Pictures and Unrelated T3xt

Last night I had my first dream about yarn/knitting. First, no kidding. My dear husband and I were in a restaurant in Japan and eating fantastic food.

They were giving us super huge portions, though, and I was afraid they would be grumpy that we weren't finishing them. So we were taking a kind of long time over dinner. I remember this one dish in particular was a salmon tempura with a slightly sweet sticky sauce. Yummerz. So finally we were getting ready to go and I noticed -- for the first time -- that the restuarant had a basket of yarn on the wall next to the table, with some needles. My conception was that it was like a bread basket, a while-you-wait kind of thing. I bet all the best ideas come to people while they are sleeping.

The sad thing was, I was really excited to see what kinds of fancy Japanese yarn they had,

but it was all European yarn.

Du Store Alpakka, Garnstudio, Opal sock yarn, some unlaballed balls. Not even any Kauni!

PS. Did you spot the FO in this post? It's my final pair of replacement Pomatomus mitts. If these get lost or stolen, or I end of hating (ravelry link) them (though I doubt that, they are a beautiful brown silk/cashmere from Colourmart), I will try the new Spirogyra pattern from Knitty.

Entrelac Roolz

For some reason I really dragged my feet on finishing these (no pun intended… really). I carried around the two, with only the kitchnering to do, for like 3 days. Finally I finished and I love them! I think I was procrastinating because I didn’t want to face the fact that they were actually a little too large. But, with the 6-stitch-block thing, it’s kind of hard to get a fine gradation in sizing.

Plus I think I’m just not expereinced enough with socks to tell early-on what’ll be too big for me. That, and my crazy super-loose knitting. I don’t know what’s up with loosey goosey me.

  Anyway. I haven’t blocked them yet, and I’m hoping that will make some magic happen. As it is, they slouch a bit (unless I actually have my legs up in the air admiring the socks, or it's seconds after I just pulled them up), and the heel is a bit poofified now and then. But you know what? I love the colors so much, and I love the look of the entrelac so much, and I loved knitting them so much, that I can accept the slight not-exactly-perfectness of them. And hope that blocking will save the day. Yay for me.

(P.S. it's Annetrelac, in Regia Desgin Kaffee Fassett)

kthx bai!

2008.02.24.19.09.42, originally uploaded by katy_pine.

Pattern: Knucks, from knitty.com

Knitted for my favorite Norwegian. I started these near the beginning of January in anticipation of his February birthday. It was a quick knit, about two evenings' worth of knitting (including frogging and reknitting the 2nd glove three times because the decreases didn't match properly, entirely my fault, it's a great pattern). So, there they sat for almost a month while I decided what the 8-letter statement should be across the knuckles. I did quite a bit of research and pondering and wracking other people's brains about it.

Here's a sample of other people's choices, culled from ravelry pictures and around the internet, and some from my own crazy brain:

high/five rock/roll game/over whatever nerd/core play/golf serenity rtfm/unix cuteness omg!/wtf? laughter strength read/jane bike/safe dynomite star/zero fuck/yeah patience play/loud knit/soxx play/time late/fate cats/meow half/full piss/off! song/bird love/life all()aces cozy/warm baby/wins brit/pop bull/shit purr/hiss liebling damn/cold snow/babe yarn/diva look4luv look/lush lush/life geek/girl geek/love hard/core nerd/core geek/chic

the winner:
kthx/bai!

I know, not all deep and stuff. But my recipient laughed and laughed and laughed, and I think that was worth it at least.

Ravelry Ate Me

Ravelry is an incredible tool for organizing and encouraging my knitting. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a progress bar. It's been a little consuming lately, but I've been very productive in the knitting realm.

Annetrelac Socks
Regia Design, Kaffe Fassett


sweet baby Djevellue
silke-alpaca


My So-Called Scarf
colonia 140 from handpaintedyarn.com


and some coldie-pants of my own pattern (basically)

Also we had the most amazing Stitch-n-Bitch this last Monday. We got some exciting baby-makin' news from one of our members, and met two new members. Emily has a beautiful blog and makes adorable little babushkas and gives them super-scandinavian names like "Vilde". Esther didn't have a blog but she's making charming baby hats... you'd have to see them to understand... I'll try to get a picture next time.

smallxorz

my man rigged a pringles can to his new SLR to make an extreme-macro lens; witness:
addi turbo 
 
noro silk garden
 
laceweight silk from colourmart.com

hals

I had this little bit of cashmere/silk sitting around from a sample pack from colourmart.com. I knew I could make something little out if it. At first I tried a headband/earwarmer for a little head, but I didn't like it too much. I ripped it out and started anew after I finished my pomatomus mits. I loved the pattern, so I adapted it to a "hals". This is a piece of clothing that is very popular for Norwegian children, but I didn't see so much in the States (even Alaska). It's great though, like a turtleneck without the sleeves or body, keeps the neck warm and prevents a draft going down the back. I used 10 repeats of the pattern on 2.75 mm needles. After one vertical repeat in the round, I split it and continued one more vertical repeat for the front and one for the back, then about 3 cm of twisted ribbing.

What a Swell Hat

This was just a little quick project (finished in one night of movies) for a gift. Unfortunately the recipient's head is probably  a little bigger than my four-year-old's. It's based on Knitty's Swell, but obviously there's no wave motif and it's seed stitch. One of my favorites. The yarn is from handpaintedyarn.com in the hot chocolate colorway.