Clap on!

Me too me too...I wanna do a clapotis. Been trying to find a good yarn, thought about the knitpicks sock yarns, and at the yarn conference last week, saw hanks of sock yarn. Decided that this will become the clapotis. (Believe it or not, a project-associated yarn purchase). Restarted it 5-6 times 'cause I couldn't seem to get the edging correctly. Ended up writing the directions out -- note to self: Don't save paper by shrinking the instructions down to 2/page AND don't try to start the project after 11pm...

Oh, yeah! Kool-Aid Man...

Had to try this. Very cool. Hanked out some Fisherman's wool, went shopping for Kool Aid and tada! This is black cherry, blue berry, lemonade, and tamarin (brown). Nuked 2X 2min on high. It does have a funky smell. (I hope it's gone by the end of the day.)

Can't wait for it to dry so that I can knit something up and felt it.

Eleefant

I finished z's elephant, only to be told by him that he wants a blue cat...kids...
This was knit with Wool-Ease grey on #9's. The body is a combination of the cat (square) and the elephant (defined legs). The odd thing was that when I stuffed it, the legs/body looked better the other way. So that instead of longitudinal, it's actually sagittal. The trunk was knit w/ technique used to add the thumb onto a mitten (as seen on DIY the other day) by knitting 4 stitches with waste yarn and picking up extra stitches and knitting an I-cord. The trunk was originally even longer since I hadn't made the body yet and couldn't tell the proportions. It's still long, but oh well. Also, I should have put a weight in the behind section since he's front-heavy. His tail is a crochet chain. the yarn at one end used to sew his tail on and then woven into the tail.

I guess I'll go make him the blue kitty. Altho' I was looking at some of the furry yarns...I wonder how they would knit up?

MIL's So Called Scarf

I had been trying to think of a neat stitch to use for MIL's lovely green silk/wool scarf. At the yarn conference, we had admired a couple of scarves w/ and interesting stitch (looks like a bow or butterfly out of yarn -- not the islet butterfly stitch, but rather, a butterfly on top of the scarf). I searched high...I searched low...but to no avail. Couldn't find that stitch anywhere. Instead, came across this
Sheep in the City Blog. The funny thing is that the scarf pattern originally came from a Bay Area store (Imaginknit) -- go figure. Here's my rendition of the same stitch pattern, except I couldn't figure out how to knit to the back when you've got a psso, so I just YO and slipped both stitches out. Right or wrong, this is it. I guess the only other thing is that even though I swatched it a couple of times for the scarf width MIL requested, I swear it shrank. I'm hoping that either 1) she'll like a skinnier than requested scarf, or 2) I'll block it for her and it'll be the width she wanted. Either way, here it is OTN

tkga

MIL and I went to the TKGA Friday (didn't post since we were there all day). Thank you MIL for keep running out and plugging in more quarters! Had a great time. In hind site, should have just parked in a lot. Oh, well.

This is the first yarn-type conference I've been to. I got to try spinning for the first time since 4th grade. Maybe I'm not cut out for spinning, was kinda fun trying w/ the CD spinner, tho'. My self-diagnosis is that I may be spin- challenged. I kept breaking the yarn, spinning the roving back into the yarn, and even sending the drop spindle skittering away (those spinning ladies are quite agile and were able to dodge lethal flying CD spindles). As an aside, I could never center the ball of clay on the pottery wheel either. Never broke a centrifuge, so the spin thing could be only craft related.

Had a Lily Chin siting. Well, had an amazing dress siting and realized she was wearing it (and of course she made it). She was sitting down to do a speed crochet time trial and we watched her 'prep' by speedily crocheting a number of rows. Man! She's fast. Who know that RedHeart was the yarn of choice?!

Now for the porn. I got 2 hanks of sock yarn for a shawl, alpaca for a cardigan for me, and silk hankies that seem a little more my speed (no spinning required--still very fun). And an Addi turbo for the purse I've got planned. I'm really hoping to use a long cord and do magic loop. I don't want to buy all those needles. And I offered to knit MIL a scarf if she picked out the yarn. She found some gorgeous wool/silk blend forest green yarn. And I also got a little sheep ornament...it was very very cute.
I've already started to knit a little scarf with the silk hankie. It's alot of fun but I may have damaged my pointing finger on both hands trying to pull the silk. I hope I got enough to finish a skinny scarf. Super soft. It's on 10 1/2 needles. I did notice that my needles have turned a darker color. I hope my neck won't turn that color if I wear that scarf. uhmm, really, I do wash my neck, and even behind my ears. Did I mention how soft it is?

The Island of Dr. Moreau

As I said, casted on for the elephant -- it's quite large in worsted weight, even if it's with 6's. Frogged it. So, instead, I knit this kitty cat composed of primarily rectangles. Easy and pretty cute.

I figured I'd post my knit snake. I almost finished at SnB. (You gotta love the I-cord.) They suggested the rattle part. I like snakes since I'm born in the year of the Snake...so, that would make me how old this year? I would be 52, 40, 28, or 16...okay. I'm not 16.

So, I love this snake. No, it's not a worm, I know how to make one of those. It's hard to tell from the picture, but he has a rattle and he's got eyes and a red tongue. It's a snake is from a pattern

Snake City.

Of course I misread the directions and made it up sorta as I went along...sheesh, how hard is it to read a couple lines. That's the reason I don't bake. Too much measuring and all that precision. The only times I follow directions to the letter are when I'm in lab, since it's critical to the success of the experiment and (in many cases), I'm using totally nasty biohazard, radioactive, or some carcinogic compound and my health and the health of colleagues are at risk.

I am now in the process of fusing the cat and the large elephant pattern to make a small elephant for the z. Altho' it would be interesting to make a kittephant...or a snat...or would that be a snitty?! gotta love genetic engineering... the possibilities are endless...Bwah hah hah...(wringing of hands...)

Before and After

Awhile ago, Knitpicks posted the Potato Chip Scarf. From their site "this scarf is as addictive to make as potato chips are to eat!" After reading about the scarf and being thoroughly entertained by the copyright issues, I thought I'd try it w/ some cheap yarn from my stash (yes. I do have a little stash now) I casted on 100 stitches and had to use an additional circular as a holder. Binding off at 800 stitches. (quarter for reference)

Yesterday, I became the owner of a yarn ball winder from Yarn! Okay, this was fun! I wound some of my hanks yesterday. This morning, z spotted the winder and helped me wind a ball (very clever little boy).

So, what does this have to do with the potato chip scarf? I didn't like the length of it as I was binding off. The scarf was over 51/2 ft long! and it was heavy. What's a girl to do? yep! Frogged it. RIP...the end of the scarf as we know it... It was so much easier with the winder. Else it would have remained a UFO. Here's the after picture:
btw-I found the charger.

I'm sure I'll make another Potato Chip Scarf, just not that long, nor with yarn that's so heavy. And probably for gifting. Not quite sure what I'll make with the purple yarn. But I have a lot of it.

I also stopped at Creative Accents in San Leandro yesterday. What a nice place. She gave me a pattern for a toddler cardi to test out. I will make that sweater. Very cute.
I've also officially cast on for the elephant.

Lost and Found

So, I would post pics of my FOs, WIPs, UFOs, SEXs, and all those other yarn abbreviations. But alas, we can't seem to find the battery charger for the camera. Darn, I did so want to document my journey into knitland...that was my goal for this blog. Well, no pics for awhile. I suppose I could post the obligatory cat picture (after all, half of this blog IS for knitting).

This is the cat with attitude. (and no, he's not lost. But that expression would be great on a Wanted poster).

On the other hand, in my search, I did manage to solve the case of the missing sunglasses. z's dad thought he accidently recycled them in the green bin months ago. Had completely given up hope. But yay hooray! Embarrasingly, they were hiding beneath the monster dust rhino under the chair (more like a herd of rhinos)--no wonder they were lost for so long. (guess it's good that I haven't found the charger, else we'd have a pic of the world's largest dust rhino. )

Okay, back to knitting. Promised the zeester that I'd knit him an elephant. Or as he'd say 'el-ee-fant' (he used to say 'el-fant' but now that he's 2 and a half, he makes sure that the 2nd syllable is enunciated). He's very particular about what he wants. it's a elephant w/ 4 feet on the ground, not like a teddybear, but like an elephant. I found lots of crochet elephants, but only one elephant w/ the almost the right specs. I just have to make it smaller.
Here it is.

We've gone Live!

Look! More stuff for us to keep track of!

This is a two-person Blog to discuss knitting and the end of our oil supply. Hey, at least it's different. I (the 'momma' part of z's mommadad) will talk about my knitting and science and the 'dad' part of z's mommadad will discuss the end of modernized civilization as we know it...

"The end of modernized civilization..." ...hmm, well, fewer of us anyway... and hungrier... but, more on that later...