Saturday, December 09, 2006

Swoon.

http://www.soysilk.com/Yarns/Tofutsies.html

It is soy silk sock yarn with CHITIN in it. Chitin! I can't believe it - now I just have to find it....

Friday, December 08, 2006

No sound and fury, signifying nothing

Ahhh! I hate it when I lose my voice. It always seems like some sort of divine retibution or something, I just don't know what I did. It makes me super-sad because I'm going to WI tomorrow, and I want to be healthy *sad face*. On the happier side though, the mittens are indeed superb at insulating. They let more wind in than I'd like, but hopefully that will be solved by the felting of the thrums over time. The first Jaywalker is almost done. Yay!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

*le Sigh*

Soooo life is silly. And by silly I mean full of finals, papers, applications, and advisors yelling at me about my projects in lab. If she only knew that I, in fact, do not go out and party all the time, but instead spend almost all of the time I'm not in lab sleeping or knitting or working. Speaking of knitting.....



Thrum mittens!
Stats:
Pattern: Thrummed Mittens by Jennifer Appleby from Winter 2006 IK
Yarn: Harrisville Designs New England Highland in Midnight blue, 1 skein, 1 oz. Fiber in Iris from the same. (Same yarn used in the pattern! I love when people use yarn that I can afford, and now I have warm mittens for less than $15!)
Size: Adult
Time: In actual time spent on it, they only took about 3 evenings, (not many hours) totally worth it. With the number of colors this yarn comes in, you can make yours as "yours" as you want. I wanted to make some for the boy, but from the face he made, apparently mittens aren't physics-manly or something. Oh well.
And the inside....



Thrums! I love them. They're super-warm, but will they stand up to a Chicago winter? Who knows. I hope so. The boy thinks I look like a crazy person petting them to (hopefully) even out the felting. I believe IK when it says that they will felt evenly, but still, I can't help but think "what if they don't?" (especially since I may or may not have run out of fiber at the very end of the second mitten. I have the worst eye for estimating EVER. At least that means that the first one should be extra-cozy, right?). So I may be crazy, but never underestimate the power of crazy people with warm mittens. One day we shall rule the earth with wonderfully cozy iron fists.

Aand....



One Baudelaire is done! I need to finish the other one by Christmas... I loove this pattern, but am still suffering from some SSS, mostly because of papers and finals and focusing on other things, like:



Thats right, I have ripped up my crazyribs sock (it was too big, never thought I'd see the day with my size 10s) and it is now enjoying life as a jaywalker! I love the FA yarn, but I have no idea if it will stand up as well as I'd like. Oh well. I think I prefer toe-up socks, just because I can be anal and try them on a million times as I'm knitting them more easily.

So after my final final exam today (Molecular Evolution; please save me) I'm hoping to get some serious knitting in, especially since the boy and I are going to Wisconsin for the weekend (yarn and beer here I come!). The roommate is also helping me host a Big Lebowski drinking party, which I am looking forward to more than anything but Wisconsin today. Also, I bought Handknit Holidays, by Melanie Falick when I went into 57th street books to go get Christmas presents (I got a book for my brother too! Don't look at me like that.) I love it, and the boy is even letting me knit him cozy boy socks from it (yay!) I ordered the yarn from Jimmy Bean's wool in an appropriately manly color. (On a nerd note, the color is called "lichen" how awesome is that? Yay for symbiosis!) I also ordered yarn for the over-the-knee socks. It sounds fabulous, there may be yarn porn when it comes.
In an effort to have absolutely no money for food, I also purchased the pattern from Eunny Jang's website for her anemoi mittens: http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/2006/12/anemoi_mittens.html I couldn't resist. They're so pretty, and I have to just dive into colorwork at some point. Je ne regrette rien!

Anyway, I should go and, you know, be productive. And by be productive I mean maybe training myself to knit continental. If I can't improve my french I can at least be knitting bilingual, eh?

Peace!

Monday, November 13, 2006

WIP it good...

WARNING: I am a crappy photographer, and since there is no natural light in winter Chicago after 4:20 P.M., these unfortunately get the horriblest of indoor lighting treatments. Forgive me!



So I promised pictures, and lo here they be. This is most of one of a Baudelaire sock from knitty. It will be for my Mom, who asked for black socks. Given my mild knitting ADD, I was worried that they would never get finished, but they're moving along at a nice clip. I give all credit to Cookie A. for her wonderful pattern. I can't say nice enough things about it. Also, my Brown Sheep Wildfoote is being very cooperative. Good yarn, you get a biscuit.





Here is my precious, my pride and joy, my Turbulence U-neck pullover from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature. I knew as soon as I heard the title that the little nerd that I am had to have it. And lo, it had a wonderful cable placket! I was sold. It is being knit in Knitpick's Andean Silk in cream. I love the yarn, it is soft as anything. However, I am not being as productive as possible due to little things like my B.A. and ribbing done on #4 needles. I still love it though.







This is my sad start to another Norah piece, the Pentagon Aran Pullover. I love it, and the yarn (Kamchatka Sea Moss worsted from Peace Fleece ) is fuzzy and lovely. It just requires the chart for most of it, and well, I am not always next to the chart. Still, it is for the boy's mother and so will be done as soon as possible! I also love the cables, which are fun and ymmily different.






Not very impressive, is it? Well, everyone needs a stockinette piece, and here is mine: Viveka from Knitty, in Knitpick's wool of the Andes Hollyberry with Brown Sheep's cotton fleece in Cavern for the trim. It may not look like much, but it is a nice quick knit, and hopefully will be stylish and warm (Warm!) which in Chicago equals a winner.









And the fuzzy beginning to a sock of my own design, toe-up, with crazy ribbing. I fell in love with the Handmaiden sock yarn in the Hercules colorway, from the Loopy Ewe and so when I submitted my NSF fellowship application I treated myself to a hank. I love it muchly. The Inoxes, not so much. They do their job though.







So as you can see, I'm kind of a knitpicks ho. Ah such is the life of an undergrad. As soon as I get some extra cash, there will be some Kool-aid dyeing and maybe the Gatsby girl pullover from the fall Interweave knits. Who knows! As is, I should probably get back to my work and my uncooperative bacteria. Peace!



Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Window Shopping, of Sorts

Well, I am in lab (shh) waiting for things to PCR, so I thought that I might as well glory over the upcoming issue of Interweave Knits. How excited am I about this?

Answer: Very excited. Especially about the Nantucket Jacket. First of all, it is a Norah Gaughan piece (lovely!) which means that the sizing won't be idiotic, and it is full of cables (cables!) which make my little biologist-in-training heart very happy. I even have yarn for it which I was going to use for another Norah project, but since this one is super-cabled it wins.


Kate Gilbert's Equestrian Blazer:
Simple, yes, but very pretty, and does nipped waist = small looking waist? We shall see. Maybe. I love it, and it would be wonderful in something pretty for grad school interviews, but do I have the attention span to complete something done entirely in stockinette? Probably not, but maybe I'll improve in time, and I should work on my waist shaping anyway.



Mari Lynn Patrick's Provinicial Waistcoat: I'm not usually one for vests, but this one looks fun (again, with the cables) and might look good over a more tailored shirt or something. I would love to use the reccommended Yak yarn, but can I afford $100+ for a vest? Most definitely not. Maybe I can find something just as weird but less expensive. I've been dying to try out SWTC's aMAIZing yarn, which is not only kind of weird, but also machine washable AND DRYABLE (gasp!). I'll think about it.

Of course, I should probably finish some of my other projects first. I'll post pictures of them once I get home.

And now, a gratuitous picture of E. scolopes, the cutest glowy animal in the world:



Is it not amazing?

Peace,
the girl who should be working on her NSF grant application....

Monday, October 30, 2006

Obligatory First Post

Well, I guess I'm part of the blog-o-verse now.

I just finished my top-down raglan today (pictures to follow). I kinda love it, even if it is a little heavy. I also love the fact that there was the minimal-est of minimal seaming involved. Anyway, I should go and try to be productive.

Peace!