Knittypants

Look what I charged to my husband's credit card!

My husband commented that is wasn't really accurate for me to title posts What the Mailman Brought. He pointed out truthfully what happens is I order and pay for the yarn, the mailman only delivers it, it's not like the mailman is bringing me presents or something. So, I thought he might like this much more accurate post title instead. Although, when I showed it to him, he didn't even crack a smile! Men! I ordered most of this from Kpixie except the book and the latest Knitscene which I ordered from Knitty-Noddy.

 

Lanaknits Allhemp3 in Deep Sea for a Lacy Little Top.

Blue Sky Alpaca Silk in blue. This will become a Flower Basket Shawl.

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Manzanita for the Petticoat Socks in Weekend Knitting. I love the color of this yarn, my eyes just drink it up.

Claudia's Handpainted in Chocolate Cherries. I am so happy to have this yarn! This is the first yarn I've stared at, drooled over, dreamed about, deeply coveted, lusted over, hunted down, ect. I suppose that one day this will become socks, but for now it's a trophy in my knitting collection!

Patterns and one more of the Karabella Vintage Cotton to join the rest hanging out in my stash. These will have to marinate for a little while, but I do have plans for it. The blue will become Vintage Cotton Lace Tank you see here, and the rest will become a Stripes Go Round Tee from Interweave Knits Summer 2004.

And last of all, Knitting on the Road and both the Knitscenes. I decided to get the book because if I am going to collect sock yarn I should probably plan on making it into socks one day :-) The Knitscenes are not quite what I was expecting, those Interweave previews can really mislead me. They have some cute ideas in there and I will probably knit some of the little sweaters out of the newest one. Must lengthen though, these patterns were not written with mothers of three in mind!

Pink or Orange

I need your help.

I really like Audrey and have been planning to make her for a while now. I still have some birthday cash burning a hole in my pocket and I think I am going to blow it on Calmer for the sweater. I want to use the same shade as the model is wearing. It's called Coral. Sorry, my picture isn't very good, there is a better one here. My quandary is, everytime I think about buying this yarn I get nervous. When I think of the color Coral I think of the color orangish Pink. Now, almost all shades of pink look good on me, but orange looks like death on me. When I go Jannette's Rare Yarns she describes the shade as a deep pink, so it sounds pretty good , but when I looked on Yarndex, it says that the Coral color is orange!! When I look at the color cards Coral looks like a redder pink to me than Blush which looks like a much more vivid pink. I just don't want to get it if it's orangish. The color on the model looks lovely and definitely pink but I would love to have that verified by someone who has seen it in person. So if anyone has seen it and wants to describe it for me, I would appreciate it so much :-)

Getting There

My Vintage Cami is all knit up. I still need to weave in ends and seams the straps, but I am getting closer. After I am done I think I will block before doing the crochet. I think it will be easier that way. <

I am going to do the trim in this cream, should look prettier than doing it in the same color as the body. I am feeling rather apprehensive about the crochet. The only other time I have crocheted was for the trim on my Go Everywhere, Go With Everything Cardigan, but honestly, it wasn't a good job at all. I tugged it in place for the pictures, but it tends to curl. I didn't care so much on that project, I really just wanted it to be finished, but for this one I want it to be pretty. I guess I had better start practicing... And get myself a crochet hook.

Here is the start of Cheesylove's second sleeve. Whew! Knitting wool in the summer is sticky business. Still, I am going to keep at it, maybe I will be able to have both of these finished up in the next week or so.

Looky What I Got!!

I received this in the mail as part of a swap with Knitpastis. So much fun, the pretty bag, she made with Rachel Ashwell fabric. It's so lovely and feminine, I feel so pretty when I am around it, I realize that's silly, but still it's true. And yarn! She dyed yarn for me and it's so yummy. It's even called Rasberry Truffles and it does look good enough to eat. I wish I had a better picture of the yarn, but my camera wasn't working with me, but if you look on her blog she has much nicer pictures. She also sent me a card, and some little gift tags for me to attach to gifts. Very thoughtful. Thank you, Knitpastis, it's wonderful. I'm sorry my posting has been so erratic of late, we had computer troubles and then we went to the lake to celebrate my dad's 50th birthday. I've been having lots of fun, but busy, busy, busy. Things will calm down here now, so I will keep my blog up to date much better :-)

The Great Exchange

Here are the washcloths my daughter and I are exchanging. Kaelen's is her most challenging project yet! She didn't lose any stitches, there are no holes except the ones that are supposed to be there, and it's a perfect square shape. She's on a knitting high right now and has started a bib for her sister with plans for a Booga Bag and a drop stitch scarf in the future :-) Hers is made with Pachuko Organic Cotton, mine is leftovers of the cotton chenille. I had to make the petals a little bit smaller, but I had plenty of the center color.

Here's a picture of my triumphant knitter, she is the sweetest blessing to me :-)

Bits and Pieces

Above are two flower washcloths, I gave to a visiting friend and her baby.

This is my progress on the Vintage Camisole. You can see my extra decreases made a sort of wedged shape. I think it turned out nicely. The only thing I would do differently is, next time I think I would plan my decreases to come to a bit more of a point at the waist. Then the wedge shape would be more triangular, and I think that would look nicer going into the increases. As it is, I think there is a bit of a jolt going from the double decreases to the single increases, but it's not bad enough to make me rip back or anything.

I just think these are cute, they are the leftover chenille from the above washcloths. They remind me of little rosebuds. I think they are cute enough to leave alone, but Kaelen has informed me that she wants a washcloth, too. She even offered to trade me for one she has made, well I would be crazy to turn up that offer, so these will have to go on the needles soon.

Vintage Cami

I have started the Vintage Cami from Artisokka. My original plan was to start Green Gable, but I didn't have the right needles. Then I was going to knit Glampyre's Tubular Camisole, but, again, I didn't have the right needles. Ok, I will be ordering some needles. Anyways, I do have the needles for the Vintage Cami, so Vintage Cami it is. I have a plan with this little top, not only do I want to get a great fit in the boobal area, but I also want to have a great fit in the hippy bummal area. So I took some measurements, and I was honest with myself. Sigh...my bum is big. And my boobs aren't. So my problem is that while my upper half measure 34" around, my bottom half measures 36". That's not actually so bad, easy enough to modify that, but I am also short waisted. Tops need to measure 14" from my armpit or else I look stupid, feel fat and won't wear them. Again, easy enough, just lengthen a little right? Wrong, see my hips measure 36" at a length of 12" inches from my armpit, but once I add the 2" of length to get 14" and the illusion of a long waist, well then Bam! all of a sudden I am 38" around! Man, I wish I could share some of that bounty with my upper half. So anyways, I am trying to knit this cami, to fit my body,  but preferably without a constant line of increases from my hips to waist. Right now I am planning on double decreases to my waist and than single increases to my bust, I am hoping that works and doesn't look to obvious. Anyways, I will show you after the weekend what I've got. But, first I'm going to knit a washcloth. My friend is visiting from Switzerland tomorrow with her brand new baby, and I want to tuck  a couple of washcloths into her gift. I actually have all the petals knit now, so I will just spend the next little bit of the evening finishing the center, and then I can spend some more time on the Cami. And I found another top I like Licorice Whip by Blue Alvarez. Poop! I don't have time to knit all these sweaters, but Blue Sky Cotton is soooo soft, and I covet the Thistle color. I am going to daydream about it for a while :-)

Shell Border Tee Done!!

Yay! It's done, done, done!! And I love it!!

Plus, my husband was in a picture taking mood, so I have lots of pic to show off and most of them include my head :-)

This pic makes me look so curvy, gotta love it.

Another pic, just because so many turned out.

And a headless close up. This is Lanaknits Shell Border T-shirt in Aubergine. I made a few mods, lenthened it by a few inches, added some waist shaping, and I added an exra repeat in both the hem and the arm borders to give me some room. I used 4 skeins for the smallest size and had a decent amount left over even with adding length. If you make this top, knit on the smaller side, the fabric really loosens up. The hemp feels so nice and drapy now that it's been through the washer. Plus, nice and cool, I know I will be wearing it a lot this summer.

Magic Loop??

I was feeling a bit rushed with my last post and forgot to mention Pixiepurls did a blog spotlight on my sweater lengthening tutorial in her latest podcast. I feel very complimented :-) I had never listened to a podcast before, lots and lots of listening fun. It's episode 10 if anyone wants to check it out.

I think I might have magic looped, or something like it. It happened when I knitting this cloth, an accident that happened because I was too lazy to dig out my dpns. I don't know if I did it right, but it was neat.