How are your holidays?

My Christmas weekend was not very pleasant. I had spent it at a good friend's house and while my friend and his wife were great, some of the other guests were hard to take. I shall not bore you with the details. Its over and done with.
So I did the only thing any sane person would do to "tune out" I KNIT! Ya! When packing I grabbed 2 random skeins of Noro Kureyon, had no idea if they match, and size Us9 addi circs. I have been wanting to make the Child's Rainbow from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. (See Steph’s version of it here.) This is a great stitch (mistake rib) to knit while you might be distracted and or upset... I also wanted to see if Noro magic will work again even with random skeins. I think it does! This is for my cousin's 14 years old daughter, so I made it a bit shorter, only 2 skeins. Some bits of Noro trivia: there were no knots in either skein. One is very old. One skein was 6-7 yards shorter. I had to add a bit from a left-over bag. At one point, the 2 skeins had the same color. I managed to start and end with pink, without planning.
So this little holiday wreath like arrangement is my last ECF for 2006!

My lists, BTW, are cooking, still cooking...

As 2006 comes to its end…

I am going to take the rest of the year and devote it to filing, re-organizing, regrouping, de-cluttering, perhaps some de-stashing. (If I am brave…)And- some time next week I WILL get some rest! I am definitely going to make a trip to the Container Store and get my yarn organized better. One of my goals for 2007 is to do a proper yarn inventory, and count every thread in the house. What, what are you laughing at…………?

I am going to follow some lovely examples I saw in blogland of reviews of last year’s knitting and next year’s wish lists. Have to work some next week- it will not be all knitting fun and organizing- but hey- got to support the kid and the fiber habit… speaking of fiber- I have received my copy of Spin to Knit and I WILL learn how to spin in 2007! A girl can only take so much teasing from blogland ya’ know?So Merry Christmas from New York City to all who celebrate and I’ll catch ya’ all before the end of the year with my lists (I hope…)!
I have learnt so much from all of you! The knitting bloggers community has been an awesome inspiration to me! Thanks for being out there, and leaving great comments- and keep coming back! Thanks!

And then there were two...

Edited to add:
These are Bea Ellis traditional hats. I got the kit in the dark gray and the orange, but planned to use gray for hat A and orange for hat B, with the snowflakes in the lovely Swedish baby mohair I received from Sigrid. The kits come in lots of colors. I made the gray one for me, and the orange one for my son (he has an orange down coat). pretty much followed the very well written pattern. it comes with the cotton for the inner band. the only mods- I made the cotton band a bit deeper in the orange, and overall, a bit shorter for my son. It all falls (ha, ha, ha, probably the only place where snowflakes will fall this year in NYC...) into place in the blocking!!! Like magic. Now that my dad wants one of my "knitted items," I may send him the gray one. Problems: "but, I want to wear my cool hat mommy!" (not the one I made but...)
Thanks everybody for your kind words. I manged to knit these because I did all my shopping on line and slept very little last week...!

And here it is.

My first Bea Ellis hat. This was great fun to make. I started it Friday night and finished it Sunday evening. Here it is- inside and outside and on my head. You can see how nice the mohair shines. The inside band is cotton. Next hat, I'll make the band a bit deeper. This one covers well, but it just feels like it could be a bit deeper.
I am ready to start another one, for my son, in orange (to match his coat) and the baby mohair. I may send this one to my dad, who decided he "should have one of my knitted items" after my knitting was in the show.

Last Night

Last night, I sat up till 2am knitting my Bea Ellis snow flake hat instead of getting the place ready for the holiday party today. Today, there is a price to pay... but last night, I just HAD to... sounds like an addiction perhaps? I received it yesterday, and I have been so looking forward to knit it. My snow flakes are very natural and organic. No two are alike... that's what happens when I knit late at night. But I love it! The bottom part is knit in cotton and will fold in to create a cotton band, so it will not itch. The light grey is the lovely mohair I received as a gift from garngamen. Its wonderful, soft and warm. Its a bit thinner than the dark grey, but its close enough, and it fluffs up a bit to match. Garngamen is right of course, grey is a color, and as a matter of fact, I like all shades of grey. This will be one of my projcts for Stranded Colorwork Challange.

Seasons

Colors; now you see them, now you don't!

Its a match!

Thanks everybody for your kind words about Bradshow! I do LOVE comments. Bradshow is very handy as the cold burst in on us in NYC. [Last Friday the temperature was 64ºf ( 16ºc) today it was 22ºf (-6 °c).] I am working on a mini-me similar "something".

Here is what else slipped off the needles recently:I could not find a simple pattern for kids, so I just sort of guesstimated a smaller version of my regular top down simple sock, and it worked. Its the first time I just set out to knit socks without instructions. I figured, they are small enough, if I have to frog, I could live with that... Next time I will make the heel flap longer though. But that is not the end of this wonderful Regia yarn, gifted to me in London by Ingrid. There is more to come...

Bradshaw going to town.

I present to you Bradshaw.
Pattern from Noro Knits by Jane Ellison
Yarn Noro Iro color 40
Needles US10
Mods: I knit it on US10 (as opposed to the suggested 10.5/11) cause I like a bit of a tighter knit, especially for a jacket type garment. Also, for the two fronts I CO only 42 st, not 52, and made the collar 7” as opposed to their 14”, and did not make the huge garter stitch calf. I made 8 buttons as opposed to 5, to make it lay flatter. At the moment I have 2 kinds of buttons since I did not have 8 the same, but I may keep it like this. At Bradshaw's first outing, at CancerCare Knitout today, the overwhelming majority of knitting friends liked the odd buttons.
It was great to knit, fast and fun. k2, p2 rib is great. It has a great rhythm, but it is not boring, strangely enough. Moreover, the colors in a variegated yarn, especially this one- keep you wanting to get to the next one. There are a few abrupt color changes due to Noro’s famous knots, and in some cases I undid them and started from another color in another skein, but for the most part I like the surprises. It is very cozy to wear, and I know I will reach for it often. I have almost 3 skeins left over, so with some other yarn I have, I am thinking a little cardi for my son. How cute will that be... me and mini me...
This is my Norovember project, but so what if I finished it on Dec 1st? Some of you may recall the reasons... :-)
Can you tell I am pleased with the way it turned out? As a matter of fact I was rather pleased with myself walking over to the Knitout, in my sweater, hat and gloves!
And who says NY does not care? Here we are NY knitters at the Cancer care knit-out.If you were unable to come today, please consider being a “Virtual Knitter”. They will send you a knitting kit, complete with yarn & a pattern. ( you can also use your own pattern) You send them your completed hat whenever you are ready! Detail on the website.
CancerCare is a very important charity for me, since my mom died from ovarian cancer 3 years ago. I never made her a hat, since she said she did not need it, but why did I listen?

ECF

Paying tribute to Hilde’s gloomy confused Apples in the Fog, I have this to share. The last hoorah of the season. It was 64º today (16ºc), but soon winter will blow into town.And its been so warm and wet- the moss thinks its spring.

Check out the range of colors in the rocks!Also seen this week- the Haunted House (its a must!) and the little Mouse in a Nutshell.

Bradshaw is being sewn together as you are reading this... I hope to wear it tomorrow,
Sat Dec 2nd, to the Cancercare charity knitting event. Please stop by and bring your sticks!
Chelsea Studios
151 West 26th Street
(Between Sixth and Seventh Avenues)
Room 507
New York, NY 10001
Time 11:00am – 4:00pm
If you are unable to come on December 2nd, please consider being a “Virtual Knitter”. They will send you a knitting kit, complete with yarn & a pattern. You send them your completed hat whenever you are ready!
Detail on the website.

Emergency Surgery

I had to interrupt my mad dash to finish Bradshaw tonight, for Norovember, (the clock is ticking!) when my son brought over a very injured bunny and asked: “mommy, can you fix him?” I could not very well tell him: “wait till December sweetie, mommy will have more knitting time…” As you can see, bunny has been stitched before, but this was serious! I just hope the new soles will not be chewed up too quickly.

Regia sock yarn courtesy Ingrid.

Food for thought- Friday.

I wanted to share this with the international bloggers/knitters community, for which
I am thankful this holiday.

A Japanese Haiku:Autumn winds always drift me into yarn shops.

FO Wednesday

My work at the Fine Craft show at the Pen & Brush!Other FO:
Fingerless gloves (waiting for early spring...)
Ribbed Cardi waiting for a Zipper

Fibonacci scarf (red scarf project #2)

New species of caterpillar found in the wild

This new species of caterpillar (new in my stash...) is the Speed Demon Sock in colorway Angel from SweetGeorgia yarns. I have wanted one of these for a while, ever since I saw it metamorphosed into socks in some remote blog or other (can't remember where). A recent trip to visit my friend Barbara at The Point NYC, (she teaches there) yielded this terrific acquisition!

Caterpillars need to eat a lot of leaves to grow, so I went to the park and got this little Angel Caterpillar a few leaves. I thought I'll get a variety, since I was not sure what this caterpillar will like...

ECF- Autumn in New York part II

Unusual warm weather is prolonging this color extravaganza!
I am not complaining or anything.

Red

I am glad you all like our fall colors!! They are so great that you can’t take a bad picture this time of year!
And in line with the season- there is a lot of red going around. Red sweaters, red scarves, red leaves. My knitting group Sit n Knit New York, hosted a meet-up for the red scarf project! Ya! We are going to send a few in Jan 2007 as a group. I think we’ll have a bunch!!
I started my second one. (The first is my Irish Hiking scarf in Decadence from KP)
The second one is a Fibonacci scarf from stash. I love how these stripes appear random but have a very specific pattern. I am using 8 colors. ( I opened my red bag and dove right in). I CO 40 st with US8 and I made one sequence of 1,1,2,3,5,8,13. By the way, the numbers represent a garter ridge, which is 2 rows, knit all stitches. (thats 7 colors) and it came out as 8”. I figured a scarf could be 56” (dividable by 8), so I need 7 sections. I made 3 sections, next- with the 8th color I knit 8” and started going down the other side with the other 7 colors to match the first side (13,8,5,3,2,1,1). I have knit much further along but today is so cloudy, so I will not photograph the progress.See this little close up below, this kind of knitting is the mindless kind, (love it at times, don't you?) and on one occasion (late night knitting is not for me, or maybe CSI was too engaging) I must have purled these 4 stitches. A concession to the gods, admitting I am not divine…

ECF- Autumn in New York

A Celebration of Colors.

Norovember!

Thanks everybody for your kind words and congrats. I dropped the pillows (cushions) at the gallery on Monday afternoon, and got very nervous. All these strangers will look at my work- oh no! But, it’s too late for that, so I went home to do some knitting!
Norovember - What a great idea. I adore Noro. The colors are great, the fibers are interesting. Sure, there are those annoying little knots with odd colors changes here or there, but- it is always magic!
So this was a great opportunity for me to get on with two projects I have wanted to do for a long time. Bradshaw in Iro from Noro knits (the short version), and a grown-up version of the Child's Rainbow from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. See Steph’s version of it here.
So I went to Fuzzy Mabel with a tip I got from Norovember mistress herself, and got Iro for a good price in color 40. I happen to love the colors. A well-meaning friend, (who is not always on the same wave length as me when it comes to color, and who is not a knitter) declared it swampy mud and rotten leaves, which is a description I find rather pleasant and organic. Go figure. One person’s medicine is another’s poison. We also have a saying that you can never argue about tastes and smells. The colors are very similar (oddly enough) to Dave's gorgeous pullover in Silk Garden #203. I love the colors. And I have plenty of Kureyon for the scarf.
Plus an idea I have for a mitered hat, which I got when I saw Holly playing with Noro Silk Garden color transitions.
In view of all the stash enhancements I saw on blog land after Stitches East, I thought I might do some Noro stash flashing, but I’d rather be knitting…
Actually, I really should be doing my paperwork. But you’ve heard me say that before, haven’t you? That paperwork is my nemesis. I’d rather be knitting…

My work will be in a craft show!

My work will be in a craft show!!!

The Pen & Brush (an international membership organization for women who are professionally active in the literary, visual and performing arts) is hosting a show open to non-members, 11/8 to 11/26- Fine Craft Exhibition, a group show.

If you are in town, Please come and visit!
Artists reception will be Sat Nov 18th from 4-7.
I’ll be exhibiting 6 pillows and a scarf.
The Pen and Brush, Inc.
16 East 10th Street (see map)
New York, NY 10003