Pre-war thrift gold

The 30s: what a period! It shared my love of earth tones, which, being a child of the 70s, I acquired naturally and never developed a disdain for. (You?) This weekend, a thrifting friend with a huge stash of thirtiesiana was having a good clearout (on orders from her cat), so I went over to her very cute pre-war Somerville studio, and for $30 she sold me a huge pile of treasure, including this wonderful tin 'basket' - maybe for sewing, maybe for picnics?


There was also this cute striped baby Betty to go with the mama Betty. And many red-and-ivory kitchen linens, which are in the washing machine as I write this. (Show you later!)


And - swoon! - lots of planters. I have made myself a solemn vow that this is the year I become a gardener. Disclosure: I did just kill my rosemary bush (which was a pretty good size, for New England) and my lavender when I brought them inside for the winter. But by gum, I will do better!

Those little round planters with the feet are McCoy. Turns out, they're not as valuable now as they were a few years ago - you can find dozens at any given time on eBay, most of which are more exciting than the ones above, but I love mine and they should be good for herbs. That little watermelon planter on the right is nothing collectible, but I think it's awfully cute - something dainty like thyme would be right at home in it.

Finally, I leave you with the item I took as a sop to the engineer in the house:


The mighty Spee-dee mixer (dates unknown). That Bakelite handle is magnificent!

Wedding help

Ok, knitsters, I need some help. I'm getting married in October in Vermont, so I'd like to knit a wrap for myself. Our colors are basically: ivory, black, and hot pink/fuschia. So, I don't have a dress yet--gonna wait a little while on that--but I'm sure it'll be ivory since I don't love the way I look in white. Anyway, I want to knit up a wrap since who knows what the weather will be like in October in Vermont. . . it could be 70 degrees or snowing! But I'm sure a wrap will be needed nonetheless.

So, I'm coming to ya'll for some advice. I'm pretty sure I'd like to use the lovely Kid Silk Haze in the above color. Here are some of my ideas about the proposed wrap:

- the pattern can't be way over-the-top complicated. I suspect wedding planning could present a few stresses and I'd rather the knitting be relaxing as well as productive! So, maybe sort of intermediate level.
- I think I'd prefer a rectangular shape rather than a triangular shape.
- I'm not opposed to lacy, but I don't like fussy.

So, any thoughts? Thank you for your expertise!

Endpapers²

I finally got around to completing a second pair of Eunny's Endpaper Mitts. I had started and stopped a few times, with all different colorways, to no satisfaction. things just weren't contrast-y enough! I finally settled on some lovely orange and lilac Koigu - I absolutely adore this yarn! The subtle variations in the color add depth, and the yarn is quite springy and lovely to work with.
I don't know who else has made these; there are 3 sizes provided simply through changing needle size. So this second pair I made smaller - I think these are the smallest size? Anyway, I knit them using US 0 & US 2 dpn needles. They went quickly - I cast on March 9th and completed the second one March 19. I did not use the Tubular Bind-Off, nor did I use the Italian Tubular Cast-On. They don't seem to mind.

These are an early birthday present for my roommate - these pics are unblocked, and I don't think they WILL get blocked, as they've already gone on to their new owner......here they are being chummy with my original , well-worn pair: These are a really really great, quick project for people interested in trying out colorwork! The floats are all really small, the pattern is perfect and easy to read, they are portable enough to work on. The pattern also is easy enough to memorize - you can get the hang of it pretty quickly. These are pretty speedy - and on dpns the needles work to mark your "seams" and pattern rows.

So now what do I do with the remaining <1/5 ball of Koigu in each of these 4 colors?!?!?!?

Clapotis - finished! At last!

So, there you have it. I finally finished my Clapotis! I like the way it turned out, though it's much shorter than I thought it would be. It'll make a great spring scarf. So, now the snow just actually has to go away, then I'll be all set!

I do think that I'll make another one at some point. For some reason, I think it takes me an abnormally long time to get patterns. But once I understand what's going on, I'm all set. So, next up for me is shrugville!

FO and Maybe UFO?

So here is the Print of the Wave blocking....

It is hard to see here, but I have not yet put on an edging, but there is a center panel. This picture is from about a week ago, and I unblocked it last night. The lace held very beautifully, but I think it definitely needs an edging - however I cannot muster up the energy to tackle the real edging as patterned. I am pretty happy with the added vertical center panel. Anybody know any good simple lace edgings?

One pattern note: from what I could tell, Eunny asks you to graft on the wrong side. Now, as you all know, I am not such a great whizz at figuring out patterns, so I may have misread that she wanted the purl sides grafted together, but I of course grafted the knit sides together, since otherwise the beauty of a good graft is almost completely wasted!

Here is my FO.

I used Sockotta sock yarn, because it is washable and I thought for a baby tee it would be fun to have fun colors, and it is mostly cotton, but has a bit of wool in it for stretch. But now I feel the colors are a bit too fun. It doesn't show at all in this picture, but there is a seed stitch heart on the front. It doesn't show much on the tee either, due to the unsuppressable fun of the yarn. I tried a couple of photographic settings so you could get the whole effect, to no avail. But it is washable. And FUN.

Roll Call!

Since we haven't seen each other in ages (and haven't knit together in a while). . . what's everybody working on?

Finally. . . I've completed the Clapotis!!! I'll post pix as soon as it's blocked. Next up for me: possibly shrug-ville!

Vermeerdanna

So I can't stop making these. I blame......the yarn. These are a good use of stash remnants, and after the last mandanna, I ended up with 2 half skeins. So of course I made another one.

This one has 3 buttons - these seem to have a stretch issue, so I put on more buttons to keep things centered as you adjust to different buttonholes.

I brought it into work, and our Associate Director was kind enough to model it for YOU:I'm thinking it is reminiscent of:
Or perhaps:
I'll leave you with:

Stacie, Avert Your Eyes!

Ok, so I think I know the project that I want to work on after I finish the infernal Clapotis. I would like to make this shrug from the Berroco website.

So, a couple questions:

1). Would this look fugly on me?

2). It calls for Berroco Chinchilla, which knits up on #8's (4 sts/inch) and Berroco Glace (which on #7's is 4sts/inch). I don't really want to use those yarns and I'm not sure I really want to use two different yarns. I'd prefer to just use some basic (read: perhaps already in my stash) yarn. Do you think I could just use the trusty Cascade 220?

3). Can I just fudge the ribbed edging and just use the same yarn I use for the body of the shrug?

4). Other comments or suggestions?

Thanks, ya'll!!!!