Saltwater Purls

Roses wrist warmers

I have a new viewing obsession. Dr Who. I've just finished season 2 and in the final tear jerker scene, Rose Tyler wears some lovely wrist warmers. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be a time traveler, escaping everything you have to do, adventuring and seeing amazing things, and in the end be returned moments after you left. Of course Dr Who never does that, you usually end up somewhere you don't want to be crying in your pea soup. Like a good knitter I spied the gloves and wanted to posses them the moment she appeared on the screen with them. Wouldn't you know it the rabid Dr Who fan base has already created a pattern. I'm making some modifications of course. The yarn is Garnstudio DROPS Angora-Tweed.

Meredith we roll along

I break the blog silence to bring you meredith and some questions (if anyone still reads this).
1. Sleeve length....3/4 length or should I lengthen them?
2. How bad are these mistakes? (fairisle bands marked by red lines on the body, the sleeve is right if you want to compare).

Regular blogging will resume when classes end and I am no longer responsible for the education and care of 600 students.

Hannah Bannah parties with Jazzmine

I have a serious case of startitous these days. I blame the upcoming election which has me on edge. Although my husband would disagree with me I would say the upcoming election will change the US forever...either way. Forget the stars though here are the stripes.

I've started Hannah from Kim Hargreaves the Thrown Together collection in Kidsilk Aura. So soft my son likes to hold the balls to his face. This should be a quick gratuitous knit.

And Jazzmine is inching a long slowly....only another ~20 rows until the armholes.

P.S. Yes Adelaide is growing up too fast there with tasty Thomas and busy-bee.

Puff the magic Loppem

Here is Loppem right now. I forgot the recalculate the number of stitches added for the sleeves so the result is that they flair out. In fact if I were the type of knitter to do things right I would undo to the armhole, reduce the number of stitches cast on and do no shaping  on the arms for the first couple of decrease rows. We all know I'm not that knitter. Instead I'm contemplating short rows and a little puff sleeve action....could be bad.....could be good......I drew one in to see if I felt the puff for it.

PS. Jimmy Beans didn't give me any credit for my honesty, just emailed a return slip.

Oh the irony

So you heard the saddest of all the sad knitting tales on the last entry. When online purchases go astray. Here's the irony that arrived today. This would be a completely unsolicited package from Jimmy Beans.

A $42 bag handle supposedly destined for Angele in Alberta..addressed to me, however. Big screw up on their part as I also got the receipt and more information than I should have. So I'll write to them and ask them what they would like me to do. Maybe they'll ask for it back and give me a credit for being honest...

When life gives you lemons...

you start a new knitting project. So you remember how blah I felt about Meredith, and how I hated the colour Walnut but how everything was going to turn out alright because the right colours were winging their way to me like the gentle drum of spring rain. Well those swelling clouds in the distance turned out to be a dry thunderstorm (like Gérard Depardieu, dancing for the approaching storm in Jean de Florette). See I never noticed that my address information on the Knitting Garden website was old, very old like 4 years old. And so.....and so (pregnant pause inserted like Alan Rickman in Sense and Sensibility ....'no doubt....no doubt you've heard') I waited by the mailbox expecting the parcel to arrive everyday. It didn't because it was being delivered elsewhere and subsequently lost to the ether of space and time. What do you do when life gives you lemons....you start a new project....cotton of course because until the last couple of days it has been warm and sticky).

Meet Loppem from Norah Gaughans Book 3 in GGH Samoa from the Stash. The gauge is a little different, but I am also going to add some very short sleeves....so watch this space....and then I'll wander through the woods like a zombie creature (because you all know when you knit something you'll end up looking like the model right? ).

bleech!

Well I thought the walnut would work in Meredith. I got one nice stripe in and then tried it with the blue. Yuck! So I've thrown her to one side (well I did start the sleeves) and I'm waiting for new colours. Istill have the dusty lavender, and Yarnzilla has agreed to send me the proper colour (another green) I ordered and give me the walnut. What to do when your project goes awry....finish one already on needles?

Don't be silly....start another one. This is Jasmine from Kim Hargreaves Nectar collection. I'm jazzing it up a bit by adding some stripes and knitting it in the round. I love Kims classic fitted knits but oh boy they can get boring to knit. I am using Rowan 4ply cotton that I've picked up in sale bins over the years. I have 6 balls of the green in 4 different dyelots...so I'm striping the balls.

Meredith

One project finished, another started. Meet Meredith from Kim Hargreaves thrown together.

I'm using the called-for yarn RCY Cashsoft 4ply. The same yarn I used in the little lattice cardy. Papyrus and bark were on sale 1/2 price at Jimmy Beans, Deep is left over from said cardy, and loganberry, fennel nad forest are from Yanrzilla at a reasonable price. Yarnzilla also sent me walnut by accident instead of suede and I was going to send it  back but I decided it worked okay. I am still waiting for Monet from the Knitting Garden. So many online shops...yes well I can't get much 4ply locally so there.

Each Peach, Pear, Plum Wrap

I mentioned in the last post I brought some new yarn...the temptation was Adrienne Vittadini Fiora...a mohair yarn with small sequins throughout....and now thoroughly discontinued. I have wanted this yarn for years, so when it appeared at Webs 1/2 off in plum, it was destiny...right?
 
So I am making the wrap cardigan from Adrienne Vittadini Fall 2003 collection...which will  make this the 4th sweater I have made from the collection. In fact I adopted this collection on Ravelry...and then made the mistake of deleting one of the best projects. Apparently to prevent people being asked multiple times for their pictures you can only ask once.....so the only way to fix my screwup is for the person to reupload their picture....and they have not :( although I asked really, really nicely.

Lost in sssppppppaaaace

Where am I? Well nowehere right now, but I haven't been posting because a) my home computer has lost its mind logic board, b) we apparently have no dsl, c)I hate all my knitting projects (translation big booboo made) or they hate me (translation run out of yarn), d) I love silver smithing, e) the garden calls.

what do you do when you hate your knitting? You start a new project. This is a drops free pattern (thanks Ravelry friends) and I am using some Jaeger Trinity from my stash. Tomorrow I'm off to Penn State.