it's only fair

i have made so many of these two-sided tunisian ("cro-knit") washcloths this summer, and have only taken a picture of one or two.  so this one, taken on the photogenic front seat of my car, right before i gave it to my daughter's swim coach, will represent the dozen or so dishcloths i have cranked out between other projects this summer.

i love how these look, how sturdy they are, how quickly they stitch up, and how they make it easy to use up bits and pieces of cotton.

pretty in pashmina

i started another project.   as though i needed to start another project.  this one i wanted to do as soon as i saw it at purl bee.  but i did not want it to be quite so big and heavy, so i bought some beautiful madeline tosh pashmina in an incredible denim blue (the photos do not do the color justice), and cast on.

i cast on 300 stitches, instead of the recommended 220, using a 31" size 11 circular, and started this herringbone stitch.  it's a bit slippery and fiddly, but it's really easy, and this loopy scarf is coming out fantastic!  it's easy enough that it qualifies as stoplight knitting, meaning it has some hope of actually being finished.  i want it to be about 8" wide -- now it's just 2" and i have 3 oz. of yarn left.  i may have to invest in some more.

this stitch is so elegant and dignified.  i love it!

the thoroughly modern knitter

i received a kindle for christmas!  what a fun surprise -- i did not expect anything beyond the usual socks and underwear this year.  and guess what the kindle does besides let you read books?  you can transfer pdf's to it and read them!  what kind of pdf might i be talking about?  knitting patterns, of course!  oh how exciting!  and what a savings of paper!

i immediately loaded my advent calendar knitalong pdf (combined, it's 62 pages! think of the paper and just the bulk of carrying all that paper around!), and i'm using the note feature of the kindle to track rows.

i needed a quick gift bag for a bottle of champagne, so loaded that pattern on there as well.  i used this pattern from paton's.  i've used it before, and love how they organize the stripes to be so random and wonderful.  i modified the pattern to use up some lamb's pride bulky yarn in my stash (with one color in worsted weight held double), so cast on 48 stitches and followed pattern C, using a size 9 circular needle.  the wider stripes often called for 6 rounds, but i knit 5 so the bag would not be too tall.  the narrower stripes i knit as written.  it felted down just perfectly, so the top of the champagne bottle is peeking out. 

it's very quick, very easy and really fun to do.  and of course, felting always seems like a miracle to me, and the fabric is quite sturdy enough to support and protect a full bottle of champagne.  and THAT is important! ツ

final flakes

this one is my favorite.  i have it pressed against the side of my black piano, so it IS hanging, supporting itself.  acrylic-girl asked a good question about the firmness or stability of the crocheted snowflakes, using the wool/stainless kidsilk haze combination i wrote about.  i pinned them to the ironing board and steamed them for 10-15 seconds, to define them a bit more and flatten the crochet curl out.  it worked great!  i think if i were going to hang them for any length of time i would hang them from 2 points instead of one, but you definitely do not have to starch them to get them to feature the proper shape.

here are all of ones i've completed:

upper left and upper right were done with a size 3 vs. size E hook (smaller), and they came out much more defined.  i like 'em!

and they're already given away.

sometimes i like my kitchen

• when it's clean
• when i don't have to cook in it (not a big cooker, moi)
• when i really look at the treasures it holds, things i use every day without seeing

from left to right:
teapot wedding gift (can't remember the source);
pepper grinder - gift from my lovely s-in-law;

salt cellar with tiny spoon from my m-in-law, both ensconced on a pottery dish she made; 

well-used honey jar from my brother, souvenir from a long ago trip to alaska (the "alaskan honey" sticker just came off last week -- the remaining label is unreadable now);

sugar bowls and spoons, also from my m-in-law, also on a little tray she made; 

barley and rice canisters, being used now for flour and wooden utensils, both from my estonian grandma's kitchen -- i remember seeing them nearly half a century ago being used by her;

salad servers - gift from our scottish friends now living in sydney; 

salad tongs - souvenir gift from my mom from her new zealand adventure;
and up top, beautiful talavera majolica plates, also from my m-in-law.

remind me about all of those precious kindnesses people have shown me, please, next time i'm racing around trying to shovel food down people's throats. ツ

ps -- there are two sugar bowls because one holds splenda and the other actual sugar

whirled peas

i saw these cool bracelets, and they were $VERY EXPENSIVE$.  google being my friend, and all, i checked for tutorials, and sure enough!  a wonderful step-by-step how to, complete with supply list, appeared.  so i did it! 

how fun is this??  and it cost about $12 at michael's for supplies.  it takes some time, as it's quite fiddly, but what's an hour worth?

there may be another of these in my future...

that's me in the corner

so that is my week, right there, the first week of school, tidied up a LOT.  i did NOT take a picture of my desk.  that's just the kitchen table -- my desk is not ready for its close-up. ツ

i have a long "what i [knit] this summer" essay to write, lots of stuff to share and document.  i think if i do it in dribs and drabs, i may actually get it done.  the last two posts have inspired me to just do what i can in terms of posting.  me and tiger.  just DO it!

SO -- what's that at the bottom of the table?

the via veneto mason-dixon table runner, nearly done!  all the knitting is complete.  i need to block it (today??? she asked breathlessly, crossing her fingers), weave the yellow/gold yarn through the dropped stitches, and weave in the ends.  then off to someone special.  as yet undecided.  ツ  it's kind of like a baby -- you can't really decide on the name until you see if the name fits that child -- you can't decide on a knit-gift recipient until you see if the gift fits the person!

knitting details -- i liked knitting this for the most part.  i used rowan milk cotton dk 098 "water bomb" (not an attractive name!), nearly four full skeins of the blue, and it took about a half skein of the red.  i used a US size three needle to get a firmer fabric, and i'm glad i did.  the addi's are slippery, which makes me knit a bit more loosely.  the pattern was easy to memorize, so excellent "stoplight knitting".  i wish i had cast off differently, as the bind-off end looks different from the cast-on end where the stitches are dropped.  i should have listened to myself as i was doing it.  but i think it can be fixed in blocking.  the yarn is gorgeous and shiny, but of course very splitty, as shiny cotton will be.

i can't wait to show you the final final finished product -- i like the colors they used in the original, and hope that mine reflects some of the same wonderful contrasts and pizzazz.

ravlink, if you like.

been around the block

look at this crunchy thing!  in person, it's more attractive, though with the black you cannot really see the fine stockinette lacy/angley/swirliness of it all.  in particular, without being blocked, it really just looks like a crunched up pile of knitting.  but this is the lush-ious cowl (ravlink), and i knit it three times with the berroco lustra, chosen because it is 50% tencel, so the wool content may not be as itchy around the neck.   i liked the lustra -- it is of course not as stretchy or flexible as pure wool, but not like working with straight silk. 

bottom two blocked, top one unblocked.  look at those gorgeous swirls!  regardez!

i'm not a comfortable blocker,  but this one was easy -- no pins, just letting them dry on a towel on the kitchen floor.

hot tip:  use jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind-off to make the edges equally stretchy and flexible.

teacher gifts!  please dry by wednesday...

hey! crochet!

i used up more kitchen cotton on a crocheted potholder.  i would NEVER hold a pot with this --  a hot one, anyway!  it will make a snappy washcloth.  i followed this pattern, it was quick and fun to do, but i'm think i'm over it now.  i did tack a lot of the internal edges together with a tapestry needle, so the fabric is sturdier in the center.  ravlink.

for mother's day, i'll show you what i just knit up for thing 1, who turned me into a mother over 11 years ago ;-)

i saw a picture of this hat, and decided to knit something similar for her while waiting for my knitting students at abuelita's.  boredom after a few rows, plus a suggestion that it's soon going to be too hot for a hat led me to repeat the first few rows, bind off, and call it a cool headband!  ravlink gives the knitting details if you'd like to do one.  i love the blue sky alpaca cotton -- it's colorful and very soft for cotton, and very drapey for cotton as well.

happy mother's day to you!  i know you have one, even if you aren't one ツ

the world's ugliest dishcloths!

but this is what i knit in baja, using up some kitchen cotton and apparently trying every technique i could remember for making a square.

my favorite is the second from the left -- the grandma's dishcloth that took a left turn, and then got a mitered section.