6 January 2012 · 5 Comments
I have a mystery yarn. Not a mystery yarn as in ‘I lost or threw away the tag, sure in the knowledge that I would remember the info’ (note to self, you will not remember). No, a different sort of mystery. I totally have the tag. But the tag does not seem to match up with any of the listings I can find online.
The brand is the Great Adirondack Yarn Company. Them I can find. It’s the base that’s tricky. The tag lists it as “ROSA 3/5.” It also says that it’s 100% merino superwash, that it’s 232 yards long, and that the colorway is mixed berries (number 1110). You’d think that would be plenty of info, but somehow I can’t seem to find any mention of Rosa or Rosa 3/5. Not on Adirondack’s page, nor on ravelry’s.
Anybody have any insight? Because I’m playing with a lovely skein of this stuff, and I want to give credit where credit is due when I list it.
3 January 2012 · 8 Comments
See, I told you it was making progress. I’m rather taken with these. What do you think, do they work for you too? The color here is a tiny bit off, but it’s snowing outside and I don’t feel like either putting on my coat or going outside in my jammies. You’ll have to just imagine it a bit more orange and a bit less pink.
The mate to this one is on the needles now, but is making slow progress. It’s not the pattern’s fault though. Not at all. The pattern is surprisingly close to autopilot knitting (despite what it looks like…it’s kind of magic).
You see, we just got season one of Breaking Bad from the library. Then we fell over gobsmacked with the goodness of it all. Then we went and procured season two…and made plans to procure seasons three and four (and don’t tell me what happens…we’re just on season two and don’t want spoilers). The show is good enough I actually watch it…with my eyes. Normally I listen to tv while watching my knitting. Or I split the watching between the tv and the knitting…it makes watching tv feel more productive. But not for this show. For this show I don’t want to look away, and I can’t quite do these socks without looking. It’s totally slowing me down.
I know there’s a person or two anxious to get these on their needles though, and I don’t want you to despair, they’ll almost certainly be the next thing I write up. Fingers crossed I’ll have it up for testing some time around Monday.
2 January 2012 · 5 Comments
But my hat was so delightful! See, I told you the hat was much cuter on.
And warm…very very warm. I’m fairly sure I could stand outside in that bluster and blow for just about forever and my head would not be cold. (Please pardon the blowing hair, it really was kind of stormy outside. We’re standing in the driveway out of the main force of it because otherwise the tassel sticks straight out in the wind. Speaking of tassel, it’s really the tassel that makes the whole thing, it’s ridiculously fun.)
Everyone should immediately go get their very own wheel (plate, disc, what are those things called) of pencil roving and make their own. 1×1 ribbing for a row or two in a contrasting yarn, 3×1 ribbing for a nice long time, decrease, add tassel. It will take you about two days if you dawdle. You won’t regret it!
1 January 2012 · 5 Comments
I hope you all had just the sort of New Year’s Eve festivities that you wanted (we watched Ghostbusters…what can I say, we’re old, that’s what we do).
As promised, the first of the Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet patterns is available. I’m working with the wonderful Wendee of Hazel Knits on her January knit along. All the details (including how you can download the Linaria bipartita Sock pattern free during the month of January) are over on the knit along thread.
As for my own knitting, I’m ready to do the toe on the first of the orange spiky socks. Next post should have a picture, and some time in the next week or two they should go up for testing.
30 December 2011 · 4 Comments
I had all sorts of clever plans to avoid the dreaded blog silence over the holidays. And I mostly made it…there totally were posts. Just not as many (and not as knitting-rich) as I would like. It’s mostly because I’ve been doing stuff other than knitting over the last few days. It’s surprisingly hard to have knitting to show you if I don’t actually knit. Not impossible…just hard.
I’ll offer two little consolation prizes. First, there’s a wee little interview with me on Robin’s site. Second, if you come back on January first, I’ll let you know how you can start knitting on one of the patterns from The Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet right away. You know, just in case any of you might want to do such a thing.
28 December 2011 · No Comments
I’m more or less in love with this hat. It’s ridiculously simple, unreasonably tall, and quite possibly the warmest hat in the history of yarn. I can’t decide how I like it best…as shown there (with the top flopped over), with the brim folded up once and only a bit of pouf on the top, or with the brim folded up twice so it sits more firmly against the top of my head. Then there’s the always amusing option of wearing it inside out. I may also have made a giant tassel to slip in to the top as the mood strikes.
I think the reason it is so satisfying is that it has just the right amount of ridiculousness. It is not in any way serious. It is not delicate or subtle or refined. It is not sophisticated. It is not glamorous. It is not anything other than what it is…a slightly goofy, very warm hat. Which is good, since the weather seems to have finally gotten the message about that whole ‘winter’ thing and gotten cold. Some time this weekend I’ll try and get pictures of the various incarnations of the hat on a person (rather than an Alphonse) and see if I can convey the full majesty of this creation.
25 December 2011 · 2 Comments
Back in March, I went to the Black Swamp Spinner’s Guild Market Day. I bought pencil roving. I brought it home and, within a day or two, I cast on for a hat. It was a hat of epic failure. It was too big. Massively too big. Even for my giant head. There was no saving it.
I eventually ripped and set the yarn in the active project basket in the family room. This basket is on the top shelf of the bookcase and had always been safe from kitten depredations. This time, not so much. There is something about the pencil roving that drives Barry to a state of unbridled passion the likes of which I have never seen outside of a trashy book cover. He somehow got the yarn down and had a long and private moment with it one evening. This involved chewing on rather a lot of it. I salvaged what I could but found myself a bit frustrated with the whole thing and so tossed it (safely bagged to prevent further incidents) into the recesses of the stash closet.
The other day I decided that I really wanted woolly hat. I needed it. There was no other alternative. So I dug out the pencil roving, did better math, and cast on again. The results so far can be seen below. And while I fully acknowledge that it looks a little funny right now, I have absolute confidence that this will be exactly what I want after another hour or two of knitting. No really. It will. I’m sure of it.
Older Entries
Newer Entries
