Covet! Wednesday

I was kind of at a loss today as to what to post. There are a few things floating around in my noggin but nothing quite stood out. But wait!! The Spring preview of Interweave Knits is up and there's been some talk in Ravelry-land about the successes and failures in this upcoming issue. I love the Printed Silk Cardigan (shown) because of it's simple stitch pattern up top and the 3/4 sleeves. I'm not totally crazy about the color, since I'm not a pastel person Spring fashion tends to leave me uninspired, but it's easily adaptable into something gorgeous and jewel-toned. Aubergine? Merlot? Deep dark navy? I'm also eager to try the Bleeding Hearts Stole which, by the way, is designed by Anne Hanson. Love her stuff! I can see myself knitting other things in the preview but with some alteration to the patterns and definitely color changes. I'm excited for the weather to warm up since we had snow yet again this week. By the by, I picked up one of those awesome Namaste bags I posted about last week in a pretty gray color. It's so roomy I'm using it as my purse/knitting bag/ lunch bag/ hold everything and anything bag. Plus it's the perfect size for an airplane carry-on. Rock.

Music Monday

Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS) is one of my new favorite dance albums. They're a Brazilian band on Subpop Records and apparently gained notice for an iPod commercial song (I don't know about that, I have no tv.)- Music is My Hot Hot Sexx. I hear a little Bikini Kill influence mixed with some straight up dance pop (synths please!). It's been on constant rotation at chez moi, especially good for hopping on the elliptical or pre-funking before a night out. It'll set your feet dancing and make your heart skip a beat. Enjoy!

Friday's Song

Happy Friday! This week has been an emotional rollercoaster for me which leads to lots of knitting but also some introspection. I miss living in Northern California, even the soul searing heat in the valley would be fine with me. I've got sensory flashbacks to late nights at 80 degrees with nothing but a tank top, a cool, tall drink, music floating out and up into the sky. I've got a feeling that I'm heading toward middle-of-the-road living and I don't like it. My late-teen early adult anger is gone (that's a good thing) but I feel that it spurred me on to so many things - a lack of fear, a gutsy confidence, staying up until dawn for no good reason except seeing the sun come up. I need 8 hours of sleep, I stopped dyeing my hair, I removed all of my piercings, I haven't gotten a tattoo in years. Some might say that's part of growing up, I suppose it is, but something is gone that I want back and I'm not quite sure what it is. My Libral tendency is to overthink, look at all sides, take account and decide. What happened to my fly by the seat of my pants attitude? I need some excitement people. Good thing it's a Friday, the weekend is ripe with possibilities.

Impossible is the Opposite of Possible

Covet! Wednesday

First off, thank you for all of the well wishes. My family is doing well and we're organizing a trip together for the interment of the ashes this Spring. Knitting has been amazingly helpful, the act of creation is...good, healing.

A while ago I posted about Namaste bags and how I was drooling over them in all of their many-pocketed, brightly-colored glory. They've come out with two new styles - Laguna & Malibu. Laguna (pictured) is the one for me so I'm heading over to my LYS where the lovely and talented Jessica Rose has informed me that they've come in from ordering at TNNA. Yay! I've got a gift certificate in my hot little hand to put towards my new, waterproof, roomy, lovely new knitting bag. Update on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan - I'm actually half-way through the 'tangled' part and hope to finish up by the end of this coming weekend. This whole project monogamous thing is pretty interesting, I'm feeling the urge to cheat but I'm so close to finishing!

Belated Music Monday

There was a plan to start a new blog feature this week - Music Monday. I'm not sure I'm exactly an audiophile but I do love music, especially if it's in vinyl form so I thought it might be fun to talk about new stuff I've heard and am interested in as well as stuff I already own and looove. Unfortunately I had a fairly busy Saturday and a death in the family as well so I'm feeling fairly emotionally erratic and could do nothing but knit, listen to music, and eat neopolitan ice cream. My mourning is manifesting itself in weird ways - taking bleach and a toothbrush to the grout in my bathroom, organizing and reorganizing drawers, lethargically flipping through every knitting book I own. On the upside the music listening is providing fine fodder for Music Monday thoughts. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings has been a recent favorite she's got soul and some great mo-town stylings that I just love. Think nouveau Aretha with some sass and a toe-tapping back up band and you've got it. I'd like to add that it's mighty fine for dancing to while cooking, linoleum provides a good surface for booty shaking.

Some Kinda Love

I've been immersing myself in the second season of Big Love and it's fantastic. The focus is less on the sexual aspect of polygamy and more on the family dynamic which I find more appealing, I suppose the first season was meant to get people hooked on the show. I can just imagine some frat boys jostling each other for the remote and picturing Bill Paxton getting it on with all three wives at once and being disappointed at the lack of boobage. Probably not a returning demographic of the show I'm guessing. I'm enjoying it thoroughly and while knitting and watching last night I was thinking how well done the music was. Um, yeah, it's David Byrne. Of course it's great, it's DAVID BYRNE! It's exciting to watch how the characters are being developed and given more depth, I see this the most with Nicki and her wacked out side of the family. (Follow this link to find out which sister-wife you are.) I could go on and on about how much I love Big Love but how about some knitting? I've been cruising right along on the second sleeve, up until now I've only done top-down raglans so I wasn't aware of how much time is involved in sleeves. Only a few more inches left and I'll be ready for joining to the body. The end is in sight!

Edited to add: By the way, I'm a Barb.

Covet! Wednesday

Penny for your thoughts? Mine are on the Dollar and a half cardigan from the Spring 2007 IK. I mean, I've got four sweaters' worth of yarn at home, do I really need more? Yes, but I'm waiting for the summer months to knit this up in the required yarn - Reynolds Soft Linen ( 53% linen/47% acrylic). The linen should be nice and drapey and cool for the Summer. It will allow me to get the most mileage out of my many tanks which I usually don't wear to work (I don't consider sporting the tats at the office work appropriate.) while not being too warm. For now I'm cruising Ravelry in order to satisfy my knit-lust.

I've also decided to do some charity knitting this year and have been poking around the charity knitting links at the Seattle Knitter's Guild for some ideas. I'm pretty sure Rosehedge is going to be it, I like the idea of knitting nice socks and slippers for guys even though they have big feet. Maybe even an afghan or two?

Monday Morning Couldn't Guarantee

I'm up to my eyeballs in work and I just don't wanna. Don't. Want. To. Work. The Man and I had a good weekend of clothing shopping for him (belated Christmas gifts from me) and Chinese food. I just want to know why it is he looks so shabby all of the time yet has more expensive taste than me? How is that possible? I did however fit in some knitting time yesterday despite the strangely sunny weather. I opened up most of the windows and gave the wood floors a once-over. The house now smells like clean floors and fresh air rather than dank mid-Winter Seattle. Yay! I finished up one whole sleeve of the Tangled Yoke by last night and am ready to cast on the other at knitting tonight. I already have a wish list of queue knitting running through my head as I'm finishing up the Tangled: 1) Minimalist Cardigan in O-wool 2) Bella Paquita in Elann Incense 3) Drops 103-1 Jacket in Cascade 220 4) Military Cardigan in Elann Peruvian Highland Wool. That's four sweaters worth of knitting time, up from three just over the Holiday break. Let's just say that I'm, well, obsessed but I'm also okay with that. Idle hands, after all, are the devil's plaything. What's running through your head?

Friday, at last!

Diamond Panes - Quilted Ceiling
Originally uploaded by zombiegirl1

I had a lot of stuff to do during the week yet somehow it dragged on and on and on and...you get the idea. Monday was the first night back at the knitting group since the holidays and I'm so glad to be getting back to it. Hilarity always ensues with those gals. Wednesday evening I had an appointment with a UW admissions advisor and that went so amazingly well I'm still kind of glowing over the whole shebang. I've got to finish up the class this quarter ( venn diagrams and factorials anyone?) and take a college level language class sometime soon, this could be at my current Community college even while I'm attending UW so no biggie. ALL of my credits from good ole Mendo transferred without a problem so how many credits until I finish my BA? How many? A measly 55. That's around 11 classes of my choice as long as one of those fulfills a compositional/reading course. Gah. AND I found out my deadline for Fall admission is July so I've got plenty of time to write about how awesome I am and why they should let me into their program and la la la.
In knitting news the body of the Tangled Yoke is complete and I snagged the needle tips to start the sleeves. I thought I might try my hand at 2 sleeves at once on one long circular but my circular is not quite long enough. So I ripped. Then I decided I'd go ahead and do magic loop on one. It looked like ass so I ripped again. So no sleeves as of yet, not even cast on, and this is my project for the weekend. I am going to finish both sleeves and get them at least attached to the body so I can finally get to the yoke of the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. It wants to be finished so badly and who am I to deny it the destiny it deserves?

Covet! Wednesday

After all of the Holiday hubbub and cash outflow wouldn't it be nice to just sit down with your stash for a while and knit for free? I think so. In fact, I'll be doing that for a while. There's been a sock craze going on for the last year or two (more?) and while I see some of that passion being turned to lace knitting lately I'm still pretty new to hand-knit sock loving. It is indeed a slippery slope into sock-sorption. I've been working on the lovely pattern above from Knitzi out of some Socks that Rock and it's super easy and pretty fast and I think I'd like to knit it up in some softly striping yarn like the picture. They've got a couple more free patterns on their site, I especially like the Twinkleberry socks. Knitty is also a treasure trove of sock patterns - Pomotamus, Monkey, and many many many more. I hear Monkey is especially good for variegated yarns. If you're just feeling a need to sit and knit socks, socks, and more socks this year go to KnittyChick for a comprehensive list of free sock patterns and it's even in alphabetical order! So bust out your favorite weapon of sock-knitterly construction and get going, it's all free and you know you've got the stash for it!

Hot Zombie Action

Sundara - Mossy
Originally uploaded by zombiegirl1

I am so incredibly happy to be back at my knitting night. We were on hiatus due to the Holidays and while knitting with my sis was fabulous there's nothing like laughing until you cry at someone else's crazy dreams. I giggle like a schoolgirl every time I think of it. I wish I were going to TNNA with Jessica, but I'll have to settle with getting into a Madrona class that was recently added in my preferred Saturday morning time slot - beginning lace knitting with Evelyn Clark. One of the other ladies at knitting is attending the same one so I already know someone! I've got to check the homework list to see what's up in that arena. That means I've not quite met one goal for 2008 - to attend a knitting class. Things are moving right along with the cardigan ( I finished a repeat and a half at knitting) and I'm stoked to cast on the Minimalist cardigan asap after finishing. But I'm also looking at this yarn (at right) for some socks, it's my most recent shipment from Sundara's Seasons Yarn Club. My camera doesn't do it justice - beautiful layers of green called Mossy in a super squishy sock yarn. Yum. Embossed leaves maybe?

New Things, Old Things

It's really cold today, I'm really tired, and I can't believe it's already Sunday. Blech. But my Endpaper Mitts are done after one week of complete knitting monogamy. I finished these on Thursday night while watching Out of Africa and I'm so happy with them. Specs: one skein Louet Gems in Eggplant, one skein of Koigu Kpppm in #803, size 0 circular and #2 dpns. I'm on to my Tangled Yoke Cardigan with new-found verve. My new cold-flu virus has decided to make itself at home in my head, all the fluids and nyquil in the world made no difference. Somehow I woke up this morning with only a slight sniffle and cold-medicine hangover and I can feel almost normal again. Reading Mrs. Dalloway definitely hasn't helped my head, I think Virginia and I are definitely only polite old acquaintances by now. She drops in every few years to say hello and have a brief visit while I try not to nag at her for leaving crumbs on the counter and her laundry on the floor. We have fun but not enough so that I don't feel a pang of relief when she takes her leave. On a better note my new favorite dessert is pistachio pudding with a dollop of coolwhip on top. Don't ask me how I came to this truly delectable decision, it came from some fortuitous cupboard diving. Yay.

Covet! Wednesday

I didn't have to look very far, or very hard, today to find something that I want to knit. On top of that, something I want to knit in the suggested yarn and maybe even that specific colorway. This rarely happens. Anne at Knitspot has created the beautiful wrap/scarf called Oh! Canada. Gorgeous pattern in beautiful yarn and colors and it makes my little knitting fingers itch. The yarn is from ball and skein in an Artisan 2 ply. All of the yarns are completely drool-worthy and I've got an inkling that they'll flow through my hands like butter. Mom particularly requested a new scarf every year for Christmas from here on out in squooshy yarns so this might be the ticket. Is it too early to think about knitting for others? Nope. I'll just file this away for future reference and maybe in six months or so pull it out and get it going. By the way, has anybody tried the new Burt's Bees lip balm with the pomegranate oil? Delish stuff. It makes my lips all slippy slidy and smells good to boot. Try some, you'll like it.

Knit 2008 & How Ravelry Promotes Voyeurism

So I didn't meet my goal to finish the second mitt before today but that size 0 knitting after two margaritas just doesn't work out. Anyhoo, I'm well on my way and am hoping to get into the increase sections by tonight as Winter Quarter starts tomorrow. Boooo!! Three months to go and I'm finished with community college - cross your fingers. I'd like to do just a little knitrospective on this past year. Um...I learned to knit in 2007 and became completely and utterly obsessed with my new hobby. I've done colorwork, lace, socks, and sweaters. So what do I want from 2008? I'd like to take a knitting class of some sort, work on finessing my lace knitting, work through my 3 sweaters' worth of yarn, knit more socks, and try steeking. Quite the hefty list of new techniques and projects which is fueled by the fact that I'm addicted to Ravelry voyeurism. I troll people's queues and read over profiles and projects lists constantly. All.the.time. I can't help it, it's what it's for right? All of that wonderful knitting information and inspiration is just out there, waiting to be ogled and read through and added to my queue. Knitters are so good about enabling others' addictions to fiber arts that I have no power to resist. It really is futile.

I almost forgot to plug my fo. Grandma's Sockies (aka Citrine Socklets) from IK Holiday Gifts in Rowan Cashsoft DK. I finished these while my sis was here and I really don't like working short row heels. I also worked a plain round toe rather than a short row toe. When Grandma received these she said she had never learned to knit socks in her 50+ years of knitting. Wow.