Friday, April 27, 2007

Who knew?

Who knew freezer paper stencil results could be soo adorable? Oh, and it's fun, too! Go on, try it! It's terribly simple. Just google for instructions, or try this.Here's a post-paint shot, right before I slowly freed the freezer paper from the onesie. (The iron-on method really works!)


Another Pair




Spike's Revenge in action. They're destined to be red ankle socks for mom.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Spike's Revenge


Superwash Blue Faced Leicester, 3-ply sock yarn. 600+ yards each skein. BFL wool has a longer fiber length than merino, and has a lovely hand. These skeins should knit long socks that wear well. US size 0 to 1.5 recommended

$22 each. Email me if interested. honeyninja (at) gmail (dot) com

Update: One skein pending payment, others are sold.

Smiles

See, Yarn Over 2007 was great.
Key-note via Annie Modesitt. She was quite lovely. *

The audience was thrilled. Look who I met!

Yes, I did get into the Bavarian Twisted stitches class. It was great to meet Meg, hear her methods, see shortcuts-- but the most exciting part? Digging through the suitcase of gorgeous sweaters! Some of these could have been knit by EZ-- you know, items from true knitting royalty. Sorry, no photo. I must have been too excited, or something.



I also met a lovely knitter, photographer, and mom in the class. Hop on over to Hannah's blog. Anything look familiar? Yes, they're hers... not mine!

As some of you know, I absolutely love traveling stiches, and have been a wee bit obsessed about Maria Ehlbacher's Uberlieferte Strickmuster aus dem Steirischen Ennstal (Traditional Knitting Patterns from the Enns Valley of Styria). Last week I received an email from Germany, and was able to purchase #3 in the set via ebay. Meg Swanson also offered her father's translation by contacting Schoolhouse Press.

Sunday was reserved for playtime.



*******************As I stolled around the market place with friends, one TC LYS (purposely unnamed) seemed in a huff because she (AM) had not reached out [specifically to them] and formed a relationship... yet. Too bad they haven't tried themselves, and they clearly haven't read about the current tradgedy in her life spelled out on her blog!

Friday, April 20, 2007

Knitter's Weekend

If you're in the Twin Cities Area there are two great events happening this weekend:

Spring 2007 St. Paul Art Crawl
If you're in the area and have never been-- this bi-annual event is a must for art and craft lovers! A large number of lofts where the artisans live, work and play are open for view. Go online for a full list of buildings and artists open to visitors.

The Minnesota Knitter's Guild Yarn Over event
Classes have been closed, but the fiber market is open to the public! Come out on Saturday and join us!

Paco is clearly not as excited as I am.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

"I know a Rowan!"

The moment Elmer walked through the coffeeshop during knit night, we couldn't help but stare. LOOK at all of that seed stitch! Connie stated, "It must be woven". She placed on her glasses, and declaired that it was indeed an entire vest out of the painstaking pattern. See the knit-in pockets? (Looks like Noro Kureyon to me.)

Elmer said that he has learned "What a Rowan is", and earns bonus points with his wife when he can point out a Starmore! Of course, she knit the vest for him.

Now, that's a lot of knitted love.Speaking of love, check out the wee baby felted slippers Deepa whipped up in less than 30 minutes. Aren't they adorable?

I don't know where the pattern is from, but I'm guessing the answer will be recorded in the comments below.

(The elegant model above is Connie, of course.)

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Revival!

The Clapotis not only survived the bloodbath, but came out with fantastic drape and evenly dropped stitches! It lost a good deal of it's bulky/rustic feel. It's overall feel & softness improved many times over, and the color is still pretty darn vibrant. It also grew 10" while blocking. Last night I wore it to the MN Knitter's Guild meeting and received a surprising number of compliments. There was an exciting Bohus sighting as well!





When I got home I popped Winged Migration into the DVD player. All I can say is WOW. Toby and Paco were completely fixated. They love squeeky sounds-- and, previously unknown, bird squaks, honks, and hollars! Looks like I should pick up a copy.
I wonder, has anyone gone to the point of ordering cable so that their pets could watch Animal Planet? Or, how about just taping National Geographic from PBS?

Monday, April 16, 2007

Spring Cleaning

Anyone else spend hours and hours listing, cleaning, scrubbing, washing, and organizing their living spaces this weekend? I'm about 1/3 through my list. If only I could take a week off to complete the job!
I did knit a little bit. The Lotus Blossom's lace portion is juuust about done. Six more rows to go, and I'll pop it on to see how it fits. I'm a little worried about the cotton's exponential growth possibilities, so I may knit the bodice in the next smaller size. After taking on the vacuum cleaner and loosing the fight, Paco decided to take a time out in the sun.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Bits and Pieces

Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense
from things she found in gift shops.
- Kurt Vonnegut


New dog toy, five minutes into playtime: ($0.60 from Savers on Rice in St. Paul)
Lizard Ridge It was decided by multiple people that another strip was needed. 6 squares for width purposes. Knitters have been donating Kureyon bits here and there. Puzzles are great! :) I'm going to tackle this one from Renee tonight:

Knitty Polygamy.
Yes, I'm a knitting polygamist. I've got waay too many projects going on at once, including TWO secret projects... and a few others steeping in my brain.

Knitting equation: Lizard Ridge + Lotus Blossom Tank + two secret projects = no finished objects!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Bleeding Tub


In an otherwise uneventful night at chez Cashmere Dreams,


I decided to give ol' Raspberry Tiger a wash. By the time it's 20 minute soak was over, the water looked like it housed something terribly disturbing-- a dead poodle, a severed limb, you get the horrific idea.
The water NEVER RAN CLEAR. Raspberry Tiger is resting on a burgundy sheet. I'm afraid to find out how albino it's state is tonight! Bad Mystical Creations Yarns. Bad!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Raspberry Tiger


Finally, a picture of the finished Raspberry Tiger Clapotis! This was knit between March 23rd and March 31st. I won't go into detail as nearly all of you have all ready knit one. If I were to do it over again, I would choose a dk-weight yarn. Let's just say it's pleasantly bulky... a lovely winter scarf.

Lotus Blossom Tank and bedroom wall at 7:02 a.m. They're certainly analogous, calm colors.

That's it for today. Short and sweet.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Still Life, Spring Green


All right. So I worked on the Lotus Blossom Tank a little bit this weekend.

A few notes:
-The first six rows are worked in a larger needle (US #6), then the knitter switches to a US #5. This apparantly stops the knitting from curing in.

-I changed the central decreases from a Slip-two-Knit-one-Pass-slipped-stitches-over to a Slip-one-Knit-two-Pass-slipped-stich-over for the first lace repeat. For the second, I decided to try the original decrease as the stiches were starting to look sloppy. (Blocking can fix all sloppiness!) Take a look a below. I'd recommend sticking to the original Slip-two business.

-Cotton Yarn. Usually I really dislike working with it. Cotton Patine, thus far, has been quite pleasurable to work with! The 100% combed cotton has an unusually squishy/spongey & soft hand. It has absolutely no elasticity, but the cushy quality to the yarn combined with it's softness lends to a surprisingly light and comfortable knit. In my mind I can *almost* imagine that it's merino. You know, almost. [Expect further updates as I can't believe it's actually as great as I think it is at this moment. C'mon, it's 100% cotton!]

-The color is certainly growing on me. Clearly I like it enough to buy tissue boxes with a similar hue.



If you celebrated, I hope you had a great Easter Holiday.
My extended family was certainly all smiles.



Friday, April 6, 2007

"Highly Evolved Beings"

Excuse the poor lighting this morning.

There it is, yarn dyed for the Buffy Knit Along. Yes, we're talking Vampire Slayer.
Any suggestions for a colorway name?

This skein has found a home with Amy at KnitThink. This all started when Amy held a contest, and Buffy conversation ensued. She believes knitting Buffy fans as highly evolved beings. When you are one, how can you disagree?

Sweet Georgia Yarns has a "Slayer" colorway, but unfortunatly she will not produce any yarn during this year. Google searches didn't magically find any unwanted skeins of the same, thus the attempt above. I'm out of this fiber (440 yds, lt. superwash merino), but I will make similar batch when another shipment of wool arrives.


Final Jaeger Trinity Cobalt results. It did lighten up upon drying, but is darker than this picture shows. I couldn't have asked for better results.

First summer-related knitting project this year will be a Lotus Blossom Tank. At the retreat last weekend I won a door prize-- 10 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold's Cotton Patine and a cute shell pattern from (blogless in Mpls) Joyce. It's a surprisingly light brushed dk cotton yarn. The only downside is that some colorways have been known to dramatically loose their color after machine washing. Honestly, I probably would never have picked this color, It's a lovely silvery sage tone reminicent of my bedroom walls. If it does lighten up, I certainly won't be dissapointed.
Final thoughts: I didn't intend to circumnavigate a chat about Lizard Ridge. Yes, it has been (almost completely) seamed. It looks great, but just isn't wide enough to be used as intended- a cozy, cuddly afghan for two. So, I'm adding another strip. One square has been knit from left-overs. 5 squares remain. I'm trying to not spend money on yarn, so I'll slowly pick up the last needed 3 or 4 skeins of Kureyon. I'll finish it sometime this spring/summer.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Calling All Minnesota Knitters!

We came out in droves last night-- clearly seen above.
(Ok, ok! So I forgot to take a picture of the entire room.)
Instead, here's a picture of a few wonderful women who, of course, are also fantastic knitters. Clockwise, starting with the Cinxia sweater (9 o'clock) you'll see Deb M, Pam, Renee, Deepa, and Addie in front.

You see, the Yarn Harlott was in town.
We all appeared to have a great time. She's wonderfully entertaining, and it's always great to get together with "your people". You know, people who understand why you have such a huge stash in the room previously known as the guest bedroom and also never leave the house without their knitting.

Who knew that knitters, as an interest group, are the largest users of Bloglines? (What about Google reader?)

I was absolutely astounded when Stephanie asked how many bloggers were in the audience. There must have been at least 125 people who raised their hands! Sure, one or two might have been political junkies-- but I'm sure most of them are knit bloggers.

After taking a peek at the MN knitter's Ring, only 58 blogs are listed. Where are the rest of you! Sign up, people. Sign up!


In other news, the dogs took a bath on Tuesday. Toby's tail increases in fluffiness by 150% each time!

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Adventures in Dyeing

At the knitting retreat this weekend someone gave a mustard skein of Gems Opal away. The moment I saw the neglected skein on the floor (it had been thrown in discust as somone 'traded' a batch of handyed yarn for a few skeins including gems via the roll doubles-dice game), I thought this would be a perfect skein for a dyeing experiment! An acid dye kit found it's way to my home about two weeks ago, and it was calling out.

"Use me. Try me. You know you can do it!"


I'm really pleased. The gradation is really lovely. A horrible sense of awareness now surrounds me.... ANOTHER hobby?
Last year about this time I purchased four skeins of Jaeger Trinity from the annual Web's sale, which coincidentally is happening right now. Be forewarned. It's not nearly as exciting as last year's sale! Dear Webs, we knitters are not nearly as tempted as last year to buy yarn from your annual sale. Last year we had great yarns, fabulous color choices, and a whole lot of it... At any rate, the Trinity colorway was Hibiscus-- a lovely light purple/pink with white flecks. The problem is that I really wanted to buy the cobalt color, but didn't want to pay an extra $5/skein.

So, I tried to achieve the cobalt color:

The skeins are still drying, but they're looking spot-on right now.

"Breiende vrouw" (1869)


"Breiende vrouw" (1869)
Originally uploaded by elemmaciltur.
From Elemmaciltur.