Interlude of Supreme Silliness

What do you give the woman who has everything?



A knitted sushi toilet paper roll cozy of course!



Happy Birthday Mama L!

Open Letter To Wendy Bernard

Dear Wendy Bernard (Exalted author of Custom Knits)-

I purchased your book.

This is unusual...I usually check books out at the library, and only purchase if there are at least 3 projects in the book that I definitely want to make. Your book had a record breaking 9...and several others that I might alter...which I guess is sort of the point of the book.

Because I am not used to knitting top-down-in-the-round sweaters (my previous projects all being misadventures in bulky yarns and horrible seaming), I decided to practice the technique on the project that I was the least in love with. (Please note, still in love with it...just not in that desperate, must make, will die with out it, sort of way.) I chose your "Ingenue" sweater. I loved the classic old-movie feel. I call mine the MDM (using my initials to honor of MGM, old movies, and ingenue actresses from ages past.)

Again, because I was not sure how it would work, I was nervous about investing large amounts of money in materials. So, I cheaped out. I bought acrylic yarn from the craft store. Total cost: $7.45.

Well...I am done with it now...after overcoming a minor case of second sleeve syndrome.



AND YOUR PATTERN WAS AWESOME!!!! Very well written, very straight forward, and a joy to follow. I feel confident about making and customizing the other sweaters in your book...and the skirt. I love the skirt.

I don't know if you did this on purpose, but the way the book is actually put together and bound, the pages stay open to where I need them...without me having weigh them down...and without me having to "break" the spine. And it wasn't just a fluke with the Ingenue pattern. Every pattern stays open. Which is wonderful!

What's more...the sweater looks amazing. It is a little roomier than I would have liked (I forgot about negative ease...), but that is my fault, not yours. The fact that it only cost $7.45 is just icing on the cake...imagine how much better the next one will be out of quality yarn! I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it!

(Actually, I have already found the yarn to make "Skinny Empire." I am going to use a silk/alpaca blend. I can't wait!)

In closing: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for writing a quality pattern for a quality sweater with a quality fit.

This was the first project I have made in a LONG time that was free of headache, frogging, and despair!

Thank You Again,
Your Devoted Fan and Admirer.

Must...Not...Procrastinate

I finished MDM...sort of...

...I still need to weave in the ends and sew the neckline facing...

But, rather than do that, I have decided to work on something else that I have been procrastinating on...the second Rivendell sock. I cast it on, like a good little girl, immediately after finishing the first one. I even knit the first 2 rounds. Then came the rounds which required chart reading...and, well...the socks went in the work basket.

This has not only kept me from enjoying/wearing the Rivendell socks, it has also effectively blocked all other sock projects. (I only have one set of sock needles...) Last night I was minorly stressed and wanted to do some sock knitting and couldn't cause charted sock knitting is not relaxing! So, in order to move on to some less intensive footwear, I need to finish what I started.

...and the MDM will be woven in and seamed up tomorrow when I am more awake. I don't want to do shoddy almost midnight work on this beauty!

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Postings

For a brief moment of extreme cuteness:



Psych texted me the above photo of Angel yesterday morning...she is all decked out in her Envy Hat and carrying her Birthday Bangle Bag. I had an appropriate moment of reveling in the cuteness, and then went on with my day.

My day included redeeming my birthday pedicure gift certificate from Psych's family. I went to the nail salon, which was surprisingly busy for a Friday at 3! There were 6 other customers there. I sat awkwardly in the chair, wondering what I was supposed to be doing while my feet were being mucked about with. My choices appeared limited to watching a Vietnamese soap opera or reading trashy gossip magazines. I decided to do neither. I reached in my purse and pulled out a blue Envy Hat to work on. Knitting while getting my feet massaged is my new definition of bliss. (Also, since this hat is being commissioned, and the pedicure was free...I was essentially getting paid to have my toes painted...just saying.)

Anyway, by the end of the day I had hats on the brain. It has FINALLY gotten slightly chilly. It even sprinkled a bit yesterday. So I pulled out the tub-o-scarves (which also contains my hats), and started rummaging. I found my alpaca beret and decided on a whim to wear it to church. (We are having a gospel meeting this weekend.)

When I got to services, I was greeted by Angel. She started giggling and announcing that we matched. (This announcement was accompanied by her pounding herself on her head, in case I hadn't seen she was still wearing her hat.) Yet another moment of extreme cuteness:

A New Style?

I have been diligently working on the MDM sweater, my version of Wendy Bernard's Ingenue Sweater in the book Custom Knits. (This may surprise you since I haven't blogged about it ...silly me!)

There has only been one minor problem thus far...and it was my problem, not the pattern's problem. I forgot to figure on negative ease! I measured myself, and then made a sweater at that finished size, forgetting that you want your sweater slightly smaller than your actual measurements because it is KNIT and should STRETCH a little...so now my sweater is a little roomy. No biggie. (The book actually told me to figure negative ease...I just forgot to when I cast on! This is made more amusing by the fact that this is one of the few projects I have actually made a gauge swatch for...so I went to the trouble to swatch it, but then still figured my sizing wrong...so blonde.)

As of last night, I have the whole body finished and one sleeve. The other sleeve is hanging out on waste yarn waiting for me to pick up the stitches and get going...but I am developing second sleeve syndrome.

I have tried on the sweater. I love how it looks. I even love how it fits, roominess and all. But, with the weather still too warm to wear it, I am starting to lack motivation to finish the second sleeve. I can envision it finished, so my brain is trying to pretend it is. There are so many other projects that want me to knit them right now...

What if I cast the sleeve cap off and just had a single sleeved sweater? Would that be the end of the world? Maybe I could start a new style...

Or not.

Maybe I should stop blogging about the second sleeve and just go knit it.

Yeah. That's what I should do.

*Picking up needles...*

Hat Envy

There is a very cute little girl, Bounce, at church who came to services in a crocheted beanie a couple weeks ago.

The beanie was adorable, very 1920's flapper or 1960's Biba. Psych saw Bounce's beanie and suffered from...hat envy.

Angel had a head, so it followed that Angel also needed a cute beanie. Psych commissioned one the following Monday night. (And since Angel has a tiny head, I went ahead and took it on.) However, lest we be considered copy cats, the beanie needed to be slightly different.

The differences are:
1. I knit the beanie, I did not crochet it.
2. Bounce's beanie was pink, Angel's beanie is cream.
3. Bounce's beanie had a sparkly lame flower, Angel's has a cream knit flower.

Essentially, it is a very very sized down version of what I made for my cousins and I, out of a white merino/alpaca blend from the stash, on size 4 needles. The flower pattern is one I found online here. I started the beanie on Halloween, and worked on it while hanging out at Brother's house. (It was small...and so was portable... with an easily memorized stitch pattern...and therefore a really good travel project!)

I delivered it last night when I was at Preach and Psych's for a bible study. (Poor thing was pretty sleepy when I got there...hence the bleary eyed photo!)

Interesting side note: one case of hat envy has spawned another. I finished up Angel's hat in the break room yesterday...and one of my co-workers decided her granddaughter would REALLY look cute in a blue version...

Happy Birthday

I am breaking with my tradition of taking the 31 or the 1 off, and posting two entries back to back because...

TODAY IS SISTER'S BIRTHDAY!!!!

She is 24.

Sister gave me my first "commission"...sort of...she never actually paid me. Rather, she went to the yarn shop with Mom and I, picked up some yarn and said:

"Hey, this is pretty. Can you make me a scarf out of this?"

Well, I could. So, I did. I think it was officially her birthday or Christmas present.

Though I have made her a purse, a couple of scarves, and a beanie or two, I haven't knit as much for her as I probably should/could. The problem is that she lives in KY, and I live in CA. (Also, I know for a fact that she can knit her own stuff if she really wanted to, she just chooses not to...I mean, why should she when Mom and I will just knit things for her?)

Still...I love her, and am sad that I can't be with her on her birthday.

Looking forward to seeing you soon, Sister! Christmas is only 55 days away!