Acid Pop (TM) Scarf!

My mom wanted a bright green scarf this year, so I ordered 4 balls of Shine Worsted from Knit Picks in Green Apple.  It's quite a color, and the Cotton + Modal yarn is sooo soft and buttery!  Also, it was just enough to push me into the free shipping category, yay!

I then went paging through some stitch cards to find something I wanted to turn into a pattern, and I found the Eyelet-Diamond Pattern.  After two repeats of the pattern I knew that I had a bona-fide WIN on my hands, so I'm sharing it with the world even before I'm done knitting it!  It reminds me of the embossing that the Harry Potter book covers have (if you have a hardcover, American version).  The color of the yarn just lends itself so nicely to the title I decided on : *Acid Pop (TM) Scarf* 

CLICK on the Pattern (and HERE) for a FREE PDF download!

The pattern can also be found on Ravelry.

Speaking of Ravelry, I put the pattern up this morning and people LOVED it!  I was so pleasantly surprised to have 130+ people download it today, wow!  :-)

[Side Note: I know the pattern says to end on Row 1, but it really makes more sense to end on Row 2 and then bind off knit-wise.  That's minor though.]

Irish Hiking Hat = British Driving Hat

"You know, I don't think you've ever knit anything for me." -- Dad

Well, we can't have that!  My dad really needed a warm hat as he likes to take his MG roadster out for a spin with the top down on a regular basis.  Baseball caps just don't do the job when the chilly air is rushing past your ears.

I used this pattern right off of ravelry (Irish Hiking Hat-Archived) and knit it to the letter.  [Side Note: The only modification that I made was to the title, since my dad won't be using it for Irish hiking but British driving.]  

This was the feel-good project of the weekend because I cast on Friday afternoon and finished blocking and all by Sunday afternoon!  This might be the fastest project I've ever done.

This is the hat with the brim folded down.  I love how dimensional those cables are!  And yes, it is sitting on a silver charger plate.  The hat was clean, the plate was clean, I'm not bothered by it and the colors seemed to want to be together.  So there.

This is the top view of the hat (which looks like a flower to me) graciously modeled by my brother.  "Jeez, did  you use a watermelon for size?"--Brother 

It's going to fit my dad just right though, and I didn't use a watermelon for size :-P

...I thought you would be shinnier

I received Free Range Knitter as a Christmas gift and I must say, I thought it would be bigger.  You know, like "coffee table" books are.  With glossy pages.  I'm not sure why I thought this and I am certainly not disappointed with the little gem of knitting humor and life lessons that showed up in snowman paper under the tree.  I'm zipping right through it and enjoying every page!

Knitting philosophy has never been done better.  It also really makes me think about things I probably wouldn't have thought to think about before.  Yeah, deep, I know.

There is a particular chapter where she talks about being a young, yarn-poor knitter that I can really relate to (gee, I wonder why?).  I must say though, yarn really has come a looong way since the plastic crap she describes and some acrylic these days is pretty darn good.  It's not wool, or alpaca, but it's being the best it can be.

[Side Note: Thank the yarn-gods for the advent of internet yarn stores that email sale info and coupons!  That's how I got the Noro cashmere blend for my striped scarf for <$15!]

I get to have occasional tastes of the "good life" but I can manage within my means too.  As a matter of fact, the Practice Sweater (of Summer 08 fame) has turned into my go-to sweater for around the house.  It cost me about $8.00 in yarn to make and it is holding up remarkably well (with a little fuzzing that I don't mind at all).  

One day, money will be less scarce and I'll have more knitting freedom, but I think the knitting joy will stay the same :-)  Thanks Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for a thoughtful, philosophical knitting book that is most deserving of great big glossy pages and a position of prominence on the coffee table!

P.S. Thanks for the book mom!

Here comes the ice age...

It was a "snow-day" in Las Vegas yesterday. The snow came down heavily on Monday and again Wednesday, but it never stuck around for accumulation to happen. They closed the schools anyways, thereby triggering a bright sunny day with no snow! Good job CCSD. This is the only snow-day I've ever seen in Las Vegas and it didn't even pan out. I'm not complaining though, snow and I aren't exactly compatible (you know, in the "I really really hate it" sort of way).

In other news, the blog managed to fix itself. Really. I didn't touch a single thing and all of a sudden it loads again. Story of my life.

I have been up to so much knitting: The Never-ending Afghan has eaten two more yarn cakes, I've jumped on the Noro-stripe-scarf bandwagon, I invented (not designed) a sock pattern for the Draco yarn (with no green), and I've begun and ripped a worsted weight slipper-sock for my brother twice (they aren't a Christmas gift, so I'm not in a hurry). [Side Note: Don't feel bad for him though, I made him a chunky ribbed hat for a quick & easy gift!]

These could all be blog posts on their own so consider this a glimpse into the future.

Why am I so absent?

It has been far too long since I've sat down and blogged about anything. We had a great Thanksgiving here, including the best, most moist turkey we have ever made [Side Note: I will brine everything from now on. If it stays still long enough, it will get brined. Seriously.], and pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin pie!

That doesn't mean that there haven't been bloggable things going on, far from it. I just haven't. Oops!
Let's get back on track then shall we?

This tiny knitted tube is made on US 1 dpns, from a yarn sample that was sent out with a yarn purchase I made. It was a Halloween colorway, something like "very scary" but I lost the little card that came with it. While it looks purposeless from this angle, I assure you, it is a highly functional little knit-ring!I made it for the purpose of holding onto my cable needle when I'm doing cable work. Instead of putting the cable needle in my mouth. Which is unsanitary, blech! And I needed that cable needle to make myself a Koolhaas hat! I have had the pattern in my ravelry queue for a long time and I'm so glad that I finally got around to it. I really really tried to learn to cable without a cable needle for this project, but it just wasn't happening. Notice also the vase with decorative pebbles where my needles supposedly reside, ha! The needles have migrated all over the house by now, oops.

The hat is too big for me, but that won't stop me from folding up the brim and wearing it anyway! This was one fun and challenging pattern to knit, so I expect that I will make 3 or 4 more before it's out of my system. Perhaps one of them will end up being the right size?Also, a bookmark! Made on US 1, 16 sts, 1x1 rib out of HP Opal Dumbledore remnant.

Shopping days? More like knitting days.

Well, there are 47 knitting days until Christmas (or insert your holiday here). I haven't done much gift-knitting in the past because typically gifts are something that the recipient should appreciate :-D But the ol' knitting skills have improved a lot over the last year so I'm thinking of knitting a few gifts this year. Simple things, like a hat or scarf. Maybe a few of those bookmark scarves. They were quick and easy, but still novel (they also give me an excuse to buy books for people, even when they might rather have video games or iTunes *cough* brother *cough*).

My mom is the proud owner of a pair of maroon mittens from last year. They certainly took me a long time to make, but looking back on them I'm so proud that I did! Even though they are super thick and perhaps better suited to the frozen tundra of Siberia. Her hands are always cold though.

So this year, I'm coming up with a few knitted items for select family members and friends who might enjoy a hat, scarf, or bookmark. I'm not the world's fastest knitter, but I do work well under deadlines. Let the holiday knitting begin!

There's no avoiding it any longer

I knew I was going to have to get back to it eventually. Yes, the monster afghan that will take an eternity to finish. I'm making it my downstairs/couch project and not starting other new things until it's done. Maybe.

It's the Embossed Diamonds pattern from Spin Dye Knit [Side Note: I probably mentioned this before, but it has been in hibernation so long that I've forgotten.] Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the finished product, it's just the dimensions that are getting to me. Perhaps making it, oh, twice as wide as the pattern called for was overly ambitions. Perhaps.

World Record Afghan.

The afghan/throw that I started knitting for my mom in a somewhat finicky Embossed Diamonds pattern is starting to feel like the largest afghan in the history of afghans! I'll bet I'm not the only one to feel this way about a large project either.

I'm starting to think that I was a bit overzealous in casting on close to 400 sts on my large circular needles. I've successfully completed about a foot of knitting that's about 5 feet wide, so there's no way I'm ripping out and starting again. That is definitely off the table because I don't know if I would be able to pluck up my resolve to start knitting again from the beginning. Besides, I'm pretty sure that the finished project will be just the right size (though it seems gigantic right now).

It's a good thing that I started it right away because it will probably be winter again before I finish it! I'll include a picture of it when I can stand to look at it again, I promise.

My Brother Wants a Hat?

I made myself a neat Cardinal and Gold striped hat from the wonderful Charmed Knits book of knitting projects [Designed/Created by Alison Hansel and found through The Blue Blog]. I'll have to post a picture of it after it gets washed and blocked ...

Anyway, my brother asked me if I would make him one too (the narrow striped variety). He has never ever asked me to knit him anything before! Perhaps that means my skills are improving? At any rate, I've cast on and created the ribbed edging already. He is well on his way to having a hat!

[Side Story: I have knitted things for my brother before, but he hasn't shown much interest. As a matter of fact, I think he has deliberately tried to load them off on younger cousins. The nerve. But, I'm happy to make him something he wants!]