Taste the happy!

Lookit--I knit a cardigan! It was a small project, the cropped cardigan with leaf ties from last year's spring Knitty, but I'm still pretty happy with my ability to create a garment that I can wear in public without embarrassment. I made a few modifications, most notably to decrease the depth of the scoopneck and increase the length of the cardi, which I think generally make it less trendy but probably something that I'd wear more than once...The only thing that confuses me is that despite doing a slip-stitch edge and blocking like crazy, I still have rolly stockinette edges. Oh, well. Right now, I'm working on Hanami, which is an absolutely gorgeous stole pattern, using the luxurious Sea Silk that I bought some time ago. So shiny...and it knits up really nicely, with a lovely sheen. I have a few more skeins in the stash which I think will work really well for the other shawls I have planned for the future. I'm thinking my next project will either be fair isle mittens, or maybe the Sunrise Circle Jacket (pdf)...depending on how ambitious I am.

Now in technicolor!

It's been so long since I last posted that I feel like I should start with an apology. Not so much for being away, but for intruding again...It's just that I can't seem to keep this up with any regularity, and thus feel like an imposter in a way. Nevertheless, I have done some knitting in the last few months. This is the Lotus Blossom Tank, and yes, that is my belly button showing. It's funny how some of the little details (e.g. wear a tank under this top) don't really intrude until you see your work in a photograph. It was a nice knit, although the bamboo is a little tough on the hands, and the six lace repeats followed by four inches of stockinette was a little mind-numbing. I do appreciate the minimal finishing, but I hadn't counted on picking up stitches and edging the sleeves and neck. My other project is somewhat secret - aptly enough, being Mystery Stole #3 (a.k.a. Swan Lake). It's for a friend who's to be married this summer, although I don't think she reads this blog. I think it's gorgeous (althoug less so in this little shrunken preview that blogger made), even if it's a little shorter than I'd expected. I used a fairly fine laceweight and small needles (US3) so the next time I knit lace I'll probably opt for something a little more substantial...and use larger needles! To the right is a sneak peak. Oh, and happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone.

What's golden

A good friend of mine just had an adorable little baby boy. Well, perhaps little is not the right word--he came in at over 8 pounds! Anyway this little not-Totoro bonnet (made with Karabella Aurora 8 yarn and modeled by a ball of Cascade 220) is earmarked for him. I'd made another similar bonnet earlier in the year, but I think the colors may be too girly for the parents' tastes. Hopefully this one is neither too girly nor too bold--I just didn't feel like going for the pastels this time. In other news, I finished Cozy...This one's for me, and actually has gotten some use. I love these wraps that can be scrunched up into a scarf without too much trouble (Clapotis, Cozy, Midwest Moonlight...). Maybe it's the fact that I use finer-gauge yarn than is called for, but either way, it makes them more versatile, at least during the colder months. These days, I'm working on the Lotus Blossom Tank (now a free pattern on the Knitting Daily website), which will I guess be my first real garment. I'm not counting Tempting, which didn't have much to it in terms of construction. I swatched with the bamboo and everything, but ended up having to frog and reduce the number of repeats slightly because my gauge changed on the actual project. I'm a little nervous, though--I think I can deal if it's too large in the lacy area, but I hope it doesn't end up too small. Ah, well, I guess I can always bequeath it to a petite friend!

Still beating...

I haven't posted in a few months, but despite my failure to tend my little corner of the internet, I'm still here and still knitting. To the left is a washcloth that I made for a swap on Ravelry. It was a Wes Anderson-themed swap, and that there is supposed to, er, call to mind the jaguar shark. Work with me here. I did make a couple of other things--a scarf (Liesel) that I have pictured elsewhere, a mix CD (of course), and a small handmade journal that I'm really pretty pleased with. More knitting (hopefully) to follow.

When in doubt, knit lace

I posted this question on the knittyboard, but thought I'd solicit more opinions. I had been planning to make my mother a Flower Basket Shawl, but somehow managed to misplace the yarn i was going to use. It's somewhere, I know...along with the other random items that seem to have disappeared during the move. Anyway, I do have a lovely hefty hank of Sea Silk in Mineral (black/browns/grays), and would like to use it for a shawl instead. It's about 150 g and 660 yards...I just don't know if I want to make the FBS with it, since I want to use up most of the skein and it seems like it might end up rather large. So I found few other patterns that might work: Moonlight Sonata Shawl Luna Moth Shawl (has the added benefit of being a reference to The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Sea and Shells Stole (basically Print o' the Wave without the edging) Any thoughts?

You win again, gravity!

I haven't blogged in a bit because I'm still camera-less. I had the bright idea to take the camera back home when I was visiting Mike...unfortunately, the camera was in Zurich with us, but the cord and charger were back in Mallorca. D'oh! Anyway, I decided to break the silence today because I learned a lesson about knitting with laceweight yarn--something that's probably more or less universally known, but didn't concern me until it flew up and slapped me upside the head. I'd recently started a lacy stole in Lane Borgosesia Baruffa Cashwool, by far the finest and wordiest yarn I've worked with so far, and one that proved to be as much a handful as it is a mouthful. The yarn was wound up into a neat little ball, and what did I do? I fished out the end from the center and started in. BAD IDEA. As it turns out, 100ish rows into the project, the ball of cashwool gives up the guts and leaves me with probably on the order of 200 yards of hopelessly tangled yarn barf. WHY didn't I start from the outside, so the ball would just spin quietly in its little ziplock baggie? Why? After a few hours of trying to deny the inevitable, I gave up and cut off the tangle...and then spliced my work to the yarn end on the outside of the ball. I was going to simply weave in the end, but had visions of the lace unraveling when blocked. Sigh. The splice worked well, but now there's a few inches of slightly thicker yarn in the middle. Hopefully it won't be too noticeable when the thing's done. On a lighter note, does anyone need, oh, twenty little balls of laceweight yarn for swatching?

It takes a lot to laugh...

...it takes a train to cry. The song has been stuck in my head for the last few hours, uselessly, while I try to think of upbeat, cheerful songs to send to a close friend who's going through a rough patch right now. It seems like most of the songs I find inspirational are love songs--and a lot of those are sad love songs!--which aren't really appropriate in this case. I came up with this list, but it's unsatisfying: mirah - person person yo la tengo - sugarcube wilco - heavy metal drummer beulah - well, I can't decide which beulah song is appropriate, but I think one deserves to go in here. i imagine it'll be "if we can land a man on the moon, surely i can win your heart" the delgados - everybody come down daniel lanois - shine lambchop - up with people love - alone again or super furry animals - venus and serena the wedding present - make me smile (come up and see me) stereolab - lo boob oscillator Help! Anyway, I haven't really been updating because I no longer have a decent camera to hand...I've still been knitting--I finished a teeny version of My So-Called Scarf which will be frogged in favor of a better use of the yarn, and also one of those cute (not-)Totoro bonnets from Hello Yarn. Right now I'm blocking the Baby Bolero from One Skein. I upsized it by about 1/4 because I thought it'd be silly to make something that fits a newborn (i.e. fits for 10 minutes) and used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Somerset. I had to make a few changes after making ridiculously deep sleeves, and I followed the general advice of not binding off and seaming everything together (too much work for a baby garment!). There are still a lot of ends to be woven in... It's very pretty, although blocking it made it substantially bigger than I'd expected, so it looks like it'll fit a 1 year old rather than a 6 month old! Not such a bad thing--I just hope the wool fluffs up again when it's dry, because the fabric, which was nice and squishy, is pretty thin right now. So the only thing left on the needles is Midwest Moonlight. And since I promised myself I could cast on for something when I only had one project left, next up is Mystery Stole 3. I'm excited--there have been some beautiful pictures cropping up on the web so far!