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November 29, 2005

My So-Called Scarf

Pattern: My So-Called Scarf by Stacey

Yarn: One and a half skeins of Kool-Aid dyed Wool of the Andres from Knitpicks. Many thanks go out to Lanie. Best. Secret Pal. Ever.

Needles: US 10 1/2 straight needles (Susan Bates)

Notions: I had some yarn left over after knitting up the scarf so I decided to whip up one of those knit roses featured in the Holiday 2005 issue of Vogue Knitting International and sew it on for a finishing touch.

For: Maize!

I actually knitted something for someone other than myself. Can you believe it?!? It certainly has been a while. As I mentioned from my last post, I took part in Novemeber's Craft Swap over at purplepinkandorange.com. I was assigned to DIY extraordinaire Maize Hutton. Her stitch markers are featured in the most recent issue of knit.1, by the way. Pretty darn impressive.

Hope you like the scarf, Maize! :)

Posted by Sandra at 09:12 PM | Comments (15)

November 27, 2005

The Shopgirl Wears Prada

I went to see Shopgirl yesterday. The movie itself was, at best, all right. But I think one is obligated to make note of the most capitvating and standout performance of the year: Mirabelle's (Claire Danes) wardrobe.

But it is this 1950's-inspired Prada dress that Ray Porter (Steve Martin) buys her towards the end of the movie. . .

[This teeny tiny picture was the only one I found online.]

[Here is a picture of a picture of the dress I found on the official movie site. They wouldn't let me save the picture onto my computer, those meanies.]

that stole my heart. It is absolutely gorgeous. The colors, the flowers, the cut. Oh, it's sheer perfection. Three words came to mind upon seeing that dress: I. Get. Golddiggers.

Sigh, until my sugar daddy in shining armor comes, I guess I'm just going to have to keep stopping in at Bluefly.com and hope that the dress goes on sale for about 80% off or so.

AND IN KNITTING-RELATED NEWS: I finished a scarf a while back for a swap over at purplepinkandorange.com. I'll post pics of it here tomorrow. Scout's honor.

Posted by Sandra at 07:56 PM | Comments (9)

November 25, 2005

link swap

i moved all of the links over to a new page and added a whole bunch of new ones as well. Check and see if you're listed. If you're not, I'll be more than happy to add you on. Just leave a comment here and add a link to my little ol' blog. . .

http://www.imaybeknittingaranchhouse.com

. . .onto your site. So easy peasy.

[thanks to boygirlparty for the idea.]

Posted by Sandra at 10:28 PM | Comments (4)

November 19, 2005

You blockhead!

Good grief, this took me less than an hour to churn out.

Pattern: Knit Flower Cap by Missa

Yarn: Some yarn that was included in my free goody bag when I went to Teva Durham's book signing last fall. I have no idea what brand it is.

Needles: US 13 circulars ("24) [worked flat and not in the round]

Hats are not my friend. I have an abnormally fat and round head (I feel your pain, Charlie Brown) and most hats do not look all that attractive on me, especially cloche-style hats. However, I like how this came out overall. I think the thick wool and the loose gauge really help in making my head look less melon-y.

I made some minor modifications. I cast on four extra stitches to make sure the hat would actually go over my head (one size fits all, my butt) and went up a needle size since the yarn I used was so thick. Oh, and I clipped on some flower pin I had laying around. I'll probably get around to knitting up a prettier flower later on.

I've been in a knitting rut as of late. Been fighting a cold all week and I made no real progress on either the Baltic Sea Stole or the Aran Top. I think busting out this instantly graftifying FO will give just the pick-me-up I so need, tho.

Posted by Sandra at 11:15 PM | Comments (22)

November 17, 2005

Cue in "Ride of the Valkyries"

[via Elizabeth]

I would have thought of myself more of a Woody Allen movie of sorts, personally.

Posted by Sandra at 03:17 PM | Comments (3)

November 14, 2005

Every. Single. Time.

Damn you, TV! The second I put my faith back into you, you go ahead and do THIS to me again?! And here I thought I learned my lesson after Freaks and Geeks.

SIGH!

NOTE: I had found out about the demise of AD this weekend on the radio while driving around Chicago but I'm still sad. Especially since it's now Monday night. :(

Posted by Sandra at 10:36 PM | Comments (8)

And all that jazz. . .

I finished a pair of flap-top mittens a week ago. I probably would have blogged about them a lot sooner if I could figure out how to pose with those things on. Should I put them on and just hold my hands up in the air like I'm about to be arrested? On my hips? On my face? Should I be holding something? If then, what? A coffee mug? A teddy bear? The remote? I couldn't figure out how to take pictures of these mittens without looking like a complete dork. Here's what I came up with.

Well, I try, anyway.

Pattern: "Flap-top mittens" from Handknit Holidays

Yarn: Brooks Farm Duet Yarn

Needles: US 5 and US 7 double pointed needles

For: Me

These are my first pair of mittens ever. Whatcha think? Mittens are a real quick knit, a lot faster and a lot more fun than I initially thought. The only modifications I made were only to the flap. I first followed the directions on the pattern and the flaps just came out way too big. The decrease rounds start way too late in the pattern, imho. So I had to frog back about 2 inches and start the decreases from there. Other than that, I would highly recommend this pattern for flap-top mittens ( or "glittens"). It's very easy to follow.

And good god, is Brooks Farms yarn a dream to use. I could eat this stuff, it's so yummy.

Why yes, I did get that snowglobe in Chicago, how'd you know? I was just there this weekend as a matter of fact. If you're curious at all, just click on over to my flickr and poke around some. I won't mind.

Posted by Sandra at 07:44 PM | Comments (12)

November 07, 2005

"Oh, yeah!!"

I dyed me some yarn this weekend. The Kool Aid and the Wool of the Andes from Knitpicks were provided by the coolest Secret Pal ever, Lanie!

These were the different flavors of Kool Aid I used
From left: Green Apple, Pink Lemonade, Orange, and Strawberry

I used one cup of water for every packet of Kool Aid. I wanted the colors to be subtle. I then proceeded to hand-baste (as opposed to "hand-paint", I suppose) the colors onto the yarn with a turkey baster. . .What? That's what you're supposed to do. Honest.

And then into the steamer it went for about 40 minutes or so.

My first batch of yummy, piping hot yarn. I then cooled down the yarn a bit by putting the yarn into a sinkful of lukewarm water.

Here it is all nice and dry and wound.

I have to admit that dying your own yarn is fun and really addictive. I get what all the hubbub is about dying your own yarn now.

I already started knitting "My So Called Scarf"with it.

If I learned anything from this little Electric Kool-Aid Acid Experiment it's this: ALWAYS WEAR RUBBER GLOVES! Kool-Aid is some scary stuff. I accidentally stuck my fingers into a batch of Strawberry Kool-Aid. . .

. . .and look what happened. My hand looked like that all freaking day. What is in this stuff??

Posted by Sandra at 07:35 PM | Comments (16)

November 03, 2005

I heart Michael Kors

EDIT: Two things . . .

1) I forgot to mention I'm using Karabella "Aurora 8". I got it from The Point a little while back when they were having their big summer yarn sale. I bought out all of the "Ivory" they had in stock (13 balls) for 40% off the retail price. Not bad, huh?

2) Jess has a picture of the "Aran Top" over on Flickr. See for yourself how gorgeous this little sweater is.

END EDIT

I cast on for the simply named "Aran Top" from the 2005 Holiday Issue of Vogue Knitting. It is designed by Michael Kors, whose clothes I do so enjoy (lusting after, that is). All of his women's collections are real sleek, clean, feminine, and classic with a slight modern twist. Nothing too fussy or conspicuous. Just like this top here.

Well, what you can make out of it, anyway.

This is my first attempt at an Aran garment. I have to admit that I am quite pleased with the progress I've made so far since I always seem to have to worst luck with cables. Let's hope my good fortune continues. *fingers crossed*

Posted by Sandra at 09:09 PM | Comments (19)

November 02, 2005

Two memes in one fell swoop

Hey, typing out the title of the post made me wonder, where the hell did the phrase "one fell swoop" come from, anyways? Well, here is the answer if you actually care.

Anyhoo, I've been tagged with two memes in the last few weeks (It feels so nice to be loved :D) so enough of the small talk and let's get down to business.

Meme numero uno comes to us from Aimee. This meme is called the meme cinque (five things meme). I'm not quite sure what you're supposed to do here. This reminds me an awful lot of the Five Idiosyncracies meme I filled out a while ago. But nothing is really specified here so I'm going to assume it means to just list five random things about myself. So here goes nothing.

1) I really can't drink beer anymore. Which really stinks like you wouldn't believe. I've noticed in the last year or so that whenever I have a beer of any sort I get a stomachache and feel all queasy. I thought I was imagining it at first or that it was because of something I ate. But now I'm pretty certain that it's strictly because of the beer. I think I might be slightly allergic to it or something. I've started drinking wine as of late and it's been a decent substitute as my after-work/social drink staple. But still, it's not the same. :P

2) I've started watching TV again. The last show that I watched on a somewhat regular basis was Buffy. After that went off the air, I just stopped watching TV all together. I had no desire to watch anything. However, my brother not too long ago recommended that I check out this show called Arrested Development. Ever seen? It really cracks me up. It's been a while since anything on TV has been able to do that.

3) I've been having fantasies about cutting off the majority of my hair lately. Just like Aimee. But I'm too lazy, chicken, and poor to do anything about it anytime soon. I also don't think I have the bone structure to pull it off. But still, it's been on the back of my mind. . .

4)I have double-jointed elbows. When I lean against, say, a wall, with my arms stretched out, my elbows actually bend in towards me at almost a 30-45 degree angle. My elbows naturally just bend that way and it feels comfortable. However, I make sure that I don't do it in public since it freaks too many people out, especially my boyfriend. So I actually have to concentrate and remind myself to made sure my elbows always bend kinda outward a bit when I do any leaning-related actitivites.

5) I despise the post office. I went to the post office today to send a package out to my brother. I was there for an HOUR. My god, it was so horrible. That's it.

I'm not going to tag anyone in particular for this one. Feel free to tag yourself.

And onto meme numero dos. Jess was kind enough to tag me with this one. This is a good one.

EDIT: I totally forgot to answer this question! D'oh!

Your favorite yarn?

I like getting the most bang out of my buck when it comes to yarn. Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride and Cascade 220 come in a huge array of colors, give you a lot of yardage and contains zero acrylic. Very good sweater yarns.

END EDIT

Your favorite needles?

Believe it or not, they're not Addis. I know, the horror. My favoritest needles in the whole wide world are cheapo aluminums. I especially like those new Susan Bates needles that are coming out in those pretty pastel colors. I prefer to knit with straights than with circulars, they're super cheap, and I knit much, much faster on them than with nicer, more expensive bamboo and wood needles.

The worst thing you've ever knit?

When I first started to knit, I had no idea what the hell "gauge" was. So while I was at the Yarn Company way back when, I had bought some real pretty Tahki "Baby" yarn. Anyone not familiar with this yarn should note that the suggested needle size for this yarn is US 15. Anyhoo, I bought like three balls of that stuff and took it home so I can knit a scarf up with the only pair of needles I owned at the time, US 8s. I ended up making the heaviest scarf in the history of the world.

Your most favorite knit pattern? (maybe you don't like wearing it)

Even though I complained the straight rows can get a tad monotonous, I would have to say my favorite pattern is the Clapotis. It's easy enough for me to memorize so I can actually knit the darn thing while riding on the train or bus without having to fumble around with a pattern. But it never gets to a point where it's too dull. I find dropping stitches ueber fun, what can I say? Whee!

Most valuable knitting technique?

Finding the perfect way to hold my yarn. When I first started to knit, I used to pick up the yarn whenever ever I had to make a stitch and then let it go every single time, isn't that nuts? I did that because I couldn't figure out how I could hold the yarn comfortably in my right hand ( I knit English style) so that the yarn had just the right amount of tension without ever becoming too tense. But then after reading Stitch 'n Bitch I finally found the answer. I just needed to let the yarn go over my index finger and around my pinky once. Eureka!

Best knit book or magazine?
I adore any knitting book by Melanie Falick. The pictures in all of her book are absolutely gorgeous. And I love the fact you almost never find any errata in any of the patterns. I really, really appreciate that like you wouldn't believe.

Your favorite knit-a-long?
I stink at knit-a-longs. I joined a couple a while back but I could never keep up with everyone else. The only knit-a-long that I was kinda good about was the Scarf Style knit-a-long.

Your favorite knitblogs?

This is not a fair question. Not at all. But if you put a gun to my head. . . Well, I always get excited when I see that one of my fellow Spiders has updated her blog. But I have to say, Fig and Plum was probably the first real knit blog that I ever knew about (Oh my god, this girl like knits stuff and talks about it on her website. Too cool!) and which inspired me to start my own.

Your favorite knitwear designer?

Kim Hargreaves, Kate Gilbert and Joelle Hoverson.

The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)

Clap-clap-clap-o-tee!

I love this thing to death. It goes with everything in my closet. Everything!

Tag time

Umm, how about Jocelyn? She loves these things. And again, anyone who wants to. It seems that everyone in the knit blogosphere has already filled out one of these things so there really isn't a point of tagging anyone in particular.

Posted by Sandra at 10:15 PM | Comments (7)