Friday, January 07, 2005

The Harlot Strikes Again

I just assume that if you are reading my blog, you are also reading the Yarn Harlot's blog. In case you aren't, then you are really missing out. Please go there now. I will wait, and not be at all surprised when you never return here. She has fabulous knitting, witty commentary, and more than a year of archives for you to go through. No matter what time it is when you start reading, you will be up far too late. Enjoy!

If you made it back, then you've likely seen the astonishing total raised for Doctors without Borders. I am so amazed at the generosity of the knitting community. I am doing my own part by foregoing wants this week in order to donate as much as possible. I hope you will find your own way to support the people who sacrifice so much to help others in parts of the world we would never dare visit.

Perhaps you also noticed the Harlot's Thrum Along? I finally decided to join in (unofficially), and have made some good progress. The pattern is easy to follow (and even better, it's free), and these mittens are so cute:

More yarn, more projects

Janine and I left the toddlers with their dads and took a trip to see the boys in Lansing. I highly recommend a visit to Threadbear for anyone in the Michigan area. The place is spacious, friendly, comfortable, and filled to the brim with beautiful yarn, roving, knitting notions and books, snacks, coffee, and fellow knitters. Janine and I spent 3 hours there without realizing it; it's like Vegas, in that there are no clocks and you lose touch with reality - is it night or day? The selection is really fantastic. I don't think they are missing anything, and they are always getting new stuff in. Here's my haul:


What you see in that shot are some lovely koigu KPPPM - a set for new socks and a set for some Fiesta Mittens by Lucy Neatby (Pattern from Threadbare also. The pattern is complicated - there's something called a flying swallows pattern??!!? - but the sample was gorgeous.); some Lorna's Laces sock yarn in denim blue and a coordinating variegated; and a huge stack of Dale Tiur in khaki, natural, and pearl grey. I fell in love with the Dale of Norway cardigan display at Threadbear and I AM GOING TO MAKE IT FOR MYSELF. It contains a lot of colorwork and some neat diamond patterns, and will likely be most most-challenging project to date. Here's a shot from their catalog:


I am having so much fun choosing knitting projects lately. There are some babies on the way, and it's so fun to think of things to knit for them. I recently started, and nearly finished the same weekend, this sweater with a Lorna's Laces pattern:


It's knit with a nice chunky wool and nearly flew off my needles, it knit so quickly. It's in the round til you reach the armholes, with the sleeves knit separately. I love that there will be minimal seaming.

I have made lots of progress on Rob's basketweave sweater. He got most of the back, still on the needles, for Christmas. Since I am no longer knitting it in secret, it's going much more quickly. The back is complete, and the front is at least 4" tall (considering it's 28" wide, that's a lot!). I am irritated that the shoulders have that ledged shaping built in, and I wish they were just straight shoulders with a 3-needle bind off. Hopefully as I become more confident as a knitter I will just ignore the directions I don't like and substitute them with my own. As it is now, I begrudgingly follow them and complain about it the whole time. Anyway, here's the completed back (click on it for a closeup of the basketweave pattern):



Well the baby is still napping, which means I have time to knit.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Happy New Year!

What's more satisfying than casting off something cool? Why, seeing the recipient wearing the knitted item, of course! How about two people together, both wearing your knitted goods? Top it off with both people being cute toddlers, and here's what you get:


I was finally able to retreive the shot of my dad trying on his new hat, which I knit with a lovely Manos wool - the color name is thrush.