Have you knit with tencel? It’s a wood derived fiber that is so soft and silky. The mitts above were knit out of a double strand of Cascade pima/tencel. It’s such a nice, drape-y fabric with a good weight, I’m thinking about what I want to knit next out of it.

This is also a new pattern I have for sale at Tangle. I named the pattern after my knitting friend who passed away last month and a portion of the sales will be donated to breast cancer research.

I have a meeting with the Skacel rep Feb 21st. How am I going to remember that? It’s like, what? 12 days from now. I can’t remember what I’m supposed to do tomorrow. um… wait.. make a birthday cake for Eden, I knew there was something.

So I think I’m needing a planner. Just something small that I can write down things I schedule, things that I cannot forget to do. You know, stuff like put gas in the car and go to Target and meet with the skacel rep. Really important things.

I was directed to this website: DIY Planner. And from there I was reminded of the Hipster pda. I sort of like this idea of the hipster pda, sort of a tongue-in-cheek spoof that sounds really good to me. I need to write things down to remember them and if I had to take the 20 minutes it would take for me to tap in each letter with a little stylus, I would never accomplish anything.

I’m still gathering together ideas, but the wealth of pictures at flickr have been a good start for me. I’m thinking that I need something a little more organized than just a binder clip… hmm… I’ll add what I find here.

edit:
I’m checking this out: pocket mod

Or maybe I just want to be lazy and get this: moleskine pocket planner.

edit again: It seems that it’s the most offensive thing to go into a book store and ask if they have a planner. It’s FEBRUARY, they say. Yeah, it’s only February, I say. Asking for a planner in February is deeply offensive to their booky bookness. What happens if you decide you don’t like the planner you have in say MARCH? What if(!) your planner gets stolen in June, then what are you going to do? It seems reasonable to me that since I just decided I needed a planner at the beginning of February, not knowing I would decide this in early January, I should be able to find a planner somewhere. I guess I’ll have to order it online…

But I did find this great pre-fab hipster pda at Target by real simple. sigh.

Another item that I recently finished (again, another store model for upcoming classes) is this felted Hobo Bag.

This is a Noni pattern that didn’t really need any changing although, when I have some more time (like 2012), I plan to make some sort of applique for it just to liven it up a bit.

A couple things I learned with this:
-Cascade 220 Tweed is beautiful, but it is not worth the extra $$$ when it comes to felting because the little flecks barely show.
-Sewing a zipper into a felted object is much easier than sewing one into a un-felted, knitted object. But both are equally as tedious.
-Craft stores in my town have something against purse rings. (That and decent felt, but that’s a whole ‘nother thing.)
-Circular stockinette is my friend, maybe too good a friend.

Stats on the pattern:
Noni Felted Hobo Adventure Bags pattern (will be back in stock at Tangle soon.)
4 skeins of Cascade 220 tweed (pattern called for 5)
size 11 (or maybe 13?) 32″ addi turbos

Lately, I’ve really been trying to look at a pattern and see more potential in it. I think it’s a good step for a knitter to be willing to take the bones of a pattern and make it their own. Take for instance this photo:

Never in a million years would I want to knit this sweater. But actually, I did. I’ve gotten to the point where I know that these sweaters (Knitting Pure and Simple) have good bones and I was fairly confident that I could change it into something beautiful.

This is what I did. I started with a solid colored yarn – an improvement already. Then I decided to work the raglan increases with a k1, yo rather than a kfb. After that I thought picot edging would be really great, so I worked that on every edge including the button bands. For the button bands, I only worked one row of garter stitch after picking up stitches then I worked the picot bind off. I decided to skip button holes and go with a single closure at the top, a sweet satin ribbon.

This is what I ended up with:

I think it’s a vast improvement to say the least AND I didn’t have to go and write a whole new pattern to get something totally different… I just changed a few things. THAT is my kind of knitting.

better pics to come

I finished this last week, but I just haven’t found Honor, the sweater and the camera in the same room together.

I’m really happy with how this sweater turned out. Although, I did have a few issues with carrying the yarn (really, who wants to weave in all those ends?), I seem to have pulled it off. My favorite part was making the skull applique. I’m not convinced that the cheap-o felt will hold up, but I figure that at 20 cents a sheet I can just make him a new one when it wears out. I’m also toying with the idea of ironing interfacing to the back of tee shirt material and making an applique from that.

Stats:
Yarn: GGH Samoa – 2 balls of brown (I think?) and 3 balls of blue
Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple Child’s Pullover
Needles: US size 9 denise and addi turbos

•I got these earrings in the mail last week. They are one of my favorite pieces of jewelry.

•Bic Mechanical Pencils – I love writing with a pencil; I feel that I write my best when using one. If I could find a pen that wrote like a pencil, it would make me SO happy.

•These shoes.

• my vintage theater chairs

•my camera

(I had a whole blog post written up earlier today and my wonderful, sweet husband logged me out of my mac user account. He does that.)

•Grey’s Anatomy. Enough said.

•Jack and Coke (or diet dr. pepper) mmmm, my most recent favorite alcoholic delight followed close by cosmos and mojitos

•Although I don’t generally go for chocolate, I will never pass up Lindt Lindor Truffles – milk chocolate only.

•My friends usually laugh at me when I go outside to join the boys, but I can’t pass up a good cigar. Acid Tea Infusion are my favorite.

•And of course, the guilty pleasure that I indulge in most frequently: Starbucks. I love me a decaf americano with half and half and whipped cream in the the winter. Summertime you’ll find me sipping a blended decaf nonfat iced latte with whipped cream.

Where to begin? There are so many it’s hard to pare it down to something manageable!

•The Chibi Darning Needle Set. I love the hooked needle, it makes weaving in ends and the mattress stitch SO easy.

•Mini Kacha-Kacha knitting counter. The thing I love most about this is that you can lock it. So many times Honor would come up and try to click it (loosing my place in my pattern!) and it would be locked, saving me (and him!) for certain doom.

•Misocrafty Sock Knitting Bag. I have two, and at least one (sometimes both) is in my purse at all times. I love it because it’s pretty and I’m never without my knitting.

•My mom makes these circular needle pouches. She made me one for my birthday and I use it so much. The nice thing is that I have ALL of my addi turbos with me in a compact pouch.

•While Addi Turbos are my favorite needles, I use my Denise needle set so much. I especially prefer it for knitting sweaters that call for multiple needle sizes. I just pop on the next size and keep on knitting. And I like that when I’m trying to get the gauge, I don’t have to worry if I don’t have the right size. (And hopefully very soon they will be back in stock at Tangle, things have been running VERY slow for the company with Christmas and TNNA.)

•Probably the most unexpected, I use Roller Pins a lot. I like them because they aren’t sharp and won’t break your yarn and they’re SO much bigger than regular sewing pins. I use them to pin two sides together when I’m seaming.

Monday
Rigatoni with Turkey Italian Sausage and Organic Marinara

Tuesday
Potato soup with turkey sausage and kale (didn’t make last week)

Wednesday
Chicken Posole

Thursday
Chicken Curry

Friday
Chicken Pot Pie

Saturday
Date night!

Sunday
leftovers or takeout?