Sweatah Weathah

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween.  My son went as an airplane, which is different than any other day of the year, when he is an airplane.  If I were Super Mom (or perhaps well-rested) I would have remembered to take a picture of him, but alas, I forgot.

We also have had the funk.  The nose-swiping, circus-seal-impersonating funk.  Both the children and I have it, and my husband is somehow immune.  That's probably a good thing,  because we can't handle a man-cold around here.  We still have PTSD from the last one in July.  Violet was up quite a bit last night, gritching about her stuffy nose.  It's really hard to reason with a baby at 4 am, by the way. 

I have been knitting, quite a fair bit, too.  I find that I really go to town on something simple when real life is whupping my butt.  That sweater I was knitting a couple of weeks ago?  It didn't really work out, so I did a mercy killing and started something else.

This is my lovely assistant Violet showing the almost-completed body and the almost-completed sleeve of another Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern, the yoke patterned sweater (Cascade 220 in Denim Heather).  I swear I do knit other things that aren't EZ, I promise.  I'm just...going through a phase.  Maybe I need to branch out.   But right now the endless rows of stockinette are very soothing. 

Here is another project I've been working on.  This is the Landscape Shawl by Evelyn Clark (of Swallowtail Shawl fame).  I've knit this before, and I'm making this for someone for Christmas...which I found out is only 53 days away.  Gulp.  Please don't smack me the next time you see me.  I'm just telling the truth here, folks. 

Anyhoo, this shawl is made from the wonderful, cushy, bouncy Elsebeth Lavold Merino Lace, but in my humble opinion, it is rather thicker than lace.  Maybe more like a fingering weight.  What's nice about the shawl pattern is that it has instructions for different weights of yarn, from lace all the way to worsted.  Each section/chevron of the shawl is knit in garter, seed stitch, stockinette, moss stitch, or reverse stockinette, and it has a nice picot edging along the sides.  What is also very nice about the pattern is that I can actually knit it.  I am missing that part of my DNA that allows other competent knitters to make lace.  I couldn't knit lace if you held a gun to my head, or a flame to my stash.  I cannot even knit the super-popular Swallowtail Lace Shawl that everyone and their blind, three-legged dog can knit.  I've tried three times, and ended up saying things that blistered paint. 

I am also reaching into the mists of time, sifting through the stash for another goody that needs to be finished. 



It's Elizabeth Zimmermann again (sorry, folks, I'm going through a phase), the Ski Sampler Sweater.  My husband has been waiting for this albatross for about three years now, and this year (knock on wood) it's gonna happen.  I am knitting this up in fantastically rustic Icelandic Lopi.  My husband loves that sort of thing.  In fact, as I'm knitting along, sometimes I come to a bit of a twig still in the yarn and you know what?  I just keep it in there and knit it into the sweater too.  He loves scratchy clothing, which strikes me as bizarre to say the least, but at least I'm doing my part to make sure he is itchy-scratchy all over.  My husband is...well, that's another post for another day.  I'll just say he's hard to knit for.  So is my son, come to think of it. 

I'm almost done with the body of this sweater, and then comes the sleeves and then....DUM DUM DUM...I shall be steeking.  That's right, cutting my knitting all up.  Making armholes.  I've never done it before--have you?  I find it makes me nervous that in the books I've read about knitting, whenever steeking comes up, the author invariably recommends you either have a drink afterward, or lie down in a dark room.  Sheesh. 

She Blinded Me With Science

Please tell me you know that song!  Long live the 80s!!

My house is smelly right now.  I've been conducting science experiments.  On yarn.  Veeeeery interesting, I must say.

Let me start with a bit of back story.  I have a friend of mine who had given me a large amount of yarn, therefore he has first dibs on either of my kidneys, should he need them.  But they were mystery yarns.  I had no labels, and they were already wound.  They seemed to be made of wool.  They were rather scratchy.  I was keen to use them, but I also had no idea how many yards there were in each skein, and the weight of the yarn was somewhat less than worsted weight, yet not exactly dk...it was hard to say what was going on with them, actually.

I wanted to make some mittens for my son, so we picked out some yarn out of my stash.  He was interested in some of the mystery yarn.  I pulled it out and set to swatching.  But it didn't feel like wool in my hands.  Sort of inelastic, really.  I finished my swatch and washed it and then the weirdness hit a peak.  It didn't smell like wool.  No weird, funky wet-dog/wet-sheep smell.  It was more of a smell reminiscent of leaving your CD in the microwave and setting the timer to three weeks.  That kind of a smell.  The "uh-oh-we-have-synthetics" smell.  No bueno.

Now, I admit, I prefer wool (and I would hardly scoff at cashmere) to synthetics, but they definitely have their place, and I think they're getting better all the time.  You've got to admit, they were freaky-deaky back in the day when they first came out--I think we can all agree on that?  Nowadays, they can be very soft, come in an amazing array of textures and colors, and of course they are machine wash-and-dryable.  On the other hand, they don't do the amazing things that wool (and other natural fibers) can do.  Wool is warm, breatheably warm.  It takes some effort to make wool truly wet, since most liquids bead up on its surface, and (isn't this so cool?) wool exudes heat as it dries.  I read somewhere that in Scotland, in the bitter cold weather, they would dip their wool in water before putting it on (!).  I'm wondering who the first person was to try that little experiment.  "Hmmm...it's so freakin' cold, I'll just nip off to the pond to get my clothes wet before I put them on.  This'll be great!" 

Another plus for wool--it does not burn on its own.  It can smolder, but will extinguish itself once the source of the flame is removed.  That is why wool is such a great thing to put on small children, and why things like nylon and acrylic are a bad idea to put on children, considering those materials can catch fire, burn and melt like gangbusters (shudder). 

I wanted to find out what was up with this mystery yarn.  What was it made of?  Was my nose off?  Maybe it was wool, but I wasn't sure.  How could I find out, you ask?  Easy.  All you need is this:




No one can see my messy kitchen.  You've all been hypnotized.  It is spotless....yesss....


And this:

Lest you think I am some kind of chemist/genius, all I am doing has been done before and wonderfully explained in Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's book, Knitting Rules!  Can I confess something?  The first time I borrowed that book from the library, I apparently misplaced my sense of humor there and thought she had written a real Rule Book.  Dork!

So, Stephanie (aka the Yarn Harlot) has this tidy table that shows what to expect when you submerge various yarns/fibers in bleach.  Basically, if it is a natural fiber, it will eventually dissolve in full strength bleach.  Man-made fibers will not. 

The most fun came from testing the yarn with fire, however.  In the beginning, the yarn was looking so innocent...

but the seed of mistrust had been sown.  This is what it looked like to me:

Guess who learned how to doodle on photos today?

I started out with every intention of being a good little scientist.  I had a kitchen timer, a dish of bleach, a candle, a pair of scissors, and the camera.  But after a while, the fumes of burning yarn combined with the glee of burning stuff led to lots of blurry shots of yarn on fire.  It was hard to hold the yarn (whilst on fire, mind you) with my left hand while trying to focus the camera and take cool shots with my other hand.  The first victim sample did this:

Did you see that?  Those three shots all happened within maybe 2-3 seconds.  The fibers shrank from the candle flame (another sign it isn't a natural fiber--cotton, wool, silk will not do that), then flared into flame.  This yarn showed a blue tinge at the base of the flame,

and the smell was enough to knock your socks off.  It also dripped long black crumbly plastic-y ash.  Yuck.  This was a wonderful reminder to me that, as the mother of two small children, to never use such a fiber for their knits. 

The mystery yarn was horrified.

I tested all of the mystery yarn.  I was determined to learn the truth.  And the results?



All acrylic.  All of the skeins shrank from the flame, then went up in flames.  It smelled of burning chemicals.  None of the samples I submerged in bleach ever showed any hint of dissolving, even after 15 minutes. 

I decided to try some yarn that I knew had natural fibers in it.  I busted out some good old-fashioned kitchen cotton yarn:

And the flames were noticeably different.

Here you can see that there are no flare-ups, even though the entire strand is on fire, it is a steady burn.  There is no black crumbly ash, but instead you can see at the bottom of the strand, an ash gray remnant, still showing evidence of the plying done to the yarn.  Isn't that cool?  The smell of burning cotton was akin to burning wood, a relief to my nose at that point.  

I also burned a tiny strand of Noro.  Look away if this is shocking to you.

Noro has all kinds of fiber in it.  Wool, lambs wool, nylon, silk.  And it went up in flames, too, with the old crumbly black ash.  Bummer.

I decided to try some alpaca/wool blend yarn, and was surprised that it also went up in flames completely.  I had hoped that the yarn would behave like pure wool is supposed to.  That is, it would only smolder when flame was applied, and that would cease once the flame was removed.  I finally went for the Cascade 220 wool and decided to put it to the test. 



It did burn a little bit, I was surprised to note.  But the flame was very small and very quickly put itself out.  

All in all, it was a really fun experiment to do.  Even better was when my husband came home after 45 minutes of me burning acrylic yarns and was almost knocked backward by the smell.  "What the $%&# are you doing?" he asked.  I had burning fiber in one hand and our family camera in the other.  I can only imagine what he must have been thinking....

PS:  Even though you may do your experiment at the kitchen sink (handy place to put stuff on fire, and water is easily accessible, just in case), do not presume to wash your burnt yarn and bleached yarn bits down the drain:

PPS:  There is not enough apologizing you can do on a Saturday when the disposal is clogged by bleached, burnt yarn. 

 

Process Versus Product

Where do you fall?  Are you about the destination, or the journey? 

I have come to the conclusion, slowly, that I am a process knitter.  That is the only sane and logical way I can explain how many dang unfinished objects I have.  I must reeeeealllly like the process.  Yup.  That's why I have so much stuff on the needles and what feels like only 2 finished projects to my name, and I have been knitting for almost four years now. 

I know I've finished more than two things...like, maybe four things.  But still, if I finished everything in my closet and project bag...s....  well, I would have a sizable pile of handknits.  How can you tell which category you fall into?  Here are some probing questions.  A word of caution beforehand, however.  Do not ask yourself these questions if you are A) uncomfortable with facing the truth, B) uncomfortable with the size of your yarn stash, C) operating heavy machinery.  Drowsiness may occur. 

Do you have many unfinished objects in your stash?  More than two? 

Do you find yourself making up reasons why you must cast on another project?

Do you have little or no problem "shelving" a current project for finishing at a later date?

Are you bothered when you cast on for another project when you "should" be finishing your current one?

Are you only working on one thing at a time?

Do you buy yarn with no clear project in mind, but simply because of sheer desire for it? 

Are you running out of places to put your unfinished projects?

I find I am unconcerned with finishing things anymore.  I mean, I might finish a sweater, which would be no small thing, considering, but the risks involved in blocking it and sewing it up!!  I mean, people, it might not fit!!  One sleeve may be two inches longer than the other.  If I don't finish it, and just knit here and there, on into eternity, I have this lovely sense of heading towards a finish line without the bone crushing reality of making something that won't fit a humanoid, but perhaps a giraffe.  My self-esteem just can't handle something awful of that magnitude.  Miles of yarn and months of hard work leading up to...the desire to swear loudly and awfully for a full 48 hours straight. 

I remember (vividly, still) one of my first finished projects.  I knit a nightgown.  No, really.  Guys, please stop laughing.  I know...a nightgown???   Really?  But yeah, a nightgown.  It was very gorgeous; it was in Mason-Dixon Knitting (I love those ladies), and it was knit in Louet Sportweight linen.  At the store, I decided to swap out the yarn for Knit One Crochet Two Ty-Dye.  In worsted weight.  And...being the newbie that I was, I sort of scrapped the basic tenets of gauge.  I set to work with the needles recommended in the pattern, but not the yarn.  I knit.  I knit some more.  I knit for two months, monogamously, on this.  Vine Lace patterned hem....waist shaping...seed stitch top.  Then I knit the front, all the same, but add in bust line shaping, etc. etc. etc.  Finally I was ready to block and sew them up.  I had been dealing with some doubts since I was working with something that was giving me wavy ty-dyed pink and purple horizontal stripes that would make a twig look chunky, but I kept telling myself it was going to be great.  Oh, and it was.  A great disaster, right up there with Krakatoa.  It was sooooo big.  I mean huge.  It was so wide that it looked like a hair scrunchie for an Ent stuck in the 80s.  It would have made a smashing tractor tire cozy.  I would have a picture of it put up here, except the picture, along with the knit, has mysteriously disappeared....  That sucker hit the frog pond with enough velocity that people in France had their hair blown back.  I believe that may have been the moment when I was profoundly, psychologically placed firmly in the process knitter column. 

That being said (boy, wasn't that a lot of rationalization for this next sentence?), here is a new project I have started:

This is Cascade 220 in Denim Heather and Merlot Heather.  I'm playing with fire, trying to design a sweater from a pattern book, like this one:

Doing a swatch (I can be taught), and going for it.  I am not sure what to do with the neck, the sleeves, and whether weeping will be involved, but I'm going to try anyway.  All the Elizabeth Zimmermann I've been reading lately has me puffed up like a Scotsman from "Braveheart" to be a fearless knitter rather than a blind follower. 

Stay tuned....



Field Trip

I thought it would be fun to take a bit of a field trip this week.  A little look-see around the blogosphere to see what is going on in the knitterverse.  I'd like to show you some of my most favoritest blogs out there, and also give shout-outs to our local bloggers, too.  If you blog and would like a shout-out as well, post a comment and we'll get to know all our cyber-neighbors.  Nerd alert...who says "cyber-neighbors"?  What am I?  Running for mayor of the web??

So, that being said, the very first place I run to every day, the blog that has its own button on my tool bar would have to be, no doubt, the Yarn Harlot.  From the first post I ever read, I have been a faithful follower of the Harlot.  If you haven't been, I strongly recommend you visit.  Strongly.  I also recommend that you read her archived posts, as well.  This blog represents to me that a knitter can really find friends, her place in the universe, and a smashing career/life calling if she just keeps knitting.  Not to mention that she is a published author of...knitting humor.  Seriously.  She also invented the word "Kinnear" (as a verb) and Greg Kinnear complimented her right back by calling her the "Michael Jordan of knitting."  She is my superhero. 

Another place I visit frequently would have to be Mason-Dixon Knitting.  I have used the books that Ann Shaye and Kay Gardiner have published (Mason-Dixon Knitting and Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines) and let me tell you that I have purchased so much dishcloth cotton yarn because of them! 

I also have to mention that, even though it is not a blog, Ravelry is also a phenomenal place to visit.  If you haven't been...well, I'd say it's like Facebook for knitters, crocheters, weavers, and crafty folks, but without all that really annoying upgrade junk.

Brooklyn Tweed has patterns that just kill me, they're so beautiful, and so beautifully photographed.

A list of blogs to visit would not be complete without mentioning Wendy Knits.

And now for some local flavor....

My friend Wendy (not the aforementioned Wendy) has her own website:  ChickenStitch Creations.  She is one seriously talented woman!  Let me tell you that she has entered handknits into the State Fair and she WON. 

Another recent comment on the blog led me to a new blog I've been exploring:  Wool Durham.  Sara just finished a gorgeous Acer Cardigan that has me feeling the itch to cable myself one, too.  Check it out!

Also I visited the mysterious PfeifferGrad's website:  House Of Tater.  She's mysterious because I couldn't squeeze her first name out of her blogger profile (d'oh!).  At first glance she mentioned a fiber hangover, so you know she's one of us!

 And a last one (for now) would have to be Connie Chang Chinchio's website. I always fall hard for her designs, even if I don't always finish them (ahem...cardigan..cough cough).

That being said, I have to tell you that the cardigan appears to be getting very irate at me.  It has been two weeks since I've knit a stitch on it, and I think something is going to have to be done, if I want to not be smothered in my sleep.  Look at this craziness:

The dang thing's GOT A SHIV.  It has its nasty little knitted sleeves wrapped around a frackin' weapon!  Send help!

I can't tell if it's aiming for me or the Malabrigo.  Help.

PS:  In an epic blogger fail, I forgot to mention another very cool, local blogger.  Ms. Nik of the comments also has a beautiful blog:  Nik's Knits.  You must go see it, it's very pretty and lots of great projects!



Great Yarns Fall/Winter Class Schedule

Great Yarns Fall/Winter Classes 

October 17, 2011 through December 21, 2011

 Call us at 832-3599 to sign up or for more information.

Beginning Crochet:                   $55.00  (Supplies included)

6:30 to 8:30 pm-    

Thursday, October 20 & 27

Tuesday, November  29 & December 6 

Learn the fundamentals of crochet! In this 2-part class, we will learn how to make a beginning chain, slip stitch, single crochet, and double crochet, and we will put these stitches to use in making very lovely dishcloths. No previous experience necessary. 

Beginning Knitting:                   $55.00

9:30 to 11:30 am-

Wednesday, October 19 & 26

Monday, November 7 & 14

Monday, December 5 & 12

6:30 to 8:30 pm-

Friday, October 21 & 28

Friday, November 11 & 18

You need a new hobby! Beginning Knitting is a newbie friendly class with lots of fun included and a great chance to meet new people.  You will learn (or be refreshed on) the basics of knitting plus tips and support to get you started on TONS of new projects. After this class, scarves, hats, blankets, washcloths, even simple sweaters will be at your fingertips!

Lace Scarf/ Intro to Lace:           $50.00  

7:00 to 9:00 pm-

Thursday, December 8 & 15

Lacy scarves and shawls look good on anyone and are incredibly fun to knit, but the patterns can sometimes seem intimidating or daunting. Fear no more! In this class, we’ll learn the basic lace stitches, which all the other lace stitches are based on, and we’ll also learn how to read lace patterns, including how to read charts. In this 2-week course, we’ll get you started on a simple, customizable lace scarf – depending on what yarn you choose, it can be a light-weight accent scarf perfect for a spring or summer evening, or a heavier woolly scarf to keep you warm on a chilly winter night! Supplies not included. 

Intro to Socks (w/ DPNs):           $50.00 

7:00 to 9:00 pm-

Wednesday, November 2, 9 & 16

A great introduction to making socks and knitting in the round on double-pointed needles! In this basic intro-to-socks class, we’ll work step-by-step through the process of knitting a sock (cuff down) in a simple ribbed pattern, and when we’re done, you can take your new skills home to knit its mate on your own. Supplies not included. 

Toe Up Socks:                                    $55.00 

6:30 to 8:30 pm-

Wednesday, November 30, December 7,  14 &  21

A quick, easy and enjoyable way to make socks! Start from the toe and then decide how long you want to make the cuff!  

Earflap Hat:                                       $40.00

9:30 to 11:30 am- 

Monday, October 17, 24 & 31

Fun to make, this hat is a true favorite among both kids and adults.

Etta Hat:                                              $50.00

6:30 to 8:30 pm-

Wednesday, Oct 19 & 26   

A hat you will want to wear with everything and everywhere.  A Joy to knit.

Knit 201:                                                               $45.00  

9:30 to 11:30 am- 

Wednesday, November 9 & 16

Wednesday, December 7 & 14

Keep making frustrating mistakes? Dropped a stitch? Afraid to fix an error?  Come learn how to correct those pesky errors and take your skills to the next level.  

Swirl Shawl /Scarf:                            $50.00

6:30 to 8:30 pm-

Tuesday, October 18, 25, November 1, & 8 

Beautiful Scarf or Shawl pattern that shows off color transitions in a unique way. Take your skills to a new level with this class.

Holden Shawl:                                        $55.00

6:30 to 8:30 pm-

Monday, November 21, 28, December 5 & 12 

A necessary addition to anyone’s wardrobe, this shawl is simply beautiful. 

Knitted Rag Doll:                                   $55.00 

6:30 to 8:30 pm-

Thursday, November 3, 10, 17 & December 1

Many knitted toys have been the most favored and treasured toys ever created.  You can learn to create these adored items in this class and have fun creating hair, striped stockings, a dress, shirt or even turn your doll into a superhero!

Holiday Elf:                                                    $45.00

6:30 to 8:30 pm- 

Monday, November 7 & 14  

This too cute holiday elf will be all over the house watching the children… he is loads of fun to make and love.

Christmas Stocking:                          $50.00

6:30 to 8:30 pm-

Friday, December 9, 16 & Monday, December 19

Start your own family tradition. This is a relatively simple stocking that also has a little fair isle for that very Christmas-y look. 

Crochet Baby Blanket:                    $45.00

6:30 to 8:30 pm- 

Tuesday, November 15 & 22

Need to make a quick surprise?  This is the class to take, an easy way to make someone special a very thoughtful gift! 

Learn to Knit Continental:   $35.00 

7:00 to 9:00 pm-  

Tuesday, October 11

Tuesday, December 13

Most Americans learn to knit English style – that is, holding the working yarn in your right hand and “throwing” the yarn to create the stitch. However, some people find that Continental style – holding the working yarn steady in your left hand and “picking” the stitches with the right needle – is more efficient and can reduce pain caused by carpal tunnel or tendonitis. In this two-hour workshop, you’ll learn how to knit and purl Continental style. Supplies not included. 

Crochet Granny Squares:              $35.00

6:30 to 8:30 pm-  

Wednesday, October 13.   

The granny square offers endless possibilities in crochet. Learn how to create the basic granny square, how to create a giant granny square blanket, and how to join smaller squares into an afghan.    

Mish mash.

Uuuuuuuuugh I cannot take it anymore.

I have to confess something.  I can't keep doing this anymore.  It is sucking my will to live.  I'm starting to break out in hives every time I think about doing it. 

And by "it", I mean the Farmer's Market Cardigan that I've been knitting on since the Nixon Administration. 

In the past week, I haven't done a single thing with it.  I have it shoved in a large plastic bag (I love those huge gallon-sized plastic bags.  Perfect for knits.) and it's been left completely alone.  In my head, however, I've shamed myself so thoroughly that, if thinking about a project was knitting on a project, I'd have finished the dang thing and cast on for another one in laceweight yarn.  Oy vey.

My relationship to this knit is not going well.  If I had a personal relationship with this much hostile resentment simmering in it, we'd be having "the talk".  You know, the one where you start out trying to be all "it's not you, it's me" and "I need some time alone to work on myself" and end up yelling about toilet seats and mothers and "why don't you clean up after yourself, you gerbil-faced buffoon??!?" Yeah.  That's how I feel about it right now.


Angry baby is angry.

So.  Since I am the master of my knitting destiny (stop that laughing), I am making a decision based on desperation what I am capable of living with, combined with my desire to be done right frickin' now the amount of time I'm willing to designate to this project.  The finishing work on this cardigan is getting abridged.  Big time.  I'm skipping the pockets, and doing a different shawl collar treatment, one that doesn't require me to do arithmetic on the cables to make it look right (I swear it's got arithmetic on the cabling for the shawl collar!).  I'm also renaming it.  This will become the I'm About To... Cardigan.  Think I should sell the pattern on Ravelry? 

I've been knitting, not just thinking about knitting, this week.

  These are birthday socks for my mom.  (Hope you aren't looking, Mom, since I haven't gotten them to you, yet!)  You know about Noro sock yarn, right?  Gorgeous colors that drift ever-so-subtly from one rich shade to the next...and never a chance of making a perfectly identical pair of socks.  I tried, really I tried.  The one sock looks like I punted a squid, though.  Just a little inky on the toes.

These are "Picky Pants", in a gorgeous shade of Malabrigo ("Lettuce").  Sorry for the crap picture.  I love these pants so much...I just have to finish off the I-cord drawstring for the waistline of the pants and it will be good to go.

I also cast on for a second pair of Picky Pants, in Azul Profundo.  I keep going around the house, hoping to use the word profundo in a sentence, because it just sounds cool.  Profundo, eh?

Muy profundo, ci.  I have profundo feelings about the Malabrigo.  I like pizza profundo, it's supposed to rain-o  profundo today...ok, I will stop.

It's been rather chaotic around here the past few days as well, unfortunately.  We have had a bit of a cold making the rounds on the children, and that has reeeeallly cut into my knitting/sleeping/lazing about time.  I will hopefully have better news to report next time!  See you then!

Winter is coming.

Are there any of you out there completely addicted to the "Game of Thrones" series on HBO?  If so, then this title might have made you smile....But truly, winter is coming. (Cue "serious" music)
Did any of you out there enjoy donning some handknits when the weather turned chilly this past weekend?  I was so happy to be cold.  I wore my February Lady sweater, and my daughter was decked out in her Baby Surprise Jacket.  It's times like these that a knitter and his or her handknits are appreciated properly!

I've been lucky to get some pictures of what the knitters of Great Yarns have been working on.  I don't have names to go with the faces, so give a shout out in the comments, will you, if you see your mug on here!



This is the mitered squares blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. 




No clue what this is, but I want it desperately.



Look at the edging on this, just stunning.



I have a friend who is going through a feather-and-fan phase.  I bet she's delirious right now.

These accomplished knitters look like they have been very busy all summer long, with gorgeous knits to wear and use once the heat is long gone.  And, on a different note, I have to tell you about my friend.  Let me change her name first...um...Miz.  My friend Liz Miz learned to knit from me, and knitted happily all winter long.  She went to the yarn store quite a bit, and even chewed me out in a friendly way when she had a bit of a shopping splurge at the yarn store.  Somehow she thought I was "enabling"...whatever that means.  But Miz doesn't knit in the summer.  Not a stitch.  She just stopped cold turkey.  Hey, Miz!!  See what you could have in time for fall and winter if you weren't off the wool, eh?!?!?  Anyone else remember that story about the grasshopper that sang all summer?  Uh huh, Miz, I'm talkin' to you!

Lesson learned:  winter is coming.

This knitter has been working at the Cardigan-That-Will-Never-End.  I know a lot of projects get to a point where it's like a marriage.  There were fun times, there will be fun times ahead, but right now we're trudging along together.  No fireworks, no fire, just blah.  And there is an excess of blah going on with my Farmer's Market Cardigan.  You would think that, after you knit the body and both sleeves, you would be on the homestretch.  It all seems rather final.  But not with this puppy.  Then I am supposed to hem the sleeves and then pick up the provisional stitches on the body to knit pockets.  Then add a shawl collar, mow the lawn, feed the pigs, dust the furniture, and finally, FINALLY, I can block it and sew it up.  Lesson learned:  read the pattern all the way through before you look at the picture for too long and are hooked.  So help me, this sweater better fit like a dream.  I could have knit a house by now.  Here are some pictures of it:




Is it just me or do these sleeves look about a mile long?



This is Cascade 220, called "Eggplant". 

This yarn is so dark that I think my vision has gone from 20/20 to 20/2000.  It sucks all the light out of the room like a black hole.  In fact, knitting on it is rather black hole-like, too.  I'm resisting the urge to stick it back in the closet. 

Since that sweater is SO dark and I have been knitting on it for SO long, I had to get some little projects out to take the edge off.  They had to be small, easy, and brightly colored. 

These are "Picky Pants", made of Malabrigo (am I the only one who constantly mispronounces it?).  It is my first time with the Malabrigo, and I'm resisting the urge to sell all my furniture to buy a large amount of it.  It's so soft I almost think it's cotton candy and I should taste it to see if it tastes as good as it looks.  Is it just me that feels like that?   Ooookay...awkward moment.

I am also working on another small, colorful project.  But it is a secret, for someone for their special day.  And they read this blog, so...


                                                     

I promise you, it's not this.  What are you knitting?