my life in stitches

butter

finally, an FO! i love, love, love this scarf! the yarn is a 70% cashmere, 30% silk blend that i bought at School Products a few years ago. i used a mistake stitch rib and because it was looking a bit raggedy along the edges, i worked a couple of rows of single stitch crochet around the sides. this butter color is a huge departure from my usual palette, but sometimes you need to change things up. this scarf is so soft. it feels like you're wearing a string of kittens around your neck. err.. that would be live, warm, and cuddly kittens.

all is not well in the land of Courtney

i, of all people, should know better than to begin a new project when Mercury is in retrograde. but, once again, i have fooled myself into thinking that my knowledge of such things places me above the law. case in point, Courtney. as soon as i saw that this pattern called for a size 11 needle, i knew there would be trouble. you can almost never get gauge at this needle size. there's a huge gap between a size 10.5 and a size 11 and the gauge always seems to fall somewhere between the two. while i appeared to get the correct gauge on a size 11, i suspected that it would be problematic, yet in my quest for a fast and easy project i ignored my intuition and cast on anyway. i was a few inches away from the armholes when i realized that this sweater is humungous! there's no way in hell i could wear this. it would look like a tent on me. i''ll have to rip back at least to the ribbing. from there my options are a) crawl into my closet and find the UFO that's on my 10.75 needle and use that or b) stick with the size 11 and knit the size small instead of the size medium and count on it coming out a little larger. i absolutely hate it when designers leave a large gap between sizes. the finished size for the size small is 35" and for the size medium it's 39". that's ridiculous. when i'm knitting a pattern that i've purchased, i don't want to have to adjust the numbers to make it fit. for me, that defeats the purpose of following a pattern. even though i knit for a living, i firmly believe that my knitting shouldn't always have to be work. yes, i am ranting. and while i am mad at the pattern, i'm more angry at mysef for making a poor choice. anyway, at these sizes the small would fit, though not the way it is intended and the medium would be too big. i was aiming to knit tighter and to make it a tad smaller, but instead it came out much larger. it seems to be about 40.5" around. 37" would be about perfect for me. what's a knitter to do? i think i'll rip it back today and give myself a day or two to think about this. i am really disappointed. it feels like it's been ages since i've a had a fun, trouble-free project on my needles.

** (1 hour later) so long, Courtney, i decided to rip the whole thing out. what a waste. i'll start it again next month. i'm going to be sick now.

and because i haven't posted a photo of him in ages and because just the sight of him makes me happy, here's a recent pic of Ashby. he looks rather serious here. i think, at the time, i wasn't feeling well and he was expressing his concern. he usually looks a bit more feisty.

a tale of two sweaters

on the left is a pic of me wearing what might be my favorite handknit sweater. the design is Labyrinth from Rowan 30. the yarn is the lovely and versatile Kidsilk Haze. i knit this several years ago. all the runs and pulls that it has suffered over the years have only made it more sexy and stylish. it reminds me of those great pullovers worn in The Matrix.

i always receive compliments when i wear it out. i had been wanting to knit another one in a different color, but who really wants to knit the same sweater twice? then along came Courtney from Rowan Studio 1. i love, love, love this design! seeing as how as i have such a ridiculously plentiful stash, i really try to use what i have. my color choices were between Kidsilk Haze in Hurricane and Kidsilk Night in Oberon. my first impulse was to go with Oberon, but considering that i already have 2 new grey sweaters, i thought i might want to give that color a rest. my old sweater is a true royal blue (though it looks more purple-y in this photo) and the new one is more subdued and kind of teal. i cast on last night, and as you can see i am breezing along. this is going to be a really quick knit and i totally need that right now.

the pattern for the newly christened Lisette will be available for purchase next week. stay tuned.

yet another reason to love Vivienne Westwood

in this article she speaks out against racism in the fashion industry.

jezebel.com tallies up the number of black models used in advertisments and fashion editorials in several popular magazines during October 2007. it's appalling.

the problem with Patti

i was excited to post in progress photos of Patti today, but there's a problem. well, actually, there are a few problems. a) i'm knitting her in the color Treacle which is a dark brown with gold and light blue flecks and it's really impossible to photograph, b) i'm working with a couple of different dye lots and instead of changing skeins every other row, i'm changing skeins every inch or so and in the photographs i took it looks almost striped. oy! and c) and though i've seen pics of completed Pattis that look really good, i fear that mine is going to turn out to be a real dog. what to do? what to do? i refuse to throw something else on to the pile of UFOs. i feel like i really need to see this through. maybe it won't be so bad. and considering that it's practically a free project (half of the yarn i bought on sale 7 years ago or so and the other half was donated from Jac), i really have no room to complain. i think i'll keep going. i really need the satisfaction of seeing something through to the end, no matter what. that and while i do have yarn for other projects, i'm not feeling particularly motivated to swatch for something new. i hate the whole swatching, casting on, getting started business. i much prefer finishing.

good news on the book front. the publication date for Yarnplay At Home has been pushed up to mid-December, just in time for holiday shopping! this week i received all the projects back. it was both great and strange to have them back. i haven't unpacked the boxes. i guess i want to still feel the excitement that everyone will feel who buys the book. i think i'll wait a little while before using them around my home. if you worked on a project or the book, you can expect to receive your projects + your copy of the book in December or January when i receive my books. the blog tour for Yarnplay was so much fun that i'm planning on having one for Yarnplay At Home. if you hosted the Yarnplay blog tour and want to be involved with the tour for Yarnplay At Home, please let me know. also, if you have a blog, you're a Yarnplay fan, and would like to host a stop on the tour, drop me a line. i'll provide more details as the publication date gets closer. for the moment, i'm just taking names.