Life is good

My life this week: knitting and kitty snuggles. Life is good, even post shoulder surgery.

3 of 12: Taiga

One of the many things that I am enjoying about being part of the 12 shawls in 2012 challenge is looking through other people's projects.  With over 5,000 members, the group's skill and aesthetic run the gamut and are great to flip through for inspiration.

Taiga by Shui Kuen Kozinski was a very popular choice in January.  My personal inspiration for February was to make a shawl inspired by Valentine's Day, but subdued enough (i.e. not hearts!) to be able to be worn more frequently.  The v-shaped increases of this shawl did the trick.

Knit in a cranberry red lambswool/angora blend, it turned out wonderfully.  I'm not sure about the exact yardage, but am working on an ingenious little system to figure it out.  More to come soon...

So big, I almost ran out of blocking mats!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Luxury linens

My morning routine usually goes something like this:

• wake up
• brew coffee
• knit a little
• pour coffee
• knit a little
• drink coffee
• knit a little
• breakfast, including more coffee
• knit some more
• pull myself off the couch and (sometimes slightly begrudgingly) get dressed for the day

It was after this last step that I came down the stairs to find Dot curled up on the highest caliber linens in the house - a nice angora / wool blend.  Ah, the life of a spoiled princess!

2 of 12: Little Arrowhead

The second shawl of our little adventure is the Little Arrowhead by Pam Allen, knit in a recycled merino wool.

I love this yarn.  It's the second shawl I've done from this sweater, and I've only unravelled one and a half sleeves thus far.  The merino is so soft and the colorway is a lovely dappled green.

The pattern was a quick knit.  When doing these all over lace stitches, I am frequently reminded that I'm not just making a shawl, I'm making fabric.  Something about the repetition.

The shawl had its debut last night.  For such a light, fluffy garment it was super warm!

The beasts must be entertained

Inspired by one of those it's-so-simple-it's brilliant ideas on Instructables, the kittehs now have their own yarn to play with.

Basically you ball up the yarn, leaving a long tail.  You then sew the tail through the ball so that it isn't instantly destroyed when it falls into the claws of the ferocious little beasts.

Dot will play kitteh soccer for hours. Tony just wants to destroy the thing.

 

Turn a Square

For this year's office gift exchange, I tossed in a knitspace gift certificate.  Creative?  Lazy?  I'll let you decide, but the recipient - one of my favorite M&Ms - was more than happy with his prize. 

After meandering through the men's hat patterns on Ravelry, he picked out Turn a Square by Jared Flood (ravelry).

In the past, I had stayed away from color stripes because I didn't know how to deal with the jogs, but his pattern pointed me towards a great technique that works well for hats - the "jogless jog". 

Thanks for insipiring me to try something new.  Hope you enjoy your hat!

My first project: a eulogy

My first "real" project was a set of slippers.  Knit flat and then sewn together, the pattern included both knit and purl to create a garter stitch sole and a ribbed top.  The pattern was my grandma's, carefully recorded on an index card.  A bright green acrylic, these matched the spirit of the holiday season but have been worn year round.

I didn't know what a YO was, so when I got confused by which side of the needle the yarn should be on, the hole just stayed.  I also couldn't tell the difference between a knit and a purl on the first slipper, so my ribbing meandered.  The second one was a bit better.

After three years of dedicated service, the slippers did not make it through the wash this week.

Slippers: December 2008 - February 2012.  They lived a good life.

They will be missed, but I am looking forward to finally knitting some comfy wool slippers for me!