You may have noticed that I don't do pinks and frills. I think boleros are adorable. On little girls.
For me, I'm drawn to things that will go with jeans. If I can see that sweater with a pair of jeans, it'll probably get a nod from me. Used and broken in, a faded indigo.
A fine, perfectly smooth, single-hue manufactured yarn.
A thick/thin, nubby, multicolored handspun yarn.
Each right in their own way.
Every time I read the task for today, I thought it said accomplishments and really couldn't figure out what I was going to put up.
I really couldn't figure out why Kelly's accomplishment was watching Coronation Street. Go ahead, laugh at me; I did!
So, what is one of my constant accompaniments? My kitties. The youngest are more of a hinderance while Beckerman has moved on to the silent dependable companion. And yes, I bribed them with cat treats (not knitting!) to get them in such a tight frame - I think they liked this picture!
I washed an FO and wanted to block it while I was at work. The instructions are clear about blocking flat. It didn't want to block flat on it's own so I improvised some weights.
An FO blocking. hehehe
My final cheat and I'm caught up!
Two simple pictures.
My shelf of knitting books with a few miscellaneous crafting supplies wedged in.
and some new yarn, artfully arranged. Technically not supplies, or at least not mine, since they were purchased on-site as a gift. Unfortunately I didn't get to meet the sheep that produced the wool, but I always love buying at the source.
Another cheat, because I'm also going to cover my first FO of the year. And no, it's not mittens, though those have finally winged their way to their new home.
The improvised hat of the Five Hour Hat Challenge, is actually a super luxurious alpaca cowl. I'll admit to twice using it as a hat (you know, since I didn't finish the challenge or bring another one with me).
A free gift from Lily Kate, Altounyan is a simple stockinette cowl with a few tucks to add some texture and visual interest. I think it looks better as a cowl than a hat, no?
The yarn was wonderful. My Mom gave me the yarn for Christmas and it is amazing - soft and light - knitting with kittens, as my friend said. I love the deep, almost chocolate color. The picture above is probably the truest to color.
I would have been done sooner, but I managed to split two stitches and didn't realize it for about 11 rows. I struggled a bit on the first row of picking up stitches from rows beneath - I kept losing sight of what row and stitch I was working with. So, I took some advice from littlecloud and used a DPN to pick up the stitches. I'm not sure how she did it, but I counted down 11 rows, stuck the DPN through (front to back) and it was perfectly placed to grab the purl bump. For the other stitches in a gather, I just worked on the back of the work and was able to see where the yarn pulled and it was easy to grab the adjacent purl bumps.
Once again I didn't swatch and it bit me in the hindquarters, though only very gently. I could have made a taller cowl that was more fitted to the neck. But that's okay, as it's plenty tall enough for me. I only had 18 inches of yarn left when I was done!
Partner was helping with the photo shoot. I wanted to capture that it was too large around neck. He wanted me to channel my inner Tyra.
I'm very happy with this knit. I love the feel of the yarn and how the sheen and depth of color in the alpaca is allowed to shine in this pattern. It's oh so light and soft. I love that I was able to use up all the yarn and it has a nice fit. I tried a shawl pin later to close up the top and that worked quite well. The first FO post of the year!
Pattern: Altounyan (and ravelry)
Yarn: 100% alpaca yarn that my mom picked up from an Oregon non -profit Headles & Treadles, artist is B. Simpson, 100 grams, ~220 yards
Modifications: none!
Knitting yardage total 2012: 220
Sorry, I didn't give up on the game, but rather got sick the day I was coming back from my business trip. Unfortunately, time wouldn't wait and I kept moving when i should have slowed down. I'm feeling better today but planning a very quiet and slow day.
So, to catch up, a bit of a cheat. Two pictures of similar things for Day 15 & 16.
Not quite a new skill, but definitely one still in need of much practice and work.
Intarsia -
and the texture that results
For this last business trip I had to take a five hour flight. Upon realizing that I really didn't have a chic hat to keep me warm, I decided to give myself a challenge to knit myself a hat during the five hour flight.
Here we go!
Hour 0 - the supplies:
Hour 1 - the brim.... hmmm... don't panic
Hour 2 - The second color, but not much progress:
Hour 3 - Now this is looking like progress!
Hour 3.5 - Ready to focus on the brim:
Some serious shell action:
Except, what's that?
Hour 3.5 + 2 minutes:
But all is not lost.
Hour 5 - An (improvised) hat!
And yes, I did get an awkward "what's the weird woman doing?" smile from the car rental lady.
More on that "hat" later!
I talked a little about my crafting chair on Day #1.
When I graduated college and had no furniture except a bed and desk, our long time neighbor offered me a chair "until I got stuff of my own." It was "an old thing," "not too nice, but sturdy" and was "dirty from being in the garage." Years before her husband had fallen asleep and dropped a cigarette on the footstool.
Basically it was worn out and dirty and looked kind of grungy.
I think the nubby fabric doesn't help so it's just gotten dingier and dingier. I thought years ago about replacing it, but it's super sturdy and I can curl up in it. About 4 years ago when I didn't have a bed for a few weeks, I slept on it and it was super comfy.
Partner has talked about re-covering it, but we've never gotten around to it. He says the burn looks tacky. I'd say it gives it charm - which it does - but I do agree it's a tiny bit tacky. And it's gotten worse now that the cats play with the filling.
But, when you're sick, there is no better place to curl up with soup and a book. Or knitting. Or to just surf the web. Or watch a movie.
Here is The Chair in all it's glory.
Bring on the nerd, the type A, the control freak, the neurotic.
You know what puts me 'in the mood' indoors?
A clean house. I don't feel the guilt of conflict of should I knit or clean? I should move that before I work on that sweater. I should do... something other than relaxing and knitting.
I feel guilty knitting when I can see a mess. But when the house is clean, I knit, knit, knit.
I think it's one of the reasons I do so much knitting when I'm traveling for work. For one thing, it's only one room. And two, someone else does the cleaning.
It's so nerdy relaxing.
And Beeyore just makes me smile and feel at home, even when I'm traveling.
