Presents

I want to make a hat for my friend. Said friend has a large, bald head. I imagine it gets rather cold in the winter. I would LIKE to knit from my stash on this, but I don't know if I have any yarn that is both warm enough to keep his head from getting cold in the winter, and soft enough not to be scratchy on his shaved head. Meh.

There's also the issue that I don't know how big his head is. If I ask him, he'll know I'm knitting him a hat. I could ask his girlfriend, but the relationship issues are a bit...complicated at the moment. Not bad--she and I like each other just fine--but complicated.

I'm contemplating Knitty's Halfdome, but knit at a bulkier gauge for more warmth. We'll see.

In the meantime, I might knit up a hat or two for charity. I need to bust some stash, and damn it, I want to knit SOMETHING.

Rant

You know what I wish?

I wish that every knitting pattern would say, "This is how much ease is at the bust, waist, and hip (or whatever's appropriate) for the model in the picture." Then you know, "Oh, if I want it to fit like that, I should probably have about that much ease, so I should make this size." That would make life so very much easier. Or at least put, "This item is designed to have X, Y, and Z ease at these points." This is why I e-mailed about half a dozen people on Ravelry to ask them about how much ease they had at the hip in their Intolerable Cruelty skirts. I went through EVERY PICTURE, and picked out the ones whose fit I liked the best, usually on people whose bodies were at least somewhat similar to mine in general shape (not too skinny but not too big in the hips). But I don't want to have to do that with everything I make. I might, though, since it doesn't look like putting ease in the pattern is going to be the standard any time soon.

I want to make another, cuter sweater. A pullover, this time, not a cardi. And I want it to be fitted but flattering, and CUTE. I like the look of the Bombshell sweater in the Big Girl Knits book, which I don't actually own. I am thinking about getting it because I hear their design instructions are really great. I'd probably have to scale the pattern down a bit, but hopefully the design instructions would help me figure out how to do that while still keeping the shape I want. If you've seen the pattern for Bombshell, I'm thinking a little negative ease at the ribbing under the bustline, short rows above the ribbing to help shape the bust, and maybe a bit smaller at the hip proportionally than it's designed. Or I might make something else entirely.

In other news: I have finished the Brea Bag, at last! I finally said "f*** it" to the lining and just finished it. It's actually quite cute! I'm reasonably happy with it. I am now working on another little in-between project: a bag for my zills (belly dance finger cymbals). It's in a pale pink cotton/viscose/silk blend I got in a Yankee swap. Svale, it's called. I don't much like the yarn for knitting. It loses its twist very quickly when I knit, and as a result, it splits very easily. Still, it's looking rather nice in a simple seed stitch on size 5 needles. I'm just doing a rectangle with a row of eyelets at the top and bottom. Then I'll fold it in half so the two eyelet bands match up, seam the sides, and make a little i-cord (possibly with some beads) to close the bag.

The FO, modeled

Remember back when I knit that sweater for a coworker's baby? Well, now she's big enough to wear it, and it's cute as anything. :)

Here is the lovely Baby J, modeling the Super-Natural Stripes cardi!

Successes of the day

1. First, and biggest, we had the first meeting of MIT Stitch 'n' Bitch West, which I formed to augment the MIT Stitch 'n' Bitch in a place where those of us out in the west end of campus could easily attend. Two other women showed up. Another had intended to, but forgot her knitting due to forgetting what day it was (darn holiday weeks). Another woman saw us working and decided to come sometime, even though she hadn't responded to my feeler e-mail. Others were too busy. Still, success!

2. I ordered a handle for my Brea Bag, at last. I had frogged and redone the gusset, but it ended up too long. I am now finishing it again. I should be able to start sewing it together soon. First, though, I'll have to trace the pieces onto the liner fabric, sew the liner pieces together, and then I can sew them to the inside of the bag.

3. Realized that--duh! There are groups specifically for busty knitters on Ravelry. WHY I never thought to look for some is beyond me. I will have to join at least one of them.

Yay for productive knittitude!

Do I hear croaking?

Yeah, I do. I am THIS CLOSE (holds hands about an inch apart) to finishing the She's Partial to the Periwinkle Blue Stole, aka the Voyager Lace Stole. In fact, I only have a few more stitches to cast off on the bottom edge picot bind-off. See, you do a provisional cast-on, leaving a ball of about 10 yards of yarn to knit the edging, you knit the stole, you do the picot bind-off, and then you go back to the bottom, unravel the PCO, and use that ball to do the picot bind-off on that edge. Unfortunately, I seem to have needed more yarn than I balled up. Oh balls. I'm going to undo the bind-off I've done so far, clip that ball of yarn off, and attach a new strand, since I have PLENTY of yarn left. Then I'll re-do it, and THEN I will have to figure out how to block that big mother. I really need my friend to give me the blocking board materials she got for me. GAH. I've never blocked lace before. This should be...interesting. It really needs it, too, in order to be as wide as it's supposed to be. But...it's COTTON. How the hell do you successfully block cotton? ARGH. I maybe should have made this out of wool, but I wanted it to be more summery. And the original pattern called for cotton! Now they have one with alpaca, but before, in Vogue Knitting, it was cotton.

And then I can start something new. A Dalek? Kilt hose for the boy? Intolerable Cruelty? More than one of those? We'll see.

And I have to investigate these Addi Click needles!

I'm a busy little knitter!

I've been working on the "She's Partial to the Periwinkle Blue" stole, aka the "Sucking Up to the Future Mother-in-Law" stole, aka Elann's Voyager Stole. I'm on the second ball of yarn, and it's looking lovely! See?

I added that image to Ravelry. I also added a couple pictures of the cardigan I knit for my coworker N's baby. Here they are, for any non-Ravelry users.


I've also put in all my needles on the chart on Ravelry to keep track of them. No more buying extra needles by mistake! It was a pain adding in all the sizes that can be made from my Denise set. Oy vey. Still, I'm glad I did it. I still haven't gotten around to uploading my stash, and I'm honestly not sure I will. I'm not a huge stasher, and I doubt I'll really ever need this.

Now, to go check on the homemade yogurt that I have culturing in a tightly covered bowl, wrapped in a towel in my nice sunny garden. Yay for lactobacillus!

Ok, FINALLY I have figured out the proper way to do the YOs on the Voyager Lace Stole (aka the "She's Partial to the Periwinkle Blue" Stole). Now I'm making progress. Yay! I got to indulge in one of my favourite nice-weather pastimes this weekend: knitting outside in the sunshine! There's just something about the warm sun, the light breeze, and a lapful of knitting that makes me bliss out. :)

The Who Knits group on Ravelry is doing a charity afghan, and while I'd like to contribute a square, they're doing sock yarn squares, and I don't really have time with everything else I'm doing right now. If it were worsted, I'd go for it, but I'm sick of itty-bitty sock yarn. Pity--one idea they have is to do two identical afghans: one for auction for a charity (Doctors Without Borders, natch!) and one to send to David Tennant. I like that idea, even if I'm not as fangirly about him as I am about the last Doctor.

OK, work time now. Meh. So tired today...

Back in the saddle again

Hey, suddenly I'm really ENJOYING knitting again! It's amazing what going from socks on size 1 metal DPNs to worsted cotton on bamboo size 9s can do for me!

Yesterday, in a bar in Cambridge, I cast on for the Voyager Lace Stole from Elann.com. I'm using Blue Sky Alpaca dyed cotton in Periwinkle. I hope to complete it in time to send it to my boyfriend's mom for Christmas, and that shouldn't be a problem. On Ravelry, I'm calling it the "She's Partial to the Periwinkle Blue" Stole. After all, it's for his ma. Anyone who's seen Snatch should get it. :) If you haven't, see it! Very funny.

An amusing note: I was watching Doctor Who reruns (Series 3) the other day, and in the episode "Gridlock", where flying cars are locked in perpetual traffic jams, there are these two ladies on the motorway--the Cassini "sisters" (they're actually married)--and one of them is driving while the other sits in the back and knits. I thought, "If I were stuck in a traffic jam for 23 years, that's EXACTLY what I'd be doing. It's the only thing that might keep me sane." :)

Webs

Are any of you folks out there planning on going to the Webs tent sale this weekend? Is it worthwhile to go?

A quick, pic-less update

So, I don't know how many of my readers have heard me whining about this, but I'm getting damned sick of socks. This pair is taking me forever because I keep stopping! Fortunately, I have turned the heel of Lacy Trellis Sock #2, and am working the decreases for the instep. Hooray! Progress! Maybe now I can feel justified in doing something else for a bit. I've bought a skein of the right color of Cascade 220 to finish my Brea Bag. I think I'm going to frog the gusset, even though it's mostly knit already, because it looks horribly shapeless. I'll start over. I have a gorgeous fabric for the lining for the bag: a black cotton with a print of autumn leaves all over it.

Before I get to that, though, I should finalize plans for the shawl for M's mother. I already have a lovely yarn for the Future Mother-In-Law Shawl (or FMILS): the blue and purple variegated boucle that I got at the MITSnB Yankee Swap. I'm thinking, however, that maybe a little more subdued shade might be better for her. I want something in the light blue color family, for sure, since it'll bring out J's eyes nicely. I really need to decide on a pattern, though. Print o' the Wave is lovely, but I'm not sure I have the patience for it right now. Maybe the Voyager Lace Stole from Elann? We'll see.

I also really, really, really, really need to combine my love of knitting with my extreme fascination with Doctor Who and make a Dalek. Or two. EXTERMINATE!