Libraries are awesome

A woman in my knitting group got the most amazing knitting book through interlibrary loan called Unexpected Knitting by Debbie New. This book is incredibly inspiring and shows a bunch of freeform knitting. It shows the potential of knitting as an art form, not just a craft. The book does not contain detailed instructions for most of the items featured, but does give intermediate or advanced knitters a jumping off point for some very creative projects.

I just got a book out of the library called Origamido by Michael Lafosse, which is a very similar sort of book, only with origami instead of knitting. Again, not much in the way of detailed instructions, but a beautiful, inspirational book.

Finished Objects!

Chanukah was celebrated a bit late this year by my family, since my parents and I decided to wait until their visit to do most of our gifting, though we also exchanged a few gifts by mail. Knitted objects were gifted in person because a) we wanted to see each other's reactions, and b) it gave more time to finish the gifts.


This is my mom and I modeling the shawls we made for each other. She made me the Easy Triangular Shawl out of Lion Brand Homespun. It's oh so cozy, and her first finished knitting project in many years! I'm so proud and I will wear it a lot. The shawl I made for her is Bob & Weave from knitty, with some minor adjustments, knit in recycled silk sari yarn. The pattern is very simple, just stockinette stitch with drop stitch rows and ribbon woven through the dropped stitches. I highly recommend it. The yarn was a bit fussy to work with - thick and thin, alternately very tightly and then loosely spun, plenty of sticks and leaves in it pick out, and a little musty smelling, but overall I think it was worth it since I am extremely pleased with the final product and my mom seems to be too.


My dad showing off his new hat. He's usually more smiley, but in this shot is taking his hat modeling duties very seriously. The hat is a simple 4 x 4 ribbed hat (my own pattern) in Plymouth Encore Chunky from my LYS.

Speaking of my LYS, Unravel has now sold 4 of the 6 hats I made to sell there, and they are interested in more! I also have a couple of projects for myself in the works, more details in the next week or so, but I'll leave you with a preview of the yarn for one of them.

I'm a winner

I have not posted for a while because my parents are visiting and that has been keeping me occupied. On the plus side, I will soon post pictures the knitted items I made them for Chanukah, since they have now received them. Also pretty neat - we went to the Grand Canyon this weekend, which was so perfect - this is the best time of year to go. We had been there once before, in August many years ago, and it was so crowded and so hot, it was ridiculous and hard to fully enjoy it. This trip was so much nicer and now I want to go back with Mr. Cool within the next few months and do a proper hike down into the inner canyon.

In knitting-related news, I recently won a contest on savannahchik. She was looking for suggestions for what to do with Koigu sock yarn besides making socks with it. I suggested legwarmers, and she ended up going with my suggestion! I am excited to see her progress on them, and also excited to receive the yarn she is sending me as a prize! Thanks, Jody!

Pictures of my parents Chanukah presents to come very soon!

Free hat patterns

I don't typically buy knitting magazines, since I'm more of an improviser than a pattern person, but sometimes I use patterns as a base to work from. So I was leafing through Interweave Knits in the store, and they had a really cute feature called Cover Your Ears, which is patterns for 6 earflap hats and an earband thing. But the patterns were not in the magazine, they just had photos, and the patterns are available on their website. Which suits me just fine, since I was not even tempted to buy the mag. My favorite is the one on the bottom right, though I'd go for a color other than orange, and being me, would probably adapt the pattern a bit.

Hurts so good

I think I have injured my wrists, hands and elbows from knitting too much. Of course, my excessive computer use and rock climbing could have contributed as well. It seems that too many of my hobbies are hard on the same parts of my body.

Regardless of the exact cause, I'm taking a couple of days off knitting since it doesn't feel great, but it's really difficult to stick to this. I really want to finish my super top secret project for my mom before my parents visit (9 days away). Plus, there are a number of things in my stash calling out to me, primarily my Teseo in this lovely teal/green color. I'm thinking wristwarmers.



I used the same yarn in a red/brown color for the first hat I ever made, which I absolutely adore and wear all the time. I love the feel of the yarn, the way it looks knit up, and the self-striping makes it look like I did more work than I actually did.

The other yarn I've been drooling over lately is some recently added yarn at Miss Hawklet. Specifically, this yarn below, which has already been bought my some lucky person.

Chanukah gift report

My post earlier today didn't have a photo, so here's one of some of the treats I got for Chanukah. Of particular note: two items from my wishlist - The Vogue Ultimate Knitting book and Treehouses of the World, as well as the yummy Sundays at Moosewood cookbook (from which we just tried out an excellent latke recipe), the book Knitting Yarns & Spinning Tales, and a Chanukah platter with matching beaded knife/serving utensil (on the Chaukah plate) which my mom embellished herself. Mr. Cool's parents kindly sent us some vegetarian cookbooks too, as well as the Knitting Yarns book and the cute stationery pictured here, and some cashmere socks (not pictured) that I wore immediately.

Coincidence of the week

Having just moved to a new place a few months ago, I only have one friend here, other than my boyfriend (henceforth to be referred to as Mr. Cool), my knitting group, and some acquaintances at the climbing gym. So last night, my friend, Mr. Cool, and I went out for New Year's. We were in line to get in to see some crappy local band at a crappy local brewery with crap beer, and who should end up in line behind us? Some friends of my friend. That doesn't sound particularly coincidental yet, but just wait. When I turned around to be introduced to those folks, right behind them in line I saw someone from knitting group, so I said hello. She starts to chat with me, then mentions that she thinks the folks standing between us (friends of both my friend and the woman from knitting group) bought one of my hats. I chat with them for a minute and confirm this, then let them go back to doing their New Year's thang. (I didn't want to scare one of the two people who have purchased something I knit by coming on too strong.)

I guess it's not that exciting, but it was to me. It seems like the chances of the person who bought one of my hats:
a) ending up in line directly behind us
and
b) being friends with the one friend I have here
is pretty slim.

I wish I had a photo of the hat, but alas, I did not take one before selling it. It's a really fun hat, made with very bulky Plymouth Encore Mega in purple and bright pink, with some eyelash yarn (Berrocco Sizzle) in pink and purple mixed in for part of it. I made one in the same materials for my best friend, who is living in Eastern Europe right now, so perhaps I can get a picture from her of it in use.