Hila's First Time
Finally, pics of my completed pillow! It is such a funky pillow! I will name it
P-Funk, ie. Pillow Funk. Haha. Side one (or two, depending on how you look at it. Ooooh.... deep....):
Side two (or one.... ooooooh.... I just blew your mind):
And.... the two sides of Dynamic Duo for my nephew.
Side a (or b.... actually, this really is side a, since it's the front. Damn. Oh! And its the first time I ever made short rows for the neckline! I feel like we should rename this blog "The Knitting Virgin: Wherein Hila Tries Every Kind of Knitting Pattern for the First Time and Wonders How She Ever Lived Without Knitting". That would be cool. I'm sure Illanna will agree to that immediately.) :
And side b, which could only be side b, and never ever could ever be confused with side a, cause that would be lewd:
Oh! And it was my first time doing ribbing, which I loved! Stay tuned for my very first time making sleeves and my very first time doing the tango (note: Hila will not actually be doing the tango).
How hot is it?
I booked my flight back to Phoenix today. I'm going back to Arizona this Sunday, July 3. I am taking the
Mystery Stole on the plane with me to finish the last four 84-row repeats. Goodbye
Point. Hello
boyfriend.
Hand-dyed, Hand-knit, and Finished.
Sockapa-two-za socks take over the Q46 bus:
Renegade Craft Fair!!!!
I scored at the Renegade Craft Fair. All this yarn came from
My Paper Crane. She spun it herself, and in a totally unrelated topic, has pink hair. Look at all this! Some of it's for
Kiki, but then again, some of it's for ME!
This next yarn came from the
Crafty Ladies of Chicago.
You're looking at 1500 yards of unadulterated, hand-dyed, cotton tape. Again, some's for Kiki, but most of it's for me. I'm going to make a cotton cardigan.
I scored some cool buttons and stickers too! A lot of the business cards were printed on sticker paper instead of card stock... what a great idea! I bought the skull and crossbones (needles) and the cork guy at the
Craftster booth. The rest were free promo stuff at the different booths.
The booths I shopped at had no bags. I just lucked out that way. It was no big deal, because I bought this printed tote on my way out. I can't remember who I bought it from though! If you recognize this as yours, please remind me! It's perfect!
I am calling this peice the rosary of craft. It's a beaded bracelet with a scissor and needle threader attached. I bought it from AMH Design who sells needlepoint kits. The rosary of craft usually comes free with the purchase of a needlepoint kit, but I just knit so I bought it seperate. Thank you Lindsey for reminding me who I bought this from!
I remember where I got this patch though! It's from Laura Lashley! I am going to make a felted bag and sew this baby on. He's got a silver glitter speedo!
The item that I got the most use out of, though, is the one that's the most elusive to photograph. I bought a cell phone cleaner charm from Ann and Dabney. There's a picture of it
here. It's a little charm that hooks onto a cell phone- it has microfiber on one side that cleans the screen of your cell phone when it gets gunk on it. The other side is beautiful fabric. Ann and Dabney said the gunk might be "product" but I always thought it might be "earwax." Well either way,
this is a link to a picture they took of Kelly and me at their booth!!!
Here I am with my requisite intermittent, irregular, and completely unreliably timed post.
I am a flake who doesn't own a digital camera so I can only post after I borrow someone else's camera. Apologizes.
I now present my completed spider web square for the throw blanket. This was my first experience making a lace pattern. Had I known that spider web was a secret code word for lace, I would never have tried it. Only after I started and messed up a few times did Illanna refer to it as lace, which shocked me so much that the jukebox came to a screeching halt. She was there, she can verify. But I'm happy to say the square is done and I love it!!!!!! Check it out:
This is another square, which I think I will call
Peaches and Herb. It is made in a zig-zag pattern which is fun!
I think I have a total of seven squares now. Watching the progress of this blanket is like the scene in Austin Powers where that big
steam roller is coming towards him very very slowly.
In even more exciting news, I started my first sweater ever! I already finished the back, but I only have a pic of the very beginning part:
I am using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran wool which is delicious! I love it! And the pattern is Dynamic Duo from Knitty.
Randomly Placed Horror Story: Illanna's knitting mistake came back to haunt us in a disguised form. I kept noticing all these dropped stitches in the sweater, and later after I had fixed them and continued, it looked like there was an extra stitch too, so finally after much angst, I had to rip back maybe 10-20 rows until the Evil Mistake appeared in all its
hellish glory. It was this horrible tangly mess of a stitch that I didn't see at all while knitting. Its invisibility is the source of its power. You could knit for so many rows before knowing it exists. But it is all over now, I'm happy to report.
And, finally, here is my proof that My Bag, Baby is fully lined and has been painting the town pink, blue, gold, and green... oh yeah, and red:
Notice the adorable kitchy flower affixed to the bag, which I bought on Houston street from a random vendor.
Other sexy bag shots. Notice closeup of lining:
That is the end. I hope to have more sweater pics soon!
Maybe I'll make a Bad Penny Too!
After seeing
this blogger's
Bad Penny, I decided I'd like to make one too. Hila just got her yarn to make hers, and maybe we'll have our own little knitalong! Besides, I don't really have enough projects on the needles... check the sidebar for sarcasm validation... I have some
Artyarns Supermerino in these excellent little colors:
Hila, you've inspired me!
In other news,
RENEGADE CRAFT FAIR IS TODAY! I'll be there, wearing
this. I hope to meet some bloggers there!
A Poem in Honor of Kelly
For months I haven’t written
Not one word to my name
My muse with illness stricken
Left me poem-less, quite lame.
But then today my outlook changed
I feel inspired, a bit more sane,
I read a poem on a blog
It cleared my creativity-fog
The author is Kelly, not the
Mouse of the CityShe’s another fab woman, intelligent, pretty,
She knows how to rhyme and knit mean bulky scarves
She paints her walls green and keeps flowers in jars
I read her blog and of sadness I’m ridden
It’s called
lookwhatimadeandyoursorryassdidnt
Dot blogspot dot com, now you know how to get there
So link on over without a minute to spare!
Just an Update:
I did a google image search for "Pollyanna" and found the image above. I was just curious what it was, and apparantly it's
that.
I fixed my knitting mistake, then made another mistake, then fixed the second mistake. Both socks are back on both needles now and I worked on them at
The Point tonight.
Lisa and
City Mouse were there, as were
Kelly and
Hila.
About the mistake itself: sometimes I don't fix my mistakes. I ask myself: "will I be upset if I leave this mistake in?" If the answer is "yes," I fix it. If the answer is "no," then I leave it alone. If I'm knitting for somebody other than myself, I ALWAYS FIX IT. That's just how I am. It doesn't take much longer to go back 15 rows and fix a mistake. I'd rather do that than regret it! Regret sucks, especially in knitting. It's what causes people to completely rip up their first sweater they ever made (which I did). Besides, I love the yarn- I dyed it myself! I love this pattern- I know it by heart! I even love the addis I'm using- one is mine and one is Hila's. The socks are sort of a marriage of Hila and me.
In summation (I just like saying that): My cat's breath smells like cat food. Goodnight.
Dear Knitting Mistake,
I hate you. You know that I am trying to finish these socks this week. Couldn't you just fade away into the pattern so I could forget about you? Why don't you look more like a design element? Why didn't you reveal yourself BEFORE I completed 15 more rows? I want to throw your glasses on the floor and step on them.
With much hate and unpleasantness,
Illanna Priscilla
(Your Creator)
mystery stole
I joined Knit Red because I am knitting red lace! You can see the button in my sidebar. I can't tell exactly what the whole Knit Red thing means, but I know that there's a contest involved and I'd like to get to know more of the knitting community anyway.
Mystery Stole after Clue #2 (Truer color representation):
It's my first time knitting with lace weight yarn. The yarn is
Jade Sapphire Lacey Lamb and the pattern is from the
Mystery Stole Knitalong. As soon as I finish my Sockapa-two-za socks, I'll work on the mystery lace. The bulk of the knitting is in Clue 3, which is what I'm doing right now. 81" of pattern stitches is no small feat. I hope to finish that part by July 1 when the next clue comes out.
Mystery Stole after Clue #3 (not done yet):
P.S. I moved my links into it's own page under the menu in the left sidebar.
Fun at Bryant Park Film Festival
Just another picture of the glamorous Hila... or is it? Look what I found when I zoomed in:
Click it to see the full size. It's Natalie Portman at the park! Hila and I actually
know her from school, but we realized that we didn't have anything to say to her so we never went over to say hello. Here's what we expected the conversation to be like:
Natalie: Hey how have you been since Junior High?
Illanna: Good, I learned how to knit, I'm still in school, nothing really...
Hila: I got a cat named Artemis!
Natalie: Really? I make fabulous movies and date celebrities. I graduated from Harvard. Not even the tabloids can think of anything bad to say about me. But tell me more about your cat!
Yeah. Hila and I had a blast though.
Kelly joined us and we all knit together until the movie began.
Oh yeah? Well I make fabulous clothes.
And Hila designs fabulous throws.
This is not knitting... it's a torture device.
I'm only pretending to knit. Gotcha!
What's that guy pointing at back there?
Matching Rice Crispy Treats!
The movie we watched was "The Way We Were" starring Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford. He looked almost like a young Robert Redford... haha... that's my joke. I managed to turn the heel and make it to the gusset in my sockapatwoza socks, in the dark. That was the best part of the movie.
...on socks
By: Illanna
I got up one morning and couldn't find my socks, so I called Information. She said, "Hello, Information." I said, "I can't find my socks." She said, "They're behind the couch." And they were! -Steven Wright
for miss sockapa-2-za pal:
(hand-dyed merino)
Update after
last night's knitfest:
I have always dressed according to certain Basic Guy Fashion Rules,including: Both of your socks should always be the same color, Or they should at least both be fairly dark. -Dave Barry
for me:
(i need to re-do the tight bind off)
more
later now.
The second pair are 1 sock on two circulars. You have to do the socks seperately this way. The first pair are 2 socks on two circulars, done at the same time. The second pair is toe-up, the first pair is cuff down. I learned how to do this crazy torture device type of knitting from
Becky from our Phoenix Stitch n Bitch. She described it to me and it sort of stuck. Tomorrow I'll post the current pictures of the socks, as they look now, after an entire day of knitting.
is that a neglected project in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Ahhh, my neglected projects. This one above is my
Glampyre Mesh Tank. Soy Silk Phoenix and Artyarns Supermerino. I started it FAST because I had dreams of being the first blogger to ever finish it. Now I have 2.5 out of 5 (or 6) peices done, and it's sitting in the bag. I've neglected all my projects for my sockapa-2-za socks. It's funny: I want to be the first blogger who finishes my sock pal's socks also.
This here is my cabled clutch. The originals are selling online for $150. This one is soy silk chenille, 4 strands held together. I saw the clutch and had an "I could do that" moment. The originals are much nicer- I saw them at the point. Mine's not finished though- it needs dowels and 2 seams. I wish the finishing fairies would drop by my house and work their techniques on it.
shrug... i dunno
Before I get to the shrug, I want to tell the world about a cool, free, knitblog template I found. Here's the site. It's got yarn on it! I would use it, but I just changed ours. I have to wait at least 2 more posts til I can change it again (right, Steve?)
Back to the shrug... I'm silly tonight.
The pattern is from Glampyre. It's written a little weird. For example, there is a part where I was picking up stitches, and it said "Back: 20." 20 stitches? 20 potatoes? Are they already on the needle? 20 questions? Other than that I had a good time with this pattern.
The yarn is mohair self striping yarn by Be Sweet. I got it at Jessica's a while ago. It's sort of like those novelty scarf yarns that are 50 bucks which are just a bunch of eyelash yarns tied together with knots (AKA "Cool or Wild Stuff.") Except this one is mohair. It has some ribbon in it too. It's pretty.
The picture up above depicts the part where I ran out of yarn. One skein wonder my ass. This yarn is so obscure that no one in the world knows how many yards a skein is. Well at least google doesn't know and that's pretty much everyone to me.
So I got this far:
and then I bought
Lorna's Laces Grace in the lilac colorway to finish the shrug. It's loopy mohair, which is already in the shrug anyway. It matched my
Be Sweet yarn perfectly! I finished it on the bus home from
the Point. .I really want a good closeup of the cool yarns, but I'll have to settle for this right now.
Finished projects!
So many new and exciting things to share!
I finished making a pillow! It is all seamed up! I don't have the final project photographed, but I do have progress photos here. It is so cool to watch two knitted squares take shape on the pillow. It's like Pinnochio.... now you are a
real pillow!
This is the first side of the pillow. I just made it as a diamond by increasing until the middle and then decreasing... very easy! I used blue soy silk chenile which Illanna got me and the pink yarn that I got in my goody bag at the Teva book signing. By the way, the blue chenile dye really runs when you block it. It wasn't a bad thing, but it turned the water very blue which surprised me.
This is the naked inside of the pillow before being fully clothed:
And this is the other side of the pillow, before I finished it.
In other news.... my bag, baby, has been lined! It is all done! I just need to take a pic of it as proof.
I have completed 5 squares of the throw, one of which is not pictured here. It is peach colored. These are the first four and my cat Artemis, because this is actually a covert cat blog:
Here are the 4 squares sans Artemis. Lighting is not so great.
Also, I got yarn in the mail from
Knitpicks! It is the yarn with which I plan to attempt to make the
Bad Penny pattern. I have never made a shirt or sweater before. I have only made squares and once I made a baby cap. So this is very momentous for me.
AND, I also got yarn in the mail from
Wool Needle Work. I got Debbie Bliss Cashmerino for my first baby sweater! With three nephews it's about time. I'm making it for the oldest, he's 2 and a half. Then we can just pass it down to the others. I'm using the
Dynamic Duo pattern from Knitty. Despite the fact that a cute little girl is modelling the sweater in fun tropical colors, I am going to make it in maroon (main color) and lime green for the three stripes. I am so excited to finally make a sweater! I just need to buy the needles....
Ok next time I better have some pics of completed projects! Wags finger at self...
Thursday Fun Fact:
Karabella Models Are Sexy.
I was surfing
Knit Pixie and I was wondering: Has anyone noticed how hot the
Karabella models look? Most yarn companies go for "girl next door," but Karabella goes for "airbrushed coke addict." Karabella is owned by a man, so I was thinking that's the reason. Maybe I just miss
Max.
Mish-mosh of fun
Hi knitting friends. I changed the template again. I saw the last template on two people's Apple computers, and it looked awful. If anyone is reading this, and you are using a mac, PLEASE tell me if this new template looks crazy. Thank you. This has been a public service announcement from the girl who can't make up her mind about a template.
I have been knitting like crazy, and doing knitting related stuff like crazy.
On the needle front:
I decided to go balls out (get it?) on Anne of Green Cables. It is a vintage pattern from my grandmother's Woman's Day magazine from 1972. The pattern looks like this:
I am making it out of this:
Southwest Trading Company Bamboo in FuschiaThis is what I have so far:
And this is the close-up:
I also am 90% finished with a shrug. More info and pictures tomorrow.
Meeting Bloggers:In one weekend, I hung out with
Colette,
Yahaira, the
City Mouse, Hila, and Kelly. My camera must have been on hiatus because I only have one picture.
Left to right: Hila, Illanna, Kelly.I met Colette on Friday for some Mystery Lace Knitting. She is lovely. She showed me her awesome collection of stitch markers she made. She even gave me one! I am very bad at taking pictures of stitch markers, so I'll describe it. It looks like a spiky chili pepper. I adore it, Colette!
Yahaira and I had a super crazy adventure on Saturday for KIP day. Let me just say that it involved using fish as surf boards in Chinatown in order to get her back to her bus on time! She has a great account of the antics
here.
Bumping into the city mouse again was accidental. I must admit that I recognized her socks on her needles first, and then her. We had an enjoyable conversation about losing pattern copyrights at
The Point. I hope we can knit together again before I leave!
I'll finish with a photo of "the country."
Kiki says Long Island is not the country, and she's right. It's the suburbs. I publicly admit it.
Feeling Cozy?
Click on over to
Lindsey's blog to see a collection of brash crochet decisions... I mean cozies. Do it NOW. You won't regret it.
Yarn Harlot meets Yarn Junkie Part 2
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee rejoices the positive aspects of knitting and accepts the "other" aspects of knitting. When we got to the synagagogue that Stephanie spoke at, the atmosphere was less of "celebrity who's signing our books" and more of "knitting group with a talented leader." Almost everyone was knitting socks. I'm glad I brought a sock knitting project, especially since I haven't picked up this particular one in months!
Notice the tank that I am wearing. I made it. Stephanie noticed it. That makes me overjoyed.
Stephanie spoke at a "Bima" which is the Hebrew word for the podium that the rabbi usually stands at.
One of my favorite parts of Stephanie's talk was about the woman who cuts plastic bags, makes yarn out of it, and knits it up into bags. Stephanie pointed out that she was not doing this for tactile or practical aspects, because she was knitting with plastic, and she already HAD a bag. The woman did it for the magic of it all. This talk made me think of Aristotle and the final mean. According to Aristotle, everything we do it means to an end. We work because we want money because we need to feed our families because etc. the list goes on. But there has got to be something that is the end of it all. There is something at the end of all those means that we do for it's own sake. Knitting bags into bags is knitting for the sake of knitting. It's very holistic. I took notes during the talk because I enjoyed making the connection.
Edit: Thanks Hila for pointing out that i used the wrong term- I said "
golden mean" but I meant "
final end." I changed it up there so that I am not wrong anymore. I bet Aristotle's rolling over in his grave. Now back to the regularly scheduled banter.
I got to meet "she who knits 1 skein wonders,"
Yahaira. She is lovely. Yahaira showed me all around Philadelphia, all day long. She picked me up from the Chinatown bus (which was an EXCELLENT ride) and dropped me back off at night. I can't wait to see you this weekend for knitting in public day. We are going to knit the town red. I promise.
Those colorful blobs behind our heads are huge hanks of Lobster Pot Mohair. These pictures of her and I were taken (by me) in front of
Loop. Loop happens to be one of the most beautiful yarn stores ever. It's like
Purl but bigger, like
Flying Fingers but lighter. It's like if your favorite coffee shop that had couches sold yarn, had a lot of light, and didn't sell coffee. Am I conveying how much I like this store? If I lived near this store I would be homeless. Let's leave it at that.
I also got to meet
Suz. That's Suz's arm right there. Suz is BRAVE and I like her. Go to her blog and ask her how she made 50 bucks on Christmas Eve. Go now and come back. Suz, you are darling. Please don't wash your arm EVER.
The day ended with much needed food and water, free coffee, and knitting in the park. Thank you to the bloggers (and nice Cosi waiter) who made this a memorable day.
stolen
...by illanna.
On Friday the Mystery Stole-Alongers got our first clue. It's not actually a clue- it's the first part of the secret pattern. I might not have mentioned that it's my first time working with lace weight yarn. It's interesting... i'm not addicted yet, although everyone says I will be. I only had to rip it out once. I am using size 8 needles, to my own surprise. I looked quick at them and thought they said number 5. They are 5 MILLIMETERS. Pretty big for lace... it looked good, though, and that's what counts. I think the bouncy ply of the yarn causes me to knit tighter anyway.
I learned provisional cast on. That's what the rainbow yarn is for. It's WASTE. There is a
video that you can watch for directions. Crochet hooks always scared me a little, but this cast on method was not traumatic at all. I did it on the bus.
The yarn is
Jade Sapphire Lacy Lamb. The whole ball band is Chinese. I thought it was cashmere, and I was arguing that it was cashmere to a girl at the Point. The girl said that it was actually wool and I got a little angry. Determined to prove myself the truth, I went to the website and it said:
This laceweight yarn is 100% extra fine lambswool, but is so incredibly soft that people refuse to believe it's not cashmere!That pretty much sums up the argument, doesn't it. It's true though.
I started the
Mesh Tank from Glampyre. I finished the two front peices and started the back peice. I am using
Soy Silk Phoenix for the mesh and
Artyarns Supermerino for the ribbing. I think the colors look swell together:
Tomorrow is the big day. There WILL be pictures of the
Harlot.
No Details
What is there to say about Teva Durham's book launch party? I was so overwhelmed that I could hardly speak. When I did speak, I gushed. I started to cry when I said hello to Melanie Falick, but then I think I was able to hold back and play it off well. Teva signed my book- she was very sweet. It says:
May you always be inspired and keep making your knitting your own.I think that's probably the best wish any knitter could have. What's better than always being inspired? Did she know that all I'd have to do is open her book? She's my favorite after all. The party itself was very fun. There was lots of Brie and Hummus, but I was afraid to eat it in front of the gorgeous book models. I think all I ate was a peice of bread and an olive. I know. It's silly.
Everyone got goodie bags with luscious yarn and a Teva Durham pattern. I'm not sure what kind of yarn this is, but it's super soft. It might be the one used in the Leaf Lace Pullover. I want to bathe in it.
In much less eventful knitting news, I worked a little more on Branching Out.
I think Hila will agree with me that it's hard to follow a pattern when an obnoxious bartender keeps trying to talk to you. I spend more time knitting backwards than forwards last night at the bar/coffee shop, but then the subway ride back to Queens put me back in the positive status again.
That' my test swatch for the Mystery Stole along. It came out looking like a fish after I blocked it. The yarn is
Jade Sapphire from Purl. I stopped there on the way to the party. It was tough to decide between that and the
Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace, but the Jade Sapphire turned out to be a better value. Today we got the first part of the pattern.
Big news this weekend, though: Sunday is the Yarn Harlot book signing in Philadelphia! I am going with my new friend
Yahaira and then we are going on a "knitting tour" of the city! I'm taking the
Chinatown Bus down there, which has a
blog for some reason. I have never taken any of the Chinatown buses before. It's a good deal at $20 round trip. I've heard it's a nice ride complete with screaming babies, loud cell phone conversations, and more! Eh, it will be nice for the adventure value.
Throw me a friggin' bone!
Ok, title is a tad lame, but what can you do....
I have 3 and a half squares done for my 12-square throw! Woo-hoo! I want to try to name each square based on its predominant characteristics.
Here I will show an aerial view and then a close up of each one.
The first one can be seen on a
previous post. And here is the
close up. I named that one
I Heard it Through the Grapevine.
This one I shall call
Walking on Sunshine. The actual color is a much deeper and warmer yellow, but the flash made it look lighter.
