Schacht Fleece Farm had a open-farm day today, so Huan-Hua and I took the opportunity to drive south of town and soak up a little of the charming farminess. They have cute little Icelandic sheep, and today was shearing day.

Dude. You're next.

Nekked sheeps.

Huan-Hua and a guard llama; one of the cool old silos.

As the sun moves, so moveth the chickens.

Baa.

The sun was out, there was a lovely breeze, and I did not get chiggers or poison ivy. A perfect afternoon, and the perfect way to say goodbye to September, if you ask me.

p.s. Thanks for all the nice noises about the herringbones. Worry not; a pattern will be forthcoming.

Posted by Elli at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Look! Mittens!

Does looking at herringbone make you dizzy too?

The Specs:

-Pattern: An Elliphantom original.
-Size Knitted: Elli-size (read: biggish).
-Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted.
-Skeins: Less than one skein each of Deep Charcoal (M-06) and Silver Sliver (M-130).
-Needles: Size 7 dpns (size 6 for ribbing).
-Start to finish: September 9 - September 25, 2007.
-For: Me!

From the bottom up: ribbed cuff; eyelets to accommodate crocheted cord and large pom-pom; striped thumb; herringbone goodness.

Notes:
I've wanted to knit myself some mittens ever since the too-small-squirrel-mitten incident of 2006. So a few weeks ago I grabbed some leftovers from the stash, took some inspiration from the thrifted herringbone fabric, and got cracking.

Improvements I've made since the squirrel mittens:
-These fit! It's a nice touch.
-Worsted-weight yarn for a quicker, thicker mitten (heh. that rhymed).
-A ribbed cuff for extra snuggyness.
-The traditional thumb. I've determined that my thumbs are too, how should I put this...drumstick-like for a tab thumb).

Other than that, they're pretty similar to the squirrel mittens. (read: they're fair-isle and the tops are shaped similarly).

The Yarn:
The mohair content in the yarn makes it ill-suited for a lot of projects (too itchy), but it might just be made for mitten-dom. Lots of fuzzy snuggliness inside these double-stranded babies. If they full up just a little bit over time they'll be darn near impervious to wind and weather.

Respect The Pom.

Final Verdict: I'm so pleased. La, la, la...

Posted by Elli at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (64)

Hi there. We are lovely, lovely, lovely...

Good mail yesterday! Freshly married Ms. Moon Tea Julia sewed me a fantastic little bag-lette, which is just the right size for a sock project. So cute! Can I say again how much I love it when people sew things for me? And how birthday contests rock? She also sent along the Amy Butler Swing Bag pattern, which I adore, as a consolation prize for waiting while she sewed it. Not that I was in need of any consolation, but I love it all the same. Yay! Thanks, Julia!

In other news: as the phlegm is still in residence (though much better than it was), all I've managed to knit this past week is the herringbone mittens. Pictures soon.

Posted by Elli at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

Hi there. I'm unblocked.

Why is it that when I get sick it always happens on the weekend? Just for once I'd like to be nice and sick on a Wednesday. I had so many lovely knitting plans, not to mention that I've had to cancel a playdate with Wen-wen. We were going to go thrifting. I was going to make pizza and cupcakes. Bah.

Do me a favor and have some fun and report back to me, K? I'm in need of some vicarious thrills.

Here, have another photo.

blockitty, blockitty.

p.s. grump, grump.

Posted by Elli at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)

I went into the weekend thinking that I'd see how much of the Chicago cardi I could crank out, but I got a little sidetracked. What's new? I did finish the back though:

Hello. I am soft and smooshy.

Saturday morning was devoted to thrifting:

Fall colors and fabrics!

There is enough of the blue and white herringbone to sew a nice-sized project (am I crazy to want a jumper?) and the tweedy orange wool is destined to become a cushion.

And just when I thought my days of bringing home odd balls of thrifted yarn were over, two skeins of vintage alpaca/nylon found their way into my basket (they're sneaky little things). I reskeined them and gave them a nice wash to get rid of the fusty smell and now they're ready for action...whatever that may mean. Then there were some vintage pattern pamphlets and zippers that didn't make it into the picture. A darn good trip for $4.83, wouldn't you say?

Inspired by the fabric, Sunday afternoon I decided that I had to knit some herringbone mittens. Here's where I was by 5pm:

Hello. We are fuzzy-wuzzy.

The yarn is some leftover lamb's pride worsted and I'm making things up as I go. We'll see if it works!

Posted by Elli at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)

Look at me...blogging two days in a row. Wheeeeee!

39 down, 15 to go.

In honor of it being 98 degrees out (how did we have such a beautiful Labor Day weekend and then return to this?), I'm flashing my Christmas knitting again.

I know I said that I was going to knit all 54 florettes before starting in on the actual sweater, but I lied. I got sick of them. I figure I can either glare at the flowers or make progress on the back. Easy choice, I say.

Greetings. I come in peace.

[Also pictured: the stubby tote I finally caved and bought for schlepping the knitting about town (and I have to say that it coordinates nicely with the current project and my pear needles). Shael still has a few left (on sale!) at her Etsy shop if you're on the market for a small-project knitting bag.]

I like to celebrate the advent of fall by pulling out my vintage taped-off-tv videocasettes of Ally McBeal, so I'm off to go knit and do a little singing along with Vonda and the crew. Over and out!

Posted by Elli at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Ack! It's already the 3rd of September...time to get cracking on that whole blogging resolution.

The siblings came down from Michigan to spend the long weekend at Chez Knitalot. There was lots of sisterly bonding and baby-cuddling, as well as a large chunk of time spent being terrorized by yellow jackets. Pretty much every time we ventured outdoors (dinner outside, the lakeside picnic-lunch, and wine and cheese on the winery deck), the entire yellow jacket population of southern Indiana descended.* It was like The Birds, except without Tippi Hedren and her scary hair. Or birds, for that matter.

Here are a few pics from the weekend. Knitting coverage to resume soon.

Rae and HRH the Nephewling; Kricket's embroidery floss

Krick with her embroidery, before the deadly diet coke disaster of '07

The bag Rae sewed me for my birthday; angelic nephewling with rice cereal

I'm off to enjoy what's left of my 3-day weekend (by which I mean: knit). Over and out!

*we eventually discovered that yellow jackets love red wine and diet coke above all other beverages, which may explain why they they spent a lot of time following us around.

Posted by Elli at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)