Archives for January 2011

Question: what is better than Angry Birds on the iPad?

Answer: Angry Birds on the iMac!

Seriously, how awesome is that?

My Twisty Aran is coming along, slowly but surely as you can see below:

The pattern repeat is 40 rows and I have 1.25 pattern repeats done. Miles to go yet.

Speaking of Apps . . .

Sheri at The Loopy Ewe told me about an iPhone app called Cat Toy. I downloaded it to my iPad and showed it to Lucy. I was a little surprised that she was as interested in it as she was. I think her favorite part is the butterflies.

Lucy sez:

“May I have some real butterflies?”

Thanks for all your nice comments about the Calmer Aran. I am working on writing up a pattern (in fours sizes) so stay tuned.

Jeanie B. asked in the comments:

Did you graph out the cables first? Was your gauge swatch just the center cabling or stockinette?

I did graph out all the cables first. And I . . . um . . . didn’t knit a gauge swatch.

I know — nuts, isn’t it? In my defense, I have a lot of experience knitting with Rowan Calmer and a lot of experience knitting cables, so I had a pretty good idea of how it would look before I started knitting.

Not being one to let any grass grow under my feet, I immediately started another sweater.

This is also knit from Rowan Calmer in a discontinued shade — shade# 489 “Delight.” A while back I scored a whole boatload of Calmer in discontinued shades off eBay for an insanely low price. This is part of that haul.

I didn’t swatch for this design either. 😉 I charted out the very twisty design and just started knitting. This one will be much more time consuming than the last one because of the many many cable twists and the fact that all the knit stitches are knit through the back loops to twist them further (and they are purled through the back loops on the wrong side).

But I do love twisty stitches very much, so it is a fun knit.

Other Fun Stuff

I bought a new toy:

No it’s not some sort of fiber arts device. It’s a hair fork. This one to be exact. I wanted a wood that matched my hair color fairly closely so I choose cocobolo rosewood. Can you find the hair fork in the photo below?

It’s in there!

In other news, Lucy is too busy to come to the blog today.

Friday night I finished my Calmer Aran.

To recap, this is my own design knit from Rowan Calmer (big surprise there, eh?) in the discontinued “Laurel” colorway on a US size 7 needle.

It features a shoulder strap with a cable that extends up onto the shoulder.

Also, a very simple narrow neckband.

The above photo is the truest representation of the colorway.

I took these photos this morning because we are finally having a sunny day. This is what it looked like yesterday morning.

But all that is gone today.

I’ve started another project, but I’ll talk about that next time!

Lucy sez:

“I do like this cable you used here . . . “

I am getting closer and closer to the finish line on the Calmer Aran. I do still need to knit the shoulder strap on the second sleeve.

This would have been done by now except I am also working on a stealth project and that went with me to work today as my commuter knitting.

After the shoulder strap comes seaming, then the neckband and then this baby is done, done, done. Also, done.

I have a couple of ideas about what to start next cooking in my fevered brain. Scary, isn’t it?

Meow

What is it about cats and their water dishes?

Pretty much the only things that Lucy drops in her water dish are wadded up paper balls.  Once she has tired of them, in the water dish they go. It makes a lovely little mess for me to clean up. Lucy probably considers that a bonus.

The only exception to this happened a few years ago. Lucy had a toy mouse that squeaked when you moved it. One day I found the mouse drowned in her water dish. I fished it out  and let it dry out, but it never squeaked again.

I can’t help but think that was Lucy’s intention.

“I just want things the way I like them. Is that so wrong?“

Last night I sewed the one completed sleeve to the body of the Calmer Aran. Here’s a photo of the saddle shoulder.

I am pleased with how it looks — I even managed to make the saddle the proper length to fit the shoulder. I back-stitched the seams here — I find that back-stitching works best for me when I am seaming together pieces that have different textures.

And I’m knitting along on the second sleeve.

Hey, a big thank-you to those of you who bought my Autumn Dream Scarf pattern! I can’t quit my day job yet, though. Maybe I’ll win Mega Millions tonight. I’m not sure what I’d do with 330 million dollars, but I’d like to have the opportunity to find out.

A couple of you asked about the sweater underneath the scarf in the photos from the last blog post. That is Alice Starmore’s “Lismore” from The Celtic Collection, knit in Kauni Wool 8/2 Effektgarn in the Rainbow colorway. I used the one colorway to knit it, starting in different places of the pattern repeat for the foreground and background color. A blog post answering some questions about Lismore is here, and if you scroll back through previous entries from there you can read more than you want about the project.

The Ravelry project page for my Lismore is here.

Here is Lucy, happily napping.

Doesn’t she look peaceful? Don’t be fooled. If I take the ball band off a skein of yarn (even if I’m two rooms away) she is instantly awake and begging for it. Then when she is done playing with the ball band, she drops it in her water dish. Always, without fail.