Sunday, April 06, 2008

sprung (annotated)

Out of my late winter knitting doldrums, some progress broke out:GZucker0408_005
The stripes line up in real life, this was a sloppy arrangement.
the
Heartbreakingly Cute Kimono * NOW WITH MATCHING EDGES**.
The designer
Cristina *** commented that the heart is not symmetrical and I should work that uneven overlap . The door creaaaked open in my brain.
Unfortunately I'd already ripped when I saw the light. Her statement reinforced a couple of thoughts: 1) Cristina is a crafting genius, 2) how limiting it is to see only the oh no! there's only one way and I have not followed it. In a blink I thought of how cute it would have been to embroider X's and O's along that longer bottom layer.
While procrastinating on the fix I knit this,
GZucker0408_007
Love to accessorize them babies. No particular pattern.
Off this goes to 6 week old Beck who lives in a cabin in Maine , he'll have plenty of wool wearing season left in his first year.
pattern:
from Mason Dixon Knitting
yarn: Cascade 220 superwash, 2 skeins needed for striping, tons leftover
needles:
aaack! I've already forgotten. maybe US7's?
thoughts: Lovely little project, and an excuse to go diving in my button tin. I just love my button tin. GZucker0408_006 I used the eyelet edge as button holes. The inner edge is tied with a small length of crocheted yarn sewn in.

The altitude/attitude troubled alpaca beret**** is flying right now, too.
GZucker0408_001
Originally intended as a gift to someone in NYC, somehow a cozy warm alpaca beret in April seems more penalty than pleasure. So this might be part of my permanent collection. Come see me at a Shear Spirit event and you'll probably notice it flourished it around as part of our trunk show. (and when I say trunk what I really mean is.. modest size tote)

pattern: fr Shear Spirit, the Taos Beret*****. Sorry only a glimpse here but in 2 weeks I spills all. It has some really cute detailing on the brim. Really!
yarn: machine spun natural alpaca from Victory Ranch
needles:
size 6
notes:
Another button tin expedition. These are some handpainted ceramic beauties made by(I think) a local artist. ****** I love this pattern and getting to stick a button on is the proverbial cherry on top.

Lastly , moment of silence for poor Juliet. GZucker0408_013
It wasn't
the surgery that got her. I spent a ridiculously long time cutting and 3 needle bind off-ing, and unraveling and then reinforcing the join so it hung just right. I washed and reskeined the cut out yardage and just as I was going to knit that last 3 inches of the bottom lace, I decided to have a good try-on . In a moment of honesty I saw this garment was all wrong on me. Never, never let me knit something with garter stitched cap sleeves again. To say unflattering is too kind. Since I already own a uniquely unflattering Klaralund that is my only-around -the-house-and-for-errands, yarn-that-I love -paired-with-poor-pattern -choice-for-me sweater, I didn't need this one. I now have aprox 600 yards of Araucania Chunky with no purpose, I need a vest or tank top project. Ideally one knit side to side, I decided the variation in this yarn makes for some broadening horizontal effect. Let me know if you have any suggestions,what I really want is to make it into an Imogen but I lack the yardage.

and now for the annotation, everything needed more explanation today than parantheses could bear:

* That's the Ravelry link to almost one thousand of these little bits of sweetness.

** I still need to steam down the new bottom edge, sorry about the flippiness.

*** I linked to an arbitrary page, just surf around hre site and you'll find something inspiring


**** The beret is discussed waaay at the bottom of this post

***** It is unblocked in this photo.

****** turns out they are buttons from South Africa, info here, but I bought them locally. Oh well. It is shown balanced on the unblocked hat with display thread, I'll use a less bright white to sew it on.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there going to be a GRAND Shear Spirit tour? When will you be in Juneau?

Love the baby duds .. they're adorable!

Mary Lou said...

You are working the buttons, aren't you? Re. the auricana, maybe a vest modeled after a certain sweater in a certain book. We did discuss this at the shoot in Minnetrista....

kt said...

What about a Boogie vest from Knitty? I'm going through my stash but only coming up with worsteds, so I may do two strands together. If you've got chunky, you're in like Flynn!

zippiknits...sometimes said...

That baby set is just so snappy and cute. Good combination of brights. Ah.. poor Juliet. But she will have another incarnation, yes? I hopeihope... something will work out better for the yarn. Have you looked around ravelry? Is that a choice you have?

Kay said...

Beck will appreciate the attention to detail!

Can't believe there are 1000 on Ravelry.....is it just me or do pictures look just GREAT on Ravelry?

jennsquared said...

Wow I really like the sweater you want to make from post Juliet yarn. Do you think you can get few more skeins and alternate the rows so dye lot won't be too obvious? I think that would work okay.

Anonymous said...

yeah, I finished my juliet saturday and I hate it. the ladies at my lys urged me to reconsider and not frog so I haven't...yet.

Sunflowerfairy said...

Now I really want to try Juliet. Of course, I really just want to knit anything, but I think the sweater will look ok on me. Hmm. I might have to buy that pattern off you.

If you go to Alaska on tour, I'm coming.

And lastly, that hat is the cutest damn thing ever.