two knits of ivory

I have bloggers block. I have all these things to say, but the post I wrote to post today disappeared and I can't seem to focus on all the zillion things I want to write about. So let me break it down. That should help. Yarn. As I mentioned earlier I did buy more yarn. But this is gift yarn so it doesn't count right? I only managed to take pics of two of the three skeins of this Araucania I picked up Saturday afternoon at Wild and Woolly. I have never knit with this yarn before but it came in colors I thought perfect for it's recipients. It's also a gift-friendly 75% superwash wool/25% polymid blend. I'm already about 25% into the first sock but I don't have pics so I'll wait on this. So next up? Lime and Blue Malabrigo. I cast on this yarn Saturday morning and whipped up a replacement sweater for Ripley by night's end. Isn't he handsome? You'd think we were holding his kibble hostage with that latter mugshot, eh? As expected, the Malabrigo was a...

As I mentioned the other day, I picked up some Malabrigo at the Fabric Place in Woburn, MA. Within 24 hours the skein of Lime Blue was quickly transformed into this: As a kid my favorite crayola crayon was Midnight Blue. It was essentially an extremely dark teal, the blue black being modified by just a small hint of green. It was the perfect color for the night sky in childhood drawings. I don't know if they still make that crayon color, but as I was knitting this up Saturday, I was taken back to that memory. One of the shades in this beautiful colorway is a spot on likeness to my memory of Midnight Blue. Poor Ripley doesn't seem to know how good he has it, does he? Poor bubalah.

Just the other day, when I was outside photographing my Firestarter socks to no end, I finally had the opportunity to get a snapshot of Ripley in the sweater I knit on the Rhinebeck road trip. The tight knit means it is a great outdoor sweater since it's snugness will reduce the amount of snagging that is bound to occur when he goes traipsing off into the woods. The good news, I now have photographic proof of my effort for all posterity. The bad news, just a few hours later this sweater, knit in the most luscious malabrigo merino yarn, was transformed into this: Can you see that wide black scorch mark? It's a desecration and of my own making. I nuked it in the microwave with a cotton bandanna. Who knew cotton bandanna's combust in the microwave? Well you can thank a crazy knitter in the blogosphere for clearing up that little housekeeping mystery. You may be wondering to yourself why someone would nuke a knitted item. Really, I have a good excuse but before I get to it, a ...

For the Rhinebeck trip I dutifully took two of my WIPS with me, the Project Stole and the Firestarter socks . But I also took along this yarn: It's been burning a hole in my stash for about a month. I picked up this lovely skein of Uruguayan, kettle dyed, merino wool from Malabrigo in the Marron Obscuro colorway during our day trip to Pattenworks last month. It has been meaning to be a dog sweater and after about five hours in the car on our way to and from Rhinebeck, it has magically turned into one: When fall comes back to central New England I'll get a picture of Ripley wearing it. Until then that pic will have to do. I used the same template as the second sweater I knit Ripley, with some minor alterations. First, I reduced the CO stitches by four to compensate for how much the second sweater expanded on Ripley as he wore it. The Manos del Uruguay yarn is very similar to the Malabrigo. It is a single ply merino wool. The Manos del Uruguay varies from sport to bulky weight...

I definitely needed a quickie project to smooth out the rough edges. Ripley's sweater was finished during lunch yesterday and it looks great on him, if I do say so myself. The pattern still could use some tweaking, but overall it fits him great. Now back to battling the Firestarter...

I've been inspired by the frogging going on over at Chicken Knits . How this actually worked for me is that I decided to abandon the CEY Lush doggie sweater for a new doggie sweater with new yarn I just accidentally picked up explicitly for this purpose. It couldn't be helped. Aside from today's expected high of 82 degrees, it's been quite chilly. Ripley is in need. I'd be a horrible mother if I didn't keep him warm. And I just happened to need new needles yesterday for the firestarter KAL and was in a LYS. I'd be remiss if I passed over this luscious yarn. Right? Now the fact is I was also moved by the quickie project focus going on over at dogged . A girl should not be held responsible for blogger peer pressure. Even when she doesn't even know said bloggers, it's still their fault. It is. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. This lovely lovely yarn is fascinating. It goes from roving bulky to sport weight and looks fabulous in cake...

The newest edition to our family, Ripley, our chihuahua terrier mix, came to us in June, shortly after I started this blog. And as the days and nights were cool it became obvious very quickly Ripley would need some hand knits. I cast on some heathered green Lopi I had lying around and came up with this fly-by-my-seat design which doesn't look half bad. Ripley looks like a little bruiser, doesn't he? Shortly thereafter I began another off-the-cuff design with a pair of highly discounted Classic Elite Lush skeins I picked up at Patternworks. I've gotten pretty far twice, but my shaping isn't working out. The heat came to squash what little interest I had to refrog and redesign a second time. I'm hoping a post will boost my interest, or at least generate some pressure to get this out of my WIP bin. The yarn itself is great to work with. It is an Angora/wool blend that doesn't blossom until after you knit it. I thought that was pretty cool.