Warm Fuzzies

The back of Estela is done. Here she is, attempting not to be a wrinkly mess:

I bought a couple extra balls of this yarn because it looked like I might run out. Will have to do a complete review of the yarn itself once I'm done b/c there are a couple of issues with it that are driving me a little batty. The pattern is heaven.

Speaking of heaven:

I'm making this as a sample for the store. It's a kit of 10 colors of Artyarns Silk Mohair that are knit into a giant stockinette stole with ombre color changes. This one is a neutral colorway, but I know there are brighter colors available. The stockinette is giving me an excellent chance to work on my continental knitting skills and it's easy as pie.

Honestly, I think purl stitches are just more enjoyable in continental knitting. The yarn itself is so soft and squishy that I want to swim in it. Mohair isn't always super-soft, but this stuff really is. I want to make one for myself if I ever get the time later this year. As it is, I am limited to working on this fluffy mohair in my air-conditioned bedroom or the store.

And for more weather-inappropriate knitting, I bought me some oodles of black cashmere:

Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere. Enough to make a shrug. I will be having fun with this shortly.

FO: Fuchsia Veroniks

Fuchsia Veronik Socks

Pattern: Socks for Veronik by Mona Schmidt - IK Holiday 2007
Yarn: Artyarns Ultramerino 4
Needles: US 1 circs

I only made one mod: Using a standard go-to toe with matching ssk/k2tog on each side. I got impatient with the idea of the pattern-mimicking toe. If I made these again, I'd go with the patterned toe because I did something weird and the toes are kinda pointy. I'm pretty sure I should have stopped decreasing sooner.

The lovely lace pattern is gorgeous when the sock gets blocked.

These are my first pair of socks in Artyarns Ultramerino 4 and I must say that this is beautiful yarn. It's kind of springy and very soft. We'll see how it holds up. The bottoms of my STR socks have felted a fair bit and I'm a bit worried.

I also purchased this:
Let me start by confessing that I don't particularly enjoy watching Keira Knightley. She is beautiful, to be sure, but there is something very mannered and self-conscious about her performances. Also, I think many people cast her in inappropriate roles because a) she is a movie star and b) she is beautiful and c) she is actually British. There are so few beautiful British movie stars her age (at least ones that are well-known on this side of the Atlantic) that she seems to have cornered the market.

With that said, I went to see this movie in the theater in February. The first third of it completely got to me and all I was thinking was that the pacing was just s'wonderful...

...until the war scenes. Some of my friends have waxed rhapsodic about the war scenes, saying they were truly moved and were brought to tears. I personally am not convinced. The war scenes seemed so abrupt and so out of place. Yes, war is horrible. But the strong points of this story aren't so much about war but about three people who are locked in this miserable struggle for things that they will never obtain. There's one tracking shot in the middle of the movie that really annoyed me when Robbie is on the beach and the camera begins to show us his point of view but then abandons it to whirl around a chorus of soldiers singing. Grar.

But there's a reason I purchased this movie and it's because of its overall effect on me. love Romola Garai and I love the basic ideas of the story. The music is marvelous. I find Keira Knightley perfectly palatable here. And in the end, the film does move me. Now I'm going to have to go ahead and read the book.

Speaking of books, I started a bit of a project.

I can speak Korean thanks to my mother's best efforts, but my reading comprehension and ability are somewhat...slooooooow. Not to mention the blatant atrocity of my spelling. Instead of slogging through workbooks, I decided to read Harry Potter in Korean. I estimate that I read Korean like a first-grader. I'm trying to up it to at least a fifth-grade level. I estimate it will take me at least two months to finish this book, which is only the first half of The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Lace is All Around Us

I once sat next to a girl in grade school and saw her write down in the margin of her notebook, "I want a dimen necklace." I couldn't find that word in the dictionary and it took me two weeks to realize that it was just the most unusual spelling error I'd ever seen (up until that point). I seriously thought for those two weeks that maybe a "dimen" was some kind of obscure gem that I hadn't heard of.

Speaking of dimens, my Irish Cream diamonds are expanding...


I'm pretty sure this lusciously soft shawl will go to my mother. If she chooses to be unselfish, she can give it to one of her sisters since they all complain that my mom is the only one who got a daughter who knits.

I was unsure of the match between variegated yarn and lace, but I like this project a whole heaping bunch.

Besides a lot of swatches and lonely single socks, I've also got a non-variegated lace project on the needles.

It's the North Sea Shawl from Folk Shawls. It's going pretty quickly and it's for a friend's mom who has been kind to me. The yarn is Jaggerspun Zephyr and it's also my first time working with this stuff. It's a great weight and feels just beautiful. I think I'll skip the middle panel and just use this stitch pattern for the whole bit. The color is actually a maroon and I am not good enough with Photoshop to alter colors yet. Durn. But at least I'm reacquainting myself with lace, which bodes well for the hot summer days ahead.

And some belated thick house socks for Mum:

The main yarn is Artyarns Ultramerino 8 with Karabella Merino Superwash for the toes, heels, and cuffs. I was supposed to make my dad a pair as well, but I need more yarn. But the Artyarns Ultramerino is so squishy that now I'm lusting after a sweater in it.

Birthdays Galore

The gals in my family apparently like to get pregnant during a specific two-week period. There's an overabundance of Pisces in our family and I'm one of them. My cousin (mother of Caroline) has her birthday this Saturday. My mom's is on Monday. Mine and my cousin Joseph's birthday is on Wednesday. My brother's was two weeks ago, but he was two weeks premature, so you do the math. This makes for a happy and celebratory Sway with no money at the end of February.

This striped pullover I've been working on went into overdrive because I realized my parents will be seeing Caroline this weekend. This is a present for her and her mom. The pattern is from Rowan's Story Book of Little Knits, which is a beautifully presented pattern book with lots of gorgeous, wearable children's clothes. No Rowan 4-ply cotton anywhere close by, so I settled for the very very similar Dolce Amore from Filatura di Crosa.

One sleeve left to go and then seaming. I think I've become addicted to stripes. Stripes are fun! They're easy! Perfect combo for my poor overworked brain.

Also, Annie's has a wonderful relationship with Iris Schreier at Artyarns and she keeps sending us lovely colors of yarn. I don't know if this is available at other places, but it's the first time I've seen this color:

It's Ultramerino 4 and the color is a bit off here. The grays are right, but the "red" stripe is actually a deep hot pink/fuchsia. It makes me want to rock out.

Also, it is not a good thing to be in the vicinity of people who do other crafts. It makes you want to do them, too.

Instead of jumping into any crazy needlepoint and getting confoozled, I opted for this small makeup bag to stitch for my mom. She likes ladybugs. I don't think I'm very good at this (you can sort of see the canvas through my uneven stitches), but it's fun trying.

Ice, Ice, Baby

This week, winter weather finally decided it would show its face. Unfortunately, the snow hasn't been sticking and I am sad. I'm always sad when it's a snow-less winter. I'm one of those weird people who like blizzards. Maybe I should move to Minnesota, where apparently the temperature hit 40 below zero this week.

I've also been "under the weather." Muahaha. I caught bronchitis two weeks ago and shuffled miserably through a week of fever, chills, dizziness, and the coughing up of lungs. Haven't been that sick in ages. All I could do was fall asleep in front of the TV and pray desperately for the fever to break. I've decided Mucinex is maybe the most useless OTC medication I've ever ingested.

But now that I'm feeling better, thanks to much orange juice and sleep, here's a fine sprinkling of snow from my bedroom window. It ain't much of a view, but us NYC'ers make certain sacrifices.

My poor little camera just couldn't capture the snow as well as I wanted. It's okay. The camera can't help that it's poor and little.

It did, however, capture the ice that's forming on my window ledge.

I heart snow.

Unfortunately, that whole bronchitis issue also left me completely incapable of putting together sentences, walking without holding on to the wall, and picking up my needles. I did not knit for a week and a half straight.

When I picked up the needles again a few days ago, I realized my brain is still not 100% present and I cannot concentrate on anything other than stockinette. Can't do it. So it's the perfect time to make a little striped pullover for my toddler niece. (My family refers to all younger cousins and such as nieces and nephews. She's actually my cousin's daughter.)

It's cotton, since she lives in DC and it will not be very cold for long there. I'm not a huge fan of cotton, but I do see its strong points when it comes to knitting for small children.

I think Caroline needs a reward for drawing this masterpiece last week:

It's her interpretation of VeggieTales when Viking veggies fall into the water and call fo r help. I had no idea it was vegetables at first and was worried that she was drawing people drowning.

Pre-virus, I finished up the first Veronik sock:

Again, second sock syndrome is upon me.

When Knitting Is Painful :-(

Argh. Not too much knitting this week. Had some finishing to do for customers and it cut into my precious hours of knitting time. I did finish one Pomatomus, and I'm experiencing this sad feeling of...well, for lack of more eloquent words, "bleh."

Don't get me wrong. The sock itself is quite pretty. The lace is pretty. All is pretty. But for the first time in my short sock knitting experience, I have no immediate desire to cast on for the second sock. None whatsoever. In general, I'm a little underwhelmed with no understanding as to why I am underwhelmed. I'll try this pattern again in a bit and hope for better rapport with the project.

And then, of course, there's my old nemesis, Mr. Smoke. I tried a few repeats with the Prism lace held alongside Suri Elegance. Again, like the feel of it but underwhelmed by the visual results.

I think the navy alpaca does too good a job muting the handpainted colors of the Prism lace. What to do? Must I rip again? Boo. More tears.

In addition, I started a sock. Veronik's Sock from Interweave Knits' Holiday issue.

It's Artyarns 4 in a brilliant fuchsia color that I love, but...those damn p3togs. Not only are my fingers cramping, but this happened:

My needle is all bent out of shape. Even she objects to p3togs and she doesn't even have nerves.

Aside from knitting, I'm also kind of blown away by the fact that Heath Ledger died this week. I was a huge fan of his work and had spent more time than necessary over the last week watching trailers for The Dark Knight and marveling at his talent. And every time I think of his daughter, I just want to cry.

In Brokeback Mountain, there's a moment when Jack and Ennis have to separate again and Jack says: "There ain't never enough time, never enough..."

For Heath and the brilliance he was starting to exhibit, there certainly wasn't.

Art & Yarn

These jaywalkers are my first complete pair o' socks:

Jaywalkers
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Gauguin, 1 skein
Needles: Addi lace circs, 2.5 mm

Now, the drama behind the socks. I started one top-down and when I started turning the heel, took a look at the yardage of the recommended yarn in the pattern. Gulp. I only had approximately 300 yards while the Opal yarn has 465. Double gulp. I had a major panic attack, posted like a crazy person on Ravelry's technique forums and then decided to do the second sock toe-up. This way, I would be able to see how much I fell short and then maybe fiddle around with cutting off the cuff of the first sock and using contrast yarn to finish them both. It turns out, I just barely made two. The second sock is about 1/4 inch shorter, but at that point I didn't care. They're done. The pattern faces opposite directions, which gives them a kind of haphazard appeal. I love the yarn. I love the colorway. They are thick. Come winter, my toes will be toasty. No more reason for me to complain about how my toes is froze. The colorway, by the way, does not entirely make sense to me. I loves it, but it's called "Gauguin." Now, I don't know about you, but I never really see Gauguin as a huge fan of burgundy and sky blue. Mostly I think of muted blues mixing with lots of tans and yellows. But in honor of this beautiful colorway, I present my favorite Gauguin painting:

This painting hangs in the MFA in Boston. I saw it for the first time as a young, impressionable college student. It's called Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? The words are painted into the top lefthand corner and the (very large) painting depicts the different stages of life. There's a babe in the bottom right corner, the strength of adulthood in the middle and an old woman in the left bottom corner. I can see echoes of the blue in this painting, but not so much the burgundy. Let's agree to call this an occasion of artistic license.

Opposing zigzags, up close and personal. Lots of people have complained about pooling with the Jitterbug, but aside from a small area in the second heel, I really didn't have any problems. I loved, loved, LOVED this yarn. I am sad that the yardage is so short, however. I have heard that the Socks that Rock yarn is similar in feel so I think I'll opt for that next time, just to prevent the coronary thrombosis.

I am a huge fan of the small blotches of cobalt blue and muddy brown/green that are scattered throughout this yarn. It was so fun watching them come up between the long stretches of burgundy and aqua.

Since I am now a sock knitter, I purchased some Artyarns Ultramerino 4 I've been coveting for a loooong time. This will be for my own personal pattern. I thought of something while I knitted the Jaywalkers and I think it's about time I try my hand at designing a (simple) pattern.