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.

p0matømUs

Mitts modified from Cookie A.'s Pomatomus. Not my idea. Koigu KPPPM in some color or other. I really do love this pattern. As usual, there are things I would change after seeing the product. Mine ended up too large. I did want them to be long, but they are too wide really. I wish they were more hugging. Maybe taking out one of the pattern sections (there are 6) would be enough. I started at the elbow with 2.25 mm needles and switched to 2 mm for the wrist and hand. This did bring in the width a bit, but not enough really. I also decreased right before the final ribbing section. And I took the easy way out and didn't knit individual fingers.

Wind Godly

This is a modified version of Eunny's Anemoi Mittens. Really less lovely than Eunny's original, but they are infused with love so I hope that will make up for the homeliness. They are for my grandma for Christmas. I actually started them back in March. They got up to 90% done quickly, but a mistake ended in the 2nd mitten being a few rows longer than the other. Of course I didn't notice this until I casted off (sort of a bitch because you have to turn the mitten inside out and then do a 3-needle bind off without missing any of the stitches which are curling inward like crazy). Fast forward 8 months and I pulled out the offending .5 cm and finished it right.

Done and Gone

It's finished -- the knitting, and the giving.

sh33pz

We visited a farm last month -- the sheep bells were mesmerizing.

Pillaging

Many kind people conspired behind my back for many months, plotting, and my own husband embezzeled money through his "lunch budget" to give me a very special birthday. My husband finally broke down and told me the plan a week before because he was afraid I would agree to work extra hours at my new job that would conflict with his plans.

As vikings of old, we sailed the salty southern sea to trade with and pillage from the lands of the south.

We took an overnight cruise to Copenhagen and spent 1.5 days there. The first day went like this: breakfast on the boat, walking and shopping in the center, pastries around 11, visit a yarn store, check in at the crazy hotel, visit another yarn store, pizza at an outdoor cafe, more shopping, brewery tour and beer tasting (yes I enjoyed this), dinner at a very nice organic restaurant at the old port, and a leisurely late night stroll home.

The highlight was the second yarn store. I can't believe I didn't take a business card or note the name -- maybe I can find the receipt later. It had a large array of beautiful Danish yarn -- it's the brown and pink hanks below the Noro in that bag.

just a part of the crazy hotel room

Warning: Graphic Content

Those are the stitches that were violently wrenched off the needles in my toddler's attempt to "knit". I still cringe looking at them, even though I got them all back on and straightened out and I finished about 15 rounds this week. I got a lot a lot a lot of knitting done (like 5+ hours each night) because my Man was back in the States all week. I got so much done on the lace I feel comfortable giving some time to Isabella, which I've opted to add sleeves to. I might be able to get it done before summer is over -- though the weather has been so crappy here it feels like it's over already.

We had a lovely Stitch-n-Bitch last night at a new location. Despite warnings that it was too snooty for knitting, no one complained or even looked at us funny. We sat in a well lit corner and everyone left us alone. Literally. The service was horrible.

Data, something's got meeeeeeee!

Row 142. It's really getting big. It's bigger than it looks in the picture -- but I didn't really want to pull this stunt more than once! This really is all-consuming. I've dropped all other projects. Isabella is still without sleeves. I'm starting to get worried I won't finish it. I did a few more calculations a few days ago. At my current rate of progress I've got 100 more hours of work. I can get about 3 hours of work done per night (little more during the day), so that's about a month of work. So I might be done by the end of August, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Oh Noes

Problems... big problems in lace land. I got a snag last night. A huge snag. I managed to work some of it back in, but it's still a loop about 15 cm long. I'm hoping I'll be able to work it back in during blocking. In the meantime, I'm having a small heartattack.






I also dropped a stitch somewhere, and discovered it about 30 rows down when I was trying to work back in the snag. I managed to pull it up, but I had to get creative.


Third major issue: while I was downloading these pictures, my toddler gleefully exclaimed that she was knitting... the lace. I turned to see she'd pull a whole section off the needles and it took me about 45 minutes to get all the stitches back on properly.








Lastly, some dramatic numb3rs: 24 sections, 35 stitches each = 840 stitches per round. According to my calcuations (based on high-tech chart square counting), the inner chart equalled 7,936 stitches, and the outer section as far as I've gotten is 36,384, for a total of 44,320 stitches so far. Out of a goal of 110, 928. Shitzor. I'm not even 1/2 way done.

Izab3llz

Here's one side of Isabella from this summer's knitty. I just finished it, and was starting work at the other side. It was a satisfying piece of work, interesting but not too fiddly.

As usual, I made lots of little changes to the pattern. I always think this will make me feel more in control of the project, but instead I usually feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants. I put vents at the hemline, lengthened the hemline a bit, added short row shaping in the bust and I plan on adding sleeves. Maybe I'll finish it sometime this summer...

It's cotton "Heklegarn" -- crochet yarn, fingering weight, using 2.00 mm needles.

Row 90

I finally got my cotton Isabella off my long 2.0 mm needle, freeing it to take up the ever-growing lace.

I draped it over the cone of remaining yarn, and it completely engulfed it. I wish I'd thought to weight the yarn plus cone before I started, so I could see how much I've used up so far. Oh well...








Another shot of the lace on long needles... it looks kind of like a dead, deflated cephalopod, which I taunted by tying yarny bits to it.

Yup, pattern's still there.

I can has yarns?

Fat cat loves fat yarn. From handpaintedyarn.com, colorway Verdeazul -- which sounds a lot more creative and exotic if you don't speak spanish, but if you do it's simply blue-green. The intenseness of this yarn, though ... man, it's intense. I would have named this colorway 2000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Teh Stitchz and the Bitchz

We revisited an old favorite cafe for Stitch-n-Bitch Monday night. I was working on round 84. The stitches are getting really crowded on the needle, threatening to pop off the end at any time.

the lovely pattern is still there, with about 3 inches of feather-and-fan action

69, d00dz!

I'm rounding the 69th row now. It is getting larger, and I know it with grow with blocking -- but I'm worried it'll be a little small. The pattern calls for 2.75 mm needles, and I'm using 2s. And now on to the pr0n...

on the cone
(red bits are yarny stitch markers -- I have 24 sections and I just didn't have the patience to make 16 more nice stitch markers)

in a bunch

with spidey

I gotz patternage!

i gots m4d skillZ

The shrug was just too big. The lace pattern (if you can even call it that, it was so boneheaded... yo, k2tog) was suuuuper stretchy and actually ended up about 2 inches too wide. Yes, yes, the Swatch Gods smote me again for ignoring them. Being the lazy ho I am, I did not want to rip out the arm (again) and reknit it.

So guess what! I just chopped it off.

Then a little grafty magic (guided by some very coherent step-by-step instructions)...

and I ended up with a very serviceable arm-covering. It does still bunch/sag a little at the neck, but overall I find that acceptable.

I Believe In Miracles,You Sexy Thing!

From handpaintedyarn.com, colorway "hot chocolate". It's a little different than I expected, but totally acceptable. It's beautiful! I think I would have named this colorway "redwoods" or something, though, because it's much more like a redwood burl than a cup of hot chocolate.

No, it's not really a hair net...

Nor is it a glove...

It's a lace shawl being knit in the round. Started on double pointed needles of the devil, I switched to this much nicer slick round needle at the earliest possible time.

0wn4ge!

It took a couple of false starts (ok, like 5... or maybe 11, depending on how you count) for me to get this thing right. And I didn't even really get it *right* so much as got it to work.
Basically, those bamboo double pointeds you see SuX0r! Too sticky, and my toddler broke one while I was running towards her in slow motion going "nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" so I had to use a set of 4 instead of 5.
I ended up knitting the first 10 rounds or so flat and then joining (will seam before blocking) because I just could not get 2 itty bitty stitches on these itty bitty needles to behave. Don't you love my pretty stitch markers, though?

Over the years I've received these things as decorations on wrapped presents (the red one is Korean, the wooden ones Japanese) and kept them not really knowing what to do with them. When I tried my regular metal/bead stitch markers, it weighed down the piece considerably and snagged the fabric. Enter: fabric/ribbon stitch markers.









What am I knitting, you ask? A lovely hair net! You can see it draped over the cone from ColourMart. 100% silk, laceweight, color silver. One cone should do my job.

ColourMart Swatches: Cashmere

Here are the cashmere yarns.

This is the 8/14NM cashmere aran weight, prewash. Lovely to knit, very soft, beautiful hand. I think it was very well suited to the cable or other textural stitches. The color isn't exactly what I would choose for myself, though! I think it was "cyclamen".








This is after washing. You can see it puffed up a bit (I think they say "bloom") and it's much softer and fuzzier. I love this yarn.
You can see the yarn ends here -- it was actually a pretty splitty yarn to knit, the yarn being made by twisting 2 strands of laceweight and then twisting 4 strands of the resulting yarn together. Still a pleasure to knit.






I tried to get a side shot to show the fuzziness of the yarn. Look at that depth! I would love a sweater of this stuff!











This was dk weight 100% cashmere 2/7NM color crocus mix. Prewashing, it was soft enough. I loved the color combinations in this heathered yarn. Light purples, pinks, and reds. Not normally what I'd choose, but I found it really charming.









After washing, this yarn was gorgeous! I tried to capture the puffiness in the picture. Now I see why they say "bloom"! Truly lovely and soft.












This is 4/14NM 100% cashmere double twist in brume. I felt like this yarn was kind of boring. Grey heathered with some darker greys and black. Hand was ok, resulting fabric ok, nothing spectacular. Probably my least favorite yarn that I swatched from ColourMart.

Here's the grey cashmere after washing. It bloomed some, but not as beautifully as the crocus one.