This blog has been brought to you by the letter C

C being Christmas, of course. I mean it is November and all.



I finished the Muppet Pelt on Sunday morning. As I mentioned before, the pelt is for my mother (although it seems to be quite popular). So here are the stats:


Pattern: This little baby is 16 stitches wide, all knits. So - garter stitch. Why there must be a specific name for just knit stitches, I do not know.

Yarn: One strand Red Heart Pale Plum, one strand Lion Brand Fun Fur in Confetti. I used maybe 1/8 (this is a complete guess here) the skein of Red Heart and 2.5 skeins of Fun Fur.

Needles: Size 15 (10mm) Clover bamboo straights. They could totally kill vampires.

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So even though I have about a million half-finished projects, and even though I really, really didn't need to, I convinced myself last night that there is no time like the present to teach oneself how to do cables. I entirely blame some blog I was reading yesterday that linked to a no-cable-needle-cabling tutorial (by the way, in retrospect, the technique makes perfect sense). I ditched the cable needle immediately and used a spare double-point instead, which isn't really avoiding the spare needle. But I digress. I started looking for an easy cable pattern, but none of the cabled hats or scarves in my books looked simple enough. (Note: I seem to be intimidated by a difficulty rating of "Expert". "Advanced" has no affect on me.) Finally I found knitty's Coronet, which I promptly started. Started.... by learning a provisional cast-on. Oooooh. Then I figured out the cables. This cable pattern gives the appearance of being braded, and in the 8-row repeat the cables cross only twice. The rest of it are just normal old stitches. Maybe to you seasoned knitters this is just par for the course, but to me it is magic. They cross twice.. but it braids! How can this NOT be magic??

So I'm trying to justify Coronet by thinking about who might get it for Christmas. Who wears brown? I have some light kind of off-white and a "natural" color all in the same wool that are going to be part of the top, since I don't think I have enough of any one of them for the whole hat. Oh and there's the fact that this is 100% wool and wool is precious and I love it. So this can't just go to anyone. And knitting with my precious wool might have made me a little wool-crazy. Not that that's a bad thing. But I don't want to go back to the stash that has so much Red Heart I want to scream.




Yes, this stash. Paint used to protect the extremely guilty. And there are something like 3 baskets of yarn sitting around looking decorative. I NEVER said I didn't have a problem, people. What I need is more arms.

Basketweave - just in time!

So I don't think that Paul's mother reads this site. I figure if she did, she would have mentioned it. With that in mind, here is one of her Christmas presents:

Yes, it is a basketweave ("magic") scarf. With edges. It's a bit longer than this now, and lives on different needles. Here is the problem - I'm sick of it. It takes for-ev-er. And there's a goof up - you can't see it in this picture, but I assure you, it is in the future of this picture. Current past. Hope that makes sense. But it's worsted yarn on size 8 needles and it's driving me crazy. So I started making a scarf my mom asked for a bazillion years ago, and now that I'm faster at knitting (in general) it won't take a bazillion years to make. I'm calling it a Muppet Pelt scarf because, well, that's what the girls at youknitwhat would call it. I'm willing to accept the fact that I'm knitting the pelt of a Muppet.

D is for Dead Muppet!

Anyway, the point of this is that basketweave is officially moving from the front burner to the back burner or possibly the warm oven for the time being. The mother-in-law's birthday is in March. Do people still like scarves in March?

Looook, I was gonna be lazy and then wasn't. Are you proud? This is the basketweave scarf today. Obviously in need of a good blocking.

Pests and Bugs

You guys, I am a slug. A total and complete slug. I start this knitting blog, and then I left you all hanging. Hanging! Well Happy Halloween, I am back.

First off, allow me to defend myself and say that I was, indeed, on vacation. Of sorts. I was staying in the Great White North with my mother-in-law. For some people this would be less "vacation" and more "vision of Hell" but I'm one of the people that luck out and get a mother-in-law who not only doesn't mind that I stole her one and only child away, but likes me. So anyway, for part of this time Paul was actually there too interviewing for jobs. My purpose was more of the househunting persuasion, with the occasional bout of shopping and learning my way around. It's funny how when I'm home I spend time on the internet blogging, looking up stuff, and other assorted internetty things, yet out of town I hardly touch it. See also: knitting.

I didn't really accomplish any knitting while I was out. I got home on Saturday at 6am on the train, which is a time NO ONE should be awake, much less on a train, and slept the rest of the morning in my own happy bed. Sunday I finally gave in and updated my yarn inventory - something that needed to be done, apparently, because there were four partially completed potholders in there - and now I have a grasp of how much yarn I do not need to buy under any circumstances no matter how good the sale is. No matter!

And... I think I caught something on the train. No, I haven't been cavorting with seagulls or chasing live chickens. I do have a little sniffle though, and I think I have to buy NyQuil. I wonder if I have to be fingerprinted or have blood drawn or something to buy NyQuil anymore. Meth lab people: please leave my NyQuil alone. Or at least, use the green flavor only. Thank you.

No really, there are some updates to be made on my knitting adventures. Unfortunately, I can't make them right now. But you should stay tuned. Because you never know.