Dashing

I'm still knitting, but I may be a bit out of sync with the seasons because I just finished some fingerless gloves. Then again, it snowed here a week ago. So maybe I'm not that far off...


This is the Dashing pattern from Knitty. I fell in love with this yarn (the new Manos silk blend) and wanted to find a quick project that would only use one skein. The cabling on the wrist is a bit lost in all the colors, but I still like it. Yay for knitting and blogging!


I meant to post about this project earlier, and even took some in-progress pictures (see below), but I’m afraid I’ve been a naughty blogger--not just a knotty one. Still, all the lovely flowers beginning to bloom encourage me to post more often. There are all sorts of lovely things to show you other than my slow knitting progress...

Amanda's scarf goes to Washington (D.C. that is)

The title of this post was the title of a lovely little email I got from a dear friend and fellow aspiring historian who left for D.C. the night after she passed her oral exams in January (congratulations!). You may know her by the moniker "New Knitter" which she uses when leaving comments on my blog.

D.C. is a bit colder than Santa Cruz, and she brought the scarf I knit for her a few winters back and has been using it frequently to keep warm when she's out and about in our nation's capital. I told her it would thrill me if she sent a picture for my blog of her wearing the scarf in front of a national landmark. She out did herself and sent several. Here are my favorites.

The Washington Monument:



The Vietnam War Memorial:



The Lincoln Memorial:


Yay New Knitter!!! I love pictures of people wearing the things I make for them! Thank you.

Short

I have a short amount of time to write this blog entry before the battery charge on my laptop fades into nothing, so bare with me.

First, I started a new project:


I decided that I really need more lace in my life. And, after digging out some old holiday yarn that I've been hoarding, I decided that now is the time to actually make a scarf pattern I've been coveting in Victorian Lace Today.

Second, I have a new haircut:


I'm not sure if you can see my hair very well in this picture because I took it myself while walking to the coffee shop and the wind was blowing, but my hair is now a bit short. I think I like it. It's fun to have a new look. What do you think?

Coming soon: Amanda's scarf goes to Washington (D.C., that is)

TIME:MASTER

Exactly one week ago, at this time in the afternoon, I was in bed with a fever of 102.4. It was rather awful. Now I'm better, and I'm embarking on a new campaign in my battle to master (my) time. Goal setting, here I come! Grrrrr.


One of my goals (along with specific time/page requirements for this week) was get a book to read for pleasure, hence the Pratchett book in the background of picture of my new planner. I think it's already had a discernable positive impact on my general wellbeing.

And, although I haven't been blogging, I have been knitting. I even finished a simple little scarf for my niece, but I don't have pictures. My main project is a hat with earflaps for my sister, who requested a new hat about a year ago. I'm designing it for her and really hope it lives up to all her expectations. Isn't this yarn super lovely?


I'm proud of my little sketches, I made them while watching Project Runway several weeks ago. Oh, and a nice French girl who came to my knitting group wrote Tricoter on my design (because that's the word for knitting in French).

Back to work!

Further adventures of the birthday scarf (and a new hat)

I would be remiss not to tell you about the wonderful show I attended a couple Fridays ago and the spontaneous roll that my unsuspecting birthday scarf played in the festivities.

The first knitting related event occurred when I met the lovely Miss D.


My sister's introduction included describing Miss D. as "crafty," and (as if to provide evidence of Jenny's statement) Miss D. immediately pulled up her sleeve to show me the words "crafty lady" at the bottom of a large tattoo. I, of course, asked to see the whole tattoo and then took a picture to share with you, my gentle readers. She's considering continuing the piece around the inside of her arm by adding a heart shaped ball of yarn with two knitting needles sticking through it--a choice I fully support. Plus, she came to my knitting group this Sunday. (Yay!)

The show was quite long and I managed to knit most of a small hat during the evening (which seemed to give Miss D. knitting envy because she brought a fuzzy scarf project back with her after a quick jaunt home for some earplugs). I started the hat a few days before with the intention of making a new baby hat for my little nephew, who is already way too big for the first hat I made him. I was about an inch in and finished it during the show. But it's too big for a baby! Even a big baby like sweet Joe! So, I think I'm going to give it to Derek, my friend Karen's son, who it will probably fit. (I'll try to get pictures when I present the gift in a couple weeks.) Anyway, it's fun to spread the knitting bug at rock shows.


But, you ask, what about the scarf? What adventure did it have? Well, after the show, Cataldo recorded one of the tracks for his upcoming album, and I was one of a bunch of people who stuck around to sing for the chorus. One of the other performers acted as the hypeman (indicating to us when to sing, etc), and he used my birthday scarf as his signaling tool. It was fun. I shook bells. My scarf was the center of attention. I sang. Music + Knitting = Good Stuff!

A holiday knitting recap

I did some holiday knitting: scarves, of course.


I wanted to make something else for my dear Lynn (who I knit Odessa for last winter), and I decided on a light airy scarf, simple but elegant, that won't be too heavy for a sweet lady who's having hot flashes. I'm also hoping that it will be more versatile that the large lace scarf/shawl that I made her before I started this blog.

I knit this scarf with Kidsilk Spray (in the "Regal" colorway) on size 11 needles in a simple garter stitch pattern. It's the same technique (skinny mohair/silk yarn on bigger needles) that I used for Kayla's birthday scarf. I think Lynn's happy with the final product and looks quite cute in it.

The second scarf was for my Grandma Tennie. And, in naughty knitter fasion, I didn't have it done on Christmas, but I did get it done the day after and took some pictures with my brother before I left town.


To be honest, I've been working on this scarf for just shy of a year. The pink yarn was a gift from my father last year at the holidays, and right away I intended to use it on my grandma's scarf. Looking back over my blog posts from the last year, you can see the project mentioned here and there, and I even showed the yarn in my post on Valentine's Day. For some reason, I really wanted to make Grandma a scarf with reversible cables, but none of the patterns I tried looked good with this yarn. I've lost count of the number of times I would find a pattern, start knitting it, get frustrated, frog, and then feel guilty that I still hadn't made Grandma her scarf.


This fall I made the realization that my concept needed revision, and I shifted to experimenting with using the slight bulky yarn in more open/lacy patterns. I settled on knitting the scarf horizontally in a simple feather and fan pattern, with an instant fringe made by cutting and reattaching the yarn at the end of each long, long row. After the addition of blue stripes, I decided that it was probably going to be nice enough for my super sweet Grandma. When I revealed the project to her on Christmas (still on the needles) she seemed excited about it. I tried to finish it before we drove her home, but I couldn't manage to complete the bind off until late that night.


I would have preferred to take FO pictures with Grandma, but Cody was a super model. After donning the scarf, he immediately inquired, "Do I look like Dr. Who?" I love my family.

Birthday scarf report

Well, last time I suggested a few upcoming entries for my blog, but now I'm doing something else: I'm showing you photo evidence that I did, in fact, finish my birthday scarf, and that I love it and wear it daily. It's lovely and colorful and warm and long and... everything I hoped it would be. I got a bit finicky about utilizing every single bit of the fancy Noro Silk Garden yarn, and, by the end, was spit splicing small (2-3 foot) segments of yarn between the two balls so that the colors would work the way I wanted and in order to get optimum length out of the four skeins. I think I was successful.

So, do I look ready to tackle 2008?