Real cunnin', doncha think?

He's been practising! All on his own! He's been using Knitting With Balls and KnittingHelp.com because I am a less than great teacher, but he's doing so well now! He's working on a 2x2 rib and there have been a few false starts, but now he's moving the yarn properly. He's totally caught the bug, he's even coming to the next Stitch'n'Bitch.

It's nice to have a home-friend that I can sit around and knit with, now that Maddie's all the way in Manitoba and Meghan's back in Jersey. That's what we did last night, sat around and knit. I wanted a break from the Adamas (I only got two rows of the next repeat done all night), so I decided to bust some stash and cast on another little project. Cast on half-way through House Hunters, knit through Bones, House, and tied on the pompom at the end of The Bachelor:

Ta-da! My third Jayne hat, and the best looking so far. I've been using the Redshirt Knitting pattern for all three, and as you can see they all look quite different:

The first one, I just used one strand from each ball, because I was new and didn't understand the instructions. For the second one, I read too much into the instructions - 'holding two strands together' as 'double knitting'. So I taught myself double knitting, and the result was . . . shortbus. But! Now I finally have it. This has been the best Jayne hat yet. I still may give it away - it was only a three and a half hour knit, and it's not quite big enough to look right. Next try will be an XL, but I have to pick up more gold yarn. I tried to get all three colours in the recommended Red Heart, but for some reason yellow - any yellow outside the baby section - is practically impossible to find, so I went with Georga 100% Wool. A total 180 from the acrylic Red Heart, but it doesn't actually look all that bad once it's knitted up. Only thing is, the ball's about half the size, so I'm almost all out, not enough for another hat. And I promised myself no more yarn until I burn through some of this stash.

I've given up on my binary scarf. I just don't enjoy it any more. My black yarn is too scratchy, it would be so uncomfortable to wear for longer than a second, it's too wide . . . anyway, I just don't want to do any more. But I've gotten like ten rows of characters done, so I don't want to frog all my hard work. Thus, binary scarf becomes binary throw pillow! I stuffed it, sewed it, and am now in the long and irritating process of making tassels for it.

I really, really want my next project to be the Evangeline fingerless gloves, with my Sean Sheep armytage. Unfortunately, the pattern was on MagKnits, so I'm waiting for it to go up on YarnForward. I don't want to ask around Rav if anyone has a copy they could send me because I don't want to start another round of copyright wank. So until then, it's baby booties and baby sweaters as far as the eye can see.

SEX and the Single Girl

Oh. My. God.

It's full of stars.

We're going to need a bigger boat.

My very first in earnest stash enhancement expedition and I believe it is what one might term a success. I headed down to the DKC Knitter's Frolic and in order to keep myself from overspending I recruited a Polish mother to follow me around. He was feeling a little underrepresented, and we determined that the opposite of a sausagefest was a tacofest. And the Frolic was one hell of a tacofest. Despite that, he completely failed at his task and I spent all last night teaching him to knit (though I am a bad teacher, I'm starting to realise).

But! I got lots and lots of prettiful yarns. Good yarn. I think I am leaving my Bernat, Patons, and Red Heart days behind me, now that I have seen the light. Check out the haul:


That red Anne along the side is my pride and joy purchase. The picture doesn't show it, but it has gorgeous variation from a lighter red to a dark, more violet-red. It's so vivid, and it catches the light perfectly. I fondled it and decided it was a little too expensive and I should find what else I could get for the candleflame shawl, so we walked away. Walked all around and I decided that I was far too in love and would get it anyway. So we head back to the booth - and it's gone. I had a weetiny coronary, clutching at my chest, and everything - and then Nik spots it hanging over a display of Misti. And there was much rejoicing. I am so in love with this yarn.

Anyway, ended up dropping almost $200 for the day, but I have enough yarn to pretty much last me the summer. Chatted with a few people, saw Linda, found out that everyone and their mother (quite literally) are on Rav.

So, while Nik was knitting slowly and laboriously, I was back to working on my Adamas shawl for the new bebe. Unnamed Baby is due late June (I believe) and I was going to make the Bernat Ducky Blanket. Which is, admittedly, adorable, but it involved a lot of seaming and just yards of plain stockinette. At the SnB, Linda suggested the Adamas shawl, so I picked up some Bernat Baby Softee on sale at Michaels and a new set of Hiya Hiya circs from the eponymous Linda's Craftique, and launched into my first lace experience. The result so far, with nine pattern repeats and the border still to go:

When I'm knitting lace, I feel like I'm kind of careening through each row and somehow emerging unscathed on the other side. But it's turning out really good, I'm pretty proud of myself. Pat on the back for me. I had worried that i wouldn't be finished on time, but if I continue at this clip I'll have time to knock out some booties to go with it.

Call me Ishmael . . .

I'm bursting at the seams (pun fully intended) trying not to talk about knitting.

Thus, in true Highlander fashion, I give up.

In a manner.

Instead of biting my tongue on the subject on my regularly scheduled blog (which has been languishing in obscurity the last few weeks, due to the untimely demise of my computer's video card which has it sent to be repaired), I'm going to try - keyword: try - to keep a general record of my needle-related flail over here. Le voila. A knitting blog. How far I have fallen.

So, in the manner of general introduction, as of today (April . . . somethingth. 25th.), I've been knitting for six months. I learned to knit from two of my friends - one of whom taught me to knit, and the other to purl, so I give both of them the credit. Once I'd mastered the garter stitch scarf (seven feet long in grey and blue boucle, not too shabby if I do say so myself), I moved immediately to fair isle knitting in the round. Me? Take things slowly? Surely you jest.

I'm an Aries. This is how we roll.

I've invented my own mitten pattern, created two fair isle charts, accumulated a scary little stash, and clothed all my loved ones in warmth. Now, the next challenge: Lace knitting.