It's not yarn...yet...

I've been doing pretty good with the whole Yarn Diet thing. I bought a few skeins of yarn last month as a reward for getting through a particularly heinous project at work, but other than that I've refrained from buying yarn for several months now. Frankly, I'm pretty proud of myself.

Or, at least, I was, until I went to the Weaving Works sale this weekend.

I might have had a minor falling down. In my defense, I didn't buy yarn, per se...I bought a couple pounds of fiber, which will take quite a long time to become yarn, which....

...I'm not helping my case, am I?

Okay, I'm going to give up. Someday I'll remember to take pictures and post them here, but for now at least I managed to write.

Seriously? So sorry.

Apparently, in my last post I promised that "A better, more coherent, yarn-pr0n-filled entry will be forthcoming in the next week."

As that post was from September and it is now February, I think we can all figure out that this did not happen. Nor, I fear, will it happen tonight.

However, my Dear Readers (all none of you...), I have a solution! I will add blogging to my ToDo list, which means I'll be constantly reminded of it and will actually have a chance in hell of making it happen. Double plus because my phone happens to carry my ToDo list as well as a camera, so there's a much higher chance of getting real pictures! Of Knitting! Regularly!

I did mention not very coherent, right?

Okay, ToDo item created. Which reminds me (and I'm sorry, but this next paragraph will have nothing to do with yarn or knitting at all), do you know what my favorite thing in Outlook is? It allows you to have repeating ToDo items, like water the plants or refill X prescription, at any frequency you can think of. But wait, it gets better! Because you can also set the recurrence to happen from the time you complete the task. So, for example, I have a ToDo about vacuuming my apartment (Hi, my name is Elisabeth and I'm anal retentive), and I have it set to regenerated for 2 weeks from the last time I completed vacuuming my apartment. This is utterly awesome, because frankly it usually takes me more than 2 weeks to get around to vacuuming, and this way I only have one ToDo on the list nagging me about it. Fantastico!

Okay, I'm done raving about Outlook. Frankly, that's the first thing I've found that I thought was worth raving about, so I figured I'd share.

Alright, now for some pictures of yarn/knitting:

...apparently the universe hates me right now. Blogger is hanging on uploading my pictures.

I'm sorry, I guess you'll all (ha!) just have to wait until the next time I post, when I and my electronics will hopefully have our acts together.

Good Knitter, No Yarn

*As a warning, I'm writing this while severely sleep deprived and there are no pictures. A better, more coherent, yarn-pr0n-filled entry will be forthcoming in the next week.*

So...since I left you, loyal readers [seriously, I just write that because it amuses me...I know no one is reading this], I have almost been good. The Cascade 220 that I bought was swatched for an idea I had, but it didn't work out, so the three skeins are now languishing on my coffee table. Meanwhile, I went out and bought four skeins of Lion Brand Microfiber in whatever the periwinkle color is called and am now 4 feet into a mind-numbingly dull moss-stitch scarf of my own invention.

In other words, after I vowed both not to buy any more yarn and not to start anything new, I both bought four skeins of yarn and started a new project.

In my defense, both of these actions were undertaken before I was reunited with my stash and unfinished projects.

So why, you ask [no, seriously, it just cracks me up, pretending there's a "you" to ask me], does the title of this post refer to a "Good Knitter"?

Because today, my friend Jimmy (most recently featured in the Yarn Harlot's blog sporting a binary scarf [follow the link because I don't have permission to steal the Harlot's bandwidth. Also, you should be reading her blog anyway]) told me he needed yarn for his next third project. And he wanted me to help him figure out what he needed for it, and help him get it.

Now, we're both working stiffs, so by the time we were ready to go yarn shopping, all the Yarn Shops had closed. I'm a big believer in working with good quality yarn if you can afford it, though, and being working stiffs for a really well-paying company meant going to one of the local craft mega-marts was right out. (Yes, there would have been Microspun, which some of you might have noted, I am currently using [who am I kidding - there's no one there to "note" anything!]. Microspun is just about the only yarn worth buying in the mega-mart craft stores around here, and in my opinion for most cases it's only borderline acceptable. My buying it was an act of desperation. On the other hand, I do happen to be a bit of a yarn snob....

Anyway, just about our only chance at decent yarn in the area tonight was at Ben Franklin (kind of an old-school mega-mart craft store). I hadn't been there in a while, so I was pleasantly surprised by the selection. It wouldn't rival a real Yarn Store, but for desperate situations...well, they've got a great selection of Cascade, some Berrocco, some Trekking, some Fortissima...actually quite a few brand name yarns, and a many times a few lines from each. There was plenty there that a Yarn Snob like me could love...and plenty that I did.

I refuse to divulge the number of times I picked up a skein, petted it for a while, and murmured to it what I would make out of it. Refuse.

Jimmy walked away with several skeins of a really, really, really soft alpaca for a scarf and a couple skeins of Cascade for a hat, plus needles to match. He is definitely a knitting prodigy - as soon as he'd been knitting for an hour, he started planning Christmas presents he could knit. And folks, I hate to break it to you, but that was in May - he might actually be able to make it, with time to knit himself a few things while he's at it.

To get back to the original idea behind this post, though, I walked out of Ben Franklin with a $5 bottle of Euclan wool wash (I think it was Euclan...lavendar-something, whatever it was) and nothing else. Not even a skein of Trekking, and I do love my Trekking...

I think I deserve a cookie.

Of Course

Those of you who have been following closely might have noticed that in my last post, I swore off buying any new yarn or starting any new projects until a reasonable dent had been put into my unfinished projects and my stash in general.

This week, I bought three skeins of Cascade 220. And promptly started planning a new project with them.

"Why?" I hear you asking. No, really, I do hear it - I'm hiding in that closet behind you as you read this.

Okay, that was a fib.

Anyway, the reason behind the complete disregard for my latest yarn fast vow is that, a week and a half later, I'm only halfway through moving. All of my stuff is out of my old apartment...but nothing is in my new apartment. In fact, my new apartment has the old tenants still living in it.

That turn of events was highly unexpected, by the way. It all boils down to a big snafu on the part of the leasing office, but what it means is that I packed everything I owned (and I do mean everything) with the intention of unpacking it the next day, or at the very least with the knowledge that if I wanted to unpack it, I could do so the next day.

Instead, my stuff is in storage. For two more weeks.

This includes not only all my clothes, my books, and my linens, it includes my yarn and projects. For two more weeks.

Now do you have some sympathy for my plight? Can you forgive me for breaking my yarn fast vow before even a week had passed?

Bad Blogger, No Cookie

So...hi there. I...um. Well, I haven't been around lately, you know? I got a little caught up in the graduating and the traveling and the continued traveling and the finding of a new apartment and before I knew it, months had passed.

Months.

How embarrassing.

Now, however, I'm in the middle of packing (I move tomorrow, so you'd think I'd be near the end of packing, but unfortunately I'm actually closer to the beginning of packing...it should be noted that blogging is apparently not conducive to packing).

In all the time I've been away, I've been knitting, of course. I've finished a couple things, I've started more than a couple things, I've spun some yarn...speaking of, let's have some yarn pr0n, shall we?

This is the first thing I spun on my wheel, and I'm calling it cotton candy, although to be honest I don't think I've ever seen cotton candy in either green or yellow. Still...I mixed the colors, I get to call it whatever I want, right?

Of course, being a bad blogger I completely forgot to take pictures of the roving, the plies, or the process, nor have I yet photographed the hat that I made out of this yarn. Let me simply say that I'm trying, I'll get better...someday.

Also, I've been relatively good about only spinning fiber I already had, such as this soy silk that was just sitting around minding its own business.

Oh, who am I kidding? I totally bought more fiber to play with - over a pound just a month ago, even though I still had plenty of fiber stashed away. Once again, though - bad blogger, no pictures, and now that fiber, at least, is packed, and there's no way on this Earth that I'm going to start unpacking just so I can take a picture to further procrastinate on the packing front. No siree bobby. You're just going to have to wait until I unpack it on the other end.

In other news, packing up my knitting has been a bit of a humbling experience. The yarn is once again taking up a significant percentage of the total volume of my possessions, and as for works-in-progress...well, let's just say I have more than two boxes worth of those.

So...here's my new resolution: I will finish things. I will not start new things until I've finished at least three things per new thing I want to knit. I will not buy knitting supplies unless they are necessary to finish something. I will not buy new yarn or new fiber until the hundred-something gallon tub I use to contain my stash actually has air space in it.

Any takers on whether I'll actually be able to stick to this? No? Smart readers. Still, it should help to at least think I have a plan.

New Look

Or, muchos kudos to my sister, who is awesome in so many ways. She drew this icon for me when I was having a bad day and told her I wanted something for my blog:



That was several months ago. It is a testament to how wonderful she is that, in the past several months, she has only said once, "So, I thought you were going to put that picture up on your blog...?" And she used the gentlest voice when she asked, too.

Sister, this one's for you!

A European Contest

I'm going to Europe this summer.

Seriously.

And, of course, my first concern was what I would knit while I was there. It has to be small, because I have to fit everything into a large backpack for the month I'll be there. It has to be difficult, because it has to keep me occupied for the month (month!) I'll be there. On the other hand, it can't be too difficult because I might not always have the best light or attention when I'm knitting.

My first idea was a sweater made out of sock yarn with a crazy cable pattern.

I still haven't completely abandoned that idea.

My next idea was a black cardigan (again out of sock yarn) with a bunch of cabling and cute little silver buttons on the front.

I haven't completely abandoned that idea either.

Here's the deal (and where your ears should perk up, because it involves yarn): whoever suggests the thing closest to what I actually end up knitting in Europe gets a prize.

Remember this yarn?



It just happens to be from Italy (where I'm going to go!). I can't figure out what I want to do with it, and I need a project for Europe, so...whoever wins the contest gets the yarn. Fair enough?

I'll even accept entries that tell me to go for one of my original ideas, so long as you include a little more direction (like a stitch pattern, a picture of an example, etc) than I already have.

Ready? Set? Go!

Wow...how embarassing

Hello everybody. Remember me? The girl who keeps promising she's going to update this thing, and then keeps forgetting to?

Yeah. Hi. How's it going?

Things have been a bit crazy lately (not, mind you, that they ever aren't), which in turn lead to not posting. I'm not going to bore you with the details...let me just say it was not all horrible, and in fact at one point included a full body massage by a cute guy named James.

But you didn't come here to read about that. You came here to read about knitting. And look at pr0n, of course.

First off, we have a picture of a good friend of mine. He's wearing a sweater I made out of random scraps of yarn I had in my stash. The sweater was his Christmas present (delivered late, of course).

How the sweater came to be his Christmas present, though...well. When I made the sweater, I was also in the process of evicting the acrylic from my stash. Somehow (okay, it was because it was the right color, but still...), some of the acrylic made its way into this sweater and, well...it's not something I can fix without frogging the entire thing, which I wasn't prepared to do. Plus, there are a couple things I would do differently if I made it again (such as an industrial metal zipper instead of the dinky black plastic).

Anyway, after I was done with and wearing the sweater, I started complaining about all the things that I didn't like about it, and Chris (the friend pictured here) said he loved it. He, meanwhile, had bought some curtains for his bed that didn't quite work out, while I was desperately looking for curtains for my bed. We decided to switch, and I think we're both better off.

Plus, I get to make a new one now. With good yarn.

In other news, a few months ago, this:


became this (for transportation purposes):


which in turn became these:


that later metamorphosed into these:


with this much left over:


By the way, did I mention that I got a new spinning wheel? And that I'm loving it?

Better Late Than Never

So, having read about this on Wendy's blog, and having bought a pair of absolutely fabulous but slightly-too-expensive-for-a-college-student boots, I'm going to participate in my own little "Knit From Your Stash"-athon.
The rules (modified to fit my particular situation, of course) are as follows:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start immeadiately and run through 30 May 2007 (ending on my birthday, but with the option of extending).

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following provisions:

• Sock yarn does count. The vast majority of the yarn I've bought in the last year has been sock yarn - this whole thing would be meaningless if it didn't apply to sock yarn.
• If someone deserves a specific knitted gift that I somehow do not have the yarn for, I may buy yarn to knit that gift.
• If I am knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.
• For major deals (and only seriously good deals, not just so-so) I can make an exception if I still think it's a good idea after 10 minutes of solid contemplation.

3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn. Of course.

4. Trading stash is allowed. But, given how atattched to it I am, unlikely.

5. Spinning fiber of any sort is not exempt. I started stashing fiber almost the second I started spinning, and the volume has grown exponentially. I'm going to attempt to use up what I have before getting more.

Blocking Goodness

I am forever surprised by how much difference a bit of water and a few pins make on knitted objects. I just finished blocking a sweater made of Brown Sheep Company Cotton Fleece, which is a mixture of cotton and wool. While knitting the pieces, they curled horribly, and I worried that the cotton content of the yarn might make them immune to blocking. A tub of water, hundreds of pins, and two days later, the pieces not only took the blocking beautifully, they have actually been sewn together, and are simply waiting for the almost-finished cable trim to be completely ready for wear.

The Empress, two days later, is still trying to dry out her hair. Here's hoping that when she's all dry, she'll be even more lovely.

Of course, being the bad blogger I am, I completely forgot to take pictures of any of this. Seriously, I'm starting to think that the greats (Yarn Harlot, Kristi and Cookie) have someone following them around at all times taking pictures of their knitting. I'm especially impressed whenever I see pictures of swatching in progress - I'm usually so caught up in it that it's not until after the five [frogged] swatches and an inch of the real product that I think to myself, "Huh, I bet that process would have been great documented for the blog..."

To make up for the complete lack of presence or pictures on this blog, I give you a picture of the hat I made for my friend:


She commissioned it from me by saying, "Elisabeth, I want a hat. It has to have a large pom-pom, and I want it in these colors [pointing to her store-bought faux fair isle pink, orange, and red socks]"

This is what I came up with. Completely my own design (although I'm sure it's been done before, knitting having the history it does...). If there's enough interest, I'll write up a pattern and post it.

Ciao, darlings!

Walk Before You Run

Okay, first of all, I'm not posting pictures today. I know, I know, yarn/knitting porn is the only reason any of us really reads a knitting blog, but...well, the hassle involved in me getting pictures onto the net to post them here is just more trouble than its worth to me right now. On the other hand, if I don't feel as much pressure to include pictures in every single post, I'm much more likely to post more.

So here's the deal: I'm going to post more often. Really. But I very likely will not have much posted porn while doing so.

That said, I've realized lately that, aside from raglans, I have virtually no idea how to do shoulder shaping. I taught myself to knit, and have rarely followed a pattern in my life, so my first instinct wasn't to find a pattern to knit. No, my first instinct was to just start a sweater that would require set-in shoulders and see what happened.

It didn't go well. In construction, I had to frog the shoulder area four times, because I had this crazy idea that I would knit the sleeves in with the shoulders and therefore not seam anything. The first four attempts created something that either did not actually enable me to put the sweater on, or were so hideous that no amount of justification could make it look right.

After the fourth attempt, though, I had something that was close. In fact, it looked pretty much perfect...if I gave the sleeves a pretty good yank down and then didn't raise my shoulders or move my arms or, you know, breathe. If I did any of those things, the point at the top of the shoulder would not fall back down again, and I was left with these pointy, horn-like objects on the backs of my shoulders.

No, unfortunately, I do not have pictures. In complete denial that there was anything wrong with the sweater, I wore it to class one day. It took almost the entire day before I admitted defeat, but once I got home, I ripped off the sweater and frogged the shoulders completely. There wasn't time for pictures...if I'd stopped to take one, I might have lost momentum and allowed myself to believe that it still looked okay.

It didn't. It really didn't. And now I'm going to do it right.

To that end, I'm trying to knit a sweater from a pattern first. Something to give me an idea of how to, well, do it right. Of course, the pattern I picked was written for machine knitting, but the important parts are there and I can figure out the rest.

Also, I need to name the damn thing. I think it would be much more cooperative if I addressed it by name rather than "that sweater I keep &%^*ing up on".

A True Knitter

Rather than writing about my own knitting (and spinning, whee!) life, I think I'm going to dedicate this post to my friend, roommate, and fellow Knitter, Nova.

Nova and I met through a mutual friend, who decided we should start hanging out because we both knit. I believe her exact words may have been: "You knit, and she knits. You should knit together."

At our first meeting, we went to The Weaving Works and spent a good hour simply walking through the store fondling the yarn. At the time I talked her into buying some yarn for a pattern she'd just seen.

Two years later, this is how far she's gotten (I think it's supposed to end up a sweater):


There are lots of things that make us look at each other and say, "And those differences are what makes the world so great." We just have wildly different tastes, styles, and world views. She's a process Knitter, I'm a project Knitter. She's a project cooker, I'm a process cooker. She's quite liberal and a little bit pink, I'm pretty much a libertarian.

Also, remember the yarn I mentioned buying on eBay in this post and how I ended up receiving clown-puke yarn instead? (Okay, I know you don't, but the main words you should pull out of that were: "CLOWN-PUKE YARN")

Nova loves it. She said it reminded her of decomposing leaves and was therefore very desirable. She bought it off of me. She'd even have its babies if it were possible and she actually wanted babies. I caught her making out with it once...



Seriously, though, Nova is one cool chick. She knits things like this sock, with awesome colors, fair isling, and other lovely stuff.



And this? This is her sock yarn stash. We didn't have time to break into her real stash.



So, in other words, Nova rocks. Seriously. And she deserves the title Knitter, with a capital 'K'.

Diet Time

As in, yarn diet. As in, no more yarn. Period.

What brings on this radical stance, you ask? Well, I just did bills for the last few months. I've got this system where I don't budget, and instead save all my receipts, plug them into Excel, and figure out what needs to change. Usually I do pretty well, and my spending habits only need minor tweaking - plus, since this is normally done every month, my spending can't get too out of control without my noticing.

Except, of course, I haven't had time since August to do bills. Having just remedied this problem, I've come to a startling revelation:

I'm spending more money on yarn than on food. And, I just bought a spinning wheel (oh, yeah, post to follow about that soon).

Therefore, I will not be buying yarn. Much as I may love fondling it and making it do my bidding, I've found that food is a much better source of sustenance.

An Appology from The Empress

Okay, people (pretending that there are, indeed, people reading this...) I'm sorry I haven't posted lately (you know, at all). I'm sorry I've disappeared without explanation. I'm sorry I haven't fulfilled my promise to provide knitting porn at regular intervals.

Life has intervened. However, really, that's no excuse.

To that end, I will attempt to mollify you with a picture of my most-recently-finished project, shown still in its construction phase here:



I've named it The Empress, and someday soon (not too soon, but before Christmas) I'll post more about her, and the other things that have been keeping my fingers busy.
Picassa Powered!

PS. I really love Picasa. I highly recommend it. Photo today (and probably from now on) courtesy of Picasa.

Top Three Ways to Murder a Klog

1. Don't Post [check]
2. Post, but don't talk about knitting [check]
3. Post, talk about knitting, but don't post pictures [check]

I've been seriously swamped lately, leading to not posting in general. I just wanted to reassure you all (ha, like there are actually people reading this!) that I'm still alive and that the Klog will eventually be resurrected - probably in the next week or so, with a weekly posting schedule.

Please check back for details.

Ze Current Project

Do you all remember a few posts back when I said that these:

would be my next pair of socks?

Well, I decided to go with the Ripple Weave pattern out of the current Vogue Knitting. It reminded me of Pomatomus, which was the first sock I actually really enjoyed knitting and the thing that kicked off my current sock craze. I liked the look of the ripples, I liked the way they went back and forth, and while I didn't like the heel or the toe, I rarely do and figured I would simply sub in my typical short-row heel and star-toe.

Things did not go according to plan.

First of all, the chart for the pattern had a glaring error in it. It was so bad, in fact, that when I perused the chart for the first time I thought to myself, "Huh, that's funny. I don't think I'll do it that way." As of this posting, the errata page of the magazine still does not list a correction for the chart, but if you've seen it you know it's wrong.

Persevering despite the obstacle, I did my revision back to what I think the designer's original intent was, and got about an inch into the pattern.

At this point, I should explain something. The pattern is very, very similar to Pomatomus. It is, in fact, so similar that I thought at first Cookie must have designed it. Unfortunately, I think the designer may have seen Pomatomus, thought it looked cool, and tried to fudge the pattern until she had something she could call "her own". I don't know if the problem came when she tried to make flat knitting instructions round or what, but the chart simply doesn't make much sense. For example, there are two yarn overs right next to each other. These yarn overs exist so that a decrease can be made every row. Personally, I would think it would make more sense to, like Pomatomus, have one decrease and one yarn over every round. There is no structural or patterning reason for having the yarn overs every other row, and every reason not to.

Still, I was ready to knit the pattern as written - I was already an inch in anyway - until I got to the point where the "ripple" comes in. At this point, the pattern kind of...well, it isn't intuitive, let's just leave it at that. I was fed up enough that I pulled the sock off the needles, frogged it back to the bottom of the cuff ribbing, picked up the stitches, and began Pomatomus. At the point where the sock is supposed to "ripple" (now referred to as "wave" as I've renamed these socks "Wavy Weave"), I simply reversed the Pomatomus chart. The yarn overs are nicer, the waves are nicer (in my opinion), and it doesn't make your brain explode to try to understand it.

Seriously.

So...after getting through all that text (and without any Knitting pr0n!), do you want some compensation? Perhaps...


...a finished sock?

Here's the sock in a less dramatic and slightly closer view:


And the sole of the sock:


Perhaps you'd like to see it off of my foot?


In an effort to get through the Second Sock Syndrome, I immediately cast on the second and began knitting. Just to make it interesting, I thought I'd try knitting it on one circular (not a 12" , as Kristi recommends, but I will be trying that technique soon - eBay is my new bank account). Anyway, I've already made significant progress on the Second of the Wavy Weave socks - I project that they should be done within a week, giving me yet another pair of finished socks!



Also, I'm having a love-hate relationship with the yarn. It's Ja Woll, in...something. They don't name their colors, so I see little point in giving you the number. If you ask, I'll post, but otherwise I think you'll recognize it.

The love comes from the colors, the weight of the yarn, the feel of the yarn, and the little bobbin of reinforcing thread they put in the skein for toes and heels. Honestly, I ♥ this yarn.

The hate comes from the colors and the little bobbin of reinforcing thread. Yes, these are both things I love, but they're giving me no end of headaches. You can probably tell from the pictures that the colors are pooling...sometimes. If they were doing it all the time, I'd just accept it, but they didn't pool on the cuff and they don't pool the same way throughout the sock. It's...frustrating. As for the bobbin - well, first of all, I completely forgot to bring it with me the day I wanted to do the heel (the socks are my away-from-home project), so I had to go all the way home to get the bobbin and thus skip out on most of a career fair at my school (we'll refrain from examining at the moment that knitting the heel of the sock was apparently more important than my future career, shall we?). Plus, knitting with both the yarn and reinforcing thread makes the heel, well, reinforced. This means thicker. I don't like thick socks. However, I also want the socks to last a long while. It's a Catch-22 I tell you, and I blame the bobbin for putting me in this position.

In other news (and to make this post really long so you'll forgive me if I don't get back to posting this week), I accidentally bought some new yarn at The Weaving Works. I went in just to look and fondle (really!) but I saw these and couldn't help myself:


I mean, just look at those colors. I'm especially in love with the almost rainbow one:

I love the way the colors seem to just melt into themselves. I can't wait to see what it does as socks.

As for the blue:

I think I already know what I'm doing with this one. I think I'll adapt the print o' the wave pattern for circular knitting and have lacy, wavy socks in the colors of the sea.

If only I had four hands and time to actually knit things...

Ze Curse

Note to self: it is a bad, bad idea to have a discussion about knitting with the person you're not having a relationship with (it's very, very complicated) right before you both fall asleep. It may lead to the following exchange:

Me: I can't knit you a sweater, though. It's cursed.
The Flirtation (so called because I can't think of anything else, and heretofore referred to simply as 'TF'): Huh?
Me: There's a Boyfriend Curse in knitting.
TF: You're going to have to explain that one.
Me: Well, it's a well accepted phenomena that a knitter will knit a sweater for her boyfriend and then they'll break up.
TF: Oh.
Me: But, then again, we don't even have a relationship, so you're certainly not my boyfriend, so you should be safe.

*kicks self*

*Waves*

I just wanted to let you all know (and by "all" I mean "the random person who manages to find this thing") that, while I have many things Knitting to tell you all about (and pictures!), the posting will have to wait until the weekend.

Real life has intruded.

Past Project Parade, Part 1

Last year, I knitted a hat for a friend. Now, we're both nerds (okay, I'm technically a knerd, but it's really the same thing), so we're Firefly obsessed. When he realized I was a knitter (we really hadn't been friends long at that point) he offered to pay me if I would make him a Jayne Cobb hat.

Do you think I did?

Do I even have to ask?

So, without further ado, here it is:


The boring flat shot.


A much more interesting "action" shot.


And the money shot! A very happy customer.

My only regret is that he asked for it at the end of winter, so he didn't get much chance to wear it. Thank Something it's getting cold again...

Also, the pattern is my own design. If you'd like it, please let me know and I'll send it to you.*

*Disclaimer: pattern has not been published or test-knit, so you do so at your own risk.

I Humbly Apologize

Of course, if I thought I had more than one reader, I might actually feel guiltier about not posting sooner. If ever there was a time to start commenting...

Anyway, while the technology problem that has up to now prevented pictures on this klog has not been fixed, it has been hacked. So without further ado, I give you some knitting pr0n:


This is all the sock yarn currently in my stash. It's not much, but...oh, the possibilities. There will be more someday when I can afford it (and have the time to fondle it properly...my stash has been very neglected as late).


After taking pictures of all the yarn individually, I realized the yarn had gathered itself together, and done a much better job than I had setting it out. Really, I like to think of my yarn as progressive--the Sockotta is more than willing to snuggle up to the Trekking XXL, and they'll both welcome in the Regia...

My stash doesn't yet rival Kristi's or Cookie's, and while I don't remember pictures of the full stash (I hear it's hard to get the stash in one place for pictures) of The Harlot, I know she's got miles on me. As a side note, anyone want to hazard a guess as to which blogs I check every single day multiple times a day (just in case)? Still, I'm young. I'm poor. I just started knitting socks this spring.

Soon there will be a post of the socks I've knit since then. I warn you, I started my sock craze with Pomatomus, and kind of went on from there. I also made up the patterns for my other socks. And I slightly modified the Great Pomatomus for my own ends (and heels).

I think I'll leave you all (all one of you...) with a picture of my next pair of socks.


Envy me. You know you want to.