O-Wool Balance

Yesterday I got the book Itty Bitty Toys by Susan Anderson for one of the women in my knitting group.  It was her birthday and I know she loves to knit toys.

The most captivating patterns in this book are the reversible toys in the back.  I couldn't stop thinking about them and had to look up the yarn they were knit with.  It was O-wool Balance, and it has been discontinued! Boo!  But is it coming back?

OMG, I just found a giveaway on Icelandicgardener.blogspot.com!!  It looks as if O-Wool Balance is still out there, whew.

Miller's Hat

This is a pattern that I bought immediately upon seeing Through the Loop's post.  It is an awesome hat.  However this pattern has tested me.  Like the A.D.D. Knitter said, you've got to put away the iPhone, shut off Twitter and concentrate on the herringbone portion.  And if you're me, every other part of the hat, too.  It's worth it, though, for this fabulous design.

As you can see from the above photo, I almost finished this hat.  Then I discovered that it was too small for my head.  A sad moment that I am trying to quickly put behind me by re-knitting on larger needles (7 and 8 instead of 6 and 7).

But if you take a look at the Ravelry page for this pattern, you'll see it's worth starting over!

Picture Reminder

I am sticking my toe into the posting waters here, so things are a bit random.  This is from May, after we got back from Maryland Sheep & Wool.  I bought this Spirit Trail Fiberworks sock yarn there, and then when I got home ordered a ball winder and swift.  I knew they couldn't arrive soon enough, so I started hand balling the yarn.  Needless to say this was a big mistake and I ended up with this:

 

Reminds me of the Yarn Harlot's comment about how knitters are the most impatient people around!

Blogging is really hard

 

I've been struggling to post pictures from flickr.  Why in God's name doesn't this work??  Whew, anyway, for now, I adding pics from the computer and to hell with it.

This isn't the first time I've been utterly stymied by Blogger.

The sweater that started it all

Last year I started this Debbie Bliss sweater:
Everything was fine and dandy until the fateful moment when I had to start putting it together. I knew this would be a major hurdle, so I signed up for an advanced knitting class at Cooper Union (they just started offering knitting and crochet classes last year). Well, needless to say, the thing still isn't finished. Though in my defense, the pattern has a big error (omission) in it. More on that later.

Through the knitting class I discovered Grumperina's blog and became really addicted to it. Through her blog I found Domesticat, which is what brought me to the knitterly letter swap.

Today I bought my stationary, so my letter will be in the mail in the next couple of days.

Over the past months I also started knitting the backyard leaves scarf pattern from Scarf Style:


I like it! I think this designer, Annie Modesitt, is fantastic. I'm about 3/4 of the way finished.

Knitterly Letter Swap

I just emailed Domesticat to join this penpal group. I found her blog through Grumperina and was immediately smitten with her banner. The banner is no more, but suffice to say it contained a picture of one her cats with a scarf (hand-knitted) wrapped around it's neck. My cat would never go for that.

I'm also a stationary slave and I spend a lot of time in the fancy stationary stores of NYC. Now I have a very good excuse to spend money on expensive stationary. Oh dear. Also, tonight I will dig out all my accutrements -- pretty sure I have sealing wax somewhere.

More soon.

Lost & Found

I can't believe it's been 13 days since my last post. OK, my excuse, I've been knitting. I'm in the final stretch of my sweater, knitting the hood. In order to start this I had to join the shoulder seams and this was the first time I've ever done finishing work. It was scary, but the outcome looks great. I used the directions in Stitch 'n Bitch, by Debbie Stoller. In my knitting class one of the women always laughs when I say stitch 'n bitch--I'm so used to it, I'm not sure what's funny about it!

I just had to go and buy a #7 circular needle for this ribbed hood. I had one, but it was lost when I lost an entire bag of knitting on the subway. The bag included an almost-completed sleeve, (about four weeks of slow knitting) a whole skein of yarn (Lamb's pride, not too expensive) and the instructions I'd been using up until then. I xeroxed the instructions out of the book I bought, but they also had all my chicken scratch from previous pieces. In doing the hood, I've missed having those notes. The upside of this horrible loss was that it made me dive in, more determined to finish after this setback.

I bought the needles at "The Point" a knew knitting cafe on Bedford Street here in Greenwich Village (my office is nearby). A woman in the cafe had also lost her knitting on the subway once a long time ago. Somebody found it and took it home, and when they saw her again on the subway, they returned it to her! Amazing. However this was a long time ago when there were less people in New York. She also told me that the MTA has a lost and found. I looked it up on their website and it's located in the 34th Street and 8th Ave. station. I have to go just to see it. I can't imagine I'll actually find my knitting. . . but you never know. Apparently they sell all the stuff once a year. I am so there!

Birth of a Blog

OK. Here I am. I am blogging. This blog is about knitting and all the people and places it leads me to. This morning I was thinking that, if I had a car, I'd have to get a bumper sticker that said "I'd rather be knitting". Because almost all the time lately I want to be knitting. But alas, I live in New York City and don't own a car. Shit. Maybe I'll get a t-shirt that says it!

I can't post in detail at this moment, but coming up will be posts on the sweater I'm finishing, the knitting class I'm taking, and my godforsaken christmas projects. More soon!