the balance is chasing after

Finally, finally I knit a flower for these leaves! I knitted them so long ago...a year ago tomorrow, in fact, judging by the dates on the photographs.

They worked really well as embellishments for a gift...attached to a safety pin, this could be re-used, worn on a coat or something. My responsibility for this object's creative use ended after the gift was wrapped!


And of course, a button! They make everything better. I'm pretty sure my button obsession is getting out of hand, but they're inexpensive, quirky ways to make things look really cute. I'm still regretting the jar of buttons I left at a rummage sale years ago. NEVER pass up an opportunity to expand your button collection!

carried to ohio in a swarm of bees

I don't normally shoot in black and white, but the colors outside were so vivid they overwhelmed my humble camera. The yarn is a beautiful color itself, but isn't yet an interesting knitted object. So...mystery and intrigue, you ask? I'm not sure that this post really constitutes mystery OR intrigue, but it's a surprise project that I can't write about in too much detail. Yet.



See? Bright! This yarn is Rialto, made by Debbie Bliss. It has since been re-labeled as Rialto DK vs. Rialto Aran, so watch your labels if you're buying it...the stitch gauge will steer you in the right direction. 22 st/4 in = DK, 18 st/4 in = aran. It's really pretty nice yarn, easy to work with and knits up well, it's just expensive...$8.95 for 100 yards! (And that's the DK weight, aran has less yardage for the same price.) It's almost exactly the same as Pure Merino by Berroco or Aurora 8 by Karabella. The yarn tends to split a tiny bit, so you have to keep your eye on it once in a while. Another plus: it's superwash, which means you can wash it in the machine without it felting. No dryer (it is wool, after all)!



I promise to become less elusive later...but I bought this yarn shopping yesterday and couldn't wait to knit with it!

when you mend the patches of my clothing

Surprise! (Pretend to be.) More socks! These, however, present a new and fascinating problem...one has a hole worn through the heel! How to fix it more successfully (and more attractively) than this?

The answer was provided to me completely by chance. Like most knitting projects I'm ashamed of, I had tossed these into a closet. I didn't want to ruin them by with a half-assed repair attempt, so instead I ignored them. (Sounds familiar, I know.)

Knitting Daily rescued me! This is the first time I can say this- they send out (as implied by the name) daily knitting emails that are mostly obnoxious. I usually delete all of them while wondering WHY I signed up in the first place, but as my mouse hovered over the "delete" button, I realized this article could actually help!

I would link to the article here, but you have to sign up for Knitting Daily to see it. If you don't mind a gazillion new emails every day, by all means do so...otherwise, it's pretty easy to do without reading it. First, gather a darning needle, yarn, the item to be repaired, and something round-ish to stuff in the sock. I read about light bulbs, oranges, fancy darning eggs, real eggs...you know, anything vaguely round. I used a tennis ball from my well-loved Velcro Ball set.

So you stuff the roundish object in the sock, then sew (it doesn't have to be great, it's just an anchor) a square around the area to be repaired. Think of roping off a crime scene, you know? Then you're going to create a loom- didn't we all learn to weave in grade school?- by sewing across your crime scene to create vertical bars. Crime = jail time. Make sense?

Now weave back and forth through your bars to create a basket/rug/potholder sort of look. Make sure you alternate going under/over the bars (so says the article), but I think if you say "weave" most people would get it. I'm sorry if I'm wrong in assuming this. Think of this as Martha Stewart Goes to Jail, now you're crafting behind bars.

And ta-dah! Sock fixed. Now I can stop going home to see my Dad and evading his questions about these socks. Lesson: don't be afraid of wearing your socks or wearing THROUGH your socks...it's easy to repair. Really, really easy!

Of note: this is Smooshy sock yarn made by Dream in Color. The color is absolutely gorgeous...a blend of blues and blacks. The yarn was lovely to knit with, too! It's a little pricey, but totally worth it. If I find it again, I'm going to have to stash another skein away...

we're just kids on the run

CAFFEINE + NEW YARN + NEW BOOK = KNITTING IDEAS!

(Think alternating knit rows on big needles for a light, airy, mohair-y, alpaca-y scarf.)

so what so what so what's the scenario

You're probably wondering "hey, what the hell, you said this blog was BACK, now you disappear for another two weeks?" OK, you know, I don't blame you. But let me say that I found a couple really creative excuses.

Last Sunday I spent an entire day writing about Ludwig van Beethoven and the Prometheus Ballet. See, you're already bored! Naturally I was not going to share that with you.

Then this week got really busy and I didn't knit anything...so I didn't have anything to share (and besides, was really sad because I wasn't knitting anyway).

But to top it all off, this Sunday: I took pictures of my new yarn (see above, more on this later) and planned on posting yesterday evening to get back on my Sundays-are-for-blogging routine. My camera, however, had other plans and launched itself out of my jeans pocket (granted, I was in a tree at the time), bounced through some branches, and fell (intact) about 20 feet to the ground. I was impressed at this...until I tried to turn it on. It stubbornly refused. I whined, it dug its heels in and stayed dead.

This morning, though, my camera staged its own Easter resurrection...albeit after a few good whacks on the kitchen table...but huzzah! The blog is back, and only delayed half a day.

Anyway, amidst all these excuses, I went yarn shopping! I picked up a skein of Misty Alpaca sock yarn, because apparently I'm becoming a default sock knitter when I can't think of anything else to do. I really do love this color, though...I don't get to knit many super bright socks since I knit mostly for my father and brother. (Here I go again, whining.) I'm considering combination possibility for this yarn; maybe I'll attempt another multi-fiber sort of endeavor. We'll see. That lime green streak is really neat....

Stay tuned for more pathetic knitting stories as I inch towards completion on the sweater below. I ran out of yarn this week, so that was a fun development. :)