AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

A whack of scarves

I wonder if there is an actual collective noun for scarves.  Most of the ones I can think of are for animals - prides, murders, gaggles.

Here is my latest whack of scarves for Dulaan.  The red and purple is a standard k2p2 scarf using the TLC Essentials (yeah, I finished a ball of yarn!).  It took me a lot of rips before I was happy with the 'patterning' on this sucker.  To Dulaan it goes.

The other scarf is mistake rib with 2 separate shades of WoolEase.  I would alternate between 6 repeats of 2, 4, and 6 rows of ribbing (it made it a little more interesting).  I should start another Dulaan project this week.  They're good for the stash killing.

I also got a copy of Yarnplay today at coffeeland (I tend to call the local Borders coffeeland, because I almost always get coffee when I visit).  I think I have enough stash yarn to make Lorelei, and there are undoubtedly enough scraps to make some funky version of EBTKS (kitchen sink).

That said, I still haven't finished any of the should finish projects for Feb/March.  There just aren't enough hours of the day if I can't maintain focus for 30 minutes at a stretch.

In lieu of real knitting content...

I have been knitting almost exclusively (that means about 4 hours to every one hour on the other projects) on a mistake rib scarf in two shades of grey WoolEase.  It's for Dulaan, but it is also completely boring me to tears.  Instead of showing a boring scarf picture, there is this:

Wii Play is a new game for, well, the Wii.  It is a collection of party-style minigames including such things as laser air hockey, target shooting, fishing and cow racing!  You want to click on the little cow.  Up close it is apparent that the entire cow, the grass, track and sky are all knit.  Little stockinette stitch cows.  The Mii on the back of the cow is my husband, who labored hard to get a picture that actually showed the knitting.  It's hard to take pictures of the screen while you are playing a game.

The game has a bit of a learning curve (actually they all do - a little more than some of the other games I've played), so it took me a day or two to become good enough at cow racing to beat my husband a couple of times.  The best of the bunch for playability are the cow racing (I think it is technically called Charge!), fishing and billiards.  My husband and I are pretty terrible at the hockey.  As often as not we're giving the other person a goal.  Ooops.  But I figured I'd share the knitted cows, cause everybody needs knitted cows, right?

Not quite Christmas

It just hasn't felt much like Christmas.  My hubby and I haven't done any decorating.  I haven't done a lot of cooking since Thanksgiving, including baking (my waistline thanks me).  The first of the big holiday parties start this weekend, and I still haven't wrapped my gift.  Secret Santa is one of those holiday traditions that I appreciate.  I like being able to buy gifts for one of my friends each year without it becoming some strange drama about who did or did not get presents (because some of us never aged out of middle school). 

I am not really doing much for the party.  I am making mini cupcakes, of which I will probably take a photograph or two.  I'm not sure how I will decorate them yet, but it will be cute regardless. 

Below is a picture of some of the scarves I have knit recently (as in since the last ice age) for Dulaan.  I love making cabled scarves, and especially love using some of the bigger more complicated cables from sweater patterns to make something nice like the scarf on the right.  The blue scarf is my own pattern (not enough like a pattern to post), where I used garter ridges to take the place of row counters.  Fun fun!

Newsie news!

Dulaan 2007!

I'm not a great photographer (and one of my friends has done photography for Neil Gaiman, so I'm sure she would cringe looking at my blog photos... we just won't tell her that this site exists), so I won't show my paltry collection of items for Dulaan 2007. Suffice to say that I have more than 5. Maybe I will be extra motivated and knit like the dickens and finish more than 30 items (that would be cool for me and warm for them).

Other newsie news. My pyogenic granuloma is back and I have scheduled surgery evaluation. This means waiting a month and living with what is mostly annoying (and certainly not life threatening) and trying not to get too annoyed at it all. The condition isn't slowing down my knitting progress, but my desparate attempts to find a gallery software I like that won't break and doesn't look completely unprofessional and uber ugly are stymying my attempts at photography.

Has anyone used something cool? I am almost tempted to move the blog again (two moves in under a year would probably be too painful for words) just to move it to Typepad and pay for what I want. I haven't because I am a skinflint and inclined to learn to do what I want so there will be more money for yarn even if it results in less time to knit.

Idle hands

I have been motoring away at my various knitting projects, which based on the current crammed state of my bag are exploding.

Seriously exploding.

For some reason, this year seems to be scarf year for Dulaan. Last year I made a lot of hats, and while I have a couple of hats this time around I have (mentally counts...) six finished scarves and three more on the needles. I was also thinking of pulling some of my yarn out and doing a crocheted scarf. What is with the scarves already!?

Actually, I know what most of it is. Most of the scarves are cabled. These are cables and interesting ribs from sweater patterns that I wanted to try out and make sure were not too hard before I thought about knitting an entire sweater with them. I have The Pleasures of Knitting, and there are a couple of busily cabled sweaters that aren't too over the top (ignoring the one that makes a relatively petite woman look like a linebacker). I did the cabled diamond with seed stitch for one scarf and that came out really well. I have started another scarf using the cabled pattern in Samus, that I plan to border with the attached icord. It's like scarves as teaching tools, and I am continually improving my self-taught-i-tood.

Now, if I can only finish the second pair of Dulaan socks and the random vest that I started last year (my bad), then I will have a sizeable mailing. Time to bring a box home from work to start packing and cataloging the offerings.

Why it is hard to knit for Dulaan today.

I haven't posted much about Dulaan this year. I have been knitting, mostly scarves. Mostly mindless projects with cables made with wooly yarns (Cascade 220). I have made four scarves that I can think of off the top of my head, a small hat or two. Not very impressive. I want to have a huge box to send, which means that I need to get cracking if I am going to knit everything in 69 days. Panic mode is about to set in, and it will not be very pretty.

But I can't seem to knit it.

I just want to make pretty summer tops, the exact opposite of Dulaan wear. I don't want to think about the grey rainy spring or the snows of winter (excepting that I still want birthday snow for June). I'm knitting W, and am nearly done. I have been looking at a few other knitty patterns for tank tops with open backs or halters. Anything that isn't made of wool or involves thinking about cold and winter.

Can I get a brain transplant for the next month? If I get a transplant, then I am sure that I can knock off a Dulaan item every couple of days or so, giving me at least 20 items to send. If not? Then I am not sure I will beat my total of last year, a sad lonely little 9...

Pink thing!

I think I love you!

I have been complaining about my week pretty much constantly for four days. Knitting went to the backside, despite copious amounts of yarn flowing into my home. I just got up, went to work, moped, came home, moped. Pretty much moping was the thing to do.

Then yesterday I went to Windsor Button. I picked up a small size 4 circular to work on Odessa with and I picked up some hot pink Malabrigo (Little Lovely colorway). This is for Dulaan - a cute quick scarf that is not quite off the needles yet.

Pink!

SockapalOOOza

I didn't have an email last night as I left work, and that was OK.

I didn't check my email last night, and that was fine.

I got into work, parked myself in front of my email. Bing! You have a sock pal. I have been reading their blog (because isn't that something one should do), and figuring out what is a good thing and an out of their mind thing for this person. Obviously my current socks are just a bad idea for this lovely lady, but that's OK. They aren't really right for me either. Thus, they are now birds, now planes...

Fine. I'll stop my lameness. I knit these socks for Dulaan. They are finely crafted with an incorrectly Kitchenered toe, but a correctly Kitchenered heel. They look fine for a first attempt at an afterthought heel, and I will do something interesting with the remaining yarn. I think I even know what I want to do with it (though I won't know for certain until I finish the Dulaan socks).

These Dulaan socks bring me to a total of ?? items (I think six) for the 2006 Dulaan.

Dulaan box!

On Saturday (last week), I sent my 9 items for Dulaan.

Here are the items arrayed before being packed into a box.

I have more of the "Citrus" Malabrigo that is in the front and am already making my next hat for Dulaan 2006!

See the Ken Hat!

When I got done the Ken Hat I put the little bugger on my computer right in front of the pattern. It is hard to say how long the hat took me. I started it in the morning before work and finished it while I was working on dinner (Chinese stir fry). Probably a little over an hour, but I had a lot of get up and go to contend with. I finished the Pinwheel hat that same night for a total of 6 Dulaan hats completed. I think it is time for me to make something other than hats.