Well That WAS The Plan

So I was looking at the number of hits to my blog sometime last week and it was around 39,800. More or less. And I thought to myself, "Self, you haven't had a contest lately, you should have a contest for hitting 40,000." This seemed like a very fine plan because I do like to give stuff away.

Then this past Sunday and Monday I started getting blog e-mails asking me about my Eyelet Lace Beanie, which is a free pattern on Knitting Pattern Central. Oh well, maybe Venus had aligned with Mars or something. Whatever. But then tonight I was sitting at the yarn store and my friend, Singing Carol, came up to me and said, "Congratulations!" I sort of looked at her and said, "Umm, for what?" And that's how I found out that my Eyelet Lace Beanie had been the Pattern of the Day on the Daily Knitter on October 26th. Go figure. So I guess we'll have that giveaway at 45,000 cuz we've kinda passed 40.

In other knitting news, here is a No Purl Monkey in Aracaunia Ranco Multy. It's a sample for the store. I must say that that No Purl Monkey pattern kicks some serious butt. Dead easy to memorize and looks nice with variegated yarn. And no purling. HALLELUJAH. Please excuse the cat.

Last year I was quite taken with the Maine Morning Mitts pattern. In fact, I may have made more than one pair. A month or so ago, I bought some Brown Sheep Lanaloft in a very dark green color. It seemed to me that a textured stitch or cabling was going to get lost which made me think why not Maine Morning Mitts, they're simple. But the color looked more like a guy color than a girl. No problem, I would just change the pattern "a little." There didn't seem to be a lot of male fingerless mitts patterns around anyway.

Tonight I compared my pattern with the pattern for the MMM's. Well the number of stitches cast on is different. The thumb is different. The rib pattern is different. The cast off is different. I guess we'll call these the "California Morning Mitts" and go with that. These will fit up to a 9" inch hand, not including thumb. Pattern to appear soon.

Blah, Blah, And Then I Knit Some

Knit all day, read all night. Knit all day, read all night. That pretty much sums up my life these days. I've kinda lost track of how many books I've read since I've been unemployed, 20 maybe? No, more like 14. Really, I have no idea. What day is it again? However, I have two interviews next week. One, a two or three week temp job up in San Francisco. And the other is a full time job working with a knitting buddy. Both accounting stuffs. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, back to the knitting stuff. Here's a pair of wrist warmers. Exciting, no?

But wait! There IS something exciting about them! They only took one skein of yarn to make a pair. I love one skein knits. These were made with Mirasol "Chirapa" which is what I'd call a heavy sport weight. 165 yards in a 50 gram ball. If you want the pattern e-mail me at Sakkasie@hotmail.com and I'll send ya the PDF file or simply leave your e-mail addy in the comments, whichever. I'd post it on my blog but it's being offered at my LYS as a free pattern with the purchase of the yarn. But if you don't actually live in Campbell how could you buy the yarn so you could get the pattern? Somehow, this all makes sense to me.

I crocheted a hat. For my knitting buddy, Paula who wears hats a lot. Not much to say about this other than it took me like 3 hours to do.

A scarf in progress. How dull. But I must say I love this stitch pattern. It's called a braided thinger or something like that. Dead easy. Here's a close-up picture.

Want the pattern? OK. Cast on 24 stitches. I'm using size 8 needles here with Cash Vero worsted weight yarn. Row 1 - Slip 1 as if to knit, (P2, Slip 1 as if to knit, K1, YO, pass slipped stitch over both K1 & YO) until 3 stitches remain on needle. P2, K1. Row 2 - Slip 1 as if to knit, (K2, P2) until 3 stitches remain on needle. K3. There ya go. Does that make sense? That's it, that's the pattern.

Andy is overwhelmed with the simplicity of the scarf pattern.

Funk It Up

I've never been a big fan of Reggae music. I don't own any Bob Marley CD's and I don't smoke that wacky tabacky. But I do like knitting Rasta Hats ...

Bearing a more than passing resemblance to the Blackberry Beanie, this is the same pattern only in a worsted weight wool. Which makes it more drapey. Or so I like to think. The second picture more accurately shows the color.

I really love this puffed rib stitch, it makes it all squishy and stuffs. And it's a very quick knit. Especially if you have nothing else to do.

Here's something I wish I had made. Is this so cute you can hardly stand it? It's a little sheepie magnet and I got it on Etsy (where else) at Jacob's Reward Farm. They're very reasonably priced ($6.00) and they've even got a sheepie that's crocheting. For all you hookers out there. I haven't named her yet. She's so adorable I haven't had the heart to put her up on the fridge with all the expired Jiffy Lube Oil coupons. What if she gets suffocated by a Pizza Hut menu? I'm so glad I didn't have children.

Sew Yeah

Must. stop. buying. fabric.

Often you'll hear that the reason knitters have such a huge stash of sock yarn is because most of the time you only need to purchase a single ball to make a pair of socks and it's "usually" under $20.00. So it doesn't seem like a huge expense. Ha. Sock yarn doesn't have a thing on fat quarters.

For the non-quilters in the crowd, a fat quarter is a piece of fabric measuring 18" X 22" or ... a quarter of a yard. And these delightful little pieces of fabric can be had for as low as $2.00 on the ol' Innernets. Of course you can't exactly make a quilt out of one fat quarter but if you piece a whole bunch of 'em together, well there ya go. Or you can make little things. Like gift card holders.

The yarn store I work at is very big on promoting environmentally friendly knitting options. We also sell reusable gift cards at the store. What better way to stash your reusable gift card then in a reusable gift card holder? I know, I know, I'm a genius. Actually, if the truth be known, I just like making these little wallets so I'm trying to think up as many uses for them as I can. And I can use up my stash to make them. Err, that would be the "old" stash. As opposed to the "new 2008 stash."

It's My Mom's Fault

My mother was a master seamstress. She was never actually employed in that capacity but she could sew like no one I have ever known. If it required fabric, she could make it. I still have a winter coat she made me oh ... 15 years ago. Fully lined of course. I mean, who would actually sew a winter coat? She was the consummate perfectionist. No two pieces of fabric were sewn together unless they were pinned AND basted first.

One of the great disappointments of my mother's life was that I didn't inherit her "sewing gene." Lord knows I tried. That lovely Holly Hobbie bag I made in 8th grade Home Ec was a wonder to behold. And of course there was the dress I made when I was 25 that could have doubled as a circus tent. Another major success. But more often than not, when Mom said, "Wanna go to the fabric store?" I would cringe inside.

Eventually I learned to quilt. We shall not discuss how long it took me to learn to sew in a straight line. And even when I did, I still heard my Mom's voice admonishing me to just "try a little bit harder."

Mom's gone now, as some of you know. And apparently I did inherit a bit of the sewing gene after all.

The Bug Wallet, complete with coordinating lining and INTERFACING. I'm even gonna put a SNAP on it. Yeah, I need to go back to work.

Like Riding A Bike

I am having another nasty bout of carpal tunnel for some unknown reason *cough*too much knitting*cough*. It's been getting worse *cough*too much knitting*cough* over the last week or so and yesterday I finally gave up uhh .. knitting. Just for a little while of course. Unfortunately the book I'm reading right now is kinda slow going and oh. my. god. I was all out of movies. Thankfully I have another hobby. I affectionately call it "Ripping Out Seams".

About five years ago I was off work on disability because I had misplaced my mind. So I decided to teach myself how to quilt. The fact that I had no idea how to sew and didn't even own a sewing machine was a minor issue. After all, I had a kickass iron and a great ironing board and everyone knows quilting involves ironing. And who among us wouldn't agree that learning to sew 1/4 inch seams while heavily medicated is some capital F fun?

The Quilting Obsession lasted about a year. And then I packed everything away because I really did hate those frickin' quarter inch seams. Until today. And apparently, those little seams aren't quite as hard to manage when you're not swallowing handfuls of pharmaceuticals. Huh.

Mind you, this isn't exactly an heirloom quilt and it's only a buncha 6 inch blocks but it did keep me busy for like 5 hours. Mainly because I gave away 95% of my fabric stash (and it was QUITE the stash) and it took me forever to find a color scheme I even remotely liked. And as Susan, who is the World's Greatest Quilter, would tell you, there's not enough contrast. But that's OK because DeeDee likes it and it's going to be a quilt for her.

Now if someone could just tell me what the hell I was planning to make with all these blocks five years ago I'll be on my quilting way.