i’m gonna squeeze in the last FO of 2011 while it’s still january… barely.
smoke & daggers <–ravelry project page
pattern: rambled (free pattern)
yarn: manos del uruguay wool clasica
needles: US 6 (4mm), US 8 (5mm)
the pattern is simple enough, but looking over the FO’s, i think it’s a fabulous pattern for trouble yarns that might want to pool or obscure more complex knitting patterns.
this was the last of my two skeins of this colorway. it really lasted well. i made a hat for craig with it, and some fingerless mitts for martha.
i finished this on thanksgiving, actually. and we took some FO shots then, but when i reviewed them, i decided it really needed a blocking before i could call it an FO. it’s taken me this long to block it.
ok. that is all of the 2011 knits. now we can move into the unknown future. bee tee dubs, it looks like monday, feb 6 will be the beginning of my winter 30 for 30 (if we can call what we’ve been having around here winter). hopefully i will tell you all about my picks this weekend.
forever21 blazer/jackety thing
target jeggings and charcoal tshirt
urban outfitters black tank top
unknown quantity which totally should be a shop name, but actually means i have no idea who made these boots that i wear ALL OF THE TIME.
this blazer has never quite managed to make it into regular wardrobe rotation… but i like it enough that it has never quite ended up in the donate pile. just one of those limbo items. do you have any like that?
jill and i went FO shooting yesterday. and we found a little space behind the businesses that was fab. we got like five different looking locations out of this one corner, the light was excellent, and when i took my coat off, i was protected from the wind. do you see this kickass butcher block table that was just hanging out back there? think anyone would miss that? oh, wait… that would be wrong of me… plus, it’s not like i have a place to put it.
guess what she was wearing while we were out photoshooting?
sleigh rides and snowball fights! (ravelry page, blog post) i love this project. i think it turned out so so beautifully, and i’m always happy to see jillie wearing it.
just got pictures of tessa wearing her hat!
hooray! a pretty girl wearing a hand knit hat!
nemesis <– ravelry project page
in case you want reminders:
pattern: star crossed slouchy beret (free pattern)
yarn: berroco ultra alpaca tonal in fumar (6345), around 175 yards
needles: US 6 (4mm) for the brim, US 8 (5mm) for the body.
i saved the best for last, of course:
thanks joe and tessa!
i just remembered about this hat i’m supposed to make… i’m borrowing the fair isle pattern from these mitts and knitting it top down. ooooh, tweedy stranded knitting fun!
so… i think i’m gonna start my winter 30 for 30 soon. anyone interested in joining me?
first FO of the year! a tad shameful that this post would come before the last FO of 2011. i blocked them the same evening, but i want to get this in the mail, so i prioritized pics of it.
oh, so you are interested in the mysteries of the deep and all the crazy marine life down there? well, you are in luck! for i did a report in the fifth grade on the blue whale! and i remember… so little of it. they eat krill. they are the largest mammal, and also the largest ANIMAL… and…. i’m tapped.
these pictures are just placeholders. until i get pictures from the recipient. wearing his hat. who is this mysterious recipient, you ask? you don’t ask, you say? well i say you ask! the one, the only, VANAWESOME is the recipient! (so that link is to his channel. which is excellent. but in case you were curious, this is the video i usually show people as an introduction to vanawesome.)
deets!
FO: the Belafonte <–ravelry project page
pattern: my own. see more details below.
yarn: berroco ultra alpaca in henna (somewhere in the ballpark of 150 yds)
needles: US size 6 (4.0mm)
other information: vanawesome named the hat. it is named after the vessel from life aquatic with steve zissou. it is very much based on steve zissou‘s hat from the life aquatic with steve zissou. when he said that was what he wanted, i of course immediately thought of the jacques cousteau hat, but that is a 2×2 rib (which the original obvo is not), and the pattern is written for dk. so i just winged it. it ended up being the perfect disney world/universal studios waiting in line/vacation knit, which is convenient.
i cast on 100, knit 1×1 rib, did a couple of set up rows for the decreases, then decreased 4 stitches evenly every row. if i’d cast on 104 sts, i wouldn’t have needed to worry about setting up for the decreases. but i felt reckless when casting on, and didn’t do planning maths.
as promised, the sloppy joes became the base for shepherds pie. another dinner i don’t really have a recipe for. sloppy joes on the bottom, sauteed carrots and peas in the middle, mashed potatoes on top, and hey why not? toss some parmesan and melted butter on top of that! 30 minutes in an oven preheated to 400 degrees fahrenheit. it was delicious!
what animal did you do your animal report on?
we brought back a cold from florida… this outfit was from the worst day. i felt like rudolph the red-nosed all day. in fact, i thought rudolph’s nose would be cuter than mine.
j. crew– charcoal yoga cardigan, green waverly chinos
banana republic– grey tshirt
h&m– fuzzy hat
marshall fields– scarf
inherited– hiking boots
i bought the hat for jake for christmas. it’s not technically part of the outfit. it just made it easier to take pictures of the rest of the outfit. i’ve gotta stop buying him christmas presents that i borrow willy-nilly.
the necklace is actually from a dinosaur themed restaurant in downtown disney called t-rex cafe. i bought a little white quartz pendant, and a black, white and grey geode pendant from their gift store that i’m super into right now.
like i surmised earlier, the majority of the home cookin’ ceased and desisted when production of episode six began. but we’re really close to done now (two shoot days left!), and the urge to cook has rekindled. sloppy joes are a family thing. i don’t actually have a recipe, nor can i write one up, because it’s along the lines of ‘add ketchup til it looks like this, mustard til it smells like this’, etc. but we did make a few additions a la pioneer woman’s version, which worked out quite nicely.
we made extra sloppy joes so we can use it for shepherds pie! more on that soon!
as a side note, i’ve always wanted to try to make sloppy joes with the vegetarian faux ground beef i see at the grocery store. have any veggie/flexi-tarians tried this? good idea/bad idea? or should i give it a try sometime and let you know?
or color blocked, or whatever you want to call it. it’s floating around the interwebs right now, and i have slowly been falling for it… and now i’m completely OBSESSED. the clincher to my new passion?
Source: garmenthouse.blogspot.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
this sweatshirt style sweater by garmenthouse (ravlery: garmenthouse. blog: garmenthouse)
Source: de.dawanda.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
dipped kerchief
Source: vineetkaur.tumblr.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
and dipped mitts
what about you? got any good color-dipped items to add to my obsession collection? alternatively, what have you been obsessed with recently?
here’s a pre-vacation outfit that got lost in the shuffle…. cropped to avoid the messy kitchen! hooray! (it’s safe to assume that you all don’t want to see my dirty dishes, right? right. good then.)
lands end professorial cabled cardigan
gap chocolate polo
target the overused jeggings
thrifted merona loafer heels
gifted necklaces
also, ignore my bangs. i don’t know what they were up to, those impish fiends. they are getting over long, and i need to trim them. i am filled with worry at the prospect of trimming my own bangs. i have read enough YA fiction about terrible bang/fringe trimmings… but i will proceed with caution, and hopefully it will all turn out fine.
these loafer heels were a thrifty find. meronas. i wore them for a full day at work, and can i just say: if i still worked retail, these would never fly. maybe i’ll break them in, or maybe they will only work for certain occasions. it’s a mystery!
i’m back! we’re home! hooray!
what a wonderful trip. and how wonderful to return home.
want to know what all we did? this weeks update probably shows it best:
we brought back some spoils, of course.
who knows what that is?
i like smooshed pennies. i collect them on my journeys. i have them from such illustrious locations as ‘worlds largest truck stop’. jealous? yes, i would be too. it was a very large truck stop, indeed.
i forgot to find a good one in disney’s ‘magic kingdom’, and as far as i could tell, there weren’t any specific to the wizarding world of harry potter. i hope someday to make an awesome garland of them like this.
of course i researched yarn shops in the area, and one free afternoon, jake and i went gallivanting out to sip and knit, just northeast of orlando. i walked away with these:
on the left is shenanigans yarn, laceweight, 50% kid mohair, 50% merino, 1000 yds in gunsmoke, a gentle grey-lavender. on the right is scarlet fleece grassy wool, fingering, 65% superwash merino and 35% bamboo in log cabin. i don’t have any particular plans for the laceweight, but the fingering is earmarked for jake’s next pair of socks, as it is soft soft soft and won’t bother his wool sensitivity, and such a fab masculine color.
i did some knitting, of course, though not as much as i expected to. that will have to wait for another post, though.
what do you collect for souvenirs? crushed pennies like me? magnets like my brother and sister in law? iconic photographs?
there’s many things i’d love to tell you guys, but i’m soooooo tired.
guess where i am:
if you guess right, then you get…
.
.
.
.
.
.
the satisfaction of being right!
i’m so generous, eh?
crewcuts hoodie
j crew button down, jeans
old navy scarf
toms shoes
here’s another clue:
i’ll be back next week, my dears! are you being good, or are you getting into all kinds of trouble?
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