Can you keep a secret?

Well, I'm working away on a variation on the Knitty apron featured in the Spring '04 issue, "Party Apron," by Jordana Paige. I'm making it for DD3 who turns 15 on 9/3, and who is a strange combination of Betty Crocker, Martha Stewart, and Courtney Love. And it's a GOOD combination.

I'm using solid aqua Plymouth Fantasy Naturale, and for the frou-frou trim I chose Fur Real in peacock. I intend to use the trim for embroidering along the vertical lines of the lower apron, as well as on the straps that tie at tie neck. I may also put it along the edges of the bib portion. I want it to be really over the top, as that captures Sophi's personality perfectly. Will post finished pix, but right now I have the pedal to the metal for the opening of school, and am only knitting when I can get away with it because I have to be at a meeting or presentation. But that works for me!

PS I got a great t-shirt from Stitch Divas that has a spoof of the iPod ad campaign, with a woman holding up her knitting needles and yarn, in silhouette, and the words "iKnit" and "Modern Yarn" on the edges. I love it!

Finito! Sweater and a hat

And for something completely different, I also had this on the needles:



The black is very soft--I think it was Rowan, but it was bought some time ago. The stripes are done with my Noro Iro from the Tahoe trip, and the color change over time was quite interesting. Note I am backing off my previous refusal to do anything like fringe, pompoms or tassels. What next? Never say never!



Lastly, I started something last night that is making my hands ache because it's cotton. It's really true what they say. So I do as many rows as I can stand and then take a break, but then I start up again because it's coming together and it's cool. What is it, you ask? Can't tell. Top secret. Wait a few weeks and I'll have one of the DDs model it. :)

The Luisa Sweater is comin' togethuh

Here it is, the sweater I have worked and reworked, frogged and reknit, despaired over and kept trying with, The Luisa Sweater! I had to make changes in my original freeform pattern (seriously, what IS a novice knitter doing making up a pattern??), changes I fully "got" only after completing the body. So after trying to talk myself into half-assing it, I frogged it and started all again.

Now, I've blocked it and it is going together this afternoon!

Did I mention that this yarn (Patons Rumor) is about 85% acrylic and 15% alpaca? Well, that alpaca was going to be its saving grace, but having knitted with it and frogged it for about a week now, I may never get all the alpaca fuzz out of my nose and off my clothes. Not to mention that frogging something that "sticky" is sometimes a real trial. But I did it, and I am really glad. Finished sweater pics tomorrow.

In other news . . . I refelted one of the two bowls I made earlier this week, so that it would have a flatter base and be more compact. I like it better now. Going to embellish it a bit too with some buttons.



There's a sale on at my LYS, Full Thread Ahead! Time to start courting my fellow drivers to take me up there, since I can't drive with this foot until the end of the month.

Happy Knitting!

I'm FFFFFFELLLLLTING!

And no, I am not the Wicked Witch of the Wooly. I have done two bowls so far and here's a "before" shot of one of them:





Here they are getting thoroughly dried out:








And here we have the finished products.


DD3 tried to turn the larger flatter one into her own personal fez, but I protested and she desisted.

Time to bring down the volume

[big sigh] I have posted some items on Destash It that you might be interested in. I need to rotate the stock, to out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new. You can see what's for sale or trade at http://destash.blogspot.com.

Y'all come back now, y'hear?

Stacie's making a sweater! And you thought it would never happen!

Courage seems to sneak up on me as I knit more and more, learn more and more, and get better at the simple things. And then I found this amazing yarn by Patons called "Rumor," which is 85% acrylic but 15% alpaca, and this color, which is "Spanish Heather." It makes me nervous that I don't find it on the Internet at all, even at Yarndex.com, so I don't know if it's extremely new or the last of something pretty old and discontinued (got it at Michael's though, not known for slow turnover of the merch).

I'm using the concept of a child's sweater that I saw on fabulousyarns.com (they give good yarn, in case you are thinking of making a purchase--go for it!) but altered a bit. So it's one rectangular piece front and back, with bind off and cast on around the neck area, and then a funnel neck (I'm doing mine in 2x2 rib) and two small raglan sleeves. Boxy. I do have a few concerns so far--it's knitting up a bit heavy so I don't know if my four-year-old friend Luisa is going to feel a strange weight on her shoulders when/if she wears it. But it's coming together and I am going for broke.

Would love to hear your comments, as Flavio would say. :^) BTW, check out his variegated cable scarf! He's convinced me that cables are NOT only for single shade yarn. What was I thinking?! It's flippin' beautiful, Flavio!

my own design--Two Moods Pillow

Remember these gift skeins from my OS Secret Pal? Well, SP, I kinda cheated and used one of them for HALF of a project. I decided to make a pillow with two very different sides, one smooth and soft as the proverbial baby tush (Ksar by Bouton D'Or, camel and wool), the other more playful and cheery. I call it . . . drumroll, please . . . the Two Moods Pillow. Turn it over to the side you feel more attracted to at the moment. Rest your cheek on its softer side and take a little "Ksar" nap, or put it "Bollicine"
side up and make a decor statement.



I struggled with how to stuff it, and the downside of the inexperienced using batting and/or stuffing is: lumpy and misshapen. So I consulted with the wise and more experienced knitters on my message board, and got a few better directions to head in. And then, last night, I realized that this pillow is the size of some travel pillows we have had for some time, which the girlies once used on sleepovers, or when camping. Ding ding ding! One of them fits perfectly (and, as a bonus, does not have lovely green striped ticking showing through the knitted material). So now I am going to take it to a seamstress with some other projects (e.g. my daughter has a dress that needs to be taken in a bit), have her put a zipper in it, and it will be a FO!

Thanks again, Secret Pal!

Specs: If you're interested, I'll put them up separately.

I'm a winner!

I recently mentioned donating some of my stash items to a program for women in rehab, and part of it was a contest that I actually won! Dude! I'm speechless. Thanks, Mel and happy birthday too. :^)

As I linked before, you should see the things the women in this program are knitting. Check out their blog, and even though the contest is over, you could still send them donations. See the blog for info about that.

Now an admission. You know how you get a newsletter from your local group and immediately leaf through it to see if any of the pictures have you in them? Or remember how you used to get your yearbook at school in June and, first thing, hunt for your picture (or, for those lucky popular people, of whom I was never one, pictureS). Come on, I know I'm not the only one. It's a well documented fact, like walking down a city street and checking your hair in the window reflections!

Well, I went to the Interim House site several times in the past six weeks to see what they were knitting (great stuff), with a secret hope that I would recognize some yarn I'd donated being used. :^) And it happened! That is so cool. And the knitter used the yarn so niftily too. It's a black scarf (not my donation) with a multicolored bobbly yarn ("mine") mixed in. Whoever wears that is going to get some compliments.

Oh happy day. Thanks again, Melissa. Gotta go tell DH the good news.

PS I'm knitting something I'm really excited about, gotta post pix later.

Previous quotes

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world."
--Mahatma Gandhi

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
--Steven Weinberg

Did you know the word KNIT appears 38 times in the works of Shakespeare? Here are some--
http://www.elizabethklett.com/shakespearequotes.html

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." --Mark Twain

Scarves--finished, fringed, and felted

Percy always so happily models for me. I think he feels that this newly felted scarf hides a thousand sins. (He weighs 23 lbs. at last count and seems to mysteriously locate and consume food we aren't feeding him.) This was a seed stitch scarf I made last winter, using LambsPride and carrying a strand of Rowan Kid Silk mohair. I set myself too great a challenge because it showed all the stitch flubs. So I decided to continue my experiments with felting. It needs a bit of a trim, no? but I think it will make a nice accent to a sweater or blouse this winter.


Then I finished the Cascade Pastaza scarf last night and decided to take one of the DDs up on her suggestion that "it really needs fringe." If you know me, you know that I have a thing against fringe, though I recently made that horizontal scarf with edges because that was part of the pattern--leave a long tail for the cast on and then leave one at the end of that row; switch to a new yarn. Anyway, it was not hard (why do I think everything is going to be hard???) and turned out nicely [whistles "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat," five months ahead!]

In other news, I have not forgotten my obsession with the fruit salad bag. I just need wheels and a willing driver. Maybe I can talk DD1 or DD2 into going to the knitting store because they do like knitting, and maybe they'd be interested in starting another project. I don't know. DD2 is just working on a Harry Potter scarf (color blocks in Gryffindor colors, a great first real project, now that she's got it down). She only has eyes for Harry (or should I say Cedric? eeew, he's dead!). DD1 is more interested probably but will get to work tomorrow a.m. at 4:30 to open (she works at Peet's a coffee place like . . . dare I utter the word in the same sentence with her name? . . . Starbuck's. So she'll be toast when she gets home. DH is working 24/7 and will not want to drive his DW to the yarn shop.

Ah well, time to get a few other things going.

Did I forget about the cable scarf??? I think I conveniently did! It's just a bit discouraging because I seem to make too many errors, and though I'm far better at frogging than I used to be, I still find it harrowing to take the needles out, rip stitches, and then try to get all those stitches back on the needle properly.

(I accidentally typed "flogging" instead of "frogging" just now, a true Freudian slip. Even though the Irish Hiking Scarf is so pretty, sometimes it feels like I'm flogging away at it. Reminds me of a funny true experience: several years ago, in Camden, Maine on vacation, we were in traffic and saw ahead of us a big truck for "Al's Logging Supplies" (go figure what that means). Fortunately, it had been creatively "tagged" with some additions, to read: "Weird Al's Flogging Supplies." My travel companions and I chortled through the rest of that traffic jam!

I have no shame--more stash!

Here is the latest stash acquisition, from Scout's Swag. You simply have to see what this fiber artist creates, and then ask yourself an all-important question: "What could I make with [whichever turns out to be your favorite yarn]?"

Then, see how well your best-laid stash dieting plans hold up. Mwah-ha-ha! You must be wondering, "Is she the angel on my shoulder or the DEVIL?" I think we know the answer.

Tra-la. It's going to start winging its way to my home very soon! Could it be in some way connected to a birthday giftie? or Christmas perhaps? Tune in again for the next episode of Stacie's Adventures.

I created a slide show! Check it out!

What type of knitting needles are YOU?

What kind of knitting needles are you?

You are interchangeable.Fun, free, and into everything, you've got every eventuality covered and every opportunity just has to be taken. Every fiber is wonderful, and every day is a new beginning. You are good at so many things, it's amazing, but you can easily lose your place and forget to show up. They have row counters for people like you!
Take this quiz!








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Did I forget to mention

I made this while on vacation--it's a scrap scarf in horizontal form. I found this approach great in some ways, and I loved being able to choose the colors to go into it. However, leaving long tails on each end (each row is a different strand of yarn) meant that I sometimes unknowingly picked up an end and knitted with it instead of the real yarn I should have been holding, so I messed up majorly in ways that were hard to fix later. That will probably be obvious in a few spots.

Also, one side pulled tight for some reason I'm not aware of, and thus it doesn't hang straight. That would be fine since it's meant to drape around a neck, but it makes it a little puckery. Gee, I suppose I could run it down more, but I will just move on.

I also did a quick hat on circulars with that same blue wool I used for a 1x1 rib scarf. This hat is hiding 1/3 more of itself, and so I either misjudged or didn't finish the top well enough--it could easily cover the head of the BFG. But I do feel that I managed that mini stripe pattern well!

I just keep knitting!

I've been working again today. More progress on the twin rib scarf than on the cable scarf, but that is no surprise since I mess up more easily on the IHS and hate to frog it and do it again. Today, I saw something on Grumperina's blog that is so cool. It's how to do cabling without needing a cable needle or DPN. Wonder where she learned this trick! I am going to try it and see how it goes, but just reading it made sense, and for me, when it comes to knitting, that is a minor miracle.

In the meantime, I got a thumbs-up from the doc today, one week out, who said that the healing is going great and that my allergic reaction is definitely subsiding. (I could have told him that because today I wasn't tempted more than twice to shred my lower leg with my nails. Also I haven't had to resort to the groggy-pills to deal with that. God, what did people do with allergies before the 90s??)

I ordered a heap of yarn from Herrschner's today because they gave me free shipping and had a great selection of sale yarns: some burgundy Noro Sumile (not a wool, but a cotton/silk chenille), Paton's Katrina (which I got in a powder blue, yum, so I can bravely forge on ahead in the knitterly world and make myself a tank), and some other odds and ends that will make great hats and scarves. I think the free shipping came because I signed on for their regular emails about sales etc. (AKA "spam," let's be honest), and the minimum order was $25, but hey, that's not hard to do when you're a champeen yarn-stash enhancer like myself.