Trish Knits.com

Tag: Yarn

Hip to be Squares

third square in progress on the blanket

fourth square done

As you can see, I’ve been busy with the knitting! Over the last several days I’ve completed the third and fourth squares on my Noro Kureyon Babette. I was feeling all accomplished-like, until Her Highness the Tween pointed out to me just how many squares I have left to do! I think, though, in a similar way that people say entrelac is never boring, neither will these squares be, despite the miles and miles of garter stitch. Watching the strips of knitting magically become squares as the center double decreases are made, is just enough entertainment for a simple girl like me. I can’t wait to be showing this project off as it grows and grows.

I Bought a Skein of WHAT?

vitreous humor eyeball yarn
So, do you think I’m crazy that I actually WANTED this yarn? Would you believe me if I told you I’ve been wanting and waiting for it for TWO years? (The waiting was some small amount of self control on my part.) Yes, I’ve always loved things that would make people look twice, and the first time I saw this yarn I knew that one day it would be mine. Of course, the classic line I’m telling people is that it’s perfect for my standard witchy Halloween costume, but the truth is, I don’t think I’ll need to wait for Halloween to wear something made from this baby!

For those of you who haven’t seen this yarn before, it is Vitreous Humor, by Insubordinknit, a.k.a., the wonderful Jacey Boggs. Grossness aside, this is a lovely work of artistic handspun. It is beautiful and soft, and the felted eyeballs? Well they do give the yarn that certain something! The whole thing is a work of art. It is all at once beautiful, and a pile of sadistic muppet roadkill. That makes me love it all the more! Perhaps I will knit it up in time to wear it to Maryland Sheep and Wool. That is, if my friend Steve will be seen with me while I am wearing bloody eyeballs around my neck.

We’ll see.

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March 3, 2009
Mine Enemy the Yarn

I am just about fed up with knitting right now. Do you see this yarn? It mocks me. I’ve been trying to make a mitered square a la Vivian Høxbro, and for some reason, no matter how easy it seems, I’m always messing up. Somehow one leg of my square is always bigger than the other. They’re supposed to be, well, square, which would, of course, imply that the sides must be the same size. Why, oh why can’t I seem to count?

I have this goofy idea of making a mitered square knitted version of the Babette Blanket, where, instead of crocheting individual squares, I’ll be knitting mitered squares and knitting them onto each other as I go. I’ll use the basic layout of the Babette blanket as my guide, and various colors of Noro Kureyon yarn. I can see it in my head. But this first square is going to be the death of me. I’ve started it, and ripped it out completely, twice now. I’d love to see this idea starting to take shape, but here I am, months into the project, and I still only have this yarn ball to show. Can you hear its maniacal laughter? Dr. Demento is running through my head right now. (“They’re coming to take me away, ha ha, ho ho, hee hee, they’re coming to take me away.”) Shut up. You know you hear it. Stop laughing at me.

My daughter, on the other hand, is having much better luck with her knitting. Tonight Diana knitted two more little hearts! Only this time, she got my huge bag of polyfill out of the closet (we call it, “monkey butt,” in honor of the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Monkeys that I hope to knit and stuff their butts with it someday… ok, don’t ask). So she made this teeny little heart pillow as practice, because she wants to make a bigger one. I think she’s getting the idea of the heart shape down. Cool, huh? My daughter is a knitter!

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February 23, 2009
I Just Had to Knit Something New

ruffled edge of Pfeiffer Falls scarf

I’ve been needing to start a new project for carrying along, since I finished the knitting portion of my most recent hat. A couple of posts back I mused about the Pfeiffer Falls Hooded Scarf in the current issue of Interweave Knits. So yesterday I started it, after spending nearly a week reading and re-reading the pattern. I admit that I still don’t understand the construction of the thing entirely, so I am having to trust that the pattern is completely correct and just follow it. I’m hoping that the light bulb goes off soon. Thankfully the designer, Anne Kuo Lukito is on Ravelry and a knitalong will begin soon. I suppose that I knit so slowly that this head start I’ve got going won’t matter much. I’m looking forward to working on this project together with a group.

Hey, look at the new pet that the postman brought me today!

Wollmeise

It’s my very own skein of Wollmeise! Now, I think most folks know I am NOT much of a sock knitter, but I do love me some nice yarn. And I hear people get so worked up about this one that I just wanted to see what it was about. A fellow Raveler had some in a colorway she thought I might like so we struck up a deal. And now it lives with me.

The skein is very generous, which I noticed right away. The yarn itself is very soft too. Perhaps I’ll make myself a scarf with it someday. But really, sometimes I just buy yarn for yarn’s sake. This one is so lovely to pet I’m half inclined to adopt it as my new teddy bear. There’s plenty of time to decide what it will be.

Ciao for now… off to knit a bit then pet my yarn. Then bed. All this new president stuff has my head spinning. In a good way, but honestly I’ve been too excited to sleep. Good things are coming… I can feel it.

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January 23, 2009
New Year, New Yarn

Wait, you didn’t actually think I’d have one of those silly “I won’t buy any new yarn this year,” resolutions, did you? Moi? Uh huh.

Well, ok, technically, it was last year when I bought it. And it came today! Yay! What is it? Why it is this pile o’ loveliness:

seven shades of Dream In Color Classy

When Sheri at The Loopy Ewe wrote last week that they had the Dream in Color Classy new shades of yarn in, I thought I’d click on over and check them out. As you can see, maybe I shouldn’t have! The colors are so yummy and warm and they looked so nice together that I had to have a bunch of them! These guys are destined to be a Tulip Baby Sweater. No, I don’t know of a baby to give them to. But eventually there will be one, and I will be ready. (Did I mention, sheepishly, that I actually have a Tulip Cardigan Kit waiting to be knit up already? Shhhhh…. we won’t talk about that.) At least this way with full skeins of each color I should be able to whip up some matching booties and a hat. Or maybe a whole other sweater with the stripes in a different order.

Ravelry Now a Household Word

My nearly 13-year-old daughter loves to make bottle cap art with Klutz Capsters, and asked for more bottle caps in her Christmas stocking. They arrived a little late (Santa was backordered) but she did find them in her stocking on New Year’s Eve and has already made a whole pile of new bottle cap art objects. “What do you plan to do with them, Diana?” I ask. I got a shrug and a giggle for an answer.

She dumped her collection of bottle caps on the floor tonight for me to see them all, and she said, handing me two of them, “Look, mom, isn’t this the Ravelry dog?”

Bottle cap art with Bob

Oh my! Bob is everywhere! Ok so maybe these aren’t as cute as the real thing, but hey, my kid knows who Bob is! I think that means I’m too obsessed with my knitting community. But, hey… there are worse things that could be.

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January 2, 2009
Knit Picks Goodness

It came! It came! I finally received the Andean Chullo Hat Kit from Knit Picks today:

Andean Chullo Hat Kit

I can’t wait to make this, but I do have a couple of other things to work on first. But I wanted to go ahead and get the kit now, because it seems that Knit Picks doesn’t keep it available all the time so I had to wait a while to get it. The kit includes 9 balls of Palette and a pattern, which I can’t recall whether it’s similar to a pattern that I bought several years ago but I’ll have to try to find that one and see. This one does appear to be more detailed, if I remember right.

Also in the box today were two hanks of WoTA Bulky in Blackberry:

Wool of the Andes Bulky Yarn

I thought I might use this in my afghan of domino squares, which is an ongoing, long term project. There were also some size 0 needles in the box, in about every cable length size available, because I recently learned how easily one of those toothpick-thin things can snap. There was also a book, but more on that at another time.

On the Home Front…

We had a glorious weekend with my DH’s family. They were here for Thanksgiving Dinner, which was a rare treat indeed. The last time all of my DH’s siblings were together for a Holiday, my now 12-year-old daughter was in preschool. (We were all together for a weekend in January of 2006, but there was another addition to the family shortly thereafter that some others in the family hadn’t even met!) So, it was a good time. Mostly the cousins all had fun playing together. The youngest, now two and a half, really enjoyed playing on my son’s train table. It was better than just about anything to him, except he did say last night that he wanted to sleep in his own bed.

Tonight he did get to do just that, because everybody parted ways this afternoon. Who knows when we’ll all be together again? I do hope it’s sooner than three years from now!

Before they left, though, the cousins all got together for a “grandchildren portrait” that my mother-in-law wanted. All of the kids did great! My DH and I decided that since we were taking our kids to the studio that we would dress up and have our own portrait updated:

Family Portrait, 2008

It seems strange to me that my little girl had to bend over so far to be near my head. Where does the time go, that she should be so grown up?

And me? I see a diet in my future.

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November 29, 2008
A Tale of Stitches

Yesterday I had the good fortune of attending Stitches East in Baltimore, with my friend Dina from knitting group. I really had a great time! It was different from attending the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, because that show has a decidedly more local, and small farmer, flavor. This was fun because I got to meet so many people, vendors and friends, who came from all over for the event.

Almost right away I met Tina Whitmore from KnitWhits, which is one of my favorite pattern stores. She happened to have the blocking tiles set on hand, which I purchased and I also picked up a pattern and a little kit for a felted flower. It was great to meet Tina, too… whose work I have admired and much want to learn how to do. She and I seem to have a similar sense of color, which is, I think, what attracts me to many of her designs.

Trish and Alison Hyde

At long last, I got to meet the one and only Alison Hyde! Finally! We’ve been writing back and forth online for years, so it was really great to meet her at Lisa Souza’s booth. It was clear that this wonderful lady has many fans! She’s the author of Wrapped in Comfort: Knitted Lace Shawls, and I have the book already and aspire to knit something from it someday. In fact, one of the ladies who she made a shawl for was also there, and she was wearing the actual shawl from the actual book. That was fun to see! Anyway, it was fun to finally meet Alison and the great Lisa Souza.

At some point while I was in line at one booth, an announcement came over the loudspeaker that Vivian Hoxbro would be on hand to sign her latest book, Knit to Be Square: Domino Designs to Knit and Felt. Well, since I am a newly converted fan of Domino Knitting, I decided to make a break for it and head straight over. Vivian was a delight to talk to, and she was even wearing the abstract stole (Ravelry Link) from the book. It was cool!

I got the new book and she graciously signed it for me:

Knit to Be Square book cover

Knit to Be Square signed on the inside

I even had my very first Vivian Hoxbro square from my Mitered Square Babette Blanket in progress in my purse, and I was able to show it off. She commented that my fist square was HUGE (it is!) but I am going for a really big blanket. I guess we’ll see how it turns out!

Of course I got lots of yarn! There’s one more hank I got that isn’t in these photos, because Dina has it (phew… I thought I forgot it somewhere!) but I’m sure I’ll see her soon. As always, click on the photos to see a larger version and to read more details about each photo.

Knitters Blocks blocking tiles

three different shades of Noro Kureyon

Lisa Souza wool in purple and periwinkle

Valley Yarns, burgandy and cream

Silk Garden Chunky

felted flower kit and spool of gold tinsel thread

TessYarns Merino Superwash in Purple

This was such a great day! It was my first time at Stitches and I found out on Friday that next year, the convention is moving back to Hartford. So it will probably be my last time at Stitches. So, I’m glad I have so many fun people and yarn memories. I guess they’ll have to last me a while.

Thanks to Dina for taking me to Stitches East! I had a blast! I just wish I could say that I can’t wait for next year.

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November 9, 2008