love is all you need

I was searching for a quick knit, and Ysolda's Urchin (fall issue of Knitty) fit the bill perfectly.

I love the way the garter ridges look with Malabrigo's thick and thin Gruesa. The way the hat is formed by using short rows with wraps is pretty genius. As I knit I was constantly marvelling at how a hat shape was forming out of almost nowhere. The swirly top looks pretty great, too.

I had to modify the pattern a little bit by including part of an extra wedge, as mine was coming out a little small. (I followed the numbers for the size small- next time I'll do medium.)

I'm also glad that my mistakes seem to be hidden pretty well. I lost track of myself a few times and knit a few extra wrap and turns in there somewhere, but I can't find them now.

Obviously Joey and I had a little fun with our photoshoot- he took about 35 pictures, and we couldn't decide which ones to show. I was a little timid to put up this many pics but he won the argument when he reminded me that people like pictures on blogs. Here's one more for good measure that shows how I feel about my new hat.

Joey has recently acquired some new recording software and while he was having a session yesterday at our house, I snuck out and went to the Shabby Sheep and came back with this:

Three luscious skeins of Manos Silk Blend in Hibiscus to make myself an equally luscious scarf.

So it seems that most knit bloggers are in the midst of Holiday Knitting. I tried that my first year as a knitter and failed miserably. I bought a whole bunch of yarn and needles for each specific project and didn't complete a single one! These days, I'm a little more level-headed (and selfish.) I had only two holiday knits this year- a scarf and wristwarmer set for a friend of my mom's to give as a gift. (She's paying me for them, so I don't think that even really counts, does it?) Nonetheless, I finished my "Holiday Knitting" last Friday.
Single Cable Wristwarmers, available on my sidebar to the left. 2x2 ribbed scarf with slipped stitch edges. (no specific pattern there)
Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Treasure

As soon as I wove in the last end on the scarf, my inner-selfish-knitter came out and demanded that I knit something quick for myself. My inner-selfish-knitter also demanded that I use that lone skein of cashmere that has been lounging in my stash for a while. I decided I had enough yarn for a cabled neckwarmer, so I chose a cable pattern from my Vogue Stitchionary, did a few calculations and cast on 108 stitches. I sailed through the knitting on this thing while watching a Project Runway marathon. When it was finished, I had this.

Beautiful, right? Well, when I put it around my neck, there are about 4 inches of extra room! I guess that's what my inner-selfish-knitter gets for being so demanding. Now I have to rip it out and try again. But at least I get to knit with that cashmere again. That right there makes the whole thing worth it.

Hope your holiday knits are coming along without any snags!

After rushing out to buy this book yesterday and finishing up reading it today, I feel like a complete yarn genius.

 

Last Thursday, I spent an absurd amount of time online looking at hand-dyed sock yarns. I've been so excited about my upcoming sock class this weekend because once I learn how to knit socks I actually have a reason to buy some of that beautiful Vesper Sock Yarn that I've been seeing everywhere- the kind that makes those beautiful self-striping socks that you just HAVE TO HAVE. I have even tried to dye my own self striping yarn. I got it dyed and dried, but it was the re-skeining that killed me. Well last Thursday, I happened upon the knitterly things shop, and she had just updated it with many beautiful skeins of Vesper sock yarn. I immediately loaded my cart with six skeins and then had to narrow down my order to only three (absolutely necessary) skeins. And they arrived yesterday!! Wanna see?
Love Stinks (yeah yeah)

Meteor

Astro

Sock class starts this Saturday, and I've got my school supplies ready!

Last night I had my sister Kasi and my sister-in-law Heather over for some knitting. Our goal was to get comfortable knitting on DPNs, since we're all taking a sock knitting class next month. I've played around with DPNs once before and I was pretty bad- I had ladders of loose stitches running down everywhere. After a few false starts, I can now say I'm pretty comforable working with them. Heather is doing pretty well- especially for someone who's only ever knit about 10 inches worth of scarf. Kasi's swatch looks really good, too- hers is the self-striping yarn. I think I'm starting to see why sock knitters are so obsessed with all things sock related. Plus, it's kind of fun showing off to non-knitters that you can knit with four needles at once. (Joey was pretty impressed!)

Today is definately winding down to be a better day than when it started. I came home to find my reveal gift from my Secret Pal 10, Kimberly of www.wovenspun.com! She sent me many lovely goodies. Let's have a closer look, shall we?

Here's a close-up of two of her beautiful handspun and handdyed yarns and a cute retractable measuring tape.

Then there's the cute stitchmarkers, bracelet and yarn cutter! (If you look closely and try to unblur my bad photography, you'll see one of the notecards she included with a cute little sheepie.)

Cute little sheepies abound in this gift- she also included some Lindor chocolates, (I love that they included the black sheep!) and a Pez (yum!) but also check out the great knitted accessories book. It has the most wonderful glove patterns in there that I know I'll find handy. And the knitticisms book will surely be a good read.
Now, I know you're thinking this is a pretty wonderful haul, right? Well, check out the HANDWOVEN scarf she made!
Amazing. Thanks, Kimberly!

As part of our Secret Pal blogging, we're supposed to "Flash Our Stash," so here goes. Clockwise from top: Box of Wool-Ease and Paton's Canadiana, KP Bare dyeable wool, KP Andean Silk, KP Panache in white and black, Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk, Lorna's Laces Bullfrogs and Butterflies, 2 skeins in Tuscany and one in a purplish color, 1 skein of Kool-Aid dyed KP wool, Alchemy synchronicity in Twig, Artyarns Regal Silk, KP Gloss in Pumpkin for Thermal, KP Essential in green and brown, Atacama Alpaca (blue/greyish), Misti Alpaca in bright orange, Sugar'n Cream cotton, Debbie Bliss cashmerino chunky in black, Lamb's Pride bulky, Atacama Nature Wool in brown and green. Center: Madeline Tosh sock yarn, Woven N Spun sock yarn, Louisa Harding Grace silk and wool (1 skein left over from clapotis). Phew!
AND...
Almost every color that Cascade 220 Superwash comes in for the Ripple Afghan- I laid these out in a possible order for the 'ghan, not sure yet.
And some other new additions: Citrus-scented Soak wash, and a cute kit to make a felted Deer from Crafty Alien.
That's a lot of stash-- maybe a little more than I was expecting. Most of it was bought from big sales or Knit Picks, though so I don't feel too bad. It's actually a good idea to lay out your yarns every once in a while to remind yourself of projects you've forgotten- I know it makes me want to get a good list down.
Consider yourself flashed!

I'm not scheduled to receive my "lighter, brighter" ripple yarn until Monday, but now that I've got the ripple itself down, I can't wait to cast on. (Or chain on?) So I decided I could at least start the first ripple with one of the colors I already have. I picked grey. Exciting, I know, but I figured I'd use a bright color next. I actually was planning on using the random stripe generator to determine the color order but it became too much of a hassle, what with not having a color printer and having to match my yarn color names with their yarn color names. So, I'm going to fly by the seat of my pants with this one. (Or, more likely, completely agonize and over-analyze.)

*The title is based on a funny thing that happened to my brother in law, Aaron at work once. He was sitting in his cubicle and popped a bite-size Reese's Peanut Butter Cup into his mouth and immediately began choking on it. Eventually his cube-neighbors noticed when he finally stood up, hands on neck, red-faced. Everybody just hesitated and as one worker put it later, "we couldn't figure out who should do the heimlich on you cause you're so tall." (6'4" by the way). Anyway, so he said he was basically standing there choking, drooling melted chocolate everywhere, and finally he was able to get a little bit of air down as he ran off to the bathroom saying, "Ain't no Reese's gonna bring me down!"