A Yarny Fairy Tale
I really like this yarn. It's (the now discontinued) Rowan Polar, in a color called "Silver Lining." In a fit of unrestrained shopping, I bought enough to make myself a coat. Do I need a coat in Arizona? Well not right now... but I will in a month or two! Plus, it will last me a lifetime and my future generations lifetimes and so on. Can anyone tell that I am justifying here?
Anyway, I have always wanted a coat similar to the one Kate Hudson wears in
Almost Famous. Something sort of like this:
There's a picture of Kate Hudson wearing it
here. I would probably use less fur around the collar, and add fur to the edges along the bottom. I think that style is called Shearling?
For the trim, I really liked Jaeger Fur. It is sort of a novelty fur, except it's made of wool and mohair. I love me some natural fibers! I was going back and forth considering the price of this luxurious furry fur. It's the perfect compliment to the coat, it's soft, it's long haired, bulky, and beautiful, and it has a price to match all of those great qualities. Then I found out the name of the color that I liked:
The color is called
Polar. Get it? Rowan
Polar,
Polar colored fur? It was meant to be, and I bought it all.
The End.
By the way, I didn't take any of these pictures and I can't take credit for them. The pictures came from
here,
here, and
here.
Mailbag Day (AKA Thanks)
Hi, I'm Zira. I'm the guest blogger this week. I'm on tour, and Illanna is my current host. You can read more about my tour on my
tour blog. Illanna and I did all sorts of fun things yesterday, but you will have to wait til tomorrow to read about that, because today is MAILBAG DAY!!!
Is that yarn luscious or what? Illanna's best friend Hila sent it to her for her birthday. I think that she should make a gorgeous intarsia shawl out of it, with flower motifs all over. Illanna seems to like that idea, so she might start it next week. Best part? The yarn is 80% alpaca and 20% cashmere. I've never felt anything softer than this yarn, and neither has Illanna. Illanna is super grateful and loves Hila very much. Thanks Hila!
Thanks to
Kelly of "Look What I Made and Your Sorry Ass Didn't," Illann is the proud new owner of an official
Flying Fingers T-shirt! The artwork on the shirt is really beautiful- it's a picture of the yarn bus driving from Manhattan to the cute little yarn shop in Irvington. The shirt brings back good memories of when
Hila and Illanna took the yarn bus together. Uh, it gives Illanna good memories that is, because I am a monkey and I wasn't there.
The back of the shirt says "Feel the Yarn." It's hard to see because
Illanna's photographer was more interested in getting Illanna's butt in the picture. She cleverly cropped out her own behind, and took a
picture of his. Kelly also sent an awesome book that I won't post about here, because I am a young monkey and Illanna says that it is too mature for me. Thank you so much Kelly. You rock Illanna's socks.
Plans for Stitches West
Woohoo! I
found out that
Stitches West registration is up!
I really want to go. It's 10 hours away by car, so driving is out.
Travelocity's price for hotel + flight is $511 with taxes and fees.
Priceline's asking for $429 for the same deal and same hotel. That's a lot of yarn bucks! I'm also trying to decide if I want to take classes. Lorna Miser (of
Lorna's Laces) is teaching some interesting classes that I would take. That would be an extra $100 or $200 or more! Has anyone gone to Stitches West? Is it even worth it?
Shrinky Dinks Galore
That's a lot of shrinky dinks! The pre-baked ones I posted the other day actually came out too big to make into stitch markers, so I made another batch today. All those shrinky dinks above came from 2 sheets of Shrinky Dink Printer Paper. Many people have commented that the Shrinky Dink Paper is expensive. You really get a lot of shrinky dinks from each page, though. It's worth it to save up for.
Those are the stitch markers I made up. I used 26 gauge sterling silver wire for these, because I ran out of the 20 gauge wire I used for the
original tutorial. It worked just as nice, and it's a little thinner which makes it easier to wrap. I made the loops for the needle to go through out of the wire instead of using toggle clasps this time.
Another change I made was to use a smaller hole puncher than the standard paper hole punch. I used an
eyelet hole puncher that I bought at Hancock Fabrics. The smaller hole accomodated the 26 gauge wire, and I didn't have to use as much room on the picture or shrinky dink paper for the hole.
I made myself a necklace out of one of the shrinky dinks that came out too big. The sheep image was drawn by
Natalie Dee (same person who made the knitting on the banner of this blog). She cracks me up.
shrinky dinks in the oven
I'm baking shrinky dinks to make
stitch markers right now. I'll post when they're done.
while you're in rhinebeck, i'll be at the pool
To do list for today:
- Wish my co-blogger Hila a Happy Birthday
- Knit my socks
- Be bitter about not going to Rhinebeck
The socks:
The socks are puny right now, I'll admit. The point to note is the graph paper notebook behind the socks. I AM DESIGNING THEM. As I pointed out in my last post, I'm going back to designing my knits again. Also look at my official designing pen, from
Kiki, a la Napoleon Dynamite. Sweet!
The other point to note is the two circular needles that I am using to make both socks at once. I'm a sucker for tangled torture. All in all, it's not a hard technique. This is my third pair of socks that I've done that way, and it's getting easier and easier just like everything else. If you want to learn to do this technique, I'd recommend you buy the book "
Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles."
Here's another photo of my socks before I start ranting:
Attention all people who are going to Rhinebeck:
I am jealous of you! I want to go! Nevertheless, I will be stuck here, with the 80 degree temperatures, no humidity, and NO RAIN. While you fight over fibers, the only fight I'll be having will be: "No, I got up to get the frozen margaritas LAST time!" While you're splashing around in the mud of upstate New York, I'll be splashing around in the pool of my apartment complex here in sunny Phoenix. It hasn't rained in MONTHS! Muahhahahaa Muahhahaha. Have fun Rhinebeckies (like Trekkies, get it?)
New Year's Resolution
... as in Jewish New Year, not January 1st.
Here's my resolution: I am going to start designing my own patterns again. I am so fed up with using other people's patterns from books and online. I love the patterns I find, but I really need to have more control! I used to make up all sorts of fun patterns, but then I stopped and I started making what everyone else is making. Some people call this Beehive Knitting. Maybe I read too many knitting blogs. I read at least 100 a day.
From now on, I will be different, and my knits will be different. I'm not going to drive myself crazy to get the right gauge for a pattern anymore. I am going to get the gauge that
I like, and make up patterns to match the gauge that I get.
I like designing patterns, and the best part is that I know how to do it. I just measure myself, find the number of stitches per inch in my desired yarn, and multiply the two numbers together. Then I invent crazy stitch patterns, knit it up, and POOF I have a new sweater.
What spurred all this? I received
amazing beautiful yarn from my friend Cynthia. I am driving myself to crazy town and back tonight trying to make it work for a specific pattern. In the time it has taken me to go insane over the pattern, I could have absolutely made something up that is ten times cooler and 77744 times more unique than the pattern I'm trying to match. Hence the New Year's Resolution.
So here's what I'm going to do: I will take the gifted gorgeous yarn and invent a project. It's going to match the gauge that I like, and it will knock my socks off. That is the promise I'm making to myself tonight.
Or maybe I'm just hungry from fasting. Is Yom Kippur over yet, or what?
Sneak Peek
I just finished the front of
Cyd, my argyle vest. The only thing left is to seam it up and make the neck and add ribbing to the neck and armholes. I have enough yarn left to make another one! Click on the picture to see a huge version with stitch and yarn definition.
Why I Love Teva Durham
From the Interweave Knitscene Preview.I need to make that immediately.
Click here for a picture of me with "The Great One" at the Loop-d-Loop launch party.
Luscious Gracious Houndstooth Bag
I finally finished my
houndstooth bag! This pattern is incredibly easy. It looks hard to do, and it got me a lot of oohs and ahhhs!
The pattern comes with a tutorial of how to do Fair Isle, and that is what I used to learned. The yarn is Cascade Fixation, and I used the
8.25" circular needles from
Worldknit. I got the button from
the LYS. It's a hound! Get it? Houndstooth... Hound dog... Get it??
Totally different subject: I seem to have
won a contest on
Betsy's blog! She put up a picture of 11 different orange yarns and asked for someone to try to match the name with the yarn in the picture. I guess my intense nerdiness scared away anybody else who wanted to enter the contest, because I was the only one who tried! I guessed on about 5 of them, so I was fairly surprised that I knew them all.
Also, I joined
Misshawklet's Dizzy Society. It's a handspun yarn of the month club! I ordered the one year subscription, which gets me all kinds of goodies and a custom skein of yarn! I think it will start in November, and I'll post the pictures here when I get it.
Have a great 10 days of repentance! Well, don't make it too great.
Minisweater
I'm too tired to write anything tonight, so here's some more chest shots a la busty laroux. The pattern is Glampyre's Minisweater, and the yarn is Noro Gemstones... the holy grail of yarns. Enjoy.
Back to Business
I finished my hourglass sweater by my birthday, and I think it came out great. I'm definitely not ripping it out.
I had some doubts at first about the length (I thought it might be too short), but when I tried it on yesterday to take these pictures, I didn't mind the length at all. Unfortunately, I took these pictures myself (can you tell?) and I wasn't able to get a picture of the bottom to show the length.
The yarn is
Artyarns Supermerino, which is very squishy and soft, and WASHABLE! I've been very excited about finding out that certain yarns are washable lately. Did you know that
Rowan Felted Tweed is washable? That's my newest finding.
I striped a solid and a variegated to get (what I am calling) the stained glass look. It prevented pooling which I can tell would have been an issue. I used a little over 8 balls, which meant that I had to buy more yarn that the pattern called for. I guess everyone has had that issue who made the sweater, so I kind of expected it.
Enjoy the rest of the pictures!
Raglan! Raglan!
Sorry for the gratuitous chest shot
Sleeve in action
It's over!
Happy Rosh Hashanah, and eat lots of apples dipped in honey today!
Birthday Celebrations
Thank you
Kiki, Steve, Lucy, Lily,
Jessica,
Letoya, Max, and Trent, for making my birthday such a special and wonderful day.
