Kaffeinated Knits

Yarn Guts

                             

I give you yarn guts.  I know - it's a little gross, but tell me that's not what it looks like.  This is the back of the front of the Sheep Dress - I finished the collar and the arms first before I bravely went back in for another round of intarsia sheepies.  This dress is coming along a LOT faster than I expected, and I'm now hoping to finish it up this week.  Hoping being the operative word there...

There's actually quite a lot going on in my little corner of New Jersey - this week I'm finishing up a job I've been at for 5+ years and will start a whole other position next week.  (How's that for jumping right in?)  The new position will have me traveling constantly - and I'm all over the place about all of it.  I'm excited and I'm nervous and I have no idea what to expect.  It's a good change for me and although there are a lot of people I'll miss from my current job - it's time.  So, I'm feverishly wrapping things up and at the same time, preparing as best I can for all the changes that are coming at me pretty fast.  (If any of you travel a lot with work and have any "wish someone would have told me that" kind of things... let me know!!)

More later - for now I'm off to knit a few more rows on the sheep dress before I call it a night - it's another crazy day of wrapping up and getting ready tomorrow.

Knit Kitsch

Have you heard?  New from Patternworks... it's the Knit Lite!!  The world's first illuminated knitting needles.  Can you stand it??  For all those nights you wanted to knit with all the lights out... just to see if you could... or even if you just wanted to put a little *spark* into your knitting - these babies are just the thing for you!! Each needle is a different color and they come in sizes US6 - US15.  They're battery powered - each needle takes 3 batteries (which are included) and there is a "convenient" on/off switch at the end of each needle so you can power up your stitches as soon as the lights begin to dim! 

Can you imagine the looks of wonder you'd get as the light streams out of the ends of your sticks as you whip through rows of stockinette?  Or the jaw dropping amazement as the light dipped and swayed as you worked the purl side row?  And all for only $15.95! 

And hey, just a thought, but those 15's could probably guide in a small prop plane or direct traffic if you live at a busy intersection.  (Now there's a hoppin' Saturday night...  have a few margaritas or more, then get yourself down to the busiest intersection in your neighborhood and direct traffic with your neon colored light-up knitting needles.  And when you stop a row of traffic - stand right in front of them and knit a row so they get the full effect of your knitting genius (with the light streaming out around you and all) and then wave them on.  You'd be the talk of the neighborhood, if nothing else.)

Seriously - don't you just want a pair because they are so kitschy you have to have them??  Or is it just me??

Counting Sheep

The Amazing Lace is taking a Pit Stop this week, and apparently so am I.  The new yarn came for both the Debbie Bliss Sheep Dress and for Sizzle.  It was a tough call, but the lure of the little sheepies won out.  I mean, come on, could you resist these little guys?

                         

This is my first intarsia knitting.  Fearlessly, I wound little bobbins and tried to remember when to cross the yarn and when not to... and cussed like a sailor at the tangled mess of yarn that looked like the guts of a yarn explosion coming out of the back of my work.  Weaving in all those little ends took FOR.EV.ER.  But look!  I have sheepies!

                           

The edge will get a little white picot trim after the pieces are all sewn together.  I'm working on the top of the back right now - it's fiddly as you work the cabling on both sides, but it's quick and definitely not boring.  And no picture, but I finished one sleeve as well - it was my gauge swatch.  I'm making the 6 month size, so sleeve is not that much bigger than a 4" square.  (Okay, it's 7.5".  But hey... I've got a sleeve done!)

I'm off for now to count some put-you-to-sleep kind of sheep.  I'll leave you with Elmo, in his new favorite sleeping place. 

                            

Ohhhhh Noooooooo!

I admit it.  I was a big-haired, big makeup-ed, shoulder-padded 80's girl. 

We had Atari, a Betamax, and rotary phones.  I actually studied the Preppy Handbook and tried to get my friends to call me Kiki (it never caught on.)  My sister and I carried our "little" TV with the 12" screen on the bus to school so that we wouldn't miss Luke and Laura's wedding.  I saw Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and ET right when they came out, and watched the Love Boat like religion.  On Saturday mornings, I still have the urge to sing "Interplanet Janet," "Conjunction Junction," and "Interjection!" 

The 80's were, like, totally cool.  Like, totally, ya know?  Fer Sure.... even if there were a lot of questionable fashion choices.  Parachute pants.  Plaid, pleated walking shorts.  Huge plastic, multicolored, dangling earrings.  Poofy lambchop taffeta sleeved prom/bridesmaid dresses.  Flashdance sweatshirts with leggings.

But retro fashion is cool, right?  Hip.  Trendy even.  Maybe it's me, but I just think the 80's are not a decade we should ever, ever, ever look to for fashion guidance.

Lord & Taylor feels differently.

                            

What A Feeling.

(Bonus points for you if you caught the 80's snl reference in the title of this post.)

Have You Ever...

...gotten so close to the end of a project... you're almost there... just a little more... and then there's just a little more... and then there's a little more... and suddenly it feels like it will NEVER END????  Yeah.  Lola's making me a little crazy.  Three more pattern repeats to go.  Only 3.  Except that's 192 MORE ROWS.  It's good that I will wash Lola.  She's had my hands around her neck a few times now.

...gotten so close to the end of a never-ending project and all you want to work on is your next project?  I mean, just look at those little intarsia sheepies.  They're even on the booties.  Can you stand the cuteness?  This is from Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits book.  I'm knitting this one for a friend of mine at work who just had her first child.  She's only 3 weeks old at this point, and I'll be knitting this to fit her at about 6 months - sometime in the late Fall, early Winter.  The baby was 9lbs at birth, so she'll likely be wearing 6mos much earlier "real time."  The yarn called for is the discontinued Wool Cotton - I'm using Baby Cashmerino in a light lilac color.  Or I will be.  When it gets here.

...checked the mailbox every hour to see if your new yarn has been delivered?

...secretly planned for another new project that's actually for you because you want a quick, satisfying knit that you actually get to wear?  (Come on... have you seen Sizzle?  It really is a quick... and hot! knit.)

...found a substitute yarn for a hot! quick knit because you just aren't paying $15 a ball for the called for yarn?  Yeah.  I'm using Berroco Glace - from elann at a mere $3.48 a ball.  I love this color.  It just seems right for a hot! quick knit.

...counted out the 3 mailing days it takes for elann to ship to you and tried to figure out if you'll get that yarn before the baby dress yarn so you can justify starting the hot! quick knit first? 

...hoped Fifi doesn't find out you aren't going to work on her next??

Saturday Sky

Mostly cloudy here at the Jersey Shore.  Not a great beach day...

                        

Me, Lola and Spike

Over the long weekend, I had a list of all the things I should do, could do, and needed to do.  Instead, I camped out in my living room with Buffy and Lola.  See, Lola was going the way knitting goes sometimes... where you knit and knit and knit - and you still have forever to go.  This stole (the "Frost Flowers Stole" from Hunt Valley Cashmere) is 10 pattern repeats long - and each pattern repeat is a bazillion rows long.  Okay. 64 rows per pattern repeat.  But - hello? SIXTY FOUR rows for a pattern repeat??  But then again, that's 10 x 64 rows of pattern repeats in cashmere.  And it's kind of wrong to complain about cashmere.

I should have taken some before pictures (didn't), but here's where I am after the weekend (warning:  crappy photos ahead.)

                                 

I've now just about completed 6 pattern repeats.  It looks more like a scarf than a stole here - but blocked, this stole will almost double in width, and the stitch pattern really pops - the "flower" portion of the pattern is beautiful and kind of flow-y.  My camera is not so great with close-ups, and I don't have my pins with me to really stretch this out - but you at least can get a sense of the stitch pattern. 

Lola eventually goes back to Hunt Valley Cashmere so she can hang in all her glory at trade shows, festivals, etc.  Lola is quite excited about the opportunity to travel like that - she's hoping if she gets near California, she'll get to meet Spike.  She seems to have developed quite a crush on him after all the Buffy watching this weekend.  Can't say I blame her.

Truth be told, I've got a thing for Spike.  There's something about the whole bad-boy-so-in-love-he'll-do-anything-for-the-girl that gets me.  Plus, he's hot.  Very hot.  (So he's undead.  Everyone has quirks.)  I've even been trying to get Felicia to come up with a Spike sock yarn colorway for a while - dropping hints, begging, pleading...  I mean, the Slayer has one, Angel got one... where's the love for Spike? 

I keep telling her that a Spike in the Hawaiian Shirt (from "Doomed" - where he shrinks his clothes and has to wear Xander's) would be a great colorway... so for Felicia... here you go... you know, for inspiration...

                                     

The Amazing Lace: Poetry Challenge

Once upon a Sunday dreary, while I knitted, fingers weary,
Over Lola's charted knits and purls and then yarn o'ers -
While I plodded, needles slapping, suddenly there came a tapping
As of someone loudly rapping, rapping at my chamber door -
"It's only Fifi," Lola muttered, "that damn green silk that I abhor -
She's only worm poo, nothing more."

"Only Fifi?!" Now came the yelling, louder now, the voice was swelling
From the bottom of the basket perched beside me on the floor -
"I am ze Fifi! ze one Amazing - Lola (puh!) deserves not this praising
It is me you should be turning, swirling round through the fingers sore
Yet you work the lousy Lola - repeat, repeat - is such the bore
Row and row - No more! No more!"

Lola answered, strong and certain - "Listen here, you filthy vermin!
I've had pert' near enough of that snarky mouth of your'
Shut your trap, you - quit your yappin - you don't want what's gonna happen
If Miss Lola has to hear even just one stinkin' word more -
'Cause you're worm poo - nothin' more."

Stop! I cried - Enough!  I cannot take this constant snapping
And my mind is near to breaking though I'm trying to ignore
All these insults while I'm knitting, though you both I do adore -
"But she!" called out Miss Lola - then "No! She!" came from Ze Fifi -then
Said the Knitter, Nevermore!

Now I sit in silence splendid, fingers fast, mistakes I've mended
Made while pestered by the chattering, nattering that I abhor
Lola's quiet, Fifi's solemn and this respite I am taking
Since their mouths I shut with taping, and now am left both calm and sure,
Knitting along through charted lore, knits and purls and then yarn o'ers -
Knitting peacefully ever more.

                     

Challenge 1 - Meet the Team

Challenge 2 - Xtreme Knitting

Saturday Sky

The Saturday Sky from down the Jersey Shore...

            

*In New Jersey, there is no beach, only "The Shore."  And one does not go 'to' The Shore, one only goes 'down' The Shore.  Don't ask me.  It's a Jersey thing.