Baby, It's Cold Outside

Continuing on my path to ignore holiday crafting for others until the last possible minute, I have been foolishly working on.....foot garments. It HAS been cold, and this seems a reasonable way to handle the freeziness of it all. I'm on Sock #2 (of 2, just in case y'all were wondering) in the Helloyarn "Dusk" colorway. The yarn is a joy to work with - super squooshy, such vibrant colors, interesting pooling, not splitty at all.



I should be a good little crafter lady and get into the holiday hub-bub, but it hasn't really happened yet.

Miss Alayne was kind enough to send me some remnants of alpaca that she happened to have in her stash, in just the colorway I was seeking in order to complete the Anthropologie Hayride Capelet. After binding off, I had about....2 yards of yarn left - most certainly not enough for an I-Cord and pompoms! So making some cord is on the agenda, and then quick-like-a-bunny writing up the rest of this pattern (I'm halfway there!) for Miss Max to test-knit it (and then have one of her very own). I've got to tell ya, though....I am LOATHE to make any sort of significant length of I-Cord, donchaknow. In fact, I am loathe even to have others do it. Nonetheless, I think I've found a decent solution:



This is my super-cheap modified Lucet. I saw these at Rhinebeck (much MUCH nicer, though!), and they work in a similar way as spool-knitting. You wrap the yarn around a prong and flip the bottom loop over the top loop. Pull yarn to tighten, and rotate lucet in order to loop the other prong.....continue in this manner forEVER. You end up with a really nice boxy rope. I figured a lucet is nothing but 2 fixed prongs that you can easily slide some yarn over. I considered rigging up some chopsticks, but the plastic fork seemed All Class for this endeavor.

I'm taking suggestions for fast, cheap, outta-control holiday gifts I can make - any ideas?

Let Us Revisit A Hat

I continue to avoid any proper holiday crafting. I think I'm a feeling a bit overwhelmed by some other activities that I've been back-burnering for some time now - writing up the Hayride pattern, a button-band reconfiguring for someone, some more foot garments. So for now, I am re-knitting a hat:You may recognize this from awhile ago - a fairly loose-knit hat made with random handspun. Well, Young Sef has been wearing that hat, and it's stretched beyond belief. But he adores it! So he kindly asked me to re-knit it for him. He rides his bike through the winter, so he NEEDS to have the hat; I've loaned him my hat until I complete this (shouldn't take long!) and it sure is getting cold out there. I've gone down a couple of needle sizes (I think the original was on 8s - I present you with 6s) and I think I cast on less stitches. he tried it on this morning - fits okay so far! It was nice to see how the yarn weathered - quite nicely.

Desert/Dessert

I'm trying to kick it into high-gear holiday crafting mode, but I seem to be failing. I continue to knit primarily for myself, or I'm working on non-specific-person crafts, which is fine and good and all, but gives me nothing under the tree. I present to you a little something I am working on, that, um, well...yeah, I think it will speak for itself:


That's some Claudia Hand-Painted yarn in the Desert Dusk colorway. I picked it up over Thanksgiving weekend, when I visited a yarn shop on my (seemingly eternal!) quest for 5" metal US1 dpns (I failed.....anyone got any ideas here?). This yarn is lovely to work with and boy is it sproingy. It will most certainly be a treat for someone's feet. Oh, and that HelloYarn footwear from last week? Well, the first one has reached completion - I'll cast-on for the second one later this week most likely.

Meanwhile.......I received my November Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club selection yesterday. This is Pie For Everyone! - a delicious and wonderful to spin bundle of Falkland Wool:
This stuff is pretty darn soft. It spun up real quick-like, and after plying 2 bobbins worth, I've ended up with something in the realm of 246 yards. It's a.....sport? DK? weight. I didn't give it too much twist in the plying and it came out perfectly balanced.

Any ideas on what to do with this? Might make cute mittens, or perhaps a BSJ?

I Am Worth 700 Cows (At Least)

I had grand crafting plans for last evening - well, writing up that pattern - but was sidelined a wee bit in order to replace this:



Yeah, that's the Symmons Temptrol® Temperature Control Shower Handle Chrome (Model T-31). Ours broke - it had been on it's way out for awhile. So off to HomeDepot for me to find this. I got no love or help AT ALL at HD, but managed to find the part nonetheless (the entire kit was available for a fair bit more $) and brought it all home and hooked it all up. 2 minute fix!

With a screwdriver, I am unstoppable. I will now add plumbing to my dowry list.

A Scarf, A Sock, A Progress Report.

(There were way too many bad puns that could have gone into the title of this post that I had to just bow out of all of them....)

Although I am supposed to be kicking it into high gear holiday making mode, I've been working a fair amount on things I want to make for, well, maybe me, maybe some for others, I'm not too sure. These are definitely not holiday related items.

Young Sef has been bemoaning the cold and had requested a scarf a few weeks ago. I started to knit something up for him with my handspun Mollusc and a bit of red - the scarf was going to be set up to mimic the pattern found in a Golomb Ruler (order 13). My dislike for scarf-knitting runs deep, and this thing was going nowhere fast. With it getting colder, some drastic action had to be taken.

Enter the loom. Having picked up a rigid heddle loom a few months back, I have not had a chance to get that badboy working. I'll admit I was kind of scared of the prospect of warping this thing, but I knew the weaving itself would be fairly straightforward. Also, Sef wanted to learn. So we got things set-up and did us some weaving:



I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out - quite nice for a first attempt, no? Our calculations were all over the place and I ended up with a very very long thin scarf. So I folded the whole thing in half, whipstitched it together down the length, and chopped the end. So it is only fringed on the one side. it feels wonderful, though, and this yarn really made a wonderful fabric. Oh, and Young Sef is pleased with it.

I'll admit that when I said I was done with those 2 quilts I still had the edge binding to hand sew around. I worked on that this weekend, and I have one side left on my dad's quilt.

But when I wasn't doing that, I worked on this:



This is the Helloyarn colorway "Dusk" and it is the squishiest most plump sock yarn I have ever encountered! It's pooling something lovely, and knitting up pretty fast.

In the world of reverse-engineering: I completed the Anthro capelet, sans proper I-cord tie and pompoms. I ran out of yarn! But with only that much remaining. So I quick-like whipped up a crochet chain, just for an idea of how it would fall. I'm hoping to get to blocking it mayhaps tonight? And also writing up that pattern (test-knitters, please?). So expect to see that progress in the future.

I did something(s).

While Stacie was reverse-engineering the whole of the Anthro catalogue, making 17 quilts for Christmas...and Max was meditating at Mount Madonna Center (so jealous I want to kill something - hence the need for meditation/quiet/peacefulness/etc)...I made some stuff:

Anna Hrachovec's amazing Woodins:


And Smariek's 3AM Cable Hat:


Oh man, I just finished it whilst watching the newest SVU...Stabler got head-butted and now he can't see anything! I hope he's OK...

XTREME blocking; mixed results

Well, there she is, the blocked Moth. Almost dry by the time I got her into this state. I'm going to try spritzing and re-drying, but first I have to soak my spritzer in a bleach solution. (Yeccch.) Then I have to rinserinserinse, hoping not to inadvertently bleach the rug. And then I think I'll call my KAL Moth done!

In blocking, I discovered yet another dropped stitch. Oi. Unfortunately, this one laddered badly, as a result of the blocking. And you can't see it here, but the neck part has extra fabric, like the upturned collar on the polo shirt of a lesbian soccer mom. If anything, one would want one's shawl to be going the other way. I see I have a lot to learn about blocking, that realization being only one of the learning experiences resulting from knitting this Moth.

Ah, well. As the buddhists say, with the ideal comes the actual. There were several problems that, as they occurred whilst on the airplane, I had to resolve for my own self (just like Buddha said to do!), rather than go running to Stacie. And I did it! That alone makes this effort worthwhile.

Even if I never wear it.