Thanks-knitting

Hi everyone! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was very nice - a great meal with great conversation. We stayed in town, so the only transportation was a Chicago city bus. Suits me since I hate traveling on Thanksgiving. Anyway, it was a nice day and a relaxing long weekend.

I have two knitting news items for today:

1) Have you ever used the Yarn Search feature on Elann? Elann is a great source for discounted yarn, but the Yarn Search feature is terrific for holiday gifts. For instance, I am looking for some gold yarn to make a small scarf for a family friend. The Yarn Search feature lets you pick fiber content (e.g. cotton, wool, wool blend, natural fibers generally, etc.), gauge, color, season, and yarn brand. I chose the color, and let them do the rest. I found Elann Champagne, the perfect yarn at the perfect gauge! It's inexpensive, too!

2) Finding the perfect yarn brings me to my second item: finding the perfect pattern. Surely you have someone on your list who would love a handknitted item. And just as surely, your knitting list is already overflowing, so you are looking for quick yet beautiful projects.

Look no further! Shobhana has a great lacy scarf pattern that will whip up quickly. (click on her name to see how fabulous hers looks!) And through Dec. 31, she's donating a huge chunk of the proceeds from pattern sales to the Mongolia Project at F.I.R.E., the folks who ship all of your fabulously warm Dulaan items to their needy recipents. They need mucho cash to ship to Mongolia. So buy a pattern, knit it up, and keep your loved ones and the people of Mongolia warm this season.


Besides, everybody's doin' it....

Breaking Radio Silence

Hi all,

I've been away for a while. I've been knitting quite a lot...but this last week at work was a total bear. My bloglines has tons of new posts to read. I feel like I am limping toward Thanksgiving.

Anyway, at long last, I have pictures of the gold & leafy sweater. Here's the hanger shot:



And the being worn, headless shot:



The yarn is Cascade 128 Tweed in the color Maize. (the color in the first picture is pretty accurate.) I highly recommend this yarn. It's really soft and sproingy, and a great value (at least where I purchased it, Loopy Yarns).

I was worried about the neckline, since I didn't plan out the decreases very carefully. But it turned out fine! I just cast off each piece, picked up stitches and knit one row, and then bound off.

So, there you have it. I'm working on another sweater too, a top-down cardigan. I have to admit - the lack of seams is intoxicating! It seems like my progress is super-fast with this method, and it seems to use less yarn. Is this true? Anyway - I was going to try to use a different color for the neckline, hem and button bands, but then I chickened out. Maybe on my second cardi - I've actually never done a buttonband before.

This reminds me of a knitting realization I recently had: The two most difficult things I've tried to knit are both unfinished. They rank high in difficulty (for me) because one is my first two-color project (the felted bag), and the other is the Norah Gaughan hoodie with the lace border. Do you have this problem too? Or, when you're working on a challenging project, do you just plow through until you're finished? I know knitting is supposed to be fun, and it is. But I can't help but feel like I should try to push myself more.

Anyway, catch up with you later! Hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to the holiday.

Some Knitting News

It seems like there is so much going on in knitting, and I am forever learning about more cool things - so I imagine some of you feel the same way. So here are a few tidbits I've come across lately:

Knitalongs:

• Knit lace in Lacevember! http://lacevember.blogspot.com/


• Knit with Noro this month in Norovember. Sign up at http://minxknits.blog-city.com/

Lion Brand now has luxury yarn! They are offering three new yarns, one in cashmere, and two mohair/silk blends (the latter are even hand-dyed)! What is the world coming to?! (grin) Check it out here.

I love shopping online at Purl in New York City. Now they have a blog, the Purl Bee, that explores all kinds of quilting and knitting projects, techniques, new products, and even reviews of art exhibits and books. Recent posts have discussed vintage quilt designs and the work of Elizabeth Zimmerman.

I have been waiting for this! Vermont Organic Fiber Company is offering organic knitting wool, called O-Wool.This yarn is spun from 100% Certified Organic wool and is processed in accordance with the Organic Trade Association's Fiber Processing standards. They have a policy of not buying wool from farms where sheep are mulesed, meaning this yarn is cruelty-free. O-Wool comes in a great set of rich colors and has good yardage.

And a special newsbite for Chicagoans: The MCA, will be hosting Stitch n Bitch once again, on the first Tuesday of every month from November through May from 5:30-8 pm in the café. I went once and had a great time - I'd love to do it again.

And in my personal knitting news, the gold and leafy sweater is done! It just needs ends woven in and a photo shoot! Very exciting...

Election Day

Washington, DC - Election Day, 2004
If you have hopes and dreams for this country and the world, please vote today.

What I've Been Up To

Blogger hates me! I posted this week, I really did! But I don't think anyone could see it.

Anyway, that just gave me more time to make progress on my sweater. Here's what I've been up to:


This is the front, pre-blocking; I've also finished the sleeves. I'm now working on the back, and then it will be time to sew up this puppy!

This is not my own design by any stretch - it's more of a 'pinch of this, ounce of that' from a number of inspirations. This project has given me an even greater appreciation for people who design their own patterns from scratch! If I were to do it again, I would move the lace panel over so I could have done another decrease or two at the neck. (I didn't really think about that beforehand.) I'm still not sure how the neckline is going to pan out - I wanted a simple boatneck, maybe a row of crochet - but if it falls off my shoulders I will have to do something a bit higher to cover up the decreases.

So, I should have an FO shot for you soon. This weekend, though, I will be occupied: my best buddy M. is coming to visit from San Francisco! So I am really looking forward to that. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

(Blogger, don't eat this post!)