I had a great crafting weekend about a month ago with Illanna. She showed me the gift I gave her for her wedding. It's hanging across from their bed, which I think I kind of special! I got to take a much better photo of it...with like stitch definition and everything!
One of us had a bit of trouble winding our bobbin (uhm, I'd only threaded a bobbin once on my machine, and had completely forgotten how to do so - I've since reminded myself), but once we got through a bit of that trouble we were mostly ok. We sewed hats! Here's mine:
The fabric is some sort of disco circle something or other according to Illanna (that was such a half assed description eh?). I got it at Brooklyn General and kind of fell in love with it. We couldn't sew the whole weekend though. That would be crazy. So we visited Ridgewood Needlepoint since I've been doing a bit more of that recently. I had been waiting for a flag canvas to come my way from Annie & Company, and I wanted to stitch something while I was waiting for it. So I bought a belt at Ridgepoint Needlepoint. I've got to be honest though, I haven't even started it yet. It's a pretty cool pattern though. It's chocolate brown and a nice pastel teal color. A combination I happen to totally love.
Illanna's a bad influence. We've known this for a while. So, even though I'd spent a decent chunk of change at the needlepoint store, she brought me to Yarn Diva & More, her favorite LYS in Hillsdale. This range of yarns at this place is amazing! From acrylic to silks and cashmeres, Pattons and Berocco to Handmaiden and Tilli Thomas, the place was ceiling to floor filled with yarn! They barely had any books because, Illanna told me, they have so much yarn that they want to display! We're friends on Ravelry, this yarn store and I. It's really too bad that all these awesome stores are far away from me! The owner of Yarn Diva and her daughter are amazing people, so friendly! It was one of the few places you can walk into for the first time and feel completely welcome. As Illanna pondered what colors of Malabrigo she was going to get, she pointed me in the direction of the handmaiden silk (I told you she was a bad influence, you've had your warning!). I had to, of course, wipe them out of a color:
There's a really great tank top from the spring 2009 Vogue knitting I intend to knit it into. Hopefully soon. It's a really simple pattern, almost wife-beater esque. I'm seriuosly hoping I can bang it out with only 5 skeins. We'll see. I'm now taking bets....
While I was on the floor staring at the Handmaiden Sea Silk, however, I saw this beauty just lying there in a bookshelf, and thought it looked pretty lonely. So I decided to adopt it:
It's a laceweight yarn by a company called Prism. It's going to be such a gorgeous lace shawl, I almost can't wait to knit it up (but I have to knit that Briar Rose stuff first because it's been beckoning to me from the stash for longer!)!
I finished a pair of socks that weekend as well. Beth had given me some Schaefer Yarns Heather sock yarn to play with for my birthday last year. It took me a while to figure out what to do with it and exactly what pattern it wanted to be. I finally settled on the Primavera sock pattern (Ravelry Link).
I knit it on size 0s, which was probably not necessary, but they'll be amazingly warm. That weekend was so amazing that I really can't believe it was so long ago and that I'm going to have to wait soooo long for the next one!! All the sewing and knitting and crafty store goodness and awesome food (Illanna's a great cook!) and hooping! I'm like booked solid through October now, because I'm crazy. Sick thing is that I can tell you what I'm doing each weekend - and yes, there is plenty of time for knitting.
I have also been sewing and needlepointing, however. A few weeks ago, I took a class with Heather Ross author of Weekend Sewing (a great book if you haven't checked it out yet) at Purl Patchwork. That was a linkfull wasn't it? She taught us how to make her Smocked Sundress. The folks that took the class were pretty good (one of them was a mega-marathon runner who was going to run a 100 mile race that weekend!). While I didn't have my awesome camera, I did have my crappy iPhone camera, and here's the shot I got of all of us in our respective sundresses:
I love wearing this dress, even though I have to be careful of it falling! The fabric is really cool and very me. It's so cool to know that I made it all myself, and it was so incredibly easy to make! I even hemmed it myself (which was a bit of a challenge, but I got through it)! It hits just above my knee. I'm planning on making another for when Stan and I go to Hawaii, and a different type of sundress that I'll take from Heather's book to sew.
Ravi took me to The Eduardian for a bit of needlepoint a couple of weeks ago. The owner of that store was totally amazing. I don't think she even charged me for a lesson on how to lay threads. I'm practicing that a bit on a blank canvas (!!??) that I'm stitching as a headband. I think it looks pretty good so far:
It's just a simple chevron pattern, but I wear all three of those colors quite often, so I think it'll be quite wearable.
All I did this weekend was knit. I met up with my friend Nancy from work at Knitty City on Friday. I was particularly surprised that Pearl remembered my name. There's so many people that frequent that shop, and I come in so rarely, she must have some sort of magical way of knowing it! As infrequently as I go to that shop, it really is one of my favorites. I walked in and told myself self, you're not to buy any yarn. We need size 7 dpns, so you're allowed those, and I guess those new Norah Gaughan books will be ok. Fine...add in the new Jared Flood book from Classic Elite. But that's IT!. I took a hard look at myself, and did just what I told myself. Then I sat down, and knit.
Someday, I'll remember to write down the notes I make to myself when I create bust darts. Hopefully, I'll do it with this shirt, so I don't forget for next time. I put Morocco (it's a sublime pattern - ravelry link) down for quite a bit because the bust darts were making me a bit nervous. I wasn't sure exactly how to do them, and I didn't have any information on how I'd done bust darts before, but I knew this pattern needed it. Once I sat down to knit at Knitty City, though, for some reason I felt really confident. Maybe it was just that I was knitting around a TON of knitters, maybe it's because Knitty City is the friendliest place on earth. Whatever it was, it made me feel like there was a huge safety net and that I should just go for it! Which I did. A bit too early, actually. I started in on my short rows, and when I measured the back after I had done them to find out how much more I had to knit, I found out too quickly that I needed to actually start 2" later than I did. So out it all came, and I re-did it. There was a lot of knitting with the Ella Rae Bamboo Silk this weekend. Probably too much.
For the first time since I really started knitting, my hands are KILLING me. To the point where it's actually hurting me to write this post almost. I really want to keep knitting tonight though. While I pop a couple of Moltrins, check out the yarn I ended up getting on Friday at Knitty City (really, did you think I was going to be placated by knitting books?).
I have no idea what this colorway is called, but it's quite pretty. I know it's sock yarn, but I really don't think I've bought any sock yarn all year, I'm allowed to slip up every now and again. Or think of it as my consolation prize for not being able to go to Rhinebeck this year. I can't explain yet why I can't go, I just can't, but I think that means that the year after will be just that much better.
In other news, look out on the Berocco newsletters for voting on their sock contest. I think the voting starts on September 25th or so. I entered a pair into the mix, and I really hope they like them. If they don't publish them, I'll probably whip them up into a pdf and publish it myself on Ravelry.
Well, is your lunch break over? If not, I think you should just knit for a bit until it is. I'm going to watch some Adult Swim and let those Moltrins take my pain away so I can knit again.
