Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Longies

This is Big Blue BFL (Blue-Faced Leicester) from Wooly Wonders by Nada. It is dyed in the " Starry Nite" colorway, with coordinating "gold" trim. This yarn is beautiful. It is soft, firm, sturdy, and just all around wonderful.

Nada and her husband Brad originally donated this yarn to me to use for a raffle to benefit the Professor. Unfortunately, little Natty passed away before our second round of auctions/raffles, and we decided we would give them up. Instead, I offered to knit a pair of longies for Nada to raffle/auction off for her own benefit - Nada and Brad are saving up for a round of IVF, to try to conceive a child.
I figure this is a win-win situation; I wanted to try this yarn, but didn't want to shell out big bucks for it :)
These longies are HUGE (since I've mostly just done smalls until now!) - a M/L ish size, with an 18inch rise, 18inch waist and 10inch inseam. I used almost exactly 8 oz of the Starry Nite, and maybe 1-1.5oz of the gold. I wish I hadn't been so cautious with the gold at first; I would prefer the waistband to be a bit longer, but NO WAY am I ripping these out!! Posted by Picasa

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Hot Pink Hat

A friend requested a "hot pink" hat. I hope she's happy with this one. I had a devil of a time working out the decreases, having not thought about them in advance. It's k2, p1 rib and very comfy! I used Peace Fleece in Perestroika Pink and then white Cascade 220 doubled for the stripes. Not bad if I do say so myself, considering I made it up as I went :P Posted by Picasa

iPod Mini "Sock"

For Christmas, my aunt asked for a cover for her iPod mini. Being the clueless person that I am, I decided to wait until close to the last minute to go get one for her - not realising that they don't really carry these in stores anymore (now that the mini is no longer sold). Whoops! Well, I gave her an iTunes gift card instead, but felt bad for not getting her a cover.. so I worked up this quick knitted "sock" instead. After doing some research I discovered that the iPod mini was about the same size as my new phone, so I used that for a measurement. I used leftover Rowan DK Cashsoft doubled (Seriously. This is one *soft* sock!) and it was luscious. It took a couple of hours - not bad. I cast on half the necessary stitches, then knit front and back (alternating stitches between two needles) before starting the k2, p2 pattern.

You can tell here that my cast on was not quite as clean as it might have been but it was good enough for me. I used the sewn bind off to make sure it was good and stretchy.
 Posted by Picasa

FuzzyFeet

I had two skeins of this gorgeous yarn from
IrishBabyKnits in Eire, on their (her?) Lindon Merino. It's a lovely squishable soft yarn. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, and finally settled on a pair of Fuzzyfeet from Knitty. I knit them up in just a couple of nights but I haven't had the courage to felt them yet. I only used just under one skein of the yarn, so I still have another skein-and-a-bit left. I'm not 100% sure that this is the best use for this yarn, and once I felt them, that's it!

Here's a close-up of the color, a bit more accurate than the photo above. It's really pretty! The yarn is sort of minimally processed so there were just a few flecks of vegetable matter in it. Not any worse than Noro Kureyon, that's for sure. I am toying with the idea of ripping it out and trying the Felted Mocs from Fiber Trends instead, but I just can't decide. I should probably make a child's hat/mitten/scarf set and call it quits since felting seems to be a "waste" of this gorgeous yarn, but I don't know any kid who needs said set nor am I generous enough to donate this delicious yarn to a stranger :P Posted by Picasa