green.ketzle.net: knitting

sophie was taking snaps, and managed one with the hat actually in play. unfortunately, the hat is upon my head, which is showing much evidence of the recent lack of sleep, but the hat! isn't she pretty?!?!!

26 november 2005 give thanks

we've had house guests, two of them, for the past month. and while i am very grateful that sophie and the rest of us get to spend time with her nanny and great-aunt lu, it has put rather a dent in our normal schedules and in the time i have to do things like knit and update webpages and the like. it also means the time i do have is usually not quiet, so my dreams of starting a sweater have been put off for another week when i will have the ability to better concentrate.

in the meantime, i've been doing a little synchronized knitting. laura's pattern is so fun and so quick to knit that i started the hat on thanksgiving and finished yesterday. i just need to weave in a few ends and it will be ready to send off to my sister, who needs a new hat. looking at the pictures on laura's site, i thought this would be a rather lacy delicate thing, though i should have known better when i saw she was using lamb's pride worsted. it has made a very snuggly and very warm headpiece! and i'm sure my sister will appreciate it when she moves to michigan to complete her fellowship.

something i have learned about me and knitting: i can dislike the yarn, or i can dislike the stitch, but i cannot dislike both and complete a project. a friend gave me this skein of railroad yarn, a yarn i am not fond of. not fond at all. but, determined to make something of the little windfall, i set off to find a way to use it. a lot of the resources i found show this type of yarn being knit up with a drop stitch, a stitch i happen to hate. i don't like the way it looks at all.

so i swatched and i swatched and i swatched again, and finally found this little mesh stitch that seemed to work. i haven't decided yet what will become of this; for the moment it is in the christmas 2005 pile, awaiting its fate.

and another late entry in the christmas 2005 pile is this furry and sparkly brown scarf knit up from yet another skein of free yarn -- bernat disco. i think it might be headed to a niece, if sophie doesn't steal it. that makes four new scarves knit from free yarn in the past month alone! minor stash busting, but stash busting it is!

i stole this picture of the bamboo yarn i recently received from kpixie as a give a little prize, donated by carole. why steal it? because it has already disappeared into the craft corner and i'm not up to digging for it to take my own pictures. isn't it pretty? it was rather a nice bonus to get a little giftie for being generous. i couldn't help but donate, through a variety of venues, to the victims of a storm that continues to take my good name in vain.

i have four skeins and have yet to decide what they will become. a tank top? a shawl? a shrug?

13 november 2005 slip sliding away

wow. november is already halfway gone. amazing.

i did finish the layette for my coworker's first grandchild, the day after he was born. perfect timing! i was very pleased with how it turned out, even with all my modifications. and she loved it so i shall deem it another layette success!

a few more meetings, and some more knitting with this strange but soft yarn and...

...we have the muppeteer scarf! it is of keyhole construction and i can wear it wrapped twice around the neck for a really cosy moment, or just once for a more open and draping version. i've already worn it to the office twice as the building is bloody cold these days. i think someone forgot to tell the management company it is no longer summer.

i also finished sophie's poncho -- nicknamed the purple yarn eater as it did an admirable job of eating up some oddball stash. almost all of the yarns had some wool content so it is snuggly warm. phildar, brown sheep, lion, and various unmarked balls all went into it.

finally, i scored this strange ball of novelty yarn from the dregs of the great stash redistribution. i had tried doing something with it several times but had always ended up throwing the ball away from me in disgust. but, just like i can't leave a book unread once i've started it, i have trouble getting rid of a yarn.

i sat down with the donnie darko dvd, a pair of wooden needles size 11, and a bottle of coca-cola and ended up with the mad world scarf. which sophie at first claimed, but later rejected as too wiggly.

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