Check out the awesome projects over at Craftastrophe. Of course the knitter in me loves this. I hear that the slankets are sold out, and this is only $349.
Thanks to my bud, Sarah, for passing on the ridiculousness.
i’ve been neglecting my blog in lieu of gym and/or knitting time. two things i very much need right now, but the wips and fos are backing up.
my knitting buddies over on the sundara yarn love group on ravelry just finished up a lace kacal. we coined this activity as a kacal, “knit and crochet a long” as to not neglect our crocheting counterparts. we had so much fun and so many finished beautiful, inspiring projects. the encouragement of the kacal got me to finally complete my moon dance stole.
(Ravel It!)
Pattern: Moon Dance Stole by Pink Lemon Twist
Yarn: Sundara Silk Lace in Black over Fuchsia
Needles: US 4 Bryspun Flex circs
this project took a really long time to complete. i think i cast on way back in february. the actual knitting time wasn’t too bad. i just never focused on it exclusively; knitting a few rows a week until it was finally done. honestly, i don’t have much to say about it. it is one of those projects that i worked on for so long i’m kind of over it.
i also have a couple of new lace wips. they both may take me just as long as the moon dance to complete.
cleopatra wrap by mariam felton from sensual knits in sundara silk crushed cherries colourway
peacock feather and tail scarf by nancy bush from (her fabulous new book) knitted lace of estonia in sundara sock colourway morning mimosa
both really great projects, but i’m going to save the details for another later post.;)
kick ass link of the day…check out this great sarah palin tribute sweater on the little red blog of revolutionary knitting. crude and clever at the same time. i love it.
on to my more mainstream style of knitting, i’ve decided to participate in NaKniSweMo this year. this, for those of you who say that my blog is like reading the foreign language of knitters, is the annual “national knit a sweater in a month” event.
i’ve picked a project that seems pretty quick, the february lady sweater. yarn of choice is dream in color classy in the colorway cloud jungle.
i’ve been admiring this color for quite a while, mostly because it is a bit odd. slightly variegated with every color you can possibly imagine. in the end though, it comes out looking most gray, and i love a good gray sweater.
my swatch grew like nobodies business, so i decided to go ahead and knit a size down. the whole thing is pretty nerve wracking. i’ve knit down to just a few repeats in to the lace and this is one tight ass sweater right now. if it stretches and grows as much as my swatch, i’ll be in good shape. if not…ugh! my knitting history has given me very little faith in swatching. thus far, my knitting success has actually been greater for sweaters where i’ve cheated on the swatching.
after a little time off from blogging, i have a little parade of FOs to share. the dreary seattle weather is making photographs difficult these days, so today i’ll just post a little one.
(Ravel It!)
pattern: darkside cowl by sarah fama
yarn: sundara sock yarn in deadly nightshade
needles: US 8 circs
the yarn is the from the most recent sundara seasons winter shipment. called “deadly nightshade” it is a gorgeous variegated purple, varying from deep, mysterious plum to a lighter, icy lavender. i was a little unsure what to do with it as it is pretty highly variegated, not something i like for larger projects. so, i thought a cute, cozy cowl would be perfect.
the darkside cowl turned out to be a great choice. i held the yarn double to get the an appropriate gauge. it is really warm and cozy. the stitch pattern is super squishy and stretchy, so gauge isn’t really all that important.
i’m really happy with the way this turned out. great use of a single skein of sock yarn, and i’m always looking for uses for sock yarn that don’t involve knitting socks. i think i’ve worn it every day since i finished.
i’m sorry i’ve been mia lately. my work life has completely taken over the past month. frankly, it is really miserable. i think i’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel though, so hopefully more from me soon.
during all this craziness, mike and i did manage to take a quick trip to san francisco to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. love that city.
while there, i had an opportunity to do something i’ve been wanting to do for quite a while – visit artfibers!
i’ve been hearing about artfibers forever on the stash and burn podcast and i was really excited to visit. i completely dorked out on yarn for the entire afternoon. they have such a great setup, and i had the shop to myself the entire time i was there. not only do they offer their own yarn, not available anywhere else, but you can knit swatches in any yarn, any color. i tried out about seven different bases before selecting sweater quantities of two.
i ended up with a cone of sylph in a beautiful purple color and a cone of ming in a pretty, buttery yellow. i really wanted a cone of kyoto as well, but they didn’t have enough of the vibrant red color, which was the most appealing to me. i have no project plans for either yarn yet, but i’m sure i’ll come up with something eventually. they are both so soft and luxurious. i’m open to sweater pattern ideas if anyone has one. most of the patterns knit on ravelry with either of these bases are shawls.
it was a really wonderful, relaxing afternoon (very much needed given the work stress i’ve been dealing with lately), so i was really sad to receive an email from artfibers just two weeks later explaining that they are closing the retail location and will be online only for the time being. details are on the artfibers website here. since i don’t live in SF, this really doesn’t affect me all that much. however, i found myself unusually bummed that such a great spot was closing. i don’t know the ins and outs of the business, but i really hope they’ll be able to make in internet only or find a new retail location. it would be really sad for the community to lose such a great resource.
anyway, i have a few FOs to talk about later in the week.
the popularity of noro yarns has always been a bit of a mystery to me. one of my very early knitting projects was the infamous booga bag, which was all over the knit blog world at the time. of course, i knit it with noro kureyon. i found the whole process to be utterly miserable. it’s hard on the hands, there were multiple knots in every skein, and, ferchristsake, there were twigs and wood debris right in the yarn! not to mention, and i know this is sacrilegious, i’m personally not a huge fan of the noro colorways. dare i say i find them garish? and, i absolutely love bright colors.
several years later, i found myself drawn to the noro striped scarf brought forth into the world by brooklyntweed. i admired the colors and the lovely stripeyness, but when i saw these socks over at the split yarn blog i went over the edge. absolutely swoon worthy. a few days later, i found myself at little knits (one of the coolest yarn stores in seattle, btw) and they had a great price on silk garden. i caved.
(Ravel It!)
pattern: noro striped scarf
yarn: 2 skeins each of noro silk garden colors 241 and 282
needles: US 7 addi circ
i bought two skeins each of three colorways, knowing that i’d end up using just two of them for this project. surprisingly, i ended up going with two colorways that created fairly subtle stripes. they are very different in saturation of color, but both are primarily purples with some blue, green, and a little pink thrown in. the result is that the stripes through most of the scarf very faint, purple on purple for example. although there are a few spots where they are quite obvious, green and pink.
i love the effect. it is a really beautiful scarf. i also surprisingly found that i did enjoy knitting with the silk garden. much, much softer and more pleasant that kureyon. i’m really happy with this knit and can’t wait to get more use out of it later in the winter. incidentally, it was a really quick project. the knitting went very fast and i finished it in just a few days.
i was at the beach earlier this week and the scarf got a little photo shoot, which was also my first time using my new tripod. you’ll have to ignore the fact that it is 80 degrees and i’ve got a sunburn in this last photo.
seattle has beautiful sunsets in the fall. the past few evenings this has been the view from our deck.
certainly, one of the funnest things about knitting is project planning. with the finishing rush that was the month of august behind me, my head is spinning with thoughts of fall/winter knitting and what projects i’d like to take on this next season. i have a bit of planning startitis, and every time i turn around, i’ve got some other pattern swirling through my head. there are, however, a handful of projects i’ve been eying for quite some time. i can’t wait to get them started.
i’ve recently added a new book to my knitting library, Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard of the knit and tonic blog. i loooooooove this book. really, i think it might possibly be the best knitting knitting book from those that have grown out of blogs. the patterns are beyond beautiful. i would absolutely love to have every single one knit up and happily making a home in my wardrobe. this is so exciting to me as i find, despite that knitting has become very popular in recent years, there are still a preponderance of new patterns coming out that are dowdy and unflattering on a multitude of figures. so, i’d recommend Custom Knits based on the patterns alone. however, what makes the book an absolute gem is that the patterns are all very easily customizable. many of them have options provided, but with very little creativity they could all be taken even further. also, all the information on making adjustments to size, collars, lengths, sleeve styles, etc. is provided in the book along with enough into to easily design your own basic sweater. add this book along with Barbara Walker’s, Knitting from the Top and I may never need another knitting book. okay, maybe the Walker Treasuries.
the arrival of Custom Knits has me thinking about a sweater project i’ve had in mind for the past several months. a pretty simple cardigan, with a garter yoke. after completing the apres surf hoodie, i’m pretty much sold on the idea of knitting more sweaters in fingering weight yarns. it really didn’t take all that much longer and heavier yarns, even worsted weight, often just feel too hot to me. i was very lucky to nab enough sundara sock yarn in the graphite colorway for this project. i’m pretty excited to get started and i hope to be swatching within the next couple of weeks.
however, i do have a few things already in the works that i want to keep making progress on…
namely, my wicked cardigan (Ravel It!), a noro striped scarf (Ravel it!) and la digitessa socks (Ravel It!). i’m sure i’ll blog more about each of these individually. i’ll leave it at this for now ’cause i like to torture myself with lists of things i need to complete.
august is almost over and i’m blogging to present one last FO before the month officially ends.
pattern: juno regina from knitty
yarn: sundara fingering silky merino in winter sky – 1 skein plus another 25 grams from a second skein
needles: US 4 bryspun flex circulars
mods/comments: i made just one modification to the pattern. rather than knitting in one length from end to end, i knit the first half two times and the grafted the two halves together. this worked out really well to create a perfectly symmetrical scarf and the graft is not noticeable at all after blocking.
i do love everything about this FO. the pattern is really well written and beautiful. it had interesting lace bits and long mindless knitting too. the yarn. i cannot say enough good things about sundara’s fingering silky merino. it is absolutely luscious. it feels and looks amazing, and i can’t wait to knit a full sweater out of it. this colorway, winter sky, was originally a winter shipment from the season’s club, but is now offered as part of the permanent collection.
i guess this wraps up my august race to the finish. i’m very happy with the results. i finished three of the four projects that had been hanging on for just too long. it feels good to have them complete and i can move on to fall knitting with little guilt. the final project, my moon dance stole, isn’t finished quite yet. i did make some good progress on it though and i expect i’ll be posting it as an FO within the next couple of weeks.
now with a holiday weekend ahead (yay!) i can plan my next set of projects.
recently, i’ve been switching over to more natural and handmade beauty products and i thought i would review a couple things i’m really in love with right now.
the first is shave bars. i initially sought out shave bars because i’m always trying to find ways to cut the excess packaging out of my life. the metal canisters with plastic lids, then often again shrink wrapped in plastic, seem like more packaging than necessary for what they are. i did a quick search for “shave bars” on etsy and found bunches of options. i’ve tried two:
the one on the right is a shave bar from seller gudonyatoo! and on the left is a shave bar from spa therapy. both of them include kaolin clay for a nice, smooth shave. they both smell absolutely delicious, the spa therapy cherry almond smells sooooo yummy. i like them both and have been going back and forth between the two, however, i think i like the gudonyatoo shave soap just a tiny bit more. the bars are bigger and i think they create a more “slippery” lather, which i personally like.
the other beauty product switch i’ve made is the move to handmade deodorant. i was a little apprehensive about this one at first, all the handmade/natural deodorants i’ve found are deodorant only, not antiperspirant. good because they don’t have aluminum and other strange things that actually block sweating, but then…you are sweating. not something that i’m very fond of. but, i was willing to give it a try.
same two etsy sellers: vegan deodorant stick from spa therapy and stinky no more vegetable deodorant from gudonyatoo. i’ve been so pleasantly surprised with how these have worked out. not only do they smell amazing, but i honestly don’t notice any difference at all from regular antiperspirant/deodorant. a super hot trip to los angeles, what little heat we’ve had in seattle, as well as my usual pilates and running have been no match for these deodorants. again, i do like one a bit more than the other. the spa therapy, imo, lasts a bit longer and is available in scents that are more appealing to me. the scent thing is obviously personal, but i like the sweet, dessert scents offered by spa therapy. my favorite so far has been the lemon meringue scent, yummy!
i’ve bought a bunch of other products from both sellers, and i’ll probably post about them later when i’ve used them a bit more. in the meantime, if you have a handmade beauty product you like, please leave the link in comments. i’d love to try out some new things.
