Cattywampus

Today, it's all about Anne

I am doing another test knit for Anne - Alhambra, it's a small scarf in really light lace weight.  I'm using Yarnchef's Buttercream in Cherry Tree.

It's slow going so far, but I've got the pattern memorized, so it should pick up from here on out.  I think it's just that the yarn is so skinny it's a bit harder to wrangle.  The pattern is lovely to knit, easy to memorize and I love the way the pattern interplays with the colors in the yarn.

I am also working on Gust by Anne in Fearless Fibers cashmere (which is very reasonably priced, btw), I LOVE the way this is coming out and I'm rather sad I am making it for our real estate agent.  I am hoping I'll have enough yarn left for a narrower version for myself.  Maybe...

 

For some reason it's been all lace all the time for me recently, I do have Jemima and Green Gable in the works still, but the lace is what I want to sit down and knit...so I listen to my inner knitter and ignore the rest.  After all, it's a hobby, it's supposed to be fun, so I work on whatever strikes my fancy.

Dh & I have been having loads of fun in Philly - tho some horrible things have happened here this week making me feel a bit less safe than I did - but I can't live my life around what COULD happen, so I just go on as usual.

We've spent time at Reading Terminal doing the grocery shopping, buying fresh meat & veggies is so much cheaper and so much better than what we get from the grocery store.  We also managed to locate a beer distributer and made a trip (in case you don't live here, fyi you can only buy single beers in small deli type places for outrageous prices, if you want more than one of anything you have to buy a case).  It's funny to buy a case of beer and not be planning a party...

Overall, we've just been having a grand time getting used to living in the city and taking advantage of the walkability of everything.

A few things

1.  I have decided that I am, in fact, a person who can wear neck scarves - I don't look like the crazy eccentric lady after all.  (not that there's anything wrong with that)

2.  I have discovered that  I have a purpose for small rectangular shawls - this is the Swallowtail Shawl.

3.  I got Sundara's latest winter installment today.  It's beautiful.  Candied Chrome.

4.  The Clapotis is done.  It's HUGE.  Gigantic.  Enormous.  24x70.  What do I do with it??

Brooks Farm Primero - So Soft, so strangely heavy for lace weight.  I love the color patterning.

This way of wearing it looks less like the crazy eccentric lady (not that there's anything wrong with that):

 

Is it too big for me?  Be honest, I can always find somebody taller to give it to.

I have to admit, it would make me sad to give it away, this yarn was a special  splurge, but I don't want to start looking frumpy this early in life, so I'd do it.

This is the coziest way to wear it.

5.  I can honestly say this mohair stuff  is insanely warm.  It's made me quite toasty just to have it on to take pictures.

6.  I know when I started this I had a number six, but it has since been erased from my brain.  There is no number 6.  This is just a figment of your imagination.

Time for destash!

So, having my yarn out and on display ala Ikea cubes has done a two things - 1.  made me really want to knit some of the gorgeous yarn I have and 2. made me aware that there's a good bunch of yarn I have 'just because'.  Usually the 'just because' is because I wanted to start a project, bought the yarn and then it turned out not to be the right yarn, the right project, or some combination there of.  Or I got distracted by something shiny elsewhere and it never happened and then the desire to knit the project faded.

So, I am destashing to shed the weight of those un-knit projects, to free up a little space and to come up with a little extra cash for MD Sheep & Wool.

All prices have been reduced by at least 20% of what I paid.  All yarn will be shipped Priority Mail, so $4.60 shipping is included.  If any of the yarn has been knit I have noted that and taken that into consideration when pricing it.  All yarn has been stored in a smoke free home.  I do have dogs, but the yarn is kept well out of their reach.

If you are interested in more than one lot shipping can be combined & we can work that out separately.  Email me at cattywampusblog AT gmail DOT com if you are interested in anything.  Paypal only please!

Here goes!

Fearless Fibers Superwash Merino 4 oz, 550 yards, colorway: Tapestry, $19

Samurai Knitter Merino Lace, 880 yards, colorway:  Practically Purple, $20

White Willow Merino Lace, 880 yards, $19

 

Debbie Bliss merino aran, color 325007, 20 skeins, 1 has been swatched & rewound, $95

Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, 7 skeins, colorway:  Chestnut, one skein has been swatched and rewound, $14

Brown Sheep Nature Spun worsted, 5 skeins, colorway:  Chuck Berry, one skein has been swatched & rewound, $28

Malabrigo, 4 skeins, colorway:  Continental Blue, one skein has been swatched & rewound, $42

Trekking XXL, color 69, $14

Knitpicks Essential, Colorway:  Ash, $8

Lamb's Pride Bulky, 8 skeins, 4 frogged & rewound, 4 never used, colorways:  Silver Sliver (2), Blue Flannel, Spruce, Tahiti Teal, Clematis, & Seafoam, $55

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, Blues, wound into yarncake but not knit, $20

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, Jewel tones, $20

Brown Sheep Wilde Foote, 3 skeins, colorway:  Master Grey, $25

Classic Elite Spotlight, 9 skeins (including  bobbins), 4 black, 1 each of plum, medium blue, mustard, pale grey, and taupe, $22.

Pattons Classic Merino, 7 skeins, 3 black, 2 red, 2 pink, one skein has been swatched and rewound, $35

Almost there

The dogs have found their sunshine

We have two out of three cabinets installed (coat closet, tools) & Everything Else

The kitchen is getting there, tho I keep rearranging everything to make it work better, the last cabinet, which didn't fit when they came, is coming the 31st - that will be the pantry.

 

The den is workable, my knitting chair (see dogs above) is arranged just so by the window.  It's crowded still, the dog crate is in there, that's where the remaining unpacking needs to be done...the den is really where we live so it's to be expected that this is the last room to come together.

We spent WAY too many  hours putting in a surround sound system, I have no pictures as evidence, you'll just have to believe me.  And it rocks too, so it was totally worth it.

& Pixie is a little princess on a royal bed

And here's a sneak peak of actual knitting content I will have to show off very soon.

Poor little lost thing

In front of our building

Looking lost and lonely

Perched on a fire hydrant waiting to be claimed

A lost little handknitted hat, probably very frantically missed by its owner - but what are the chances it will be found by its rightful owner?

An unintentional sacrifice made to the knitting gods, a good sumaritan puts it on the fire hydrant hoping it will be found, the hat waits to see what its fate will be.

We will never know.
______________________________________

I have officially become the crazy lady who takes pictures of the fire hydrant on the street.

Workin' with what I know

Gauge is an evil little thing, isn't it?  It hasn't happened to me in a while, so I'm trying not to be too bitter about it, but really, it just sucks being thwarted by gauge.

There are, of course, many reasons why this happened.  I won't go into it all, but suffice it to say that I originally started this top last spring at about the same time, got halfway in before trying it on (what a novice mistake, eh?) and I was knitting the wrong size.  So, my gauge was about 1 year old.  I should have known better.  This time, I got two inches in and decided to try it on, it's only 6 inches too big around this time.  I think that maybe, just maybe, my gauge was off the first time too, sizing was most certainly not my only problem.

If you'll look at my gauge, you'll notice I'm getting 4.75 st/in.  This decidedly does NOT yield 22 st/4 in.  Hmf.  So as lovely as I think this pattern is...I am abandoning it.  Three times is most definitely NOT the charm for me.  Twice was pushing it, three times is not an option.

In search of greener pastures, I am concluding that since I definitively have gauge, I am going to run with that.  19 st/4 inches is not exactly 18 st/4 in nor is it 20 st/4 in, but it's close enough that I can make it work.  19 st/4 in is also far enough away from 22 in/4 in that it makes PERFECT sense that my effort today turned out to be quite a useless pursuit.

Hence, Green Gable here I come.  The yarn is something I got on sale eons ago, Luxury Cashmere Aran, but it's 50% microfiber, so it should make a decent early spring top.

In non-knitting news, we visited both my grandmothers yesterday and it was really, really good to be able to see them and to know that it will be a matter of weeks, not months, until we see them again. 

Also, dh is sticking around more days a week from now on - that will make life decidedly more pleasant.  And in a fit of organization this week we rearranged the den, I don't have a picture yet, it's not looking that good, but it's close, really, really close, to being the space we want it to be. 

Fastest FO in the east

Pretty little neck scarf:

Pattern:  Center stitch from Victorian Lace Today and the end pattern is a ruffle pattern from Knitting on the Edge that I liked better unruffled.  I knit two halves & kitchenered them together.

Yarn:  Great Adirondack Silk Twist & a cotton with sequins

Size:  5x70

I used about 2/3 of one skein.

This was SO fast, THIS is the scarf I should give to the  realtor, b/c I never did finish that one...or I should make another one to give to her...

But before I make any major decisions like that, I am SO wearing this to work tomorrow!

We interrupt this knitting blog...

To say that seriously...if the blonde woman who sang '8 days a week' tuesday night doesn't go home I will be astonished.  Absolutely astonished.

Wow.  Sometimes they're bad...this was just freaking weird.  It was too weird to even judge good or bad, just WOWee weird.

It's so purty, it makes me happy

As mentioned in the yarn crawl post, here's the beginning of the scarf.  It's about halfway done now!

Yarn Crawl!

Yarn Crawl = much fun!  We started at Rosie's, went to Sophie's, stopped for a while in a cafe to knit, then went and had lunch at Tatooed Mom's, then went to Nangelini's, then I left and the group went on to Loop.  (all of this walking was done in monsoon type weather, we were seriously wet, but the yarn fumes kept us from caring)

I had a hard time finding what I was looking for - a cotton/rayon/bamboo/silk blend of some sort in a dk weight for a particular spring project.  I found plenty of yarn that would work, but either there weren't enough of the color I wanted or I didn't like the color choices.  So, I came home and placed an order with Webs, but that's neither here nor there and I'll show you that when I get it.

It was really nice to meet everybody who was there & get to know some people.  Hopefully I'll be able to start going to the local knit nights as well.

I got this pattern:

Iranian Gloves knitted from the fingertips down, this was originally published in an Interweave Knits.  You just have to trust me when I say that I HAVE to knit these.  The sample was in the store and they are unbelievably fun and funky and warm.  I am thinking maybe I will use this:

That would make pretty cool gloves, don't you think?  (Kureyon Sock)  Don't get too excited though, b/c you certainly won't see the end results before next fall.  I'm just squirreling it away for now.  Suzygirl  (I'm sure you don't remember, but she won the Clara Parkes book I gave away a few months ago, how cool to meet the people I know online in real life!) got the same pattern, so maybe next fall we can have a knitalong for moral support!

I also got this as a pure impulse buy, they were literally stacked in a bucket at the register:

Claudia Hand Painted Silk Lace in Urban Fever.

And last but most certainly not least:

 

Great Adirondack Yarns Silk Twist in Black Orchid and HDSqns#6 (LOVE that name) in Indigo.  I fell in love with this.  I am planning on making a small neck scarf IMMEDIATELY.  I am currently surfing Ravelry to find just the right pattern.  Something very, very simple, but with a bit of open space.  The sequins will go just at the very tips of each end for a bit of sparkle.  I think I'm going to make this pattern.

ETA: not at all making that pattern, already started something else, will post pics soon.