We Have Been Blinded By Science

Today's knitting has been pushed to the side in the name of science. A kindergarten science project for the school science fair.

We were required to come up with a hypothesis. Georgia can't even SAY hypothesis, much less spell it. Or write it.

Our project was "Why Do Things Float or Sink?"

We took pretty pictures of stuff:

We dumped stuff into the water:

We observed whether the stuff floated or sank:

We put together a gigantic (and supersecret) science project display.

We tried to teach the kids to present what they did.

We have a headache.

We want to go hide in a dark and silent room and curl up in the fetal position.

We want to know if people are available for hire to help out with kid's science projects.

We want beer.

Little Things Adding Up to Great Big Things

I will not be making my sister-in-law's wedding dress after all. Which, I have to tell you, is a great big relief. Part of this is due to the fact that she wasn't sure when, and/or, if she was going to be able to get married until early January of this year. She set a date for June 18th. I looked at the dress pattern and laughed, she went off and purchased one.

However, I will be making flowers for pins, corsages, her bouquet and anything else we can come up with to stick knitted flowers on. The pattern that Ella fell in love with is the Flower Pin (my rav link) from Brave New Knits (amazon link). I made the first one last night:

Looks great on my charcoal gray sweater today!

Honestly, I figure I can churn one of these out per day. It is slightly larger than the palm of my hand and it took somewhere between 15 minutes and an hour to make (I was pretty distracted), plus a little bit of time for blocking and seaming. So, as Knitpicks just released their new mohair yarn, Aloft, I'll be ordering some of that and knitting away. I'm shooting for somewhere between 60 and 90 of these suckers. Anyone wanna help?

The Electric Kool-Aid (not really) Acid Test

I've been wearing my big ugly Clapotis lately, despite the fact that I hated the colors. It is soft and exceedingly warm, and it was MINE, damnit, so I wore it. So there.

Wearing it around Manhattan has been... an adventure. I've gotten a range of comments from totally random people on it, such as, "Wow, what an... interesting scarf." or "I LOVE IT! WHERE DID YOU GET IT?" or people giving my poor scarf a total stink face. I had a couple of random knitters pop out of the woodwork to ask if it was Noro (yes), but they declined to comment on the color until I mentioned how ugly it was. Then I got some heartfelt agreements. Heh.

ANYWAY, I'd had enough of the adventure, and honestly, making something so ugly got my knitting mojo into a little bit of a bind. Yesterday morning I took myself off to Target to buy groceries and found a huge selection of individual Kool-Aid packets, so I picked up some Black Cherry. Sounded appropriate. Y'all should have seen the look on the cashier's face when she got to the 50 packets of Kool-Aid. She desperately wanted to ask what they were for, but didn't. I was so tempted to tell her I was going to snort them (or something). 

In the afternoon I commenced dyeing. It didn't take long at all, only about an hour. The general rule of thumb is two packets of Kool-Aid for every 50 grams of yarn you're dyeing. I put a huge stockpot on the stove, filled it with water, dumped in the Kool-Aid and the Clapotis and let it heat until it simmered. Then I shut off the heat and let it cool. My apartment smelled like Black Cherry drink mix for a few hours afterwards. When I rinsed out the scarf, I had no bleeding at all. Pretty sweet.

The Before:

The After:

 I also have a couple of other projects going, and I finished tearing apart that sweater. I now have approximately five billion cakes of yarn waiting to be hanked, washed and dyed.

Cute, cute, cute

So there's this awesome thing called Groupon, which recently had a deal for half off an Amazon gift card. Which is like butter to my bread. Of course I got knitting books.

The first is Colorwork Creations: 30+ Patterns to Knit Gorgeous Hats, Mittens and Gloves, by Susan Anderson-Freed. It is chock full of cute (and I do mean CUTE CUTE CUTE!) patterns for hats and mittens, most of which are interchangable.

I am currently obsessed with these:

Chickadee Hat

Nuthatch Mittens

Reindeer Hat

Plus, as I haven't done any colorwork yet, other than stripes, they should be an interesting and fun challenge.

Personal knitting is coming along, but as it is acres of stockinette, is rather boring.

Still haven't gotten my package from Webs. As soon as I do, there will be yarn porn. Oh yes, there will.

[Insert Clever Title Here]

I finished the Clapotis, but I'm not posting any more pictures until I dye the stupid thing. It's a really pretty knit, if dull. The final results will be lovely. Really. Even if I have to dye the thing black.

I might try the kool aid dyeing thing. And then I'll have a clever post title of like "electric kool aid acid test" which probably nobody will get. Except possibly Bruce.

Anyway, I have had a completely UTTERLY failed order from Webs. Totally not their faults. Well, kind of their faults, but not really. That was supposed to be for a sweater for Bruce. Eventually I will get the yarn. I swear, I've been on the phone with their very nice customer service representative, Theresa, about 16 times about this damn order. Poor lady. She will be very glad to see/hear the last of me.

So in the meantime, I am making this:

Idlewood by Cecily Glowik MacDonald

From this:

Cascade Eco + in some color or another.

YAY!

Ketchup.

My hands seem to have recovered nicely, which is a positive thing. And I actually got off my butt and took pictures of FOs that I shot unblocked a couple of weeks ago.

Also, we went to Philly this weekend, which was a blast. I saw the Italian Market there, which is AMAZING and, of course, went to a LYS, (loop, and quite nice). Next trip we're going to see the Mutter. I SWEAR.

We walked past the Philadelphia Magic Garden, which I definitely have to actually go into next time. It was rather mindbogglingly awesome.

Photo courtesy of Craftgossip

Anyway, knitting pix:

Project: Meredith's Propello
Yarn: Rowan Lima

Project: Ella's Second September Circle
Yarn: Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball

Project: Clapotis
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden

I am not sure what I think of this colorway. No, that's not true. I think it is U-G-L-Y. It ain't got no alibi. It's ugly. I believe I see an overdye in its future.

And I find the pattern, for the record, hecking boring. Although it will make a really beautiful finished object. After I dye the heck out of it.

Also, I got this enormous knee-length hooded sweater coat from a thriftstore last year. It's made from bulky yarn, mohair, cashmere, angora and awesome, and I discovered it is hand made. So I am tearing it apart. It is also filthy. So after I wash the yarn, this too will go straight into the dye bath. And then I shall make something awesome.

That is all for now.

MWAH! (Happy Valentine's Day. Now go tell some yarn how much you love it.)

Awesome

Want to make all of these things RIGHT NOW:

Halliard by Kate Gilbert
Twist Collective

Pookies by Barbara Prime

Miske by Julie Weisenberger

All of the patterns from the Book of Gray by Veera Välimäki

Stupid hand.

Primal Picnics

My brilliant and talented husband recently had a short story published in a collection called Primal Picnics, which is now available for order on Amazon!



I'm pretty darned excited about this! Woo hoo!

However, when I say "recent" it means that the book was published recently, although I think he wrote the story three years ago and the publication schedule was pushed back ad nauseum until it was finally released this year.

My hand/wrist/arm still hurt, and I think it is stemming from a shoulder issue. Regardless, I'm taking a few days off from knitting at the moment, and if I'm lax in commenting on everybody's blogs, it doesn't mean I'm not reading. It just means that my stupid hand hurts.

Also, we went to the New Year parade in Chinatown yesterday. I'll save the pix for another post with relatively few words so that I don't have to type too much.

It's all in the wrist.

Which, unfortunately is the case at the moment.

This, my friends, is what hurts:

Too much knitting and typing I suspect. I'll be laying off for a bit on both. Sigh.

The following, however, does not hurt at all. Although once again, I'm amazed that Beezer can actually sleep in this position for a long period of time:

 

(note the curled toes)

Anyway, I started my Clapotis. The magic has not happened yet, but I expect it too as soon as I'm able to get back to it. I also started a design for Eternity Mittens which will match the Eternity Scarf I made for Meredith. I contacted the designer of the Eternity Scarf, Michele Wang, and she was lovely about the entire thing. So. I shall be releasing it as a pattern at some point in the near future.

New Addition!

As of this morning, I have a nephew!

Here's little Aaron:

He now officially gets the title of cutest baby in the world.

Congratulations Sue & Paul! You did an excellent job. I can't wait to meet him.

Unblocked.

Well, I finished up Meredith's hat, which is from the Propello pattern. It needs to be blocked, but here it is in its unblocked state:

 

Me, wearing it unblocked. It fits, but it doesn't have the drape that I'd like it to have. (the first photo, miraculously, shows the color fairly well)

 

I also finished up Ella's September Circle last night. Here it is in all of its unblocked glory:

A quick break from the yarniness to show you all a photo of Georgia's wildest outfit from this weekend. Yes, she put that outfit together herself. Yes, she does have quite the interesting sense of fasion. And yes, somehow she makes it all work.

Also, in my total laxitude, I forgot to post pictures of the lovely giveaway that I won from Caffeine Girl. 

A fair bit of the giveaway was edible and it got, well, devoured. Georgia helped me open the box and as she was pulling out chocolate after chocolate she turns to me and says "I'll share this with you. You can have the yarn." Thanks, kid. Anyway, we ate all of the chocolate. It was AMAZING. Georgia was totally entertained by the Cow Pie chocolate.

The things that we didn't eat were yarn and some really lovely earrings. The yarn is from Four Crows farm in Wisconsin, and it is truly lovely stuff. It's got a really springy, lofty texture to it, and it feels wonderful on my hands. It's not soft, but then again, I'm a HUGE fan of non-soft wools. (Ok, if we're being honest, I could just say I'm a huge fan of wools, period.) I can definitely wear it against my neck (she writes as she has the yarn tucked between neck and chin) and the skein has generous yardage (230) at a slightly heavy worsted weight. YUM. The colors are also really pretty.

I also got this lovely card, which I suspect is hand made:

The box that the earrings came in. It cracked (quacked?) me up:

And the earrings themselves. They're so cute! I love the little scarves. Very knitterly. :)

Thank you, Caffeine Girl! It is an awesome package, and pretty darned thrilling to get in the mail.