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Frolics

Happy Friday!

First

Let's take a moment to deconstruct my Fair Isle knitting experience.

You'll remember from yesterday's entry how ridiculously thrilled I am with my progress, but did you know this is only my fourth stranded color project? Last year, I knit along with Wendy's Fearless Fair Isle group and the experience was tons of color-knitting fun. Wendy has her Fearless Fair Isle pattern at her site, and I highly recommend it to you if you'd like to start doing color knitting. Yes, it's nearly summer, but shetland wool in particular is very very lightweight and is only a few ounces in your lap. Go Wendy! Go Fair Isle!

Furry Bits

My beautiful sister has been documenting her racoon population, and there are babies now! Little adorable baby racoons! Go take a look; they are very cute! As is my sister!

Family

I heard from my son last night; he and Jennifer and the python are safely arrived at the end of their big road trip and are happy in their new digs. It's good to have a happy kid.

Finally (almost)

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments on crochet yesterday. I had no idea it took so much more yarn, since my crochet experience is limited to crocheted steeks. Send crochet-blog urls if you have 'em.

FlyGuy

This is a charming way to waste time today. Check it out between your blog-reads, and have a wonderful weekend! See you Monday!

Crochet Curiosity

Yesterday I was reading a wonderful entry at Rebecca's Pocket about how we filter our news, and how open-minded we are, and it made me curious about crochet blogs. Indulge me! And then go read Rebecca's article.

Do crocheters have blogs? If so, where are they? I checked for crochet news on the Fiber Arts Bloggers Ring and found 124 blogs but very little about crochet passion. And I googled, but mostly arrived at 404s. Speak up please. I know Kate was crocheting before her brief blogging break, and Steph was crocheting an incredible free-form shawl that I don't see on her website right now. But where's the rest of the crocheters? Is there a whole community of fiber-loving crocheters that we are not hearing about because they don't blog as much as knitters?

Knitters carp about Knitters Magazine, broken Brittany needles, and knots in skeins. What do crocheters complain about?

Knitting Content

Progress photo on my lovely Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan. I haven't had enough knitting time this week, but as you can see, I've almost completed an entire diamond sequence. Hooray for me--I knock myself out!

Meme Content

Read all about it. Thanks, Meme Pool!

Happy Thursday!

Mimbres Update

Hiho everyone, my clasps arrived from sweaterkits.com yesterday! Four of these beauties

which will be arranged thusly:

Pretty much perfect, eh? They arrived from Ontario in record time, and sweaterkits sent a coupon for $5 off my next order...sweet!

I forgot to add buttonholes to the Mimbres, and though I could have made cute little I-cord loop buttonholes per the Great Elizabeth Zimmerman, I decided to try clasps instead. I'm using clasps by design on the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan.

Della is excited (not):

Textile News:

I saw this story on a computer-prototype jacket that is engineered with its own sleeve display, and it reminded me of the very cool Hello Kitty Pagan Tank that Nora has knit.

Oooh! Tough choice! Hello Kitty or a sleeve display? Technology marches forward, but knitters rule!

Happy Wednesday everyone; have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Tuesdaisy

Knitting progress to show you; what do you think? Colors are fairly true:

I like it! Here's a close-up so you can see the scroll-y bits:

This is easy knitting up to the armholes now. Two-color knitting really rocks my little world right now. This design is moving my skills up a couple of notches, and I'm really enjoying it. For those tuning in late, it's the Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan from Wool Gathering #67, designed by Meg Swansen, and being knitted by me in J&S shetland wool at 7 st per inch.

What Annie's Knitting

Have you seen what Annie is knitting? It's beautiful and the two-color bands are gorgeous and subtle...go take a look! I love it! I want it!

What Granny's Knitting

Here's a link to a lovely article from The Scotsman regarding two-color knitting, Archimedean Spirals, symmetry and math. Excellent reading with your morning coffee.

It's clear here this morning, and looks to be a lovely sunny day. My goodness, sunny days have been few and far between here! Hope it's sunny where you are, and that all is well in your world.

Didja. . .

Ever have one of those days with your knitting? Saturday was my turn, and every time I counted the stitches on my needles, the count was different. I set the pattern for my rose-in-diamond wrong at least five times through miscounted stitches. And with my un-knitting to correct, I dropped stitches right and left. I miscounted pattern multiples, and miscounted squares in my chart. I felt as if I'd not only lost all my knit-ability, but also my count-ability. I was completely no-count. I don't think a knitting session like this one has ever happened in my knitting experience.

Last night when I picked up my knitting again (and I must say I approached it cautiously), it was as if Saturday had never happened--the chart numbers instantly lined up with my stitch numbers and I sailed on with nary a slip. I wonder what makes a project difficult on some days? Is it cosmic? Sunspot activity or solar flares? Is there an Angry Knitting Goddess that needs appeasement? Is there a video on When Knitting Fights Back? Weird! Whatever, I'm glad it's over.

Labels

Cari got labels for her knitting, and when I saw them I wanted some too. So I'm ordering them from Charm Labels today. Thanks Cari!

That's All

Wait! No photos? Never! Here's one of Jack looking completely adorable:

Have a good Monday, everyone!