I finally found time between the new job and furnishing our new apartment to make it to my new local yarn shop, Knitty City. I had a great experience there and the staff was really helpful and welcoming. Plus they give out these amazing drawstring top bags when you buy yarn:
And my apartment is coming along. Once we moved in, we realized that our loft scale furniture just doesn't work in the tiny space. We have since gotten rid of some of the things we moved all the way over here and replaced them with miniature versions, like this table and chair set I got at Ikea:
And my favorite part of the house, our tiny new sofa found on craigslist, and coffee table from IKEA.
Moving furniture, without a car, and in and out of a 4th floor walkup is pretty complicated stuff.
I've started a little blog for my new place, coclico. Take a break from ogling yarn and check out the amazing shoes on the site. I'm having a lot of fun getting to know my new customers and giving the store my special touch.
It took a long time for me to decide what yarn to knit this pattern with, and I am really pleased with how it turned out with the Koigu KPM. It is really soft and lightweight, as I didn't want the dress to get saggy and weighed down by some dense yarn. The smaller gauge helped out with sizing, as I wanted the bust measurement to be a bit smaller that the pattern's smallest size. She fits perfectly up there.
Details: Ribbed Mini Dress by Mari Lynn Patrick from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2007 issue. Knitted with 6 skeins of Koigu KPM color 229. Used size 4s for the skirt section (for faster knitting), size 2s for the waist ribbing, and size 3s for everything above the waist (for a snug fit and for more opacity). I modified the pattern to make it shorter, but it turned out a couple inches shy of a dress. Except for in these photos, she will be worn as a tunic.
Aside from the dress, I have started a couple of stashbusting projects. After Hawaii, and now moving cross country, I have no $$ for yarn and not too much time to knit. Sigh. Oh and my invitation to Ravelry (!!!) has also cut into my knitting time. Yes, it's as fantastic as everybody has been saying all along.
I bought my one-way ticket to New York last night! Ack! The big move is officially on July 2. We have hired a real estate broker who, along with my sister, is looking for apartments for us. It's really scary to look at apartments from across the country. Weird.
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?
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
I finished the back of the Vogue minidress. Here she is, blocking on my floor. I really like the silvery grey color of this KPM.
I forgot to blog about the RAD Lace exhibit, which was one of things I was most excited about seeing in New York. Well, I was a bit disappointed, which is surely why I forgot about it. About half of the exhibit was too far of a stretch from knitting or lace, and much of it was purely architectural. To me, many of the pieces just happened to look "lacey," which seemed to be enough to qualify it for the show. I was looking forward to seeing a bunch of awesome knitted stuff in one place, but I only saw a handful. Check out this knitter's review of the show: I think she sums it up much better than I do, and she has great photos.
I suppose I let my expectations go too far. Oh well. I feel like a hypocrite writing this, though, because I studied architecture in college and liked to push the boundary of what is considered architecture by making my models out of cloth and sewing them together instead of using museum board with glue. I shouldn't be such a hater.
Overall, it was totally worth the visit. The tiny knits by Althea Merback are mindblowing and the fiber obtic chandelier is beautiful.
It's the Steek Tank from Teva Durham's "Loop d Loop" book. A couple of years ago, I used to casually lurk about on craftster, mostly on the sewing boards, until I came across a knitter who had made the steek tank. I fell in love with the sweater and vowed to learn to knit so that I could make my very own steek tank. First I bought the book, next came yarn and needles from knitpicks, then hours of instruction courtesy of knittinghelp.com, and not long after that, I had my coveted hand knitted steek tank. I wore it once (to show off that I had learned to knit, and even made a whole vest!), and that was it.For whatever reason, I had a hard time pairing it with my usual everyday wardrobe, so I slowly forgot about it. I cleaned out my closet recently and found it in a lonely section of my closet, and yesterday, decided it was just the thing to wear with my new grey jeans. So here she is, a past FO, but a significant one, finally deemed worthy of a couple of photos.
Details: Steek Tank from Teva Durham's "Loop d Loop." Knitted on size 15 circs with Knitpick's "Panache." Finished in 2005, too long ago too remember how many skeins I used.
Yes, it really says "shoot the freak." I don't think this would go over too well in SF.
There are no words to fully express the magnificence of these kittyfeet.
