Fake Isle Hat

Pattern: Fake Isle Hat by Amy King
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted (assorted colors) and Knitaly
Needles: US7 Crystal Palace Circulars
Notes: A fast, fun project and a good stashbuster. Next time I would knit the ribbing on smaller needles and/or fewer stitches.

When You're Good to Mama

I'm still deep in a Dulaan kick. I finished teaching my class which means I can finally finish the Baby Surprise Jacket I started the first week of May. I sewed it up and wove in all the ends. Now I need to find my button box and sew on some buttons. I also started a Fake Isle hat with a bunch of odds and ends of Lamb's Pride Worsted and a skein of Knitaly I got at a Dulaan Knit In.

I had a goal in mind of finishing my hexagon quilt top (or at least finishing sewing the strips then sewing the strips together by the end of Sunday night. Instead Wes and I decide to start attacking the blackberry forest that is our yard. Have you ever gotten smacked in the face with a blackberry cane? I don't recommend it. It still stings. After all the chopping, hacking and pulling (only a few square feet cleared) my arms were so weak I couldn't sew. My hands were shaking so violently I couldn't hold the pieces of fabric.

Last night I cut out of Purlygirls early for a night of Cineoke. It was an amazing night. By all accounts it was the greatest night in Cineoke history. We had guitar playing, Bollywood dancing, a Little Mermaid in full costume with props, Neil Diamond ("Today!"), A Chorus Line, Grease 2. Awesome. I sang "When You're Good to Mama" from Chicago and dedicated it to Paris Hilton. I also got to sing "Les Poissons" from The Little Mermaid which was incredibly fun because the whole audience was singing it with me. Wes brought two co-workers. One did the most heartfelt rendition of "Something's Coming" from West Side Story ever. The other did " All I Do is Dream of You" from Singin' In the Rain with full choreography. We all had a great time. If you're in Seattle and free on July 9th, I highly recommend checking out Cineoke. And it benefits the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Comfy Socks

Pattern: Comfy Socks
Yarn: Ara from Dale of Norway
Needles: US11s
Notes: These are super-fast socks to knit. They are very thick and warm. I knit these in the largest size for the Dulaan Project. I'm modeling them with another pair of socks underneath.

Sock's Up

After a week or so with no socks on the needles I cast on for the Welsh Country Socks from Folk Socks.



I'm using some Knitpicks Essential from my stash and can I just say that so far I am unimpressed. Or rather, you get what you pay for.

I knew I was going to see Surf's Up on Saturday with my older son (younger didn't want to go) and that I wouldn't be able to knit the patterning or calf shaping from the Welsh Socks in the dark. I needed a simple knit. In one of those perfect convergence moments I got an email from Knitting Daily with survey results on why no one was knitting the socks from their free Comfy Socks pattern. The reason was mainly that the socks are super-thick. They're knit in bulky yarn at 3 sts/inch. I knew these would be great for Dulaan. I've been feeling a little guilty that I haven't been knitting more for adults. Kids' knits are so much faster, easier and cuter to knit. I also had several skeins of Dale of Norway Ara sitting unloved and abandoned in my stash. So I knew what I would knit at the movies. I cast on the first sock on Friday night. I knit the leg during the movie. But the sock went so quickly I was at the heel before the movie ended. I pulled the first sock right off the needles (got to love wool for all its stickiness) and I cast on the second sock in the dark. I was able to knit most of the second leg during the movie too. I didn't quite finish them at home last night so I took them out with me today. They are thick, plush and incredibly warm. I hope they find a happy owner in Mongolia.

The movie, by the way, was really very cute. It's done as a mockumentary about a famous surfing penguin. There's a lot of good business in there referencing reality shows and documentaries. I was glad my older son and I had started to watch March of the Penguins the night before. If you're kids are interested in going to this one you will be pleasantly amused for 85 minutes.

I also finished watching The Lost Room. Like my previous experiment with Battlestar Gallactica, I was trying to stretch myself a little. I really like Peter Krause, from Six Feet Under. But this thing was so low-rent I could not believe. And they didn't even attempt to make anything pull together, make any sense or resolve in any way. Terrible writing, terrible effects and frankly the actors looked like they had to do their own make-up.

Baby Leggings

Pattern: Baby Leggings from The Opinionated Knitter
Yarn: Peruvian Highland Wool
Needles: US7 Addi Turbos
Notes:
Ugh. So you know how I was so tickled by the extra tush space knit into these leggings using short rows? Apparently that wasn't on my mind when I started the calf decreases, which I started on the front of the legs. Which I didn't notice until I had completed both feet and woven in all my ends. So now these will be the perfect leggings for a small child with a big belly and no butt. I knit the bootee foot option instead of the sock foot.
Thanks to Sarah who came through with the extra skein of Allspice to knit the feet.

Got My Dulaan Mojo

In anticipation of Saturday's Dulaan-a-Thaan I had starting knitting hats again for the Dulaan Project. Friday night and Saturday during the day I knit these.



The one on the left is Lamb's Pride Bulky held together with some mystery boucle and the one on the right is Rowan Big Wool. This is still all the odds and ends that a customer gave to me. I also cast on another hat at lunch with three strands of Cascade 220 (also from the same customer--Thanks Amy!).

I arrived ridiculously early. Ryan had cautioned about the limited parking. I got to the shop at 4:45. The event started at 6. I felt like a dork. It gave me time to keep working on my hat and prepare my yarn. I planned to knit an entire sweater before I left.



By 6 Ryan and TMK had arrived. I started my sweater. Slowly knitters came. All of them had food and armloads of hats and sweaters to donate. We knit. We ate. We talked. We laughed.

Around 10ish my knitting looked like this.



More knitting, talking, eating and laughing. Fatigue started to set in a bit. There was a certain air of giddiness. We all got the giggles. After 1 am our numbers were thinning.

Finally at 3:30 I finished the sweater.



I stuck around until a little after 4 am to finish my hat.



We collected 100 items for Dulaan.

I headed home. The wrong way on I-5. I turned around and actually headed home. I was thwarted by an endless repaving project that had all the streets leading to my house blocked. I finally found my way to my house. The sun was coming up. I collapsed into bed and surprisingly lay awake for a while thinking about what I would knit next for Dulaan.

Dulaan-a-Thaan 2007

I'm groggy and barely coherent. You can see a bit of what I was doing yesterday from 6 pm to 4:20 am. here. I did manage to take a few pictures. More...zzzzz...later...

Brunch With Elizabeth

Saturday I taught my first class on Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket. After class I found myself alone and completely free of commitments. Wes and the boys were away. So I took myself to brunch and brought my newly started BSJ with me to work on. While I knit and ate (not at the same time) I flipped through The Opinionated Knitter and just fell in love with everything in it. I want to make all the patterns. Twice.


BSJ in Fleece Artist Sea Wool

Fast forward to last night. I wanted something simple and mindless to knit. I had just finished a plain hat in Cascade 220 for Dulaan on Saturday. I cast on for another plain hat in Rowan Big Wool scraps a customer gave to me to use for charity knitting. I cast on just after dinner and cast off before I put the kids in bed. Now that's satisfying knitting!



The super-fast Big Wool hat got me thinking about another big hat, the Spiral Hat, from The Opinionated Knitter. As I thought of this I turned my head and saw my bag of Avalanche yarn from Ryan. Of course. So I cast on. And knit. And knit. Wes came in told me he was going to bed. Uh huh. Knit. Knit. Knit. Finished! It was 1:30! Crap!

It's awesomely funky though and so much fun to knit.



I've already cast on for another.

Dulaan and On

Signs of Springtime

Janine graciously hosted a Dulaan Project knit-in at her house yesterday. It was a cozy afternoon of knitting, laughing and stuffing our faces. Between the brownies, the cream puffs, the chocolate tofu pie and warm bagels, I barely had room for the curried almonds, homemade cheese crackers or any of the other wonderful things people brought.

I finished my 18th Dulaan item for this year while there.




A simple hat knit in donated plain white wool. I keep one of these hats--no pattern required--on the needles and in my car at all times. I knit on them while waiting for the kids at school, at the orthodontist's office, sitting at lunch, whenever. Apparently I do a lot of waiting.






There were 83 items dropped off in all.

I cast on for my next hat. I'm going to kill two birds with one stone. It's a swatch cap for Am Kamin. Remember Am Kamin? Back in those heady days when we all thought we could tackle this mystifying pattern in Japanese? Well, I'm going to give it a try.





This is Cascade 220. I wanted to try a k1, p1 tubular cast on. Surprisingly no one knew how to do this off hand but Janine looked it up online for me. It's so nifty and easy to do. I'm still working on the ribbing.

When I got home I knit more on Poppy while watching Holiday with Wes. (Oh, Cary Grant. Oh, Katharine Hepburn. You slay me.) The upper back is just a few rows short of being done. It practically looks like a sweater already. But then I remember, "Oh, right. Sleeves."

Thank you everyone for a great afternoon!

How Can You Argue With This?

Last night I started processing the prepped locks with my English combs. It's heaven. I didn't get very much done though because I was feeling very tired. When I accidentally scraped my hand across one of the combs (did not break the skin or draw blood) I realized that it's a job for someone fully awake. I did just get my tetanus shot updated recently, just in case.

Instead I finished a little ribbed Dulaan hat made from some leftover Cascade 220.

Fleece With Photos

A good sign.


Her name is Rose. It was meant to be. I love the crimp and color variations.


I finished up another quick Dulaan hat last night.

I also steeked Retro Prep and picked up for the edging. I'm not sure I like the way it looks in ribbing. I might rip it out and do garter stitch. No picutres of that. Sorry.

Long Weekend Wrap Up

Here is the first Estonian sock and evidence of just how little yarn I had left when I finished. I have started the second sock and am just at the beginning of the colorwork.



I knit these two Dulaan hats on Friday and Saturday. The all turquoise one was knit while seeing Little Children (Whoa! IMDB changed their format. A lot. Since yesterday.). What an excellent film. Todd Fields is an amazingly talented director. Then last night I knit another turquoise hat (no photo) while at karaoke with Wes, his co-worker and a group of her friends. If you want to get some strange looks pull your knitting out at karaoke. Everyone who spoke to me about it said the exact same thing. "You must be bored." I tried to explain but they just thought I was some kooky knitting lady. But I showed them when I rocked the mic with my awesome version of Wheatus's Teenage Dirtbag.