Holiday Knitting

Well, that big holiday in the sky is almost here, and I have been knitting non-stop! I want to post all my projects up, but I'm afraid that my family will visit my blog and see the things I've made for them. Sorry folks, you'll just have to wait for photos until the new year!

Kufi

Sean, my boyfriend's coworker has been asking me for a knit kufi with a pentagram on top for I think almost a year now. Since Kufis are traditionally a middle-eastern style hat, there aren't many patterns for them, and on top of that, I found absolutely none with a pentagram. It took me a few months to work out a plan for the pattern. Initially I was just going to use a plain skullcap pattern, and then embroider a pentagram pattern on top. Then I found this pentagram online, with the geometric angles on it.
I printed it out and snipped into the circle, bent it, and taped it into a 3D figure. Then I wrote on it where I thought the increases and decreases should go. I knit it top down and used six size 5 needles so that I had one needle for each of the 5 parts of the pentagram and one to work with. It was a little difficult to keep track of increases and decreases for each round. I wish I had written out the pattern while I was knitting it... I guess I'll have to knit another one in order to write the pattern.

Once I had the pentagram worked into a circle, I decreased five stiches, one at each point where the pentagon meets the circle edge, and then continued in 2x2 rib for the edge. I think it came out very good considering...

Knitting on the Road

So after arriving in Jackson, WY, where it was 2°C, Sarah decided she needed a hat to keep her head warm. We poked around in a few stores without luck, then we ran into this place: Knit on Pearl (It's on Pearl St.) What a clever little name...

It took me til I think Kansas City (maybe?) to finish it, but her hat came out really beautiful, and the yarn was so nice to knit with, the hand was so so soft. Sarah picked out a beautiful yarn for her hat: Plymouth's Baby Alpaca Grande in a pretty soft rose color. It came with a free pattern for a cable hat with earflaps. Although I finished the hat, Sarah wanted braids coming down off the earflaps, but I was JUST short on the yarn (probably my own fault, I snipped a few strands a bit short.)


We ended up stopping at another little yarn shop in Columbia, Missouri: Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe. The ladies here were INCREDIBLY helpful. They didn't carry the same Baby Alpaca Grande color, but they called all the stores in the area for me, (Unfortunately nobody had that color) and then helped Sarah and I pick out a new hat project for the rest of the trip. Here's me knitting the hat in our hotel. It was a much bigger yarn: Brown Sheep Company's Burley Spun in Mountain Majesty: a variegated yarn in navy and sky blues, black, purple, and magenta.

The hat I made from this yarn also has
earflaps and braids.
Here's me knitting it in our hotel, and the project up close:

Road Trip!

So I know I've been absent since Spring, but I am the knitting POLITICO people. I have been a little bit tied up in campaigns for a while. But I am back, and hitting the road! I'm leaving on an airlane in less than 8 hours to help my friend move back from Montana to Massachusetts. I'm flying out, but we're driving back, so I brought a set of size 9 dpns and two skeins of merino for the trip in case my hands get itchy while in the passenger seat. I promise I will not be convicted of a DUK (driving while knitting.) Any suggestions for some one skein projects? I only have about 140 yards/100g.
Travelling always makes me want to knit. I think it's a good way to bond with other women on the road. No matter where you go or how simple your pattern, other knitters will always approach you and ask you about your project.

I'm so excited to drive back. We are going through Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons, Denver, and Being a HUGE Red Sox fan, of course we have to visit the Louisville slugger plant in Kentucky!!! (We're taking the southern route to see some new territory.)

One sock down, one to go

I finally finished Sock #1, my first sock ever. I am so pleased with the result, I immediately put it on my foot, and it's so soft and warm, I just want to wear it around. I think, though, that wearing only one sock, and with sandals(which I decided I would wear today because it is technically spring, even though it's about 40 degrees out) would qualify me for certifiably mad.
That weird little line down the side of the toe is the "between the dpn's line." Do those lines have a name? They should if they don't already. I think it'll right itself once I block it.


Also: My father said there's a whole lot of "knitting" and not enough "politico" going on. So here's my politico tidbit: I'm starting up by Fantasy Congress team. I heard about fantasy Congress, yes, like fantasy baseball, but with the Congress members as players instead of steroidal home-run hitters(I LOVE baseball, don't get me wrong, but I could never bring myself to add a non Red-Sox player to my fantasy team, so I don't...) you get affluent aging men and women with bill proposals, tv appearances, and scandals! I love it. And as jobs are coming along, I have already been offered a few part time positions as a volunteer coordinator for three of the five mayoral candidates running in town around here. Dropping my resume off today at one. Wish me luck!

Coming Along

So, my sock is coming along nicely, and luckily!, so is my worklife! I had a revelation, corny as it may be, watching Dr. Phil on a 30 second clip on Simon Mall TV, and I decided to leave my job at Casey Paper in order to start looking for campaign work for the '08 Presidential election. Even though I'm taking time off of school, I'll at least be moving toward working in something that's in my field of interest, and will help build my resume, since I haven't been very involved since last year.
Meanwhile, I've been pouring the stress of working 50 hours a week into my sock, shown here:
That was it a few days ago.

This is it now:

It's coming along! Natalie says I'll be addicted in no time flat. But with size 11 feet, I think I'll be knitting this sock until December.

Today I went to my lys to to return some yarn that I had exchanged for some superwash yarn. I left with NOTHING NEW. I could not believe the amount of self-restraint I practiced! I left the store, and I felt like an alcoholic walking out of a bar sober. Okay, maybe that was a bad analogy. But I was really proud that I did not contirbute to my Godzilla-sized stash.

WIP & a new LYS!

So, just as I said I would, I went to the spinning group last week, and knit with the ladies there, and it was fun! I can't wait another week to go back. Although, I didn't bring a snack. My attempt at curried chicken was pretty unsuccessful and the suggestion to bring oreos was given hefty thought.
One of the ladies at the group, Vicky, told me the REAL location of a new lys, Knit Pickings. I don't have their addy handy if they indeed have a website up. If I find it, I will post it. They are located in Plaistow, NH and I'm thrilled out of my stockings to dump major portions of my paycheck there from now on.
I bought some beautiful Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn in Dusk, which is a beautiful purple, blue, and green colorway. I also bought the Cherry Tree easy sock pattern, and I'm on my way to my very first pair of socks. I am told that they're addictive. We'll see...

New Spinning Group

I'm really excited to join Island Pond Spinners, a knitting and spinning group near where I live. My first meeting will be this weekend. I can't wait to see spinning. A friend's mother taught me how to spin using a drop spindle a few years ago, but I'm hoping someone will have a wheel I can learn on. Wish me luck!
Also, I need to bring a snack food: any ideas? I was thinking of bringing some curried chicken with rice and veggies. Recipes wil be greatly appreciated.

Cable Tuque Two

I'm FINALLY finishing the copyhat of this tuque I made for Neil in August. Mine is made with a beautiful, soft white Warani yarn (50% Suri Alpaca, 50% Merino Wool) that I bought at the Loop Cafe in Halifax. Natalie made the same one, and she finished WAY before I did. (sometimes I get lost in other things people!)

Anyway, Neil loves it, and I'm jealous.

So here was mine in November:




















And here it is now, MUCH closer to completion.


Considering the recent temperatures, I need to finish this VERY quickly.

Socks

Nat will surely be pleased to hear this:
I'm starting a pair of SOCKS!

I bought a ball of sock yarn, and I'm attempting the "two at a time, two circular needles" method.
Wish me luck!

Calorimetry

I saw Calorimetry in Knitty, and the girl in the pictures reminded me of my friend Nina. So I knit one for her. As I was showing the headband for Nina to my boss, Caryn, she looked like she was coveting it, so I made her one as well. I gave Nina's away without taking pictures (bad blogger, bad!) but I got pics of Caryn's knit in Paton's Classic Merino wool in a soft charcoal grey, and added a feminine touch with a few dashes of a dark pink hand-spun wool from Plimoth Plantation, which had been sitting in my stash for ages.










For the second headband, I sewed a second button onto the inside of the band, so that if the large button were closed far up (for a smaller head, for instance), the end wouldn't flop around.




Left:
the flap is unbuttoned.


At left here, the flap has been secured with the small button on the inside, so the flap does not hang down. You can see the small button on the inside of the flap in the first picture (side view, above.)