Arabella, coming soon.
Glimpse
February 2, 2010 by KristenMovin’ right along
February 1, 2010 by KristenFootloose and fancy free!
Firstly, here’s a project I never really documented on here.
Liam wanted a stocking cap with a long tail, red and purple stripes, and a yellow or black tassel. The boy knows what he likes. I made this back in November, when I was still in bed with flu, and never really got a decent picture of it. Although there are plenty of good striped stocking cap patterns out there, I didn’t use one. I looked at a seamed cap I had been given back in high school and modeled it on that, placing all the decreases at the back, like a seam, even though I knit it in the round. The yarn is Cascade 220, and I was so pleased to find a red and a purple that contrasted so well.
As you can see by the disintegrating tassel, it gets a lot of wear. I’ll say this: when I let the kids design their own clothes, they really do use them.
I’m calling this hat Smee, after the stocking be-capped character in Disney’s version of Peter Pan. His cap was neither striped, nor so long, but there’s something about this brightly colored silliness that calls to mind cartoon pirates.
As does this photo. Boyo didn’t want his picture taken. You may recognize the infamous Rainbow Jacket, which he’s also wearing.
In December, the epic struggle with Gabriel’s long (long, long) suffering sweater ended when I finally finished the damn thing. It’s intentionally sized too large, as one of the problems that was ongoing in making the sweater was the fact that he just kept growing. The child is ten years old and over five feet tall, and he doesn’t grow in spurts, but rather continues steadily on, just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. He wore the sweater off to school today, and I snapped a quick and terrible picture of him wearing it, standing in front of the heater to warm it before he left.
The crease down the middle from how it was folded really adds to the terrible photograph effect. I used Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Seamless Hybrid recipe, with cables up the sleeves and onto the shoulders, which doesn’t show in this picture. Gabriel wanted a blue sweater with brown edges on the sleeves and the collar, so that’s what I did, using Knit Picks Telemark. If I never use that yarn again, it will be too soon. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, though it’s a bit scratchy, but I had so many things go wrong with this sweater that I’ve got an overwhelming conviction that my yarn was cursed. The sweater shown here is at least incarnation number five in the same yarn. And even it, as straightforward as it was, had a bunch of things go wrong that required huge amounts of ripping. As a result, while it’s not the most attractive thing I think I’ve ever made, I think it’s the project that left my needles with the most personal satisfaction I’ve ever had about a knitting project. I just wanted never to have to knit it again.
Here are the cables, from an older photo.
What was raised
February 1, 2010 by KristenThank you so much for your support during the month of January. A lot of people chose to buy patterns now rather than wait, and as a result, this morning I was able to donate $838.25 to Save the Children.
I know it’s better to donate directly, but the thing I think worked well about the Help for Haiti program is that it worked in small increments. A pattern is only $3 to $10, usually, a smaller amount than many people feel comfortable donating, but when it’s part of a larger effort like this, your small amounts join up with other small amounts, adding up to a grand total far greater than one you yourself might have been able to give. My $838.25 is a tiny part of the larger Ravelry-wide effort. I know there are mixed feelings, but I’m glad of every chance to combine charity with typical capitalism. I think giving can be quite daunting, even in just a mental sense, but when it’s combined with something we were going to purchase anyway, it’s a little easier.
I waited until the end of the month to donate the lump sum. My reasoning, perhaps faulty, was this: as the news cycle starts to move on, and Haiti stops being the lead story every day (on CNN as I type it’s a political story and a historical one) the donations will slow, but will still be needed. I felt that by waiting, I could not only donate a larger amount, but it would be coming at a time when donations might be slowing.
I appreciate the trust that’s been shown by Ravelers. Those of us who pledged to donate did just that: pledge, and the trust had to be a two way street, because we’re the ones holding ourselves accountable. I wanted to reward that trust by sharing my Paypal receipt, with phone numbers and address blurred. (And the confirmation number, because I wasn’t sure if anything could be done with that.) It’s not much, but I thought a little accountability wouldn’t hurt.
Yes, my name is misspelled in Paypal. My surname is Hanley Cardozo, but when I typed it in, I missed a letter and didn’t notice at the time. Later, I tried to change it and was informed that it’s impossible. I’m sure there’s got to be a way around that, but since it’s only one letter off, I kept it rather than start an entirely new account. When I only used Paypal to pay for items I very occasionally bought on Ebay, it was no big deal, and a useful way of being able to tell when my package arrived (“Ah, my name is misspelled! Must be those widgets I ordered!”) but now it’s become a little bit of an embarrassment.
Thank you so much for your purchases. I’m going to play around with the math this morning and see if it’s possible for me to extend my pledge into February. The quake victims will still be needing help as time goes on.
I never remember about lifelines
January 27, 2010 by KristenWhich is why I’m going to have to pick back about four rows of laceweight yarn a stitch at a time, when I’m almost done with a large triangle shawl. Oy. It’s also because the charts that looked awesome when they were just charts are not quite as awesome when they’re the edging to my shawl. Back to the drawing board Excel.
Other than that, things are sailing along pretty smoothly on the knitting front. On the domestic front, there’s been a little turmoil related to math homework (not mine) and I have laryngitis. But I also have this big-ass cake of yarn, so life’s not all bad.
Body and soul
January 22, 2010 by KristenA room without books is a body without a soul.
- Cicero (attributed)
El Niño is here, in all its wet and windy glory, throwing monstrous tantrums up and down the state. For a weather phenomenon named after the Christ child, it’s certainly a very contrary and intense presence. The lights have flickered, but thus far have remained on. Lightning, hail, sudden downbursts and winds that lift up of a moment and whip the trees into a frothing mass of branches and leaves all indistinct – all without is wild and unpredictable.
Inside, it’s warm and woolly. The kettle is constantly on, and we’re drinking more tea than anyone has a right to drink. I’m bundled up in my Drops jacket, and everyone’s reading a bit more than usual. We’re all inclined to the bookish, here, so this is a pleasant state of affairs.
Last year, I took up a challenge to read 50 new books in the year. 5o books in itself is not a problem, but I’m a chronic re-reader, and I thought that the challenge would help me break out of my usual rut. It did. I read 58 new books, most of them quite good. I’ve taken up the same challenge again this year.
Last year, I took up the challenge in part to spur me to finish a couple of books I’d started and then lagged in reading. One of them was José Saramago’s The History of the Siege of Lisbon. One year and 58 new books later and I still haven’t finish Lisbon. I have enjoyed Saramago’s books in the past and I have enjoyed what I’ve read of the Siege, but the way that Saramago writes forces me to slow down my reading to the point where I get somewhat frustrated at my own slowness and end up picking something else up and reading it instead.
There is no natural light today. It has all fled before the storm.
This year, I am going to finish my book, by gum!
I know lists are, well, lists, and not always the most exciting things to read, but I’m going to put up a list of the books I read last year, along with notes where a strong reaction was elicited. Some of the books are young adult books that Gabriel read or recommended to me, but I think that oftentimes the only major difference between a book for a child and a book for an adult is the age of the main character. There are some excellent books out there that adults miss out on because they get slapped with the young adult label. These books are listed in the order read, and reveal the obsessive manner in which I read a particular author. Books I highly recommend are bolded.
- Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin – This book’s been lauded to the skies already, but I think it’s an excellent read with a lot of good, solid information. There are so many books out there on Lincoln, but I’ve never read one with so much information about his cabinet and politics before. I think this helps bring the myth of Lincoln down to Earth at the same time as it emphasizes some aspects of his character that I think truly were remarkable.
- The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen
- The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart
- The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
- The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs
- The Alchymist by Michael Scott (Really! I do not recommend this book, but the author’s name amuses me.)
- Scoundrel Time by Lillian Hellman
- What Shall I Do With These People (Jews, and the Fractious Politics of Judaism) by Milton Viorst
- Serendipties: Language and Lunacy by Umberto Eco – I generally love Umberto Eco, so no surprise on this one. If you like your humor densely packed with historical oddities, this is a very fun book to read.
- My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath
- Darcy’s Story by Janet Aylmer – My husband thought this would be a funny Valentine’s Day gift for me. It was awful – much of the book was Pride and Prejudice intact, but with sudden unpleasantly jarring moments when badly written and occasionally anachronistic phrases and behaviors take place. My sense of humor can’t always conquer my nitpicky soul.
- Couples by John Updike – One of the most unpleasant books I’ve ever read. Dude was a complete misogynist and I don’t buy the excuse that it was the times. I’ve read plenty of male authors from the same period and before who managed not to show complete contempt for the opposite sex. There was not a single female character in this book who was made of something stronger than cardboard, and the prose was so purple you could dye a royal robe in it. Ugh.
- The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones
- The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones
- Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
- The Whispering Mountain by Joan Aiken
- Cold Shoulder Road by Joan Aiken
- Unexpected Magic by Diana Wynne Jones
- The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie – I think this was my favorite of the many, many Agatha Christie books I read last year. Like most of her books, the action doesn’t really make a lot of sense if examined in detail, but it’s a great deal of fun to read, and I thought the female character was a little spunkier than any of the other ladies until Miss Marple.
- The Dark Secret of Weatherend by John Bellairs
- The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
- The Doom of the Haunted Opera by John Bellairs
- Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
- Spice by Jack Turner
- The Tuesday Club Murders by Agatha Christie
- Death in the Air by Agatha Christie
- The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban – I think Russell Hoban’s children’s books are often under appreciated in terms of just how good the writing is. Even his picture books show an economy of beautiful, carefully chosen language that is admirable, and moreover, true. He captures characters vividly and simply. The satire in this book is gentle but meant. I loved it.
- The Mirror Crack’d by Agatha Christie
- A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie
- Nemesis by Agatha Christie
- What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! by Agatha Christie
- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
- Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
- Hammett’s Moral Vision by George “Rhino” Thompson, Vince Emery, and William F. Nolan – Yes, one of the authors goes by Rhino. It was an interesting read, if you like Dashiell Hammett.
- Symposium by Muriel Sparks
- The Golden Ball and Other Stories by Agatha Christie – Ye gods, these stories are awful! Classist, racist, awful, awful stories that have nearly no redeeming qualities. The nice thing to note is that these are early Christie stories and you can see how her opinions (and writing) evolved over time to become more progressive and certainly better thought out.
- The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope
- The Eyes of the Killer Robot by John Bellairs
- What’s the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank
- The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer
- Five Fires: Race, Catastrophe, and the Shaping of California by David Wyatt - I mentioned this book in a previous post. It’s a book about California’s history written by an English professor, and as a result, the literature of California is very much woven into the text. I thought it covered some aspects of our history that are rarely discussed and did so in a literate, interesting way.
- Tom Jones by Henry Fielding – Manages still to be shocking today. It’s very funny, but I found it heavy going after a time, because the narrator stops by every so often just to interject a chapter in which he defends his book preemptively from your criticism. These are not short chapters.
- The Various by Steve Augarde
- Ishi’s Brain by Orin Starn
- The Girl from Paris by Joan Aiken – Mostly out of print, but a really nice Joan Aiken book. One of her rare books for adults that is not overtly based on someone else’s work. Aiken’s admiration for Austen is evident in her book, but it’s not a copy, and there’s still a lot of the Joan Aiken who wrote the wonderful Dido Twite books. Some versions of this book are called The Young Lady from Paris.
- The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones
- A Whisper in the Night by Joan Aiken
- The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald – Fitzgerald didn’t finish this book, and I think that’s for the best. It started off really strong, and I loved the first bit. However, by the time it ended abruptly, it was tapering off into not-as-good territory. Fitzgerald’s notes suggest it would have been a mess had he been able to finish it. I tend to go one way or the other with him, but this book went two ways at once.
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – How I managed to go 30 years without reading this book is beyond me. Everyone raves about it, but I thought it didn’t sound like my thing and I kept putting it off. It was amazing. Beautiful, beautiful writing, honesty beyond what I’ve come to expect from authors, and a deep, encompassing sympathy that made each page a treasure. Read it, if you haven’t. It’s so so good.
- Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope - I was trying to decide which Trollope book to highlight, and figured that other people might as well read the Barchester novels in order, even if I didn’t. I read them as my library got them in, which meant that I read them in a decidedly unusual order. Trollope was a slow burn for me. I read one of his books, and wasn’t sure if I liked it or not, so I read another of his books. And then another. And in the midst of the third, I suddenly realized that I’d forgotten that the characters were written, that I was worrying about them even when I wasn’t reading, that I had come to regard the events in Barchester as factual in some way. It was then that I realized that I really liked Trollope.
- O Pioneers by Willa Cather – This book confirmed for me my view that I don’t really like Cather. Like Cormac McCarthy, I love her descriptions of landscape, but then find the humans in the book to be flat and caricatured in comparison. And oddly enough for a book with a murder, I felt like nothing happened. I knew I was on shaky ground a few pages in when a child character speaks in cutesy and false baby talk. I don’t enjoy baby talk in real people but the Victorians’ propensity to transcribe it in the cutesiest and stupidest terms they could find is so freaking annoying!
- Celandine by Steve Augarde
- Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
- Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmoore
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle – I don’t like reading Sherlock Holmes books that much. They’re weirdly self aware and are all so contrived. But this did set me off on an orgy of Jeremy Brett Mystery! episodes, and I enjoyed those thoroughly.
- Adam Bede by George Eliot
- Dr. Thorne by Anthony Trollope
Items of note
January 20, 2010 by Kristen* If you haven’t checked it out yet, do go look at Help for Haiti patterns on Ravelry. This is a great time to buy patterns you’ve been wanting, when a percentage of sales will go to relief in Haiti.
* One of my friends, Marzipan, started a blog recently, and it is hilarious. It’s great slice of life stuff, and I’m already envying certain word choices. Read, enjoy!
* Apparently, WordPress is now publishing my emails when I respond to comments on this blog. I need to figure out how to turn that off, as I sometimes dither on quite a lot.
* There’s a really cool giant knitted rock on display at London’s Tate Gallery right now, by artist Andy Holden. Apparently, when Holden was 12, he visited Egypt with his family and while there, he unthinkingly broke a chunk of rock off the side of the Great Pyramid in Giza. Only when he was back home did he learn that what he’d done was against Egypt’s laws. Andy later returned the rock to the place he found it but I think this piece really emphasizes the way guilt can make things loom large in our lives, and the knitting actually makes a very effective texture.
* I’m getting close to finishing the second Arabella sample. In the meantime, here’s a bit of a teaser: a photograph of the unblocked first sample, made from the lovely AVFKW Creating that I bought with this in mind.
Help for Haiti
January 20, 2010 by KristenI’m going to be mentioning this regularly for a while now, but the Help for Haiti program on Ravelry is going really well. Pattern sales on Help for Haiti projects have, on average, tripled, and with all the pledges, it looks like Ravelry users have already raised somewhere in the range of $15,000. From my own standpoint, I can tell you that I was a little nervous when I pledged half my profits, because I use some of my pattern money to pay bills. It’s not a large steady income, but it helps us get by. However, because of the increase in sales, it looks as though I will have money for bills as well as a decent sized donation to make to Save the Children. Thank you so much for your generosity! Thus far Knitting Kninja has raised around $300 towards this donation. And Ysolda alone has donated over $6000 to Medicins Sans Frontieres! I think we all feel pretty helpless in the wake of a disaster as huge in scale as this earthquake, but these small increments can make a difference.
Julie Frick of Fricknits spent time in Haiti eight years ago, and has begun posting pictures from her trip on her blog. Head over, take a look, and read her post. It’s worth your while.
In 1997 after I graduated from high school, I set out for art school in Maryland. I never finished, instead getting pregnant in my sophomore year and dropping out to produce a series of small humans. My time at MICA, the Maryland Institute College of Art, is memorable, not least because it was such a small school. I can’t say I knew all the other students on campus at the time, but we saw each other around and were at least peripherally aware of one another. So it was with great sadness that I learned that one of the students I used to see around campus, Flo McGarrell, was killed in the Haiti quake. I debated posting this. I don’t think I ever spoke to Flo when I was at MICA. We were not in the same year, and didn’t move in the same circles, and I don’t want to use his death to garner attention or sympathy for myself. However, I do want to call attention to the work Flo was doing in Haiti when he died. He was there as the director of a nonprofit art center, doing experiments with sustainability as sculpture. As I say, I didn’t know Flo, but I remember seeing him around campus. He was identifying as a woman then, often wore cowboy hats, and was part of a performance art group, Little Big Bang, that put on these amazing shows involving Flo’s huge inflatable sculptures. Rest in peace, Flo.
I had more I wanted to talk about today, but it seems wildly out of place with the more serious topics above, so I’ll save it for another day. In the meantime, thank you for your donations, and for taking the time to read this. I’ll give a grand total at month’s end, and if things are still moving along at this pace, I may extend the period in which Knitting Kninja patterns will be participating in Help for Haiti.
Resolved
January 17, 2010 by KristenFirst things first: Ravelry added a tag for designers to pledge donations to relief in Haiti. You can search Help for Haiti patterns here to shop, and you can narrow the search by your favorites or queued items. I’ve added all Knitting Kninja sale patterns to the pledge. Retroactively, 50% of the profits from all patterns sold from the date of the earthquake until the end of this month will be donated to Save the Children. Only tangentially related, there’s an excellent book about Haiti that I read some years back called The Rainy Season by Amy Willentz. It is not a current book – it is about Haiti in the 1980s – but it is very very well written and it has a lot about Haiti’s history and politics that could be helpful to someone wanting to know more about the country. I’ve gotten my copy out again since the disaster to try to gain a little context and perspective. I know it’s not recent, but I feel a little more connected when I can understand just a little about the country.
In my last post, I mentioned that I’d dropped mysterious other projects to work on my Liesl. The main mysterious other in question is a new shawl pattern I’m working on, Arabella. I’m still knitting up the second sample, but I must tell you how excited I am about this project. As with Clothilde, it’s been through a lot of changes throughout the design process. I think a lot of what has made Clothilde appealing is the ease with which it is knit. Arabella started out really complicated, and as I worked on it, it hit me that while it was pretty, I wasn’t enjoying knitting it. So I simplified and simplified and came up with something that I think is a lot more fun to knit, and still looks very pretty. I’m making a number of mix and match options for Arabella, including two different choices of edging, and two choices of length for edge points.
I made a grand total of one firm New Year’s resolution this year, and last night I got a start on it. I am determined to learn to sew. I have made several attempts in the past, but I’m just not that good at it, and I’m often flustered by the way that half of sewing is actually ironing. I skip crucial ironing steps and then wonder why my project turned out all lumpy and wrong. One of the Christmas presents I received this year was Handmade Home, a book of simple sewing projects from Amanda Blake Soule (whose blog is wonderful – you must read it) and I thought that simple sounded like something I could sink my teeth into. After several false starts, last night I made this little pleated tote:
It’s far, far from perfect, but it’s sewn, and for once, it’s mostly sewn right! I had terrible trouble with tension, and could not seem to figure out why, until I looked online and found that I’d put my bobbin in upside down. Oh yeah. I’m good. The best part, really, is that the whole project is recycled. The fabric came from free boxes left on a street corner. (Berkeley has so many of these boxes. I think when people are done with stuff in Berkeley, they just put it in a box labeled FREE and stick it on a street corner. We regularly find cool stuff on walks.) The ribbon is from Amazon.com gift wrap. And together they made a little tote that Nora can carry about. With ladybugs on. Because that part’s essential.
Returning to that whole ironing thing, Mrs. Meyer’s Ironing Spray is the best thing in the world for when you have to iron a bunch of stuff. My fabric ironed out better when I sprayed it, but better still, when I placed the iron on the wet fabric, clouds of lavender scented steam blew into the air, making the apartment, and the fabric, smell wonderful. (The basil scent is also awesome.) Mrs. Meyer’s products are just plain wonderful in general, and if I haven’t gone all fangirl about them before, I’m doing it now. Go, buy them. Enjoy the good smells and the fact that they’re free of toxins, biodegradable, and they work really, really well. I hate cleaning my house, but I think using something that smells good and comes in pretty retro packaging makes it just slightly more fun.
Um, yeah. I went off on a bit of a tangent there. Anyway, while the learning to sew was my only firm resolution, I do have some knitting related goals for 2010. I joined the 10 in 2010 group at Ravelry, committing to ten projects in ten different yarns, of which Liesl, in the Sundara ASM, was my first. I’d like to come out with a minimum of four new original patterns. I want to finish a pair of socks knit in sock weight yarn. (This is the goal I’m most doubtful of, but I think it’s certainly possible. I just need to follow through!)
So here we go! Into the future.
Oh, that’s right, I have a blog
January 16, 2010 by KristenI can’t believe we’re two weeks into the new year and I haven’t posted here! I have so much to catch up on.
Wrapping up 2009, while it was not the best year I’ve had, I feel pretty good about things and very hopeful as we look toward the future. I’m a combination of cynical and optimistic generally speaking. This past year had its downs, but it’s also the year I finished up what I hope are the last of my college requirements for transfer. I discovered that I like math. And on the knitting front, I feel like my skills improved and that I have a better plan for going forward.
My birthday was on January 6th, and as a birthday present to myself, I dropped everything I was working on (more on that later) and cast on for Liesl. I am a huge admirer of Ysolda’s work, but I have to say that I did not fall in love with Liesl right away. I thought it was pretty and then thought no more until Emily posted pictures of her Liesl and I knew that someday, I would have to make one, too.
After Clothilde went live, I put aside a little money for some Sundara Aran Silky Merino. At the time, the only way to order it was in the mass updates that sold out pretty fast, or from the Year in Color, and I was waiting for the perfect color, which showed up in September. Arabian Nights, the most gorgeous brown and purple yarn you’ve ever seen. I ordered two skeins and then waited the long wait until November, when it shipped. But it was well worth the wait, and I was so so glad I chose that particular shade when it arrived. It is amazing in real life, all these deep shades running into each other and each more beautiful than the last.
I was going to swatch, but I’d only ordered two skeins, and I was worried about the yardage. I decided to order another skein for swatch purposes. That took a while, because I am the Indecisive Queen of Indecisiveness. I wanted a color that I could use for gifts, so I dithered and dithered and finally ordered some purple and blue yarn. Then there was the wait for that to arrive. Once it got here, I swatched using my size 10 needles. I have begun to think I’m a loose knitter, so I thought perhaps I’d need to go down in needle size. But no, size 10 was too small, and 11 too big, so I had to order needles, which I did, in several sizes, from Knit Picks. Then it was the waiting game again.
The needles arrived on my birthday, so I dropped everything and swatched immediately. I had purchased 6.5 mm needles and also the 7 mm needles called for in the pattern. Lo and behold, I got gauge on the called for needles! I was glad of the 6.5 needles, though, because I wanted a neckline between the ones shown on the pattern. I cast on for the wide neckline using the 6.5 mm needles and switched to the 7 mm after 22 rows.
I was ill for a bit, so I didn’t knit as fast as I usually would, but even still, the sweater was done in four days. And even that would have been three days if I hadn’t been so tired. This is a genius pattern. It breezes along like you wouldn’t believe and it’s never boring. The lack of waist shaping isn’t a problem because of the stretchy lace, but I was surprised to find that the bottom belled when I blocked it and it essentially created a waist. Oh, and I used about 1.75 skeins.
I love this thing. My first FO of 2010. It’s not really the right weather to wear it yet, but I like being prepared. This will be a great spring cardigan.
The pattern is very easy to follow, as written and this yarn? It is amazing to work with. Although it is single ply, the silk content grounds the merino, creating a very soft and warm fabric with incredible drape, and thus far, no pills.
I have a very long torso, and this hits just where I wanted it to. Again, I’m plain shocked that this is possible with so little yarn. This is the perfect pattern for a more expensive yarn because you need so little of it. And if the Sundara ASM is a little rich for your blood, Blue Moon Fiber Arts offers a very similar yarn that’s $32 for 500 yards, Luscious Single Silk.
This is my first Liesl, but it will not be my last. This pattern strikes me as great for gifts. More detail on the yarn and knitting on Ravelry.
Goals for 2010 next time!
Happy holidays!
December 22, 2009 by KristenI’m still caught in the rush of trying to finish getting ready for my own holiday and leaving tomorrow, so I never got the hoped for modeled shots of my new Susan Scarf. However, sans modeled shots, I did put together a PDF of the Susan Scarf, updated, better written, and with a chart, before I head out.
