Archive for February, 2008

The Circle of Gifts

{ February 18, 2008 @ 12:09 pm } · { FO, fiberlicious, musings, sweater, wip }
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Hey! Some groovy socks!Since I’m becoming more and more known in the family for the knitting, gifts have become more and more…yarn oriented.

There are many benefits to this. And not just for me.

Take, as exhibit one, the last big holiday. I got a gift certificate to the LYS from Mom. With that certificate, I bought yarn, including the J. Knits sock yarn. With the sock yarn, I knit the Annetrelac socks. Which I gave to Mom. Who loves them dearly.

I’m calling it the Circle of Gifts. Give the gift of yarn, get the gift of a handknit, give more yarn. It works.

Exhibit 2: I frogged Mariah. She just wasn’t working with the huge cone of School A pile of tweedProducts tweed. Instead, the tweed decided it totally wanted to be Smokin’ from Son of Stitch n’ Bitch and it wanted to be for my stepdad.

So far: perfect fit. This yarn wants to be this sweater. And I can’t put it down. The inches are just cranking out. It’s a simple construction, but stepdad is super excited about it.

And, he gave gifts…

Manos

 …thereby ensuring…

Squishy alpaca

…that the Circle of Gifts continues.

BTW: Those entrelac socks were a blast to knit. They were the fastest pair of socks ever. The only mod was on the toe. I screwed up the first one, and graft it over 40 stitches instead of 20. Didn’t realize it until I finished the second sock. Then realized that I liked the fit of the messed up toe better. So, rip rip rip went the 20-stitch toe and in its place went the 40-stitch toe. A good move too. Mom keeps raving about the comfort. She may be a handknit sock convert.

Knits Galore

{ February 2, 2008 @ 11:05 am } · { FO, Madori, accessorizing, lacy bits, weaselies, wip }
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Ferrets are odd little creatures.Five little weasels, sittin' in a bed...

Case in point: I’ve started replacing some of their old beds with nice, fluffy new ones.

They love new beds. They love the soft new faux-sheepswool and, honestly, I think they love to get their weasel musk all in them things.

So, in my quest to replace their beds – which can be on the pricey side – I purchased the purple one. That went over like whoa. They were so excited about it. 

Whyatt, livin the good lifeThen, two weeks later, I got the blue one. Well, wouldn’t you know, they all abandoned the new purple one for the even newer blue one!

All except for Whyatt, of course, who seems really happy with that purple one all to himself.

Next week marks the start of three months of crazy, hellish, long-long hours and super stress. Which does mean that these past few weeks of preparation haven’t been so pleasant either.Ooohhhh, so pretty....

But, all the anxiety means that my hands just need to stay busy, and some projects are just flying off the needles.

The Noro Jaywalkers, for example, are totally done. They’re a bit snug to slip over the heel, but they’re awesome to wear. When they’re on, I can’t stop looking at my feet.

The yarn did soften tremendously, but I can’t say I’m crazy about it. It’s too slubby and thick-and-thin for my taste, and I really wanted the color repeats in the skein to match.

Didn’t quite work out that way. But, nonetheless, it’s Digging the entrelacgreat to finally have a pair of handknit socks for myself. Usually, they all end up as gifts!

Since the Noro socks are done, my fingers were itching for more small needle goodness, so I wound up the J-Knits Superwash Me Sock from the stash and cast on the Annetrelac Socks from the 2007 Holiday Interweave.

 The entrelac actually knit up really quickly, even on the US 1 dpns. It shows off the color transitions in the yarn really nicely.

This is the Amesbury colorway. I really like this yarn. I read some reviews that said it was splitty, but I really haven’t had that problem at all. It’s ultra smooth (from the nylon content) and a really different feeling knit for my hands, which were just coming off the Noro sock.

And, in keeping with my productive little knitter status, I finished Halcyon…

Lovely, lacy camel

…and knit up a quick. two-days-knitting pair of Fetching from Knitty out of that single skein of Alchemy Wabi Sabi.

So soft and buttery...

So, synopsis:

  • Knitting: Very Productive
  • Blogging Resolution: Not So Good
  • Work: In Ridiculous Overload Mode
  • Weasels: Always Hilarious
  • Madori: Still Adorable
Sweet little monster-girl