Tuesday, October 9, 2007

I'm IN!!!


Woo hoo!!! I got my invitation to Ravelry today!! It truly is a cool website. If you haven't signed up for an invite yet, do so NOW!

Friday, October 5, 2007

Winter Wonderfuland Swap 2007


AstonH is hosting the Winter Wonderland Swap for 2007 at
Knitting Help forums. I signed up because it is just so fun. It's a surprise color theme. We each had to say what our favorite color was (and least) and we will send our swap partners items in their color! I chose blues as my color. Yes; I know blue is vague, but I love just about every blue there is!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Well, should we be surprised?



You appear to be a Knitting Purist. You are an accomplished Knitter producing beautiful pieces with a classic feel. You sometimes lament losing half of your local yarn shop to garish novelty yarns. Perhaps you consider fun fur scarves the bane of knitting socieity and prefer to steer new knitters towards the wool andcotton blends. Some might call you a bit of an elitiest but you know that you 've been doing this craft long enough to respect the history behind it and honor it with a beautiful piece that can last a lifetime.

Take the quiz!

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Answering Suna with a post

Because I can't do links as nicely in a comment.

Well, considering that this book was originally written in Scandinavian (of some sort) I figured I'd run into something weird. Now that I've got a few good repeats going I don't even look at the pattern anymore (I love cables for that) I just look down and go, "Oh this line has to cross over this one now." And I remember that *generally* with basic cables all knits are always knit on the front and all purls are always purled on the front (and likewise for the back). I'm planning on getting more of her books as I really like the styles. Many of theme seem like they would be flattering to my odd-shaped body, especially the sweaters that have little gores set into them for a bit of a flare (over my flaring hips!) I'm especially taken with the sweater on this page It's so full of texture and wouldn't make my hips feel too snug. However, I can't seem to find the pattern in any of her books. It seems currently only available through her Scandinavian kit for the sweater. But she does have other sweaters similar.

October Magknits review

Magknits' October issue is up. While I never like things on here quite as well as Knitty I do find things from time to time that I do like.

The Horshoe Cardigan is really cute and would be lovely in any dark color. It just has a few flaws for my body type (note that my body isn't flawed just the patter :D ) The neckline is far too low and the waistline is way too high. On the right body type it would be cute though.

I really think the Lasa Shawl Headband is really cute and may become a Yule gift for one of my girls. It's a simple enough lace pattern for a new knitter to bite her (or his) teeth on. I'm not sure I like the variegated yarn that is used on the edges, but I love the soft colors.

Bitty Boo is just SOOOO adorable. I have a feeling I will be making a few of these for my own Boo! I don't have any good "ghost white" wool though, so may have to go see what is cheap at JoAnn.

Burridge Lake Aran Afghan is, well, just another Aran afghan and I just hae no patience for afghan's. I get absolutely no joy out of making large projects like that. I'd get bored before I was finished even though I adore cables and bobbles. I can definitely see me using parts of this for other things though. Never turn down a good colleciton of Aran braids!

The Rainbow Socks have definitely made the "Must make list" only because 2 days ago I swore I would never knit with self patterning or self striped socks again because they are so boring and you just seem to knit round and round and round. Well, these socks need self-striping sock yarn or else the short rows don't make any sense at all. They are very cool indeed. Knitpicks may just be getting an order from me soon for some of their Felici yarn in Hummingbird or maybe Aurora. Although Firefighter is also pretty cute. Oh decisions decisions!

OK, so that was my review. Check it out.

Now for something totally different: I just got in the book Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elsebeth Lavold. Being a Viking means I had to have this cable-filled book. I'm having some problems with the chart and directions. They aren't your standard American knitting charts or instructions. So if you can tell me what the following mean, I'd appreciate it. My cables are just plain wonky!

Cross 2 knit stitches over 2 knit stitches, to right
Cross 2 knit stitches over 2 knit stitches, to left
Cross 2 knit stitches over 2 purl stitches, to right
Cross 2 knit stitches over 2 purl stitches, to left

Now I THINK that they mean:
Slip 2 st to cn hold to front, K2, K2 from cn
Slip 2 st to cn hold to back, k2, k2 from cn
Slip 2 st to cn hold to font, p2, k2 from cn
Slip 2 st to cn hold to back, k2, p2 from cn

But I think I've messed it up somewhere.