Archive for December, 2006
Like everyone else in the world, I had been doing some secret knitting for Christmas. Well, not so completely secret. I did blog about it once. It’s the Encantada Wrap from Alchemy. I used Alchemy Haiku for this. What a lovely yarn. I hope I will be able to knit with it again someday. It’s rather expensive but so worth it. It’s a blend of Silk and Mohair. I can’t remember what colorway I used, though.
I finished it and gave it to my mom for Christmas. “Did she like it?” You ask? I’ll let the picture tell you the answer to that question:
yeah. I think she liked it 
.
Gotta love the reaction shots.
December 27th, 2006
This is what I finished for myself yesterday. I wanted a hat to match my favorite scarf.
Pattern: The Asymmetrical cable hat from the book One Skein by Leigh Radford.
Yarn: Steadfast fibers Wonderful Wool in the colorway Columbine (1 hank). 1 ball of a mystery mohair yarn, and one ball of Bollicine in color 550 (light purple).
Needles: size 11 Denise.
Started: December 17th 2006
Finished: December 20th, 2006
For some reason I felt compelled to make a hat with a pompom. I like it. I hated making the pompom, though. And I’m afraid it’s going to disintegrate into little pieces of cutted up yarn.
This is what I’m drinking right now:
St. Peter’s Cream Stout. I’ve never had it before. Actually I had never heard of it before. But I felt like a good beer and saw this cool looking bottle in the “fancy beer” section of the store and decided I needed to try it. It’s pretty effing good. It’s the kind of beer that, when you take the first drink you kind of go, “huh.” Makes you think a bit. Kinda complex. Then as you drink more of it it tastes better and better.
This is what I’m listening to right now:
On this:
Which reminds me. I need to tell you about my killer record player. I have a record player! It’s so cool! I still have an old U2 album that I listented to when I was in High School and it’s in great condition.
December 21st, 2006
A couple of years ago I bought some silk hankies* at Stitches. If you have been reading my blog for awhile you might remember my little demonstration where I draft the silk hankie and knit a scarf. I worked on this for awhile and then decided that it was frustating me. The scarf really turned out awful, for one. Secondly, the silk itself was too sticky to work with. So I kind of stuffed it all into the Ziploc freezer bag and forgot about it.
Until I started spinning yarn.
When I first began spinning in September I remembered I had it and thought, “wow. I have that silk hankie. I wonder if I can spin it.” And, with a bit of searching the internets, I found out that you can, indeed, spin silk hankie.
Here is what has been making me procrastinate my little teensy final bit if Christmas knitting. It’s still kind of sticky to work with but it’s not really annoying me as much this time. I am really liking how this is turning out! I just hope I have enough of it to knit something with.
*If you don’t know what silk hankies are, they are basically a stack of silk cocoons. You can read a little more about them here at Knittyspin. Or here at at Wormspit.com
December 16th, 2006
Another Christmas present done! Yay!
Pattern: The Rib and Cable Gaiter on page 37 of the book One Skein.
Yarn: Some that I had in my stash. It’s some leftover Cascade Eco Wool. A fraction of a hank.
Needles: Size 6 16″ circular bamboo by Clover.
Started: November 20 something.
Finished: December 9
First of all, I have to say that Cascade Eco Wool kicks ass. I mean, that is some serious yardage right there. I bought the hank a couple of years ago to make a scarf for my husband’s grandfather. So I made a whole scarf + this gaiter out of it. AND I think I will have enough of this left over to make my dad some matching Convertable Mittens. And I think I only paid, like, $13.00 for the one hank. Not a bad deal.
So after I am done with the mittens (which I started today) I will be done with my Christmas knitting. I am kind of proud of myself this year. I escaped the out-of-control consumerism that is Christmas. All of my gifts to everyone this year are handmade. Whether they will like them is a whole other story.
December 10th, 2006
