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ow and wow

So I started a new project a few days ago, but I can’t show it to you. See my cousin had a new baby last week, and I was waiting to know the baby’s gender before making my gift. Now I know that they had a baby boy, but I also know that the baby’s mom sometimes reads my blog. I’m pretty sure she’s too busy right now to be reading, but just in case I’m going to hold off on a pic.

What I can show you, though, is the knitting-related injury this project has caused.

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See the cut on my thumb? That’s from using it to help force a 4mm needle through double-stranded worsted weight yarn. I ended up with 2 long cuts along the ridges of my thumb and index finger. (I knew my thumb/finger was sore from pushing but i didn’t know the cuts were there until I held an acetone-soaked pad when removing my last manicure. Hence- “ow”!)

On the flip side, (literally, heh) I can show you my current manicure. I am so in love with this polish! (Hence- “wow”.)

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Doesn’t it look like my nails are covered in slices if Tiger’s Eye?


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much better now

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I’m so much happier with this!

I didn’t change anything in the chart except to add more rows above and below the text, to give the dishcloth (or at this size, towel, really) a finished shape of a square. It should be done in a day and then I’ll knit up the medium size, photograph the new samples and update the pattern.


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HABS get a revisit

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Revisiting an old pattern tonight. I’ve wanted for a while to finally update this pattern with pics of the other 2 sizes, so I decided “Why not?”. Knitting along to The Sing Off…though I had to stop casting on during the Remix to Ignition, cus that was all kinds of funny/awesome.

UPDATE: I’ve finished the lower red section of the largest size, and either my gauge is off from when I originally designed it, or I had made a miscalculation somewhere. Either way, it’s coming out rectangular rather than square, as I’d intended. So I’m going to take the next few days and completely revamp the design so it matches how it looks in my head.

If you’ve already purchased the pattern I’ll be sending out an updated version, with the changes to the medium and large charts. (The small size remains the same).

If this post enticed you to buy the pattern, maybe hold off a few days for v.2. (Or buy it now and wait for the update).

Sorry to anyone this may have inconvenienced, and I will have a newer, better, stronger, faster version out ASAP.


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that yarn from the other day

My arms are in great shape after a week of winding.

I turned Veronik‘s 2 cones of St. Denis Nordique, last seen looking like this:

Into this:

That’s 2 swatches, and 40 mini cakes, ready for our November MKG meeting.  I copied the gauge for a sample pattern using this yarn (Agathe, from the Spring/Summer 2010 issue of the St. Denis magazine), and knit 2 swatches using the required yarn and needles (with a moss stitch border). Our guild project will be to have everyone knit up the same swatches, and then to compare and see what a (presumably) vast array of actual swatch sizes we end up with, as a means to illustrating the importance of swatching.  You know, that just because you use the yarn and needles called for in the pattern, doesn’t mean you’ll end up with anything near the pattern’s gauge.

Each guild member who attends will get a little cake of yarn and a copy of instructions that I printed earlier.  It took me roughly 100 feet of yarn for my swatches, so I wound each cake to 120 feet to account for looser tensions eating more yarn.  (My yarn meter works in feet, and I’m too lazy to do the math right now.  Divide by 3 for yards).

My swatches will be used as examples by Veronik, who is bringing along her trusty steamer to show what a difference blocking makes.  One swatch will be steamed and become the “after”, while the other will remain as-is, as the “before”, and silently simmer and fume.

I also wound up the yarn that Maaike wound for me so I can finish my Linden.  I set up her ginormous wooden cake winder (because it winds ginormous cakes, not that it takes up a large desk footprint) and wound up (heh) with 2 BABs.

Yes, Maaike and I often speak in Three Letter Acronyms.  These babies?  They’re some Big A$$ Balls.