somewhere in your habitat

We all have our days.

I hypothesize about this a lot- am I the crazy person here? Most of the time I decide that yes, I am. And I'm okay with it, so I go about my life as a crazy-but-okay-with-it person.

But today, as I look at what I'm wearing, I realize...this borders on too crazy. Check out all the yellow in that picture! I was carrying my ridiculous yellow bag, yellow sandals, drinking my lemon water in a yellow can, and knitting obnoxiously yellow socks. It is kind of a lot of yellow.

The only thing that made me feel better (and took attention away from the blinding sight of my accessories and knitting project) was that, while I was thus attired and occupied, a crazy old man wearing overalls and no shirt boarded the bus carrying only a grill. I felt immediately better: I had been out-crazied!

If you can see it, my newest knitting project is the yellow, picot-edged sock in the forefront of the photo. It's really very cute, if you can see it amongst all the yellow burning your eyes.

Otherwise, my knitting progress in the last few weeks can be seen above. Despondency set in, and even tequila didn't help. You can imagine the depths of my despair.

Thank god for knitting groups and yarn sales! Like I said, the tequila didn't really help the knitting slump...but if I had been alone, I might have resorted to self-destructive behaviors like cleaning a closet out of frustration. So thank you, YAY! knitters, for enduring my whining and trying, with limitless good cheer, to encourage positive progress.

They also found a yarn sale at Knit Around in Ann Arbor, so I went- and got yarn to dye, an insane pattern to start when I'm feeling, well, insane (which is like all the time), and the above book for $5. FIVE DOLLARS. Like seeing the crazier guy on the bus, a book always makes me feel better.

PS: Check out Sleigh Bells. They're loud and awesome. According to NPR (omniscient NPR!) their goal is to "blow up your speakers" for real, and is "one of the loudest live shows of all time." Those might not be exact quotes, but this is: "it's somehow both an aural assault and a piece of pop candy...I recently made the mistake of putting it on at 6:45 a.m., and I don't think they meant for me to do that." Go listen!

struck dumb but i'll give it a go

Okay, I didn't knit this. Obviously. This is Prada's fall 2010 campaign, which is discussed here. And yes, that is a giant knit handbag. A knit handbag!!! A Prada knit handbag! I wonder what it's made of, and I wonder how we (I, you) could copy it. I kind of really want one.

I'm going to start plotting...join me! Share ideas. What materials could we use (not that Rowan R2 Rag, it has been claimed for a soon-to-be-posted project already)? Kniterary Club, this is your moment to shine!

i might be a fan of your insolence

I really have been knitting, I promise you. I just can't show you what I've knitted....yet. So that's a great excuse to start new, ill-advised projects.

So: I have some 12 skeins of R2 Rag to use up. A few years ago, the Rowan yarn company decided to publish and manufacture a line of alternative books and yarns...aimed at young, wild knitters who wanted stylish projects to finish quickly. I guess that was me, because I'm one of the few people that bought both the books. It just intrigued me...sort of an American Apparel vibe to the modeling, and the garments were super-weird. Unfortunately, the clientele at yarn stores were just not ready for this and it didn't sell well. If you'd like to see what some of the projects are like: look on Ravelry.

I got a bunch of it at super-closeout price at Needlework Unlimited in Minneapolis and have been hoarding it ever since. It's weird, because I'm relatively sure that I'm one of maybe 3 people in the world who would consider this a treasure! I'm trying to think of things to make with it...it's pretty bulky and I have enough to make a pretty substantial garment. I was initially thinking of a scarf- knit lengthwise with fringe on the long side. (Like this.) Now I'm not sure, and I could knit a vest or a funky cardigan sort of thing...but I'm afraid that, with its bulk, that would look really lumpy. Suggestions?

are you ready, boots?

Nature provides us such pretty things.

Alright, so I ended up stabbing them with needles...but it was for a good cause. If you live in Michigan you know it's been quite hot lately, which has kick-started my lemonade cravings. It also means drinks sweat ALL the time, and for the first time in my life I have a piece of furniture that I don't want water stains on. The best solution to any problem is one that involves yarn, sharp objects, and wool. Right? (For maybe the first time ever, no knitting was done for this post.)

So here's what you do to make your own coasters at home:

1. Take an old all-wool sweater and wash it- hottest water, longest agitation, lots of sudsy laundry detergent. Normally you would never do this on purpose, but if you've done it accidentally and have a sweater that would now fit a child, here's a useful way to make yourself feel slightly better about shrinking it. (Destruction with scissors is pretty cathartic too.)

2. Use a bowl and chalk to outline circles on the sweater, then cut. You can actually do any shape you want- felted wool won't unravel.

3. Put whatever object you want to outline down on the circle/square/whatever shape. If you can, secure it down somehow so you don't get a weird wiggly outline as you go around. If you're a better artist than I, freehand something.

4. Get your needle felting needles. This is where you could really, really hurt yourself. My needle is in the above picture at the top right, and it is sharp. VERY SHARP. Look at it compared to the blunt darning needle! I sort of laughed at the dire warnings on the package, but after using them once, my fear is real.

4. Needle felting needles are very cool (and dangerous! even cooler!). Basically, they're barbed (and sharp!) needles that agitate the wool layers together when you stab them. So you lay out the yarn and stab it repeatedly until the yarn totally sticks. The cool thing is that you can very loosely stab your design at first, then adjust or pull it out if you don't like it. Once you settle on a final design, just stab the hell out of it.

6. You're done! That's it. Really. It's so easy. I'll probably make a few more at some point and do something more complicated- but for now I can have my iced coffee AND protect my furniture. Mmm.

Kitty is, as usual, unhelpful. Bob doesn't care for knitting in the least (and was probably napping), but catnip or no, Kitty's there.

Finished! The variegated yarn actually suited the leaf coloring perfectly. It's usually easier to needle felt with roving (unspun wool) instead of yarn...but you can also unravel and fluff up your yarn for an easier time of things. Per usual, I was winging it.

Geranium and maple leaves.

if i'll ever be whole again

Kitty tried to assist with this project...it was distinctly unhelpful.

If you've ever wanted to knit something even your cat will appreciate, though, this is how! Gather these things: a small square of cloth, a half-knit mouse body, catnip (mine is from a set of toys I bought that were already filled), and a little extra stuffing (which I didn't need).

Put the catnip in the cloth square and tie the top securely.

Stuff it in the mouse body!

Here he is! I was going to offer the pattern here, but the way I knit this particular mouse was pretty silly and I'm still trying to think of a good (read: coherent) way to describe this mouse's creation. I started with an i-cord tail and then increased to 24 stitches for the body, then decreased every other round for the nose. His ears are crocheted on afterwards, and the eyes are needle felted on. Try to improvise your own- it really doesn't have to be totally perfect, especially since this mouse's fate is to be licked to death by a blissed-out cat.

This mouse was sent off to a new home over the weekend, where he is being ripped apart by Otis the cat. : ( Poor mouse!

darling where's your soul

This scarf was finished last summer, I just never got around to taking a picture of it...or should I say, never got around to pressing friends and relations into my service. It's just because they're really good at what they do- my brother puts my modest photography to shame.

The scarf is knit out of Berroco Mica, a yarn I raved and raved about last summer. It's a silk blend (so it smells kind of funny, but if you're a yarn geek like me you'll like it), and when knitted it has a nice shine and texture. This scarf is massive- it used 10 skeins! The crochet edging is my favorite...if you look closely at the bottom right you can see the little baubles (?) crocheted around. It was quite an obstacle to teach myself how to do that since crochet is NOT my forte, but a couple hours of NPR podcasts later I had my edging done.

The scarf itself is absolutely gorgeous. Norah Gaughan at Berroco (their head designer, artistic director, whatever, the word escapes me) is a genius. The only problem with this is that the yarn is SO heavy it kind of feels like you're choking when you wear it...this makes me really sad and also irrationally crabby at the same time. Does that happen to you when your clothes aren't fitting the right way? Anyway. Someday I might re-knit this scarf in a wool-silk blend so it wouldn't be so heavy, would still have a nice shine, and I could wear it in the winter. The pattern was fun to knit so it wouldn't be awful to do again, and like I said before, the edging is just adorable. Someday.

don't lose my composure in a high speed chase

BIKE HAT! This project had to be classified as "mysterious" so I wouldn't give away the birthday surprise...but now it's done and my brother, The Bikemaster, has an appropriate hat. It was hard to get a picture of him in it since he was so fixated on assembling his latest bike (a fixed gear- ha, ha), but that's pretty normal.

I tried to ride it (in front of all his bike store friends) and almost killed myself...fixed gear bikes are NOT as "easy as riding a bike" at all. As his boss said after seeing a near bike wreck: "you do NONE of those things!" Oh well, I tried. This is why I don't ride bikes and stick with knitting.

Hat details! I used Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran since it was one of the few yarns that had a neon green color...and I was absolutely set on the BIKE! being that color. I probably should have knit this hat flat and sewn a seam up the back; I'm seam-averse so decided (kind of stupidly) to strand the yarn around the inside of the hat. It pulls a little bit in the blue half of the hat and I'm not completely happy about it, but I should have expected this to happen. Next time I'll use full-on intarsia and the hat will look lots better, I think.

Its beginnings:

Knitter's graph paper is one of my favorite things....I will never be without it!!

my half-breed odyssey

A pair of wonky-ass socks.

Sock yarn is the sort of thing you can buy on impulse and have relatively few qualms about. It's one skein (usually) that makes a complete project; since it's created as sock yarn, you have a built-in purpose for it. I fell victim to this skein- it was named Zauberball (a great name!). The colors were/are awesome. It fell into the no-guilt-easy-project category. It seemed like a win-win.

I mean, I'm not totally dissatisfied with the results...they're just strange. If you're the sort of person who can embrace all-out randomness, this yarn is for you! Like, if you don't organize your sock drawer into pairs, or if you like to wear mismatched socks intentionally, this yarn was MADE for you. It was not made for me.

Anyway, the yarn itself was okay. I think it's sold mostly for the novelty and for buyers like me who snatch up sock yarn impulsively. The quality was okay, but the yarn is two-ply, and one of the plys (plies? whatever) changes while the other stays the same. I ran into several knots in the process of knitting the socks, which was distinctly displeasing...not only does it create more ends, but it disrupts whatever hint of organic transformation this yarn displays. How's that alliteration? Distinctly displeasing disruption of the display. There were also some odd fuzzy sections of yarn.

Bottom line: Zauberball has a cool name, neat colors, and was made to freak out OCD knitters.

learn to love what you are

A quick post with a sock-yarn-multi-yarn-scarf-knitting news update. Or something. (Excuse me, I've had quite a lot of coffee.) I finally settled on a yarn combination...originally I had tried to highlight that neon green you see at the forefront, but it turns out that less is more- the chartreuse yarn I had chosen as an accent turned out to be completely overwhelming (and kind of ugly). I also abandoned the giant needles I'd been trying to use...13s were just not working. So Caitlin invents(ish) again! 10 1/2s, alpaca sock yarn and Habu steel wool yarn with a bit of Louisa Harding Jasmine (sparkly!) thrown in. 150-some stitches, knit a row with one, knit a row with the other, toss in Jasmine occasionally. Drink lots of coffee, knit faster!

they ask to behave, i pay them no mind

First: happy Mother's Day! This is my mother, and this is her (finally finished!) sweater. This sweater was the subject of many a beleaguered posting...first I decided that the pattern wasn't good enough for me and changed the construction of the garment completely (OCD front-to-back agreement wouldn't have been perfect). This is what I do NOT recommend doing. You will be sorry! Then I nearly ruined the poor thing by trying to graft garter stitch purely by logic (again, do NOT do this, you will be sorrier). Disgusted, I had thrown the whole thing in the bottom of my knitting basket, hoping for a miracle. When I did decide to pull it out again, I RAN OUT OF YARN. This was the last straw, and bona fide despair set in.

I began to think of any alternative...a contrast collar would have looked tacky, no collar was terrible, I could maybe dye the sweater...like I said before, my solution is/was to send it to the basket. Get thee gone!

A miracle happened a few days later. A miracle. A scraggly little half-skein of this yarn turned up in my closet...it hadn't been kept with the rest of my Cotton Classic and was stuck in a knitting bag where I had previously kept this sweater. Oh, the joy was unimaginable when I finished the collar and wove in all the ends...and there was a sweater! A cute sweater, too! Even after all of that. I'm kind of ridiculously lucky.

It looks really good on Mom, and the color is right, too. :) Now time for cocktails in the yard!