Archive for the ‘Self Designed’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Haha! Take that, foul button bands!

December 3, 2008

It’s a bit galling when a sweater of one’s own design takes up designs against one.  Maude Louise II was nearly done when I tried to add a garter stitch button band that turned out to be a Very Bad Idea.  The garter stitch was loose and floppy and moreover I had picked up too many stitches, which resulted in a very ugly, very discouraging giant floppy button band.  Somewhat daunted, I started again with a different band using smaller needles and fewer stitches.  Too small needles, actually, and too few stitches.  Overcompensation is a dangerous thing.  Button band v. 2.0 was too tight and caused the panel edge to curl into a fetching half moon.

This button band is too big!  This button band is too little!  What I needed was Baby Bear’s Just Right.

And lo, it turned out that Just Right meant picking up an in between number of stitches and knitting a stockinette button band that doubles back on itself, strengthening its edge by so doing.  No flop, and a very pretty button band that’s not stylistically at odds with the sweater.  And less seaming!  I much prefer the new button band to the old.

I’m not sure if this is de rigueur, since I’ve never actually looked up how to do this, but the way I bind off the button bands is by picking up a single stitch from the pick up edge and knitting it together with each stitch on the left hand needle during the bind off.  It neatly seams itself without any actual sewing, and you have a pretty and clean edge.  I’m sure this is standard procedure, but I felt pretty good when I thought of it and it worked.  Other such button bands that I worked in the past asked me to cast off and seam.  I mention it in case anyone else has occasion to wonder how to avoid seaming on a hemmed edge.  I’m all about avoiding seaming these days, which is funny, as I’ve gotten much better at seaming.  The original Maude was made when somehow the idea of knitting flat in pieces sounded easier to me than a seamless garment.  I think the construction works pretty well, so I’m not changing that part, but the seamed button band was too much.

So, all that’s left to do now on the actual garment is weave in the loose ends from the button bands, sew the button holes, attach buttons, and put on a collar of sorts.

I’m really very pleased with how this is going.  I’m afraid Maude I will be totally eclipsed by Maude II, at least for a time.

Check out the halo the angora makes!

Warm!  Squishy!  I am so ready to be done with this and to wear it.

Posted in Jackets, Knitting, Maude Louise, Self Designed, Setbacks | 7 Comments »

Nature’s first green is gold

November 18, 2008

Zombified birthday boy.

Zombified birthday boy.

Liam went ahead and turned seven this weekend.  Just before the big day, I remembered a passing request he’d made for a “jungle hat with an Ewok on it”.  I had this bee-yew-tee-full yarn that The Lady sent me in his favorite, and very jungley, shade of green, so I doubled the yarn for speed and whipped up this green gem of a basic little hat.  Then there was the untutored embroidery of the Ewok.  I love embroidering things, but in truth I don’t know how.  I’ve glanced at little pamphlets explaining what to do, but have never bothered to read them.  But it seems to me from my limited and not very skilled experience that embroidery is a lot like both drawing and painting, and that if you have any skill with either of those areas, it is very likely that you can at least make a small pictoral patch.

Mine was drawn freehand, so to speak.  I printed out a few simplified pictures of Ewoks and went to work with three colors of thread: white, brown, and navy.  Those were all the thread colors I had that seemed to work with what I had in mind.  Here’s a tighter view of the result.  It’s not neat embroidery, but I think it works as a picture.

Liam’s birthday was a lot of fun, and very low key.  We had a small family celebration, and Liam helped me bake a cake.  I’m not the world’s best baker, but my cakes tend to taste pretty good, even though they usually turn out sort of flat and sad looking. Yesterday’s cake was a minor exception to the rule.  It didn’t turn out perfectly, but it also did not look as though someone sat upon it.  We watched James and the Giant Peach and ate of cake, and then we listened to Little Richard singing Happy Birthday to Martin Luther King, Jr., because Liam wanted to hear a birthday song on the radio, and that was the most rocking birthday song I found on last.fm.

It’s very hard for me to believe that my younger son is seven!  He’s built on a smaller scale than his big brother, and his developmental delays sometimes make him seem younger than he is, so it’s a little bittersweet to have him grow up.  I sound like such a stereotypical smothering mother here, but I love having him little and young.  At the same time, I am so, so proud of all the leaps and bounds he has made in the past year, and I am so thrilled at the young man he’s growing into.  Those of you who love someone with an autism spectrum disorder will understand what big news this is: he’s been making multiple friends.  On his own.  I could pop with joy and pride!

I’m feeling rather introspective, and looking back, it’s a little shocking to realize how very young I was when I had each of the boys.  Heck, how very young Mr. Kninja was, too!  It’s been amazing to watch them grow up, and terribly sobering to realize, as Mr. Kninja put it yesterday, that Gabriel is already half grown.  We’ve faced a lot of challenges along the way, but we’re a lucky little family, because every one of our children is wonderful and delightful in different ways.  Happy birthday, Liam!

In less introspective news, I have finished Maude II, save for the buttons.  I have some buttons that are the right size, and I may attach them, but Mr. Kninja thinks, perhaps rightly, that they do not look right with the yarn I used.  I’m torn.  I’d love to simply finish it altogether, write up the new pattern, and move on, but while the buttons in question are inoffensive, is inoffensive the best I should hope for with a lovely new cardigan?  The answer, as I type it, seems obvious enough, and I suppose I’ll have to seek out new buttons for Maude II.

Well, then, tomorrow will be all about the hunting and gathering, I suppose.

Posted in Finished Projects, Hats, Kidswear, Knitting, Maude Louise, Miscellany, Nifty Stuff, Self Designed | 5 Comments »

Ruining Christmas

November 14, 2008

Remember how my hard drive broke but it was OK, because the Genius Bar folks were going to fix it?  Well, running the risk of major flames for the second time in as many weeks, I am here to tell you that something about wearing a black shirt with the word “GENIUS” emblazoned on it makes people complete jerks.  It’s not just that the geniuses couldn’t save my files.  It’s that combined with the fact that they were borderline rude the whole time my husband spent at the Apple store, combined with the fact that they weren’t keen on giving us back our original hard drive to try to rescue the files ourselves combined with the fact that the hard drive they eventually gave us was not ours at all, which we discovered when we were able to rescue some of the files off of it and found someone else’s vast hip hop collection.  Also, rather than calling when they weren’t able to rescue the files, they called and said, “Your computer is ready,” and then followed it up with an “Oh, and by the way, we weren’t able to save any of the files from your old hard drive,” which just seems unnecessarily to set people up for disappointment, and is a pretty casual way to say, “By the way, you’re totally screwed.”

Yeah.  Hate the Genius Bar.  I may even extend my hate to all geniuses.  Mensa, you are next on my rant list!

I usually start my holiday knitting in the summer months.  This year, I’m behind schedule, but most of what’s on my needles is holiday related.  Therefore, sharing on this blog has become perilous.  At the same time, I hate posting without pictures, so I’m just going to warn people who think they might be receiving a knit gift from me this year that it’s become read at your own risk on Knitting Kninja.

There’s also the fact that one of the gifts I’ve finished is a simple original design, and I will be posting a pattern soonish, so Erin, if you happen to be reading, STOP, or Christmas will be ruined.

Speaking of Erin, does anyone remember the Erin Shrug, my sister’s gift last year, that I kept trying to write up a pattern for and failing miserably?  I’ve been working on a pattern, and I knitted up a second shrug to test it out.  It all went very well indeed, and I solved my problem with creating charts to go with it, but for naught at the moment as the freakin’ charts were EATEN BY MY HARD DRIVE AS SO MUCH DELICIOUS PASTRY!

Ahem.  Sorry – I know I can redo it all, and I still have my notes and some charts to copy from, but it took hours to make those stinking charts, and now they are gone.  So.  I am cross.  However, Erin is next on my list after the Maude Louise rewrite, and I hope to have test knitters on the job soonish.  Pattern writing seems to go a lot better when you lay out a real schedule for it and actually sit down and do some work every day instead of telling yourself that you’re sure you’ll get around to writing up a pattern real soon – maybe sometime next month, and oh, hey, look, someone emailed you adorable pictures of puppies!  Puppies!  Here’s a little peek at Erin II, which is knit in Rowan Scottish Tweed Chunky.  Much as I love this yarn, I don’t recommend it for this particular pattern, as it’s a bit scratchier than is desirable for a close fitting shrug.  Still, very warm, and I’ve been wearing it around the house when I get cold.

Here are some other sneak peeks of things that people receiving gifts from me should really not be looking at.

Stayed tuned for the new pattern!

Posted in Erin Shrug, Finished Projects, In progress, Knitting, Miscellany, Self Designed | 2 Comments »

Blurg argh bleah!

October 25, 2008
Soooooft.

Soooooft.

When we bought an iMac, we did so thinking, “Yes, this is a lot of money, but Macs are not PCs.  We will no longer have to worry about all the problems that a PC has.”

Ha!  And again, ha!

The hard drive of my eight month old iMac up and died last week.  No warning, nothing, just sudden death.  All of my patterns are on there, all of my pictures, some of my husband’s work files, tons of music – just a mess of a lot of stuff.  I know you’re supposed to back up your files, and I had actually been thinking I should do that soon, but it had not yet been done.  Thus does the law of What You Deserve operate.  Clearly, thinking that I should back up my files and failing to do it caused the universe to teach me a Very Special Lesson.

It’s not all woe and sadness, though.  The good folks at the Genius Bar are going to save my files.  Yay, Genius Bar!  And while it is very, very frustrating that the hard drive failed at all, it was clearly a factory problem and we’re still under warranty, so the hard drive will be replaced.  I’m not happy that the problem arose, but I’m glad it will be solved.  In the meantime, Mr. Kninja is letting me use his laptop when he doesn’t need it.

So.  That’s my story.  The computer will be fixed soon enough for me to finalize the Pauline pattern thanks to the awesome feedback of my wonderful test knitters, and I can get to work on the other patterns that are languishing on the dead drive.

All of which brings me to one of the many projects that are ongoing at the moment. Maude Louise was picked for a Knit Along over at the Obscuriosity group on Ravelry, and that brought back to me just how self conscious I am about the crazy and unfinished nature of that pattern, and how I’ve been meaning to improve it for ages.  So I went ahead and made use of a gift certificate I had to order a bag of RYC Soft Lux from Little Knits, and I joined the KAL, and now I’m knitting a second Maude Louise and rewriting the pattern at the same time.  I’m planning on making a few stylistic changes as well, but I’ll be sure to include instructions for a just-like-the-original version, too.  It feels good to finally get down to something I’ve been meaning to do for such a long time.

The knitting is going very fast.  I’ve actually finished one of the front panels since this picture was taken.  I expect to have Maude II done within a week or two, and that should leave me time to get back to all the Christmas presents I’m working on as well as all the designs that are running through my head these days.

A few thoughts on the yarn: I’ve been wanting to try Soft Lux for ages, and I think it was worth the wait.  Of course, it’s discontinued, but I suppose if it wasn’t I couldn’t have gotten such a good deal on it.  It’s kind o funny to me that the Maude made in luxury yarn will actually be less expensive than the Maude made in discount yarn.  Anyway…

Soft Lux is 10% angora and something like 60% wool (the rest being nylon and the metallic gold thread), but the numbers are misleading.  I am very glad I have The Knitter’s Book of Yarn, because I was able to look up how these percentages are arrived at.  Percentages are listed by weight.  Angora is a very light fiber, so 10% is actually quite a lot of angora.  The result is a very lush, soft, and warm fabric.  It is not as drapey as the silk/alpaca blend used for the original Maude, but it does feel better against the skin, and I absolutely love the fabric that is being formed by this yarn.  Angora feels rather dry on the fingers when you are knitting with it, and it does shed (though this yarn sheds far less than the last angora blend I used) but it’s not an unpleasant yarn to knit with.  The metallic thread does not have any scratch to it, unlike the metallic thread in Kidsilk Night, and I like the slight and understated sparkle.  Lux is the right name for this yarn.  I feel like a princess when I look at my unfinished sweater.  I’ll have some leftovers, too, which is an exciting prospect.

The color, called cashmere, is not one I’m usually drawn to, but I’m actually quite glad now that my original choice, camel, was sold out.  I can’t wear pure white, but this very, very light goldish brown shade is an ideal neutral for my wardrobe.  The first picture, of the yarn itself, is the most true color-wise.

So, um, yay!

Posted in In progress, Knitting, Maude Louise, Miscellany, Self Designed, Sweaters | 4 Comments »

Everything’s so easy for Pauline

October 6, 2008

This actually wasn’t one of the surprises that I originally had planned for this week, but I happened to stop by the Malabrigo Junkies group on Ravelry and noticed that they were having a one skein design contest.  And then I thought, “Hey!  I have a spare skein of Malabrigo!  Maybe I’ll make something.”  Forty eight hours later I was the proud owner of this little hat.  I’m calling it Pauline.

I’m really, really thrilled with this hat.  I’ve actually been wanting something like this for years, but if it hadn’t been for the impetus of a contest, I might never have gotten off my duff to make it.  It’s super easy to make, too, which is a nice bonus.  The whole time I was working on it, I feared I was going wrong somewhere, but the end result actually looks surprising like what I had pictured in my head.

I’m not sure whether I like it best tied or untied.  It’s very warm when it’s tied, and very snug on the ears.  I suspect I’ll be wearing this a lot come winter. If anyone is interested in doing a test knit this month, let me know.  There will be two sizes: S/M and L/XL.  I can’t offer you yarn, but it takes less than a skein of Malabrigo to make, and you could use leftovers (maybe in contrasting colors) for the flowers and leaves. I’ve got test knitters!  Thanks so much – if you volunteered, I’ll be sending you the pattern today (October 6th).

I’m feeling better.  Not 100% better, but a lot better.  We took my first outing in a few weeks and walked over to the greenway for these pictures.  There are a ton, but I’ll mostly let them do the speaking for the rest of the post.  I’m not feeling terribly eloquent, but I am very grateful to be on the mend.  Thank you so much for all the well wishes.

You can see the leftover yarn in the picture above.  Yay!

And, finally, I’m putting this picture in because I’m vain of it.  It’s the first picture of myself that I’ve really liked in a long time.  You can hardly see the hat, though!

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Finished Projects, Hats, Knitting, Pauline, Self Designed | 22 Comments »

Designy stuff

July 9, 2008

I’m in a weird state right now as a pseudo knitting designer type person.  I have had a lot of ideas lately for new patterns, and I have confidence that I can knit them.  I have no confidence, though, that I can write them down, or that I’ll find time to do it.  I realized recently that I think I need to reknit some of the patterns I’ve created, because my errors are legion, and I don’t seem to be able to catch them on reading my patterns over.  Even when they’re glaring, obvious, and really pathetic, involving very basic math.

I’ve been meaning to edit Maude Louise for ages, but I freeze up when I sit down to it, because I can’t seem to spot the errors on my own, or to see where I’ve gone totally, crazily, weirdly wrong.  It’s odd.  I’m not feeling sorry for myself, because honestly, I’m not the person affected most by these mistakes.  I feel awful to be misleading innocent knitters with my errors, but I’m not thinking I’m an awful person who needs to be flogged or anything.  Mostly just thinking.  I managed to mess up my recipe for Arthemis, too, on the first go round, and that was a case of adding ten over and over.  A first grader could have done it correctly, but I managed to mess up.

Anyway, it’s got me in an introspective state, because, as I said, I’ve had an absolute ton of ideas (and have knit a few new items up that I’d like to write up patterns for at some point) and I want to be better at this whole design thing.  It’s why I haven’t written up the Erin Shrug yet, despite requests, and my own intentions, because damn it, I’d like to release a pattern or more that is entirely error free.

Ysolda, who does not have these problems, often knits two of her prototypes, and I’m thinking that even though the idea is somewhat abborhent to me, I may need to do the same, just to test what I’ve written.  And I think I probably need to get my patterns test knit by others as well, in future.

Anyway, this stems from my finding that other people have found major errors on the finished parts of Maude Louise, which is, anyway, an unfinished pattern.  I knew it was unfinished, and I found errors in rereading it before, but I missed some biggies.  I have been meaning to sit down and finish the whole pattern pretty much since I first posted it, but as I said, I’ve frozen up at writing patterns, the more problems that are exposed.  But with all these ideas exploding in my head lately, it’s probably important for me to get better at this, or to invest in some good software that can help me with the math, because as frustrating as it is for me to find myself in all these mistakes, it’s probably a lot more frustrating for those who are actually trying to knit what I’ve written so poorly.

Posted in Knitting, Maude Louise, Ravelry, Self Designed, Setbacks | 3 Comments »

Happy New Year – here’s a pattern

January 1, 2008

So it’s a new year, which means it’s five days until I hit the last year of my twenties. I’m not terribly impressed with the idea of turning 29. It just sounds so fake, even faker than 28 did. I want to hit 30 and just commit to it, instead of lingering at this age that no one will believe.

Anyway, I have owed you all a pattern for a good long time, and like the nice people you are, you’ve been uncomplaining, though I’ve had the occasional nudge to remind me to finish. So here, for the new year, is the pattern for Arthemis, and I’m working on the pattern for the Erin Shrug as well.

I originally started writing this pattern in the usual range of sizes, but as I was writing it up, it hit me that I was destroying the very thing that makes a top down raglan special – the ability to customize to body type. Sure, I could write up just what I did and size up and down, but that assumes that everyone has the same basic shape as I do, and it’s not useful. So instead of a standard pattern, I wrote this up as more a recipe to customize to your own shape. The pattern for the sleeves, collar, and lace edge match the ones in my picture, and I think I’ve explained pretty well how to place the darts, but if you have trouble, please let me know and I’ll do my best to help. As always, I’d love to see it if you knit it, and I definitely want to hear about mistakes I’ve made in writing it up so that I can correct them.

Enjoy!

Posted in Arthemis, Free Patterns, Knitting, Miscellany, Self Designed | 2 Comments »

Meta post: Maude is now easier to download

November 9, 2007

Thank heavens, eh?  I completely and totally fail at WordPress, because I hadn’t even realized I could host my PDF here, instead of at that random awful place that made it difficult to get a copy.  I know a lot of people have had trouble downloading Maude Louise, but hopefully that is at an end.  There’s a new link in the sidebar and a new link in the original post.  And now you can click from here to get to the Maude download.  Once there, you can click on the picture of the PDF or on the sentence below it to download the pattern.  Whew.  Much better.

I’m still working on the Erin shrug pattern and on Arthemis, but I’ve been sort of down and depressed in the last couple of months, and I’ve cut out work on most things that don’t need to be done immediately, so they’ll be slow.  I’m truly almost done with Erin, but I just haven’t found the time to scan in my charts and fix them up.  Sorry – I’m the slowest pattern writer on the planet, I think.  I appreciate your patience with me, though.

Posted in Free Patterns, Knitting, Maude Louise, Miscellany, Self Designed | Leave a Comment »

Quicknits

November 6, 2007

Yeah, yeah, I got clever with the title. You can’t expect better of someone styling herself as a kninja. However pathetic the vague knitting pun, I shall seek it out and abuse it to death, by gum, for that is what a kninja does. Also, assassinations by way of pointy stick. We won’t speak further of those.

The wee-est of my wee ones asked to be Yoda for Halloween. Being a loving mother, I came up with this as quickly as I could. The ears, unfortunately, do not look terribly Yoda-ish when they droop. And it didn’t matter anyway, as, come Halloween, the wee-est decided to be a bear, wearing a costume that belonged to the middle Kninja when he was two.

Luckily, the largest Kninja child took up her slack, and after Mr. Kninja had wired the ears to stand up, Gabriel was transformed into the tallest Yoda ever to stalk the neighborhood. Tall Yoda would be pretty darn scary, I think.

So we were a terrifying brood (Mr. Kninja went as a software pirate, complete with CD eye patch and hook hand, and I was a vampire in solidarity with Liam) and we brought home much sugary sustenance. Also, Mr. Kninja bought way too much candy for the actual number of trick or treaters we received, and now we have giant bags of candy that is only very vaguely appetizing. It’s disappointing to discover just how snobbish and discerning my palette has become when I actually am living the childhood dream of having most of the contents of four giant bags of candy. I have all this candy, and I don’t really want to eat it. I’m sighing right now.

It’s been a rough few weeks, so on the worst day last week, I bought myself some therapy in the form of a skein of Malabrigo worsted. I was intending to make Urchin with it, but I made a number of mistakes on the first wedge. And the thing is, I noticed that I’d made a number of mistakes, but I liked them, and decided that if I went with it and made the same mistakes consistently and repeatedly, they would no longer be mistakes but a design element. So that’s what I did, and I ended up with this cute little round thing that fits Nora perfectly.

And I still have enough yarn left over for an actual Urchin.

While I was at the yarn store, I ended up volunteering to knit a sample for the holiday display, so that was whipped out last week as well. (Say whipped week well five times fast. I dares ya.)

The pattern is Berroco’s Snowflake. The yarn is some kind of wool provided by the yarn shop (sans ball band, and I don’t recognize it). And while I know that it’s a lovely golden color, I cannot get Frank Zappa out of my head. All week, all I can think is, “Watch out where the huskies go/And don’t you eat that yellow snow,” and then I feel bad for spoiling a beautiful holiday ornament with thoughts of urine.

Posted in Finished Projects, Hats, Knitting, Miscellany, Self Designed | 2 Comments »

Success, failure, and feedback

September 16, 2007

The deadline to submit for the winter issue of Knitty has been tossed back to Monday. I had been planning on submitting the Super Secret Project of Mystery, but even with the deadline extension I don’t think I’m going to make it. Most of it is in chart form, and for the life of me, I can’t get Photoshop, Illustrator, or Excel to do what I want. Excel was actually working pretty well for me, but then it turned out that the knitting font I’d downloaded puts a particular cable stitch across two squares when I want it to extend across three, and if I use it I have to put in all these ugly little “no stitch” squares that confuse the issue and make it look like there are holes in the middle of the garment. I wouldn’t be able to follow a chart like that without confusion, and I don’t want to offer a chart like that to other people. I don’t even want to submit a chart like that on the off chance that it would be accepted, because I don’t like the idea of trying to follow it one little bit.

There’s the failure right up front. I really had hoped to have it completed and submitted and in the end, I just don’t think I’m ready for Knitty yet.

The good part is that I wrote down every step of my knitting as I was working on this project. My charts that I’ve drawn out by hand look perfect, and I discovered that sizing up or down is much easier for me when I’m drawing. My visual arts/no math background means that my brain feels oh so much better with a tangible drawn out chart to look at. I can do the math all I want, and I just don’t trust it until I can see what it does. Drawing charts makes that totally possible.

I’ve been looking at people’s wishlists of what they’d like to see in a pattern, and I’m trying to adhere to that this time (and not to focus on what a miserable failure Maude Louise is in comparison to these lists – I will return to Maude in good time, but I’m slow) and I really think this new pattern is going to be easy to follow and flattering to a large number of people.

That part feels good. Now here’s what I need feedback on. If I carefully draw out my charts by hand, ink them, and scan them in, adjust them a little in Photoshop, would you, as a knitter, feel comfortable with that? I haven’t seen any patterns done this way, and admittedly, even my most careful inking won’t be as clean as what a computer can do. I’m planning on offering this pattern for sale, and I want to make sure people get what they pay for. I’d love to release the pattern sooner rather than later, but if a hand drawn chart worries folks, then I will take my time and figure out a way to make the computer produce a clean, elegant pattern with no ugly “no stitch” holes. I think my hand drawn charts are quite readable, but it doesn’t seem to jive with what people think of when they purchase a pattern to me. The advantage I can see to the hand drawn pattern, though, is that I can make it fit the right size for printing while a chart done in Photoshop will be made larger and sized down. Since Photoshop uses pixels rather than vectors to size up and down, any resizing will blur the pattern a little. I’ve had this problem with patterns I’ve purchased and printed out. The charts are fine until I print them and then they become fuzzy.

So think about it, and let me know, either in the comments, or through an email.

I’d also love to get 4-6 test knitters come time to release the pattern, just to make sure that the pattern is as easy to follow as I hope.

With all of this, you’d probably like to see what I’ve been working on, right? Well, several of Mr. Kninja’s coworkers were kind enough to model and photograph the Erin shrug, named for its eventual recipient, and because my foolish brain couldn’t resist the slight pun.

So much fun to work on. Seriously, seriously fun cables, and because the yarn (RYC Soft Tweed) is thick, it was a very fast knit.

Onward! Holiday gifts are being finished right and left. Here’s the modified One Skein Wonder I made for my friend Christine, and the main part of the shrug actually is from one shockingly huge skein.

I got the skein in a swap, and the previous owner wasn’t sure what it was. I’m not sure either, except that it had yardage out the wazoo, and it is made of animal hair, probably merino. I set a short bit of it on fire (Fire! Fire!) to see what it was, because it felt drier and smoother than most wools I’ve worked with and didn’t really feel like acrylic either. The resultant smell of burning hair and crispy Cajun blackened yarn was telling. The edgings are done in the recycled mohair I got at the thrift store, and which I will never run out of. I cannot believe how much of that stuff I have.

The colors are really glorious. I wish I knew what that yarn was, because I love it.

Finally, Twisted Stitches tagged me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger! Woot! Check out her lovely hemp skirt and beautiful snoods – they’re really wonderful. (I really wanted a snood when I was in high school and had hair down to my mid back. It seemed like such a fancy way to keep your hair up.) Thank you, Twisted Stitches!

As far as I can tell, my duty now is to pass this on. Here goes.

* Sarah at Blue Garter – Hers has everything I want from an ideal knitting blog: beautiful pictures of beautiful knitting, eloquent and elegant writing, the twists and turns of learning new things, even two lovely patterns (it may not be on the pattern page yet, but the Axel Mitts are most definitely a pattern) and a kind, responsive writer.

* Fiona at Confessions from the Home Office – I don’t read a lot of generalized blogs. There are so many good ones out there, but I can’t seem to follow most of them with any regularity. This is the one that I do follow, because Fiona’s writing just draws me in, and I love how well she can draw humor out of everyday situations.

* Wazz at Needled – She knits beautifully, she does beautiful crewel work, and her writing is beautiful, too. Check out her book reviews – do! They’re far more thorough than what I’m used to reading, and there’s an unexpected depth that comes of an age when a review is too often, “OMG it was so good!” in a blurb on Amazon.

* Kim at Yarn Abuse – When I started writing this blog, I remember thinking that it would be great if I could write about knitting and manage to be entirely hilarious at the same time. I think I manage to elicit the occasional polite titter, but Kim somehow manages to write an entire blog about knitting that actually makes me guffaw. (This post is still quoted in the Kninja household, by Mr. Kninja no less, and he does not read knitting blogs. Read it, and wander about your home muttering, “It is I who love the so-est!” until you get locked away for being a crazy person.)

* Mary, the Incorrigible Nightowl – I don’t keep up with Mary’s blog as well as I should, considering how much I enjoy her writing. She’s witty, she’s funny, and she knows where the good stuff on the web is to be found. And she has cute kiddos.

So, um, tag!

Posted in Finished Projects, Knitting, Miscellany, Self Designed | 4 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 59 other followers