Recent Work

Veronique:

At left is a shrug for my sister-in-law, Ella, Veronique from "French Girl Knits" by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes. I've used a completely different yarn than what Griffin-Grimes called for, as she wanted a mohair (Kid silk haze by Rowan) to be exact, in the graphite colorway (exactly the color it sounds like).

I'm going in a slightly different direction, using lace-weight merino from Morehouse Farms in their "Indian Summer" colorway.

So far it's pretty dull knitting, as its just stockinette stitch for miles and miles and miles. But its moving pretty darned fast and I'm blowing through it, which is really nice. I haven't had much time to sit and knit on it for the past few days, but when I do work on it, I'm cranking through a few inches at a time.

Whisper Cardigan:

I'm also working on Hannah Fettig's Whisper cardigan, which is giving me fits. It shouldn't be driving me quite as crazy as it is, as it too is miles of stockinette stitch, but damn, I've screwed the thing up more times than I can count.

Yesterday I was halfway through the back which accounts for nearly 11 inches of work, which was absolutely painstaking on size US3 needles. I was reading through the instructions and discovered that the needles weren't supposed to be a size 3 (I always always go down needle sizes because I knit so loosely) and that I was supposed to stick with the same size that I used on the sleeves. So blast. Ripped that sucker out back down to the sleeve and will re-start the knitting of the back. Crappity.

Part of the reason for the realization of my screwup (besides the fact that apparently I have problems reading the punctuation in Interweave Knitting magazine's instructions) is that I was looking at other people's whisper cardigans on Ravelry and was wondering how in the hell they could possibly knit them so quickly.

As a side note, for once I am actually using the yarn that the designer originally used in her pattern, Morehouse Farms lace weight. Of course I chose a different color, although I did enjoy the color she originally used. I just would look particularly sucky in it. It was one of those greens that make my pale skin reflect the color of the garment. Ugh.

And random life kinds of happenings:

A few weeks ago, at the Union Square Greenmarket, I picked up a gorgeous pot of neon pink petunias to brighten up the kitchen. We hung them from a hook in front of the window, and they did not like it there. So we stuck them on our window ledge and they seemed to thrive, blooming again, after half the plant had died. I was encouraged, and hoping that they would make a full come back. Every day I'd come home from work, or wherever to find that the effin squirrels had dug up half of my plant, and I was getting frustrated.

Today after getting back into the house after a short jaunt to the doctor, Ella starts hollering for me to come into the kitchen. I run in there and find this out our window:

I don't know if you can quite make it out, but there are two squirrels curled up asleep in my petunias (former). One black and one gray. They were so stinkin cute I didn't even mind the loss of my flowers. Well, at least not too much.