Wendy Knits

Not a visitation from the Gift Fairy, who is undoubtedly exhausted from all the recent activity on my behalf, but a blast from my past!

A friend from long ago, Alice, was searching online for a toe-up sock pattern and found the one on my website. After wading through my site a bit, she realized I was the same girl she knew from a summer job we shared when we were in high school and the summer before college. All those many years ago.

I was . . . wait for it . . . gobsmacked when she posted a message on my tag-board. A few messages, one email, and a phone conversation later, we were back in contact.

So welcome to my online world of knitting insanity, Alice. It’s great to have you back!

You Gots de Questions? I Gots de Answers!

Caroline F. asked what size needles and gauge the Sanquhar Duke glove pattern calls for. It’s fingering or sock wool and suggested needle is 2.25mm. This is for a medium sized hand. The pattern advises you to go up or down in needle size to adjust for gloves for larger or smaller hands.

Theresa asked what the text on the Virgin sweater is. Here’s the photo:

Kinda hard to read while it’s all smooshed up on the needle, eh? “Smooshed up” is a technical term, by the way.

It’s: “fem kloke og fem daarlige jomfruer”

Translated: “five wise and foolish virgins”

And, just to show you how dorky the foolish virgins look, a close-up of one of their dorky faces:

Tell me this chick doesn’t need a nose-job.

(Yikes! When I first wrote that I typed “blow-job” instead of “nose-job.”)

And here is a photo of what the sweater would like like if I was knitting it as a cardi, rather than bastardizing it into a tunic. Link is to Bea Ellis Knitwear, where you can purchase kits for the Norsk Strikkedesign book, and the book itself. You can buy them elsewhere, but I highly recommend Bea. I’ve had nothing but excellent service from her shop over the years.

A Question for You Guys

One of my coworkers is expressing interest in learning how to knit. And I didn’t even have to nag her! Do you guys have a specific sweater pattern you’d like to suggest for a first project after she learns the basics? Something very simple that can be made in a totally yummy yarn. Let me know what you think!

Y’all have a good weekend! See ya Monday!

Too bad.

Because gobsmacked I remain.

I really don’t know what I did to deserve all these gifts, but . . . wow!

Yesterday’s surprise . . . a gift bag chock full of goodies from Lindsey-Brooke, who is one of my most loyal blog readers.

Odie claims that this bag just sort of appeared on her desk. The first thing I pulled out was this:

It’s Joslyn’s Fiber Farm 100% wool fingering weight, called “Dancing Feet.” The colorway is called “TreeBark” and it’s beyond gorgeous. And beautifully soft too. Odie begged me to give it to her and she doesn’t even knit! I think she got caught up in the moment.

The next surprise was this:

This is a little book about the Scottish Sanquhar pattern — its history and pattern for a pair of gloves. Now I’d never even heard of this book let alone ever seen a copy so this was a marvelous surprise. Since I’m such a sucker for traditional patterns.

Then there was this intriguing little box:

And inside the box were these:

Adorable kitty post-it notes and three sets of buttons! The buttons are celtic knots, round snowflake/flower pattern, and little cats.

At this point Odie and I were almost hyperventilating with excitement.

All I can say is . . . I’m not worthy! And, a huge, huge thank you to Lindsey-Brooke!

Another Birthday Surprise

I forgot to mention yesterday (and unforgivable of me too!) that when I got to work on Monday, there was a message on my voicemail from my very good friend Geane (the very same Geane who just finished SL 2002 and the very same Geane who gave me a whopping gift certificate to Bea Ellis Knitwear which enabled me to buy the Heilo for St. Moritz in colorway J, thank you very much) in which she serenaded me with “Happy Birthday” done in a clarinet solo. A beautiful clarinet solo, I might add, as Geane is a talented professional musician. Wow!

WIP or Lack Thereof

I was at a Dreamweaver (html editing software) training course yesterday for work, and will be today, too. I got home later than usual with a not-enough-caffeine headache (won’t make that mistake today!) so I didn’t make a lot of progress on the Virgin sweater. So you get this teaser as the progress pic:

I promise a better pic tomorrow.

I am really really loving knitting this! I feel about this pattern the way Teresa feels about Roscalie. I’m in lu-u-uv, baybeeeeee!

QueerJoe’s Scarf

Didja see the results of the voting on the scarf that Joe knitted for me? I’m getting colorway #2. They are both gorgeous, but #2 was my favorite. Thanks, Joe for your generosity!

That’s what I am! Gobsmacked!

For as some of you already know, birthday gifts keep popping up for me!

Friday night I found a gift on my computer chair — a gorgeous scarf knitted from Colinette “Fandango” (which is a yummy hand dyed cotton chenille):

The card says it’s from the very talented Emma of Emma & Co!

I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this scarf, and I’ve made good use of it already, for this is what it looks like here:

A couple of inches of snow yesterday with the potential for a couple more today.

Saturday night we had my birthday party with my family. Among my pile of family gifts a gift appeared without explanation:

Gifts from wonderful Kathy of Far From the Madding Crowd! A teeny-tiny fair isle sweater that I can use as a Christmas ornament (but I’ll undoubtedly display it year round), and some beautiful vintage earrings.

And if that weren’t enough.

Yesterday I put my knitting down and when I returned to it, an intriguing little box was sitting on top of it, along with two bars of Norwegian chocolate!

Gifts from the incomparable Theresa of Bagatell!

Clockwise from top left, a darling little safetypin/bead pin of the Norwegian flag, a little Norwegian flag garland, Norwegian chocolate, and five beautiful pewter clasps! The clasps will be wonderful for the next Norwegian cardi I make.

Umm . . . there’s a reason why there was only one chocolate bar available for the photo . . .

So Emma, Kathy, and Theresa . . . THANK YOU! I love you guys!

And this is still a mystery to me. I know that you guys have coordinated this through Ian, even though he steadfastly maintains his innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence. For example, when confronted with the gift sitting on my knitting, he said “Huh. How’d that get there?” with a look of pure innocence on his face. You have to admire that. He will not cave under questioning.

The Carvel Ice Cream Cake

Yes, we were bad. For the uninitiated (and you are to be pitied) you can learn about Carvel Ice Cream here. Here’s the before photo of my cake:

Here is the after photo:

Perhaps I should say “oink.” In our defense, it was a small cake.

And it didn’t stop there! Friday night we had s’mores. Because I had never in my life eaten, much less prepared, a s’more, the chef went to work.

Ignore the large bottle of vodka visible in the photo . . .

Virgin Sweater

For those of you who have read thus far, yes, you actually get some knit content! Here is the Virgin sweater as of yesterday afternoon:

Gotta love the Ott Light for taking photos!

Some of you may remember that I got the wool for this in a trade with Theresa a couple months ago. It is the yarn called for in the pattern, Vestlandsgarn from Gjestal. I have altered the pattern to knit a pullover rather than a cardi.

What I’m doing is knitting the back chart for both the back and front. I started by casting on 20 fewer stitches than called for in the body of the sweater (total of back chart stitches doubled) and knitting 15 rounds in black for the facing, purling one row for the turning, then knitting 2 rounds in black, increasing 20 stitches evenly on the second row. Then two more rounds in black and then the two-color pattern. When I get to the armholes, I’ll follow the pattern directions for casting off stitches and casting on for the steeks, and doing the armhole shaping. Same for the neck, except I’ll have to play it by ear a bit to alter from the neck for the cardi to a neck for the pullover. It’s a round-neck cardi, so it should be easy to adjust.

I’m using US sixe 3 for the body (I used a 2 for the bottom band) and am getting the gauge nicely.

And I’m very grateful for my Ott Light for reading the chart. I may still go blind knitting this, but it’ll be at a slower pace!

Lastly, Izzy says “Happy New Year” to all!