Yarny Old Kim

Eye Candy Friday: Wiawaka Edition

 

WOOL 2009 was the best ever!  So much knitting, so much laughing, a ton of spinning (but not by me).  Words fail me.  The mosaic should give a flavor of what the long weekend was like.  There's a Flickr group for WOOL 2009 if you want to check out everyone's photos.    For awesome bloggy recaps of WOOL see: Tina, Amy, Jessalu, Jessica, Harriet, and Chris.  Apologies if I missed linking to anyone's post.  Just leave a link in the comments.  I can hardly wait until WOOL 2010.

Tomorrow, it's off again into the Adirondack wilds for a family vacation at a lovely inn.  More unplugged fun and a demolition derby to boot.

Victory

 

Giant Squid & Jelly Fish, so happy together!

We won a first place trophy for "Best Parade Entry with a Pet."  WOOT!  Of course we forgot to take photos of The Great White Stella wearing her shark fin.  And it seems she knew we won too because she stayed close to the trophy the rest of the afternoon.

 

Happy dog!

Tomorrow I leave for WOOL at Wiawaka!  I will be totally unplugged from everything except knitting, relaxing and my friends for long weekend.  Ah paradise.

What a Relief

The Giant Squid Hat is done!  I procrastinated a little bit about sewing it all together because I do not like sewing knitted stuff together.  But with an August 1 parade deadline looming, I bit the bullet and sewed it together on Sunday night.  For those who do not know, the big annual parade/festival in my town is this weekend and we hope to win a trophy for our parade costumes. 

 

Naturally, I make sewing more of a big deal than necessary. The power of negative thinking and all that.  The process was actually kinda pleasant.  As I sewed the various strangely shaped pieces together, it turned into a bona fide squid.

 

Getting squiddy with it.

I was particluarly nervous about the eyeballs because they looked like bewbs.  But once on the squid they looked fine.  Just to make sure, I glued on some plastic google eyes (not pictured).

 

A word about this pattern: GAAAHHHH!  Unless you need to march in a parade dressed like a squid or want to be a squid for Halloween, there is no rational reason to knit this pattern.  Not even for fun because it wasn't fun.  I am very pleased with the result but I'd sooner poke my own eyes out than knit this again. 

I pretty much followed the pattern for the hat-portion with 8 tenticles but other than that I winged it.  The pattern was overly detailed yet also vague.  I read the eyeball instructions and Just Said No. I knit them pretty much the way you would a baby hat.  No fiddly bullsh#t.  Same with the 2 long tenticles which had overly complicated directions for picking up stitches from somewhere.  For those I just knit a long tube with shaping toward the end and sewed them on. Simple & easy.  For the top part of the squid, I knit a big stocking cap then sewed  2 knit triangles to either side.  For all my criticisms of the pattern, I am eternally grateful to the designer for her work.  Thanks to her, my son has a good shot at winning a trophy.

There is a rare plant growing in the  woods next to my house.  It's the Ghost Plant/Indian Pipe.  There were a couple big clumps and a few single stems scattered around.  I saw these strange white things sticking up out of the leaves and thought, "what the hell are those?"

 

 

Nature, ain't it great.

 

Summer Sweater

To me, Liesl is the perfect summer sweater.  With its 3/4 sleeves (the pattern also has a shorter cap sleeve option) and holey lace pattern, it's just warm enough for for keeping the chill off in over air conditioned places.  The details raveled here.

  

Here's a close up view.

 

The yarn is Artfibers Satori (wool, mohair, silk blend) in the most glowing amazing shade of cobalt blue, imaginively called color #4.  I bought the yarn on my very last trip to Artfibers in San Francisco.  They closed the store in Janaury but you can still order yarn on-line.  I've heard rumors that they may be opeing a store in Pinole, CA, but I don't know anything for sure. 

Anyway, let me sing the praises of this pattern.  Easy, top down raglan (no seaming, try it on as you go).  The lace pattern is simple and for very little effort you can amaze all the non-knitters in your life with a fancy looking pattern.  The muggles were just ooohing and ahhing  like crazy over this sweater.   Ysolda's patterns are just excellent. 

It's been a while since Stella made an appearance on the blog.  Here she is.

 

Apparently, this broke neck legs everywhere positon is very comfortable for a sleeping dog. 

So glad it's Friday.  Have a great weekend. 

Squid Island

The deadline knitting I mentioned in the last post is a hat.  Normally, a hat is knit so quickly it wouldn't need a deadline.  This hat is a bit more complicated and more of a pain in the ass.  It's the Giant Squid hat.

 

The hat has 10 tenticles (8 short and 2 long).  Currently I am knitting tenticle #7 and feel like I am hitting the wall with this hat.  This is worse than being stuck on sleeve island.  After tenticle #8, I move on to the eyeballs, then the 2 long tenticles and finally the top portion that gives the hat its squidness. 

Why am I knitting such a ridiculous hat?  And out of ass-crylic from a chain store?  Seriously though, this ass-crylic is not so bad.  It feels almost like wool. It's no Malabrigo but it's ok for ass-crylic.  It's not repugnant. The yarn (and I am deliberately ignoring what brand it is because I don't care) has Vana White from the Wheel of Fuckheads Fortune on the label. 

Liam is wearing this in the Children's Day Parade on August 1.  This year's theme is Under the Sea.  I will be marching as a Jellyfish, Stella as a Great White Shark.  Mr. Kim is driving the trophy truck as he usually does.  I haven't even started on my costume or Stella's costume yet.  Neither one will be knit.  I'm going to be flexing my crafty muscles with paper mache, cardboard and paint. Oy vey.

When I'm not knitting the Squid, I am happily knitting away on the Eyelet Cardi.  It looks exactly like the Sitcom Chic cardi but in a lighter weight yarn.  It's the first time I 've used Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool and I like it.  Yesterday I divided for the body and put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn.  The sweater is a top down raglan.  Honestly, I don't think I could bring myself to knit a sweater in pieces.  It would have to be some special magic sweater for me to want to seam pieces.

 

I've also got a FO waiting in the wings which I have never taken a single photo of yet.  I just have to sew 3 buttons on and it's done.  It's the Liesl cardigan.  

Has anyone heard of this ice cream?  It sounds so delicious: Salty Caramel, Goat Cheese with Roasted Red Cherries, Sweet Corn & Black Raspberry, Queen City Cayenne (dark chocolate with hints of cayenne). But it's pricey: $85 for 9 pints plus shipping.  A true indulgence.  But boy, do I want this ice cream BAD!!!  If I have any spare cha-ching, I'm going to order some and have an ice cream tasting next month at WOOL.  The ice cream even has its own blog.

Three Amigos

 

Three single socks knit with yarn from three amigos.  From left to right:

1. Plaint Stockinette. Wollmeise in Thriller (courtesy of Sairy. Thanks!).  When I heard the news of Michael Jackson's death, for a split second, I thought that knitting with a yarn called Thriller may have contributed to his untimely demise. Sure, I control the fate of others with my choice of yarn.

2. Rib Fantastic, Fanny's Fingering Weight in Key Lime (another swap yarn, this time from Katie.  Woot!)

3. Charade, Scarlett Fleece in Olives & Pimento (a thank you gift from my work friend for teaching her to knit)

I'm pretty gung ho to cast on for the second socks but I have some deadline knitting which I don't want to discuss right now.  Photos soon.

Last week's business trip to Puerto Rico was amazing.  I finished what I had to do early which left a whole day for lounging by the pool and on the beach. 

 

The sun is so strong down there.  Despite dipping myself in SPF 30 and staying in the shade, I still got some color.  Now I am pasty white instead of ghostly white.

Today I'm having a knitting lunch with Risa and then tomorrow I'm going to the Adirondacks for  a long weekend.  My life is damn good.

Happy 4th of July! 

 

Blog Constipation

So Misa accused me of having blog constipation.  That was the final straw.  So I pinched out a  loaf made a mosaic featuring highlights of May and June. 

Here's some of what I've been doing:

Donuts have been knit, I went to Maryland Sheep & Wool with Yvonne & Melissa (and met Pam among lots of other awesome people, none of whom I got on "film"); spent Memorial day in the Adirondacks, finished 2 pairs of socks; knit a Mason-Dixon dish cloth for my Mom; made soap; got another knitting tattoo; went to Pasadena, CA for work; frogged the Cinzia sweater and burned a tangled mess of evil yarn; ate at a bizarro truck stop; ate cupcakes; knit lots of stuff, like these socks in progress. And of course, I have been busy over at Flickr.

Next week, I'll be in Puerto Rico for work so regular blogging (at least once a week) will resume when I get back. 

Cold Watermelon

Yesterday Paige tagged me.  Here's the rules:

1. Take a picture of yourself right now (I broke this rule and waited until I got home to take a photo)No primping or preparing. Just snap a picture.

2. Load the picture onto your blog.

3. Tag three people to play.

That's it.  Here you go:

 

Eating watermelon in the dimly lit kitchen.  Somehow if you don't turn on the lights it doesn't seem as hot.

I am going to tag: Misa, Tina, and Becky.  If you don't feel like it, don't sweat it.

Speaking of sweat, damn it's hot.  The heat is fueling my sock mojo so that's good.  I started 2 new pairs of socks but haven't photgraphed either one yet. 

My Monkey sock is languishing.  It's at that stage of the foot where you try it on to see how close to beginning the toe decreases you are, then you knit and knit, try it on again and notice that the sock hasn't gotten any bigger.  You keep knitting and again the sock stays the same size.  More knitting.  It's officially a knitting black hole. 

Drive By Blogger

Thought I would pop by this neglected blog and leave evidence that, while I'm not blogging, there is lots of knitting going. 

 

February Lady Sweater is done.  The fit is superb and this is a sweater I will wear all summer over t-shirts.  It will keep the A/C chill off me at work and on the train.  The yarn is Dream in Color Classy, Spring Tickle.  I used about 3 1/4 skiens.  I made the small size and knit sleeves and length a few inches shorter than I normally would because this yarn grows a lot when blocked. 

 

Here's the full length view.  Ravelry details here.

As if that weren't enough, I aslo finished a pair of socks.

 

The Ampersand Socks.  I love them and they fit so well.  The yarn is STR mediumweight in Froggin. Raveled here.  This pattern is a great stash buster for STR mediumweight.  I might make more of these.  When I go to MDSW next week, I am not buying any STR!!!! No way!   

As Porky Pig said: Bney bney bney bney, that's all folks!

Vatican Pie for Easter

 

Stick a fork in this pair of Vatican Pie socks cause they are done.  And just in time for Easter.  The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug, Vatican Pie colorway.  Pattern is  Bluebell Rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch.  Raveled here.  I keep calling her Sharlene Church, which is kinda appropriate with the Vatican Pie yarn and it being Easter in a couple days.  

My sock mojo is strong so I cast on for a pair of Monkeys.  This is perhaps my favorite sock pattern by the awesome Cookie A.  You can never have too many Monkeys.  I seriously want a copy of her new book, Sock Innovation.

 

The yarn is Fannie's Fingering (heh heh heh) in Fall Flowers.  The colors remind me more of candy or Easter eggs than fall flowers. 

Here's some Stella for you.

 

She's licking her chops and waiting for the Easter Bunny.