Nuff said.

Neruda’s Shrug in Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Worsted.

This is just a quickie blog post as I’m about to take off on a tour of East Bay LYS with my dear friend, Nancy Ricci, who just moved to SF from Portland. Have a great day whatever you decide to do.

Life is hectic, there is no doubt, as I’m sure it is for you too. I logged into WP and found over 180 comments waiting to be plowed through…mostly spam.
<sigh>
At least I have some new Misti Alpaca in a soft spring color to drool over. This will become the Neruda Shrug soon. If I ever find the time.

Today I received an amazing “stash enhancement” gift from my lovely, wonderful and awesome friend, Liz Plam (see previous post) – two giant skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts ST-2 created especially for Sock Summit. I have never used Socks That Rock before and I’m excited. This stuff is gorgeous.

So even though I didn’t attend SS’09, I feel like I now have a piece of the historic conference and I’m going to treasure this beautiful yarn. The color is even more glorious in person. They’re going to make a dynamite pair of knee socks. From the bottom of my heart I thank you Liz!

There are a couple of good Sock Summit “wrap-ups” that I can recommend – one written by the Yarn Harlot and the other penned by my dear friend, Elizabeth, over at Picture and Book. Go and check them out now.

I have been obsessing about making this cute little cropped jacket which I keep seeing at Close Knit for many months now. Maybe over a year. Every time I tried it on, it fit me so perfectly that I thought to myself “I really must make this sweater”. Well I finally bought the  pattern booklet recently – Rebecca #32 -  and then looked up the pattern on Ravelry this being my first ever Rebecca pattern.  There were only two projects on Ravelry – only two other Ravelers making this pattern -  and it kind of surprised me until I started on the swatch. Yes folks, swatching is becoming a regular habit for me now and a good thing too. I couldn’t quite figure out the fisherman’s rib stitch as written but I found a lovely tutorial online (written for North American knitters) and now the stitch just flies for me. Ain’t the internet grand?

The yarn I’m using is Lion Wool-ease because I had some leftover from my Obama pillow which I used for the swatch and I liked the resulting fabric so much that I decided to knit the entire jacket with it. Yes, it is a cheap choice of yarn but I still suffer from issues of worthiness and also frugality. I knit a LOT so inexpensive yarns are a godsend. Also, I think this is a rather good choice of yarn for the project.

After several false starts I now have several inches centimeters of the sweater and it’s going strong. The cropped jacket is my current obsession, the roses have been neglected but springtime bandit is complete! I just need to find someone to model the shawl for photos. The weather lately has been spectacular – more like summer than spring. Here’s a sneak peak of  the bandit being blocked.

The impetus to start this pillow came out of nowhere. I was sitting quietly (!) on my sofa one day when I realized that I had the yarn for the Rose Pillow (rav link) in my stash, found the pattern and cast on. Maybe I thought  it could be a gift (if I can bear to part with it). The pattern can be found in Vogue Knitting, Holiday 2005, and it’s so simple, the entire pattern is about two paragraphs.

I must tell you that the roses are easy, quick and quite addictive – as you can see. I think I’m up to 14. I need 25 total. They knit up in a snap and they even make a great traveling project. Nothing like whipping out the Lion Suede when you’re in line at Trader Joes.

In any case it’s fun to be in the midst of spring knitting, being attracted to lighter colors and breaking from my fascination with all things gray (grey?).

More on my spring knitting projects tomorrow.

asymetrical cable hat, originally uploaded by alicethelma.

I finished this little gem, the asymmetrical cable hat, a few weeks ago but couldn’t find a suitable until just recently. It looks adorable on my neice Juliana don’t you think?

The hat is a quickie knit from the book One Skein (by Portlander Leigh Radford) and if you love cables as much as I do, you’ll have fun making this hat. The hat construction is straightforward – no dcreases. I used some Cascade Bulky that I bought at Close Knit earlier this year and of course I ran out so I made the pom pom out of white. Then I actually found another ball of pink in my stash!

The hat is really comfy and cozy and also looks pretty groovy on Juli’s Dad, my brother Steve.

I’m back from celebrating Thanksgiving with family in the Bay Area. Here’s the whole gang.

Only a few people missing but it’s always a great feast at my sister’s house. Many thanks to Karen and Jeff.

Start the Monkey, originally uploaded by alicethelma.

In the movie Funny Face starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire (which, BTW, is one of Alice’s favorite movies) (and one of my favorite movies as well) there is a dance number entitled “Think Pink”. I love pink. I absolutely adore pink. I passionately and unabashedly worship the color pink. Need I say more?

So to avoid doing what I’m supposed to be doing (top secret project with a deadline) I started the Monkey designed by the great sock artiste, Cookie. I’ve been wanting to make these socks for a long time but couldn’t justify starting them seeing as how I have about ten other projects on needles, two of which are socks waiting for short row heels. What can I say? Knitting is my way of avoiding reality and casting on a new project always seems like the next best thing to do.

I’m happy to report that these socks are coming along splendidly; much easier than I had anticipated. And I’m knitting them on size 0!! US size 0 (that’s 2mm for our Canadian friends). The yarn is Knit Picks Essential in Petunia. A grand color!
Here is more lovely pink to feast your eyes on.