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December 31, 2005
Crotchety crochet 2005
As I'm waiting for Omar to finish some work so we can begin our New Year's Northern Exposure Season 3 marathon, I figured I should post the holiday FOs. Guess what? They are all crochet! I wrote some IOUs for knitted gifts, but here's what got completed.
Amigurumi style versions of our friends Devin and Diane. They were so, so happy with them and gave me lots of hugs and said they were the best gifts ever and that they were going to have to put up a special shelf for them in their apartment. That kind of reception makes all the lukewarm ones worth it. .
Here's a panty close-up of lil' Diane's little felt knickers. You know what single crochet six into one stitch looks like? It's downright dirty. 
This hasn't been sent yet, but I am making snowpeople for my grandparents. MiMi loves this one! I'm hoping that snowpeople are general wintery enough that getting one in January won't seem lame and outmoded. Notice how much whiter Mimsy is than the snowlady. Does anyone know of a good pure white wool?
I found this scarf at a thrift store. I pulled out some nasty felted (acrylic can felt?) fringe and added a Noro Kureyon 102 ruffle. I have to fix some of the intarsia (I'm just doing it with sewing thread) and then I'm going to sew lots of sparkly beads on it and pretend that I live in a Lisa Frank world of rainbows and unicorns.
While I am bombarding you with pictures, how about some gift shots? The best gift came from my future sibs-in-law, engineered I'm sure by my future SIL, who is a fabulous knitter. She got me the pattern and yarn for the Modular Shell Backpack, which was designed by her friend. I saw hers last year in shades of blue and green and was entranced! However, look how perfect the colors are for me:
I think the real brilliance of the color choices is the dark color, which is a lovely chocolate brown. Most people would automatically pick black with all the brights, but this is so much richer.
Omar can't come to the phone at the moment. He doesn't have any new FOs to show, but how about the garter stitch entrelac scarf he is making with the Silk Garden I got him for our anniversary? Here's a peek:
Look for more Noro, entrelac, amigurumi, kitten photos and love in 2006 on 2ktog!
Posted by Betsy at 10:16 PM | Comments (4)
December 23, 2005
Orange sky
Posted by Betsy at 01:30 PM | Comments (3)
December 13, 2005
Entrelac Neckwarmer
I cannot for the life of me remember this shade of Silk Garden (Michelle?) but it is gorgeous, I love the jewel tones. They are not quite what I would normally pick for myself, but what a pleasant surprise!
I adapted the Lady Eleanor entrelac instructions from Scarf Style to make this piece. It used about 1 and 1/3 skeins of Silk Garden, which is 90 M/skein. The new skein was joined right below the button (those two green diamonds).
The vintage button is another gift from my mom, it probably belonged to one of her grandmothers. I adore it!
Here's my sick-girl-in-bathroom-mirror modeling shot.
and as a bonus: an accidental macro of my freckles!
Speaking of skin and yarn, I wasn't sure I would be able to tolerate the Silk Garden right next to my face, but I have grown okay with it. I have Kureyon scarves that I'm okay with (they do soften over time) but the mohair in this seemed almost like too much. But like my mother used to say when she was combing the snarls out of my uberthick hair, "Beauty takes pain."
Posted by Betsy at 02:35 PM | Comments (6)
Space Peep
Here is my second finished crochet object ever (barring a few flowers): a space peep based on Roxycraft's rockin' Ramona Peep pattern.
I am loving the 3-D prospects of crochet! I have started doing snowpeeps for my grandparents for the holidays.
Posted by Betsy at 01:54 PM | Comments (4)
December 10, 2005
Pumpkin Blast!
Over a year ago, I started knitting a sweater using this pattern, Melon Blast from Knitter's Spring 2004. I decided to lengthen the sleeves and leave them as wide straight sleeves, and eliminate the stitch pattern. I finished two sleeves that languished in my UFO bag for 8 months or so.
Then one day a few months ago I realized that finishing this sweater was the closest path I had to having a completed garment. The body of the sweater is knit in one piece, and so it required casting on a bajillion stitches. I first put it onto denise cords, but the yarn, Classic Elite Zelda, had other ideas. This WEBS closeout bargain was wound on cones, and had a fiber content of 70% wool, 30% linen (which accounts for its slight heathered appearance.) It is a vastly thick and thin yarn, ranging from sport weight to bulky within the same yard. On the Denises, the thin sections were slippy and hard to knit, and the linen in the thick sections caught on the joins. So once I got some suitable Addis, I was in business. I called on Kathy and Omar for the math required to make it into a wrap sweater. Thanks guys! A girl couldn't ask for better knitting group cronies. Now I present, Pumpkin Blast! It looks barely recognizable from the Knitter's pattern. 
Here is a detail of the vintage button my mom sent me, that really makes this sweater! There will be more vintage button goodness very soon.
The modeling shots will have to be posted later (think how look it took me to post a Clapotis modeling shot) because I am still recovering.
Posted by Betsy at 12:26 PM | Comments (6)
December 06, 2005
Lame excuses
This is one of those posts where I wave away any questioning looks with vague excuses for my lack of blog-presence.
Now, let it be known that Omar is just lazy, he has fine progress on Via Diagonale and moreso on his garter entrelac scarf, and he's an able-bodied young lad who is going to go out soon to get his ailing darling Trader Joe's Hot and Sour Soup and cinnamon pita chips. So remember, he's a good man, just not a good blogger.
The ailing darling feels almost too crappy to be called darling (although my hair is doing very endearing rumpled orphan-waif spikes). I've had a lingering cold that has lately manifested in unstoppable ear aches and canker sores.
But, dear reader, do not that I have forsaken the wonderful world of fiber all together. Nay, I have actually completed my second adult-sized sweater for moi, which I like much, much better than the first (*spit* Kyoto *spit*). Not only that, but my own traditional stockinette entrelac neckwarmer is done, has debuted at knitting group, and both are finished with fetching vintage buttons.
But really, despite my desire to a. Prove that I did entrelac before the hot guy's design on Knitty made entrelac cool and b. photograph my new orange wrap sweater -- I feel like crap. I don't know where our camera is. I don't want to document my chapped lips and sunken eyes.
So you're just going to have to wait. I know this is very hard for all of you, since there are so few knitting blogs to sate your desire for vicarious yarngasms.
December is for Christmas projects. I am going to make my mother a seaman's cap in Malabrigo, and my father some rugged man fingerless gloves out of Omar's leftover Donegal Tweed from the Irish Creel. I will be using the i-cord finger technique to avoid a repeat of last year's hell involving size 2s and Dale Baby Ull in charcoal.
Not only that, but I am very excited to be doing some crochet amigurumi dolls from Roxycraft's brilliant patterns. I am finally starting to "get" crochet and I am glad that I am open to both crafts, as I think they are great compliments to each other. I really like the sculptural effects you can create with crochet. Plus I finally realized that I had been trying to crochet with cotton and acrylic for so long--when I finally used wool I was pleasantly surprised at how much more even and firm my stitches were.
Posted by Betsy at 08:38 PM | Comments (2)