while i don’t *hate* mending, i do find it really boring, so i feel inordinately proud of myself when i do get around to it. my beloved power house of a gingham shirt has had a small rip in the shoulder for over a month now, and i finally got around to sewing it up. so while i was there, i thought, hey, why not add a little something extra?
speaking of embroidery, have you guys seen meredith‘s most recent sweater makeover? because it is GORGEOUS.
the slow news day sweater is finally blocking, two weeks after i finished knitting it. i tried to shape it down as much as possible when it was wet. i hope it isn’t too massive on me, and that i like it. it would be such a bummer to pull it all out.
i made myself a necklace this weekend. i’ve dabbled in jewelry here and there, never with any kind of seriousness. this is definitely the most wearable piece i’ve made, and it’s got me kind of excited. i’ll take some pictures of what it looks like on later!
and: my package from kessa!
lots of fun goodies, including a rooibos strawberry blend tea, some sweet little cookie cutters, candies (one not pictured because it got all ate up before pictures happened!), some fingering weight yarn, a kusudama, some cute napkins (i love gingko leaves!), and most importantly: the shawl kessa made me! i owe you modeled pictures! sometimes it’s easier to be behind the camera than in front of it.
do you guys add anything to boring chores to make them more fun? have you made anything out of your usual skill set recently?
baby blanket done! by done, i mean i’ve finished the knitting and it’s spread out over the bed, blocking!
i’ll get some FO shots in the next couple of days.
i’ve been having a little blogging block recently. i’m wearing clothes, i’m knitting away, but i don’t feel like documenting it, or talking about any of it. does that ever happen to you guys? anyways, i’m trying to work through it. any suggestions?
i’d love to start up my choose your own adventure knitting again, but for another month or so, most of my knitting is preordained.
i dropped that march photo a day like a hot potato. sorry, photo a day…
coming up soon is: 30 for 30 spring edition! i’m still planning on starting april 15. who’s with me? i know a couple of you guys expressed interest in giving it a shot.
wow, i’m totally participating in FO fridays! i never get to do that! whoo!
FO: julie’s chapeau
pattern: marigold hat
yarn: tahki yarn donegal tweed, just under a skein
needles: US 6 (4mm) and US 8 (5mm)
i’ve made this hat before. see? anyways, it was fairly popular on ravelry, but i didn’t take good enough notes to help all the people who were asking me questions. julie was one of the admirers of the original.
so i knit up another marigold, with as close to the same modifications as i could, and gave it to julie when she came to visit last month. as an added bonus, this means that i got FO shots taken by G, with julie as a model! he does all of julie’s picture taking, and i think we can all agree that he does an exemplary job. thanks, G!
so, without further ado, a list of modifications:
-i cast on the number of stitches for the small hat
-i knit the brim flat
-i did two short rows at the front of the hat to set it back a little
-i added a three stitch button hole for the large button (though, frankly, a two stitch button hole would’ve been just fine)
-i added a little shaping to round off the edge of the button band (increase every row until the button hole, decrease every row until the band is done)
-i increased to the number of stitches for the large hat, and switched to US size 8 needles
-i knit the lace pattern for three repeats
-then closed it up per the pattern.
-wet blocked it over a plate to encourage slouchy qualities.
-i sewed the edge of the brim down just past the buttonhole so that it wouldn’t gap.
and voila! hat!
i don’t think i’ve ever mentioned this here, but i recently became OBSESSED with the brick house. the pictures are beautiful, i find morgan hilarious, and her taste is excellent, from really well curated rooms, to ridiculous and amazing thrift store paintings. i may or may not have read through every single one of her posts, from the beginning.
anywho, one of her blog features is thrifty! where she details various thrift store finds, most of which make me wish i didn’t live in a thrift store desert. there is one store close-ish to me that i peak my head into every now and again. and last time i did, i found something!
i am not sure why all of our recently acquired seating is yellow…
some gorgeous mustard seated leg-o-matics!
thank you Betty N! or less likely, Betty Z.
look at these awesome way-better-than-normal folding chairs! they look so much better, and fold up so much smaller! i’ve been looking for a good solution to extra seating in the study, because people tend to want to watch things on the computer, but goodness knows it is tiny in there, so space conservation is a must! i was originally looking for stacking stools that i know ikea used to have, but i haven’t seen them on my last several stops. so when i saw these beauties at $5 a pop, i thought ‘heck, yeah!’ and then bought them.
in other news:
look at that smile. all gums. i was so excited with how well it turned out.
this guy is super-duper close to being done. i think a blocking will make it look better. but i bought buttons on saturday, and sewed in all of the ends, and went to extra mile to do a 2×2 tubular bind off. i have only had an inkling of what the finished product would look like the entire time i’ve been knitting it, so when i tried it on after sewing on the buttons, i was pretty dang excited and forced jake to take pre-FO pictures. and now i’m forcing them on you! bwahaha!
er, yeah. sorry about that!
you didn’t think that this blog was moving away from knitting, did you? haha! as if. yeah, don’t worry your pretty little head, my passion for knitting isn’t in any danger. to prove it, here is a backlog knit:
FO: phoenix eternal <–ravelry project page!
pattern: eternity scarf
yarn: dream in color smooshy, in vino veritas, just a tad over a skein.
needles: US 10 (6.0mm)
i saw a couple of really awesome versions of this cowl: yarnsnob‘s gorgeous version in madelinetosh, and barefootrooster‘s awesome handspun one. these made me really want to knit one.
knitting it was great fun. the stitches are easy and textural and fun, and it goes really quickly on such large needles. and when i cast off and threw it on (here), i totally loved it. and then… i blocked it.
and suddenly i didn’t like it nearly as much anymore. such a bummer to feel, by the way. the thrall went out of the relationship (i already mentioned buffy recently, right? oh, ok, sorry to be a broken record). i couldn’t figure it out.
so i gifted this. and now i think i know what happened. pre blocked, this was smooshy, cozy, textural and awesome. post blocking it was flat, suddenly it was the wrong length. looped twice it wasn’t warm enough, but three times was too tight.
(this is before. can you kind of see the difference?)
i’m definitely going to remake this (i’ve got some handspun that has been looking for a project just like this…). but next time, i don’t think i’ll block it.
that is why i call him el uno! -elisa of 30 rock
it was love at first sight when i saw the heart of the mesa mittens . i started these in toronto, in october, with some canadian made & bought yarn (elitespun fingering in charcoal and hot lava). the first thumb took me a while to get to (assisted by holiday knitting taking priority). i’m partway into the second mitten now. i had a batch of woolen handwashing and blocking to do, i thought i’d block the first mitten, too.
happy solstice! i look forward to the winter solstice almost as much as christmas this time of year. in a very different way, though. i am incredibly excited that the days will start getting longer! i think this year daylight savings was worse than usual. i don’t remember the sun setting at 4:30 pm last year… but maybe it did? either way: bring on more daytime! we got a lovely snowfall last night, and it’s fresh and lovely out there.
in here, where my toes are freezing, and extra blankets are getting piled onto beds, there’s a wooly hat blocking:
i really like it. i can’t wait to take pictures of the finished thing.
Today was yarn shopping in Marquette, as well as lunch at an awesome Irish pub, the wild rover, and they had bangers and mash, which was glorious. It seems like I only get a chance every other year or so. The mashed potatoes were amazing, a definite tie with my favorite, fat willys.
Yarn shopping was good. I found what I was looking for at the knitters niche. They had a small selection of locally raised wool, handspun, machine spun and roving. I bought 4 oz of a warm brown Shetland and even warmer brown suri alpaca. I think I’ll spin it into some laceweight. I’m thinking of using my drop spindle, as I have one project on the wheel and another waiting in the wings.
Les mittens merlot are blocking, and I have hopes of photos tomorrow. I also have hopes of blogging tomorrow from the home computer, though this borrowed iPhone certainly ain’t the worst!
ifandany 