Knit Powers to Peace: February 2008

Friday, February 29, 2008

Happy Leap Year Day!

For Project Spectrum Fire, I am making the Rusted Root Sweater by Zephyr, using a yarn called Cestari.

This yarn is really pretty. It's a blend of 75% cotton and 25% wool. On the label it says that it has natural lanolin oils in the wool, and i can feel my hands getting soft while I knit it. It's such a great tweed-y yarn, with a great drape. I bought it in a yarn store in Sun City, Arizona called "Knitters Nook" and I've never seen it before or since.

I am making some modifications to the pattern. I cast on with a provisional cast on using some orange cotton yarn. After I finish the rest of the sweater I'll remove the provisional cast on and knit the neck. I did this because I didn't know what kind of neck I would like yet. I needed some time to think about it, while I knit the sweater. I'm thinking lots of garter stitch or something textured like that. My decision will depend on how much yarn I have left at the end!

I also am not doing the lace pattern. I really like that lace pattern, but I didn't want to have to wear anything underneath this sweater but a bra. You ever see those knitting magazine photos where they have lace right over the boobs, but then they photoshop out the nipples? It's creepy! I'll probably do some kind of lace or textured stitch at the bottom. I'm making it up as I go.

In the last picture you can see the stitch markers I'm using. I won these stitch markers from Spin Out, along with all the nice yarn I showed in the last post. The markers are from Mad Caterpillar. I adore them! The set came with 2 large markers for big needles and a bunch of smaller ones that are perfect for this project. I always avoided stitch markers like these because I thought the little beads and wire would get tangled with the yarn, but it's not happening like that! The markers are called "Snag Free" and it really is true! Thanks for donating them!

This weekend I am going to explore 2 New Jersey yarn stores, Modern Yarn in Montclaire, and Closeknit in Ho-Ho-Kus (aka Ridgewood?). Closeknit is having a huge sale starting tomorrow and a birdy told me that Modern Yarn has an "obscene amount of Koigu." Both are excellent reasons to visit a yarn store, don't you think?

This post has been brought to you by the color pink. I bet you can't believe I posted again so soon, huh?

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Pronto! Ciao!

I thought it was time to blog again. I have so much to say. The picture above is a picture of me knitting socks in Sorrento, Italy! Since last time I blogged, I went to Maine AND Italy, I went skiing for the first time, and I got a sports injury for the first time! I am now recovering from reconstructive knee surgery, and I'm moving around now. In fact, yesterday I drove for the first time. Where did I go? Two yarn stores, of course.

The biggest piece of knitting news I have is that a pattern of mine has been published in a book:

The pattern is called "Vixen" and you can find it in Yahaira's book, "Sensual Knits." This is my first published pattern. I made the original prototype almost 2 years ago out of Claudia Handpainted Yarns in the John B. colorway. See?

The pattern is made from fingering weight yarn on the body and chunky weight yarn on the upper edge. John B. himself gave me the chunky weight yarn that I used in those pictures above. Thanks!

I can't believe people are making my pattern already! I mean, it's a great pattern, but I am just new at this whole pattern thing I guess. Here's a beautiful finished Vixen made out of Dream in Color Yarns. Here is a stunning Vixen Camisole made out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts! Very cool.

Speaking of very cool, my boyfriend Danny sent me a link to an awesome director who knits and crochets called Special Guest. If you go to the site, scroll over to the short film called "The Special Guest" and watch it! I love the little yarn hair guy, and also the tufts of fiber in the sky. So beautiful! Also, if you hover over the crocheted titles of the page, you can see little yarn warms crawling about. Try it! It's cute!!!

Danny is great. The link on his name is his website. You should check it out. He is knitting this hat for me:

I knit these socks for him:

That last one was taken in Tuscany.

The yarn is Regia Nation Colors and the pattern is... you know. When Danny and I went to Maine, we went to a small yarn shop (I wish I could remember the name) and they had a whole wall of Regia. Danny said "WHAT IS THIS?" and he really liked this colorway, so he bought it and I made him the socks. If you have Ravelry, you can see the ravelry page here. In fact, if you have ravelry you can see everything I make! I'm obsessed with that site. My ravelry name is Illanna (2 L's and 2 N's). Just like my real name!

Lady Luck smiled on me last month and allowed me to win Cara's Spin-Out raffle. I won some great goodies! The yarns are Yarntini Variegated Sport, Mama Blue Knitting Goods Merino Semi Solid Sock, and Crash into Ewe Merino Sock. Just my colors, right? I didn't even tell Cara that I love pink and green but somehow she knew I guess.

As soon as I opened the box, my Grandma Bea saw the Mama Blue (that sounds like a song) and she loved it. She asked me to make her a scarf for her birthday, so I did. The yarns are all fingering weight though, so I wanted to add something to bulk up the scarf. I held the Mama Blue with 2 strands of Misti Laceweight Alpaca that Jdub (ravelry link) gave me last year. It turned into a semi-solid heathered soft beautiful luscious scarf!

I made Swirl Socks out of the Yarntini:

The color is called "Cosmopolitan" so it seemed appropriate to surround the socks with booze. These socks are a gift, and they are zooming toward the recipient right now as I am typing this.

What else? What else? This is my current project:

Stockinette toe up socks with a short row heel, made out of Dragon Dance from the BMFA Rockin' Sock Club.

I bought some Dream in Color Classy in the Cloud Jungle colorway from the Loopy Ewe. She has great service. She individually wrapped each skein in tissue paper. It was very appealing. I put the yarn in the bar because it's Classy: