Happy Valentine's!

Stuffed with leftover yarn scraps and dried lavender from my garden, which worked great. A great gift for my Valentine's swap buddy at work.

The pattern is from Mochimochi. Only a few mods.

Welcome 2012

Isn't the world supposed to end in 2012, according to the Mayans?

Good thing I finished my sweater vest in time for the apocalypse:

Pattern: Academia

Funny thing: my gauge didn't change one iota between the stockinette and the colorwork. The pattern uses pretty specific numbers with the assumption that your gauge will change. Imagine my surprise when I tried on the vest-in-progress and it looked like this:

I had to rework several inches. The colorwork here is a bit different than what's in the pattern. I changed the design a bit so that there are only two contrast colors, which only switch a couple times. I'm pleased with the colors I picked; the FOs I've seen suggest that getting colors that are close to one another will end up looking better than if there is a larger contrast between them.

Happy New Year!

Ever noticed how sometimes you'll be knitting in public, and you have one of those conversations with a non-knitter that goes something like...

Them: Oh! Are you knitting?
You: Yes.
Them: That's so neat. What is that, a ----- ?

But then the ----- bears no relation to what you're actually making. Like, you might be making a scarf, and they ask if you're knitting a sock. Or maybe you're making a sock monkey, and they ask if it's an afghan.

The other day at work, during a group lunch, I was working on my Academia, and my very nice coworker asked if I was making a hat. This is about what it looked like at the time of her asking (tape measure for visual reference):

I'm not sure whose head that might have fit, but whoever it is, I don't want to meet that person in a dark alley.

By the by, that pattern totally snookered me with its clever photo shoot: pretty model with a nice haircut playing a banjo with her band in Golden Gate Park. How can you lose? I have nothing but good memories of my time in Golden Gate Park. (Well, once you get west of the junkies. And not counting that one Saturday morning tai chi class that was interrupted by a couple homeless guys who got into it with each other by their tent first thing in the morning before they came staggering out from their enclave and through the oddly unaffected group of tai chi students... and I so wish somebody would put that in a movie so I could see it the way it must have looked to a bystander.)

Anyway. The pattern is seriously cute, and so far so good with the Cascade 200 Sport I'm using. Progress shots to come.

Vineyard Rows, from Hill Country Weavers

As it happens, the recent Prairie Bliss collection from Hill Country Weavers included not just one but two of my original patterns. The first was Rockabilly Soft, and the second is Vineyard Rows: so named for the textured horizontal stripes, and because that's exactly the sort of luxurious thing you might wear while touring the vineyards of the Texas Hill Country.

Thanks, Hill Country Weavers!

On a more serious note, those of you keeping one eye on the news will know that the greater Austin area spent much of Labor Day weekend burning. Fortunately, the fires have thus far spared Austin itself, but the surrounding communities have suffered immensely, especially Bastrop. Over 600 homes have been lost.

If you have spare change, please consider donating to the Red Cross of Central Texas - or barring that, your local Red Cross. These are the people who come to help those who find themselves in a terrible place without warning. We should all be good neighbors and help now, when we can.

Lesser-Known Rav Patterns

One of the pleasures of Ravelry is discovering a gem of a pattern that has few FOs. Maybe the designer didn't have the time or the desire to promote the pattern heavily - maybe it got overlooked by other publications. Regardless, I always take special delight in making a project from a great pattern that hasn't yet gotten much attention.

Also... I really love monkeys. (If you have three hours to waste, go look at the monkeys on Zoo Borns.)

Monkeying Around by Lori Sands is a quick and fairly easy crochet pattern for a baby/toddler hat. I imagine it could be converted to an adult size. I used Universal Cotton Supreme, a very soft worsted-weight cotton recommended by the fine ladies at Gauge Knits.

Rockabilly Soft, from Hill Country Weavers

Well, well, well. You may have heard there's a drought on these days here in Texas... Both our lawn and this blog have dried to a crisp in the face of severe heat and a really rough time at work.

On the upside, I'm learning all sort of things about HTML at work, including better and more nutritious ways to create line breaks and boldface type!

I do have some exciting news to share. Hill Country Weavers has now released my latest pattern: Rockabilly Soft.

Let me say something about the yarn called for in the pattern, Road to China Light from the Fibre Company: holy snot, that stuff is amazing! And did you know it has a little bit of camel mixed in? Soft, soft, soft!

It made working those colorwork sections a dream. And, by the way, take a peak at the pictures of the Western-style piping at the shoulders: I'm not telling you how I did it (you'll have to buy the pattern, natch), but I feel pretty dang smart right there. I even attended a design workshop with Shannon Okey at HCW in the spring, when I got to show off how I did it - and there was trigonometry and everything.

In the demonstration. Not the knitting. (Calculator not required.)

Anywho, I hope knitters will enjoy this pattern. It's funky and luxurious, all in one!

Growing Things

This spring, I have tried my hand at some gardening, of various sorts.

In the backyard, we have/had onions, potato plants, a strawberry plant, rosemary, and tomatoes. Mostly, my crop has been a shining example of laughable and puny, although so far everything has proved edible.

I have learned that this is the difference between caged tomatoes (big) and staked (small):



Same variety of plant, even.

I have also learned that Central Texas soil is really tough to work with. I can grow better things out of that nasty poly fiber-fill stuff than I can from the clay-heavy crud that's in our backyard:



Pattern: Lucky Bamboo by June Gilbank
Mods: I made the stalks shorter; my yarn choices (scraps) meant that the stalks were turning out relatively bigger than the pot and sand.

Lace, Intarsia, and Stamina

That's what this required:



No more complaining from me about how rough this sweater treated me, in-utero. And you know what? I think it looks great on. Wore it for a whole day yesterday, and it didn't stretch out, even.

Oh - and it's unblocked. The pattern doesn't specify, but I'm content to let it stay that way. And I'm not sorry.

Pattern: #03 Multi-Pattern Top by Gabrielle Hammill from Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 2006.
Yarn: Lion Brand Microspun, and hey, don't judge me. It's what the pattern called for and it's inexpensive. It's also splitty and unfriendly to the hands, plus the acrylic content isn't my fav, but I must have bought it over two years ago for this pattern.
Needles: Size 4. I don't often go down a needle size, much less two, but judging from other FOs, that's common for this pattern.
Mods: None, really. I did skip a few rows on the short-row collar, but it's not hugely dramatic.

Ewan McGregor Cares About My Yarn

So there's this sweater I've been hammering away at for the better part of a year. It's the Multi-Pattern Top from an older issue of Vogue Knitting.

A few months ago:

Cute pattern, working up like a dream - if that dream involves discovering a city of gold after slogging through fever-haunted jungles with a bad case of malaria and cramped fingers.

Bad metaphor?

Okay. The pattern did not list which of the four lace patterns you use for measuring gauge, so I eventually went to the smallest needle size I could manage with that yarn. (Seems to be working okay.) There are several errata in the chart, which Vogue has listed on the website. I've already run out of yarn once, and now that I'm in the final stretch, I am almost coming up short again. Again!

Strangely, every time I pick it up to work on it, with only a handful of rows left on the collar, I hear in my mind the soundtrack from Moulin Rouge, right at that point where Christian (Ewan McGregor) decides to heck with it all, he's going back to the Moulin Rouge one... last... TIME.

Teaser Pic: Rockabilly Knits

New design in the pipeline, and I'm not allowed to give pictures yet - but here's a teaser shot:

As I said in my last post, Latvian braid makes you feel like a stud.

Another hint: This sweater really needs some fiddle music to make it complete.

I can't wait to show off the whole thing! Hill Country Weavers will start the photo shoots soon.

J'existe!

I do exist, it's true.

New skills recently acquired:

(1) Helical knitting:



Grumperina's tutorial says it all. It's easy and it makes you feel like a stud. Also reasonably in style at present.

(2) Latvian braid:



See the dark blue bits? That's a Latvian braid. I learned from the instructions in the Victorian Christmas Stocking pattern (such a lovely pattern), but the Ohdessa Knits tutorial looks pretty good. Plus she's got these bright pink manicured nails.

3. I can't knit dishcloths to save my life.

Seriously. I can do some pretty nifty stuff, knitting-wise, but the simplest of projects leaves me flummoxed. In fact, I have a Rav friend who is similarly challenged - she even designed this remarkable shawl pattern - and so of course I've challenged her to a duel of ugly dishcloths. We've each agreed to make two dishcloths by the end of March to demonstrate our inability to make a simple square. I've got one down, and I'd show it to you, but (a) you don't need to vomit on your keyboard, and (b) there's going to be a voting round, and we've agree to keep the dishcloths more or less under wraps until the time comes.

But seriously: wait for it. These are gonna be hilarious.

Yarn Ho 4 Life

One of the many reasons to love Hill Country Weavers is the owner, Suzanne. In an email to the SHELTER design group today, she said (and I quote with permission), "I have had 30 years of being a Yarn Ho... It is hard to shut it off."

Suzanne has been instrumental in bringing the SHELTER design project to life, and it looks like there will be more design projects from the same group of lovely Austin designers, among whom I'm privileged and a bit astonished to find myself counted. I'm going to sleep every night with color schemes and pattern ideas in my head.

For now, check out Brooklyn Tweed's blog post from today and his mention of the design project. It's exciting to see our work featured so elegantly.

In other news, I have also learned a new skill: entrelac!

Generally, I don't like to complain about tech issues in my blog, because that seems discourteous to the readers. I should have just figured it out, y'know? Well, 30 minutes later and I can't understand why this picture is showing up sideways:

The other shot seems okay...

But then I realized. It's entrelac: duh. The internet magically understands that entrelac goes first one direction, then another. It's just helping me stay on message!

It's a long story why the Michael Chabon book appears in the image. Just know that it is a positively superb book full of intrigue and imagination, and you should all read it right away, right after you visit Brooklyn Tweed's blog.

HCW Gift Certificate for Grabs

Psst. Head over to TT820's blog for a giveaway contest. She's one of the other designers in the Shelter project. You could win a free pattern from her store plus a $50 gift certificate to Hill Country Weavers. Good stuff!

Hill Country Weavers Releases Shelter Patterns

What a delightful Christmas gift, to wake up and see that Hill Country Weavers now has all of the Shelter designs available for download and hard-copy purchase.

Back at the beginning of the fall, HCW approached a handful of local Austin designers and asked us to design a project using Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter yarn. I am flattered and, frankly, still a bit amazed to discover myself among such talented company, and if I were more excited about this design project I'd be tap dancing on the Christmas ham. (Wouldn't go well, there's a basting sauce.)

Allow me to present my pattern Sarah Rose:

As you're looking around, please check out the patterns from the other designers as well. (Sweater-ophiles like me will get stretch marks in their queues from all the sudden growth.)

The yarn itself, Shelter, is sturdy, versatile, and soft. Even high-end wools can bother my neck, but this yarn didn't give me one bit of itch the evening I wore it. (I confess to spoiling the surprise to the trick-or-treaters on Halloween; I figured that was safe as knitting has yet to take off in the under-10 crowd.) While I'm often the first to go looking for substitute yarns, in this case, you should really look into ordering the yarn that's called for, because it's such a treat to work with.

Happy holidays!

Betrayed by a Towel

Hi there!

So tonight, I'm talking to a friend and teaching her to knit (inject quick dance of triumph and glee), and I mentioned some story or other. She said, "Right, I remember reading about that on your blog."

And I said, "I have a blog?"

Not really. But you know.

Tonight, I'm going to interject quick pictures of knitting - mostly WIPs, 'cause that's all I got - with a story that I personally find hilarious.

My husband has been sick the last few days with a fever, poor thing. (That's not the funny part.) Last night, he felt so achy that in a fit of desperation, he slathered himself with Icy Hot.

Unrelated knitting picture #1:

Later, I followed him to bed. I washed my face, and reached for a towel to dry myself off.

Unrelated knitting picture #2:

My first thought was, "This towel smells like Icy Hot."

Unrelated knitting picture #3:

My second thought was, "WWOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

My husband managed to get a picture of me:

(I bore a strong resemblance to Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever, I think.)

See you soon, Kid 'N Ewe!

We're headed to Kid 'N Ewe tomorrow morning, bright and early - and not just to shop.

We're running a whole booth full of hand-dyed, handspun yarns. Strand Fiber Reserve debuts this weekend with one heckuva showing!

Say hi if you see us at Kid 'N Ewe!

Sorry, Rangers. I'm Ambrosia.

We went to a Rangers game (regular season, nothing fancy) a few weeks back. I brought some knitting. Lately I've been committed to working on a few larger projects, so I found myself running out the door with only a few minutes to find something portable. This is right after the most recent Knitty came out, and I just so happened to have 2 balls of Noro Silk Garden sitting out. I decided to work on a Spry hat.

Now, some might say that intarsia is not the best choice for a live sporting event. Perhaps. The concrete floor was sticky, and I was more worried about dropping one of the four mini-balls of yarn on the ground than I was about the game. Still, I pulled it off.

My fella might beg to differ. Josh Hamilton hit a home run and got something like two runners in? I'm not sure, because everybody in the whole stadium stood up and cheered except me with my four mini-balls of yarn in my lap that I didn't want to spill in the beer puddles.

"What are you doing?!" my fella demanded. "This is incredible!"

"I can't, I'm doing intarsia!" I told him, desperately stuck to my seat.

This didn't go over well with him. He brought it up again on the way home. "No, no, no," he mimicked. He did his imitation of knitting, which looks kind of like a baby playing with chopsticks. "Sorry, Rangers, I can't stand up and cheer, because I'm ambrosia."

At any rate, I survived the game and later finished the hat:



Here's a shot of the intarsia:




(Intarsia isn't that horrible. Really. It just gets a bad rep from knitters whose husbands have tried to take them to a baseball game.)

A Medicinal Knit

What a week. One day, I came into work at my new workplace to discover mouse droppings all over my desk.

And that was one of the high points.

Two things that cheered me up:

1. I saw a really, really funny play. I can't tell you about it because the review won't appear until Thursday. But it was great, and the laughter was medicinal.

2. I finished an Ysolda hat. That Ysolda: the patterns are cute, sure, but there is something so ingenious about how she constructs these designs that they are more fun than average to put together.



The pattern is called Ripley. This is Malabrigo Worsted, and I now understand why there is a group on Rav called the Malagribo Junkies. Dang that stuff is good.

...and that's the news from Lake Woebegone. Knit on.

Stress-relief socks

The last several weeks have seen nutty things in the land of MightyGoodYarn. I started a new job and am still transitioning away from the old one. We went on a quick trip out of state. We continue to figure out what to do with this new house we somehow managed to make our property.

I have a number of exciting design and yarn projects on the horizon, and I can't wait to share them once they're, you know. In existence.

I did, however, knit these socks as a stress relief mechanism last month. Man, oh man - that self-striping sock yarn, and in my very favorite colors of all time? I'm tempted to frog them just to re-knit them again.

Tempted. Only tempted.

New Design: Ballybeg Homeworker's Gloves

Sometimes, it's tough to keep quiet about things! I knew for a few months that the current issues of Piecework would feature my article and pattern, and I couldn't peep.

It's well worth it, however, to see the magazine out in print now. It's a fabulous issue about needlework in literature. Check it out - there are also some great guides to intricate borders for things like pillowcases and handkerchiefs.

I contributed an article and pattern about the lace gloves that the characters work on in Brian Friel's play Dancing at Lughnasa. The play, which is loosely based on the author's own family, features an example of the Irish homeworking industry of the early 1900s, which provided one of the few ways in which women could earn money for themselves and their families.

Check it out!