A whole lot of Harlot

As you may have already heard, the Yarn Harlot was in town on Tuesday. On the weekend, I heard that they would be collecting hats for a local homeless shelter. I wasn't sure if I had time to get one finished, but I decided to cast one on and try to get it finished. Late Monday night, I was getting close to finished, but wasn't there yet.


Felix was feeling generous and decided to "help' me out. He loves to knit.

A little while later, it was done and I was ready to go see the Yarn Harlot.

I got there nice and early so that I would have time to change in to my lovely KOL shirt and be able to get a good seat. I wasn't the only one who showed up early- look at the line-up.

A short while later, some hotel staff with looks of disbelief upon their faces let us into the room. And then...............

Ms. Stephanie Pearl- McPhee arrived. Her speech was incredibly entertaining. It's no easy task to keep the attention of a room full of people, but she did it with grace. And she was so funny at times that I had to stop knitting.

Here's a photo of some of the KOLers waiting around after the speech to get stuff signed.

After all the books were signed, a group of us, Ms. Harlot, and Master & Commander of the Tall Ship Silva headed over to the Victory Arms for a drink.

Much gabbing knitting and laughing ensued. Hey- that's what KOLers are good at! A good time was had by all (especially Henry).

Hi All!

I've been in a bit of a knitting funk lately. The weather is getting to nice to be knitting wool sweaters and I needed a break from socks. So, I stopped in at The Loop on my way home from work on Tuesday to look for some inspiration. And this is what I found:


It's 8 skeins of Cascade Sierra Quattro Colour 80. It's 80% Pima Cotton and 20 % Wool. I love it! It's much cooler than working with wool. I started my first ever top-down raglan*. I looked over a few patterns online, but due to sizing issues with other sweater patterns (*cough* blaze *cough*), I decided to just measure my best fitting raglan sweater and write a pattern up based on that. Here it is so far:

I'm making a v-neck so it will be a while before I join the two sides. At that point I'm going to have to decide if I want to make a pullover or a cardigan. I also haven't decided the sleeve length yet either. I'm thinking full length if I go with a cardigan and short or 3/4 length if I go with a pullover. We'll see. I have a ways to go before I need to decide and I'm open to suggestions.

I looked over a bunch of types of increases and decided to go with the KLL and KRL found here . Here's a closeup of the raglan increases:

And, just for fun, here's a pic of Felix and his freakishly long tongue:

*I've made raglan sweaters bottom-up before, but thought I'd try going the other way.

Stick a Fork in it!!

It's done!!!!!!

A long overdue update

Here's some stuff that I've been working on this year. First up is a pair of Opal Socks worked in a 3x1 rib. I'm pretty sure I used 2.5 mm needles, but who knows. Next up is the cabled grey sweater. It's out of Cascade 220, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool in Colour 7806 on 4.5 mm needles. I've been working on it off and on since the fall, but kept forgetting to post a pic here. I'm hoping to finish it soon and restore my faith in myself that I can finish a sweater that fits me. And, of course, I need to have a sock on the needles at all times. I picked up this Lana Grossa at Tangles Skeins a few weeks ago. I started working on this pattern. But it became apparent shortly that I like to work on socks when I don't feel like counting. So, I frogged it and started again in my olb standby, the 3x1 rib on 2.25 mm needles. Here's a closeup:

Alert the Media!

I finished something!

Details: Rumple Scarf kit

One strand Silk Rumple, One Strand Angel Hair (70% Kid Mohair/ 30% Nylon)

6mm needles

Scarf- 5.5"x 5'8"

What's a girl to do?

I wanted to finish Blaze in time for Christmas so I could wear it to Chirstmas parties. When that didn't happen, I started getting visions of wearing out on New Year's Eve. Today, I didn't care if I ever wore it, I just wanted to get the damn thing done!!! So, I spent the day watching bad tv, knitting like a madwoman trying to get it finished .According to the pattern, I have 1 inch to go before I start the decreases. There's only 11 rows of decreases, so I'm thinking that there is no way that I'm going to bed before I have a finished sweater in hand. That is, until I look down. Yup. That's the remnants of the last ball. Not nearly enough to finish the last inch of pattern, let alone the decreases. I used a yarn substitute, but when I picked up the wool, Mimi and I both calcuated the yardage separately and I bought an extra ball just in case. There is no way I don't have enough to finish. There was only one logical thing to do next- I started tearing apart my storage closet- looking though the stash, throwing old shovels, toolboxes, rubber bins of extra blankets, and anything else in my path out of the way trying to find that extra ball that has to be hiding somewhere. But alas, there is no extra ball. I was feeling pretty desperate at this point and figured I might as well take the sweater off the needles and see if there is some way I can alter the pattern to make it work.
Do you see what I see? It is HUGE in the shoulders. A linebacker could wear this sweater!!! There is about 6 inches of extra material!!!!!I think it is safe to say that I'm not finishing anytime soon. On the bright side, I think that I have more than enough yarn. But, I'm going to have to rip back and redo part of the yoke. I think if I start the decreases earlier, it might work. Or do the decreases dfferently. Something has to work. I've been working on it for too long to give up on it now. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I'm pretty frustrated with the pattern right now, but Felix is still feeling the Blaze love.

Merry Christmas!

I'm heading to Cape Breton tomorrow morning. I hope that you all have a safe and happy holiday!