Knitting Pharm

Sock Speak

Despite what a certain blog has been suggesting, I have actually been both busy and knitting.  Lots and lots of socks were produced as the family and I whipped through New England on our yearly road trip.

Marilinda from Cookie A., worked in Opal solid.  Love this pattern.

Another Cookie A. pattern, Monkey, worked with Cat Bordhi's Riverbed architecture.  These ones are in Colinette Jitterbug, slightly beyond ankle length.

Broad Spiral Ribbed socks from More Sensational Knitted Socks.  Done toe-up in Estelle Arequipa.  The second photo shows the patterned heel flap I seem to be stuck on working lately.

A Cat Bordhi/Charlene Schurch hybrid here, Tall Tibetan Coriolis with a Garter Rib leg.  The yarn is from the road trip and is Seacoast Handpainted Panda.  It's a yummy, soft bamboo blend I'm glad I had the sense to buy more than one of.

In not socks, I snatched a ball of Marvel from my mum's stash on the way through to the States and made a super-quick scarf for Jen at work.  (She's been eying Lou's like a ravenous tiger, so this is to keep conflict at bay...)

Just simple garter, 14 sts on the largest needle from the Denise set.  At this gauge and stitch count, the thick and thin pooled into nifty little patches that also gave the scarf a bit of a scalloped edge.  I'm more pleased with it than I should be.

And Jen placed an order for a hat/mitts/scarf set, so I found her some nice Rowanspun and did Le Slouch to test the waters with the yarn.

Late to the game as always, a wonderful gal at Halcyon Yarn led me to Jared's blog and the Hemlock Ring blanket, which I'm working in smaller gauge but larger stitch count.

Not bad for a daft cow, yes?

April's head to toe, by the blog

Dumbass Deb is still playing the working mom, and claims to be too busy to play with me.  (Whoever heard of a charity luncheon as an excuse?  Sheesh.)

Head to toe for April likely contains some unblogged items, but I'll get the daft cow webmistress to catch up as soon as possible.

Socks:

• little Pomatomus for Mikayla
• Upstream Monkeys in Colinette Jitterbug
• Marilinda in Opal solid
• Toe-ups in STR light, Mist colourway

Sweaters:

• Cables and Os!  (Are you tired of that bitch her babbling on about it yet?)
• Little cashmerino pulli for baby Ava

Scarves:

• Lace Ribbons in Fleece Artist merino sock mill end
• Jen's slubby scarf
• Tube scarf in STR, Mudslide and Stormy Weather

Hats:

• Le Slouch in Rowanspun aran

Thanks for the words of support.  I think Deb needs to know where her readers stand on her treatment of me.  Now I'm off to pink-eye her pillow.

The blog, she's pissed

Dear Deb,

This is your blog speaking.  Don't look away.  Don't tell me how busy you are.  Listen up.

You've been a neglectful, cruel keeper of me.  Don't tell me you didn't have time.  There are many small and meaningful ways you could have kept me in the loop.

You could have shared photos of Cameron's knee socks, complete with yet another rant about the Sisu you claim to hate but keep going back to.

 

 

[and your commenters may be too kind to say it, but the pooling on these is fug.]

You could have shared the wee sweater you banged off in a frenzied afternoon when you realized you had a hair appointment and hadn't given your hairdresser a baby gift.

 

You could have bragged about the pretty STR socks (in Mist, lightweight) that you ignored me to finish.

 

But no.  You had to work.  You had to travel.  You're totally cheating on me with Ravelry.  You never stay up late with ME anymore.

You stay up with HER...

 

and tell me that she's important, because she's helping you to destash your sock scraps.  But do people visit her from Google or Bloglines?

And would you really rather spend time with your spindle than with me?  Really?  I know you thought the Kureyon sock was crap, that you were disappointed that you (sock knitting legend in your own mind) couldn't make good on socks with it, despite multiple attempts.  Really, the 2-ply you made with it was pretty good, and helped to balance its twist,

 

and the hat it yielded wasn't so bad.

 

But was it worth it?

And you Pomatomus obsession is getting weird, even for you.

 

But it looks awfully cute scaled down to kid size in Sockina Colori.

But I'm still mad at you.  Even when I see those sumptuous Lace Ribbons, worked in a Fleece Artist mill end.  Steph and Megan are right, this could be the Clapotis of 2008.

 

 

[I could forgive you, if you let me have her.]

NO!  I'm MAD!

But that STR tube scarf, while in an odd colour combo, may just be the perfect winter scarf for your BFF's dad next winter.  I sort of like it.

 

[Mudslide and Stormy Weather in a tube, with the colour change halfway so it's hidden at the back of the neck.  Who'da thunk it?]

In closing, I think you can do better for the both of us.  And your persistent backdating of posts isn't fooling anyone.

With love and frustration and the usual stuff,

Your blog

And the Juno* for best sweater in a cotton blend yarn goes to...

Cables and Os!

*cue music*

Design by Brooke Snow, from the Amy Singer book No Sheep for You.  Yarn and needles by Knitpicks.  Buttons by Mission Falls.  Sleeve caps by Barbara Walker.  Knitted by, and fitted to, me!

Knitpicks Cotlin, Key Lime colourway.  Modifications:  longer body, full length sleeves, buttonhole band and top-down sleeves.

I'm told that the sleeve method I've yoinked from cyberspace can be found in the Barbara Walker book Knitting from the Top and is called the Seamless Set-in Sleeve.  Thanks to Becca for clarifying that for me.

And, just in time, Knitpicks has gone and expanded the colour selection in Cotlin to include some softer shades.  I may just need another one for next winter.  Somebody stop me!

[As if you could.]

* if you're wondering what the heck a Juno is, it's like a Grammy, but more apologetic.  And it says aboot.]

Lucky, lucky baby

I started blogging around the time a very dear friend was preparing for her wedding.  In fact, I believe one of my first blogged projects was her wedding shawl.

Time has a way of passing.

My sweet married couple friends will welcome their first child by month's end.

When my March selection from the Rockin Sock Club arrived, I fell in instant love with the colourway, Lucky.

I loved the accompanying Leafling sock pattern, but the combination of the pattern and the medium weight STR just wasn't doing it for me.  So I did what I'd done with my last skein of mediumweight yarn - a baby raglan!

All this one needs is some four-leaf clover buttons, and it will be fit for a lucky baby...  lucky to have chosen such wonderful parents!

And with the leftovers, a wee cap with the whale-tail Azure pattern and a tied i-cord top.  (Are your teeth aching yet?)

Top of the mornin' to ya, Lucky Baby! 

The Plunge has ended!

The first 52 Pair Plunge has officially ended.

My final tally was 88 pairs, with only one pair in the final month.

Another Plunge will commence on June 1, 2008.  I highly recommend getting involved.

Sign up info is here.

Thanks, eKNITabeth!

Head to Toe for lousy March

For the head:

• 4 unoriginals
• several unblogged
• Urchin and matching scarf
• Azure baby cap

Bags:

• Lauren's diaper tote
• Jessica's purse

For the body:

• Cash Iroha sweater
• Lucky Baby sweater
• Swallowtail shawl

Feet:

• Kelly's purple clogs
• unbloggable socks

Other:

• Jingle Boob

Details on some of the above to follow...

A lovely run through Toronto

For those of you who are familiar with the Toronto area, you will know that overnighting downtown between two days of meetings at the airport hotel makes little sense.  However, when said overnight involves a Wednesday night, all bets are off.

I've been to Knit Night at Lettuce Knit.

My muggle pal, ever obliging and far sweeter than he needs to be, picked me up at rush hour at the end of meeting day 1.  We then headed to Kensington Market so I could gawk and shop and generally revel in the geeky world known as knitting.

Amy was there (let's face it, because I e-bugged her to remind her that I'd be there), as well as a certain returnee from the back woods.  I met blog free by choice Rachel, the infamous Denny, and sweater model and fab knitter in her own right Alexis.  Laura was there, preparing to travel for a very important work event, as was LK's lovely owner Megan, with a most important WIP of her own.  (Hint:  she keeps it hidden under her shirt.)

There was lots of Socks that Rock there.  And beer.  And people to recommend the best Indian reastaurant I've had the pleasure of visiting.  All in all, a pretty awesome evening.

Did I mention my obliging muggle friend took off when I made him squeeze a skein of yarn?

Thank you, GTA crew, for being so welcoming, and for not running for the hills when I recognized you from blogs alone.  I'm freaky that way.

I took no photos, save for the yarn shots upon my return.  Wanna see some?

 

 

 

 

 

Previously, on a very special Lazy Knitter

When last the Lazy Knitter reported, the retained armhole stitches were waiting to become sleeves.  Today I have 2 sleeve caps that each look like this:

[pretty freaking perfect, if you ask me.]

I joined on and worked each stitch (concealing wraps as in Cat Bordhi's latest book) and picking up stitches to a total of 106 (the final stitch count for my size).  I then worked in short rows, starting with 32 centre stitches, increasing one on each row until all stitches had been incorporated.  Now it's just a matter of working in the round to the wrist, reversing the shapings.  I love this method and its effect.

The only change I would have made would be to centre the pattern on the body of the sweater.  It's not written this way, as the intent is for a row of Os in the pattern to serve as buttonholes.  Once I opted to add a button band instead of doing this, having Os on the buttonhole edge became less important.  The knits of half-cable on the edges would have made a cleaner canvas for picking up stitches, but I think I did pretty darned well with the purl background.

Speaking of facings and buttons and all good things, check these out:

I.  Love.  Them.

True to form, once the hardest parts of the sweater were done, I set it aside to work some other projects.  Lots of them.

A felted purse for my niece:

The beginnings of a pair of socks for my nephew:

More clogs, just because they're quick and fun...

And a completed and blocked Swallowtail for a draw prize at an upcoming charity luncheon.  (Click for bigger.)

I'm Toronto-bound in the morning, hoping to do a run-by visit at Lettuce Knit for Knit Night before having a sleepover with a dear, dear friend.  Have a happy hump day!

In the absence of words...

One must sometimes rely upon knitted body parts.

A baby shower gift for my favourite [barely newlywed anymore] couple.

Cashmerino?  Check.  Little bell in the nipple?  You got it.  Good accessory gift to accompany a breast pump?

Yep.  I just wonder if the thank you note will contain the words "Jingle Boob".