Color Affection... so close

I am SO freaking close to being done with my Color Affection Shawl.  Blerg.  But my DH has given me his lovely head cold.  Argh.  Well, here is the mass of lace weight alpaca that is my shawl.  Only a few more rows on the border, blocking, and then it will be D-U-N... done. 

Wow, the colors really don't show in the photo above... they look more like this.

Socks

I bought this oh so pretty Madeline Tosh Sock Yarn at Home Ec in Iowa City last May and finally decided it should be socks after all. There has been lots of drama with the first sock though. Cast on #1. Sock too big. CO #2 pooling. Rinse. Repeat. Over and over. I finally ended up alternating knitting from either end of the ball of yarn, but now I have an unpleasant jog and a seam I'm unhappy with. So sock #1 is going to hang out for a while and I'm going to quilt. July and August are starting to be my annual quilting season.

Infected

Yep.  I caught it.  The Color Affection shawl infection like a gazillion other knitters.  Here are some pics of my version in cascade alpaca lace.  

Socks... that don't match

I finally finished my second pair of log cabin socks... and uh... they don't match. Actually, I caught the mismatch before they were done and was just too lazy to frog and reknit. I mean... no one is going to SEE the mistake right? That part of my foot will be in a shoe. : ) I think I like the right foot version better than the left foot. I knit the right foot first.

But really... I knit these socks with the thought in mind that I would wear them with my Birkenstock clogs since they have this neato cable pattern running down the back of the heel. This picture is kind of dark, and wonky, and shows how dirty my kitchen floor is, but you can kind of get the idea of the pattern.

Shit. I just noticed another mismatch in the heel. Hmm. Maybe I should pay more attention to the knitting and less to the TV. I must have been watching something fascinating.

Details: Log Cabin Sock from Handknit Holidays, knit in Cascade 220 superwash shade 1910.

Happy New Year!

View from the top of Green Mountain, Dec. 23, 2011

Bringing in the new year with an MI-5 (aka Spooks) marathon and doing some crafting. A pair of new socks on the needles and a quilt sandwich (yummy yummy) in the process of being hand quilted.

Cotton Hat

My coline knit in Rowan All Seasons Cotton. This yarn was part of my free Rowan International Membership gift ages ago. This pattern worked ok with this yarn, but I definitely think I'll make another in wool.

Habitat

This is my second time making this pattern, Habitat, and I still think it is wonderful.

More Little Socks

Another pair of stash busting baby socks. I just ran out of red for the second sock so the socks are slightly mismatched, but I kind of like them that way. Small imperfections.

Two Little Socks

One Little Sock

Using up some yarn in my stash that I bought when I lived in the UK. This was a fun and fast knit.

I love love love short row heels. I think that might sway me back to top down socks. Not sure I love the short row toe with zig zag bind off, but it works for baby socks.

A Great Knitting Rant

I kind of love this rant.

Grey Slipper Socks

I'm working on a pair of socks right now from Handknit Holidays. I'm thinking I should have used 3.5 mm needles instead of 4 mm needles, but I guess I'll knit the second one to match the first and maybe try the smaller needles if I knit these again. I think they are going to be great slipper socks. And they knit up pretty fast. I'll probably make another pair.

The Big Loop

I finally finished my big loop scarf and I love it. Unfortunately it is supposed to be in the 60s all week so I probably won't be wearing it much! I'm sure it will get cold again though.

The pattern is Encompass from the Yarn Harlot. I used almost all of three balls of Cascade 128 superwash instead of a chunky alpaca yarn. Apparently alpaca stretches a lot and merino doesn't. I ended up having to add two more repeats of the pattern to get the 60 inches of circumference on the finished scarf. Super easy pattern and great scarf. Love it.

Hats for twins

Some simple little baby hats for a friend that is expecting twins any day now! The pattern is from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. The only modification I made was to knit a ribbed band on the bottom in place of the rolled brim of the original pattern.

The Purple Sweater

It only took approximately SEVEN years to get this done. Here it is at long last. I started this cardigan and bought the wool when I was in Oxford. It then went to Iowa, where some progress was made during the PhD. It moved again to Kansas, where more progress was made. Last summer I was on a push to finish this sweater before the cold weather set in. Then I moved again and all the sweater was missing was the zipper. That finally got put in the weekend before Thanksgiving.