it's the most wonderful time of the year!

As far as I'm concerned, Spring is the most fabulous time of the year. I loveitloveitloveit - love it! The buds are bursting, flowers blooming, and I am feeling inspired and reinvigorated, shaking off the winter blahs and eager to get started on projects. Being as I enjoy photography and am slightly obsessed with Flickr, one of my favorite projects is working on a photo theme. Last year, Maryse and I started MacroMay, in which we shoot one macro photo a day and post it to the Flickr pool throughout the month of May. Wanna play along with us? Feel free to join the group. You can do a macro a day or every other day or whatever suits you best. The most important thing is to have fun with it!

maliclava!

pattern: Anti-Firework Dog Balaclava from Pet Projects: The Animal Knits Bible
designer: Katherine Case
yarn: Cascade 220 in Anise and some silk/mohair that I am pretty sure is by Habu
needles: Addi Turbos US size#8
modifications: The pattern is written to be knit flat, but I thought it would go faster in the round (and hooray! no pesky seaming later). I also added a couple of stitches to the circumference and length since Mali is not really such a small dog, but he is definitely too small for the larger size.

While at Webs last weekend with some friends, I came across this fabulous book for knits for your pets. While I love my pets (enough to post embarrassing photos of them all over the internet, ahem), I have never really been into this sort of book. I feed them the sooper-speshul fancy-pants pet food, but I have never knit for them. What's up with that? This particular book, however, really caught my attention. The photography is lovely, and the projects mostly seem like quick and easy knits, mainly stash-busters even. It was the Anti-Firework Dog Balaclava that really caught my eye, though, and pushed me to buy it on the spot. I knew I had to make this for Mali, because... well, why not? Mali doesn’t need this, as he is totally not phased by fireworks, but I could not resist the immense cuteness of this pattern. Look at the buns!

So frigging cute! Granted, I didn't sew them on exactly as I should have. They're a little lopsided. But still... CUTE!

Today is a very special day for Malachi and for us. It was 7 years ago today that I found him as a scrappy stray in Long Island City. And this is how we thank him for living with us all these years. Hah! Happy Maliversary! Anyhootle, not to make the cats feel excluded, I even made LG try it on because... well, why not?

ZOMG! Balacatvla!

double-ewe tee eff? d'oh squared!

Allow me to vent for a moment. So you know those socks I finished the other day? The Waving Lace socks in the different dye lots of the same Koigu colorway? They did something funny when I washed them for the first time. I present to you Exhibit A, the photo above. Seriously, what the hell happened? I have knit several pairs of socks, as well as cowls and fingerless gloves, using Koigu, and while there's some fading and pilling over time, I have never seen any of these items go five shades lighter after the first wash. Never. I am kinda shocked and a little disappointed. I do find it extremely funny that the toe I thought may have been too light or too pink for the originally plummy socks is now so much darker than the currently pale mauve socks. Now you can really see the difference in the dye lots being as one didn't fade into oblivion whereas the other did.

Now please let me make it clear that I am not bashing Koigu here. That is the last thing I want to do to a yarn that is my old faithful, my steady go-to yarn, whose color range is lovely and whose base is squishy fabulosity. I don't want to make the good folks who dye this yarn look bad or trash-talk it because I truly love Koigu. (I also don't want angry torch-bearing mobs rioting in my normally quiet little spot on the interwebz like they did the last time I said something that was unfortunately construed as less-than-flattering about a yarn that everyone loves and just might have a fierce cult-following. It was one of the reasons I shut down my old blog. *shudder* Let's not go there....) I am just baffled by this, though.

When I look through my handknit socks, I can tell which ones are my favorites as their colorways are definitely subdued by all the wash and wear. And I am not always so kind to my socks. I accidentally felted my stripey Noros by unwittingly throwing them in the dryer. Heh. Ooopsie! I still wear them, but they are not as crisp and vibrant as they used to be. I am trying to wrap my mind around this situation, however. This is different. I'm left thinking, "If I had known this yarn was going to do that, I would have used something else." Because I was in love with this pattern in the original yummy shade of raspberry, but it does nothing for me in ballbag pink.

Okay, venting over. Done! We may now return to our regularly scheduled knitting and crocheting and other fun stuff. Wonky socks and all, life is pretty darn good.

ETA: Talk about awesome customer service! Rhichard from Koigu has contacted me, apologized for the situation, notified the store where I bought the yarn for me about the bad batch, and offered to send me make-up yarn. THAT is fabulous customer service. I am glad to know that Koigu stands behind their product this way. Thanks again, R!

thoughts on marlene

God, I LOVE this pattern. Cookie A. is a genius! It looks so complex, but it is such a breeze to knit. There are two things I would recommend to anyone knitting this:

1 - Try on the cuff before you start the heel flap. You may not need as many pattern repeats as the pattern calls for. It all depends on your gauge and the length of your leg and width of your calves, I suppose, but I didn't find it necessary. The pattern is not as stretchy as you would think. I only knit 5 repeats + the 9 rounds because as it was the cuff was a bit snug up my calf and long enough for my liking anyway (and I like long cuffs). The pattern knits up super-fast, so one more repeat isn't going to feel like that much more knitting, but it is going to fit tightly at the calf. Maybe it might be a good idea to knit the ribbing at the cuff and the first two repeats with a larger needle if you want a longer cuff.

2 - Although it doesn't say so in the written pattern, if you want your socks to look like the socks depicted in the photo, continue knitting the toe in the k1tbl,p1 pattern as you work your decreases.

I guess these things might go without saying for some. It's stuff that's easy enough to figure out on your own, but why not pass it along, you know? Sometimes it's good to know these details before starting a project.

Also, allow me to be a total geek and point out how funny it is that these look almost identical inside out because I apparently unintentionally twist my purls:

Maybe next time I knit something using twisted stitches, I'll knit it inside out since my purls always twist. (I think it has something to do with being a combination knitter. Maybe? Hmmmm....)

it's rastafarout, man!

So one day as we were getting ready to have his capoeira group over for their music class at our place, Matt and I got into a whole conversation about BRO-dhisattvas and trustafarians. Embarrassingly enough, I think the subject came up because I was telling Matt about some awful conservative versus liberal wife-swap show on Fox* and how I felt that they clearly chose the most extreme examples of both camps but usually made the liberal look worse by picking the most way-out hippy-dippy astrology chart writing, hemp-worshipping, ridiculous and totally cartoonish example they could find. Whereas the conservative couple was potrayed in a more positive, sympathetic light, the liberal couple came off like a couple of talking buttholes. For this particular episode the talking butthole was some smoked-out dude with blonde dreadlocks who was super-annoying and puctuated every statement with "Rastafari! Rastafari!" (Yeah, it irks to know that we would probably be lumped in with this hemorrhoid just because we lean to the left, but whatever - screw Fox.) Pretty much anyone who went to a liberal arts college knew that kid who was all, "Yeah, so I'm a Rastafarian. Jah love, man." That dude was this dude, and apparently, Andy Samburg is all too familiar with the kind of dude we're talking about. Also, Andy Samburg is awesome.

P.S. I think Matt is pretty awesome for coming up with the term "BRO-dhisattva," too.

* For the record, I only watched this show because I was alone at home and bored and came across this car-wreck and could not avert my gaze.

talented friends

Last December, at Bazaar Bizarre, I was lucky enough to snag myself my very own splityarn wee box bag and matching wee pouch. I'm sure most of you are familiar with Caro's excellent pouches, box bags, and camera straps. If you're not, do check them out. Because seriously - LOVE!!! The wee box bag is the perfect size for small projects. I was happily toting around my socks-in-progress in them last week. And her larger box bag is great for just about any small project plus all your knitterly doodads. I have to say that Caro's meticulous attention to detail and beautiful craftsmanship have really wowed me. I'm pretty picky about those qualities, too. Her work is fantastic! I want a box bag for every project I have on the needles.

Right now, Caro is doing something that is super-awesome. For the month of April, she is donating 10% of all sales to the National Brain Tumor Society. You can read more about it on her blog. And you can score yourself some goodies at her shop. Right now it looks like the box bags are all gone, but she still has lots of other great stuff available, like her fabulous camera straps. (I bought one of the woodgrain ones for myself recently, and I adore it.) Also, she will be updating her shop soon. Knowing what a dedicated and driven crafter-businessperson she is and how hard she works, I'm sure she will soon have a ton more delightful goodies to offer.

strange inspiration

I gotta say it - I LOVE graffiti for the great palettes that the writers use. I am so inspired by the colors and the shapes. Since we moved up here, I've come to realize that it's one of the things I miss the most about NY. That and our friends. And the subway. And all the great food for cheap. And the museums. And... let me stop now, since really, the list could go on and on. But yeah, back to this place, the here and now. There are little spots here and there, namely by the train tracks, that are covered with gorgeous explosions of forms within chaos and riotous color. I love it, and clearly it feeds me all sorts of ideas about color combos.

So I am still playing around with different patterns for my potholders for the swap. So far, I am kinda liking this one Japanese pattern. Let's see how it all comes together, though. Also, I like working with wool. However, I am still not totally sold yet. I better get croch-et-ing.

well d'oh!

pattern: Waving Lace Socks from Favorite Socks
designer: Evelyn A. Clark
yarn: Koigu KPM in1165 25 (+ 1 skein from a different dye lot)
needles: Addi Turbos US size#1

You know what's ridiculous? That I knit the first sock of this pair in two days almost a year ago and then didn't bother to start a mate for it until a couple of weeks ago. The pattern is super-easy, and it flies off of the needles. And I love the way it looks. It is so very pretty and has nice long cuffs, which I adore. I know I will wear the hell out of these socks. So why then did it take me so long to come back to this project?

That lack of interest in knitting a second sock might have had a little something to do with the fact that I didn't have enough yarn and couldn't find any more from the same dye lot. When I had to knit the toe for the first sock using my second skein, I knew I was short. I had bought this Koigu at Loop in Philly so naturally I tried to get another skein from their website when I realized that I wouldn't have enough yarn, but they were all sold out of it. I tried looking on Ravelry, but to be honest with you I felt like an ass contacting a total stranger and saying to them, "Hi! I was a buttmunch and didn't purchase enough yarn for this project so can you sell me yours? Kthxbai!" I really would have felt embarrassed doing that, which I know is silly. I found a skein in a the same colorway but a different dye lot on Personal Threads and just went for it because I figured it would be a close enough match. And it is a close match even if it is not quite the same. There is a subtle difference, but I think I can get away with it here. Can you tell that the toe on my right foot was knit using the odd skein? It's a little lighter and pinker than the left.

At least it was right at the toe, so it's not such a big deal that it's different. It almost bothers me more that I knit the second sock at a slightly looser gauge so it's just a tiny bit larger than the first one. Now that I am going to have to turn a blind eye to since I have frogged socks for that before. After taking so long to get around to finishing this (and having a few other projects that I reallyreallyreally want to move on to), I have no intention of frogging this and knitting it over. I'm just going to say, "It's all good!" and call it done.