SP7

Hi Marji! *waves*

I have to admit, when I was paired with my SP, I was a little puzzled. At first glance, we couldn’t be more different…She’s a very accomplished knitter; I’m still a relative newbie. She seems to prefer large projects (sweaters, maybe? lol); I prefer, ah, instant gratification. I’ve got wee kids underfoot; she’s pretty close to having an empty nest.

But in (harmlessly) stalking her via her blog I learned that we have things in common as well — most remarkably, I think that she might be the only other knitter in the universe who doesn’t own any cats. We both love to cook, don’t collect anything (except yarn and fabric) and of course share a love of natural fibers.

One thing that’s been really notable in my fifteen months as a knitter: the love of this craft really brings people together. I’ve seen it most on the KH forums but it holds true for SP7 too — a shared passion can really trump your differences.

Thanks Marji, for letting me have a glimpse into your knitting life — I’ve a lot to learn from you!

(Also…I’d hoped that your final package would be a little more, uh, aesthetically pleasing…my apologies that preparing for an impromptu plane trip with two small children took precedence. Hope you enjoyed everything regardless! 😉

what to knit?

Ack! I’m going to be away from my stash for seven whole days….what to pack? What to knit? Can I make it through the week without hitting the nearest LYS? We’ll see….I hear they have a fab sale room….

FO #81

For real, around 11:00 this morning my husband took off with our handyman friend to go to the hardware store and grab some lunch. While they were gone, I knit a hat. To which DH said, “wow, either we were really slow, or you were really fast.” Hmmm….you decide.

We can’t have baby Jonas getting sick, now, can we?

TBS: baby hat, knit in Malabrigo wool (color: sealing wax). CO 60 stitches on US8 needles. Hope it fits. 😉

needle wrangling

So, I gathered from her survey that my SP-ee could use something to hold needles, so I decided to sew a little something for her. Never mind that she’s a very accomplished seamstress and I’m, well, NOT — I pushed my perfectionism aside and decided to give it a whirl. I kind of had to — she’s planning on becoming a boat-dweller and I had some vintage nautical toile in my fabric stash begging to be used.

I have this fabulous but very utilitarian [ugly] circ holder:

So my goal was to make something like it, but not so ugly. I also knew that it didn’t have to have as many slots because she doesn’t prefer knitting with large needles so probably wouldn’t need to have them on hand at any given moment. I ended up with this:

And on the back, there are pockets for DPNs:

As long as you don’t look too close, it turned out all right. 😉 I’m a little stuck on the top…there’s a dowel in there so it can hang without bunching, but I’m not sure what the finishing touch is. Grommets? Buttonholes? Ribbon? Or perhaps I’ll be lazy and leave it for her to decide…she’s an accomplished seamstress after all…. 😉 I really do have to get package #3 in the mail before I leave for vacation on Tuesday.

FO #80

A very funny squatty little bag (lol):

I wishwishwish I’d made it less wide so it would have turned out taller, but no biggie. Needs a cute button or closure of some mind. No pattern, knit with one skein each of Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted and Handpainted Yarn Colonia 140 in Emerald Blue.

I’m in love

…with this colorway. Emerald Blue from Malabrigo/Handpainted Yarns. I’m knitting this incredibly boring thing (bag, loosely based on booga — the bottom is LP worsted) but I’m absolutely enthralled because I love the yarn so much. It’s breathtaking. And I’m not generally a fan of variegated colorways — or I should say, I usually love them on the hank, not so much when they’re knitted up.

I think it’ll be gorgeous when it’s felted…hopefully this afternoon. I’m about halfway through the i-cord bind-off, which BTW, totally rocks.

Thanks SP!

I came home from my KH-IL get-together on Saturday to a box of SP7 goodies!

Sorry, bad pic, but there’s black angora, a bunch of cool stitch markers (so far I’d only acquired one of those, which my mom dropped on my couch, lol, so yay!) yummy soap, a candle, homemade stationery, and some goodies for my girls, which they absolutely FLIPPED over. 😀

Thanks SP! I can’t wait to find out who you are! 😉

FO #79

TBS: Children’s Socks, knit in Regia Crazy Color 6-ply on US4 needles.

FO #71 Revisited

These are safely in the hands of their recipient so I can post a pic now! My first needle-felting attempt, wonky yet charming:

how not to wind a skein

So, my five-year-old came up to me on Saturday afternoon and declared that she wanted to “make some yarn.” I got to work winding and mixing dyes and whatnot, foolishly hoping that we could get it all done before her sister woke up — surprise, it was not to be. So I had a yarn-dyeing adventure with two small children on my hands. They actually did quite well — thank God for small favors, it was 60 degrees so we dyed in the back yard.

So the yarn was dry this morning, and I first wound it (from its drying state, a loop four feet in diameter) around my arm. Big mistake. Way to small. So I put it back on my arm and wound it around a chair.

Can anyone see what’s wrong with this picture? Doh! Yup, you guessed it, the top of the chair back is wider than the bottom. So I wound it but could not get it off. The third time was a charm — the old wind-it-around-a-Priority-Mail-Box method.

If I do say so myself, my daughter is a great color-picker:

I dyed a green skein too, but I’ve had enough winding for one day.

In other news, I made a sock today.

Hmmm…those colors look familiar. Like *our* yarn, but with the questionable inclusion of a lot of black. (What were they thinking??)