I’m one of those staunchly anti-resolution people. For years I’ve watched my friends torment themselves over their stash, their waistlines, their ashtrays, trying in vain to stick to a resolution they decided to make in the sloshy haste of a New Year’s announcement at 12:01. I’d rather not give myself a reason to feel guilt and self-loathing; I have plenty of those, thank you very much. So even though everyone and their mother is joining the 2007 Knit from Your Stash-Along, I will resist. The flesh is weak, friends, and no flesh is weaker than my own when it comes to the acquisition of good tasty yarn.
…But I’m not totally immune to this New Year’s fetish for making goals for self-improvement, so I am willing to make up some rules guidelines of my own:

- I will follow the wise old edict, Thou shalt not buy random amounts of yarn just because it’s there. Yes, if I’m picking it up, EITHER I need to have a project in mind for it (and those can be dreamed up on the spot, to be sure), OR I need to get enough for a sweater project TBD at some future point. I’m tired of discovering that I have 4 or 5 skeins of some lovely yarn, when I really need 12 to get anywhere unless I want to knit my 9,068,257th scarf. …Did you hear that, people? I just resolved to buy MORE yarn, didn’t I?
- No more than three different single socks can be floating around my WIP collection at once. Just because I got some nifty rosewood needles or a new hank of STR, I can’t go starting socks willy-nilly, or the avalanche of lonely single socks will start to seriously bum me out. (I might add that I have two on the needles, and I’m just itching to cast on for a third pair… so you see I’ve given myself some built-in wiggle room in the compliance department.)
- I will make a reasonable attempt to keep my yarn room from looking as if has just been ransacked by the KGB, and furthermore as if the KGB didn’t find what it came for:

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That’s enough, I think. Hey, nobody ever called me a paragon of self-control.

Meanwhile, I continue to plug along on the socks that I started knitting to avoid the hoodie that I started knitting to avoid the Argyle of Doom …(deep breath) So far, so good! [photopress:fasock1.jpg,full,pp_image]The yarn is Fleece Artist Nova Socks, which is a dream to work with. It’s a nice springy yarn - it knits up on much smaller needles than you’d think at first glance (I’m having to use 0s as usual) because the yarn has so much loft to it. I’m knitting them in a boring old Garter Rib, which is about what it takes for me to be able to watch movies and knit. More soon (and pictures) on the rest of my knit projects…

Happy New Year to all of you!  Wishing you peace, tranquility, and everything you desire in 2007 - not to mention a bucket of Koigu to each and every one of you.   Without further ado, here are the winners of my Knitty contest!  Y’all did so well that I had to draw numbers to select a winner out of the many correct answers.

• Third prize (Lorna’s Laces sock yarn), for the scary high-rise-pants lady, dated 1963: Geogrrl of comment #39!
• Second prize (rosewood sock needles), for the Ingrid Bergman lookalike, dated 1948: Barbara of comment #58!
• First prize (Handmaiden kit), for the toughest photograph - the boy in soakers, dated 1942:  Susan of comment #122!

Thanks everyone for participating in this contest.  It was great fun for me to do and a pleasure to get acquainted with y’all!  I hope I’ll keep seeing you around at the Kitchener Bitch - and I promise to keep you flush with vintage patterns.  In fact, as soon as I can get myself together to make some Hoppin’ John today and perhaps another pot of coffee, I’ll be publishing another this evening… stay tuned.
The New Year is finally here, and to ring it in I finally managed to finish something:

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Hourglass Sweater
from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts

Materials: Cash Iroha in Color #80 (Hunter)

Needles: Size 5 (one size smaller than those called for in pattern)

Modifications: tapered sleeves instead of those blasted bell sleeves

A couple of tips… as noted by many who have made the Hourglass Sweater, it GROWS with blocking. A lot. This wasn’t a problem for me for the most part, as I was a little worried I’d picked the wrong size - but it did come out a good deal more casual and sweat-shirt-y rather than sexy catwoman-y, which probably fits my personality better anyway.  But still.  I do like it and it’s incredibly comfortable.  Here it is in action at the party last night:

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I’ll close with a picture of my lovely friend Lisa, showing off her amazing crocheted finger puppets.  All I know for sure is that the one-eyed red one is named Bad Larry.  Enjoy and have a lovely New Year’s!

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the contest is still going! Stay tuned til we announce the winners on January 1…

Did you ever have one of those days where you seemed to roll not just out of the wrong side of the bed, but onto the floor with a thud? Where you spend the entire day doing the emotional equivalent of nursing the bump on your forehead? I was there yesterday, and in between my secret maudlin thoughts about this and that, I ended up throwing myself a party. A pity party, to be sure - but look who I invited!

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(To be fair, two of these are my travel booty from our trip to Vermont.) Clockwise from top left: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, Great Adirondack Soxie, Fleece Artist Nova Sock, Trekking XXL, ArtYarns Hand Painted Stripes, Brown Sheep Wildfoote, and A Piece of Vermont superwash fingering.
… Hee. Okay. So I was being super super indulgent yesterday. So I’ve only made one and one half pairs of truly successful socks. So my project using Socks that Rock has been languishing for at least two months. So I ought to have saved my pennies for a rainy day. But oh man, there’s nothing better than a bucket of sock yarn to make the sun shine on you again. Hap-py-Hol-i-days-to-me-eee… la la la… anyways here is a closeup of Soxie for your yarn pr0n pleasure:

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I’ve stuck to my guns about no Christmas knitting this year, and I’m embarrassed to admit how great that’s working out. I found perfectly lovely presents for everyone, and I won’t be up at 4 AM on Christmas Eve knitting again! Hooray! I can’t wait to give presents to hubby, though. I’m sure he’ll love them - I don’t think he reads my blog (the man has enough fiber in his life as is, poor dear) but just in case he’s trolling for hints, it’s mum for now.

Coming soon… a little holiday pattern for you! Stay tuned!

How cute is this one piece wonder? This hat pattern is courtesy my dear friend Sophistakitten, who managed to get it together for your knitting pleasure - pics of her mod to the hat soon!

Norwegian cap
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Materials: 2 Skeins of worsted weight yarn, 1 black, 1 white.
Needles: One pair US #7 straights and US #4 (or size to obtain gauge)
Gauge: on size 7 in Stockinette Stitch 5 sts and 7 rows = 1 inch

With size 4 needles and color A, cast on 85 sts for facing of front hem. Work in St st for 7 rows, ending with a p row.

Openwork row: (right side) K1, *yo, k2 tog; repeat from star * to end. Switch to size 7 needles; p1 row.

Pattern: (row 1) With color A, k2, * with color B k1, with color A, k3; repeat from *, end last repeat k2 with color A.

Note: to prevent a hole when changing colors, always bring color to be used under last color used.

Row 2: P1 A, * p1 B, p1 A, repeat from * to end.

Row 3: K4 A, *k1 B, k3 A; repeat from *, end last repeat k4 A.

Carry color not in use loosely along the edge. Continue to follow pattern as on chart until 29 rows above open work row. End with a p row with A. With A, bind off 29 sts. Break yarn and join in last st on needle. Follow pat as on chart for back of cap for 17 rows above the bind-off row, ending with a P row. Dec. 1 st each side of next row and repeat decs. every 2nd row 5 times more, following chart; 15sts. Bind-off with A as if to purl. Block.

Turn back facing along open work row and hem to wrong side. Sew seams joining side edges of back part to bound-off sts of front part, sewing 1 st to every 2 rows.

Tie String and Crochet Edge: With A, make ch. 14 ins. long. Beg. at openwork row of front hem on left side of cap, work 1 row sc around neck edge; ch 16 1/2 ins. Fasten off. Join A in first sc on left side of neck edge. Work 1 sc in each of ch., working in back loop only, 3 sc in last st at end, 1 sc in each st on other side of ch, 1 sc in each sc on neck edge and each st on right ch, 3 sc a end , 1 sc in each st on other side of ch. Join. Fasten off.

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(for larger photograph of this chart click here)
From “High Fashion Hats,” 1962

Looking for the Knitty contest for rosewood needles and Handmaiden & Lorna’s Laces yarn? Click HERE and keep those guesses coming!

So I’ve spent the last week in idyllic Vermont, hanging out with my big sister and her brood. Most of the time I’ve spent playing pirates with young Will - yeeaaarrrrrggghhh! - but along the way I’ve had some serious fiber-related fun. On Monday, we visited with Saintjay from Knittyboard, and she took us on an awesome tour of the local knit shops. We stopped in at Kaleidoscope and at Northeast Fiber Arts Center - two yarn stores I highly recommend - but mostly just yakked about politics, yarn and Vermont. (I’m sorry that I didn’t have a camera with me to take pics!)

Today, we drove down to Wells, VT in the north central Taconics to visit with the good folks at Woolambia. If you’re in the market for an Icelandic fleece, check them out! Their fleeces are just gorgeous and you couldn’t ask for nicer people. And isn’t it nice to know that your yarny goodness comes from a place like this?

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We got to walk around this beautiful farm and see its gorgeous, slightly wild-eyed Icelandic sheep. Meet this handsome bunch:

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These sheep were only shorn two months ago, but their fleeces have already grown out to about four inches. I bought two absolutely stunning black fleeces from twin lambs that were shorn at only six months - and the tog (the long outer coat of Icelandic sheep) was seven inches long! In adults the tog is rough, and the thel, or short undercoat, is downy soft, but in these lamb fleeces both tog and thel were remarkably soft and lovely. This ewe was exceptionally curious about us:

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And this one was full of beans, jumping all over the place - we were told that Icelandics are really part wild, and never quite get used to their human handlers:
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The slightly crazy-looking Icelandics shared their barn with one lone enormous Romney named Joe, a rescue sheep from up the road - we were told that unlike his companions, he was as gentle as, well, you know - a lamb:

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The whole trip was totally fascinating. Here’s the room where all the fleeces get sorted. Look at all those fleeces just waiting to be torn into! Have you ever seen Hefty bags look so alluring??

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Anyway, if you’d like to see some of the most wonderful white and colored fleeces, do check out the great stuff they’ve got over at Woolambia - they sell their fleeces online and they’re totally reasonably priced. It’s great to be able to buy something and know it came from a family farmer and not GigantoYarnCorp Inc.

More later… we’re here til Friday, then we wind our way back to Chicago via Niagara Falls… wish me luck on my journey, and I’ll be thinking of y’all as we travel along! (Since I’ve babbled on so much, I’ll only say that I’m flattered and amazed by all the folks who’ve stopped in for the contest!  Thanks and again, welcome!) Once I’m home I’ve got some amazing vintage patterns to show you, so be sure to stay tuned…  it’s gonna be a good one.