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.