FO: Ravellenic Acer (finally)

 I finally got around to taking pictures of my second Acer Cardigan (sorry about the graininess of the pictures - not sure what happened there).

Cabley back.

Pattern: Acer Cardigan by Amy Christoffers

Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Cotton Comfort in Navy

Needles: US #5 & US #6 Hiya Hiya Sharp Interchangeables

Mods: I knit the 42 (just like last time) but ended up making the body slightly longer and increased the sleeves up to the number for the next size since the sleeves were quite snug on my other Acer. These sleeves fit perfectly even with a t-shirt underneath. I opted not to put buttonholes on the front bands since I never wear my other Acer closed. This yarn is kind of amazing - it's an 80/20 wool/cotton blend that feels light and lofty and has wonderful bits of lighter blue tweed. In fact, when I was at Stitches West I contemplated getting another sweater quantity in red but wanted to plan my project more. The ladies who work at Green Mountain Spinnery are a hoot and a half and give great customer service. What else can I say? I love this cardigan and get tons of wear out of it.

WIPs: Twisted Flower & Temperate Mitts

I'm participating in my own KAL for the Doubleknit podcast - Spring Clean Your Queue! I've had  Twisted Flower by Cookie A in my queue since 2007 and I finally cast them on! It's slow going but I'm getting a little farther down the leg each day. The yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Heartthrob.

My bus knitting went vibrant this week and I started the Temperate Mitts by Melissa Thomson. The yarn is sweet fiber merino twist worsted in Canary that I picked up at Stitches West this year. They're simple and bright and great for commute knitting. This is the first mitt,  just at the point where I have to change needle sizes for the ribbing at the top.

Music Monday

"We Got the Funk" from the 1975 album, Mothership Connection, by Parliament.

I've been fighting a bit of funk sick-wise the last couple of days but not quite so funky as this. Happy Monday!

WIP: CustomFit Pullover

 Sweater progress!

Things have been a little sparse on the personal knitting front the past couple of weeks. I was working on a large sample knitting project and only had time to knit on my own projects during my commute to and from work. I finished my sample last weekend (sans blocking) and picked up my CustomFit pullover in ToshDK. The pieces are all done and blocking and I'm super-excited to get them sewn together so I can see how well CustomFit, well, custom fits. By next weekend I'll have a finished sweater!

FO: Vanilla Socks

Pattern: 64 stitch plain vanilla sock from my noggin

Yarn: Regia Hand-dye Effect in Fog

Needles: US #1 (2.25 mm) Hiya Hiya Sharps

Mods: This is my own standard sock pattern using a 64 stitch cast on. Nothin' fancy. I have to say, though, that I really dislike knitting with this yarn. It's basically a wool single plied with a nylon thread. And that wool single? Hairy and splitty and not pleasant at all to the hands. I was mostly annoyed with this yarn's tendency to split since I cast these on to knit while I watched the Lego movie and I have some not very pretty stitches toward the top of the first sock and intermittently throughout the pair of socks (bus knitting is bumpy!). The finished socks are rather pretty and if the yarn weren't such a pain to knit with I'd happily buy more since I like the "hand-dye effect".

Music Monday

"Here Comes Your Man" from the 1989 album, Doolittle, by the Pixies. I have a love for the Pixies that knows practically no bounds. I heard "Gigantic" at a party one night and set out shortly thereafter to discover more about the band, Kim Deal's amazing bass playing, and Frank Black's vocal prowess. In 2009 I spent way more money than I should have to go see the Pixies play Doolittle on the 20th anniversary of the album's release and I was saddened when Deal left the band for the Breeders. 

Let's just say that even after all the intervening years between that night at the party and today, the Pixies have stayed with me and I'm still surprised and amazed by songs I've heard thousands of times. A good friend of mine recently sent me one of the 33 1/3 series - Doolittle by Ben Sisario - and I've been reading the little tome during lunch breaks and waiting in line for various things. Sadly, Deal refused to be interviewed for the book but other than that it's a fantastic read full of all kinds of interesting tidbits about the band and the creation of Doolittle.

Music Monday: Cover Edition

"Crash" by Belle and Sebastian from the 2012 album, Late Night Tales: Belle & Sebastian Vol. II. 

"Crash" by the Primitives from the 1988 album, Lovely.

I'm not really sure if I prefer one version over the other in this case since I don't think one version is necessarily better or more interesting than the other. What I can say after watching the videos is that the yellow and black polka-dot scarf Tracy Tracy is wearing totally kills me and the little paper Belle &  Sebastian band is adorable.

2014 Annual Purlygirl Retreat

 Last weekend I went out of town on the Annual Purlygirl Retreat to Port Townsend. Despite the ominous picture the weather was beautiful and I was able to take a long walk on Saturday and do some exploring. Other than my walk on Saturday, we ate a lot of food, played games, drank some drinks and did a lot of knitting and talking. My drink of choice was white rum with extra ginger ginger beer and some lime. My knitting project of choice featured the yarns below.

Brooklyn Tweed Loft in four shades of gray: Soot, Sweatshirt, Cast Iron, and Snowbound (left to right and top to bottom). These are for a sample knit so I can't share more than that but I can share the fact that I love knitting with this yarn. It's so light and lofty that I contemplated picking up a sweater quantity at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge Island. Sanity won out seeing as how I've accumulated multiple sweater quantities this year between Stitches West and Vogue Knitting Live Seattle, but I'm definitely thinking about it for a future purchase. The weekend was relaxing, my extra day off to recover was necessary, and I'm already looking forward to next year.