Brulee

I love creme brulee.

I love that hard burned layer of sugar atop the rich-fattening-no-redeeming-value-weight-watchers-doesn't-make-points-high-enough-for-it custard.

Also, it is French.

So, naturally, when I decided to make myself a properly sized beret out of the 100% sugar cane yarn I purchased in FL, I decided to name it after this paragon of desserts.

This time I stuck to a pattern that I knew worked for my head, my personal fashion outlook, and the gauge of yarn I was using. (My favorite beret pattern is out of the Hollywood Knit Cafe book. It has divine, yet simple, decorative decreases.)

The yarn is "Sugar Rush" by Queensland Connection. It is uber soft, and uber silky. It is similar to a bamboo yarn in texture...which makes sense since I suppose sugar cane and bamboo are fairly similar plants. The one drawback was that the silky softness made for VERY slippery yarn. I switched needles halfway through from my standard metal Susan Boyles to bamboo circulars. The bamboo was able to get a better grip on the yarn, but managed to not snag it in any way.

The beret is beautiful, and I am very excited to have it to wear to the upcoming "Bongos+Beatniks+Berets" open mic poetry night I am hosting at the library.

(BTW...if you are ever in Orange County, CA you should go to Yves' Bistro for the BEST creme brulee you have ever eaten in your entire life. Or, if you don't like creme brulee...in which case you are clearly some sort of alien...at least try the Nouille Roulet entree. It's my favorite.)

Miss-A's Birthday

Miss-A is allergic to wool.

Which stinks.

I like wool.

Also, other fibers I enjoy (such as alpaca or cashmere) are still for all intents and purposes...wool.

But, Miss-A had a birthday party on Saturday. And birthdays call for handknits.

Just not wool ones!

She had seen Mama L's birthday sushi roll and thought it was funny. Her bathroom is all pumpkins...she is obsessed with pumpkins...much like I am obsessed with the color orange. Also, having been in her bathroom, I had observed sad little naked toilet paper rolls sitting on the back of her toilet. So I made her a pumpkin toilet paper roll cover!

(It is so handy that pumpkins are orange...I had plenty of yarn available in stash for this one!)

I will write up the pattern and post it at a later date.

Port Townsend...finally

I finally buckled down and felted the Port Townsend Purse. Its only been completely knit for what? A year now? (And the award for best display of procrastination goes to...)

The purse is called the Port Townsend because I bought the yarn when I went with Sister to Port Townsend for Memorial Day 2008. (Fun day. Lovely yarn shop. Also, the first time I ever parallel parked...proud moment.)



The yarn is 100% alpaca...which is my favorite fiber, but not one I had ever felted before. (I just like to pet it. A lot.) I think it felted rather well! It is Misti Alpaca worsted in peacock melange and chartreuse melange.

The pattern is original. I like it, but it didn't come out quite the way I envisioned. I ran out of the green yarn before I had the purse body the length I wanted. Port Townsend was too far away to go for more, and the likelihood of finding the same dye lot was slim anyway. As a result, it is longer and skinnier than I had anticipated. I think I will try the pattern again with some greys that I have in the stash. Make a larger, less clutchy purse.

Techno Knitting

I have an iPhone.

I love my iPhone for many reasons: the built in iPod, the built in GPS, constant email access, remote facebook access, internet at my fingertips, high quality camera, etc.

But now I have a NEW reason to love my iPhone: the "EweStash" app.

This app allows me to not only catalog and keep track of all the yarn in my stash by color, fiber, gauge, and yardage...it is also fully searchable, AND lets me take a picture of the skein with my phone to save with the record. It also has a section to catalog knitting needles and crochet hooks.

Needless to say, this is a library knitter's dream come true.

Now when I am out at the store, if I come across a pattern I can make sure I don't already have the yarn at home. And, once I use a skein, I just delete it from the stash!

I am in love.

Parade of Berets

I have been on a beret binge.

First, I made one for Blondie. She has been so great ever since I moved here, truly like a sister. I told her I would make something for her, and so we went to the yarn shop. We originally planned on a scarf, but she was drawn to some alpaca wool that told her it wanted to be a beret. (She had some scarves already, but no beret.) Sadly, she has been camera shy so far...her's is deep purple and similar to Kirsten Dunst's in Elizabethtown.

Next up was my friend Berkeley, who is finishing her master's degree in engineering. I felt that she needed a congratulatory present...especially since she is 1/3 or my new rock band...but what to get her? While we were at Disneyland a few weeks ago with Blondie and Mama Liszt, she noticed the prevalence of berets. She mentioned that she would love to have one, and I pointed out that I could make that possible as her grad present. When we got back to our neck of the woods, I drove her over to Knit This, Purl That. She was noticeably overwhelmed by the variety and sheer volume of choices. She selected a lovely dk wool in variegated rainbow colors. Very South American/ethnic/Berkeley vibe yarn. So, using a pattern that I had previously used from Knit Cafe, I whipped up a beret for Berkeley.

Finally, Jester. Her birthday party was actually the night Berkeley, Blondie, and I returned from Disneyland. I had TOTALLY not had time to go shopping, the poster I planned on getting her had to be ordered online, and I was flummoxed. Then, I remembered what I was doing for Berkeley, and wrote a note on Jester's birthday card. It promised her a trip to the yarn store, a hat/scarf/or wrist warmers, and coffee. She chose a chunky merino wool blend in shades of magenta and red. She also wanted a beret. I ended up adjusting the Knit Cafe pattern to suit a much larger gauge. (In fact, I had to frog most of it when I was nearly done, and re-knit the whole thing, otherwise Jester would have been channeling Strawberry Shortcake! it was HUGE!!!)

The ironic thing is that I finished Jester's beret before I had had a chance to give Berkeley her's, so they were delivered the same Sunday morning. I ended up wearing my alpaca/silk beret to church that night, so that we could be the Beret Triplets! (Blondie was out of town, or we would have been quadruplets!)

So...Who is next? Anybody else feel the need to beret it up? Or, perhaps a more appropriate way of putting it: Voulez-vous un beret?

A Yarn For Every Knitter And A Knitter For Every Yarn

I was walking through a yarn shop the other day and saw what to me was a HIDEOUSLY HORRID yarn. (Said fiber will go unnamed so that no one is offended and I don’t get sued by the manufacturer.) I thought to myself, “Who would buy that, what on earth would they do with it, and why would they even want to?” I kid you not, mere moments later another patron walked through the door, made a beeline for the shelf, and scooped some up. Apparently, she LOVES that yarn and uses it to make some sort of purse. (I still can’t envision that being at all attractive…) This got me thinking though about yarn personalities.

If I were to lay several balls of yarn out on a table and invite the knitters close to me to choose a skein, each would be drawn to a different fiber. This is because not every knitter likes every yarn. We are like addicts with drugs of choice. I can with almost 100% certainty predict what is going to turn on my friends:

NorCal Gal would immediately pick up something soft, probably worsted weight, machine washable, and blue.

Mom would go for a self-striping sock yarn in jewel tones, or perhaps a new color way of dishcloth yarn.

The Aunt would want something cheery, a novelty yarn that she could use in a garter stitch scarf, most likely a chunky weight.

I would look at the ball bands and pick an unusual fiber…or alpaca, anything in alpaca, and probably orange.

Princess or Prada would grab something glitzy and glam…fuzzy or sparkly…and then hand it to me since neither one knits.

This way every yarn eventually gets knit…just not by every knitter.