and knitting

Various and Sundry Links - November 23 2006

Various and Sundry Links - November 23 2006

- Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and yours have a wonderful day. My family is going to dine on (avert your eyes vegetarians) turducken this year. It should be yummy. This year I am thankful for just having a day off of work (among many other things of course).

- "...and he always arrives too early for his sauna turn"
Because all of that thankfulness can get a little tedious, Happy Un-Thanksgiving [via Seth].

- I've been playing a sad amount of we love katamari lately, so it's sort of a plate o' shrimp moment to see these crafty katamari projects pop up [via Craftzine and Knit.1].

- Tativille looks like a fun place to live, but perhaps you'd prefer Utopia.

- Kate, (who seems to have been replaced with a knitted replica) pointed me to the wild woolies project. Spread the love.

- A sexy knitters' club of a different sort.

- It's probably impolitic to admit it, but maintaining the knitting in the news site had made me a little burnt out about charity knitting stories. However, UK-based innocent smoothies' supergran project stands out. The wee knitted hats are adorable and 50p from each be-hatted smoothie goes to Age Concern, the UK's largest charity working with and for older people.

- Today's time management seminar has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict

- Too bad I didn't see Extreme Craft's disability chic post before I was off my crutches. I might have been inspired to knit some crutch muffins!

- I am in love with Keep & Share's cardies [via Modish]. I'd like to link directly to my favorites, but it's another one of those ill-designed flash sites.

- If you're so inclined, you could buy a £150 chain scarf from Hussein Chalayan or a knock-off from Benetton. Or, you could knit your own based on Knitty's Marley pattern.

- Let's all debase and hand-counterfeit couture together! A handbag fanatic misunderstands the counterfeit crochet project.

Don't be a fool-ah, give him the ooh-la-la

This is what over seven feet of soft, fluffy, ruffled alpaca looks like draped around my neck. Yes, that silly last skein of yarn came in, and I was able to finish my ooh-la-la scarf.

The project has morphed a bit since I first started. It was originally going to have a rather subtle, undulating edge, sort of like this scarf by Twinkle. Then I saw all those fake Fendis on Craftster and knew I had to go with a ruffle.

It's a whole lot of scarf, but I love it!

The Project: Give Him The Ooh-La-La, Scarf
The Yarn: Fable Handknit Pure Baby Alpaca in ethereal blue purchased from pureknits
The Needles: Crystal Palace US6 Circular with as long a cord as I could find
Started: June 25 2006
Finished: November 20 2006

Preview of Coming Attractions

Well, I expected to have a finished project to post for you today, but it seems I am a few yards short of a scarf (and, no, that's not a euphemism). It's frustrating to run out of yarn mid-cast-off. However, I assure you that I didn't swear as much as this guy [via Extreme Craft].

I could have gone back and ripped out a row, but it seemed like a giant pain to try to put all 1600 gazillion stitches back on the needle. Much easier to just order another skein of yarn from Yahaira's lovely shop.

Finished project and various and sundry links coming soon!

Cue "Fanfare for the Common Man", because project #33 is finished!

Cue "Fanfare for the Common Man"...

So, is there a prize for what surely must be last place in the Knitting Olympics? Yes, the so-called performance enhancing sweater is FINALLY FINISHED!!!

Despite the lengthy delay, I'm quite pleased with myself for taking this project on. It was a lot of fun to come up with a design and then execute it with the expert guidance of Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top.

Next time I do a top-down sweater, I'll go a little easier on the raglan increases. I was nervous about making it too small, so I ended up with a bit too much bulk under the arms. Despite this minor issue, the sweater is still cute (if I do say so myself), comfortable and very warm.

I'm not sure what else to say, other than WOO HOO!

The Project: Performance Enhancing Sweater for Team First Sweater - My own "design", using instructions in Knitting from the Top
The Yarn: Rowan Classic Cashsoft DK in black purchased from Cucumberpatch UK
The Needles: 2.75 and 3.75mm
Started: February 12 2006
Finished: November 2 2006