JenLa

Project: Tudora by Cheryl Marling; Ravelry link.

Yarn: Woollywormhead [Corrected link!] “Dusty Rainbow” Hand spun, hand dyed 50% wool 50% silk-96 g, 129 meters.

Needles: Size 8 US

Mods/Comments: I cast on only 76 stitches because my gauge was larger than the pattern called for and I always bound off 12 stitches when shaping it instead of going up because I had fewer stitches in which to achieve the pattern dimensions. The yarn was sent to me all the way from the UK by Susoolu and the second I saw Tudora, I knew I’d be using this beautiful and thoughtful gift to knit it. This falls into my “knit all gift yarn” goal from MP08, too. Another great thing about this project? THREE HOUR KNIT! Including bathroom breaks! You have to love the occasional instant gratification pattern.

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We interrupt this post for a friendly PSA. Don’t forget that The Diva is having a button contest and she’s extended the deadline to Feb 8. Fire up your graphics program and ****WIN YARN****! If you’re not inclined to make buttons, you should still head over and read about Project Sanity. Especially those of you suckers who knit holiday gifts!
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And now I bring you the current WIP:

It’s almost this blurry in real life.

Someone better check my temperature. I can’t remember ever having knit this many things from all the Knitty issues combined, let alone this many from a single issue. This is my hand spun silk singles and I could probably go down a needle size, but I really like the drape of the fabric. Pay no attention to the background-Ice Queen is in repose atop a mound of Ingeo roving destined for the fireplace. This time on purpose.

Only for a good cause, and only because the founder asked, would I ever purposely go out and buy (just say NO!)velty yarn with which to knit something…anything. Let alone to write it up in a pattern form. You know, I can’t even bring myself to sully the pages of JenLa with it’s craptacularness in photo form. So if you must see it, here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Suffice it to say it’s cat-coordinated:

…And here’s where you can get it

So La, why didn’t you just swatch the 4 inches, do the math, plug in the figures and then be done with it?

Good question. Retaliation. Retribution. Plain and simple. oh, and revenge…served arctic cold. Revenge for this:

Can Trixie LOOK more furmiliated? I’d point fingers at the giver of such madness, but you know who you are…

And now I must wipe your mind’s eye of that abomination so…

Let’s talk about Lilypads…

Help Keep an Animal comfortable

Lily’s FriendsTM, a program of The Lily M. Foundation, is collecting Lily Pads—blankets for animals. They will be distributed to shelters and veterinary clinics.
It’s easy to participate. There are just a few things to keep in mind…

What a wonderful way to use up leftover and single balls of yarn! Especially if part of your participation in Mission Possible 2008 is to rid yourself of those pesky hangers-on that you just can’t quite bring yourself to throwing away. [nudgenudgewinkwink] Or how about that skank of fun fur someone (whether their intent was evil or innocent) gifted you? There’s even a button!

Recognize the kitty?

Pattern: Stulpen by Petra. Ravelry link here, pattern link here.

Yarn: Some Henry’s Attic I dyed in the dye-o-rama of which I didn’t care for the resulting colors.

Needles: US 1 Addi Turbo

Mods: none except needle size

Began: 1/22/08

Finished: 1/27/08 (these are NOT five day gloves, we will refrain from discussing my chart reading problems.)

Comments: A gift for the person I sub for at work. I bought her polarfleece convertible gloves for Christmas and she won’t stop telling me how much she loves them and how much use they’re getting, so I made her another kind. Though I don’t like the colors of this yarn, I think she will. All other qualities of the yarn are great. I’d love to have bed socks made from this yarn, especially on such small needles as I used-which resulted in a surprisingly firm yet stretchy fabric that I hope will be durable. This is part of my Mission: Possible 2008 endeavor, filed under “knit up single balls of yarn”. Since these two gloves didn’t come close to using a ball of yarn, bed socks may be in my future. I’m sick of looking at this yarn, it reminds me of tart-n-tiny candies.

Speaking of MP08, I did finally come up with my list of twelve things.

1) Spin all in progress spinning (in the month of Jan!) ever begun and abandoned. Done!

2) Spin, sell, give away or otherwise divest myself of all roving/batts purchased prior to SAFF07 by SAFF08. Got rid of two lots so far!

3) Make yarn from my own fiber animals to give to my MIL.

4) Single balls-do something with them. This does not include sock yarn, as it has a purpose already.

5) Knit something, anything from my handspun. If I make something from SAFF07 purchases, I can qualify for contest goodies in another group.

6) Knit up gift yarn. Yarn that was sent to me in love by other people shall be turned into finished objects.

7) Make at least 4 dish/wash cloths. This number should be higher, but it’s not. So there.

8.) I have a stash of cashmerino, much of it single balls of color. Find something to make that uses this up.

9) Frost Flowers and Leaves. I should either finish or rip this. Really, two years of hibernation is stupid.

10) I have owed my husband a write up of a crocheted bag pattern for his website for, well, years. Look up names of crochet stitches so this can be done.

11) Knit a babe.

12) Knit curtains for the window above my kitchen sink. (insert foreshadowing of regret here)

Some items I make may fall into more than one category. I like my goals with wiggle room, what of it?

If you did something dumb, I mean REALLY stupid, which of the following attitudes would you choose to represent the incident:

OR

???

Why, yes, I did forget to take the basket of hand spun yarns off the wood stove while enjoying a nice hot fire, some Deadwood and a glass of wine. Either I’m dangerously retarded or I’m going to take the gold in the Creative De-Stashing category for 2008. Luckily it was only my early, shitty attempts at spinning that got ruined. And luckily, all of my recent spinning was stored elsewhere. (not to mention luckily I didn’t burn my house down.) Thank gourd for small favors because my recent spinning is all Mission: Possible 2008 related, and I finished my first goal, which was to spin up all in-progress spinning.

See how I made five projects look like a lot more there? The purple is a 100% wool roving that I got from Little Barn at SAFF. I bought the roving with someone in mind, but it seemed very compressed and possibly slightly felted and I didn’t think she’d enjoy spinning it after all, so I pre-drafted it and began to spin it for her. It turned out to be awesome to spin and I’m very happy with the end result. It’s a fingering weight 3 ply and it has loads of loft and squish even though it was navajo plied. The green and pink is Luxe superwash in the Petals colorway. I had such good success with the purple, I navajo plied this, too. Another three ply fingering weight, I’m FINALLY going to be able to knit socks from my hand spun! After that is the tussah I showed you last week all spun and plied. I divided each color in half, spun them onto two bobbins in the same sequence, two plied them together so like met like and got a slightly heavier than lace weight yarn-700 yards! Don’t know what I’m gonna knit yet. After that is the completion of my color spinning class from SAFF, the color of the roving was Fiesta from Gale’s Art and the close up shows how I navajo plied the leftover after two plying the pink to the other colors. The last one is the ultimate completion of the blue merino/silk from ashland bay married to the mohair/merino from a mysterious land. I still think sock monkey… And so completes my first goal of MP08.

I’ve also been owing shots of some prizes and a gift for a very long time.

I won grand prize in the Mochimochi Land Photo contest, thanks to all of your votes!

And boy, Anna does not disappoint! In addition to all of the craft books, toys and other nifty little prizes, I got a $20 certificate to use in her store and I’ve already bought this pattern. Thank you so much for all of you who voted for me and thank you very much indeed to Anna!

And Stacey sent me these:

A really long time ago. Aren’t they cool? They’re for knitting Cat Bordhi socks. Hey, Stacey thank you! I’ve been thinking about you lately, not just for those markers, but also because I broke my swift the other day and my husband used glue, wires and tape to fix it.

Remind you of anyone? Anyone’s arm, maybe?

I’ve completed 3 of my easier Mission Possible Projects so far. 2 of which entailed either the detanglement of uber skanks or getting rid of yarn, and unless you think pictures of neat yarn cakes and banishing yarn to other people’s stashes are blogworthy, then you can see the update here. But, dude, you might want to consider getting a hobby or something…seriously. However, the third project IS worth writing home about, at least in my over-blown opinion it is.

When I get a wild hair up my ass to design something, I often like to knit along as I go. That helps me to better see what’s going on, if the different elements are marrying up well and if what looks good on paper actually translates into yarn perfectly, or if it looks like ass.

More times than not when all is said and done, I’m left with a half-finished abandoned prototype usually knit out of scrap yarn, that I abandoned partway through because I’ve hit the EUREKA! moment, having exposed all the kinks and fix them, and impatient to start the “real thing”. And… if I’m REALLY lucky, the prototype doesn’t look like a complete disASSter and could eventually be useable…once I complete it.

So was the case with Serenity.

One of my Mission Possible projects was to complete this “blanket” and give it to one of the ladies I work with for her aging cat. Yeah, it was a rather easy finish. All that was left to do was bind off, weave in the ends and block it.

Yarns used from the center-out:
~ Elann Peruvian Highland Wool in Oatmeal Heather
~ Lion Brand Wool-Ease Worsted in Mushroom
~ Lion Brand Wool-Ease DK (discontinued) in Autumn Print

I really like how this partial blanket/assmat turned out. Without even engineering it to do so, the edges came out surprisingly scalloped. Bonus!

Note to self: Before I go tearing my hair out trying to engineer a scallopy edge for the blanket, see if one doesn’t happen naturally.

Sassy even took it for a test-drive. Yup, it passed her inspection, and now it has the cat-ass seal of approval! Sweeeeeet!

And now for the last of my Birthday Yarny goodness:

In the left-hand corner, weighing in at 400 grams we have Handmaiden Fine Yarn Lace Silk in the Rose Garden colorway. And in the right-hand corner, weighing in approximately 450 grams we have Somekinda wonderfully soft mystery lace-weight in a colorway I like to refer to as “Too Many Peeps” aka “Easter Redux”, which I plan to overdye WITH the giver’s blessing. Cuz, that yellow? Approaching neon, no lie. Thank you so much Debi…I LOVE them both!

Last week a couple of bloggers let me know of their kick-ass contests, and I dropped the ball. All I have to say in my defense is that I have been so sick, I couldn’t put together a coherent sentence with staples and duct tape. Hopefully it’s not too late to enter!

First, head on over to Knitwitch where she’s having a

Now you need to run over there quick-like, because you only have until 11:59 pm (Knitwitch time) on the 23th to enter.

Next, Knit And Purr is holding a Central Park Footie. People, it’s another DeFeets of Cuteness! You cannot resist.

Finally, Chappy’s Mom is celebrating trifecta of blogging milestones. This contest closes January 31, so there’s not a moment to lose.

So, what are you still doing here? Scoot!