Showing posts with label athos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label athos. Show all posts
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Spring Forward
I finished my first warm-weather knit this year. It's a sleeveless version of Athos, from Norah Gaughan Vol 2. The medallion just makes the piece, and it was fun to knit! More details are in the gallery.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Celebrations, Part 5: Knitiversary (and contest winner)
So as to not keep you in suspense, the winner of the birthday contest is...can I have the envelope please?
No Country For Old Men!
What? Oh, sorry...wrong envelope. The winner is...
Caroline!
The fates were in her favor, 'cause as it turns out, she has the same birthday as me! Caroline, I've emailed you for your color choice for the Malabrigo. Congrats!
On to another celebration, I'm observing my knitiversary this month. Now, I don't have a specific day or anything, but it's now been 2 years since I started knitting--just not 24 consecutive months. Here's the story:
It was December 2004, and I was shopping for Christmas gifts at the Barnes & Nobles. There was a woman there knitting a nice scarf with very novel-looking yarn that I had never seen before. And for some reason, I was drawn to it. Something in my mind clicked, and I suddenly decided I wanted to learn how to knit. I guess my brain was just primed for it and got the stimulus it needed. A few days later, I went to a Michael's and picked out what I thought was a neat yarn. I brought it home, googled some stuff on the internet, and stumbled across knittinghelp.com.
Well, I sat there for over an hour and couldn't figure out what was what, even though I was just trying to do garter stitch. Turns out, I chose an eyelash yarn for my first project. Brilliant. I did finally end up with something that looked kinda like a scarf, and I even wore it out in public, but it did not last. There were so many dropped stitches and inadvertent yarn-overs on that thing that it became kind of a mess. I don't have the original anymore, but I do still have a smaller version of it that I made for my daughter with the leftovers. This was my second attempt, so it came out better and is still intact.
After that, I went to a *real* yarn store and they helped me pick out some yarn for the Frida poncho from Knitty (which I can't find the link to, for some reason). It was basically a big rectangle, and I never did sew it up as a poncho, but I was enthralled by the leaf motif and still keep it as a decorative thingey on one of my chairs.
I was definitely hooked! For the next 9 months, I did a slew of projects. I wish I had thought to photograph them all. There was felting and lace and sweaters and a couple of things I made up myself. I loved it!
But then, I got pregnant. And while I thought that I would be spending that time making utterly cute and tiny things, the reality is that I couldn't stand to knit at all. It made me so nauseous to knit! During my first pregnancy, I had had a strong aversion to the smell of seaweed in Japanese cooking, which I normally love. This time around, it was an aversion to knitting and all things associated with it. Weird, huh? The feeling was so strong that even after my delivery, I had no interest in anything fiber-related. Not for almost a year and a half.
And then one day, in December again, it was cold and I longed for a scarf. And so I made one. And just like that, I was back. In honor of this 2-year knitiversary, I am going to make a contribution to Ravelry. I think they are great!
Thanks for putting up with the walk down memory lane. Let's fast forward to the present, and I'll show you my WIP's.
The body for Athos is all knit up, as is the neckband trim. I have blocked them and need to sew on the trim and then pick up stitches to make that cool medallion. I have not yet knitted the sleeves, though, because I was going to use the sleeves from the Porthos design. Well, it seems there is a mistake, and the printed directions for both sets of sleeves are the same, even though they are clearly different in the picture. I posted about this on the Norah Gaughan forum on Ravelry, which Norah herself frequents, and I am waiting to hear back.
And finally, here is Mirabella. I really am so impressed by all the detailing in this pattern. The back is all done and I'm going to block it and make sure everything is on track before I knit the rest.
No Country For Old Men!
What? Oh, sorry...wrong envelope. The winner is...
Caroline!
The fates were in her favor, 'cause as it turns out, she has the same birthday as me! Caroline, I've emailed you for your color choice for the Malabrigo. Congrats!
On to another celebration, I'm observing my knitiversary this month. Now, I don't have a specific day or anything, but it's now been 2 years since I started knitting--just not 24 consecutive months. Here's the story:
It was December 2004, and I was shopping for Christmas gifts at the Barnes & Nobles. There was a woman there knitting a nice scarf with very novel-looking yarn that I had never seen before. And for some reason, I was drawn to it. Something in my mind clicked, and I suddenly decided I wanted to learn how to knit. I guess my brain was just primed for it and got the stimulus it needed. A few days later, I went to a Michael's and picked out what I thought was a neat yarn. I brought it home, googled some stuff on the internet, and stumbled across knittinghelp.com.
Well, I sat there for over an hour and couldn't figure out what was what, even though I was just trying to do garter stitch. Turns out, I chose an eyelash yarn for my first project. Brilliant. I did finally end up with something that looked kinda like a scarf, and I even wore it out in public, but it did not last. There were so many dropped stitches and inadvertent yarn-overs on that thing that it became kind of a mess. I don't have the original anymore, but I do still have a smaller version of it that I made for my daughter with the leftovers. This was my second attempt, so it came out better and is still intact.
After that, I went to a *real* yarn store and they helped me pick out some yarn for the Frida poncho from Knitty (which I can't find the link to, for some reason). It was basically a big rectangle, and I never did sew it up as a poncho, but I was enthralled by the leaf motif and still keep it as a decorative thingey on one of my chairs.
I was definitely hooked! For the next 9 months, I did a slew of projects. I wish I had thought to photograph them all. There was felting and lace and sweaters and a couple of things I made up myself. I loved it!
But then, I got pregnant. And while I thought that I would be spending that time making utterly cute and tiny things, the reality is that I couldn't stand to knit at all. It made me so nauseous to knit! During my first pregnancy, I had had a strong aversion to the smell of seaweed in Japanese cooking, which I normally love. This time around, it was an aversion to knitting and all things associated with it. Weird, huh? The feeling was so strong that even after my delivery, I had no interest in anything fiber-related. Not for almost a year and a half.
And then one day, in December again, it was cold and I longed for a scarf. And so I made one. And just like that, I was back. In honor of this 2-year knitiversary, I am going to make a contribution to Ravelry. I think they are great!
Thanks for putting up with the walk down memory lane. Let's fast forward to the present, and I'll show you my WIP's.
The body for Athos is all knit up, as is the neckband trim. I have blocked them and need to sew on the trim and then pick up stitches to make that cool medallion. I have not yet knitted the sleeves, though, because I was going to use the sleeves from the Porthos design. Well, it seems there is a mistake, and the printed directions for both sets of sleeves are the same, even though they are clearly different in the picture. I posted about this on the Norah Gaughan forum on Ravelry, which Norah herself frequents, and I am waiting to hear back.
And finally, here is Mirabella. I really am so impressed by all the detailing in this pattern. The back is all done and I'm going to block it and make sure everything is on track before I knit the rest.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Celebrations, Part 4: Birthday (and Contest)
Yes, it's my birthday! I treated myself to a bunch of new yarns over the last couple of weeks. The Calmer is from a Ravelry destash and the rest are from a recent sale at my LYS. Let's look at some yarn porn, shall we?
This is Berroco Linen Jeans. As you can see, I've already knitted 1 skein's worth on Athos from the new Norah Gaughan book. So far, it's very nice and drapey!
Next up is some Rowan Calmer, in the discontinued Tangerine color. I intend to make Fifi with this, and I was actually all set to swatch for it. I had somehow thought that I could download the pdf of the pattern but was really bummed that I couldn't. So I'll have to wait till I find a site or local store that carries these patterns. Darn!
I love the color of this Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. I am really hoping that the swatch will work out for the Mirabella cardigan from the new IK.
This is some Tahki mercerized cotton. I was thinking about this for the Emerald Seas top from Knitty or for the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank from Fitted Knits, but I need to swatch it and see if I like it for either.
I realized after I finished making all those scarves for Christmas that I actually have very few scarves of my own. So I bought myself some yellow Malabrigo to make a Shifting Sands scarf and some variegated purple Manos Silk Blend for a My So Called Scarf.
Ahhh, I love it! Okay, now, it wouldn't be right to bask in all this fiber goodness by myself. So I decided I'd have a little contest. It's easy. All you have to do is guess the time of day that I was born. Remember to indicate AM or PM and make sure I have some way to contact you, either through your blog or email. The contest will run through next Saturday, February 23. The prize? The person who comes closest to guessing the actual time wins 2 skeins of Malabrigo in her choice of color. Enjoy!
This is Berroco Linen Jeans. As you can see, I've already knitted 1 skein's worth on Athos from the new Norah Gaughan book. So far, it's very nice and drapey!
Next up is some Rowan Calmer, in the discontinued Tangerine color. I intend to make Fifi with this, and I was actually all set to swatch for it. I had somehow thought that I could download the pdf of the pattern but was really bummed that I couldn't. So I'll have to wait till I find a site or local store that carries these patterns. Darn!
I love the color of this Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton. I am really hoping that the swatch will work out for the Mirabella cardigan from the new IK.
This is some Tahki mercerized cotton. I was thinking about this for the Emerald Seas top from Knitty or for the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank from Fitted Knits, but I need to swatch it and see if I like it for either.
I realized after I finished making all those scarves for Christmas that I actually have very few scarves of my own. So I bought myself some yellow Malabrigo to make a Shifting Sands scarf and some variegated purple Manos Silk Blend for a My So Called Scarf.
Ahhh, I love it! Okay, now, it wouldn't be right to bask in all this fiber goodness by myself. So I decided I'd have a little contest. It's easy. All you have to do is guess the time of day that I was born. Remember to indicate AM or PM and make sure I have some way to contact you, either through your blog or email. The contest will run through next Saturday, February 23. The prize? The person who comes closest to guessing the actual time wins 2 skeins of Malabrigo in her choice of color. Enjoy!
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