Saturday, April 29, 2006

Why oh why oh why?

Why is it that the moment you find a great local yarn store (LYS) that it disappears?

I wandered over to Handknits in Englewood NJ yesterday after finding out they carried Zelda bags...was wanting to indulge in some instant gratification (based in some necessity, yea yea that's the ticket) for a knitting bag and, after much googling, determined that the Zelda bags were the type I wanted... This is a great store, great people, great sales and selection...AND THEY'E MOVING TO VERMONT IN A MONTH.

Arg.

It's less than 3 miles from me...and it's leaving.

Bah. Humbug.

I did score a Zelda...ended up with the Tote, which is one of the medium-sized bags as the Grand's straps just weren't comfy and I worried I'd outgrow it too fast and you don't want to outgrow the usefulness of a not-inexpensive bag anytime soon. Plus didn't like any of the colors/fabrics on the regular and Grand bags they had (that was, however, quite secondary). The instant gratification thing was (yea yea!) related to having a $50 Amex gift cheque from work for Staff Appreciation Day (nice nice gift!) and thus allowed me to better justify the high-end bag. I ended up with a teal speckle bag with plum vintage velvet contrast, and I lurves it...

Also scored some sale yarn...they were clearing Rowan Cotton Tape for 60% off (got it in a mauvey-lavender) making it just over $3/skein (yay!) and some Southwest Trading Phoenix in Parrot colorway (a yummy 100% soy silk tape yarn) for about 20% off.

Amazon order also came in with the copy of "Big Girl Knits" by Jillian Moreno and Amy R. Singer that I ordered. THIS IS A FABULOUS BOOK! I haven't knit up any of the patterns yet (well, obviously) but there are so many designs I want to make, the text is humorous, the information very very needed for the knitting/fit needs of plus-sized women, nothing boring/old/staid, lulcious yarn recommendations, variety of difficulty, recommendations for size selection (such as about how much ease to factor in when selection which size to make), etc. If you're over a size 14 and have been frustrated by the lack of patterns available, tired of doing a ton of math to try to scale patterns up and/or have been bored with the overly-conservative/boring "designs" (aka bulky, tent-like) out there, this is the book for you.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Done done, Close Encounters of the NYC Kind

Kaspar's done (Knitty.com "Kate" pattern...) This pattern is really a lot of fun to work up and goes very quickly...really loved working with the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted...gonna have to buy more and do something else with it...yummy stuff. I think my little cousin will love him.

Casting on the Sunrise Jacket (see sidebar) in the most delicious wool by Takhi...Donegal Tweed in color 845 which is a deep tweeded eggplant.

Yarn Harlot was in my office building this week...I was reading her blog and she showed a photo of an office building on Avenue of the Americas, mentioned the Martha Stewart Sirius radio show...Sirius is in the same building...so I had 3 floor proximity to the Yarn Harlot...would've been a more typical NYC Close Encounter had we shared an elevator, but hey, close enough.

I've been on a total yarn binge ever since branching out from my gateway drug of socks...you see, other than sock yarn, I had no stash...need stash. The purchases haven't been totally random...there are actual patterns/projects that have prompted the binge, but I'll be knitting a year before I'm close to done with what I've bought...but the internet...such bargains to be had...just picked up 2 batches of Rowan Summer Tweed on closeout from a UK seller...2 discontinued colors that I just happened to like..one, "Legend" was being cleared for $42.50/bag of 10 skeins...that's less than 1/2 price...and the other was $5.50/skein (Morning Glory) so I couldn't resist that either...the latter will be for a cabled sweater from a new book, Inspired Cable Knits" by Fiona Ellis but I couldn't resist the second batch which will give me more than enough for anything I want to do with it. Also placed a bit of an order (yea yea a bit uh huh) with Elann.com...trying out some of their house-brand yarns...enough yarn for 2 tanks/shells and a long-sleeve cable sweater (same book) for under $100...can't beat that...

Now I just have to find places to stash the flood of stash coming in...I have cats, you see...they lurves yarn...

Monday, April 17, 2006

Annie's an Evil Enabler

Yup, yup she sure is.

She HAD to have a link to the Sunrise Jacket knitalong...

She had to whip up Bob (aka Kate the Cat)...

So of course, I fell in love with both projects and subsequently have ordered yarn...did it stop there? Oh no...

I have to make this now too...Dogosaurus Rex sweater from Patons:


Attempting to make it fit a Whippet, that'll be a treat...

So let's not talk about the 4 other Clapotii I need to start/finish...or the Debbie Bliss denim aran sweater that's oh-so-slow going...or the fact that I never seem to have the right needles for whatever I want to start so constantly order more...or the two more sari silk bags I need to get going on...

It really makes me wonder why anyone would be opposed to cloning technology...I'd love to put my other self to work...

Tigger, Tigger, who's got the Tigger?

Been taking a quick break from solid Clapotis knitting to work up a quick baby sweater for my new-ish 2nd cousin...she's 6 months so I wanted something that would be good for the fall...so am doing the Tigger pattern from knitty.com...had to find alternate yarn for the main color since the called-for yarn has been discontinued but I'm pleased with the result even after having to adjust for a smaller gauge (working the 4 yr old size to get the 2 yr old size measurements LOL)



Only have the other sleeve and other front to do then fun with blocking and sewing together...that means only have 1/3 of Mom's Clapotis and 1/2 my brother's sock to finish by next weekend as well...should be a piece of cake.

Unfortunately, stepping away from the sock thing has opened the floodgates and now I want to knit everything so my stash is growing at an uncontrollable rate and the thing about projects bigger than socks is that they take a whole lot more yarn so more cost and more space for all that yarn. But, it's keeping me out of trouble and I'm even starting on next Christmas' stuff already so hopefully will have a nice array of gifts if I can manage to not give them before the holidays...

I've also found that I can happily knit on the bus...I'm no longer driving into work so have a 30-40 min. bus ride and a 20 min. subway ride to fill up and although I love reading, I don't do well reading on moving vehicles...but I can knit!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Claprogress

It's growing...very fast...Made a slight booboo by not reading the whole pattern first to adjust for stole so I'm just going to keep knitting til I run out of the skeins set aside for the straight section so it'll have to grow a lot more...

But I'm chomping to get done and blocked cuz the good stuff came today...decided to do a Clappy in Lion & Laces and it's sublime and I wanna cast on but can't can't can't til this is done so it's gotta grow fast...

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Falling onto the Clapotis Bandwagon

I had to do it...everyone's knitting Clapotises (Clapotii?)...

A Clapotis is a lovely bias-knit with nifty fun dropped stitches to create openwork...looks complicated, actually really really easy but not boring to knit...

Problem with the pattern as written is that the yarn it calls for is stratospherically expensive (Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb which you can get on ebay for about $26-$28/skein but retails for about $31/skein and you need 3-4 skeins of the stuff...). Fortunately, there are tons of alternatives that folks have tried. I decided to give my first Clapotis a whirl in Noro Silk Garden Lite #2015...yummy blend of 45% Silk, 45% Kid Mohair, 10% Lambswool and divine colorways...the drop stitches don't really want to drop so each has to be encouraged row by row to open up but otherwise, it goes quickly and feels great on the hands...using Addi Turbo circular US6 and ooh they're slick and of course, I've gone overboard and decided to knit one for way too many people in a fairly short time period...Mom's the only one getting one in Lion & Lamb but moms deserve $120 wraps...

Closeup of first few drops...will all look more civilized once blocked...