Third Time’s A Charm!

If you think waaaaay back, you might remember a few issues I had while trying to make some felted slippers for myself.
Of course, these were not just your garden variety felted slippers.  No, I had to make it harder than that.  My goal was to replicate my dearly beloved, but quite elderly, pink furry bunny slippers:  Hip and Hop.
I had a couple [...]

I Think I’ll Keep Him

Over the weekend, I had a touch of  "the depression" *.
Specifically, I had the knitting depression.
I didn’t have a single decent current project, the UFOs were one big pile o’ crap, I hated everything in my hotlist **.

I HAD NOTHING TO KNIT.

If this sounds to you a bit like closet angst (I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR), you [...]

Happy Birthday to Me!

As part of "fun weekend", DH and I went and visited a place on the other side of the river, called "SCRAP".

SCRAP — The School and Community Reuse Action Project – is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and our mission is to promote creative reuse and environmentally sustainable behavior by providing educational programs and affordable materials to the [...]

Nutcracker Sweet, Part 8 - finishing up

Wow, what a difference a couple of weeks makes!  Here’s what’s happened since we last saw our friend, the Nutcracker sweater…
Bodice knitting:  finished.
FI panel:  about a million ends woven in.
Hems & facing:  sewn down.  Stitching down the hem took a while, because it had to be redone a couple of times to get it to properly [...]

The 5-year FO

Hey, you can’t say I don’t have persistence.
This little gem has literally taken me something like 5 years to finish.
To be fair, there was more than the usual amount of knitting involved.  I did knit the entire thing once, and then reknit the top half; but then I got to cheating and for the third [...]

Nutcracker Sweet, Part 5 - the fit of the bodice

Or to put it another way, the Turn of the Screw.  Emphasis squarely on the word "screw".
Because get ready, kids — here’s where it all falls apart.  Or at least it gets a whole lot more complicated.  Turns out I picked a real doozy to start off the Playing Lessons with…!  But let’s not get ahead [...]

Final FO’s of 2007

Well, I said I was working on my pile of UFO’s.  Two more are completed, hooray!    I swear to you I got them done by Dec 31, even if I haven’t managed to blog about them until Jan 3.  Blogging does NOT COUNT as part of finishing.
That makes a total of 21 FO’s for the past [...]

Nutcracker Sweet, Part 2 - more yarn subs & gauge

So, after a second trip to the LYS, here’s what the yarn collection looks like. The Rowan “kid classic” is in the middle, flanked by all the Berroco “Ultra Alpaca” and some Nashua “Kid Mohair” on the bottom and the left. (The printed color swatches of the Cascade 220 used in the original design are [...]

Nutcracker Sweet, Part 1 - yarn subs

OK, I found my next exciting project. #29 from the recent VK Hol 2007. This sweater is so freakin’ sassy, I can’t believe it. Faux fur & satin pockets!
Actually, I like almost every sweater in this layout, which is a refreshing change – in the past couple of years I’ve spent more time going [...]

Felting with Effing-U-N Fur

Last Friday, I made another attempt at a pair of felted slippers for myself. (For those of you keeping score, DH has a pair already that he wears & loves – made in 2004.) 
The original concept behind this project is that I have a fabulous but very elderly pair of slippers that I’d like to [...]

Shop Aging

This past summer, I learned a term from my woodworking brother that I think deserves wider attention in the knitting world.
He was reading an article on “pine", I think - [and just what kind of a nut would read an article about “pine", I ask you - give me an article about “MOHAIR” any day] [...]

Sassy!

This year, while DH was off at the Sasquatch festival over Memorial Day weekend, I decided to clean out my closet. I hadn’t done a thorough job of this in about 6 years, during which time:

we moved from TX to OR,
I quit my day job, and
I lost ~10 pounds (from not eating fast food for [...]

Then and…Where?

Many of my knitting friends know that I love, love, LOVE old knitting books. Old VKs are a fave, but I’ll thumb through just about anything. (And I have the overflowing bookshelf in my studio to prove it.) Often you can find a stitch pattern, a silhouette, or a detail that will spark an idea. [...]

The Queen of Green

You may have noticed – I like green.
Just about any shade of green really, even the ugly ones – with the possible exception of really light minty green. See, I’m a natural redhead, and it’s something I just can’t help. One of my personal slogans is,
“I never met a green yarn I didn’t like.”
Thus it [...]