In which I am moving e-house

Hello lovelies! I've decided to move shop!

You can find me over at http://michaelknits.blogspot.com now. I've moved over all my old posts, and I won't delete this site, but please redirect your blog-readers and whatnot to the new blog.

I'm working on some new photos, so hang tight.

In which everything goes quiet

Oh hey peoples.
I'm still knitting (I've finished the big lace border, and started the lace edging on Bridgewater!), but I'm also snowed in under piles of books and thesis and end-of-term work.
I'll be back in a week or two.

In which there is a corner missing

Oof friends, it is coming, it is coming...

It is squooshy.



And it is woolly.



And it is almost a square!

In which I swatch

I have reached the midpoint of the garter portion of Bridgewater! I have also completed swatch v.1 for the lace border. I'm going to tweak the corner section and re-swatch... Other than that, I think it'll look good (and I even have a recipient in mind finally)

In which there is MORE LACE

New project new project!

Got my hands on some off-white laceweight yarn (Zitron Filigran) and flipped through Made in Brooklyn (again). Most of the way through the central garter stitch portion of Bridgewater now - I'll be substituting a different lace chart for the edging though.



Also it's snowing here. Weird week...

in which I plead for help

So I'm still not done those gloves (possibly because I misplaced them, though that has yet to be verified). In the interim, I have a question! I knit the Hemlock Ring lap blanket/throw, and I cannot *wait* to put it into service. Problem is, I need to block it. I think I can find the space to do it (though it won't fit into my sink, and I haven't got a tub to soak it in...), but this thing will be big, which is normally not a problem. I've blocked some big lace pieces (recently with the aid of my new blocking wires... lovely!), but this thing is supposed to be round. I can't use blocking wires or my usual tricks to block something round! Do I pin out each wee bind off picot? (which, I love, even if they took foreeeeever) do I get it close and smush the edges? I don't think I have enough pins to block this thing! Does anyone ave tips on blocking this? The sooner I figure it out, the sooner you all get photos!

In which I pretzel (yes, pretzel is now a verb)

Ok, so I know I promised gloves, and that post is coming (still weaving in ends...), but for now, I would like to share with you something of a whim.

Pretzels.



As you may recall, I am internetless, and, being the impeccable student I am, this has taken a great big toll on my procrastination lately. Now, I have a certain nostalgia towards soft pretzels. Well, not I don't, that's a lie. I have a perceived nostalgia towards soft pretzels. I did not grow up eating them at sports games, from street vendors, or wherever else they are sold, but gosh, do I wish I had (this is concept of perceived nostalgia is quite common for me, especially if food-related). Long story short, I made pretzels! From here and gosh if they didn't just bring back unmemories of days past.



Mine came out quite chewy (I also opted for a rosemary and rock salt topping), and a little burnt, but delicious nonetheless. They turned out well enough that I opted to bring the bulk of the batch to a Super Bowl party the next day, and they were all claimed within minutes. I even invested in some real hot (quite hot, in fact!) mustard. Mmmm. When I feel a need for carbo-loading, I will make these again. Quick, easy, ridiculously simple ingredients, and fun! (I like kneading, and dough-rigami.

Oh, and as an aside, I would live to hear what tips everyone has for getting over procrastination... because I am very very good at it.

In which colour abounds

Well, a week without my computer (and it really is much, much happier now), and a few days sans-internet (this is still ongoing... lots of time at cafes to study...), and I am far overdue for an update.

I meant to post about starting the Beaumont Tam (also from Made in Brooklyn), but it was finished nearly before it was started! Knit in Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool (ecru) and Noro Silk Garden Sock (colours+), I think it took me all of five days to knit (and that was with some serious pacing: 5 rounds a day to make sure I would be able to bright it to knit night). Coupled with the three days it took to knit Grove, and... well, I'm starting to see a pattern.



Colour, colour and more colour! The Elsbeth Lavold was lovely as always. The Noro... well I have a Thing (yes, a Thing) about Noro. In fact, I know many people share this Thing. Noro can be like a beautiful temptress, luring unsuspecting sailors (knitters) to the shore of her apparently beautiful paradise (the undeniably gorgeous colourways), only to reveal a hideous monster (the all too frequent shades of sick hidden inside the ball) lying beneath the glamer. And then there is the quality. Handspun? Sure, gorgeous, but do we really need to be faced with unseemly amounts of plant fiber, not to mention the unpredictable thick and thin nature of the yarn? Now, to be fair, this ball of Silk Garden Sock was not so bad; there weren't any thick points, and while I would not have trusted some of the thinner areas for socks, it was OK for a hat. And even the colour turned out alright! But a few more rounds and I would have been faced with a nice crown of sick at the tip of the tam...

Noro, I like you, and most of the time, you are just fine! But... the unpredictability makes me antsy to use you too often.



I can't speak to the fit of the hat, as I have not yet found anyone to give it to! But the pattern was a delight to knit, the yarn was nice to work with... all around, a great knit!

Next... a blanket (finished mere hours after Beaumont), and maybe some gloves (knit in - get this - three days!)

Oh, and as an aside, I have begun hosting a small local knit night. If anyone in Victoria cares to come out, we've been meeting at the Cornerstone Cafe on Wednesdays at 4pm - we'd love to see the group grow.

In which my hands are toasty warm

I am by nature not a mitten person. Or a glove person. Or a hat or scarf person. So I rarely keep or even make knits for myself.

But I have actually been wearing these around lately! Sure they're slightly fraternal (no, I didn't block them), but they fit and are so nice and sqwooshy.



Pattern is Grove, from the absolutely amazing Jared Flood's Made in Brooklyn (have I mentioned lately how I want to be him?), knit on 4.5mm needles with just under two balls of Rowan Felted Tweed held doubled to beef up the fabric and size them up for large hands. I also replaced the YOs with m1s and the ptbls with regular purls.



Click through to flickr for a few more photos.

Next... Colours!

In which all is good in the world

Hello lovely people!

Who remembers this photo?



Good, and I hope you were all as excited then as I was about the prospect of a matching schnitzel shnauzer sweater (well, the dog is a daschund, but who doesn't love alliteration?). I finished it a few weeks ago and handed it off, and I just got the photos back.



The pup (Charlie) is such a good model. One more for good measure. Awww.



This was the first incarnation of the photoshoot. A bit manic, very British, altogether, pretty good match I'd say!



But it gets better, friends. The following image is a thing of glory. Not only for it's perfection unto itself, but for the fact that it more or less fits PERFECTLY with what I envisioned when I started planning the sweater. I say yes! A thousand yesses!



Max, Charlie and family: Thank you for making my dream come true!

Thanks also to Pamela of Flintknits fame for the wurstwarmer pattern (couldn't have worked out better!).

Back to regular knitting soon!

In which, oh hai

Oh hey there mitten. You're looking mighty green. And oh so much nicer than last time I knit you.





So while this looks a lot like the mitten in my last post, it is not quite. I wasn't happy with the fabric so I ripped, and then re-knit it with the yarn doubled on larger needles, and replaced the YOs with m1s, and subbed regular purls for the ptbls. So much nicer, and big enough to fit my hands! One down, one to go!

In which I make a return?

Oof, lots going on... I will say more later, but for now...

Yarn!



And a cuff by noon...



And put the thumb on hold by dinner!