Regaining the habit of blogging

Well, the weekend came and went without a post, and that was mostly due to me forgetting about it. I have simply gotten out of the habit of thinking about blogging, so while I am thinking about it...

The finished Fair Isle Sampler Hat. I opted for the tassel instead of the pompom on the end, but this tassel is a little wussy. I will need to make a beefier tassel for it before I wear it. I mean, I want this sucker to induce tassel envy when I am done.

Then there are the socks for my Mom...

in a very seasonal color combo. All hail Trekking 143. These lovely picot edge socks brought to you by Claudia's pattern. I think she would also approve of the color choice. I sure hope my Mom likes them.

Then there's the in progress stuff. I am still going to town (slowly) on the Paistu Mittens, no in progress pics yet, but I have to say that I freaking heart color knitting. I have also gotten half a sleeve into this...

which will not look nearly as good on me as it does on this model, but there we are.

So that's the wrap up for now, more to come soon. ish.

The Wearing of the Green, or, Durrow is Done!!!

This past weekend found the husband and moi on the road again, headed back to New Orleans for the first "normal" family gathering since Katrina - the yearly pilgrimage to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Metairie. The weekend was packed with experiences.

First, I finished the last sleeve of Durrow somewhere in central Alabama, at which point I realized that I has no idea whatsoever how to put all the pieces together. (experience #1 - panic!) I forged on ahead in sheer stubborn refusal to allow this irritating little fact to get in my way, and by the time we hit N.O. I was completely finished! Possibly wrong, but finished! (My husband really loves me. He modelled this in Metairie in 80 degree heat and OMG% humidity for the photo.)

What a fun and satisfying experience it was to make this sweater. Many thanks to Jodi Green for this design. The sleeves came out a bit long, but not too bad, and the Husband loves it! So do I.

Durrow by Jodi Green for Magknits
Yarn: Donegal Tweed by Takhi/Stacy Charles
Color and lot: Lost! I don't know how, but I lost every one of those tags! I used the better part of 7 skeins.
Needles: Addi Turbo circs US6

So we stayed in the FEMA trailer with my parents. It was really nice! We had a great time, absolutely everything turns into a bed (not that I would really want to put more than 4 people max in one of those things). It was very heartening to me that the trailer was as nice as it was. Here is a taste of the FEMA trailer experience...

If you look carefully, you will see evidence of lace knitting.

On Sunday, we went to my sister's house for the parade party. Now that my folks are in their own space and my sister is back home from her exile in Houston, there is much to celebrate. Now for the St. Pat's experience.

We ate some bugs...


Kissed some Buzzards...

Marvelled at how anything can become Irish with a little paint and a new sign.... Here's the very Irish "Geisha O'Grady" (I'm not joking, read the sign)

Drank lots of beer, caught lots of beads, 3 cabbages, a handful of potatoes, some onions, carrots and even a lemon, and generally had a great time!

Happy St. Patrick's day from yours truly! If it bothers you that it isn't actually the 17th yet, you haven't drunk enough beer.

Also in late breaking news: Today in a stunning reversal, the heavily modified Coronet hat I was attempting finally convinced me it was way beyond my current knitting abilities and presented itself for frogging. What I was attempting to do was an intarsia design on the crown of the hat. What I failed to realize was that not only was intarsia tough enough to try to wrap the old brain around, but that I was also attempting it without nearly enough forethought on a hat which is knit in the round, and I am not even sure that can be done much less how to do it. No biggie, it just means I have achieved my finish or frog goal a few days shy of my deadline (for those of you who are saying "hang on a minute...", the Clapotis is still in the "Bag of Denial" and the lace scarf was started illegally during my self-imposed 'no new project' period, and therefore doesn't count. Glad we got that straight.), and I now have a zillion useless cut lengths of several colors of DB Merino Aran on intarsia bobbins with which to amuse myself. I am thinking of attaching them to a coat hanger and making a mobile out of them. I frogged back to the cable band which is separate, so I'll save that to be a cabled sweatband against the day I find myself in a flashdance kind of mood. I'm so freaking crafty, eh?

Finally - the first FO of 2006!

Classic Sock Pattern from "Folk Socks" by Nancy Bush in Mountain Colors Bearfoot, colorway "Wildflower". Knit with many mistakes on #2 Addi circs (started on clover dpns, switched to magic loop technique halfway through the first sock).

I won't be going back to dpns for socks except for historical knitting demos. Everything is so much easier with circs. And Merlin is becoming quite the intarweb hog, isn't he? I think he just knows how the sparkling black fur sets off those colors. Now I get to sleep. Durrow tomorrow. Nighty night.

Three days of slacking and I still finished Coronet!

I am the slack knitter. Right now we are playing host to my parents until they return to N.O. and start the cleanup/rebuilding project. So I started Coronet Friday and worked on it in odd moments over the weekend and still got it finished by last night. I changed up a few things. First, I didn't want to do it with the flip up band, I just knitted it straight. I used a different yarn and had to change needle sizes to get gauge. I didn't wait for Grumperina to post her instructions on picking up the stitches before I forged on ahead, and then I reversed the direction of the knitting to do the hat knit side out. Then I went crazy and put a row of 6 5-stitch i-bobbles a la Annie Modesitt just above the band. This was really interesting because I didn't know what the hell I was doing, but I got something bobbley out of it, so I didn't do it completely wrong, which is pretty surprising. So here is yours truly, looking a little Blair Witch, but there you go - oh well, it is the season for it.

I think I am going to make another one now, the right way, do the flippy cable band, drop the bobbles (I like them for this hat, though) and make it red. Just because.

Pattern: Coronet
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Merino Aran Color 325702 - 2 50g balls
Needles: Aluminum dp's size 6

I'd like a slice of Kitty Pi please.

Actually I had Fletcher from Simply Noro on the needles at the time. Being my first ever kniting project that included *gasp* purling, and also the first thing I have ever tried to knit solely from instructions, I had frogged an entire front section and several partial sections until I was beginning to hate the project. I put it away for a while and decided to knit for my cats. I had seen this cat bed on lots of other knitblogs and it looked simple enough, so I ran to my fave LYS and scored Big Kureyon, fizzly things and big fat needles and settled in for a few days knitting.

Now, I have eight cats. Yes, I know, but they rarely gang up on you all at the same time, so it's actually more like having 2 cats constantly with you. The cats just keep changing. Anyway, seven of these eight cats completely ignored me. Mind you, I was knitting for them. Ungrateful little furballs. When I had been knitting for myself they were "all upons", but knit for them and they scatter. Except one, the youngest, the saber tooth boy, our "action" Jackson. He loved the yarn in a slightly worrisome way...


...and I could not keep him away from it the entire time I was winding it up. He would stalk me while I knit it and since then I have not been able to keep him out of it long enough to felt it. I guess this FO is on hold for now.


Pattern: Kitty Pi
Yarn: Noro Big Kureyon Color 1 - 2 skeins
Trendsetter Crisantemo Color 3 - less than 1 skein
Crystal Palace Fizz Color 7303 - less than 1 skein
Needles: Wood dpn Size 11 Bamboo Circulars Size 11