yarntherapy

New projects for a new year!

Look what came in the mail today!

This:

And this:

And these:

Yeah, I'm dangerous with an iBook and a credit card.  The top two pictures are my order from Jimmybeans - for Audrey, Rowan Calmer in Squirrel and the Rowan 35 magazine; and three more colors of GGH Soft Kid for my flowers. This is the first Rowan magazine I've ever purchased, and while it is a splurge I won't be repeating often, it is a fantastic read! I'm loving the articles on crochet and pursemaking as well as all the patterns. There are at least a few other things I can see myself making. But first, Audrey! This is what she looks like:

Cute, huh? Mine will be a deep grey, and will probably have three-quarter length sleeves. I am a curvey girl and I have a feeling this will be accentuated, hopefully in a good way!

The poppies are going well - I've even had my first commission! Well, not so much "commission" as "Wow, that's cute! Can I get one?" But hey,  whatever it takes, right?

The bottom picture? That would be my new drop spindle and gorgeous olivey roving from an awesome eBay seller, anniemay123. It was ordered on Monday and in my hands on Wednesday. I haven't done much with it yet except to caress the roving. It's so lovely - olive with streaks of teal, raspberry, lime, gold......I can't wait to see what it looks like in yarn form! I just hope I don't screw it up - I've never spun before and I'm not sure what possessed me to get this stuff. Well, I do know what possessed me  - that roving. I'm just not sure I can make it be yarn!

Well, I'm off to get some stuff for my New Year's Eve dinner - which I will be enjoying all by myself. This is a good thing - Christmas kicked my ass, y'all. This is my first real day off in almost a month and I am just so happy to be relaxing and hanging around the house with nothing to do. For dinner I'm having mussels in white wine and roasted herbed potatoes and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. mmmmmmm. I'm not sure who is reading this blog - I know at least a couple of people have stopped by - but I want to wish everyone out there a happy and safe New Year. Happy knitting for 2005!

One last thing....

  teeny sweater 
  Originally uploaded by laurelann.

I did manage to fit in one last knitted item this holidays season - I made this little sweater ornament for my Secret Santa at work. I thought it might be a nice hint as to my identity but she had already guessed it was me. That's OK, I had pretty much guessed who mine was, as well. Mine rocked - I got lots of nice, thoughtful, girly treats, and a really beautiful little knitted stocking ornament!

The teeny sweater is actually an egg cozy from Weekend Knitting. Fun book - I checked it out from the library but I think I may buy it. It's due back today - I'll read through it one more time to see if it's worth spending the money for.

Finally, time to knit for myself! I'm a little late on the Audrey bandwagon, but last night I ordered supplies for this too cute sweater. Jimmybeans had a discontinued charcoal shade of Calmer called Squirrel which I think will look really nice, and it's a color I will wear a lot. I've started making poppies again, so I also ordered some GGH Soft Kid for those. Yay, projects!

Merry Christmas!

Wow. I finished. Just barely - I ripped out an entire hat Wednesday night and managed to re-knit it by Thursday before work - I knitted on the subway, at lunch, at dinner, even a few surreptitious rows during the work day. I was weaving in ends and sewing buttons until 6:45 pm, and still managed to get everyone's stuff to their places before they got to the theater. Sneaky me!

OK, here's the sum total of Laurel's Holiday 2004 knitting:

Brother:

Sis-in-law:

Their daughter:

Dad:

And, all my folks at work:
Chris:

Bill:

And, awesomely, Michelle's bag:

Is awesomely even a word? Whatever, I love it. I had a lovely Christmas Eve. I cooked for my friend Carol and her son - roasted organic chicken, roast potatoes, grilled asparagus, chocolate fondue. Damn good if I do say so myself. Apparently many of my friends think I don't cook. I don't think they realize that I used to have zero kitchen space and crappy tools. In the last year I've gotten all new pots & pans, knives, and dishes. What a difference! And my kitchen now is very workable, not to mention cute. What I really lack is dining space - we ate around my folding TV tables tonight.

Oh well. One thing at a time.

I'm done, I'm done, I'm DONE!

Well, almost. All the knitting (and sewing) that needed to be finished and shipped went away yesterday. Cost me fifty bucks at UPS to get everything to their various destinations on time, but it was well worth it. Next year I'll start earlier.

Heh.....yeah, right.

Anyway, here's everything I made - in addition to the previously mentioned baby Uggs for the niece, scarf for brother, and purse for his wife, I finished dad's Irish Hiking Scarf:

Very thick and cushy, I hope he likes it.

I also made a Christmas stocking for my niece's first Christmas, copying the ones made by my grandmother for our family:

She's Katie, I'm Laurel :-) Which means mine is 30-something years old. It was amazing how difficult this project turned out to be - not in the execution, but in finding the materials. Wool felt is hard to find these days - I ordered mine from A Child's Dream.  Harder to find, of all things, was red lace! I couldn't believe that I was shopping in the garment district of New York City and was unable to find anything besides white and black lace. Apparently they just don't make colored lace anymore. I had picked up a few other ribbons and trims hoping to improvise when I stopped for the third time at the trim mecca that is M & J Trims and found exactly one red lace that hadn't been there before. They also finally had the teeny weeny red rickrack that I was unable to find anywhere else.

Now I just have to finish a few items for people at work. Michelle's bag looks awesome but I need to figure out a closure. I'm whipping out a rolled-edge hat for Bill in a variegated brown Manos, and I have a skein of blue Manos for a ribbed-edge hat for Chris. And if I have a little time, I kinda want to make a little sweater ornament for my Secret Santa, although it will be a dead giveaway since everyone at work has seen me knitting furiously for the last month. In fact, last night when I was needle-free, people were shocked! I think I'll put it on the very last gift as a hint.

Whee, Christmas is almost upon us! And I must say, I am looking forward to knitting without a deadline. And maybe even something for myself!

Cutest bag yet!

  Sophie bag, front 
  Originally uploaded by laurelann.

Here is my Christmas gift for my sister-in-law. I am so, so pleased with how it turned out! I'm sorely tempted to keep it for myself, but it's too close to Christmas!

The details: The pattern is Sophie, from Magknits. The yarn is my fave Cascade 220 in a denimy blue. I needle-felted the stems (which wind around to the back where there are leaves as well) with roving from A Childs Dream - great resource. This was my first attempt at needle felting and I really like the results. I have many ideas for how to use the technique on future projects!

I designed this as I went along and once I hit upon the idea of using buttons as decoration as well as a closure I went on a mad search for flower shaped mother-of-pearl buttons. Yeesh. Finally found them at the fab Tender Buttons, but next time I will find buttons to be inspired by first instead of having a half-finished project lacking an important detail that I can't find!

Bad Blogger!

Wow, I haven't posted in a week! Not a great start, but I'll be better in the future. This will be a quickie, I have lots to say when I have more time.

I finally made it to School Products! What a great store - odd location, but easier for me to get to than any other yarn store in NYC. Nice, organized space and a wide variety of fibers and colors. Great deals on cashmere by the pound if you're so inclined. Also a whole wall of Lamb's Pride in every color which I bet will felt up really well. Hmmmm......

So I rethought the Irish Hiking Scarf for my dad and picked up some Karabella Soft Tweed in a lovely charcoal shade. I think this will be perfect for dad, now I just need to get it done!

Here's the start of it:

There's a reason this is called yarntherapy

Wow. What a crappy day, and I didn't bring my knitting with me. I had a long-overdue conversation at work and unfortunately heard some things I didn't want to hear. Not unexpected things, but hurtful nonetheless.  So I had to buck up and then get through the day without curling up in a corner and dissolving into tears, which is what I really wanted to do.  I mostly succeeded.......mostly.

Anyway, topic? Like I said, I didn't have any knitting with me. A conscious decision on my part to carry a little less crap around with me today.  A mistake, as it turned out. I really, really needed to zone out and knit a few times today and it couldn't happen. Nothing distracted me or calmed me like a little cabling would have. I couldn't wait to get home and knit, go online and read about knitting, get to this blog and write about knitting.

Wow. Must be an addiction.

In other news, I can't wait to finish Michelle's bag and give it to her for Christmas - I was feeling a little unsure about it but today she showed up at work wearing a brand new sweater in the exact same orange as the bag! Good karma, huh?

Progress!

OK, so I'm on my way to actually being done by Christmas. My fingers may fall off, but gifts will be finished.

First, my brother's scarf is done:

Really soft and luscious. He lives in Seattle, so it's lighter weight than the chunky Irish Traveling scarf I'm making for my dad. Actually, I had wanted to make dad's scarf in a finer yarn but the alpaca and size 7 needles I used for my brother's took a really long time and time is not on my side right now! So dad is getting a bulkier off-white wool - hopefully it will be sort of Aran-sweater-like.

Next finished - the cutest baby boots ever! Bright pink baby Uggs for my niece:

Holy crap! Can you stand it? I had seen these in Candi Jensen's book Candy Tots which is actually a crochet book. I just learned how to crochet and I'm still getting the hang of it. Much prefer knitting. Then I saw Candi on an episode of Knitty Gritty on DIY Network and she was making the same boots (and a cute matching hat), but in knit rather than crochet! And, the pattern was available for free on the DIY website so I just had to hunt down the yarn. The only place that I could find that had both of the yarns required was Kaleidoscope Yarns. (I do  most of my yarn shopping online because most of the yarn shops in NYC are way downtown and practically require a field trip for me to get to.) The prices are about the same as I've seen elsewhere but I love their selection and the service was super-quick.

Poppies!

I finally finished some of the knitted flowers I've been working on. I've experimented with a bunch of yarns, needles, gauges and these are the first ones I really love. The yarn is GGH Soft Kid, a mohair blend. I love the red, and I just bought a skein in deep pink as well. I have a couple of other versions in the works, including a sparkly one done in Filatura Di Crosa "No Smoking", a pretty ruby-colored lurex. It knits up a teeny bit heavier than I'd like but it's very festive. I'd love to find something that combines the airiness of the Soft Kid with a bit of sparkle.

Lots of progress on other projects! My brother's scarf, for example:

This is really a great pattern for a first cable project. It's easy to remember after a few repeats, and easy to find your place if you've set it aside for a bit. I've been knitting like mad on the subway! I can get a full pattern repeat plus two or three more rows done on the trip between my home and work. Makes the trip go really quickly! I've even been getting compliments on it from strangers. The yarn is really luscious, as well. Mmmm, alpaca!

All this knitting has been really therapeutic for me. I can really tell the difference in my general frame of mind in the last few weeks - I'm a lot less stressed out than I've been. This is the time of year when work starts to get crazy and so far I've been riding it out pretty well. I attribute it entirely to the yarn!