Archives for December 2006

I woke up to the most glorious sunrise today.  The photo of course doesn’t do it justice.  The orange was at least twice as vivid.

It’s been pretty insane around here.  I was contacted by someone from Stitch and Bitch about one of my patterns a week or so ago.  They asked to use it for their 2008 calendar.  I had to do a "little" work on the pattern to bring it to their standards.  It turned out to be a total re-write.  A good learning experience for me, just poorly timed, being the week before Christmas.  I managed to finish that last night.  Now it’s time to concentrate on baking cookies and wrapping gifts.  Luckily the able 15 year old DS is home today and has promised to help.  He’ll be baking and wrapping all day, sweet boy.

The sweet boy taught me a trick on the m*c today.  (If you are wondering about the use of * to replace the "a" see Cara’s post.) Just press "control, option, apple, 8", it makes your screen go into negative.  Try it if you are a m*c user.  It’s useless but fun.

I finished my sister’s (this is sister #2, mother of the cutie here, and uber-genius-faculty-at-a-major-university-over-achieving-phenom) gift a few days ago.  I just didn’t get  a chance to photograph it until this morning.  It’s the Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style.  I love the pattern.  It’s the second time I’ve made one, and will no doubt knit it again.  I am a sucker for simple shawls.

Pattern: Shetland Triangle, by Evelyn Clark, Wrap Style
Yarn:  Brooks Farm, Four Play; 50%/50% Wool and Silk, yum
Needles: Knitpicks options, size, um, don’t remember, was in too much of a knitting frenzy at the time
Time to knit:  About a week
Comments:  Love, love, love this pattern.  It’s gorgeous in anything from lace to worsted weight.
Sorry, no links on the FO today, too busy.  Just google if you want more info, besides, everyone already owns Wrap Style.  Right?  If not, go get it from your  library, or add it to your wish list . . .

Speaking of gorgeous shawls, I was the lucky winner of one of Mim’s
patterns in the Knit Unto Others challenge.  Every one of her designs
are wonderful, so it was hard to choose.  I ulimately chose Seraphim.
I’ve seen so many beautiful versions on blogs and have been dreaming of
making one myself. Oh, yes, we will be seeing this on the needles soon.

Now it’s back to the insanity, and oh yeah, those two skirts (for DD#1 & DD#2) I need to sew for my sister’s (sister #1 this time, also uber genius, but this time rebel-world-traveler-computer-guru-madly-in-love-with-very-sweet-man) wedding on December 31.  Sigh.

Merry Christmas.  (And happy belated Chanukah and Solstice too!)

When a girl gets to the point where she has so much to do that she can’t focus on any one thing, there is only one thing to do.  She should take a break and read a few blogs.  There is only one danger in this.  In her fragile state the girl is very easily distracted and will immediately jump in and follow her whim of the moment.  Luckily, this foray into denial will be such a quickie that she will barely remember what or how it happened.  Now all she needs is a cork, and we all know where these can be found. . .

Korknisse
Pattern found here.
Inspiration seen here.
Yarn: Rowan Kid Classic
Needles: Lantern Moon rosewood US 3 DPNs (It might have been as much about wanting to take these lovely needles for a test drive as about the adorable korknisse.)
Time to knit: (including digging the yarn out of the stash) 15-ish minutes
Thank you Elliphantom and Saartje.

I hope you don’t mind being distracted by non-knitting content.   I have been doing a lot of knitting, (the gift kind of course) but it simply looks like a big, lumpy, pile of brown wool at this point.  Hopefully it will look like something worth posting in the next few days.

Normally, as I sit knitting, I am distracted by the baskets of yarn  around me and the dreams of all of the wonderful projects I want to make.  But this time of year, the Christmas decorations come out and I get the urge to make ornaments.  There is no time for such whimsies this year, as I have over committed myself in many areas of my life.  So, all I have to show are things I’ve made in years past.

For a couple of years I was totally hooked on making beaded ornaments.  I must have made hundreds.  Quite a few were sold, but I have about 20 that I hang on my tree each year.  I still have boxes and boxes of beads waiting for me to get the time to make more.

Then there were the painted ornament years.  I was doing a lot of decorative painting for a friend who owned a store at the time.  So when the holidays rolled around I started painting Christmas balls.  The addition of a few birds or insects made them more interesting to me.  I sold a few of these in her shop, but mostly they were for myself.

The new Yarnival is up.  Julie Frick did a wonderful job editing this month.  I admire her for taking on such a monumental task at such a busy time of year – and doing it so well!  I’m very pleased to be in Yarnival this month.  Next month it’s Carole’s turn.  Don’t be shy, send her a submission. 

Finally, I want to welcome a new friend to the knit blog community.  Her name is Ravi and I met her while knitting one night at the Point.  She is a very talented knitter, and the kind of person I could talk to for hours about various knitting obsessions.  Stop by her blog and say "hello".

Have a good week everyone.  With any luck I’ll get a second post in latter this week.  No promises though.

My mother’s Christmas present is done.  It was hard not to wear it myself this weekend.  It would have worked perfectly with the outfit I wore to that Holiday Party on Friday. . .

DD#2 likes it well enough to give it a little dance.

And for those of you still with me, here are some close up shots. 

I love the gentle, wavy curves where the garter stitch meets the horseshoe lace.  Pretty.

Pattern:  Wool Peddlers Shawl from Folk Shawls
Yarn: Art Yarns Utlramerino 4, 3 1/2 50 g. skeins
Needles: Knitpicks Options US 5
Comments:  The Wool Peddlers Shawl is a wonderfully simple pattern.  The garter stitch gets a little boring after a while, but once you get to the lace it just flies off the needles.