Mock Cables Progress

Project:  Mock Cables 真淑女
Pattern:  High-Low Peplum Pullover by Sandy Cushman,  Interweave Knits, Spring 2001 
Yarn:  Karabella Majestic 
Yardage:   1240 yards in stash 
Needles: Size 7
Cast on: January 26, 2012 
Notes: This is coming along nicely. The pattern makes you do bobbles in the middle of those diamonds in the center front and back, but I'm not a bobble kind of knitter. Will be looking for interesting things to fill the diamonds.

Question: I have a stash of costume jewelry that I don't wear any more, and I want to take them apart and make some stitch markers. If you have made stitch markers, can you tell me what basic tools I need to start? I have seem jewelry pliers at Michael's, and we have a small wire cutter. I need jump rings, and some sort of wires, right?

A stretch a day, keep the doctor away.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

Stitches West 2012

Previous reviews: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

This year I worked in the market part of Friday and Saturday, for the wonderful Laurel and John from Handknitting.com, and shopped the rest of the time. Here is a small sample of what I saw.

Crochet this scarf with Trendsetter Bodega, took only couple of hours.
Modeled by fellow day laborer,  Prabha. After I finished my shift and left the booth,
Prabha's aunt bought the scarf!

First time to see yarn with Russian lable

A knitted man sitting in Lion Brand's booth

Yarn tasting station in the lobby. Can you believe they CUT qiviut and suri alpaca and cashmere??

The Oriental Jacket in Koigu booth. I have the Koigu book, but this
colorway is so much more handsome.

Learning to knit with size 50 needles in The Bag Smith booth, also learned
Tunisian crochet with super sized hooks.

My collection from the yarn tasting station went into this magic ball.

Glass buttons (aren't they pretty?), shell buttons, mixed beads.

The loot, clock wise from upper left corner:

- 5 balls Supreme Possum Merino 4 ply, possum/merino/silk (blue)
- Neighborhood Fiber Pagoda Lace, silk/cashmere (yarn is more green in real life than in the picture)
- box of mixed wool fiber for needle felting
- (on top of the fiber) glass buttons, shell buttons, mixed beads
- 2 skeins Newton’s Yarn Country Cashmere Merino (bright green)
- Green Mountain Spinnery Simply Fine, fingering weight kid mohair/wool (undyed)
- Leilani Arts silk ribbon (crazy colors)
- 2 skeins RedFish Dyeworks 20/2 silk (purple)
- (big bag under the other yarns) 10 balls Valley Yarns Northampton, 100% wool (blue)

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Ants in My Stitches

Stitches West is here! By the time most of you read this post, I will be happily soaking in the fiber artfullness in the market. This year I will be working at the HandKnitting.com booth on Friday and Saturday, and doing a little shopping the rest of the time.

Since I can't focus on my own projects, I will leave you with some fibery pictures to enjoy. I like collecting odds and ends pictures, and recently Pinterest has become the greatest outlet to deposit these seemingly random goodness. Pinterest is massive, beautiful, collective, and extremely addictive. If you are a pinner, look me up, I'm Bitsnpieces1. 

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

New Project: Mock Cables 真淑女

Project:  Mock Cables 真淑女
Pattern:  High-Low Peplum Pullover by Sandy Cushman,  Interweave Knits, Spring 2001 
Yarn:  Karabella Majestic 
Yardage:   1240 yards in stash 
Needles: Size 7
Cast on: January 26, 2012 
Notes:  The mock cables are created by well placed decreases and matching yarn overs. The stitch pattern is very simple. I'm skipping the bobbles in the pattern, will find something interesting to fill the spots. The Chinese name means "real (gentle) lady" -- mock cable, real lady, another word play.

In unrelated news, my son, the euphonium player in last week's post, became a fresh teenager on Wednesday. For those been there done that, I will probably need all the warning, suggestions, hand-holding I can get. 

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

The Gloved One 白手套

Henry plays euphonium. His right hand rubs on the metal finish and it gives him a rash. Instead of having the instrument refinished which costs a fortune, Mom gave him a simple solution.

In action

Project: The Gloved One 白手套

Pattern: loosely based on Rib-and-Cable Mitts by Marji LaFreniere, Interweave Knits Spring 2006

Yarn: DK weight mercerized cotton from stash, unknown brand

Yardage:  about 100 yards

Needles: Size 5

Finished Size: Henry size

Cost: $0

Cast on: February 5, 2012

Cast off: February 7, 2012

Can you find the doglet?

No matter how big he think he is, that's still a little child's hand.

Rascal says Hi :-)

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment! 

Lace and More Lace

Last weekend we did some used bookstore hopping and I ended up with some very good books. I especially like Country Weekend Knits, even tho the Aran patterns are not charted. The designs all look very classy, and I will just have to figure out how to knit from the written stitch patterns.

By popular demand, here is the 14 feet scarf on human model. Doesn't look that long, does it? I have been wearing it doubled up and it goes very well under a jacket.

Next up, a sweater! I bought this pack of pink yarn a few years ago at Stitches, Webs booth I believe. Lately it keeps popping up, so it will become a very lady-like lacy sweater. The pattern is called High-Low Peplum Pullover.

Speaking of Stitches, anyone reading my blog will be there?

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment! 

Autumn Branches Finale

Project: Autumn Branches 秋树

Pattern: Branching Out by Susan Lawrence, free download on Ravelry

Yarn: Pajolo Alpacas Lace Weight

Yardage:  2.1oz, 200 yards

Needles: Size 8

Finished Size: 14 feet long !!

Cost: $12.60

Cast on: December 18, 2011

Cast off: January 25, 2012

Previous entries: here and here

Notes: Never under estimate a small ball of lace yarn unless you want a super long scarf. The yarn was lovely and the pattern was complex, it was a joy to work on it, but I sure am glad it's finally over and I can move on to another sweater.

Happy Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment! 

Autumn Branches, Still Growing

Autumn Branches is supposed to be a quick and easy transition project after St. Brigid, before the next big thing. It started with a little ball, only 200 yards, such a small yardage I pondered what to do with it. After working on it daily for a month, there is still quite a bit more yarn left. I rolled up the finished part so I have no idea how long the scarf is now, but I'm going to finish it as planned. I may have to wear the scarf double, triple, or quadruple. Super long scarves are in, right?

Tuesday morning I met up with some knitting friends, who didn't mind me taking pictures of their projects and showing them off here.

Sue's wavy scarf

Jamie's Lacy Rib Socks

Mari's Noro shawl and yarn for hats

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

New Project: Autumn Branches 秋树

Project: Autumn Branches 秋树
Pattern: Branching Out by Susan Lawrence, free download on Ravelry
Yarn: Pajolo Alpacas Lace Weight
Yardage:  2.1oz, 200 yards
Needles: Size 8
Cast on: December 18, 2011
Notes: Extremely fine yarn on relatively big needles, and you get lace. I bought this yarn at Stitches a few years ago. It's so fine and delicate, it wants to become something very sweet and lady-like. It's very soft too, you know, like good alpaca should. There is not much yardage, so a very lacy scarf seems to be the answer.


Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Join the party on Andrea's blog and leave me a comment!

2012 Knitting Forecast

Hope everyone has their feet solidly into 2012 by now. If you are like me you'll be writing 2011 for a few more months and that's OK, no one is going to vote you off the island. On Wednesday Henry and I went to visit my mom in Carmel and picked up her charity knitting. These are what she did besides her holiday knitting for her friends in the retirement community, doctors, nurses, bus drivers, etc. Yeah, she's productive. I brought her two big bags of yarn to keep her going.

crochet child's ponchos and knitted/crochet hat/scarf sets

Carmel beach

When I was a child we were always made to produce new years resolutions, and no one bothered to stick to them.  So to keep my adult life easier I decide just come right out and admit what I'm not going to do, and let's call it "un-resolution". These are not things I'm trying to quit or stay away, like latte, but rather things I know I won't be doing for whatever reason. But don't quote me if I end up doing any of them. It's a forecast, not reality. Here we go:

1. I won't run out and buy a spinning wheel and learn to spin.
2. Same goes for loom and weaving.
3. I probably won't knit a cozy for anything that generally should remain naked, like teapot, toilet paper roll, chairs, kitchen sink, sofa bed, yoga mat, bus, boat, Boeing 747.
4. I'm not too crazy about cowls, so I probably won't be knitting one of those, even tho it's all the rage. I was made to wear them when I was young and they were very uncomfortable, and they get in the way of my hair.
5. I can’t resist buying yarn at Stitches West tho I don’t need more yarn and shouldn’t spend the money.
6. I won't create, check out or follow a fiber arts bucket list and in turn feel miserable about my lack of knowledge and adventurism.
7. I don't spend time designing and test knitting. Too many pretty patterns out there and I'm a good follower, except for when I change the patterns.

(This reminds me of some Knitting Revelations I wrote years ago, feel free to check it out.)

Happy Friday and Happy New Year! Join the party on Andrea's blog, Tami's blog, and leave me a comment!