Thursday, March 15, 2007

At last!

You all hate me. I know you do. Don't try to deny it. *dramatic sigh*

I'm so sorry I've been such a loser about this blog. It's not that I haven't been knitting (oh, I have, I have!) but that I've felt my latest efforts unworthy of sharing with the wider world. Really, how many times do you want to see a picture of Samus with another inch of stockinette...and another...and another? Not many, am I right?

Anyway... I have certainly been making progress. The knitting of the body and sleeves is completely done. Today, I blocked one of the sleeves and sewed the seam on it! Finally! Have a look, why don't you?



Ooh, shiny!

On March 3, I went to a Knitters' Breakfast at the Fabric Place in Framingham. The people doing the trunk show were from Classic Elite. It was a little disappointing. They were all older, which isn't always a big deal, but all the designs they showed also looked sort of old-fuddy-duddy-ish. Meh. The yarns weren't bad, though, and I managed to snag a bunch of mini-skeins of Summer Set yarn (cotton, alpaca, & synthetic) in a creamy white. I think it's probably enough for a 4" swatch per skein, so I may have enough for a nice pair of gauntlets! There were so many people crammed into the room for the breakfast that only about half got some kind of door prize (unlike last time, when EVERYONE got one.) I missed out. Whine. However, when the shopping started, I resolved to spoil myself.

I wanted hand-painted (or at least very pretty, interesting, and luxurious) sock yarn. Well, their sock yarn selection was a few skeins of rather ugly self-striping Sockotta and some boring solid-color wool from some Scandianvian country. Grr. However, the prospect of MALABRIGO at $10/skein plus 20% discount thrilled me. I paid $8 a skein for $12/skein yarn. Sweeeet. I picked out the colorway "Stonechat"--gorgeous dark reds, greens, and browns--to make a nice scarf. I've been needing a scarf I can wrap several times around my face in the coldest weather. I'm using a "knotted openwork" pattern (here) which they show as very lacey, but which I've seen done on worsted-weight yarn. That way, it knits up kinda nubbly and textured, and I love the effect with this color. Here, have a peek:



And a close-up for texture:



And now, you remember me talking about making a hat for someone for Christmas? Well, here are some pictures of him wearing it! Isn't he just adorable? Isn't the hat? :) I think they're a great combination. I think I need to knit this guy some more stuff. He just wears it so well.





Oh, and it strikes me that I have not yet taken a picture of my boyfriend M in his Christmas present: a Jayne hat, from Firefly! It's rather cunning, y'know. I will have to do that soon.

And there you have it, kiddies. That's what I've been up to lately. I hope to post more soon, so stay tuned!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Please stand by!

We are experiencing technical difficulties!

I tried to be a good little knitter last night and use my sick time to update my blog. However, it seems Blogger is having some ISSUES with uploading images to blogs! And I KNOW that what you really want is the pretty, shiny pictures, am I right? Well, the Wanton One will give you what you want. Promise. Just as soon as Blogger gets its head out of its behind and solves the problem.