Bye, Sam. We'll miss you.

You were the best dog ever.

Posted by Elli at 12:09 AM | Permalink

Today this blog turns two. Mwah, mwah, etc.

there are more than two needles in this picture

I'm making you a present, but it's not done yet. Want a hint? Here.

p.s. it's cold out. and I'm a little grumpy. i'm going to go make cocoa. but imagine that I got all sentimental on y'all, ok? thanks, you're the best.

Posted by Elli at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (52)

I've been back from Washington for almost a week now, but it's never too late to share a few pics. All told I got to see my two lovely sisters, the wee nephewling, my parents, and my cousins Jessica and Liz. So there was much fun and maybe a little less knitting than expected. The knitterly upside is that the cool, drizzly weather meant that we could break out the handknits. See if you can spot them all!

Krick learns a thing or two from Elliot, child prodigy; couslings!

Pop and E. brave the corn maze; drooly baby punkin goodness.

Mum, a crisp chardonnay, Baby E., yours truly, and Sam the dog.

Elliot street; Monster Jessi Knits!

An excellent mushroom; a familial handknit extravaganza.

Knits featured in this post: knucks (still waiting on a FO report), the as yet unblogged twiggy bobble hat (hmmm...Spun Mag seems to have let their domain expire. I'll leave the link though, in case it comes back. Who can fathom the mysteries of the internets?), the garter stripe scarf, the mossy baby sweater, and Kricket's Luna Park Socks. Oh fine, you can't see the socks in any of the pictures...but I swear Krick was wearing them. And while we're at it, I got to break in my plain old socks as well.

For those curious among you, the couslings and I did squeeze in a trip to Cultured Purls (right after the trip to the salmon hatchery) in Issaqua. Souvenir yarn and needles were dutifully purchased.

Posted by Elli at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Looky, it's a hat! A hat that's been finished since August (oh, the shame). Time to get caught up on the FOs...

Hello. I will stun you with my fuzzy rays.

The Specs:

-Pattern: Marloes Sand Hat, from Rowan 40.
-Yarn: 1.5 skeins of Lang Breeze.
-Needles: Size 13, and size 10.5 dpns (those were the largest ones I had).
-Start to finish: Two evenings way back in August, 2007.
-For: Me!

This is the best modeled shot I've got. Yes, I know it looks like I belong in the primate house.

Notes:
The yarn was a gift from my MIL last February. My first reaction was, of course, "YARN! Woo-hoo!" My second was "hmmmm...it's a bit on the, um, fuzzy side...and the colors aren't exactly what I would choose for myself." So into the stash it went to await its destiny.

Fast forward to a Sunday evening in August. I reallyreallyreally needed a fast project and I had my eye on the Sand Hat. Bulky yarn is severely underrepresented in my stash so when I dove in all I came up with was the Lang Breeze. A bit doubtful of the appropriateness of cables knit in novelty yarn, I decided to cast on and figured I could aways give the hat to Kricket* for Christmas if it came out looking completely dorky.

I knit the hat. I tried it on. I fell in love. It's soft and snuggly warm and best of all, it looks good on me. I have no idea why, but it works. So there you have it. I love my hat. The only question I have now is: does it need a bigger pom?

If I stand in a prickly tree can you imagine it's winter?

Final Verdict: Utter bewilderment and inexplicable fondness.

*my designated recipient of odd and/or experimental knits. Sorry, Krick.

Posted by Elli at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)

For those of you curious about these things, here's how eleven hours of traveling breaks down into fingerless gloves:

0:00, some Rowan Felted Tweed. Yum, yum.

2:06, Indianapolis airport

4:50, Minneapolis/St. Paul airport

11:02, in the car somewhere between Seattle and Sammamish

By the time I'd reached my final destination, I'd executed a tubular bind-off on glove number one and begun the ribbing on glove number two. So almost, but not quite, finished. Not too bad, right?

Especially since the project made my flying time about one thousand times more enjoyable. Delayed plane? No problem! More knitting time for me. Sullen, silent seatmate who makes me move so that he can use the lav. three times on a three hour flight and puts the armrest up so that he can encroach on my space while he snores? No biggie. My knitting keeps me sane.

And deadline knitting (even the self-imposed type) is great for steering you clear of those sleepy pockets that exist only on airplanes. You know...the ones that make you take accidental naps from which you wake with a buzzy head and toxic breath. So even though I didn't quite get to the end of the project, I AM A WINNER!!! Yes indeed.

Posted by Elli at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)

So today I'm hopping a plane to Seattle to go see the fam. As we all know, there is nothing quite so boring as hanging around airports and being stuck in narrow seats...especially when traveling alone.

Hello. We are unrelated to this post.

In an attempt to spice things up a bit, I'm giving myself a knitting challenge. Here are the details:

Who: Me.
What: One pair of knucks, exactly like the ones I knit (and lost) last year.
Where: In any car, airport, or plane between Bloomington, Indiana and Sammamish, Washington.
When: Today!
Why: Because it's going to be cold out there.

Think I can do it?. See you on the other side!

p.s. thanks for all the needle advice. I'll let you know how things work out.

Posted by Elli at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)

See here the most recent spoils of thrifting:

Hello, we are all rosy and domestic.

Among other things, you'll see a circular needle which closely resembles the beloved Addi Turbo. The tips are steel, the cable is some sort of super-flexible rubber tube, and they're lovely. Also, only 50 cents! Much more affordable than the traditional A.T. Does anybody know what sort of needle this is? Maybe some sort of Addi Ancestor? Any veteran knitters out there who encountered these back in the day? I thought that all vintage circulars were supposed to be terrible, substandard things. Apparently not.

And speaking of Addi Turbos, I recently bought a pair of their new uber-pointy lace needles. It was a bit of a splurge (geesh those things are spendy) but they're supposed to be so wonderful and make lace knitting a dream, blah, blah, whatever. Anyway, yesterday I pulled them out to swatch and I only got as far as the cast-on row before I had to put them down because of the reek. Am I the only one who can't stand knitting with these? It's the same metallic smell that some cheap jewelry has. Yuckkus. The worst part is that I bought them on vacation, so I'd have to drive 6 hours to return them. Bah.

Thoughts? Advice? Words of wisdom?

p.s. I just smelled a pair of the regular Addis, and they're stench-free.

Posted by Elli at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)