Must. buy. sheep.

Sleeve numero uno

I have a sleeve!!!

Be amazed! It is super-wide, and nice and short (about 8" long so it stops at the elbow.)

I haven't decided if this is going to be cute or frightening yet... knitting more to see how I feel about it.

But yes, I am LOVE LOVE LOVING this project. Super addictive. It of course helps that I had several hours over the last couple of days (my first knit night at my LYS [!!] and a Buffy marathon tonight) to complete a sleeve. I get kicks from the sense of accomplishment...

Ok, off to bed. I do not need to knit any more tonight. I do not need to knit any more tonight. I do not need to knit any more tonight. (wish me luck!)

A Little Tube of Wool . . .

Following in Amy's footsteps, I'm knitting a tube in the fingering-weight wool I picked up from Stoddart Farms at the Brickworks last summer. It's a long-term project that I mainly work on watching TV at the boy's house... therefore it's actually given me license to cast on more than one project at a time!

On the needles:
1) This tube, which will one day become a scarf...



2) The manos silk blend neckwarmer in the Topographie pattern to match my new hat, which was debuted all around New York this weekend.



3) The Whisper cardigan from the Spring 2009 Interweave, in Malabrigo Lace. Obviously this is the 'at home' knitting, while everything else is very portable. Let me knit more than the first two rows on this, and then I'll get you more photos!

Ingenius!!!

I've discovered an ingenious way to deal with variegated yarns, like the Manos Silk Blend that I managed to snag at The Purple Purl after a Knitty Yarn Roundtable Night last month.



The ingenious pattern? Topographie from Knitty! Essentially, you pick in the yarn which colours will be main colour(s) and which will be contrasting. You then knit in stockinette in the round, but whenever you get to a contrasting colour, you purl! Fantastic!



I'm one-evening's-worth-of-knitting into a hat, and loving this process. I should have enough to knit a hat and a neckwarmer, but because I'm using 4.0mm needles instead of the recommended 4.5mm, I may need a little more yarn -- and I'd rather have a hat than a neckwarmer with all the scarves I have around here!

Malabrigo Goodness

It's soft, it's drapey, it's the most gorgeous semi-solid tealy blue. What more could a girl ask for?

I'm using Malabrigo Lace in Bobby Blue to knit up the Whisper Cardigan from Interweave Spring 2009.

Yesterday was spent winding 940 yards of lace by hand, and doing a gauge swatch. I've decided on 4.5mm needles as the largest size, and of course don't have long enough circular needles in my stash (16" won't quite substitute for 12"... I use nice long ones and magic loop). What's a girl to do but go needle shopping?