This little gem was completed in November, made up from a skein of red cashmere that was gifted to me by Joy before she moved to Hawaii, and 3 skeins of leftover Rowanspun 4-ply in the colorway Squirrel. The top-down yoke sweater is inspired by MissLemon’s stripey version, and all it took was just a simple gauge swatch, some head measurements to make sure the sweater will fit through my noggin’, and try-as-I-knit top-down fun.

The edgings for the roll neck, sleeve and the bottom bands were finished off with an applied icord, a la Purl Bee’s tutorial. I played around with jogless stripes and centered the beginning of each round at the center on the back of the sweater (traveling down the spine). It’s not completely inconspicuous, but it’ll do for now.

The result is a feathery-light garment that I’ve dubbed : Candy Cane. If you’d like to knit one for yourself, please drop me a comment and I’ll go dig up my pattern notes. Of course, it’ll only be in the size that I knit, which is 36″ around for 2″ positive ease. (editted to add additional pictures)

Pattern: Garter Sideways Hat from Drops, Sz 58 cm

Materials: Noro Sock Yarn (Colorway S164), 0.5 skein, Sz 3 needles

There isn’t a thing that I don’t love about this hat. The garter stitch, the slouch, the colorway, and the simplicity of the pattern. You should all knit yourselves some. Trust.

Happy Holidays.

Nevertheless, yarn had been bought, and I was not about to let it go to waste. I ended up ripping out most of the sweater and modified it to suit my measurements. Realistically, this tank only took me a week to knit.

The tank wasn’t fully complete without its accent ribbons. And since I didn’t have the Rowan Linen Print called for in the pattern, it took a while before I settled on Berroco Suede and finally called it a FO.

Pattern: Toledo, Rowan 37, Sz L hips modified to Sz XS for the rest of the bodice

Materials: Sz 6 and 8 needles, 5.5 balls of Rowan All Seasons Cottons (Shade 192) and 0.5 balls of Berroco Suede (Shade 3764)

Notes: All Seasons Cotton is a lovely yarn. Quite unlike the ropey feel that I have come to expect of cottons, it is springy, smooth and quite spongy. A delight to wear and also to knit with, very much to my surprise. I used 12 strands of the Suede yarn per plait, in lieu of the Linen Print. I think this blue/gray combo turned out quite nicely. In all honesty, I have always liked this pattern and wondered why I never see more of them on the web. In hindsight, I think it would fare better for a DK-weight yarn instead of an aran weight cotton, to minimize potential chunkiness. But all in all, a great pattern.

Now that this one’s out of the way, I better get cracking on that Ilga Leja Pattern.

Fast foward to the Fiber Festival in Torrance last Sunday, and all of a sudden, I was swayed once again. This time around, I picked up a new spindle from the Custom Handweaving booth, and was determined to give spinning another go.

Enter Exhibit A – the bird’s nest.

Within 30 minutes of its arrival since Friday, I was spinning thin strands of yarn. Hello? Thin, improved-uniformity strands of yarn. Then I realized in that very moment that I, self-proclaimed enemy of spindling, has “gotten it”. 2 days later, my little Golding is full. My friends, it’s all in the spindle. Quality tools make for quality spinning. I believe that firmly, and it is with this belief that I will justify all future purchases of additional Golding spindles. And to prove that I really really got it, I went back to the other spindle and tried it with a different fiber.

Enter Exhibit C – mystery spindle from Custom Handweaving, much much heavier spindle.

By golly, spindling is FUN! Unforunately, I did find that the 2 fibers that I have at home (both corriedale — cheaply bought from etsy) are somewhat felted in various spots, making the drafting and spinning process somewhat less pleasurable than it could be. My ultimate goal is to advance to spinning enough merino for a pair of socks. Of course, this means that I will need to learn how to ply… but we’ll talk about that much later because I haven’t the slightest clue what the difference is between Navajo plying and just normal 2-ply.

And lest you think that I have gone over to the dark side and abandoned knitting, you are sorely mistaken. But we’ll save that for another day, because it’s so very close to being a FO.

I spent yesterday in San Diego hanging out with a friend that I haven’t seen in a year. During the much anticipated catch-up story-telling session of everything that has transpired in our lives, I realized that alot of the punchlines and “oh-no-you-didn’t” moments have escaped my short-term memory. This is definitely no bueno  in my book, because you see, I need instant refreshers to all things funny and tragic that have occurred in my life.  

And so, encouraged by my Life in a cubicle commenters, I’ve decided to incorporate more of the funnies that have happened to me. My friend Bobby calls it the “Human Interest” section of the blog.

Date: August 7 2008

Location: Cubicle

Anonymous Person within my hearing range had been groaning in pain all morning. The story was that he fell off a horse and injured himself. But as all things go in life, there was more to the tale.

*crack*

Truth is, he cracked his rib on the shitter.

Moments later, the same person suffered a bout of non-stop sneeze-fest. In the midst of his sneezing, all I heard was:

Merde! Merde! Merde!

That must have been some merde indeed.

My sister called me up in mid-September and said that the weather conditions in Toronto already required winter coats. And then she requested for a scarf.

“Sure, of course. Let me email you some patterns so you can pick which designs you like. What color are you thinking of?” (imagination goes wild with heavily cabled patterns in reds, pinks, and other jewel tones)

“Oh, black, brown, or dark gray.”

“Seriously? But if your clothes are already in that color scheme, don’t you want your scarf to have some color to punch up your outfit?” (I mean, seriously, knitting with black yarn ain’t fun)

“Yea… but if the scarf is black then it’ll go with everything I own..”

“Well, I’ve got really really dark purple. Like, grape. It’s almost black. How about cream white? Can we settle for cream white?” (hello? color? hello?)

And then, before she told me which scarf designs she liked, I went ahead and knit her the Circles Scarf from “Knitting New Scarves”.

Then I sent her the link to Lynn Barr’s “Knitting New Scarves” and she liked it.

“I really like the Gathered Scarf too” (and also the Boteh scarf, but I don’t crochet, so that automatically disqualifies)

“Oh really? Then you’ll get that one as well. Color choice?” (thinking now that I’ve shown her that cream and gray looks well together as a neutral color combo, she may want to be adventurous with her second color choice)

“Black.”

Well, I guess in the end, she wants what she wants.

3:08pm

There is a repair man working on our air vent on the ceiling. This entails removing a ceiling panel, climbing up the ladder, and repairing… whatever that needs repairing. All I can see is a pair of navy blue work pants and his derriere. His upper body is in the ceiling, and all this is happening in the cubicle adjacent to mine.

So picture this:

He’s on a ladder, drilling stuff. *Bzzz…bzzz…bzzz*

I’m in the other cubicle, with one earbud from my ipod in the ear.

All of a sudden, he farted.

There was a 3 second awkward pause in the drilling.

No one moves. His torso is still in the ceiling.

I proceed to put the other earbud in my ear.

When he emerges from the ceiling, he will see that I am listening to music and therefore, my pretense of not hearing him fart is believable.

Back

This week is the first week that I’ve picked up my knitting needles and finished one of my lingering UFOs. 

Front

Pattern: Cherry Cardigan, 32-34″ by Anna Bell

Materials: Elizabeth Lavold Hempathy, 4.5 balls, Sz 3 and 6 needles

Buttons

Notes: Hempathy is soft and not very splitty, and I love the fact that it is machine-washable. I had initially started this cardigan way back when in May 2008, but didn’t get to finish it until this week. The only adjustment that I made was to cast on in Sz 34 for the hips, but gradually decreased to Sz 32 for the waist and followed directions for the rest of Sz 32. It is a wonderfully written pattern, and I can see this being a go-to cardigan for the summer (or what’s left of it).

Sleeve

Would love to stay and write some more.. but I have to ski-daddle now to the Radiohead Concert. Parking spots are supposedly hard to find!

According to Barbara, this pattern makes a handsome, symmetrical (remember: I botched it) ribbed fabric resembling crochet. The fabric is free of curl, sturdy, and easy to block; it keeps its shape well.

I used Felted Tweed for this hat, in Crush and Melody, and have enough leftovers for another one. Should you choose to knit this in a solid color, I am sure it’ll look just as lovely. 

My gauge before blocking were 36 sts to 5″, and row gauge can be easily adjusted since this pattern comprises only of 2 rows. Finished dimensions after blocking is 22″ around.

Freebie for all. Go to the pattern page to retrieve instructions for your own. In this day and age when gas prices are high and costs for living continually escalate, it’s nice to get freebies every once in a while. Should you find errors or have questions, you know where to find me

Pattern: Embossed Leaves Socks, in Interweave Knits Winter 2005

Materials: Sz 1 DPNs, 2 skeins of Koigu KPM 1205

Notes: No modifications to the pattern. I love this shade of yellow almost-solid Koigu, and the pattern is easy to execute. I’m not too crazy about the star-toe, although I admit it was exciting to try something new. The socks are a little loose on my sz 7 feet, but I think it’d make a pair of comfy house socks this winter. Koigu on your feet is luxury. This FO brings a bounce in my steps!

Pattern: Felicity (PDF Pattern Link) by  Wanett Clyde

Materials: Leftover Cascade 220 wool in shade 7814 from my Biker jacket, Sz 8 DPNs

Notes: Truth be told, I did not follow this pattern at all. I loved its simplicity, and just CO 84 sts and increased to 100 sts at random and knit straight for 5.5 inches. At the time of knitting, I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted the slouchy look that the original pattern provided, so I just did a CCD decrease (slip 2 as if to knit, k1, psso) in every round until I bound off the hat. I still like the FO, but I think I’m going to make a real Felicity hat in the future. This shortened and heavily modified version produces horns. Ha ha. This is what I get for butchering a perfectly executed pattern.

Next we have a striped beanie made from one of my secret favorite yarn. Secret in the sense that I love it, I hoard it, and yet, I haven’t made an entire sweater out of it. Learning my lesson from Felicity Shortie above, this time I wanted:

• Non-curling edges (and yet, no garter, and no knit hems)
• Stripes
• A little texture
• Easy memorizable pattern
• Not slouchy, and yet not constrict-your-circulation-tight hat

We shall discuss this Stripey Tweedy hat recipe in the next post. Until then, happy summer knitting.

Yes, having cold beer (good!) outdoors on an uncharacteristically cold day (bad!)….and finished a pair of Child’s First Socks.

Pattern: Child’s First Socks in Knitting Vintage Socks

Material: Sz 1 needles, and a big honking ball of Regia Jubilee India.

Notes: No mods, yea and the yarn is a little too busy for this pattern. But sometimes, you don’t listen to your inner smart-ass. It happens. Fits well though. And those leftovers? Perfect for iPhone cozies. 

Waste not, want not. *Whack!* Who am I kidding… there are two hanks of new sock yarn staring back at me as I type this. Now let’s go back to this……

(Unknown beer at Father’s Office, Culver City, CA. Best sweet potato fries.)