Fleiri afmælisgjafir

(English below)
Ég fékk þetta æðislega Fritidsgarn frá Sigrúnu J. Hún kom seint inn í afmælisleikinn. Það er gaman að fá aðra gjöf.

Hlakka til að gera eitthvað þæft. Hugmyndir, takk?

Mamma mín gaf mér gjafakort fyrir Fluevog. Við fórum til Boston og ég keypti þessa yndislegu skó.
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I received this great Fritidsgarn from Sigrún J. She joined the birthday game a little later, it’s fun to get another gift.
I look forward to making something felted. Any ideas?
My mother gave me a gift certificate for Fluevog. We went to Boston and I bought these great shoes

Picturesque

This morning I was able to snap a photo of Ingi in the finished Cobblestone pullover.

We are listening to the Juno soundtrack. That was a really fun movie, and the soundtrack is great, it’s worth it just for the Sonic Youth Superstar cover.

I’ve been using the 1001 Books list as a way to help me pick out used books when I see them at library sales and so on. I realised one of the books was a comic book that I read years ago (The Watchmen). I’ve read a few more from the list Never Let Me Go, Cat’s Eye, City Of God, The Summer Book, and The Devil and Miss Prym (which was a really fun read), bringing my total up to 70 books from the list. Part of the reason I have been reading so many books is I have been upgrading my bookshelf with PaperbackSwap.com. I have been swapping read-once books for classics and other interesting books. Sadly, this is a US-only site, but Bookcrossing.com is another good site, and international.

Stalking the elusive husband

I finished the Cobblestone Pullover, but between Ingi and I both working late and the weather turning warm (I am very proud at bringing this nice warm weather by finishing that sweater ;)), I have not been able to photograph the finished sweater on. Hopefully this weekend we will have a chance.

It’s amazing what Google can tell you. I picked up an old project when I finished Ingi’s sweater, the wrap sweater from an old Rebecca magazine (I forget which number, 20-something).

I decided to Google my old blog to see if I could remember when I started it. I remember working on it on the plane to Iceland at some point. So I found an entry from August 2005 where I finished the back of the sweater, which I started on the plane to Iceland earlier in the month. Then I found another entry from June 2006 where I took said project on the plane to Iceland (but I ended up knitting Jaywalkers instead).

So yeah, it’s pretty sad that this quick and easy project has just been hanging out waited to be knit for almost 3 years. I think my excuse is that the mohair yarn is kind of a pain if you make a mistake and need to take out stitches. In fact, I ripped out the entire front piece I was working on, thinking I did it wrong, and then as I cast it on again, I realised I had indeed done it right in the first place. Arg. I guess it was annoying enough 2 years ago that it traumatized me from wanting to work on the project. And the fuzzy yarn seems to make my eyes itch… I think little fuzzy bits float off into my eyes. (Or maybe it’s just dusty because it’s been sitting for SO LONG!)

Not-quite 101 Birthday Yarn Ideas

Now that I have all this fun yarn, I have to figure out what to do with it.

I actually started using the Hjertegarn, I am making the last round’s socks (Big Basin Socks) from Six Sox Knitalong. I was going to show a picture of the socks in progress, but it’s too cloudy and the purple yarn just comes out looking like mud. I’ll take a picture when there is more sun.

I am trying to figure out something for that cool Lorna’s Laces Shepherd’s Worsted yarn. There is a kind of cute little bag here from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders, so I borrowed the book from the library. I could also make the Broken Rib socks on p.138 of the book.

With the 2 skeins of Drops Alpaca, I could make Guilty Pleasures Socks (from p.88 of the book), or I could make socks from Garnstudio’s site, or crocheted Mary Jane slippers if I am feeling very daring.

With the 3 skeins of Rowan Kid Classic, I could make the Simple Mistake Rib Vest (from p.103 of the book).

With the 2 skeins of Sandesgarn Kitty, I could make the Garter Stitch Loop scarf (p. 90) and the Lacy Beanie (p. 94), or I could make Tiers-of-Waves Beaded Scarf (p. 118), which would let me play with beaded knitting. Or I could make Helleboros

And of course, the yarn from Sonja, I think I will just use her siggestion of Branching Out, since it’s the exact yarn from the pattern and everything.

Any other ideas? Votes? Although I am going to finish something in process before starting something new, but it’s fun to plan.

5 Year Blogaversary

Wow. My knitting blog has been going for 5 years. My first entry was on the 9th of April, 2003, at my old location. It’s really odd to go back to read my early entries there, my life was in such a different place. A lot of things happened over the last 5 years. My office at the time was closing and I was one of the last people working up until the end, and then I was freelancing for a while until I got another full time job. It was before I met my soulmate. My ex-husband was still around, and things were just starting to really go downhill.

I’d say that things are a whole lot better now than five years ago.

Now, I wonder how many knitting projects from five years ago are still waiting to be finished.

Oh la la

A while before Christmas Ingi and I were shopping and he saw a sweater he really liked (rare for him) which was overpriced and made in China. It reminded me a little of Cobblestone so when I got home I showed him the pictures. He liked Cobblestone even better. So I ordered some acrylic yarn from Bergere de France (their acrylic yarn feels like wool, it’s amazingly soft) and got the free pattern book for the year with my order. There are some amazing designs. I also ordered Tricot Baby which has some really cute stuff in it (including the hat from this post). Has Interweave Knits gotten better, or are they publishing fewer magazines to create an artificial shortage or what? I had to hunt to find a copy of the issue with Cobblestone in it (a certain LYS had a few copies), since that was out of print, and also picked up the magazine with Central Park Hoodie in it (also out of print).

Anyway, here it is so far, I have gotten to the yoke section, which is a little confusing because it has short rows in garter stitch in the round, so every so often I realise I’ve knit when I should have purled and have to rip out.

The weather here is absolutely lovely today, it is warm and sunny so I finally had an opportunity to take a picture of this black sweater in progress.

Two Socks, Two Needles

I am still not sure how I feel about the two-socks-at-a-time-on-one-needle method, so I decided to try out the basic sock instructions for two socks on two circular needles from Knitting Circles Around Socks. I think I like this method better, although with worsted weight yarn it was a bit of a bulky project say to take on the bus. I do like having two socks finished though!

Yarn is called Moor Ragg (apparently no longer available, this was really old stash yarn) from Green Mountain Spinnery (in Putney, Vermont). (By the way, they have some really cool new sock yarn that I just noticed when finding the link.)