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Can I Tempt You?

I am recovering from falling off my knitting horse, so to speak, and Thursday night I even worked on some lace. But I'm taking it slowly; I've made more knitting mistakes in the last five days than I've made in 20+ years of knitting, and I still don't know why! So no photo; I don't want to jinx myself, or commit any unintentional acts of knitting-hubris. Instead, we'll have some indulgence.

Temptation: Tea Cosies

I am delighted to learn that many of you have tea cosies. More knit ones, please! I'm expecting a vintage pamphlet any day now from Laurie that is full of knit tea cosies, even though I don't have a teapot. I'm tempted! Here is a link to a gallery of celebrity-designed tea cosies (although I must say I prefer the knit poodle), and this link will take you to some very special blended teas, including Earl Grey with Triple Bergamot. Mmmm. Bergamotty! Say, do you tea drinkers really pay upwards of $36 for a quarter-pound of tea? A quarter-pound of coffee lasts about two days around here. You extravagant tea-drinkers, you!

Temptation: No More Swatching

Knitters, are you bored with your knitting? Too pooped to purl?
Why not buy ready-made? Hurry! You can save $5,066.01 on this Dolce & Gabbana Women's Knit Sweater ! Oh, I can't stand it! Here's a photo:

and a close-up!

Originally $6,240.00, now only $1,173.99! Act now to avoid disappointment!

Pups

We're very glad it's Friday. It's been a mostly frustrating week. But we're happily hurrying toward the weekend (especially Mikey), and we wish you a joyful one.

O Happy Friday!

In a Sknit

I've had another curiously unsuccessful knitting day, and so I'm in a bit of a sKnit. I'm not sure what is causing my 100-fold increase in knitting errors, but I've made an appointment with the ophthalmologist, just to cover all bases.

So! I amused myself with swatches Wednesday evening, none of which, despite many changes of needles, were the right gauge for any prospective projects. I finished up my knitting by reading my favorite "comfort knitting" book, Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. I find her writing very soothing, and keep a copy on my night table so I can dream of Pi Shawls and Ganomy Hats.

Perhaps I can amuse you today with this:

It's another vintage pattern from Laurie, and it's the classic tea cosy in the shape of a poodle. While the photo is in black and white, I can only hope this was knitted with a nice pink wool. Tea cosies, by the way, can be easily converted into toilet paper roll covers, in case you are the crafty but shy type who doesn't like guests to see your toilet paper. (It seems to me, though, that you'd certainly be calling attention to that extra roll if you covered it with a poodle.)

If you haven't seen the amazing toilet paper roll covers at Lucy Neatby's website, then rush right over. The TP roll covers are about half-way down the page, and were featured in the 1998 Knitting Exhibition held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I can't imagine how the concept of a TP roll cover was born. Did some knitter run out of other stuff to knit, perhaps? (By the way: If you'd like to knit an up-to-date tea cosy, FiberTrends has a nice Amelia Carson design called Nanny Meier's Tea Cosy, No. 214.)

Oh! Quick Poll, please, of the tea-drinking knitters: Do you have a cosy for your teapot? Is it knit?

Pups

The weather here has been humid and warm, and the cedar trees are ferociously pollenaceous. Or something like that. Anyway, the pups' vet says they are probably having some reaction to the local so-called cedar-fever, as am I. Could that be what's affecting my knitting? The pups' knitting seems fine.

Jack and Della say Welcome to Thursday. Cheers! And Happy Knitting.

Knitted Karma?

Is it possible I've incurred the Knitting Deities' wrath? I very rarely have to unknit anything, but after the lacy shawl fiasco, I picked up my lacy apple green Koigu Vanalinn gloves, and what do you know? Another set of dreadful errors appeared to my completely disbelieving eyes. So I ripped the glove back to the beautiful double-cast on, then drifted about the house heaving lacy sighs, then threaded a big needle with cotton yarn, and set to work.

Here's the beastly Beauty and the Bias after ripping out five inches of work:

The pattern is correctly reestablished, and I am within the correct stitch count range (there are some vagrant yarnovers trying to pass themselves off as stitches). All of those k2togs and ssks and yos, though, gave me a giant headache, so I've set the shawl aside to resume tomorrow, when my eyes feel a little less scorched. I like this design, and I love the Helen's Lace, so I don't want to abandon the hours I've already put into the project. And yes! I will be keeping the lifeline in place!

Let's move on to something more blog-cheerful.

New Vintage Patterns!

Once again, all from Laurie at Vintage Knits. First, the Angler's Delight:

And next, the coveted Seahorse Guy Cardigan:

Is this the bomb, or what? I love this goofy sweater.

And finally, for Rachael, the Beavers, complete with chewed up logs and maple leaves, and with beavers on each front:

O Canada! You knock me out!

Now, if I can only find the design called Hoedown, I'll be in vintage-knit-heaven.

Pups

It's true my cute little doggies like to wear snazzy bandanas and the occasional silly hat. But we are all seriously concerned with this Pug. What does it mean for a pug to wear a hot pink eyelash sweater? Mike, Jack and Della don't know, but they continue to keep a wary eye on the neighborhood.

Wednesday! Tralaa-tralee! Have a happy one, and don't let knitted karma getcha.

Knit a Little Learn a Little

Many times lately I don't seem to have time to get back to my blog during the day, and comments pile up. (How I thank you for that! Comments are always much appreciated!) Yesterday's comments about Wraps Per Inch, though, deserve special thanks. . . Knitters, You Rock! Mary got the WPI tools rolling early, and there were many fine explanations offered for why I do/do not need a specialized tool for measuring WPIs. Paula very kindly provided this link to Yarn Fwd's website, a treasure-trove of information about yarn thicknesses and WPI, including why you don't want to measure mohair in this manner. Mary (the other one) and Judy? Check it out for why you would want to check WPIs, but you're both correct: you'll still need a gauge swatch!

Graceless Lace

Beauty and the Bias, the little shawl so close to completion, suddenly transformed itself into Beauty and the Beast today. First, I omitted a knit row. How bad could that be? Not bad at all, until I picked back to the beginning of the row, and dropped a couple of yarnovers and k2togs. Still, how bad could *that* be? Pretty bad, because when I knit across, I somehow missed a couple of the dropped stitches, and they ran in a horrible manner, in several places, back several inches. Gack. Had I been using a lifeline, as in Mary's fine explanation, I would be facing an easier task. But I was busy thinking about WPIs, and didn't run a lifeline. Groan. Say, have you ever browsed through Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's pages on Repairing a Lace Disaster? These pages and photos can definitely give hope to the hopeless lace knitter.

Pokemon

Nope. Not the Jamaican proctologist from Bonne Marie's Monday Morning Mirth, but a crafty cool laptop design, complete with how-tos. Don't miss the link to the HelloKitty laptop.

Pups

Mike, Jack, and Della say It's Tuesday! Keep an eye on the neighbors!

What I Did for Glove

Remember last week when I told you I had only 44 lace rows left to knit on the Beauty and the Bias shawl? Well, apparently my mental abacus is a few beads short. I've been knitting and knitting on the thing and it never seems to get finished. So I redid my math, and when I told you it was 44 rows? It was actually 176. D'oH!! No wonder it's taking this long!

I'm almost halfway to the middle of the second half (this shawl is knit from the bottom of the right lapel to the bottom of the left lapel). And I've decided that I shouldn't have used the US6 Addi Turbos, but instead, a *stickier* needle. I'd forgotten since my last lace project that the Addis are a little too slippery for me with laceweight yarn. About the yarn, the Helen's Lace from Lorna's Laces? It's 50% wool and 50% silk, and I've found it lovely to knit.

But. All lacey-lovely-ness aside, I am really having to be stern with myself in the knitting of this shawl. I'm irresistably drawn back to gloves, and in fact, can scarcely resist the Koigu green lacy one that I left off on in December. I'm determined to finish this shawl though. Sigh. The sacrifices I've made for glove.

Kilt Secrets!

There's an interesting article about tartan history at The Scotsman currently; it seems that the historical colors aren't as native to Scotland as has been previously thought. Good read for the textile lovers and Kool-aid dyers among us.

WPI Secrets

Will those of you in the know about Wraps Per Inch advise me, please? There is a gadget for measuring WPI available (scroll down to the bottom of Tools), but I'm wondering if I can't just use a ruler that I have around here somewhere, rather than paying $9.99 plus shipping. More and more publications seem to list yarn by WPI, rather than by a weight classification. Do I need one of these? Do you have one of these? Do you find it useful?

Kitty Secrets

This link has nothing to do with knitting, but this cat is so darn cute!

Pups

Mikey says It's Monday: Flow with the go!