Is it a sign that you acquired too much yarn in one day that your arm is sore from carrying it home?

Uh-huh, that’s what I thought.

Yes, my pretties, I outdid myself on Wednesday.

But Spongebob Stashpants is ready and eager to display my new acquisitions. And Lucy is so excited about it all, she’s climbing the walls!

Up first, more of the yummy yummy Hana Silk, this time in black.

I bought it to make a short-sleeve top in the new Corneilia Tuttle Hamilton Book 2. This one:

Picture that in black, worn with white pants. I also have a black & white print linen skirt it will look fabulous with. With which it will look fabulous.

While I was choosing my Hana Silk, it briefly occurred to me that knitting a black sweater was very blog-unfriendly, as it will be a bitch to photograph well. Oh well, the blog will simply have to suffer.

In the same book is this pattern:

This is knitted with Noro Silk Garden, and I happen to have a pile of Silk Garden not yet earmarked for anything.

But please to continue with the stash show. Spongebob is impatient.

Here is a pile of Rowan Calmer. I love Calmer. Dunno what it will become. Yet.

And here is a pile of Rowan Wool Cotton. This will most likely become Alex, from Rowan 31.

And from the yarn swap.

Here is the pile of Scottish Campion I mentioned in yesterday’s blog entry.

And here are five skeins of Rowan All Seasons Cotton, in silver.

And some lovely Green Mountain Spinnery cotton.

Here endeth our stash enhancement for the day.

Just so you know, I contributed 30 skeins of yarn to the swap and took 26 home. My contributions — a bunch of laceweight icelandic wool, a whole lotta Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, and several skeins of Tahki bulky merino wool in a blue-green colorway. Hmmmm, what that it? Oh, a bunch of Dale of Norway Ara and some other cotton as well.

Q&A Time!

Some comments questions:

I love the Rowan designs. Are they difficult?

It depends on the individual design. Some are difficult, but there are many many lovely Rowan patterns that are very easy, too.

This knitter wants to know if you wove in ends or knotted when switching yarns for your Colinette ponchos.

Good question! Kristine knitted her poncho before I made my first one, and she pointed out to me that there were a million ends to weave in! So I was forewarned. I wove them in as I knitted — when I started a row with a new color, I carried the ends along the back of the work for the first few stitches. This worked great, and there was minimal finishing work when I was done knitting.

And by the way – have you decided on your Red Hot neckline and color yet?

Funny you should mention that. I tried on the shop sample of “Red Hot” at Knit Happens on Wednesday. It’s the size small, which is 34″ around. While it fits nicely through the waist, it’s quite tight through the front porch, so I believe I’ll make the 36″ size. It’s also way way WAY low in the front. I think by wearing it in the shop I may have converted a couple of heterosexual women who happened to be browsing in the shop at the time. Ah, the power of the front porch.

Just kidding.

The back goes down in a vee as well, though not as deep and someone suggested that I knit the front the same as the back — great idea! It’ll still be a nice deep vee without being obscene. Another thing — it falls off my shoulders because the shoulders on the sweater are like 1/2″. I think I’ll make them a little wider, so I don’t spend the whole time I’m wearing it pulling it back up onto my shoulders.

My “coffee bean” Calmer has been selected to knit Red Hot. It was suggested to me that I ought to rename my version of the sweater “Hot Coffee.”

Tee hee.

You knit alot tell me how you keep your wrists from aching, it is driving me crazy, but they hurt so bad a times i can’t knit at all and please don’t tell i am just old lol. Really is there a secret to this?

My wrists almost never hurt from knitting. If I attempt to knit with a particularly rough cotton, my hands might hurt, though.

My best advice to you is to take frequent breaks from knitting. If it’s bad, consult a doctor. Not something you want to mess with!

Lisa Update

I’ve started the raglan decreases for the armhole shaping on the back.

And here, for Cat, the state of my hair as of last night!

I spent most of the day at Knit Happens yesterday.

Kristine liked the Noro Gisha scarf and immediately put it on.

“Hello, I am Kristine, Purveyor of Fine Yarns.”

Charlotte took a turn wearing the scarf, too.

Awwwwwwww!

I did some serious stash enhancing, both through purchases and during the yarn swap. And I’d like to extend a blanket apology to anyone I trampled getting to the Alice Starmore Scottish Campion in the swap.

I would also like to thank the Goddess who brought the Alice Starmore Scottish Campion to the swap.

However, when I got home, Spongebob Stashpants was too tired to pose with the new acquisitions, so there will be a stash enhancement report tomorrow.

And Lucy wanted to spend quality time with Mommy.

I’ll answer the questions posed in the comments yesterday in tomorrow’s blog entry as well, ‘kay?

(But just to let you know — Cat, I’m up for your ponytail challenge!!!)

In a surprise move, I did work on Liam yesterday.

And then I switched to Lisa.

And I’ve gotta get moving, so that’s it for today!

How big a moron am I?

I took photos of “Ice” on Monday night, then forgot to blog about it yesterday. Doh! Doh! Doh!

So without further ado, I present the finished Ice:

Once more, with feeling:

I made the neckband considerably shorter than directed by the pattern because my neck is . . . uh . . . considerably shorter than that of the swanlike model wearing it in the magazine photo. That bitch.

Ahem. Anyhow, I’m quite pleased with it and may very likely knit another one at some point. Maybe next time I’ll even use the All Seasons Cotton called for. Imagine that.

Project Update!

“Lisa” is progressing nicely. I’ve done the increases on the sides and now just need to knit straight to the armholes on the back.

I’ve not spend a great deal of time knitting her, because I’ve been knitting on “Shrug Me Tender” at night. Here’s part of the back:

Pretty odd looking at this point, eh?

I also finished up the Noro Gisha scarf I was knitting as a shop sample for Knit Happens.

Speaking of Knit Happens, I’ll be there for tonight’s yarn swap. Wheeeeeee!!!!!!

Lucy Sez

Can I be a Rowanette too?

Yes kiddies, today is New Project Tuesday.

Well, actually, yesterday was New Project Monday because that’s when I started it, but I’m not talking about it until today, so today, Tuesday, gets credit for it. No, it’s not fair to Monday, but Monday should be used to getting a bad rap.

Still with me?

This is a design I whipped up over the weekend. I’m calling her Lisa, and she will become an all-over ribbed raglan with short sleeves. Waist-length with some body shaping.

I started knitting her on the train yesterday. Have I mentioned lately that I love Calmer?

Shrug!

And I returned to some shrug knitting as well. Hmmmmmm, close in color to Lisa. Oh well. I have both side fronts done.

I did make a start on the back as well.

SpongeBob Presents

Stash-o-rama!

A couple of recent acquisitions here at WendyKnits. First, some silk chenille purchased from Danette Taylor Designs on eBay.

Spongebob really seems to like this yarn!

But he also likes this:

A Colinette AbFab kit in the Sonora colorway. Woo-hoo!

A Big Thank You

To Theresa, Becky, Lis, and Morgan, the lovely hostesses for the Audrey Knit-along. I received my Audrey label!

Isn’t it great??!! And what a fun knit-along too!

WendyKnits at Home

Here’s something frightening:

Yes, I own Big Girl Shoes. I was wearing them around the house to practice wearing them to work today. Yuh-huh. We’ll see if I can still walk at the end of the day.

But aren’t they cute? (Psst! On sale at Ann Taylor Loft! I bought ‘em in white, too!)

Lucy Sez:

My eyes! My eyes! Enough!

(Psst! Note to Ms. Amy: Why yes, those are man hands! Gimmee my ten extra points!)

Not the delightful yet caloric treat, but I what I did on my Ice sleeve cap.

While my stitch gauge for the Cotton Angora is spot-on for Ice, the row gauge is off — I’m getting 5 rows to the inch and the pattern states 6 rows to the inch. The design has set-in sleeves, so of course one must knit the sleeve cap to fit properly into the armhole.

Clever little wench that I am, I figured that with my row gauge off, I’d need to make some adjustments to my knitting of the sleeve cap.

The right way to do it:

Figure out the total number of rows to be worked in the sleeve cap according to the pattern directions, divide by the stated row gauge. Mulitply that number by your row gauge to get the total number of rows you need to knit, and figure out at what intervals to do the decreases based on that number.

The wrong way to do it:

Guess how often you need to do the decreases and hope it turns out right.

Anyone want to hazard a guess about which way I did it?

Lucky for me I’m a good guesser, because my sleeve cap fits nicely into the armhole.

Lucy still prefers to supervise.

I did actually finish and put together the sweater last night. Pix later.

A good weekend was had by all! I taught someone how to knit!

Identity withheld by request of the new knitter.

We went to Kristine’s house for a most excellent party, to say good-bye to Christina and family, who are moving to Alabama shortly. We none of us want Christina to go, but I think we said good-bye with style!

And I got some work done on the Noro Gisha scarf that I’m knitting as a shop sample for Knit Happens.

I think it’s quite pretty!