The Noni Carpet Bag before felting. It just seems like there’s always laundry to do instead of tying up the machine with felting! But I need to get it done.

There were a few problems with the pattern. Not huge mistakes other than the missing word, but it could have been written a little easier. If you make it, start off with a purl row and make sure you use a different color marker to indicate the beginning of the row. I think extra little tips like these make an ok pattern into a great pattern.

I just finished up these socks. They’re a model for my beginning socks on magic loop class. Here they sit next to some the killer socks made from Yarn Pirate Yarn. Yarn Pirate is really amazing, and there is some more on it’s way really soon!

And my Cable Eight Top. I’m almost finished with the back. This has been a really easy knit. I’m slowly learning to always check for pattern corrections before I start knitting something. This one had a mistake in the cable – I’m glad I checked first. I’m thinking that I’m going to try to go with a more scooped neck for the front.

Other things I have in progress:
My hourglass sweater. I’m on pause with that one because I’m waiting for the 40″ Addi Turbo to come. Knitting the two sleeves at once on 32’s is a little tight. It works great for socks, but these sleeves are a lot larger.

The second half of my mittens two ways. I made these from the Bulky Malabrigo and made one fingerless mitten and one regular mitten. I need to make their mates.

And it’s taken all day to write this and it’s time to go home. I’m trying to be a good blogger, I promise!! It’s just not working very well!

I’d like this sweater from the new knitty. I’m not totally certain that I’d make it for Jim and if I did it would be sans cable, but it’s pretty great.

I’m also thinking about starting this pretty soon, maybe as a knit-a-long with my friend Brooke.

Cable eight top from the Spring ’05 Interweave. I think I’d like to wear it more as a vest for the fall/winter season with a crisp white button up.

What else?

I’d like to come with similar patterns for these three for the store. I think the felted bead bag is really interesting and I’m IN LOVE with the cabled purse, but that’s no surprise. And I think the felted scarf looks really elegant, it even looks comfortable which I think is surprising for something felted… we’ll see…

It was really slow the first few days this week, so I had time to do this (among other things.)

2 skeins Malabrigo worsted
1 skein Fiesta Purl Drops 100% Silk
Pattern being written…
US13 Addi Turbos 32″

I finished this several weeks ago and just waited to weave the ends in. The whole reason I wanted to knit ms. marigold is because of the great ruffles on the sleeves, but when it was all said and done, I decided to leave them off.

Overall I liked the pattern. I know some people had trouble with it because there was no ending stitch count after the increases. That may be what my problem was or I may have not paid close enough attention the the measurements given.

Things I had to change: As you can see, I seamed up the ribbing at the bottom, it was just way too deep a V for me and there was no way I was going to rip back after it was all done to shorten the V. I also had to seam up around the arm holes before crocheting around the edge. I prefer to have a closer fit around my arm and I think this also gave more definition to the cap sleeve.

I probably picked up too many stitches around the neck/V but I achieved such a nice edge (after MUCH trying) that there was also no way I was going to rip back. That’s pretty much the theme of my knitting life these days, NO RIPPING!

STATS
Pattern: Ms. Marigold
Yarn: Cascade Pima Silk (next time I’d choose Pima Tencel)
Needles: Addi Turbo US5 (I think it was a 5)

Oh, good Lord, things have been SO crazy around here. Today and tomorrow are yarn ordering days. All I can think about is yarn, I eat sleep and breathe it, it seems. Yesterday I was trying to tell Eden not to take sand out of the sandbox and instead I told her to put the yarn back in the sandbox.

More about the yarn (and more yarn) later. Somehow over this weekend, amidst the yarn decisions, camping and watching fireworks, I managed to crank out this baby sweater for my sister’s best friend.

It’s a pattern from Knitting for Two. I’m too lazy to get up and go look at which pattern it actually is. The yarn is Louet Sapphire, a chunky superwash. My mom was sweet enough to sew the zipper in for me and the grosgrain ribbon lining. All I have to say about the sweater is that I HATE seaming.

I changed several things about the pattern. For the shoulders, I did the three needle bind off. I left off the part on the front pieces that were supposed to be sewn around the neck and instead, picked up stitches around the entire neck and did an applied i-cord bind off. I also knit the sleeves in the round until the shoulder shaping and then knit the rest flat. And then I sewed and sewed and sewed the freaking seams.

But, overall, I still liked it. Now back to the YARRRRN!

Over the last week or so, I’ve been trying to get some models done for the store. This is hard, because my yarn hasn’t come in yet. Luckily, I have my trusty stash to turn to. (Any suggestions of great patterns would be very welcome at this point!)

Here is a scarf that I will be teaching. The construction slightly different from the scarf in Loop d Loop.

Knit from Fiesta La Luz 100% silk.

And I finished another pair of Victorian Wristlets (PDF). These are made out of Cascade Pima Silk, but in the future I think I will prefer Cascade Pima Tencel. It’s a little more sturdy, a little more shiny and a little softer.

Next up on my list? I think maybe the baby sweater from Knitting for Two. It is so freaking cute. I guess this means that my Ms. Marigold is on hold for a bit. But that’s ok.

I whipped up these teeny little socks out of a sample of yarn that I’m going to be carrying. Aren’t they so cute? And I LOVE the yarn. mmmm… handdyed superwash merino.

Thank you all for answering my questions and your suggestions. To answer some questions, I will be selling online, I will ship to Canada and I will let you know when the website gets up and running (which should be very soon!)

I met with the Cascade rep today, it was nice to see all the new stuff out there. I also got samples in yesterday for Southwest Trading Company, gotta love the soy silk… Buying all this yarn is making me very happy!!!

I finished my second edition of “Picovoli.” It really has nothing to do at all with Picovoli except that I re-used the yarn from my first attempt.

I’m really proud of this one. I took some guidelines from some pattern software the store has, and made this totally my own. It has everything I wanted, open raglan shaping, folded hem sleeves and hem, minimal waist shaping, crew neck. I think the only thing I would really change about this would to be make it have a little more open neck and the color. This color is fine, but definitely not what I would pick were I given a rainbow of choices. But overall, I’m thrilled.

Yarn: All Seasons Cotton color #186, discontinued
Pattern: my own
Needles: Addi turbos #8 32″
Time frame: Cast on 5/27/06, finished 6/1/06

I can never take good pictures of myself with this camera.

I finished my Koigu socks! Really these socks went pretty fast, I just never had any time to work on them… except all those times I was waiting a the dentist’s office. And then of course there was the time that the dog drug the sock in progress across the house. That wasn’t a very good day for the dog…

But they’re finished and haven’t sustained any lasting harm. Perfect timing, in a month it’s going to be 100 degrees here and I just knit some wool socks. Oh well.

Pattern: Out of the mind of Joelene
Yarn: Koigu – I have no clue what colorway. I picked it up at Stitches West.
Needles: Addi Turbos #1
Finished: May 16, 2006

I finished this scarf over the weekend. It was really an easy knit, but remained interesting because of the short rows. I’m in love with the yarn. It’s pretty similar to silk in look and feel and I have to say, I’m becoming more and more in love with silk.

(Notice my new mothers day shoes? They’re a little blurry, but they’re fabulous!)

Pattern: Loop d Loop
Yarn: Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks Tencel and Merino – picked up at Stitches West
Needles: #11 Addi Turbos
Finished: May 14, 2006