Well hello there...

So its been a while...

One of my friends requested an MGMT headband for his girlfriend about 3 months ago. I finally had enough time and motivation to sit down and knit it this week. I finished last night and blocked it... and of course now its too big since I knit it in Malabrigo and it stretched out tremendously. I can't decide if i want to chop it in half and sew it back together smaller or if i want to cut a hole and thread a thick peice of elastic through it. I'll figure it out. I've had about 15 requests for a pattern so suppose i should throw one together and post that on ravelry.


And then I started a little beret for myself in anticipation of the freezing temperatures I'm sure to encounter when I come back home for Christmas. I don't know how warm a superwash sock yarn hat will be, but at least I'll look cute? I started with 8 rows of knitting through the back of the stitch 1x1 ribbing and just switched to the stockinette which will be 2 rows of turquoise, 2 rows of gray.

I'm also closing in on being done with an old man sweater I've been knitting on for the past 5 months, but more on that when i take a few photographs. Hopefully it won't be another year and a half between posts.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Have a great day and a great year! Lots of love & hugs & kisses to you from all of us.

P.S.: The jumper was handknit for you by Grandma Ida. I believe those are embroidered bunnies at the bottom.

New stash

The yarn party at Savage Mill was a blast. I got to spend time with Tina while checking out all the local indie yarn vendors. Then we both won yarn in the raffle, and there's nothing better than free yarn, is there? I'm going to send you some of it. I gave myself a budget beforehand and I didn't go wild, but there were some temptations that could not be resisted. Here's a brief recap:

First off, I wore my just-finished Hanging Garden stole, which is made with Penthouse silk laceweight from Karida's Neighborhood Yarn Co. She was selling her yarn there and it was fun to be able to tell her how wonderful the silk was. I think I made a sale or two for her while I was standing there. I had sent Karida a rav message about it, and she then evidently had checked out our blog because she said that your MGMT knitting was very cool.

The teardrop beads are perfect, I think:

On to my new stash. When I saw yarn named Elizabeth Bennet from Yarn Love, I had to have some. I was looking for a denim blue fingering weight for a shawl anyway, so I picked up some in Blueberry Festival:

And I've been thinking about alpaca for another shawl. There were several local alpaca farmers there with gorgeous yarn. I got this:

Alpaca with a little bit of bamboo from Alpacas of Windswept Farms of Middletown, Maryland. It's an incredible natural charcoal/black and so so soft. The owners showed us pictures of the animal the fleece came from.

There was more shopping, but it might be coming your way so no photos today. On my needles now is Waves of Grain in Sea silk, but I think I might frog it. You can't see the beads I'm using at all, can you?

I feel a toe nail polish obsession coming on

Mom,
Yes, I am alive, I just haven't posted in three months... oops. I blame Mardi Gras and the appearance of spring!

hello. we are Caro's toes.

I actually have been working on about ten million blog-worthy projects, but all I have to show for it is what I brought to work today.

Its a very very loosely gauged striped alpaca cardigan in leftover sweater yarn. I'm not sure If I'm going to go for a vest or a cap sleeve, but seeing as its barely halfway through March and it's already too hot to wear long sleeves, I'll probably go for something that is as minimalist as possible.

I'm not sure how I feel about the horizontal stripes... I know they make you appear larger, but I hate vertical stripes and I wasn't about to knit anything color-blocked. I'm not five. And they are thick stripes! Hopefully the lower hip length and the fact that it's a cardigan will help my cause.

And in news of other things you will be happy about, I did not quite my job this morning in order to take a full time bartending position... I guess I'm staying in the antique racket for now.

-Bag

Yarn Party

Everyone in the DC-Baltimore-Annapolis area: it's time to get the word out about the second annual Homespun Yarn Party, coming up March 15th. Tina & I had a fun time there last year in its tiny space in Takoma Park and this year it's at the Historic Savage Mill, a "bigger and better place" with lots more vendors. Check out the vendor list at Homespun Yarn Party. They have a rav group too.

Do I need more yarn? Do you need more yarn? Let me know. I wish you could go with us but I always love shopping for you.
love ya,
mom

Yes it's been a while...

I've been knitting a lot of little projects lately. trying to use up some stash yarn. I think you saw the start of this, a lace ribbon scarf in Jade Sapphire cashmere yarn, when you were here. It's so so soft & is really more purple than this photo shows.





But the lace ribbon is going slowly bec this is what I'd rather work on:




Another scarf: this yarn is the merino-silk I got in Alaska that I overdyed bec it had too much yellow in it. Now I love it. I'm following the Old Shale pattern, which I guess is just a fancy name for a basic feather & fan repeat.

Then I started a skinny reversible one-row scarf in some Prism Bolero. I bought the yarn at Stitches East bec it will go with three of my sweater sets & be great for work. The pattern is one of the most mindless things I've ever knitted.

I took your advice and started the Jared Flood Turn A Square hat with the Noro Silk Garden Chunky. I'm striping it with some of the Malabrigo wool you gave me last year. Really nice together.

What are you knitting?

love, mom

On Lace

Mom (and anyone else reading that can knit),

Feel like test knitting something for me? I still need to draft up the charts, but the line by line write up is done.

Also, the humidity is at 95% here.