Stranded.... and LOVING Every Single Stitch of it!!

I am not sure what took me so long.... i LOVE color... the combining and pariring of colors specifically. I have knit for about 4 years now. Everything else in knitting has come super easy to me. So why I have not given stranded knitting a go until now... I have no idea. About 3 1/2 years ago i did some intarsia... which was easy enough. That was the first and last time that I did any kind of colorwork.



I am now working on a secret project that has called for me to give it a whack. And lo and behold... it is ridiculously easy and FUN!! To practice stranding for said secret project I have chosen to make an earflap hat. I trolled around ravelry to find a cool basic pattern that i could throw some super simple blocks of color into. I hit pay dirt when I found the Earflap Hat Pattern Generator!!!!! It's a super cool, and super easy "pattern" that uses short rows to create double thick earflaps. You plug in your stitch and row gauge, the generator does the math and gives you a pattern. Once you have your numbers, then start knitting the inside hem (yes the headband is double thick as well) you knit 3-ish inches, do your cool short row flaps, and then begin the outer 3 inches of your headband. You can end your colorwork there or carry it up to the top of the hat. OR... You can do a three needle bind off and just sport a headband with earflaps.



The yarn for my hat is Malabrigo worsted merino in Frank Ochre. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in Rosado Rose. And Jil Eaton Minnow Merino in Orangini. I used a US #8 addi turbo.

I was so enamored with how the hat was looking right after completing the earflaps.... that i wore it like lion's ears and snapped a pic for the camera.

Yellow Monday Yellow....

Yellow Monday, originally uploaded by punk rawk purl.

I often discover that in my day to day life.... i.e. not planned out... not staged... I end up developing unintended very distinct and striking color palettes.

Today I grabbed one of my MANY coats as I was on my way out the door. I tossed it on the passenger seat... atop one of my MANY hand knit scarves that had been on the passenger seat for a week or longer. I went to place a large package on the floor of the car and picked up one of my FEW umbrellas, which has been floating around in the car during the last couple weeks of insane rain. I tossed the umbrella on the seat... and noticed that the entire seat was glowing!

Today was already an exceptionally sunny day... and my rainy weather gear... kicked it up a notch.

"Be Still My Bacon Heart"

Happy Belated Valentine's Day to all of you!

I knit an anatomically accurate heart for my valentine. And although this Valentine post is belated... the heart was completed well before February 14th.

The pattern is from Knitty... it is called... are you ready for this... Heart. It was a quick-ish knit... or maybe I was just having so much fun knitting it.. and so much excitement knowing that the recipient would adore it that I could not put it down for a minute.

I even knit the whole thing on double pointed needles!!! I could have easily used magic-loop. Which as the entire world knows, i am in love with the loop of magic. But I had so much fun using double pointed needles again. I did use a 32" addi as a stitch holder, I didn't want my addis to feel left out.



As I had suspected... the recipient LOVED it. He has a bacon fetish... well fetish makes it sound sexual... which I don't think it has gone quite that far... but let's just say that he is obsessed with Bacon. So I titled this project "Be Still My Bacon Heart". I made a little banner with the title and our names and the date on it. And of course I did not photograph that before handing this heart over... haha

Bush Removal Headquarters [the local wax shop]

Bush Removal Headquarters [the local wax shop], originally uploaded by gwen.

This morning I had an eyebrow maintenance appointment...

I have been going to Matser Waxing Studio for at least five years. The owner, Tashana Master is a *mastermind* when it comes to the artistry of hair removal. Her eye for detail and balance is right on... my brows are always perfect when i leave. I have others "parts" waxed by her as well... She makes it as painless as possible. She has such a great sense of humor, and every appointment is sure to be a giggle fest. She also ALWAYS has great window displays... always bright, colorful, and lively.

So back to this morning... as I was driving to the shop I noticed that there was a new window display.... all red white and blue... how cool... she was showing her support of the inauguration with her windows... then i read the sign "Bush Removal Headquarters"... how cute... she is showing her specific glee for the departure of former President Bush... as I continued to steer into the u-turn to park.... i GOT IT!

Waxing studio.... bush.... bush removal headquarters... this was Tashana at her genius best!!!

Thanks for the lack of bush and the witty humor my darling!

btw.... she is offering 20% off on bikini waxes for new clients... not sure how long this deal is on... so call to check the details. I believe you can see the phone # in the photo.

Tammy and The Cowl

Tammy and The Cowl, originally uploaded by punk rawk purl.

first post of the new year....
well, first post in a long long long long time!
this is also the first post i have ever done through flickr. it's an experiment... so bear with me as i explore this new to me feature. click on the caption to link to the original photo with all the yarn details.

2009... shaping up to be an AMAZING YEAR!!

-new haircut... which i LOVE! thanks Donna Summers... my hairstylist, not the singer. but why not thank her as well... thanks for the disco-licious tunes to the 'other' Donna Summers

-new friends.... how did i get so lucky?? i am SOOO grateful for all of the amazing people in my life!

-endless possibilities... what else can i add to my life?

Gimme A Hand...

It's been freezing cold lately. I gave away the fingerless mitts that wore on a daily basis. I was out of town, visiting friends & one of the gals really liked them, and they looked great on her... and well, it just seemed like she should have them. Mind you, when i forked them over I was in SoCal & the weather was much warmer. So I am back on the glove kick again. This time I am doing them in sock weight yarn. And this particular pair, to replace my mitts, are going to be real fingerless gloves...

You see, there is a difference between a glove and a mitten. I hear people refer to fingerless gloves all of the time, but when I look, it's not at all glove on their hot little hand. Gloves have 5 separate tubes for each finger/thumb. Mittens on the other hand... HAHAHA "on the other HAND!!" Anyway. Mittens have 2 separate tubes, one for your thumb, and one large one for the other four piggies. (can fingers be piggies? or is the term piggies just for toes?)

So my point is that when someone says fingerless gloves... there should be 5 separate tubes for the fingers/thumb, with the tips open of course. Otherwise they are talking about fingerless mitts. Or maybe all mittens are fingerless because they don't have tubes for your fingers... hmmm...

Yarn is Claudias Handpaints Fingering (HA! fingering.. glove... ok, I am done) in colourway "Eat Your Veggies"
Needle is Addi #1/2.5mm
Pattern, I am making it up.

Sweaters For Geek Babies!

First Elizabeth Zimmermann project... DONE!! And it was an awesome good time. It was a quick and easy knit for the most part. All things considered I will say that I am 98% happy with the final product. I would have been done with this in far less time, but I put it down a couple of times to work on other stuff... and just procrastinate in general. I have swatched for the me-sized February sweater. I will be knitting it along with a friend... Knitsonya and I will be casting on together next week. I will be using Rowan Cocoon... see three posts ago for photos of said luscious yarn.

Notice the vast span from neck to armpit....

First issue: in her "pattern" she says to knit the yoke in garter stitch for however long... then "change to" lace pattern... add buttonholes (which despite reading other people gripe about it... i screwed up the first time around). Then it says at 4 1/2" divide for sleeves. Now the part that grabbed me by the girly gonads was 4 1/2" from WHERE? 4 1/2" from the beginning? 4 1/2" from the lace pattern? 4 1/2" from the Moon? I looked and looked... Ravelry, Zimmermann blogs, all kinds of resources... I Googled my ass off and couldn't find anything. I asked around and a few people suggested that it would be 4 1/2" from the lace pattern. Now the rough part here is that my instinct told me that it should be 4 1/2" from the beginning edge. I feel super silly now when in retrospect I think how simple it was to figure it out.... duh... measuring from the neck edge to the armpit... on a baby will not be more than 4 1/2". My sweater ended up being almost 7" from neck edge to armpit... which is more than the measurement from my neck to pit. Lesson learned. And what was the ultimate lesson? It sure wasn't anything to do with knitting... but to listen to my own instinct. So the sleeves look like they were designed for a baby with flippers instead of arms. I should call this the Geek Love Baby Sweater.

Issue Numero Two: Row # two of the lace pattern! Could this lace pattern BE any easier? Probably not. I am not sure what in the heck the deal is, but row #2 tripped me up almost every time... for a while at least. Eventually I worked out a system using a stitch marker every 3rd repeat of that row. I did feel better after talking with others who had similar experiences with good ole' row # 2 of the gull stitch pattern. Because of my struggle warming up to row # 2 there is an off-set to the lace pattern on the back. It's not really that noticeable so I left it.

despite this photo, taken pre-blocking... the yoke DOES line up.
There is NOT a jog in the color change.

This yarn was pleasant enough to work with. I would definitely use it again. No complaints, no excessive fuzzing, no splitting... just super dooper lush-ness. It held up very well to me frogging the yoke a bunch of times before I was happy enough to move onward. I do like EZ's pithy way of writing. I enjoy the challenge of trying to figure out what in the F**K she means when she is less than vague. Today I bought the Knitters Workshop, came directly home and started knitting the Heart Hat. I guess I am an EZ girl at last.

The little details of this sweater make me smile!

• Yarn: RYC Baby Alpaca DK
• Pattern: February Sweater from Knitters Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann
• Needle: US # 6 & US # 8 (bind off)
• Cast On: 2/22/08
• Bind Off: 3/20/08 (ends woven in & buttons on 3/25/08)

Fourteen... and counting

#1. I am in love with these buttons. They make me smile.... plain and simple. I bought a bunch of them about a year ago, & I used a couple on a project back then. As I was knitting this project, I wondered what buttons I might use. It was a clear match when I was looked through my button stash (yes, that is correct. I am cheating on my yarn stash with a button stash... please do not tell my fabric stash about the buttons and the yarn). Don't you agree that these buttons really suit the rustic nature of this yarn?

#2. I am in love with Brioche stitch. I was all up in my head over it for a month or so. I wanted to knit this pattern, I read the pattern, and it didn't sound like the Brioche stitch that I had heard people bitching and complaining about all these years. So I pulled out my Barb Walker books, did some online research and found that the pattern is actually written for Fisherman's Rib, which from what I also understand is very similar, if not identical in appearance to Brioche. One and one half dozen the other... or something like that. So the one consistent thing that I found in all of my glorious research is that everyone does Brioche stitch a little differently... or that there are many variations on Brioche stitch. So being the good little over-analyzer that I am... I let my brain stew and cook... bubble bubble, toil and BLAH. I cast on and gave it a feeble attempt. Even though I knew that it wasn't that difficult and that I have done more complicated things... it was still too much for my brain. So I just put the whole idea of this super fun and quick painless project aside. LAME. Last week my neck was cold and I really wanted to work with this yarn.
So I went back to this one website... it made the most sense and was overly thorough... which i like. As usual, once I just climb down out of my head (a scary and confusing place) and just do it... anything is not only possible, but pretty damn easy... and fun. I was concerned about the edges so I chose a Brioche stitch with a selvedge stitch. There were three to choose from on this site. I went with the one labeled "my favorite". It sounded like a good choice. And a good choice it was. The stitch is really cool, so thick and dense, but it still has a touch of drape. I had so much fun knitting this scarf that I wanted to knit another.
For a a little over a month now I had been wanting to put the Lamb's Pride colors, Sunburst Gold and Rosado Rose together. I was obsessed with it. I would look at the two skeins everyday. I went out and got some sunburst Gold in worsted so that I would have the two in the same weight. I had worked with the Sunburst gold in the Prairie Boot pattern that i did a couple of months ago, and had the left overs laying out on the craft table. Rosado Rose is one of my all time favorite pinks and it's always laying around. The two were destined to be together... but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to make with them... stripes are awesome, I love stripes... but it didn't feel like a stripey project that I was after. Holding the two colors together was the path that I was on. For this pattern two strands of worsted would not be thick enough, I would have to add a third strand. Frank Ochre, of course. It was a gorgeous mix. I cast on. I knit. Two hours later I had a Fourteen finished for my friend Sunnie who was visiting from out of town.
The first version is with Malabrigo Aquarella in the color Palamar. Needle size 13. Cast on 15 stitches. This yarn is super slubby. I am very happy with the end result but after knitting the second scarf in the lamb's pride mixture I realized that super slubby yarn does NOT showcase the Brioche stitch. The second version is with the above mentioned worsted weight yarns, size 13 needle, and cast on 11 stitches. I used the same selvedge edge stitch for both... in the second
though you can really see the rolled edge and the details of the brioche stitch. I think I may have to replicate Sunnie's version to keep for myself.

Home on the Range...

Another project done. These were actually finished last month. It was a button thing keeping them from total completion. Why is it always so difficult to find the right darned button for a project? The pattern is the Prairie Boots from the fabulous cocoknits. I called mine the Home on the Range Boots, they were made for a friend. The yarn in Lamb's Pride Bulky in chocolate souffle for the soles, autumn harvest, and sunburst gold for the uppers. When I started out on this project I had no intention of gifting them to anyone... I wasn't even intending to make them for myself... for some odd reason I just wanted to make them. Julie's patterns are always so damn enticing. I am looking at these going, "I would never wear those, not even in my house. Those are silly, they look too much like UGG boots," a fashion statement which I do not have an appreciation for. The days roll by and I come across the pattern again, and I think, "they look fun to knit. I kind of want to make some...they look like they might be comfy." So I say to myself, "what the hell, I'll make a pair!" I decide to just use leftover yarn and piece it together, I'll surely have enough. So I cast on and knit. As I am knitting along It begins to wash over me... "Wait... I kinda like these." Great, Now I am invested in the damn project! So I knit on... and as I am going I realize that I will NOT have enough yarn. Turd! I have to hunt for more yarn. Project on hold....
A couple of weeks go by as I locate more Sunburst Gold Lamb's Pride Bulky. I get the yarn... I continue to knit... and "Wait! These are awesome, super cute... I cannot believe that I didn't love these from the beginning. I'll wear them all the time!"
I finish the boots. There was something a little wonky with the soles... not sure if it was because of my not paying attention or if it was the pattern. I met a gal who had the same experience as me... but it still could be a user error. Basically the number of stitches I ended up with was between the small and medium, so when i went to pick up stitches to start the upper part of the boot there weren't enough. I tried them on and they didn't fit my foot or my calves. I don't have particularly big calves, I don't have a hard time shopping for tall boots. Just a heads up... measure your calf and count your gauge. I should have increased more to fit my calf. I have a friend who loves orange... done deal. She LOVED them and they fit her.

I am making a second pair for myself. I am using Lamb's Pride Bulky Again, in deep charcoal for the soles, lime green for the uppers, with just a touch of lemon drop somewhere in there. I will pay better attention and see what happens with sole. Also... sewing buttons on back to back, especially when one is a four eye and the other a two eye... was a challenge for me.

February/March Sweater

I DID start the February sweater in February! But being me, i had to rip out 2 1/2 inches of the yoke 3 different times. The first time I just didn't like the cast on edge (that was only about an inch of yoke before ripping). The second time i forgot the buttonholes... even though I read through the entire pattern AND read, on ravelry, everyone else bitch about forgetting the buttonholes. The third time I didn't like the way buttonholes looked, they were too close to the edge and too loose and floppy. So I got through all of that... which actually only took me a day and a half to reknit it three times...
The next saga was me swatching for the lace pattern. Also a me trait is to want to alter the hell out of anything that i do. I wanted to use a different lace pattern. So I hauled out all of my Barbara walker treasuries and my Vogue Stitchionary and found a couple of lace patterns. I found one that i loved. Did I swatch for it? nope! I just picked up my yoke that had been reknit 3 times and went for it.
I knit a couple of repeats of the lace pattern (a 6 row repeat) and it just didn't look right. So I ripped it out and did it again.... It just looked HORRID in that yarn.

So on to look for a different lace pattern. This time I would be "smart" and swatch first. I found one and I thought would be perfect, swatching I a went. I knit a few inches of the swatch before it donned on me that the sweater is knit from the top down.. and the sweet little heart lace that I chose would be upside down hearts and in actuality would look like butts. So I gave in and knit the gull stitch pattern that EZ used. Aside from the the one row where i screwed up the lace, it's offset a little, it is looking great and I love it. I have another inch to go before I start the sleeves.
I have already purchased the yarn to make a punkrawkpurl sized February Sweater. It is Rowan Cocoon, which is only the dreamiest yarn ever. OK not EVER... it's just the dreamiest yarn ever... for this post. The color I had envisioned using for this project, Crag, was not available at AP. I thought about the color Polar... which may be pretty on me... but i can just see me knitting a white sweater for months to spill grape juice on it. I don't actually drink a lot of grape juice, it just provided the most dramatic scenario. So I looked at a couple of the tan/beigey colors, everyone agreed that they were too similar to my skin tone and looked gross on me. So I went for Mountain... it's darker than i wanted, but it is gorgeous. A friend said that it was too close to my hair color, another friend said that she was concerned the lace pattern would get lost in yarn that dark. So I added the color scree to the mix for the yoke to break up the separation of my hair and the Mountain color. Besides I will just plan to always wear my hair up with a white shirt underneath... problems solved. I am going to squish the numbers, swatch, cast on and just go! Itching to start before I finish the mini version.
Saturday night speedyneedlefreeman, wondermike, Kim-Chi Crafts, Knit Ya Ya!, and special guests KNITSONYA came over. It was a knitting food fest. We had red velvet cake, an awesome bean salad, roasted potatoes, fancy cheeses and breads, homemade pizzas, thin mint girl scout cookies... yummmmm! hizKNITS was sadly missed.