2ktog

Okay, I'm over it. After I finish this entry I'm going to go rip out my Tivoli. In case you didn't hear, I have now deemed it the

Someone call the Guinness Book.

And now for something completely different...

Disheartened by Tivoli (and knitting in general, to be honest) I turned to my gigantic chest of fiber-related goods and pulled out a felted, recycled sweater, some felting needles, roving and yarn. I have never successfully needle felted anything before now, but then I've always tried to make raw fleece into a three-dimensional form. This time I started with a sleeve of the sweater and some roving and ended up with this:

I finally felt ready to start on the larger canvas, the body of the sweater, which I'm going to turn into a larger tote. The sweater is thrifted J. Crew, the yarn is Brown Sheep and Steadfast Fibers--now that we're all satisfied with our brand names-- (in progress)

Would you die of cuteness if I told you the rug in the background used to be used as a maze for Omar's Lego men when he was a wee lad?
Those spirals are my perpetual doodles. Not that I'm bored in grad school or anything, god forbid.

Finally, some capitalist spoils. We've hit two summer yarn sales recently, WEBS and WIld and Wooly.
At WEBS, I got some Classic Elite Premiere in the color Knitpicks calls rhubarb. This is luscious pima-tencel blend, a combo you should check out if you haven't (the aptly named Cascade Pima Tencel is the equivalent). With it I intend to make this White Lies Filigree Cardigan pattern:

At Wild and Wooly, I got a bag of 12 balls of Debbie Bliss Merino DK in an unforgettable acid green. I hope to make a little cropped cardigan with 3/4 sleeves and some interest in edging or something. I saw a great Debbie Bliss sawtooth edged cardigan in an old Elann newsletter.

The yarn pirates still ride the high seas in search of fiber value! Here they are celebrating our victories:

Captain Blanca shows the boys the real meaning of treasure.

"I know not who this Debbie Biss lass is, but I'll drink to her all the same!"

p.s. Thanks to Laura I figured out that the web site I was looking for last entry was Domiknitrix! I love her Autumn Argyles vest. It's enough to make me want to try sweater vests. Perhaps I should hoard Cotton-Ease for it. :)

Posted by Miz Boots Valentine at 02:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

With the support of my knitting crew, I've decided to knit the Tivoli again. I really love the color/fabric and I think once it fits, the shape will be flattering. Miss Grumperina helped me remeasure tonight and is redoing the "maths" as non-Americans say.
I'm looking for a designer's knitting web page, which possibly had a blog. It has the coolest faux argyle sweater on it, with layering of shapes to create the argyle effect. I think she also had an "elven woodland" pattern or something, a green sweater photographed outside. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I can't believe I didn't bookmark/del.icio.us this.
I'm getting close to finishing the striped sock (did I say that last entry?) and I have been experimenting with needlefelting on a recycled felted thrift store sweater.
Don't you hate it when people say "I'm too lazy to take pictures, sorry?" :X

Posted by Miz Boots Valentine at 01:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I just confirmed with my personal designer (aka Grumperina) that I will have to rip the Tivoli-T out, all the way. My gauge changed from my swatch, and that, along with some other issues, made my try-on session last night the T's final hurrah.
Sometimes I wonder if I was meant to knit adult garmets at all.
I am almost done with stripey sock #1. Needle casualty report: 3 bamboo down. I bought some Skael short short metal sock needles, but they are TOO short, I think.
I also have new large lots of yarn I bought at the WEBS and Wild and Wooly sales to show off. I don't know if I have the heart to talk about more garmet knitting at the moment.
I really like the way the Tivoli looked so I think I will probably reknit it, but I don't know how long it will take.

Posted by Miz Boots Valentine at 05:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

to take one. :)

Posted by Miz Boots Valentine at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, two creels, anyway. Though, officially I am not speaking about one of them. However, the Webbs tent sale provided me with the chance to get back to work on the funky basket stitch pattern-- which turned out to be incredibly addictive.

I suppose it's still a little hard to see it, maybe because I don't take enough care in preparing my photographs, but hopefully it will at least give you an idea. You can also see near the top where it turns into a nifty reverse stockinette (with a messload of decreases before and increases afterwards) so that the front flap will want to fold forward. I thought it was pretty clever. Anyway, there's not much to see, but I've completed the front and back panels:

Really, not all that exciting, but you can click on them for a closer look! Oooh! The real excitement started when I began the cabled strap. As it turns out, we don't have double pointed sixes, so I started out using a five. This turned out to be really irritating, since the circulars would constantly slip out from where they were resting, and I'd have to slip them back into the work. Then, with a quick skim through Grumperina's cabling without a cable needle tutorial (dammit, we're giving her more hits!) I sort of figured out how to do without, and it's been coming along nicely.

Except that... you know... I don't think you can see the stitch pattern in this photo either. Well, this post is turning out to be a hell of a let down. Anyway, I've got about two out of five feet of strap. It's a nice thing to pick up when you want to knit for thirty seconds, but it does sort of lose its charm once you've been cabling for more than ten minutes or so. Still, at this rate, I should be able to assemble it before too long.

Posted by omar at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So here's a quick update since I don't quite have the time to cull all of the photos I've taken of the Irish Creel (which has sort of taken over my head lately). The Tea House Sling bag has reached eight and a half inches! Hurrah!

So, now I have to sort out how to get the pattern from the book drawn onto the bag and how to crochet over it and then sort of wash it clean or something. Um, yeah. Not quite sure how to do that.

Suggestions?

See it here, in all its pale green glory:

(P.S. bonus points if you can tell me who's song title I'm using without looking it up... of course, it's not like I'll ever know.)

Posted by omar at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)