It seems that I have finally caught the ick. How do I know? Aside from the normal signs (scratchy throat, lymph nodal swellage, headache) I've been exhibiting knitting symptoms. Most noticeably the fact that I've just spent the last four hours knitting the same row.

I kid you not. It was like my life was on some sort of crazy sisyphean loop: *calculate increases, knit said increases, notice mistake, unknit, reknit correctly, change my mind about how the increases should be spaced, unknit. Repeat from * until delirious. And to make the whole experience just a little bit more trippy, I had the same song on repeat the whole time. And those of you who have ever listened to Billy Joel's Goodnight Saigon for four hours will agree with me that someone should have stopped him from rhyming "soft soap" and "Bob Hope." For peetsake Billy.

And since the knitting I'm doing is of the secret variety, you get a picture of last weekend's baking experiment:

Hello. I am heaven with a hole.

Recipe here. Don't fool yourself into thinking that they are any healthier than the deep-fried variety...they just don't make your house smell like an all-night diner when you make them. Also less danger of grease fires. Safety first peeps.

Posted by Elli at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)

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 (51)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Confession: Somewhere along the line I seem to have lost the ability to crank out a blog post.

I used to just throw something up on the blog and go. Now it takes me an average of 2 hours to write a blog post. NOT GOOD. I do realize that I am quite possibly the world’s slowest writer, but that’s insane. Besides, no amount of editing or rewording will ever disguise the fact that I have only the vaguest ideas about the proper use of the comma. Or grammar in general, for that matter. And not every photo will be perfect. Because, hello! Expecting my cracked Crapshot 200 to take beautiful non-blurry pictures all the time falls under the heading of Not So Reasonable.

A slightly blurry butterfly pic, taken Tuesday

Among other things, I’ve got multiple un-blogged projects started and a couple of FOs I’ve been sitting on. Not to mention all manner of other knitterly minutia that could use a little blog-time. Time to get back in the saddle.

So! My September resolution is: blog more; obsess less. I am optimistic.

p.s. This post only took about an hour to write. Improvement already!

Posted by Elli at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)

It's my birthday, so I made you a present!

Hello. We are knitterly mailing labels.

Instructions for use:
1) Go here to download the pdf.*
2) Save a copy.
3) Print.
4) Cut apart.
5) Inscribe with address/short poem/recipe/instructions to your dogsitter/short message.
6) Affix to package/letter/knitting basket/significant other/whatever else you can think of, using tape/rubber cement/paste/mucilage/static electricity, or your adhesive of choice.
7) Enjoy!

*Requires Adobe Reader, which can be downloaded for free here, if you don't already have it.

Posted by Elli at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (80)

Good mail seems to come in clumps around here. I'll go for weeks with nothing more interesting than a bank statement and then I'll hit a happy patch and something nice comes almost every day. Lately things have been pretty terrific in the mail department...

Hello. I totally rock.

Circular needle case from Dan of Spin | Knit. I won his blogiversary contest and I'm not ashamed to say that I totally played to win. You're kinda jealous, aren't you? Maybe he'll make some and put them in his shop if you ask nicely enough.

Sample-sized Soak packets from Chris in three promising-sounding scents (citrus, aquae, and a scent for celebration). I plan on doing a very faux-scientific review of these when I get a chance. Maybe next week? Everybody loves a good product test.

Rowanspun Aran, for the next big sweater project...which I'm already six inches into. Any guesses? Clues: it's for me, and it's cabled (what a shocker)!

Posted by Elli at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

1) I finished sewing up Demi! There won't be any pictures until I locate some buttons and do a little seam-steaming, but she's almost there! Do you know what this means?

2) I am down to ONE unfinished project! Just one! I'm still a little shocked about this. This in turn means that...

3) I can finally start some new projects! Swatching has ensued. Plans are being made for yummy projects which involve...

4) Stashbusting! This is some Alpaca Cloud I overdyed on Sunday evening. It used to be "sunlight heather" (aka blah beige) so I took care of that with a whole pile of lemon and orange flavored koolaid. I am really happy with the results and I'm hoping that it'll be just right for the project I have in mind.

And since we haven't had enough babies around here lately...

5) The nephewling is cute. So is my dad.

Posted by Elli at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (30)

We just got back from a weekend in Michigan with the siblings. Very preggie Rae and the rest of my family have been going to town on the baby crafts. Here’s a little preview*

Progress has been made on the cabled baby sweater. No pics today. I have made the unfortunate decision to rip back seed stitch from the top. Those of you who have tried this will know what I’m talking about.

In the meantime, a Shameless Plug: Tonight, Thunk’s brother , on TV. Vote if you feel so inclined.

*No, I have not taken up crochet. Rae made these.

Posted by Elli at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Guess what? Thunk's saddle shoulder aran cardigan is finished, blocked, be-buttoned and ready for action! Unfortunately, we still haven't gotten out to do a photoshoot. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to distract you with some pictures of the unexpected knitting-related surprises that have shown up at my door lately. It's been like Christmas over here, people.

First there was some yummy yarn from my MIL. You know you've got it good when the in-laws start sending unsolicited fiber.

I am soft and fuzzy.

A couple of days later my friend Deb swung by bearing a copy of the 1943 Red Heart classic "Woolies for Babies" which, aside from having the single most petulant-looking baby in all of creation featured on the cover (though you can't blame her as she is sporting the Wynken, Blynken 'n' Nod Toe Toasters, Hug-me-Tight, AND Cuddly Cap), has a couple of patterns for "Soakers" inside.

For those of you who haven't run into a soaker lately, it's basically a pair of wooly underpants for your baby to wear over a cloth diaper (which explains the name, though I'm told it's not really as gross as it sounds). Anyway, my pregnant sister Rae (pics here, if you need a refresher) has declared that she's going the anti-disposable route and wants some soakers. I've found a few patterns online, but if any of you have soaker experience and can share any tips/recommendations/favorite patterns/whatever, just drop me a comment or an e-mail. This would be a good time to point out that I've finally put my e-mail up in the sidebar over there. Took me long enough, didn't it?

But back to the mail. A little over a week ago, I received an extraordinarily lumpy package from my cousin Jessica (pic here if you need a refresher) and this little guy was inside!

Hello. I am here to kill you with my adorableness.

Think he's cute from the front? Just wait until you see his little backside:

We decided to call him Max for obvious reasons. Tee-hee.

Posted by Elli at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)

We're leaving town folks! I'll be checking in occasionally, but you may not hear from me until we get back on January 6 or so.

Happy Holidays everybody! Keep the blog warm for me.

Posted by Elli at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I know that as a (nearly) grown woman I'm supposed to start having a more adult attitude towards birthdays and be, you know, poised and stuff. But I'll be the first to admit it: I love presents. There are so few times in your life that you know, for certain, that as soon as you do something (open the box or bag or envelope) something nice will happen.

Some of the best ones I got this year were ones my family made for me, so I thought I'd show them off.

Apron, sewed by my big sister, Rae:

In case your curious, Rae says she got her inspiration from one in Amy Butler's new book (link with small pic of said apron here).

Watercolors, by my Mum:

Embroidered Pillowcase, by my little sister Kricket:

Er, yes...that would be my nickname. Why do you ask? Focus on the sheep. See the sheep?

And if that weren't enough, I also was the recipient of a really fabulous swap package from Philippa:

I am now the proud owner of my very own British hot water bottle, complete with hand-drawn instructions on how to use it by P's little sister (this was the item that got the swap started...don't laugh at me), French tea and soap (you have never smelled anything so delicious), beautiful vintage knitting needles for my collection, and some v. cute polka-dotted lightweight corduroy fabric to play with. Thanks so much, Philippa!

Posted by Elli at 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

In a few minutes we're off to Michigan for my baby sister Kricket's wedding. She's marrying Ross on Friday. (See how cute they are? Awwww...):

[Obligatory shot of back when we were little (elli, krick, rae).]
She's now a fabulously lovely young lady who I love dearly and somehow still can't resist embarrassing in a public forum. All the best, Krickie-poo!

After the wedding it's off to stay on the lake for a few days, so I'll be gone for about a week.

On to business. With the help of the random number picker, I am happy to proclaim Christine the birthday contest winner! (Christine, I've sent you an e-mail, so go check your mail!). For those of you who are curious, I turned 27 this year...and 27 got the most guesses, so I must act my age!

Ok, out the door with us. See you in a week!

Posted by Elli at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I hope y'all had a lovely weekend...I did! I started up a new project but neglected to take any pictures for you. So in the meantime, hoof it on over to Hello Yarn and take a gander at Adrian's fabulous mittens. This is the first pair (that I'm aware of) that anybody has made using my pattern. So thrilling! I just love all the little additions she's made.

And, since it's not a blog post if there's no picture, here's a preview of things to come:

Posted by Elli at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Yesterday marked six months since I started blogging here. Time flies, eh? I'm not going to get mushy on y'all or anything, I just thought I'd rest on the old laurels and get away with posting pictures you've already seen. To be perfectly frank, I'm a little surprised at how much I've accomplished in my spare time.

On the Weekender Bag front: I'm. Still. Cutting. Out. Pattern. Pieces. Last night I could possibly have finished all the cutting, but I accidentally slashed myself with the rotary cutter (these things tend to slow down production). Don't worry; I didn’t bleed on the fabric. I mention these things purely to elicit sympathy. At any rate, I hope to have something to show for it soon.

p.s. Thanks for all the sweet comments about the Apricot Jacket! I expect you all to go out and make one now. Send me pics.

p.p.s. A big thank-ewe to Thunky for all the programming/proofreading/photographing he does for me. It's a thankless job being the man behind the knitter. Yes indeed.

Posted by Elli at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

I had a v. excellent time with Wendie at the Fleece Fair yesterday. There’s really nothing better than spending hours meandering through booths of knitting and spinning stuffus. I pretty much just took pictures of animals. (So did Wendie…she's your gal if you like the cute baby bunny and lamb shots).

We cruised all the booths a couple of times and then fortified ourselves with fair food before making final purchases. I managed to be fairly restrained, and only bought things that I can't normally find around here. Aside from some needles and a pound of white merino roving, I got some Romney lamb's wool in a lovely chocolaty color:

The owners of the booth had wound all of their rovings into beautifully spherical eight ounce balls. I'm such a sucker for presentation.

The least expensive thing I bought:

A copy of Wool Gathering #63, the Saddle-Shoulder Aran Cardigan. This fetching design has the much-coveted spousal approval necessary to become the next Thunk Sweater. Besides, I've wanted to knit an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern for ages, and this fits the bill almost perfectly (almost, because the pattern is by Meg Swanson, not EZ). Close enough, I say. I'm going to finish a few other projects that are hanging around before starting this one though.

I'm off to go work on the Apricot Jacket, but I'll leave you with a shot of Cold Sheep:

Posted by Elli at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are exciting things afoot at Chez Elliphantom including, but not limited to:

-The Indiana Fleece Fair is on Saturday! Plans are to meet up with Wendie and (try) not to spend too much money. It's not Rhinebeck, but it's ours. Anybody else going to be there?

-I joined the Sew? I Knit! bag-along. Yes, making the needle case woke the sleeping seamstress within. Don't worry. I'll be making a knitting bag. Well, technically, you could argue all my bags are knitting bags. I'm sewing the Weekender Travel Bag by Amy Butler. Hugely ambitious, possibly disastrous, but oh so cute!

-I bought some vintage grosgrain ribbon at the thrift store this weekend (see pic above) and want to make something cool with it. Anybody have any ideas? I may possibly make a belt, but (horizontal stripes about the midsection not always being the wisest fashion choice) I'm open to other possibilities.

-Progress continues on the Apricot Jacket. Unfortunately I don't have anything to show since I had to rip out two evenings worth of knitting today. It should be noted that, when one copies down errata, one should copy out ALL of it. Not just some of it. Bah.

But I am very upbeat about it. Yes indeed. Over and out.

Posted by Elli at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Have you seen the new Vogue Knitting preview? I'm loving some of the spring sweaters...

The jury’s still out on this one:

It looks temptingly Delphine Wilson-esque, but I'd want to close the front and make it symmetrical.

I'm also intrigued by the knitted corset they show on their homepage. Not enough to knit it, but enough to be wondering what it's made of (hopefully not wool) and wondering how warm it would be. Of all the knitted undergarments I've seen lately, this is one of the less odd looking ones.

Things are still busy as all get-out at chez elliphantom--hopefully by this weekend things will have calmed down and I'll have time to get some serious knitting in. All I've had time to do this week is knit a bit on the Juniper socks, and work on the mitten pattern which, as you might have guessed, has turned out to be a whole lot more complicated than I anticipated. I've got a bit of pattern-writing learning curve to overcome. Maybe by Friday? I have to stop reading so many blogs...

Posted by Elli at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I am so knitting this. Just as soon as I finish Demi, that is...

Posted by Elli at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For those of you out there who like these things...you can now stick me in your sidebar.

You know the rules.

Question: why is there no standard blog button size? Or am I just not in on the secret?

Posted by Elli at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I haven't forgotten about Demi, see? I'm into the armhole shaping.

Things are cruising along slowly but surely...I'm still pretty chained to the chart so I really only work on her at home. My only concern is that she might be knitting up a bit on the narrow side, but I'm trusting that a good blocking* will straighten things out.

By tomorrow I should have some finished Octo-Socks to show you. Aside from that, things have been a bit slow on the knitting front. I'm still regrouping from Christmas (read: doing all the stuff I put off so that I could knit presents). I also spent a good chunk of this weekend shopping and making plans for redoing the living room which, if you remember my knitting spot shot, is currently a bit dismal. This is what I've got so far:

-The background fabric is one of the set of curtains I found this weekend at Urban Outfitters.
-The pictures (still frameless) are the Owl Notecards by Susie Ghahremani from her shop at boygirlparty.com.
-The fabric swatches are for this couch (green for the sofa, hounds tooth for the throw pillows). We're also still trying to figure out if we should get the matching chair or if we should find a different one.

I think that should brighten things up a bit! Now I just have to be patient, as it will take 6 weeks for the sofa to arrive. I guess I'll just have to knit to pass the time...

*in case you're curious, I decided to return the blocking board. The store we ordered it from is being very nice about it so far.

Posted by Elli at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I promise, this will be the last Christmas post until...well, probably next August. I'll need to get started that early as I seem to be incurably ambitious when it comes to Christmas Knitting.

So how did the whole Christmas knitting thing pan out?

Finished (on time):
-Pop's Vest
-Mum's Laurent
-O's Trellis
-Lou's Socks
-Ross' Beanie

Running Behind:
-Thunk's Sweater. It's still sitting forlornly next to the couch. I got a little disillusioned with this one when I blocked it and things grew in unexpected ways, so I was more than happy to abandon it when Thunk decided that it was more important to finish O's Trellis. The new goal is to have this one finished by T's birthday, which is February 8 (I think). That should give me plenty of time (I hope).

And I've neglected to show you the knitterly things that my lovely family gave me for Christmas:

They are: Knitticisms, Handknit Holidays*, Knitting on the Road, Yarn Harlot: the secret life of a knitter, Alterknits, a pretty tape measure, yarn cutter, Lantern Moon needles, and a scarf and tam knitted by Thunk's Grandma Betty. Oh yes, and a blocking board! That would be Thunk's doing.

One question for all of you blocking board owners out there. On one end of my board, the grid pattern is poorly printed. A comparison: Nice end. Not as nice end. Is this normal? Should I return it? For what they cost I was hoping for something a little bit nicer. What do you think?

p.s. I was wrong. DWTS is on tonight (not last night). Vote for Jonathan and Anna!

*Just to eliminate any confusion--I removed the dust jacket from Handknit Holidays. I didn't get some secret edition of the book with a different cover.

Posted by Elli at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Angela very kindly tagged me for the Knitting Spot Meme way back on December 8. This was right before I was swallowed up by the Holiday Knitting Vortex. This meme does not appear to have any rules, which is nice.

That would be my living room. Yes, indeed. Noteworthy Items:

-cd/tape player. I listen to thousands of audio books. If the public library stopped carrying books on tape I would have to stop knitting. I'm always on the prowl for new ideas...does anybody have any favorites? I'm willing to give anything a try as long as it isn't too depressing or bloody.
-Laptop. The source of many things Elliphantom.
-Octosock the second. On the needles, folks. I'm now up to the heel.

I'm going to tag Lyn, Julia, and Wendie.

p.s. Don't forget to watch the premiere of DWTS tomorrow night. Why? To support Thunk's brother and sister-in-law, of course! (end of shameless plug)

Posted by Elli at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Well, we're back home again! Christmas was celebrated with my family in Seattle this year. Actually, we were in Sammamish, but have you ever heard of Sammamish? Didn't think so. But I digress...remember how I was afraid my Mum's sweater wouldn't fit?

It fits! And so does Pop's vest. I think we can safely call this a Christmas knitting success.

And in case you haven't had enough of Christmas yet, here's my entry for Carola's Christmas Excrescences Contest:

Continue reading "Success!" »

Posted by Elli at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Just a quick post to let everybody know that I'll be MIA for the next week or so. We're off to Mexico for a week on a cruise ship with Thunky's family (nice Christmas gift, eh?).

Trellis is coming along nicely. Hopefully I'll have some nice sunny FO pics to show off when I get back!

Posted by Elli at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We're back! Michigan was fab.

It was lovely. I woke up early every morning and drank tea while I knitted and basked in the light of the Christmas tree. It sure beat going to work. I was able to finish the Laurent fronts (sans button bands) and make some headway on the sleeves. I would have gotten more done if I hadn't been frogging every five minutes. Knitting with people around equals me ignoring the pattern and making whole sections up. Maybe it's good that I don't knit socially very often.

Saturday afternoon the three sisters were observed crafting in their natural habitat. Kricket crocheted her boyfriend scarf, I knitted...

and Rae prepared lessons for her physics class. While this is not a traditional needlecraft, she gets extra points for doing work over a holiday weekend while the rest of us were having fun. Yay teachers!

What else did we do?

Continue reading "Home Again" »

Posted by Elli at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Yay! It's a fresh new blog! Considering I've been fiddling around with this since August (well, Thunk has) it's high time I started posting.

Things are still a bit wonky but we'll get it figured out soon, I'm sure.

Posted by Elli at 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)