here is another scarf that i made and like.

realism

realism

realism

impressionism

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    It's supposed to start snowing in the next few weeks, and since I've already had a few weeks of Canadian winter I know how fucking cold it's going to get. I love the cold, and I thrive well in it. It's more comfortable being cold than too warm and sweating and gross and is my makeup running/this sucks. However, It's my goal to walk the few blocks to school when I start in January to get in some music time and to add a little more daily exercise, and in order to do that I need extra warm clothing. The highest it will get from November through March is about 15F. The last time I was here I only brought dresses, some half-assed coat and a flimsy scarf. How cold could it get? Really, really fucking cold. It feels like the tears will freeze in your eyes. Today I found this nice scarf/hoodie that will minimize the amount of stuff I have to wear. 
    In other news, Scott and I live across the street from an elementary school and when we went outside to get some paperwork out of the car (we have to park on the street near a really college busy bar street which makes virtually no parking on weekends) we found the most fucked up thing you could possibly find near a school of children besides a dead child or a pedophile. We found the wrapper of a dildo, maybe a fake vagina left RIGHT FUCKING OUTSIDE the small chain link fence. I mean, kids exit that way to get to the bus and they probably all herded past it today. I wanted to throw it away before the woman with two kids crossing the street could see it but it could have been a fucking murder weapon for all I know, or it could have had semen or something on it. Seriously? They couldn't wait to get home to open that damn thing? Unless it was a gag gift, there was no reason for that to be outside unless some creepy asshole was using it where I park my naive and sensitive car. I was raised in LA, and I'm not overly disturbed by finding condoms and shit everywhere, but this is Canada and it grossed me out.

Hoodscarf

Gross

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cubism

cubism

cubism

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in the summer, i knitted a bunch of scarves for my future etsy. i finally took pictures today. here is one of them, the wonderboy:

scarf

wonderboy

wonderboy

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used 2 kinds of yarn held together on 10.5 needles:
Tess' Designer Yarns Superwash Merino - color forrest green
Artfibers Golden Chai - color gold/green multi

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I used the following yarns held together:
Artfibers Golden Chai - color red/pink multi
Lisa Souza Petal - color garnet
Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted - color red mahagony
Rowan Kid Classic - color crushed velvet

it's knit on size 15 needles and is just 1 x 1 rib and fringe.

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made with handspun yarn.  here is the pattern.
I cast on 16 stitches with size 11 needles.

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If you're in the NYC area, you must check out the Museum of Arts and Design, specifically the Second Lives exhibit. The exhibit is all about taking found objects (and/or trash or whatever) and making them into works of art. It was so awesome and inspiring.

A dress made of rubber gloves = very nice.

In other news, here are a couple of knit pieces I've completed lately:

WATERCOLOR FROST

WATERCOLOR FROST

WATERCOLOR FROST

I made this scarf with yarn I dyed in soft, light shades of green, yellow, and blue. It's bulky and warm and very cozy.


This is something I finished last night using yarn I spun last week:

RIVER SLEEP

RIVER SLEEP

RIVER SLEEP

It's a Möbius strip cowl. I'm really into those right now. I've made a couple more cowls like that that I've photographed but yet to upload onto the internet.

Möbius strip, in case you don't know:

Möbius_strip

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I haven't been blogging--or knitting--very much lately, but just recently I've become interested in small, handheld looms, like the Weave-Its on the Eloomanation site. With them, you weave small squares, and if my eyes aren't dececiving me, you can actually make a vast array of woven creations with them. (I'm hankering to make a hat, like the one in this PDF pattern book from 1936.)

Potholderscarf

Because it's fairly hard to get a 4"x4" loom (they were popular in the 1930s and '40s) unless you're willing to bid on ebay, I decided to start off cheaply by buying a potholder loom from Wal-mart. You remember these guys. We all probably tried to make potholders with those nylon loops when we were children. But, instead of using the loops that came with my $5 plastic loom, I followed the tutorial by Noreen Crone-Findlay that is posted on Youtube (part 1 and part 2).

Making one square takes about 15 minutes. I chose some Moda Dea yarn, wove about ten squares, and then sewed them together. I highly suggest reading up on sewing techniques because I didn't, and my seams are a little clunky. Oh well, live and learn.

The result is a pretty nifty scarf, if I do say so myself.

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Doesn't a day at the hair salon just change your entire view of the world. Especially when you come out loving your hair style? The last few times I was at the hair salon, and actually for most the times in my life I have left the hair salon with the feeling I would like it in a few days, or it would grow on me. Today I felt gorgeous as I walked out with my Rachel Ray inspired locks. I walked out and went a block down to my favorite park in the city, which is tiny and parked in between a bank and liquor store.

They say the way to happiness is:

• Something to Do
• Someone to Love
• Something to Look forward to

Speaking of D, I did get a reply to my email. In short his email read "Your email made me smile, and i would love to hang out with you as a friend. I'm going through a lot right now and don't want to hurt people I care about. I found this uterus in my car, is it yours?"

Is it a bad thing that as I talk to my ex boyfriend I take a lot of joy knowing his life is so worse off then mine?

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Awhile back I saw a sample scarf in a yarn store that was absolutely gorgeous, but it took me 15 minutes of internal debate to convince myself it was actually knit and not crochet.  Even then I had no clue how to do it – was it knit horizontally? Vertically?   The pattern was advertised as free with the purchase of a skein of yarn…  and of course the yarn was what I consider crazy expensive ($32.95).  So then I spent another 15 minutes debating whether to buy it or not… 

I bought it.

Anyway, get to the paying part and ask about the free-pattern-with-yarn, thinking it is from the yarn manufacturer or was designed by someone in house or something.  The gal turns to the computer, goes to a website, and prints the pattern.  As in, I could have gotten it without buying a skein of yarn if I’d known where to look.  The yarn I bought wasn’t even the yarn the pattern calls for – I’m using Lorna’s Laces ‘Lion and Lamb’ 50% silk 50% wool yarn with size 9 needles instead of what the pattern calls for.  But OMG this yarn is GORGEOUS and SOFT.

Anyway, the pattern looks crazy complicated, but it is actually insanely easy.  After doing the first 2 rows a couple times, I don't need to follow the pattern and I can work on it in autopilot without meticulously counting stitches on every row like my other work-in-progress, which I can't detail here because it is a Christmas gift for someone I know reads my blog.  Anyway, I expect I’m going to make many more of these (using more than one skein of a less expensive yarn) and experiment with making them wider and longer (I like long scarves, and this is going to end up being a fairly short and narrow scarf when its done).

I got this done over a hair appt today.

Imagiknit scarf

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This little girl needed something to keep out the cold!!!

I was knitting this scarf to be adult-sized, but the lace pattern, while pretty, was starting to really get on my nerves.  I had knitted maybe two feet and decided today that it was now a baby scarf!  I added that cool button on one end, and since this is a lace scarf I can button it anywhere, making it the ultimate in adjustable winterwear.  

She is feeling a little better, I guess.  We had no more incidences with the bulb syringe, so that was awesome (for us both).  Hopefully we can ward off future colds with her new scarf ;)

hazel in the lattice scarf

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Using merino 2 ply yarn and stitch pattern 139 (sunrise, sunset) from Vogue Knitting Stictionary.
cast on 21 stitches. (size 10 needles)

and also using FatCatKnits Merino Roving in "industry" navajo plied yarn.  size 10 needles

cast on a multiple of 3 sts
The pattern repeat is just K2, P1 on each side

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So, this is the secret scarf I said I was working on:

GULAR FLUTTER

GULAR FLUTTER

And here's what it looks like close up:

GULAR FLUTTER

GULAR FLUTTER

GULAR FLUTTER

It's made from scrap fabrics that I cut up into strips and then sewed together to use as yarn.
And the scarf itself is RILLY long. Almost 11 feet. It's about 4" wide, too, but it can stretch another inch probably.

I'm a fan.
And I hope you are, too.

So, this is what I looked like when I woke up this morning:

first thing in the morning, 10:42AM

And this was the view last night from my bus stop in Red Hook:

WTC lights

Those are the WTC memorial lights. Not the best picture on earth, tho.
It sorta looks like one beam.

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Been distracted with other stuff around the house. But, making a little progress on the scarf because I can do it in front of the tv.

The malabrigo is really really soft. I love it.

wip: chestnut malabrigo men's cashmere

The colour is a little richer than in this photo, and I'm a little bummed I didn't get more of it. It's Chestnut, a dark solid brown.

Finally took photos of the SWTC Phoenix. It's going to be really airy.

WIP: Black SWTC Phoenix shell

And that's it for now. Have to go watch Star Wars on the new TV!

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So yesterday I uploaded my stash pics over to my knitting Flickr account, and set up my accounts so that Ravelry now knows to use the new Flickr account to look for photos.

According to Ravelry, I've 40 active yarns in my stash now. Eek. A wave of guilt came over me, and I decided to see how many yarns Sharkie had in her stash.

She has 41. Ok. I'm coming in a little under. Let's keep it that way.

FO: cashmere scarf

Anyway, there were a couple of birthdays this week, and I remembered them a little too late to do anything about it. I did start on another Men's Cashmere Scarf in Malabrigo Worsted (Chestnut) but couldn't finish it on time. It's about 50% complete, but I love how soft Malabrigo is. The only problem is that it isn't superwash, otherwise I'd be wearing it all day. I love the Men's Cashmere Scarf pattern - it's simple, structured and classy. And you don't have to use cashmere for it. I did have a little problem with the sides rolling inwards when I did it with the Takhi Torino Print yarn. Have to see what happens when I block the Malabrigo.

SWTC: Karaoke

Another pattern I am tempted to start on is Shrug This. It's a simple one-skein shrug, but I'm probably going to make it longer. I'm not a big fan of the chopped-off look. I still can't decide which yarn to use for it. Maybe the SWTC Karaoke. I've 6 skeins for a total of about 654 yards or so. That's more than enough even if I use 4 skeins. Eek. I'd hate to have leftovers, though. Maybe I should use this for the Ballet T-Shirt. Decisions.

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After a few issues with working out how to cast off I finaly got to the school with my scarf.

The kids didn't notice at first. Then one girl goes... WOW it's THE SCARF! This is mostly because I've spent most of my time at placement knitting due to boredom. A rush of girls come over with exclimations of Whoooaaa.

"That things pretty."
"It looks like you brought it in a shop."

I look at her sideways, "Yes, if you ignore the holes." I stick my fingers through a couple of the holes and wiggle them to make my point. The girls laughed at this, and to my surprise one of the boys defended my awefull knitting. "It's nice. It makes it look like you made it yourself, and you can't realy tell anyway. The scarf is realy good, and you are a good knitter." Ahh kids. Theres nothing better when you need a confidence boost.

One of the girls surprised me by asking if I had used knit or pearl, this is a few seconds after i had spent about 5 miniutes trying to explain the difference to one of her friends. Generaly, they thought I was pretty god like for finishing it in such a short time. I started knitting a new project, and was getting away with it realy well until the visiting priest and R.E teacher tried to kill me with chocolate. First by throwing it at me wayyy to violently to be healthy for a man of god, and then by watching me eat it. I swear he poisoned the thing.

IMG_0067

I was even wearing matching shoes.

IMG_0070

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Bugger. I hate when Vox opens stuff right inside my composing window. Vox, GET A BETTER EDITOR. Or even better, make an offline one. Please? PLEASE? :<

Anyways, as I was saying before it ate it:

Here are the only two (three if you count the hat/scarf set as two pieces) projects I have yet to complete knitting-wise. Louis's hat began as a test piece that began as a scarf (or maybe a doll blanket, I don't remember exactly) that ended up being sacrificed. I sewed up the back, rolled up half for a brim,  gathered the top, et voila. A hat fit for a Horizon. The scarf was made to match and is pretty darn cool-looking, especially because it stripes intentionally, as compared to the hat, which is just randomly colorblotched. Not so pretty. But hey, I had no idea what I was really doing, and it wasn't too shabby for an eighth-grader.

He liked holding the ball of yarn for me. (Perhaps the rainbow theme has something going for it? Nah, perhaps not.) Louis needs his own photoshoot -- along with Lola, and Cardea...basically everyone who's not MKW! ^_^;; Oops.

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Yes, thats right, I finished it. It had alot of holes in it I admit, but this thing deserves three cheers for having an amazing personality. I'm planing to wear it to the school tomorrow just to see how the kids react. Should be an intresting experiment.

193529

And just to demonstrate how much my webcam distorts colours, I present the scarf modelled by the loveley Rascal.

193053

I'll post the results of my experiment tomorrow.

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I swear I've been knitting a lot (predominantly on my Clapotis), but it's just ... weaving is so much faster!

lacy woven scarf

close up of lacy woven scarf

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