FO: Vine Loop

I made this loop for my friend Katie. It's another one of those patterns that I SWEAR I will make for myself one of these days, and it's made all the more shameful by the fact that it literally takes NO TIME to knit.

Also, I have the yarn to make myself one. Just hasn't happened yet. I am a slacker. Or something.

Here's Katie's loop unblocked (and me looking grumpy in it):

Pattern: Vine Loop by Melissa LaBarre
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted in Stone Blue
Needle: US 8 (5mm)

Modifications: Katie is rather petite, so I shortened the overall size of this thing from 54 inches around (which probably would have reached her knees) to 36 inches around. It is big enough for me to loop twice around my neck, and it will likely stretch out (the other one I knitted did) with wear, so it should drape nicely. The number of stitches cast on were 144, and I did six repeats of the pattern chart.

In other news, I had my hair done today for the first time in a year. Got it colored (got rid of some of those greys) and cut.  My stylist was this big burly Serbian dude, so that was unique. Gotta love Queens. Also my stylist and his assistant got into a fight (in Serbian) while the assistant was washing my hair. In the middle of the shampoo she dropped my head and stomped out of the salon. Uh. Ok. Also, while the cut is fine (you can see it in the photo above), my stylist decided to blow out my hair into a combination bouffant and Farah Fawcett flip, and then used approximately 15 pounds of hairspray on it to keep it in place. Which, yeah. SO not me. At all. In any way. Bruce said that I was looking very "Queens" after that. As soon as I got home I washed my hair, put nothing in it and let it air dry. The results of my lack of styling are what you see in the picture at the top of the post.

Needless to say, I likely won't be going back to that place. I have such a hard time finding stylists that I like. It's tough. And the ones I do like are generally WAY too expensive for my taste/budget.

Anyway. That's probably more than anyone wanted to know about my hair. And honestly, it'll probably be the last that you hear about it for quite a while.

Color Affection Affliction

So while I was in the Washington, DC area for my friend's wedding, I stopped in at the lovely LYS, Fibre Space, which just happened to be having an exceedingly large Miss Babs trunk show that day.

I succumbed, and bought one of their exceedingly lovely Color Affection kits. Because I am a sucker. And this yarn was really pretty. And I've been wanting to make a Color Affection shawl. And because my husband is awesome and totally indulges my knitting habit because he frequently gets knitted items out of it. And he rocks.

Here is the yarn I got. It's the Yet Lace kit in Roasted Pumpkin, Coventry and Pewter. All three colors are twisted together, but they are individual skeins:

I cannot tell you all how much I love that store. I try to get in there every time I visit my friend, and I usually come away with some seriously awesome yarn. They seem to make a point of carrying local and harder-to-find brands, and they curate their colorways beautifully. There's also a lovely seating area right next to an enormous picture window for knitting, and when I was there it was full of knitters and their little dogs too.

Anyway, this time around they had these awesome reusable project bags that they used for their shopping bags. LOVE it! Love the drawstring.

Busy, busy.

It's been a crazy two weeks since I last posted:

1. Georgia started school:

2. I finished my Swirl Shawl but was unable to block it until today. It's gorgeous, if I do say so myself. It also makes pretty shadows:





3: I started a Paintbox Afghan. The noro squares are making me SOOOOOOOO happy:



4. Georgia and I were in my best friend Jorie's wedding on Saturday:

5.  Oh, and Ella had her baby boy today (August Bowen Anderson, 6lbs, 10oz):

All the things I did wrong

Apparently my brain was on vacation when I knit this sweater:

It is a Snug, a quick and easy baby knit. And apparently I was just not functioning AT ALL when I made it.

A short (but by no means exhaustive) list:

1. Started the sleeve rounds at the top of the shoulder instead of the armpit, so the row transition (knit in the round) is pretty visible. (and ugly)
2. Was apparently on crack when I started the round for the hood (you can see the VISIBLE join of the yarn on the left side of the photo, about an inch from the armpit. But I was on crack on only one side, because the other side is ok? WTH?
3. Ran out of yarn on the cast off for the hood, so only about a quarter inch was left, barely enough to weave in, as it keeps popping out.
4. Did mattress stitch on the back of the hood for stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch, which  now leaves a nicely visible line of stockinette for the seam.
5. I think one sleeve is about six rows longer than the other.
6. My crocheted button loop is WAY too big.
7. I apparently decided that apple green thread was the PERFECT match for this sweater, so that's what I used to sew the button on.
8. And finally, even though this sweater only took me a couple of hours to knit, I decided not to rip any of it back, and just finished it, for completely unknown reasons, even though it looks like poopydoodle. 

I am amazed at how many problems I packed into this teeny tiny sweater. Anyway, my sister in law loves it, warts and all, and is excited to put this on her little one, when he actually shows up. Which should be soon. She is feeling about 11 months pregnant, and is due towards the end of this month.

I'm also working on a swirl shawl right now, and it is taking FOREVER. I also screwed that one up in a pretty major way (around the same time that I made this sweater) and ended up having to rip and entire row of swirls back. Because I was joining them incorrectly. Which was not so much genius as not genius.

Georgia and I are heading off in a few minutes to help a friend continue to set up her yarn store (Seaport Yarns. They just moved from the 5th to the 4th floor in the same building) and we've been having a total blast playing yarn store. Plus, I'm getting paid in yarn. WOO! Plus, plus, I'm spending the whole day fondling and smelling and mentally shopping for yarn. And helping customers. And talking about yarn. And looking at all the pretty colors... sigh. It is a little slice of heaven.

Health-wise, I'm doing a bit better. I'm still feeling pretty tired, but looks like the problems I was having earlier this year have cleared up, and my tests have come back with good results, so, YAY!