Expecting Many Hats

I bought this ivory and pink yarn long ago, anticipating a baby sweater, but I don't think I had a specific pattern in mind, which is unusual for me, and probably a contributing factor to me never knitting it. I am no longer interested and, anyway, this 100% wool yarn is not washable. What parent wants that?



I have decided to do a few cool worsted-weight hat and beret patterns from ravelry.com. This is the first one, Herminone's Cable and Eyelet Hat. It looks just like the one Emma Watson wore in HP and the Half-blood Prince. I altered it a bit while I knit it, for example, I made the brim shorter (ten rows instead of sixteen).



And Dodger!

Craft Room (Slash Office)

Paul and I use the second bedroom as an office/craft room. It's great! This weekend he helped me move my very heavy sewing cabinet two feet to the right where it's much more convenient to use, and in celebration I sewed a bunch of already cut-out Wees.



I started to embroider a canvas grocery bag with a sushi pattern and then realized I needed fish-colored yarn. At 37 cents a pop, it's cheap to stock up. I really like these plastic bobbins for winding the thread too.




I finished chart 3 of the Icarus Shawl. I only knit this when I have time and enough concentration. The yarn and pattern are joys.

20-minute Row

I gave this hanging towel as a house-warming gift.



Newest and greatest M-D dishcloth pattern: the Linoleum Dishcloth.

Here I am, knitting on the couch. Dodger is nearby but not in the picture.

I'm half way through chart 3 of 4. It feels like I'm very near the end, except that each 400+ stitch row takes about twenty minutes, and I'm still adding stitches. I'm glad there is no deadline. The feathery pattern is beautiful.

Progress

I've discovered a new ballband dishcloth outlet--mop covers! I made these for my friends Candyce and Andy.

I've also made a lot of progress on my Icarus Shawl. I started the fifth and last repeat of the first chart. The rows are now so long they take almost fifteen minutes each to complete!

I bought some new circular needles for this project--Addi Lace Turbos. They work great. I am loving the soft Malabrigo yarn too.

Poem

"Poet Opal Blaisdell Lenox hints at the very real person--all knitters can relate--beneath the idealized veneer of another Victorian knitter:

Milady, at the open window, sits

With countenance serene and look demure,

Her downcast eyes contributing allure.

The blush upon her cheek that glows and flits,

Adds glamour that demoralizes wits;

And waning sun with touch so light and sure,

Makes of her hair a golden halo pure.

But modestly, Milady simply knits,

Intent upon the swiftly rhythmic flash

Of gleaming needles that is never stopped--

While world and I adore her beauty fair.

But now I rise and quickly close the sash,

For I have noted that a stitch is dropped,

And World--you must not hear Milady swear!"

Quoted in Susan M. Strawn, Knitting America: A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art (St. Paul: Yoyageur Press, 2007), 26-27.

No fudging

I've learned the hard way that if I goof on this shawl that I can't just fudge the next row and keep going--the mistake really shows up. After making mistakes two and three, I bit the bullet and unknitted back to the first mistake. It felt like a huge amount of unknitting but was only five or six rows. I just hate UNknitting (or "tinking"; that's "knit" backwards).

However, I am pleased with the results and have pledged to inspect each row after knitting in the hope that I will catch any mistakes before I've knit an additional several rows. So far, so good.

I really love this yarn and the color is kind of washed out by the flash here.

More dishcloths: a reverse miter dishcloth, great for using up half balls of cotton yarn. I almost ran out of binding-off yarn, whoops. The stripey yarn is Peaches N'Cream Fiesta, and seems to be the brights and pastels of Fiestaware.

The ubiquitous ballband dishcloth with green, red, and yellow yarns in the background. Very fun!

Yarn on a plane

I love to knit during flights, even more than reading. I think it's easier on the eyes in a moving plane than reading and it makes you feel like you're doing something rather than just sitting there.

I made this dishcloth going to and from L.A. On the way back, a woman next to me said she was fascinated by my circular needles (Denise needles) and thought the dishcloth was too beautiful to wash dishes with! She hadn't knit since she was a child and felt inspired to take it up again. I hope she does.

The Icarus wedding shawl is coming along fine. I have made one mistake but I hate tinking lace so much that I think I'll ignore it. Interestingly, this triangular shawl starts with a few stitches but it is not knit bottom-up; the stitches start at the top center of the shawl and you knit down.