Stashbuster Scarf and Hat

Mr. Carebear agreed to model the stashbuster scarf and hat even though brown is not his color, but I had to loan him my iPOD shuffle. I got this iPOD for Christmas and it is the cutest darn thing. It holds about 3 CDs worth of music and plugs into the USB port of my computer. Since my son rebuilt my computer as his Christmas gift to me, I now have one right there in the front!

I was obsessing on what I could do with the tan Inca Tops, and then I remembered I have two other brown yarns that have reached antique status, and I thought, well if two wrongs don't make a right, maybe 3 do. I had some Berocco Glace and Dante from way way back, and also threw in a little Reynolds Slique. I thought I had enough tail to cast on the 151 stitches I had in mind, but ended up with only about 115. I think the scarf is a little short. Glace is a rayon ribon, Dante and Slique cotton and viscose. According to the Dress King, viscose is : "The most common type of rayon. It is produced in much greater quantity than cuprammonium rayon, the other commercial type." I figured the alpaca silk would make the hat and scarf warmer. I used size 15 needles for the scarf and 13 for the hat.

Looking at and trying on the finished product I can see what the real problem with the yarn is. It's just not my color. I was probably going through some identity crisis way back when I bought it and thought, okay no black and no blue....and chose brown, since I wasn't ready for green, orange or purple. I still have more yarn left, too. It is hovering every so much closer to the Goodwill bag.

The Final Days of 2005

Broadripple sock number two is a little over half done. I must say, I love the Koigu KPPPM. It is so springy and durable, but then maybe I mentioned that already. This colorway did not stripe much and bring out the patterns chevrons, but I do like it anyway.

Did you every have a yarn that just didn't know what it wanted to be when it grew up? My sister gave me 3 balls of Inca Tops 50% Alpaca silk yarn as it did not sing to her . I tried knitting a scarf when I first got it, and then the fingerless cabled gloves in Holiday Knits. It didn't want to be any of those. The latest effort is Twosheep's helix scarf. This yarn really feels wonderful. It is very soft, but I think it is too drapey to show off the double helix pattern well. I did discover that the K1P1 seed stitch looks nice. Maybe a plain, daintier version of Seaman's scarf is what it wants to be


I ordered some yarn sight unseen to knit Rogue. Scary!


It is a cool, sunny, dry winter so far. The vog is pretty thick somedays. Venus and Mars are putting on quite a show in the sky. It's a good year for avocados and citrus. Guacamole anyone?

Lush Cardiagan, Final Chapter

My sister the intended recipient of Lush Cardigan came, and just as I feared, the sleeves were too narrow. She refers to her arms as baby alligator wrestling arms that are the result of wedging clay and lifting those 75 lbs kiln shelves. She has semi-retired from pottery but the arms remain. It fit her beautiful daughter who swears she can wear it while studying in the cold depths of the law library. She is just about 10 inches taller then my sister and I and quite svelte, so it is almost like a shrug. She declined to have a button, so even better :)

Being sucked in at work sucks rocks and is seriously interfering with my knitting of purple broadripple socks. I had to let down stitches to correct an error and the larger holes left behind are glaring at me. I am trying to convinvce myself that the springy and lovely Koigu KPPPM will even out the pukas (holes in Hawaiian) after washing and blocking. This is a fairly simple lace pattern and I know the stress at work is distracting me. That's my story and I'm sticking it to it.

Cookie Day turned into a 7 hours marathon of sugar, chocolate chips, gingerbread smells and coffee. I'd show pictures but I ate it all, err, I mean I gave it all away.

I really loved the gingerbread recommended by tsogb.

Maybe the last needle case

The next project for me will be the purple Koigu for my purple loving best friend. I know there is a good chance her dog Ebony will find them tasty, but I love Ebony, too. They live in Seatlle near the Troll under the Bridge. I am trying to decide whether to do Ann Budd's Woman's Fancy Rib Socks or Knitty's Broadripple Socks, and am leaning toward the Broadripples.

I finished the needle case for my straight needles and here it is in all it's purple glory. (And yes, and a blue Totoro did join the crowd because the others wanted to be in the picture, too)

The pattern is ginkgo leaves. The Ginkgo appeals to me because of it's fan shaped leaves and the fact that it has survived from prehistoric days. And, it's supposed to be good for the memory and grandma used to put the nuts in her nishime.

Well, enough of purple, except for those socks!

I wonder what candsmon's favorite color is?

Helmet Liner

Cascade 220 was a fun knit, although knitting black is hard on these ole eyes. After I retire I was contemplating either going into bank robbing, as crime pays, or becoming a ninja, 'cuz and I got the hat. Yes, I'm that tired of my current job! It will pass, I hope.

Officially though, I can retire at the end of this year. The only catch is I still need income to pay the mortgage, sigh.

Keohinani, I can come work your store, or what?

The Mailman Cometh

Just as I was beginning to lose hope that my yarn from Knit Happens had been kidnapped, the much stalked mailman came through. I wound all the Cascade 220 into balls, getting a thrill out of watching the yarn swift spin round and round, and admired the 3 balls piled up and rolling around. I started my helmet liner. I have never used Cascade 220 before although I have read about it a lot, and it is very soft and not scratchy at all. It is a fun knit for the me who actually likes mindless stretches, especially with size 6 and 8 needles, cuz I can see it grow before my very eyes and watch movies at the same time. Just don't knit black in the a darkened room without wearing night vision goggles.


My first Koigu also came. It is purple for my purple loving best friend. It is wonderfully soft and lucious. I think I'll just fondle it for a while.

The second skein of another first, my Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock yarn in camoflague, was in the package, too.

While I don't have serious yarn porn like Knittin' Mom's 250+balls (or was it really 503?), what I have is all mine to play with. gna ha ha!

I have cut out my final needle case for the straight needles. I have 3 sets of really long needles, but decided to leave them out and just make it for the 10 inchers.

The last thing the mailman brought was more of these plastic pillows from Amazon.com. I had just managed to reuse or give away most of them, and okay, I admit I popped some and threw them away, and today I got a very huge box of them again. There was gift I ordered for my ex in there, too. Now I have to have guilt about what I do with all of them, sigh. At least the box can be recycled.

While trying to fulfil some of my Christmas list, I stopped by the new Border's at Pearlridge and picked up Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch.

Rolling and Ramblin'

It poured rain for about 30 minutes today, I mean really poured! Then it stopped and this was the beginning of sunset tonight.


I left early today to do some shopping and avoid the crowds. I have mostly unfussy boys to to shop for. I found some shirts...boring;) I also ran into a friend who was ogling the water massage at the mall, so got her a gift certificate. YAY! That thing looked pretty weird to me. The client gets into this humidor face down and and is covered with what appears to be a large garbage bag. Jets of water move up and down, pummeling the poor soul. I hope she enjoys it. I'm not a good judge of these sort of things. I avoided massages for years and since I went for my first one, I'm now hooked. I had had enough shopping by noon, so after a stop at the grocery store went home. Once again I avoided any major housecleaning, although, I did move things from the hall back into the closet.

Thanks to Kimberly and her neat circular case, I got an inspiration for my own circular needles. I figured I needed about 20 pockets, and I would leave out the cat, but was afraid it wouldn't roll. It was also going to be quite large as the pockets had to be deep enough so the circulars wouldn't pop out the side. Well it doesn't quite roll, but I think it has to do with cardboards I slipped in the pockets for identification. I'll try making them smaller.

I decided to go partially pink and use up the pansy fabric from my pansy period.

Magic Loop Toe-Up Socks, Pau! (Pau=done)

The toe-up socks are done! And, they fit. They aren't blocked yet, but I'm so glad they are done. My wonderful Addi turbos are still in one piece although the cable part is a little curly and bent. This technique has been a little hard on it, poor baby. It was nice having only one needle to deal with and the yarn tangling was not really ever an issue. The Fortissimo had an unusual smell, that I got to like eventually. The striping went berserk at the heel, so I had one join, and as the leg progressed, one ball became about half a needle behind. I purposefully made the socks short, as I am short (see how I carefully cropped them out ;) and because of the weather, I don't really ever need longer ones.

The toughest part of this project was the heel. There aren't any holes but there are inconsistencies and one mistake.

Now if that darling mailman would only bring my other skein of Lorna's Laces, Koigu and Cascade 220, I can knit on! I want to try and make a helmet liner with the black Cascade 220. I don't know what sock pattern to try next. And Yikes! I am no where near done with the holiday preparations.

Another Needle Case and Sock, Still in progress

I loved the way the dp needle case came out so I decided to make a crochet hook case. Once again I used some scraps from my purple phase. In the decluttering I have promised to throw away small scraps...really, I have to let go of the idea that I will ever make a postage stamp quilt. I need more immediate gratification then that! But I still have a ton of fabric in my stash.

In imagining this crochet hook case I thought that 3/4 inch would be enough for most of the hooks and I would have two rows. Well it's a tight squeeze. Then I forgot to sew the bottom edge of the top pocket down before sewing on the bottom one. So, I ended up have to shorten the bottom pocket so the hooks wouldn't disappear into the pocket.

So, this crochet hook case may have a twin one of these days. Still have to figure out a plan for the circulars.




The Magic Loops two socks at once are progressing slowly. The heel was a real challenge. I ended up have to frog the heels anyway due to the hole problem discussed everywhere, so I joined the yarn to try and match up the heels. I was kind of cool to have unmatched heels, but I wanted the ankle portion to match a little better.

The short row heel did not come out perfect, but I decided to move on. This project is going ever so slow, and the impatient knitter I am is so praying that Cascade 220 I ordered will come soon.