Birthday loot!

I forgot to show you my fantabulous birthday loot! How silly of me.

First off, a friend sent me this lovely Alpaca Boucle from Plymouth Yarns:



Three whole skeins! I wonder what to make with it...

Another friend sent me Knitting Lingerie Style by Joan McGowan-Michael and Bead Knitted Bags by Julia Pretl. And I bought myself Stephanie Japel's Fitted Knits.



I never even considered Knitting Lingerie Style until I got it, but I am very, very taken with it. There's knitted lingerie and underwear, true, but there are also alllll kinds of garments. Socks, tops (shaped as camisoles or corsets), skirts, pants, shorts, and a dress. And while I may never make knitted undies (and if I do, I may never tell you), I'm definitely making at least some of the tops from that book!

And the beaded bags book is definite eye candy. Each bag pattern is preceeded with a smaller project to help you learn the techniques, and I want to make all of these! I love the feel of beaded fabric, and I'm a total magpie for everything shiny. And the book even comes with a DVD to demonstrate the techniques!

I'm also quite happy with Fitted Knits. It is pretty repetitive with the patterns, but since I like one of them, I like the rest. I am certainly planning a few things from there. Ooo, maybe I can make one of the shrugs with my Alpaca Boucle!

And I also got baking stuff. My sweet husband got me THE coolest Bundt pan ever:



He is so sweet. He says he thinks making and decorating this cake will make a great tradition for our kids. You know, the future, hypothetical kids.

And I got myself a shortbread mold:



Though the shortbread made in it doesn't quite come out crisply stamped, it has, nonetheless, been delicious.

And a question for you guys: do you listen to knitting podcasts? If so, which? I recently joined a gym and need something to keep the boredom at bay while I work out.

Call me Ahab

Remember all those projects I was working on? The nativity scene. The Mystery Stole. Mom's jacket.

Yeah. Me neither.

Because, like captain Ahab, I am obsessively in persuit of the Great (off-)White Whale Sweater. And everything else lies forgotten until I finish them danged sleeves.



One sleeve is done. I knit it in the round, and then switched to knitting flat for the raglan shaping. I'm less than thrilled with it. See that "seam" line? It kind of twists itself around the sweater, and it's not really in the middle. I'm afraid it'll show, although, trying the sleeve on, when it's centered on the shoulder, it's mostly under my arm. Depending on how the knitting for the second sleeve goes, I may frog the raglan cap and center it better.

(I'm obviously not a perfectionist. If you want perfect knitting and problem solving and dilligent correcting of mistakes, this is not the place for you :) If, however, you want "creative" and "time-saving" solutions to glaring problem that eventually make for the frustration and time-wasting for the knitter (i.e., me), you've come to the right place.)

Anyway, yes, that is a few inches of the second sleeve that you see! It's been another very busy few weeks, so little knitting has occurred, but it's moving along slowly.

I've also been doing baking. What's with the baking lately? Who the hell decides that the height of summer heat is the time for running her oven? Seriously, Dove. And remember, dearie, this isn't a baking blog.

Oh! But there are so many great patterns out for the fall! I just picked up IK's issue, and love it. I love Eunny Jang's cardigan -- that's a must-make; Hedgerow coat; the Placed Cable Aran; Minimalist cardi; Mirepoix bodice; and am still going back and forth on a few others. I love the Twinkle design, but, let's face it. Very few of us can actually pull off bulky knits.

I love the Vogue Knitting anniversary issue, too! Did you know the website has ten free patterns? And they ain't bad! As always with VK, there are some patterns that just make me boggle as to who the heck would ever wear that, let alone make it, but also patterns that I just gotta knit.

In sad news, Pushkin died. The fish, not the poet, though the poet's not so alive, either.

Meet the newest member of our family

This is Pushkin. He is a goldfish.



I was volunteering at a fundraiser yesterday, and the centerpieces on the tables were fishbowls with goldfish. We were allowed to take them home at the end of the night -- the fish would have probably just gotten flushed if we didn't. After a rather harrowing 1.5 hour journey, he settled comfortably at my house.

Of course, this free goldfish has already cost us $40 in supplies -- the bowl he was in really was too small, so we got a bigger one. And the gravel. And the food. And the little net to fish him out with. Yeah.

He's obviously not knitting related, and, given that I have no intentions of knitting aquarium cozies, never will be. But he sure is pretty!

Dead

The heat and humidity killed me. Send ice cream.

MAKE IT STOP!

See that? That's most -- not all -- of sleeve 1 of Lucky . Sleeve ONE. As in, one more still to come. This has taken me all week to make. And I'm still not done, despite knitting in the round, which, for me, goes quite a bit faster.

The second sleeve is mocking me. As is the super-long neckband and tie. As is all the assembly work.

And it's the same pattern over and over again!

Make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop make it stop MAKE IT STOP!

Can you tell I'm no longer enjoying this?

I swear, if after all this it doesn't fit, I am burning it. There will be NO reknitting of this, only conflagration.

On the bright side, it's my birthday! I am 26, which is an odd age. It's neither here nor there, but starts its slow creep towards 30, which is a bit intimidating. Of course, I got yarn -- pictures to come -- though not as much as in previous years, thank God. I've run out of storage space! I did, also, get a gift certificate to Joann from my in-laws (I'm their favorite to shop for, I think. They get me the same thing for every single occasion, and I'm just as thrilled with it each time), but I think that will go towards sewing notions!

Quickies

1. What the HECK was I thinking, starting an adult-sized sweater in fingering-weight cotton on size 2 needles? What? The? Heck! I cast on for this thing a month ago, and I just got the back done. And I still have the sleeves to go! Must find out if I can do the sleeves in the round; might very well be possible. And then, of course, the assembly, knitting the neckband, etc. I see now why people grow to hate Lucky. I'll be lucky (get it?) if I finish this before I've gained or lost such significant amounts of weight that it will no longer fit.

2. Just in case you were curious about what pattern Mom picked from the Giant Swatch of DOOOM , it was the snowflake lace.

3. Measurin', calculatin', and ramblin' on Mom's lace jacket coming soon. Don't worry, you get to be with me every step of the way -- oh joy! I'm a bit nervous, designing, but I did do it once before with Dad's vest, so I think I'll be ok? Of course, this jacket will involve sleeves. Must read up on sleeve cap shaping.

4. Mystery Stole clue out today! And I still haven't finished the last clue! Slacker! And...I'm totally confused about Clue 5! YAY!

I'm tired....

World's biggest swatch!

Actually, I'm sure there are bigger ones out there, somewhere. But this one is pretty dang huge. It incorporates four different patterns plus a stockinette area, and took up an entire 50g skein of Elann's Sonata.



This is for my mom's lacy jacket, and she gets to decide which pattern she likes best. Which is good, because I'm at a bit of a loss! I kinda like all of them. Except maybe the snowflake pattern. Not too big a fan of that.

Like any reasonable person, I just pulled out my Barbara Walker Treasury (Vol.2) and flipped through all the lace patterns. There are many more that I found appealing, but I think these show a nice variety, so that Mom can choose what she wants.

Here is a pretty large, all-over lace pattern -- Fountain Lace. It has the disadvantage of being a bit difficult to shape, but it's pretty, and slimmingly vertical.



And here's another very airy lace, but with a smaller pattern -- Spider Lace. Has the advantage of being super-easy to do, but the disadvantage of being, possibly, too open.



A more demure fabric, this is Snowflake Lace. I'm not wild about it, but it's easy to execute and to shape, and might be more covering.



I do like this Leaf Lace. Also quite covering, with an interesting texture in addition to the eyelets. It has a small pattern repeat, making it easy to shape, but it's a two-sided lace, which means I don't get purl rows to "rest" on. That's ok, though.



I'm a big fan of this yarn, too. It's smooth and soft, knits up nicely, has a nice gloss and beautiful drape, and isn't as hard as some other cotton yarns I've used.