stash, knit, repeat

I have two more square photos for you.

There are still 3 more to block and show you (remember, this is a lap-sized blanket), but 9 is officially enough to start seaming. I played around with layout a bit, and Jacob helped.

And after fiddling around a bit, I decided on a way to join the squares. I’m doing single crochet, but done so that the “seams” point out toward the RS of the work. I like the definition the ridges give the finished blanket.

I love the way this is feeling. It’s soft, it’s light, but it’s incredibly warm. I think my grandmother will really enjoy it.

I’m not sure what to do about the border–thoughts? I flipped through my copy of Knitting on the Edge, but the thought of picking up hundreds of stitches along each side is giving me hives.

I leave you with a picture of the Fibonacci Hoodie in action:

Knowing my hand-knits are loved and used is one of the better feelings in the world.

Things chez stash are, shall we say, a little crazy. A big move, me leaving my job (for the indefinite future, yay more time with the baby), a long knitting-filled road trip to get… well, we don’t actually have a place in Monterey yet but let’s just gloss over that shall we k thanks what was I saying a long knitting-filled road trip to get to the Monterey penninsula! I’m sure that once we’re on the road it will be fun and relaxing and a great break for the family, but right now things are absolutely bananas around here.

There was some finishing, though.

The hoodie would like a hug.

Please ignore the weird wrinkles, it sat in the knitting bag for a few days before the photo shoot.

It’s all folded up and ready to go to Miz N., who will need it approximately NEVER because your friendly neighborhood New England weather has secretly been replaced with the Deep South Heat of Hell. :) Nah, I’m only kidding. I’m sure it will be cold here again, and she’ll be toasty and stylish and geeky, all at the same time.

Pattern: Striped hooded top from original Baby Cashmerino book
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, 4 balls purple, 2 balls fuschia
Needles: US3
Buttons: Oh my gracious cute
Baby: Fiesty and geeky, like her parents
Modifications: Just the stripes, ma’am.

The leaf lace shawl is finished and beautiful and perfect and I haven’t spent some quality time with the camera, sadly. I’ve also started a lap blanket out of Berroco Ultra Alpaca (yum!) for my Grammie, so I owe you pictures of that too.

Wish me luck!

In coincidental timing, I’ve finished both the hoodie and the shawl tonight. FO posts will wait until there is proper picture-taking light, hopefully tomorrow. Am I already swatching for the next great thing? Of course I am! What is it? An Elsebeth Lavold cardigan for my maternal grandmother’s birthday, in Silky Wool. I’m totally in love with the Silky Wool. Divine. Inspirational. Gorgeous drapey fabric.

Where did I get it?

Weeeeelll…. I might have done a little shopping when we went to WEBS. It’s not all mine, of course. The Greatest Enabler Of Them All came with me and bought plenty of what you see above. What’s that? You don’t believe me? Well… you’re right.

See that tiny little pile on the right? That’s hers. This… uh… this is all mine. *cough*

In my defense, most of it (all except the red Silky Wool and the sock yarn) is for birthday, baby, and Christmas gifts. And further in my defense, this haul just about doubles my stash. (Which TGEOTA pronounced “pitiable”, I’m sure just to get me to buy more yarn! ;-) I admit to getting a slightly-crazed giddy feeling when I left the store with bags heavy with wool and silk. Speaking of Christmas gifts, does anyone have a recommendation for a sub for Jaeger Cashmere 4-ply, which I can’t seem to find? It’s for a very special scarf.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go back to petting my acquisitions… I’ll leave you with some sneak previews.

…and there goes a week. I had a lovely birthday, filled with much knitting-related goodness. In addition to that gorgeous silk, I got some great books: Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan, Inspired Cable Knits by Fiona Ellis, the new Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK book, and I finally got with the program and received Yarn Harlot: The secret life of a knitter. In reverse order, OH MY GOODNESS Stephanie is so funny. I have had to read several passages aloud to the husband already, and I’m not even 70 pages in. Love the new Debbie Bliss book, too. There are some gorgeous cardigans, including one that I definitely need to make myself soon:

The detail on the back there makes me swoon, I swear. I like the cable knits book but nothing called out to me immediately. Knitting Nature is full of completely fabulous pictures, and despite the problems others have had with the patterns, in addition to the ordinary number of errors, I think I need to knit several things out of this book. Of course, it basically is marketed at me personally, with all of the lovely little math bits. :) The basalt tank will be the first, I think. I have some dark blue Rowan wool cottom that will be just perfect.

Only one more repeat on the shawl done, but I’m nearing completion on the hoodie!

I always forget that hoods are enormous. Still, the hood is now finished and seamed (though the seams aren’t pressed yet):

The sassy recipient Miz. N was gracious enough to try it on.

Just ribbing, seaming, and pressing to go!

I have a brand-spanking-new nephew as of Saturday afternoon, so not much knitting. I had a nice long drive to Maine to ponder the socks, though. I think I just love the colorway too much to let myself knit a pair of “enh” socks out of it. So back into the stash it goes, and if I bring it up again before September, please pour forth with fire and brimstone. It is now *definitely* time-out for that yarn.

I do have a little bit to show, though. The Fibonacci hoodie now has a finished front and a tiny little zygote of a sleeve.

I’ve also finished four out of ten repeats for the Leaf Lace Shawl.

That sounds like a lot, except that the shawl is started in the center back with just a few stitches. So, the repeats are getting much longer each time. Still, the yarn is a dream to knit with and I really like the resulting fabric. (Well, as much as one can really tell what the resulting fabric is, with lace.)

So off the list with the Oak Ribbed Sock! With only two projects to finish, I should have a new gift and a new shawl in no time.

It seems that my (previously) anti-stash nature isn’t the only thing that has changed recently. True to form, I wove in the ends and blocked the back of the Fibonacci hoodie:

I cast on for the front, but halfway through the first big block of fuschia I got second-sleeve syndrome. (The front and back are essentially the same, two big squares.) I thought about continuing on the Pebble Beach socks, but decided they’re still in quarantine except for car trips. Of course I have plenty of stash to work up, and that Misti Alpaca was tempting, but then I visited my LYS to chat about Bea with the ladies. And now I have two things to distract me this week before taking up the hoodie again:

Any guesses on the identity of the first yarn, or the destiny of either?

Bea is finished!

Pattern: Bea from Rowan’s “Little Treasures”
Yarn: Rowan Soft Baby, cream color
Needles: Recommended US7s gave me pattern gauge (which I have of course forgotten)
Thoughts/Modifications: Aside from using a whole half-ball *more* of the yarn than the pattern called for (despite perfect gauge!), I didn’t deviate from the pattern at all. It was a fun knit, and for most of the time I was working on this sweater I didn’t understand why it got the 3-star difficulty rating. And then I got to the finishing. Man, there’s a lot of finishing. Most of it is very easy–nothing of drastically different lengths to ease in, or anything–but I eventually wound up agreeing with the difficulty rating if only because your average knitter would toss it across the room in boredom. Since I’m fairly anal about such things, it was okay. :) If I were to knit it again, I’d recommend just picking up and knitting the button bands and the collar, both of which were knit as pieces and then sewn on.

The yarn, as I’ve said before, is divine to work with. One thing I didn’t get with Harvey was that after awhile, the yarn did hurt my hands. But since I always have a sock to switch out on, it was okay. All of the photos for the project are up on my .mac site. No photos of it on the recipient yet, as the 11-month-old I’m knitting it for lives in CT. Soon, though!

(Edit: A friend wrote to remind me of all of the bitching constructive criticizing I did at the beginning of this sweater. It’s true! The chart in the book is almost impossible (for me) to read, and so after some major ripping I eventually just had to figure out what the cabling pattern *should* be, and do it. Also, MJ: sewing on the button-bands is *totally wacky* and I have no idea why they suggested it, but I always knit a pattern as by-the-directions as I can, the first time.)

I’ve been knitting on the Pebble Beach sock, and *gasp* I’m actually enjoying the striping. No photos of that for now, though, since I’m taking a short break. I was pretty excited about the next baby sweater I have in the queue: The Hooded Striped Top in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I’m knitting it for another friend’s baby girl. And because this girl is no namby-pamby pastels girl, I’m altering the stripe pattern a bit.

(Please excuse the horrendous lack of blocking.) Yup, that’s a Fibonacci sequence! Two of them, actually, interleaving from top and bottom. I’m tremendously excited about it.

I stopped by my LYS today to show off Bea, though, and asked for a substitute for the Suri Elegance recommended for the Icarus shawl in the current Interweave Knits. (I felt it in person some time ago and was underwhelmed, for the price.) They recommended Misti Alpaca to me, which happens to be only $6.50 a skein there. (Score!) So guess what came home with me?

So the real question is… how long before I cast on for it?