Sahara is available

You've seen it, you love it.


















I'm happy to report that the total yardage is only 626 (sleeveless) to 981 (long sleeves) for people like me who burn 27 calories an hour knitting.

And although Wendy emailed me to say that there weren't decreases along the chest area, there are decreases almost four inches in from the sides, four times - and I believe that those are the more white areas in a vertical line just below the breast.

I'm thinking a one yarn only is more my speed!

intake

step away from the cinnamon roll.

Post-Thanksgiving

I knit very little over Thanksgiving. A few rows on the actual day, I think.

But did a lot of talking about knitting and knitting-related things.

Dave's mom offered to knit us another afghan. Cool! She said that she does them now on US 17 and needs 10 balls of Lion Brand.
So yesterday I inspected some colors in person, and finally seleted Barley.








Yesterday JoAnn had free shipping, so I had all the yarn shipped directly to her! Thanks JoAnn!
This picture doesn't show it off well. It matches our furniture and leans more in a direction that I'd like to go colorwise (instead of the always orange direction).

Then my father visited and I told him I knitted the sweater I was wearing (baby alpaca, drops design). He did not reply. I said, "Did you hear me?" He said, "Something about your sweater." I said, "Yes, I knit it." He just sort of nodded, like, uh huh.

So the next day, I asked him if he could create sweater closures out of leftover wood (he's a woodcarver). So I brought down a bunch of sweaters that I had made to illustrate my point. I said, I MADE these. He says, "Yes, I can tell."

And people wonder why one day was all I could stand with the man.

Then he asked me to knit him a scarf. Trying to help him pick a color other than beige or brown to go with his beige coat was quite a struggle. We finally settled on these two colors:











The scarf will be knitted horizontally (CO a gazillion stitches) in stripes. Luckily he doesn't want it to be too long. So I purchased some Knitpicks Options Needles with a 47" cord. While I was shopping, I thought maybe Dave's mom would like some needles as well. So I called her to check. She told me that she's been knitting afghans on 29" circulars!!!!!!!!!!!! So I bought her some US 17 with a 40" cord.

Also, while perusing my favorite blogs, I came across the Urban Aran projects. Damn you knitting project pushers. I could not resist. So I purchased the pattern from JoAnn (free shipping yesterday, you know). Now I need to purchase the yarn. Although I have heard that the Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky is very sheddy, it really is an unbeatable price for this project.

While I was deciding on whether or not to buy this color:










I got an email from Elann that they were selling Boho:














A yarn needed for a pattern that I've had my eye on for a long time.

But really, it's getting a little out of control. And while the skirt would be fun to make, I question how much I would actually wear it. *sigh*

I am trying to save knitting (finishing) the chevron scarf for knitting at LPK. So I was working on my cashmere sock last night. I stop the pattern at 1.5" before the end. I'm almost there. This is sock #1.

Today I will return yarn to the stores I brought the Lion Brand colors home to show Dave and buy the elann yarn, that will probably arrive before the pattern does. Which while frustrating, will probably allow me to do a swatch, then again, maybe not. ;-)

Excuse the dust

While I format my new blog and get all of the previous posts copied and pasted into blogger, because tripod lycos completely ruined my previous blog.

A lot of the old entries have sentences that run together - it's a formatting issue that I will fix. Just wanted to get all of the info in here first.

This will be the first entry that I will not have to change the date and time stamp! Yeah for me!

UFO

This is an unfinished object that has not been touched for probably over a year.














It is the morning surf pattern in Knit Picks Shimmer Morning Mist
My husband said, "I haven't seen that in a while." I said, "It's been sitting in the same place for about a year." He said, "I mean, I haven't seen you work on it in about a year."
Well, yes, that would be accurate.
And as soon as I picked it up, I remembered why.
Not because it is worked on a size US2.











But because before I could even start knitting, I had to rip out two rows.
It may not be obvious, but there's a right and wrong side to this piece. I managed to knit another 8-10 inches on this yesterday. I would like to finish it - just to see what it looks like once blocked properly.
And the chevron scarf, I'm happy to report, is three and a half feet long!

need a photo shoot

for all the pieces that I've completed!
yesterday while babysitting movers for my friend who moved to France, I made major progress on the sleeves to the mohair Japanese cardigan pattern. it's now finished and I'm wearing as I type!
here's what I'm working on now:










you may remember this needle from the high anxiety, cheap, cute needles that were on sale at Tuesday morning
they are perfect for this pattern, as they are SUPER pointy and make the kf&b x 8 (two times) a piece of cake!
I'm using koigu and nature's palette yarns mixed together
Joyce and I went to Purl Soho in Costa Mesa on Wednesday - which is basically a small warehouse. I looked for another koigu to mix for the pattern, because the nature's palette is a bit bigger in diameter. I bought some koigu that I thought might match, but it didn't - it was too silvery blue. the nature's palette color is much more brown and works bettter color wise.

between

petting giraffes and worrying about work, I finished the vest cape, but am not super pleased with it.
it's very tight and I feel like it's too short
I also finished this pattern













in a very soft pewter grey wool boucle and it turned out very nice!
I'm now working on another Japanese pattern in an acrylic mohair, lace chevron fronts and sleeve bottoms.
and I'll also be starting the Last Minute Knitted Gifts chevron scarf with these yarns:










I've been reading that it's fast and easy.
And my friend who just got back from Paris, said all the women looked like me and wore scarves, so maybe this will wind up being my travel scarf?