So... have you seen the new Whimsical Little Knits? I know, right?! It's, like, so awesome and pretty and it has that whole whimsical thing going for it... It's pretty much the cat's meow of accessory collections.
This is the conversation I imagined having with my knitting bff. The one who keeps up with Ravelry and indie designers. The one I essentially do not have in my corner of the world. One day that will change, but that's beside the point.
Anyway, back to Whimsical Little Knits 3. It dropped like an atomic bomb on the knitting community the other night. I was just sitting there on the couch, knitting on my sweater, when suddenly Ysolda tweeted a link leading to the preorder of WLK3. A link I immediately jumped on with much flailing and enthusiasm. And then I found out that not only was it a preorder, but that the digital copy was immediately available for download.
I don't remember much after that, just a blur of flailing and yelling and casting on. All I know is that I barely slept that night and somehow the rest of the yarn needed for that second Kristi sock I still need to knit is now becoming this:
Roisin was released last year in Interweave Accessories, but I somehow managed to resist and wait for WLK3 instead. I'm so glad I did. I'm trying to track down the yarn I need to knit Hendreary. A hat with a giant button motif? How can I refuse?
This is the story of a sad little giant sweater that grew up to be something great. Our story begins in October 2010 when our intrepid knitter saw a yarn sale on twitter that just so happened to fall around her birthday. Now our knitter, being the knitter she is, decided that this was the perfect time to invest in some nice yarn and so ordered a cone of Marr Haven Organic Mull Sport in a lovely shade of green. The yarn arrived, she reveled in its sheepyness, she swatched a bit, and then she put it on a shelf to be admired and generally become one with the furniture. The poor cone of yarn watched other skeins come into the knitter's life and be loved and cherished while it sat lonesome on its shelf, feeling it would never become a real knitted item.
Many months passed and the knitter acquired a new knitting book (as knitters are often apt to do). This book gave many helpful tips about the magic of sweaters and held several beautiful patterns. The knitter turned to the yarn and said, "Well, I'm all out of sweater wool, so I suppose it is your lucky day" (she was obviously forgetting the discount tweed she had drooled over at the fiber festival). So the knitter swatched again, blocked her swatch, and managed to find the time to plot out her sweater. It is here that she made her fatal error. We like to think that it was due to the thesis clogging up her brain, but the knitter decided that to make a properly fitting cardigan under which she could wear proper long sleeved shirts she would have to knit a bust size that gave her three inches of positive ease. The poor yarn tried to protest, undoubtedly certain that it would wind up yet another cast off hiding in the closet corner, but it was all in vein. The knitter had gauge, her numbers, and a sensibly confusing sweater construction and so could not be deterred.
Though the knitter found the sweater more than a bit large very soon after casting on, she continued to knit in the hopes that the designer's ingenious construction would make it all better. It didn't. After months of slaving and swearing (We are really not sure how many, she won't even tell us when exactly she finished it. We know it was sometime this month), the knitter finally decided to at least shorten the body and the sleeves for the sake of the sanity of all involved. She then tried on the sweater, knowing it to be too large, and proceeded to stare in the mirror, willing it to shrink or at least not hang like Phoebe's wedding dress when Cole mucked it up. Suddenly she was struck by inspiration. To this day we believe it was the yarn speaking to her through it's new snuggly sweater form. She unpinned the sweater and moved the buttons to the side of the neckline, giving the sweater more of a military look (it quite suited the Soviet military buttons our knitter had set aside for this purpose). She also discovered that with the addition of the buttons the weight of the sweater shifted ever so slightly and it suddenly became a very comfortable, drapy cardigan, rather than a potato sack.
To this date we do not believe that the knitter has taken off the sweater. If you happen upon her (the wool fumes got to her and she's run off again), you'll undoubtedly see her, wearing her now almost stylish green sweater, snuggled under all that wool that is finally loved the way it deserves.
I've had Liesl in my queue for a while. It is an adorable sweater pattern that appears to be extremely customizable (a word which the internet and I seem incapable of spelling properly). I have never been a big bolero fan, they seem to cut funny, so maybe it's the fact I have some weird yardage for some sweater yarn, but I had to make this.
It was a quick knit, taking longer to buy the clasp than to actually knit the sweater. The pattern is a bit pricey at £5.00 (that's about $8 American), but I picked it up during Ysolda's annual birthday one-day sale. After working with the pattern and seeing how much detail and variation she works into the pattern itself I totally understand the reasoning behind the price.
The yarn is Araucania Ulmo Multi that I picked up last summer. For cotton, it did not make my hands as stiff as I expected. I alternated two skeins to avoid any dye lot problems, which also prevented pooling and made the overall effect of the colors more cohesive. The only problem is that now I still have the equivalent of almost one skein left over and I have no idea what to use it for.
Last week was really really rough. There was a lot of bad news dolled out throughout the family, but it's a new week and this week only good news is allowed.
One of the most exciting things to happen recently is the arrival of Ysolda Teague's new book Little Red in the City.
I preordered this bad boy as soon as I had the opportunity, so sometime around January? In any case, I am so excited to finally have this book. Only down side is that I'm currently knitting solely from stash and I have nothing that could do these gorgeous patterns justice. My favorite is Melia.
I've since fallen in love with all of the other patterns, but it's the technical stuff that's truly awesome. If you have any interest at all in knitting sweaters, I suggest you check it out. I'll do a more in depth review after I finish reading it and actually knit one of the patterns.
The other big exciting thing was my first ever Can't Stop the Serenity. This was the sixth year and was tons of fun. Plus I finished a sleeve on the Lodi Cardigan!
If you are unfamiliar with Can't Stop the Serenity I suggest you check it out. It is the annual screening of the film Serenity held across the world every summer in honor of Joss Whedon's birthday. Funds raised from each event go to benefit Equality Now, an organization that fights some of the most brutal forms of gender discrimination around the world.
Now I need to try to get some work done before tonight's final installment of Lord of the Rings!
Yes, I know I haven't updated in a week or more, but I think I have a good excuse. Giant paper plus Western Civ test grading equals get out of blog jail free card? Normally I wouldn't even feel guilty, but I have to announce who won the free signed comic book giveaway from last week. But for those of you who don't care about that, what has been going on in the life of this geek girl?
Well, like I said, giant papers and grading, which amounts to quite a bit of stress. Ironically, our Bible study tonight was about dealing with stress. And how do I deal with stress? I knit of course! (well, and I write random promos for Buffy Between the Lines, but that's not important)
Since last I blogged, I finished Fetching. I loved this pattern and can definitely see why it is so popular. The construction is grand and with my naturally small gauge they fit just right (I have been told I have small-ish hands). Though I loved the green in my Summer Beret, I didn't think that I would like using it in the gloves. Boy was I wrong.
(Me pretending to be artistic. Hey, I only have 2 hands and do my own photography)
The weather here has been wonky so fingerless gloves have been great for early mornings or late nights that I have to be on campus and fit nicely in my purse. I'm wanting to make more. Maybe Susie's Reading Mitts? Though those are knit in yarn that isn't sock yarn and that is currently the bulk of my yarn collection. I've recently been on a yarn spree via Ravelry users' destashing. Most (ok, fine, not most. All) of it has been verigated sock yarn. But I promise I'm finding uses for it. A couple weeks ago I bought some Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Knitters Without Borders colorway.
I just love the colors in the skein and had this vision of a haunting vampire style shawl/scarf that would look stunning around my neck. Well try as I might I couldn't find anything . . . until Ysolda released this last week as part of the Whimsical Little Knits 2 collection (sorry non-Ravelry users. It's not on ysolda.com yet). It's perfect! Right? Well, I hope so. I cast on last night and the white is a little more striking than I'd like but I think once I get a bigger portion completed it'll look like what I imagine.
And speaking of shawl-like things, I finally blocked my Angela Shawl. I was very unsuccessful in pulling out the points (asking for blocking wires for Christmas), but I think the result is still great.
Only problem is that I still don't see myself wearing a shawl almost ever, but I wore it this way yesterday (it was so warm outside by the time I got to church I had to take it off).
I also knit all of the pieces for the French Press Knits slippers (ballet flats actually) pattern on Friday night (told you I am stress). I put the pieces of one together but haven't gotten around to finishing the second, let alone felting. Not an exciting task. Overall I'd say I've been quite productive this week.
Oh! You wanted to know who won the giveaway? Well that would be Dariclone and Crystal! Email me with your address (tharensolo@gmail.com) and we'll get those sent out to you straightaway!
Looking at the calendar it is hard to believe that it's already October. We actually experienced a weather change here last week but it was back up in the 80s again today. Sad as it is, this is what life is like when you live at the beach (evidentially. I've only lived here since May so I don't know yet). October is my favorite month. Not because the leaves change colors (though I'm from a mountainy area and do miss that), and not because it's my birthday month (Saturday. The 10th if you're wondering. I accept cash as well as material goods), but because of that weather change. I've always loved the sudden crispness to the air and the way it burns the back of my throat just a little. I have this old ugly sweater I pull out to wear that I've had since I was, oh I don't know, 8? 9? 10? It's a hand-me-down from some old neighbors so God only knows how long that rust-green and royal blue have been cohabitating.
Knitters, I've discovered, are very fond of this season. It's like a new year of knitting just opens up to us. Here on the east coast and especially in our humidity in the South, it's really hard to knit with heavy or sticky yarns during the warmer months so you end up doing a lot of fingering-weight projects or just taking time off altogether. But when it gets cold suddenly you can knit in wool and heavier yarns that would just cause itchy misery no matter how soft and beautiful (I'm not saying wool is itchy. This humidity could make anything itchy. Even the air gets itchy).
I currently have two beautiful cold-weather projects on the needles but they're gifts so they must remain locked away in my ravelry page until they are finished. BUT, I finally splurged and bought Whimsical Little Knits 2 (only the digital version. I can't afford the print add-on at the moment), so I'm planning on making one of everything very soon. Particularly Ripley and Veyla. And maybe Damson if I find some yarn that just speaks to me. I'm very excited because I recently purchased fourteen sets of bamboo 8 inch double pointed needles. They're gorgeous and only cost me $20 total because I bought them on Ebay!
Because of this I may very soon knit my first pair of socks. I know, it's Socktober so I should of course be knitting socks, but with November looming with all of its giant deadlines (one of my classes doesn't meet again after Thanksgiving) I don't know if I've got the time to teach myself such a skill.
I did finally finish hand-winding all of my Three Irish Girls Adorn sock yarn (I don't reccomend this if you can help it. It got tangled right away and took me FOREVER), but I don't want to make socks with it. I've been thinking for a month or two about a shawl pattern that actually seems to be becoming popular on Ravelry. It's called Traveling Woman and is partly inspired by the character of Angela from Bones. It was written by Liz Abinante from feministy.com. It's a gorgeous pattern written for a single skein so it's be perfect for this gorgeous yarn.
And speaking of yarn, she also has a very unique and awesome collection of yarn over at her Etsy shop. If you look at the sock yarn you'll notice that five colors are from her True Blood collection. I know, awesome, right? They're $23 so it might be a while, but I definately want to try at least one of these to work with while I listen to the audio books (I'm on book 3).
Another thing I've been doing to keep myself from becoming emotionally unstable because of all of this work (I feel like I complain about school alot. I actually love school. It's been better than I could have hoped) is I have started running. I was in a car accident at the end of August and suffered some injury to my neck so I'm not able to do my pilates for a while until it heals. Because of this I have no form of physical activity left to me. I know, it sounds sad. All there is for me to do is run. It's my last resort. And I don't necessarily like it. But it has been good for me and I love the way I feel when I finish. I'm not that good yet. I think I ran a total of 10 minutes today (3.3 songs or so) and walked a comparable amount. Anyway, the point is that I was remembering this passage from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and it really describes how Bridget is running again after letting herself wallow in self-pity for a very long time. She runs and starts to feel the freedom of being herself and the burden she's been carrying starts to ever so slowly slip away. That's how I feel. That freedom. I'm not saying I enjoy it. I still hate running. But the freedom is starting to kick in, and that I truly love.
Single Skein September ended last night. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, September is the month set aside by listeners of the Stash and Burn podcast to knit those random single skeins that knitters inevitably have lying around. Unless you're me and you actually don't have much of a stash and actually have to go buy the skeins for those projects. Kind of defeating the purpose, but that's ok. I'm the moderator for the Ravelry thread so starting tomorrow I have to start counting everyone's projects to put in the spreadsheet. It is a lot of work but it's also fun. I'm getting to see all of this beautiful knitting and getting great ideas.
For example, I'm becoming obsessed with fingerless gloves. I really like Fetching which has been the #1 glove pattern for a while. I started looking at Debbie Bliss yarn last night on Ravelry and had to convince myself I don't have the $7 quite yet that I'd need for this pattern. I also really like Suzie's Reading Mitts and CanCans so I'm thinking I'm going to use that extra skein from my Summer Beret.
My own contribution that I'm most proud of is URCHIN! Yes, I finally finished and just in time for the hint of a season change. I'm hoping to find an excuse to wear it this weekend because I'm so excited to finally have it finished. Despite the headache it caused I still love it so much.
I'm now wanting to make more designs by Ysolda. In particular I'm really liking the things I'm seeing come from Whimsical Little Knits 2. Especially Ripley and Veyla. I could just buy the patterns online which would be about $10 or so, but I want the book version to, which means I'd spend around $22 because it's shipped from Scottland. I should probably just buy the digital version and get the print add-on later, but I'm not sure I can afford it so I just keep looking at the patterns and sitting on my hands while I drool.
School's keeping me super busy (surprise!) but I did find time to hit our LYS here, The Quarter Stitch, for the first time today. It was a wonderful experience. There were women knitting and talking and the store had that close in, friendly feeling. Yeah, I loved it. I'm still such a newbie when it comes to knitting (not a noob, that implies incompetence and I think I have the hang of most things now. Except socks. I have yet to knit a pair of socks). When I go in a store I just have to touch everything and I'm shocked by the amount and variety and the colors. It's like a sensory overload. So of course I bought some things (duh!). I picked up these amazing Japanese bamboo circs for the project I'm making for my twitter friend Amanda's baby due at the end of the year/beginning of '10. Can't tell you what it is because it's a secret, but I promise to post a preliminary picture once she gets it and later a picture of the adorableness once the baby is born. I also picked up a skein of Borroco Ultra Light Alpaca in color way 4288. I know, sounds like nothing, but it's a stunning deep grey-ish blue with flecks of dark purple. I fell in love with it and the fact that it was under $6 guaranteed I was buying it.
One last thing. I just heard from Frank that Echo Alert has been in touch with Miracle Laurie and she remembers the scarf I was making for her. She will be at Big Apple Con this month and wants them to give it to her there! I'm so excited (even though I won't be there). Of course because they're giving her something I've made, but also because they get to meet her. Yeah, I'm really really really jealous.
Ok, I'm stopping for now. But the fact that I have more to say is a good indicator that I'll update sooner rather than later (provided my classes don't cause me to jump out of my second-story window. JUST KIDDING MOM!)
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