new hair

Bobby suggested that I dye my hair dark brown so that I will look tough in the big city. I was against the idea immediately, but I slowly decided that a change would be fun. I've been super blonde for about 5 years, or at least until a few days ago. I think I like this, but I still scare myself when I pass mirrors.

The Vogue dress has been done for a couple of weeks now. Sorry no post yet. Just looking for the simple, yet impossible to find, perfect buttons. Oh, and all those pesky ends to weave in.

So many size 7 feet in the blogosphere! What are the odds? I've gotta try to do a garage sale sort of entry before I move!

Tomorrow, I'm going to Hawaii! One last week of fun times before we get down to the nitty gritty of moving. Anyone know a good yarn shop in Oahu?

party fun time

The countdown to my cross-country move has begun! Got about 5 weeks to go. I've been too busy to knit, been a bad blogger and bad blog reader, but I did manage to throw a party, heavily inspired by this incredible book:

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris. I am a Jerri Blank superfan, went to the Strangers with Candy movie premiere in San Francisco, and was thrilled when Amy Sedaris came out with this book. I was gifted an autographed copy of the above book by my awesome older sister. I borrowed an image from the book to make my party invites:

Per Amy's advice, I set up a sale for my guests, so that I could get rid of some things and help fund our move. I made about 80 bucks off my guests, but the sale turned into a free for all costume party (with my discarded clothes as costumes) by the end of the night. p.s. alcohol + roller skates = ouch. Yes, I wore my extra special handknitted dress.

My mom was in town for the day and helped me out with some of the food prep. The recipe for the cheese balls is in Amy's book. Super yummy! I got tired of making the bite-sized balls, so I eventually rolled the leftover cheese mixture into a mega cheese ball (It's hiding behind the wienees).
Mmmmmmm pigs in a blanket are totally underrated. Bye bye wienees:

And we ate and drank and danced all night long.

FO: Sunny Delight

So here's Sunny D, or should I call it Margarita Limon in honor of cinco de mayo? There is something really nice about wearing a bright canary yellow dress on one of the first hot days of the year. We'll be going to a barbecue together later this evening, and hopefully the weather will keep up with us.

Details: Knit with Cascade "Sierra," 80% cotton/20% wool, on size 7 needles. I only used 3 skeins, which was less than $25!

This is my own pattern, and I am really happy with how it turned out! The idea for Sunny D was in my head for a while, but the Craftster Summer Knits challenge gave me the incentive I need to start knitting it. I crocheted the bobbled neckband first, then picked up stitches along the front and back and knitted it in the round from the top down. Once the dress got long, the weight of the cotton yarn made the armholes droop down to a pretty obscene degree, so I added crochet around the armholes to correct this. This addition wasn't my original intention, but I think it looks nice. The hemline was the toughest part for me. I did about 6 different versions, but somehow, the crochet hem kept ruffling up on me, and looked too frou-frou. The crocheted picot hem, somewhat less frou-frou, seems to work for me.

The Backburner

I've got about a week or so to go on the Vogue dress, and I found myself in an unusual situation: there aren't any patterns on my backburner to lust over. I usually have something lined up,even months in advance. My love affair with Twinkle is on hiatus, and I'm trying really hard to find something I like in a number of new books. I spent the better portion of my lunch break sitting down with several said books, (Runway knits, Fitted knits, Glamour knits, etc) and just wasn't feeling it. There are loads of of loveliness in these books, but the patterns just don't grab me. And I don't know why.

That sad, empty feeling is gone now, though, because I finally fell in love all over again. Here she is:

This is from the new Spring Phildar. Love the collar, the ribbed edging, the covered buttons, and that quirky little detail at the waist. Sigh.

I also like her:Look at all those fancy stitches! I want this to be a dark grey vest to wear over gauzy turtlenecks next fall.

I even like her, in spite of the fact that they call her (the horror!) a poncho:

I love the sleeve drama and the vertical ribbing. I have tried on something like this, but it made me look very very short, like the sweater was eating me up. Something about it still really appeals to me.

Three patterns in a catalogue is enough to justify purchase, right? That's what I told myself while I typed in my visa digits. Yay! I've never ordered from Phildar before. I wonder how long it'll take to arrive.

Now that the backburner is full, I'm promising myself that I will finish up my other wips before I order yarn for the cardigan. Not sure if I can stick to that, but I'll pretend for a bit.

Sunny Delight

What is yellow, has picot edging, and bobbles all over?

I'm calling her Sunny Delight. It's a project that I have been quietly working on for the last eleven days. Better photos to come, so long as the weekend weather matches my outfit.

Now that she's done, I can get back to knitting the front of the Vogue dress. I'm also looking ahead for my next knit, and I'm not sure what it'll be. I'm curious about this book:

Runway Knits, by Berta Karapetyan. I've only seen pictures of the patterns on blogs, so look here or here to see some of them. They look interesting, but maybe a little too conservative for me. Here's my favorite, so far:

I wonder what it looks like when the model isn't gripping it together? Droopy? Floppy? Droopy and floppy in a cute way? Not sure.