Is Kristine converting you into a Rowanette?

A question asked in my comments the other day by Miz CurlsandPurls.

It may very well be true. When I was in Knit Happens Wednesday I spied a Rowan sample hanging up that I hadn’t seen before. This:

That is “Red Hot” from Rowan 33, and is knitted in Calmer. Good golly, Miss Molly! I’m in love!

This is a totally impractical sweater for me — I would never wear it to work, not with a neckline like that. But I must have it nonetheless.

I have a bag of Calmer in color “coffee bean” which is a rich dark brown. I may use that. I figure I could always wear the sweater with a black tank under it, right? That might actually look cute . . .

And I have a brown/black silk skirt that would look fab with it!

So there you have it. Call me a Rowanette.

Actually, I’ve loved Rowan for years and there are a few Rowan sweaters in my past. I strayed away from them in the past ten years or so when I became obsessed with traditional knits. But because I’m more interested in making things I’ll actually wear, I’m returning to Rowan.

What Have We Here?

Spongebob was quite excited when I brought this home.

This is Noro Gisha, a microfiber/cotton ribbon yarn. I’ve got two skeins of it here to knit a shop sample scarf for Knit Happens. I’ll have to break it to Spongebob very gently that it won’t be staying long . . .

Uh-oh. He heard that.

Ice Me, Baby!

I finished the back of Ice, and have a fair bit done on the first sleeve.

See?

See?

Puppy Lucy

Meet Lucy, who recently went to live with my co-worker Monica.

Say it with me now: “Awwwwwwwwwwww!”

My Lucy acknowledges that Puppy Lucy is WAY cute. Even if she is a dog.

I went to the center of my knitting world last night to hang out with the other Bad-Ass Knitters.

I helped Kristine pick out some colors for her to knit a shop sample poncho out of the new Blue Sky Bulky Alpaca and Colinette Point Five.

I briefly thought about hitting her over the head and running with the yarn, but that would be Wrong.

SpongeBob StashHo would like to show you what I bought:

Jo Sharp DK tweed. Drool along with me.

Ice Pullover

Or rather, Blue Ice Pop (thanks Elisabeth!). From the heading, you have probably managed to figure out that I’m knitting Ice as a pullover, not a cardi. Tina left a comment yesterday saying she was knitting Ice as well. What’s yours, Tina? Pullover or cardi?

Here’s the progress on the back. It’s really purple, not blue — honest. And what a fast knit it is!

This, gentle readers, is the WendyKnits Office Knitting Environment. Book (Days Without Number by Robert Goddard) propped open with a stapler and tape dispenser so that I can read whilst I knit. I love to read and knit, and have been doing it for years. Oooh, I multi-task!

Claire left a comment about the Cotton Angora, that it sheds badly. It certainly is doing little or no shedding while I knit it, though I suspect it will shed a bit more during wear. This does not bother me — I don’t plan to wear this sweater under a blazer, as I’m making a long sleeve sweater.

This yarn is machine washable — perhaps running a garment made from it through the wash a time or two would cut down on the fuzziness? Just a thought.

I quite like working with it. It’s lovely and soft and knits up nicely. I don’t think I’d use it to knit something I consider a summer sweater — worsted weight cotton seems too heavy to me to be worn in summer. Ice will be an autumn/winter sweater for me.

I didn’t knit on the shrug at all yesterday — it’s fiddly and required attention to the pattern. Not the best WIP to bring along to work on while you are showing off interacting with others at your LYS.

After I started the shrug, I remembered that I had purchased some Rowan Calmer to knit the Iris shrug (from Rowan 35). I bought it in the color coral. Now, I don’t really need a brick red shrug and a coral shrug, do I?

So I whipped up a pattern for a little top for my Calmer. I plan to do an all-over 2×2 rib (because I love Audrey) and have a boatneck and short sleeves. Mebbe I’ll start on it after I finish the shrug-in-progress.

Speaking of the shrug-in-progress, the pattern directs you to use a single 3/4″ button as a closure. I think instead I’ll do i-cord ties. Just because.

Southern Knitbloggers Webring

Kindly note the addition of a new button in my sidebar — for the Southern Knitbloggers Webring, started by Rachel. I’m a New Englander by birth but have lived in Virginia since junior high school, so I’m happy to proclaim myself a southern knitblogger. Y’all join up now, hear?

Don’t Answer This

Does it make me weird that I derive great pleasure from posing Spongebob with yarn? No, don’t answer that. I already know the answer.

But I felt so . . . so . . . happy when Emdash noticed yesterday that Spongebob was holding the yarn in his little hand.

Because I was out for the evening, I gave Lucy the night off. Instead, here is a rare action shot of me ‘n Lucy, taken by L-B a month ago. Lucy looks thrilled, doesn’t she?

I blurred my face because while it looked acceptable in the original photograph, it looked incredibly dorky when I scanned it. I think my scanner is possessed by an evil spirit.

After all, I look a bit strange in this photo as well.

The observant among you will note the row of little Spongebobs on top of the bookcase behind my head.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Meet Spongebob StashPants. The new official Stash Spokesperson here at WendyKnits.

Miz. Emdash is right — he just looks so freakin’ happy to be near the yarn, doesn’t he?

(Don’t worry — Lucy is still the SpokesCat and as such outranks Spongebob.)

New Projects Are So Uplifting

Yes indeedy, they are. Two new projects on the needles and I’m merrily knitting away.

The yarn that Spongebob is showing you at the top of the blog entry is the purple Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora that I am using to knit “Ice,” a design from Rowan magazine 27 (which is supposed to be knit in All Seasons Cotton).

This is my new commuter knitting. My gauge with the Cotton Angora is spot-on for the gauge required in the pattern, so merrily I knit along.

The Glam Shrug is coming along too. Glam is not particularly nice to knit with — I’m knitting it on US 13 needles and have to pay attention so as not to stick the point of the needle through the middle of the ribbon, particularly on decreases. And this pattern has lots of decreases. Still, it’s a quick and easy pattern and being modular, is knit up a little bit at a time so you feel as though you are making great progress as you finish each widdle square or triangle.

I finished a side front easily in a couple of hours.

Epiphany

Why is it that I am suddenly having epiphanies? From where I’m sitting, I can see the half-century mark (though it’s still off in the distance a bit), yet I am just now figuring out some stuff about myself. Doh!

The Epiphany du Jour?

The type of stuff I’ve been knitting for the past ten years or so is not necessarily the type of stuff I want to wear.

I’ve been knitting very traditional stuff — fair isles, arans, Norgis. I love them and I love knitting them. I also have a cedar chest and a closet full of them and don’t wear them very often. Most of the time it’s too warm indoors to wear heavily textured wool knits or stranded color designs. And because I have a full-time job in an office, that’s where my sweaters get worn most of the time.

Mebbe I should just hang them on the wall and call ‘em art, eh?

So anyhow, I forsee some cotton and cotton blend designs for winter in my future . . .

A Funny Story

Last week, someone lifted my Bad-Ass Knitter Manifesto and posted it to some knitting lists. She was notified by several people that it was taken from a website with a copyright notice clearly displayed (mine!), and not credited.

The offender emailed me to apologize (stating that a “friend” had sent it to her without giving the source). The thing that I find funny is that this individual censored my writing and removed what she thought was objectionable language. I believe she changed the phrase “Bad-Ass Knitter” to “Big Bad Knitter.”

I ask you . . . how much of a Bad-Ass Knitter can you be if you can’t bring yourself to say Bad-Ass Knitter?

I’m just saying.

Liz reports that as of yesterday, we’ve received 702 blankets! You can check them out on the Blankets Received page!

I would like to take this opportunity to send a huge public THANK YOU to Liz for all her work on this project. I love scrolling through the photos of all the beautiful blankets you’ve sent and thinking about the comfort they will provide to animals in need. There’s no way this project would be half as successful as it’s turning out to be if it weren’t for all the work that Liz has put into it. I know she’s spent hours receiving donations, cataloging them, sneding out thank-yous, answering email inquiries, organizing knit-out events, and coordinating getting the blankets to the critters.

Liz, you are a hero! I’m proud to be working on this project with you.

Hot & Humid

Tuesday and I have the bloggy blahs. Blah, blah, blah. It’s hot and humid, my knitting bores me, and I want to sleep . . .

I guess the bottom line is that I’m tired and cranky. (Oh, and my hair looks like crap, too. Growing out is painful.)

So here’s a progress photo of poor Ingrid, who I have been neglecting horribly. I took her to work yesterday to knit on the train and at lunch, so she got a little attention.

But there’s still about five inches to go until I can do something interesting here — the front neck shaping. So I’m yawning.

And here is poor sweet Liam, also sadly neglected recently.

I tossed both Liam and Ingrid aside last week to make the Smoochy Pagan tank. I was wondering if I should put both these deserving projects to one side and knit some little things until cooler weather. Even indoors in the air conditioning, knitting on a lapful of wool is less than desirable.

So What Would the Bad-Ass Knitter Do?

Why, start a new project, of course.

Last night I started knitting the Shrug Me Tender shrug. I picked up the pattern at Knit Happens last week, along with this yarn.

Crystal Palace Glam, in color 2136, a brick red. It’s a 36% acrylic, 35% rayon, 15% wool, and 14% nylon. It’s a ribbon yarn that has one matte side and one shiny side. It’s got a surprisingly soft hand for what I consider to be a novelty yarn.

I chose this from among my many many projects in waiting because I have at least three dresses that will look wonderful with this little shrug.

I started this last night and quickly realized that it’s too fiddly to knit on the train. So, Bad-Ass Knitter that I am, I started smething else, too, for commuter knitting.

But I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Hana Silk Tank

Thanks for all your nice comments about the tank. Especially since I couldn’t get a good photo. There’s something about it that defies a decent indoor photo. Kristine and Holly, I’ll either wear it or bring it to Knit Happens tomorrow night so you can see it in person.

In person? In tank?

Eileen asked to see the bottom edge. Extreme close-up! Wooooo-hooooo!

I was trying it on with a linen skirt — I think they go well together.

In no particular order until you get to number one, Top Ten Unusual Places to Store Yarn:

10. Inside the piano: as in inside the cavity, down amongst the strings. It was during the school holidays and my little Liberaces are skilled at managing to wiggle out of practice during this time so I knew I was safe for five weeks. (Ann)

9. In a wine rack – the little holes are perfect for skeins of yarn – and it’s pretty! (Lori)

8. The craziest place I have ever stored yarn was in the bottom of my baby’s Exersaucer. It has a nice dish effect that could hold a lot of yarn. However, I had to move it because my kitty, Cleo, recognized that the saucer had grown “yarn-fur” and began to attack it. (Joan)

7. Skeins of yarn stuffed in old panty hose and tacked to the wall of the cedar closet . . . I still have to laugh, thinking of all those “legs” of yarn. . . but it was great storage . . . wish I still had that cedar closet. One of my sons once ask me what happened to the rest of the “bodies” (Sue)

6. I actually stored yarn in my daughter’s stuffed dog. (Lucrecer)

5. Well, I’m storing yarn right now in an unused fireplace and the little wood-keeping spot bricked in right next to the actual fireplace. (Melisande)

4. I store my yarn for colorwork hanging from the rungs of a ladder – so I can see all the colors and be inspired. (Amy)

3. One day I had a bunch of stuff out-lace weight bits and pieces — and I wanted to keep them upstairs, so I stuffed them into an old umbrella that was opened, closed the sucker up, and then stashed it into the big pottery urn we have for holding stuff like that. (Deb)

2. I used to have one of those glass lamps with removable bottoms. You could remove the bottom, fill the lamp with whatever clever decorative items you wanted. I used small balls of yarn from a dye experiment. (Janice)

And the winner:

The most unusual place I have stored yarn: (requires some explanation) I was redoing the upstairs bathroom, and as I hate change and fear problems with my repairs/handy-woman work, I had all the items I was replacing in the upstairs hallway for 3 or 4 months. The new toilet was unpacked and pristine-shiny white; I decided that it couldn’t just sit there that way, so I put beautiful blue and purple yarns in the bowl section, with novelty yarns in the top spilling ever-so artfully over. That way, every time I walked to the bedroom, I: a) saw yarn I should be using; and b) saw the toilet I should be installing! (KnittyKim)

Congratulations to KnittyKim! The lovely prize package generously donated by Nanette will be winging its way to you soon.

And thanks to everyone for participating. I loved reading all your answers!

Smoochy-Pagan

A Hana Silk question:
How’s it knitting up on the size 8′s? Did you use a larger needle for your Hanna scarf? I’m planning a lacy wrap (nothing fancy, probably just a feather and fan stitch) but am not sure what sort of gauge I’d want to go for w/ this yarn. (Recommended needle size is like 10.5 or 11, which seemed huge when I looked at the yarn.)

It knit up nicely on size 8s. I did swatch for this because the pattern calls for All Seasons Cotton, which is so completely different from a silk ribbon, right? And to my surprise I got gauge on the same needle size called for — US 8.

It’s not a tight fabric on size 8s, but it’s not too loose, either. (Could I be any more wishy-washy?) It’s ju-u-u-u-ust right.

Lucy agrees.

My Hana Silk scarf? What size needles did I use? Durned if I can remember. And I didn’t write it down. Certainly no smaller than US 8, and possibly a size or two larger.

The bottom line is that I like it knitted on 8s. Though if you were knitting a lacy pattern you could certainly go larger.

Oh, and I finished the tank.

Spongebob’s Stash

Spongebob would like you to know that the yarn pictured in his photo from Friday is all Spirit Trail Fiberworks yarn.

The blue is Bluefaced Leicester wool and the green is 50/50 silk/wool.

Am I the Only One Who Thinks This is Just Wrong?

The domain name knitter.com is owned by an architectural firm.