doors and give her candy just for asking blew her little mind. I still haven't taken a photo of the finished candy corn bag, but here's a snap of it in action:

The next day we had the pleasure of our first ER trip that involved stitches. She was playing "pwano" and slipped off the bench, catching her lower lip betwixt her teeth and the keyboard rail on the way down. She was amazingly brave and patient during our lengthy visit, and has four tiny sutures below her lip (which are coming out tomorrow already).

Another stash enrichment opportunity: One of the LYS's in Minneapolis is going out of business and, of course, having a sale of the same nature. The sale prices aren't consistent across the board, but apparently that didn't prevent me and my partners in crime (Mom, Going 40 and Eric with a "C") from finding some deals.

Oh, I almost forgot. Not quite stash, but geek tools. This fall I used half-off coupons from JoAnn Fabrics to purchase my own yarn swift and ball winder. Squee! I made nice center-pull balls the old-fashioned way before, but now I have beautiful cakes of neatly coiled wooly goodness. When I have a chance, I'll post photographs of those, too.

Happy knitting!