Le Slouch, C'est Chic.....

I have been one busy little such & such.

Knitting has been slow. I'm about 1/4 done the second sleeve on Thermal & I'm very slowly chugging away on the body of my Tangled Yoke Cardigan (which, OMG, felted tweed ....I think it's my favourite yarn I've ever worked with)

With all this slow chugging going on I needed something I could shotgun....something instantly satisfying & intoxicating & above all, cute.

Le Slouch!

I was skeptical of how a floppy tam type hat would look on me but after I slipped it on my head everthing was Irie. I didn't have size 9 dpns so I knit this on size 8 & added some extra stitches which worked out just fine. I used some Misti Alpaca from my stash & if I could afford it, I'd knit myself a whole body jumpsuit from this stuff because it is soft as a puppy's ear. This took me 2 evenings of extremely leisurely knitting, including a long break on Saturday night to bid my good friend Michael Adieu.

This photo was taken on New Year's Eve, 2006 - "No tears on New Years!" This was when Michael made me cry because he said I was too talented to work in a bookstore. Amen, brother! (This is also when I was in my 'Caramel Kiss' hair colour phase - a phase which still haunts me, I mean seriously - I want my dark brown hair back.) Too bad I'll be making clothes for plus sized girls & not handsome svelte men, or else this guy would be my muse. Knock 'em dead in Jolly ole England my friend, show those blokes how to wear a neckerchief!

MSPaint Monday

If you know me IRL, then you know that if there's one thing I like about windows (the ONLY thing I like) it's MSPaint. I've decided that I'll start a regular feature on my blog where I share my MSPaint masterpieces.

Today's art:
"Barkey's Tavern"

whoah.

Should cut off my other arm, or actually go through with knitting another sleeve?

It just kept going.....and going...and going. I've cast on for the second sleeve - I have about 2 rows of the ribbing done. I'm aiming for a completion date of Nov. 1st.

Also makes a cozy legwarmer.

Oh, and how lame of me to not link to the pattern source of the knitting bag I sewed up 2 posts back! tsk. tsk.
The lovely tutorial can be found HERE.

Annegurumi

A while ago I joined up with some other crafty kids to take part in a book-club-craft-along. The idea was that we'd chose a book to read & everyone would have to make a craft inspired by the book. We picked Anne of Green Gables! I hadn't read that book since I was a kid so I was eager to re-read it & what a perfect choice too, since there's a ton of crafting all up in that book! They're all knitting or sewing or making pies & stuff.

I made a little Anne doll! Amigurumi style...or, "ANNEgurumi" if you will.

I have only a little experience crocheting dolls, and I made this up as I went along so there are a couple of wonky bits (like, if you were to take off Anne's Wincy dress you'd see that her body is extremely gourd-esque)

I'd say her hair was the most challenging bit - but I'm glad that my technique used up so much of this bright orange acrylic yarn that's been tainting my stash for far too long now. I tried to make little french knot freckles but they just didn't look right - and I also tried to find a little straw hat but I guess they aren't as easy to come by as I had thought they'd be.


I think she's pretty adorable, I'm tempted to make a drunk Diana & a Marilla & Matthew.... but for now, Anne is all I need. And maybe a dress with puffed sleeves.

who loves the sun?

Holy Moley! Drops Jacket mania is sweeping the internet! AWESOME!

The more I think about it, the more I realize that a jacket like this is actually... totally perfect. I can't wait to see other people's jackets! And thanks so much for all the great comments!

Last week I took back the unused balls of wool I had from my Road to Golden so I could get store credit to buy some Rowan Felted Tweed for the 'Tangled Yoke" cardigan from the Fall Interweave Knits. I had the last bit of some gift certificates to use as well -- otherwise there's no way I could have afforded to buy the 10 required balls of this.

I was deciding between this blue/green or a brown and in the end made the decision that I wanted this sweater to be AAAP* so blue/green it is. I cast on Thursday night & have just finished the ribbing. Knitting with this yarn is an absolute dream and I've decided to take my time with this sweater.

The book in that photo was just given to me last night by my favourite book fairy. It's filled with *awesome* socks & lots of really useful information about sock techniques. It also has this...

Instructions on how to do a stitch pattern called 'when doves cry'. WHOAH!

Okay so...on a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it suck to untangle your sock project from your keys, headphones, pens etc when you're carrying it around in your bag? A lot right? I finally got around to making a little bag thing to carry my knitting around in...

It's totally floppy & loppy, but it was made quickly & out of desperation so it's all good. I bought that fabric from Ikea a couple of years ago & made curtains out of it but had some left over.

And inside?



My 'I heart Gansey' socks! This is a great pattern from the six sock knitalong group - you have to sign up with the yahoo group to get the pattern but there's a lot of cute patterns so it's worth the effort. The yarn I'm using is some Fleece Artist Merino that I've had a couple of false starts with but I think I've finally found just the right pattern for it.

And in Thermal news.......sleeve number one is a mere inch from being done. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.



*As Awesome As Possible

Sha-Wing!

Move over, Thermal! There's a new gal in town......

It's the little jacket from Drops design! This jacket needs a better name that simply '103-1'. The pattern has been translated so there were a couple of times when I had to really think about what it said, but overall this was an easy breezy knit which is destined to become a wardrobe staple.

This project was SO FAST and SO AWESOME! It clocks in at about 4 days - The yarn arrived on Wednesday & by Sunday I was seaming it all up.


I am SO INTO this thing - I want to take this jacket out for dinner & dancing & then back to an expensive hotel room for snuggling.

I used about 10 balls of Laines du Nord 'Softlight'. I don't have tons of experience with working in chunky wool, but this stuff is *super*! There's a bit of Nylon in it which makes it pretty strong - I seamed the whole thing with it and it didn't break once. And also, it is so.effing.soft.

I knit the largest size, which turned out great - it's slightly fitted at the top & then flares out with a bit of sass at the hem.

I took a million pictures of me wearing it - look! This is what it looks like when I smile wearing the jacket!

And that's me thinking "damn, this sweater is rad!"

And here's me being all "Why can't you be more like this sweater? I knit this in *FOUR DAYS* Awww, I can't stay mad at you baby..."