String Factory

Attention All Knitting Pattern Designers: I have seen the future. It is this dress:

It’s from the Emporio Armani Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear collection and I want it.  I want it bad.  That being said, I’m not sure how to construct the damn thing.  Lookie here at this close up of Anna Arendshorst modeling it:

I thought those swirly things were cables, but apparently they’re braided bands of 1×1 ribbing that are somehow sewn together, with triangles of plain knit fabric filling out the body.

Hot damn.  I still want one.  I’d knit one long enough to wear in public, or I’d knit a short one like this and wear it with pants.  I wonder if it has sleeves or straps, and what they look like.   Regardless, I would totally wear the F out of that dress.

Oh, dress.  You are so dead sexy.  Be mine.

In other, knitting-centric news, I plan to cast on a Liesel bolero later today, in the misguided hopes of finishing it in time for the Lamb’s christening on Sunday.   (I have a wearable dress for the occasion, but nothing seasonally-appropriate to wear over it.)

May 28th, 2009 | Tags: design, fashion | Category: fashion, spiffy internet things | Leave a comment

Hey, I finished knitting something! This almost never happens!

It’s the Confection Baby Shrug, although I did some number crunching in order to knit this up with Cascade 220 Superwash, which is a much finer gauge of yarn than the pattern calls for. I’m really glad I took the time to do the math, because the resulting garment is much lighter and seasonally-appropriate.

The finished shrug is too big and doesn’t fit yet, but I took a couple of shrug-modeling shots with the baby anyhow:

I’m thinking she’ll be able to start wearing it sometime this fall, hopefully right when the weather turns. I’m looking forward to it!

May 23rd, 2009 | Tags: baby, finished objects | Category: baby knits, finished objects | Leave a comment

I had been trucking along, happily finishing the second sleeve of ye olde baby shrug, when I noticed I’d miscounted rows when I added my fancy little twisted stitch. The cuffs don’t line up, and I need to rip it out and reknit it. It’s a tiny little error, but on the scale of a baby garment it’s really noticeable.

After the cuff drama on the baby shrug, I went home and picked up the Epic Blanket of Mindless Knitting. Oh, Epic Blanket of Mindless Knitting. I love this project so much. It’s like an old friend, or a pair of comfortable old shoes. I’ve gotten into such a good groove with it I was able to work on it while watching House in the dark. I have never been this comfortable with a knitting project in my life. This WIP and I, we’re practically at the point of farting in front of each other without comment.

I’ve got all sorts of other stressful stuff going on. Mostly good stress, some WHOLLY AWESOME stress, and a small slice of bad stress. It’s so nice to be able to occasionally sit down and knit my own security blanket. ♥

May 8th, 2009 | Tags: knitting, wips | Category: wips | Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to post about this sweater for ages, and now that the lamb’s nearly outgrown it I can’t avoid it any longer:

For the (as yet) uninitiated of you out there in my mostly-imaginary blog audience: this sweater is knit from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s legendary Baby Sweater on Two Needles pattern, otherwise known as the most popular baby knitting pattern in the known universe. It’s so popular, everyone on Ravelry is knitting an adult version of the sweater for themselves, aptly named the February Lady Sweater. (And yes, I want one of those too.)

But I digress. This particular sweater was knit sometime in the mid-1970s for my friend Jenny, when she was a wee human. There’s a tag sewn into it that reads “Handmade with love by Elsie.” It’s knitted in some sort of vintage sport-weight acrylic baby yarn, and instead of buttons there are eyelets with a crochet chain of cool minty-green yarn threaded throughout. It’s a pattern mod I’ve never seen on this sweater, and it’s an interesting (and probably safer) alternative to buttons.

Dear Elsie,

Love,
Amelia

May 7th, 2009 | Tags: baby, sweaters, vintage, zimmermann | Category: baby knits | Leave a comment

Ever since I installed Google Analytics on my blog, I’ve noticed I get a ridiculous amount of traffic from people looking for discount promo codes for WEBS.

Sorry, folks, I don’t have any special super-seekrit WEBS discount codes here. The reason why? There aren’t any right now.

Steve Elkins, one of the owners of WEBS, posted on Ravelry a couple of days ago explaining the situation with WEBS promo codes. I’m reposting it here for people who aren’t on Ravelry:

May 1st, 2009 | Tags: deals, shopping, WEBS | Category: WEBS, deals, shopping | Comments (1)

I’ve really been enjoying fiber artist/shepherd Barbara Parry’s blog, Sheep Gal. Barbara tends a flock of very photogenic sheep and goats at her farm, producing wonderful Foxfire Fibers spinning fiber and yarn.

Barbara is in the throes of lambing season, and she’s put tons of amazingly cute lamb videos on YouTube.  This one is my favorite:

Hooray for happy healthy baby lambs!  Hooray for Spring!

April 29th, 2009 | Tags: babies, farms, lambs, sheep, youtube | Category: handspun, sheep, spiffy internet things | Comments (1)

Last October, I knit a super cute Jess Hutch bunny for a new relative who was still gestating at the time. [pattern | ravelry link]

Both the new baby and the bunny came out fabulously, and my cousin recently posted some photos of them together:

They look happy together, don’t you think?

On the knitting front, there’s not much else to report. I’m a halfway through the first sleeve of my Confection baby shrug, and the Endless Baby Blanket is nearing 50% completion, having gone through two full balls of Paton’s classic wool merino.

I did end up buying three skeins of the super cheap Cascade Eco+ closeout at Webs. I ended up ordering it online and paying for shipping, however, so it didn’t feel like such a crazy deal. (I live an hour away from the warehouse/store in Northampton, so I always go in person. But I wanted to skip the journey out to western Massachusetts with the baby, so I ordered in this time.)

The muted lilac color looks great in person, and the wool is nice and soft. I’m looking forward to working with it someday, if I ever finish either of my two current projects. The baby is time consuming and I don’t actually get to knit all that much. She’s damn cute, though:

April 23rd, 2009 | Tags: babies, bunny, new stash, shopping | Category: baby knits, finished objects, shopping | Leave a comment

Is it just me, or is there a lot of really excellent yarn on sale right now? I just bought a ton of stuff at Webs 35th anniversary sale, but I just keep finding more excuses to potentially justify buying more yarn.

Exhibit A:
Noro Silk Garden Sock — I’ve been interested in this yarn for a while, but I’ve been balking at the $19.85 price tag. Lucky(?) for me, online retailer Annie Amelia has eight different colorways on sale for $13.50 a skein, just over 30% off.

Exhibit B:
Cascade Eco Plus — discontinued colors are at webs for $8.29 per whopping half-pound skein. That’s 45% off the already good price of $15 retail, people. I’m not terribly enthused about Tropical Sea or Prom Queen, but Lilac looks awfully enticing.

In other news, I finished cataloging my yarn stash and entering things into Ravelry last night and I was somewhat horrified to discover I own 38 balls of Noro. (It’s not SO bad, really. There are three bags, and a handful of oddball skeins.)

IT’S OKAY, NO, REALLY, I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT.

April 9th, 2009 | Tags: deals, shopping, stash, yarn | Category: deals, shopping, stash | Leave a comment

I’m taking a well-deserved detour from the Blanket of Epic Waiting–it’s a quick little thing for the Lamb’s summer wardrobe. She has a bunch of cute little dresses that don’t have much coverage on top, so when I saw the Confection Baby Shrug while poking around on Ravelry, I cast on almost immediately.

I’m using Cascade 220 Superwash for the first time and I’m really liking it. It’s SO MUCH SOFTER than regular Cascade 220. Right after I bought this skein at my LYS (Mt. Laurel Yarns in Sturbridge, MA) it showed up 30% off at Webs, but I like it so much I’m not going to complain.

I did run into one roadblock–according to the pattern, “any worsted weight yarn” is fine, but C220 is way too skinny to knit up nicely at 4 stitches per inch. I much preferred the swatch I knit up at 5.5 stitches per inch, so I ended up crunching the numbers and rewriting the pattern for a finer gauge. It was an interesting exercise, and I’m glad I took the time to do it. I like the fabric I’m knitting, and I am enthused about the prospect of (maybe?) getting it right the first time.

In other news, I made a trip out to Webs on Saturday for my April foray into the 35th anniversary sale. I’ll post photos of my haul very soon. In the meantime I am quietly living with the shame of having become somehow physically unable to leave the store without an entire bag of Noro. (No, really. This is the third trip in a row.)

April 7th, 2009 | Tags: baby, cascade 220 superwash, knitting, pattern hacking, wips | Category: baby knits, wips | Comments (1)