Knitty Teaser

Hi,

Knitty emailed me that they accepted my pattern submission for the spring issue, which goes live in early March. The pattern name is Posey. :) I'll post a picture and link when it is up. You'll have to wait another month!

Happy Knitting!
Lisa Kay

Wrixlan Jacket Started

Hi,

I've been working on the back of the Wrixlan Jacket (from a Jamieson's pattern book) for about a week. It will have four repeats, and it has about 3.5 so far. This will look weird if you are familiar with the pattern, because it calls for the whole jacket knitted in the round, but I added side seams. The fronts and back will be knitted separately.

The yarn is Dream in Color's Classy (the thicker of their yarns) in color Nightwatch, which I purchased at Knitty Couture in St. Louis, on "The Loop." The colors are blending beautifully, so far. I took the conservative approach of knitting two hanks at once, alternating every two rows, just in case there is an overall shade difference between the hanks. (Hand dyes tend to have that problem.)

I really like the cables. I have enough yarn to make Mitchell a pullover, so maybe I'll put one of these large, overlapping cables up the center front.

Happy Knitting!
Lisa Kay

Sock Mittens in the Snow

Hi!

With a title like that, you might think this is a knitting post, but no! Back in December, we had some snow, and we went out to shake the snow off of Santa's train so it would inflate. Mitchell wanted to play in the snow, and I bundled him up to go out with me to deal with the train. For a boy who has everything, I was surprised to find that this child had no mittens! What kind of parents are we, not to buy our pride and joy some mittens??? Well, I have rectified the situation, but he got to wear sock mittens on that day. And they aren't even hand-knitted socks!

Happy Knitting,

Lisa Kay

Dune Sweater Completed!

Hi!

Yea! Dune Sweater is done! I wore it today. Toasty!

Happy Knitting!

Lisa Kay

Dune Sleeves

Hi!

I finished the Dune Sweater's sleeves, today, at lunch. Now, I'm ready to join the shoulders and put on the front/neck band. There will be buttonholes. I'll pick the buttons after I see how big the buttonholes are. (I guess that's cheating, but it is sure to work out, that way!

I am itching to start another project, there are so many in the queue!

Happy Knitting!

Lisa Kay

See The Rhino!

Hi,

Mitchell collects small animal figurines, and several dinosaurs showed up on the Christmas Day blog entry. One of his favorites is the rhinocerous. He has also discovered a much larger rhino figure in Macy's (in menswear, the "ecko" brand logo is a rhino), and he asks to "see the rhino" when we go to the mall. It has become part of our Friday afternoon shopping routine to go see the rhino, so I planned ahead and took a camera. Who takes a camera to the mall? Scrapbooking/blogging mothers, that's who!

Happy Knitting,

Lisa Kay

Cool Beans, Yarn Nerd!

Hi!

I have discovered, via The Loopy Ewe, a seriously appropriate (ie: geeky) yarn dyer. He calls his brand, "Yarn Nerd." Ha! He is an engineer, working on an MS and dying yarn in his spare time. Isn't that the coolest??? His different yarn types are named in MHz! The sock yarn is 900 MHz. He has a seriously impressive blog, also, "Adam Knits." I ordered a green and yellow sock yarn called, "Printed Circuit Board." I am already cranking my rusty cogs trying to figure out an appropriate knitting pattern. It seems like something with some totally vertical and horizontal lines would be appropriate. (You know, like traces on a PCB?) Maybe some random vertical slip stitches and connecting garter rows? I'll have to work some test swatches (in scrap yarn, of course).

Yarn Nerd's 900 MHz, "Printed Circuit Board"

Additionally, in my Loopy purchase, I snagged two colors of Mountain Colors' Bearfoot, and a skein of Dream in Color's Baby yarn. It is interesting that I always pick bright sock yarn, but I've been wearing a lot of black and brown clothes, lately. (I guess I'm getting conservative in my old age.) I consciously forced myself to pick a brown yarn. It was painful. However, it has lovely shading, and I think it will be more "wearable" than some of my others... I like it. Really... Sort of.

Mountain Colors' Bearfoot, "Meadow"

Mountain Colors' Bearfoot, "Ruby River"

Dream In Color's Baby, "November Muse"

I am trying to figure out an arbitrary (but livable) sock yarn purchase limit. Since I have determined that I can knit no faster than a pair a month (if I don't knit any sweaters in the queue, which probably won't be the case, this year, since I'm working on the Dune Sweater already), it might make sense to limit purchases to 12 pairs' worth a year. However, I just blew five of those. Oh, well. It's a "collection." They say sock yarn doesn't count as stash. I have several years' worth already. In hindsight, I should have mentioned The Loopy Ewe in my Christmas letter. I made "groupie" status last year, but the word "junkie" might be more apt, in my case. Plus, I use the "free shipping for orders over $75" as an excuse to always buy a lot. I can tell myself I'm being frugal. Bwah ha ha!

Happy Knitting,

Lisa Kay

Spring in January

Hi!

St. Louis has experienced some of its typically schizophrenic weather... 18 degrees F during the week, and in the 70's on the weekend. We enjoyed the warm day and went to the park. (It was packed!) Mitchell enjoyed the swings, of course.

I closed Mitchell's hand in the car door on Saturday. He got to experience the emergency room and an X-ray, but he is fine. (Thank heaven.) It just put a scare into all of us.

I am back working on my Dune Sweater, and the sleeves are almost done. I took a detour over the holiday to put together a pattern submission for Knitty. Their quarterly submission date was January 5. I made a sock. You're not allowed to show it on your blog or anywhere until the pattern goes live, which would be in early March if it is published. I won't know until probably a few weeks before that. I'll put it on the blog if they don't publish it (and I'm allowed to link to it if they do), so it should be on the blog, either way, in late February or early March. :)

Happy Knitting,

Lisa Kay