Friday, March 13, 2009

Shopping and Knitty: Totally unrelated

First the shopping update. It went well. I found a bunch of shirts just like I wanted at Beall's on their 70% off rack. It was SWEET! I'm still lacking the perfect fuchsia and orange shirts. I found several orange shirts, but they were all not a pure orange. They were pumpkin or melon or harvest or burnt, but not the terrific Crayola crayon orange.

Now for the Knitty Review!

Shipwreck is a gorgeous circle shawl. Although it would probably end up being a shipwreck in my hands. Five needle sizes, 5000 beads, done on fingering weight yarn with 5 different charts? OK, so why do I want to make it so badly? Oh yeah, 'cause it's purty!

Reverie is a really cute lightweight springy beret. It's really cute and only uses one skein of fingering weight yarn. I'm thinking of that gorgeous single skein of Lorna's Laces at my LYS, Yarnside Gathering in the Oddball Bin. $10. Hmmm. It's calling to me and I can always use another hat!

I knew that Aeolian was going to be a hit when there was a KAL on Ravelry less than 24 hours after it was posted. This gorgeous shawl just sings its beauty. I'm not sure if it will get queued as I'm really looking for a shawl that is knit from the top down (in other words cast on a bazillion stitches and cast off 5 rather than the other way around.) But it is lovely!

I wasn't all that thrilled with Santeney for myself. It's pretty and on the right body shape it would be cute, but not on anything that gets into the XL factor. There is an editor's note that sizes for 2X and 3X will be added shortly. Sorry, I'd look like a saucy bar wench with that much trying to support my bazoombas. Let's just leave this one for the smaller ladies, shall we?

Pioneer is a really cute sweater top. I like it paired with the simple t-shirt underneath, but would be really adorable and maybe a tad dressier with a lace cami under it. It is worked with about 2" of negative ease and comes for sizes up to 50". Not bad and quite affordable made with just six skeins of Lorna's Laces sport.

Hanne is a, well, um scarf-type thingy. Yeah. You just have to see it. But I love the mitered stripes on it and from the description by the designer, it seems as though she didn't know what she was making either. It's eye-appealing and fully of stripey wonderfulness.

Imagine there's no heaven. It isn't hard to do. No hell below us (are you singing it yet?) This would be a great first sweater for someone. Simple stockinette stitching with a purled design and no finishing on the edges. The Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton is recommended so I'm already imagining this being very soft. And I love the sewn bind off (very stretchy, use it for all my toe up socks). Although I'm afraid that I would get bored with all the stockinette, but that's just me. Maybe it would be a good TV project.

I may have just found my summery sweater in Decimal. It's soft and lacy and could even be affordable using the KP Shine Sport. I definitely don't have enough of the Berocco for this sweater. I think I am going to wait a bit to really commit to it. It may just be a "how I like it sized" thing because I love the nice slim fitting on the green (smaller) sweater, but somehow it loses all the definition of "slim fitting" when it is sized up. It's one of the things that annoys me about clothes. Because something is bigger in one area, it is seen as needing to be bigger in all areas (arms, length, etc.) Although, with a 10 stitch repeat I may be able to finagle this sweater to not be so huge-looking when it is made for my hugeness.

Andy is a nice simple guy friendly sweater that isn't going to drive a woman made. I like how the sweater stops right above the pockets of the pants, giving this a nice tailored look without being too tailored and not too baggy "over-sized" as well. It has enough interest in the stitches to keep someone like me (who is easily distracted by the next stitch idea) interested.

I'm sort of disappointed that my friend Stephanie isn't having a girl. I wonder if her husband would be too offended by his new son running around in a dress? I guess I shouldn't make it. But Topaz is really cute and a very simple knit. Although he might not be offended by his son running around in Steggie. It reminds me of the "Little Baby Dragon" costume that each of my kids were for their first Halloweens.

SOCKS!! There are several really nice socks in this issue. I'm loving the Absinthe socks. I'm not crazy over the plain backs, but love love love the fronts. I have got to talk my LYS owner into carrying more solid and semi-solid sock yarns. These are GORGEOUS! And of course they have to be green, otherwise why would they be called Absinthe?

While I really like Cirque I'm not sure I will do them as they are quite similar in construction to the Mystery Lace KAL I'm currently working on. I like the attention to the detailing on the foot, though and the continuation of the pattern down the heel. Although why the designer didn't use a strong heel rather than the traditional heel flap construction is beyond me. Seems as though it would have been much easier.

Cachoeira is just a really sweet sock. i love the running travelling undulating stitches down the sides of the foot. It doesn't surprise me she is friends with Cookie A. When I first saw these socks I immediately thought it was another Cookie A pattern.

I love the patterning on the Flit + Float scarf and being lavender doesn't hurt either. It would also be a very affordable scarf using just one skein of Misty Alpaca. There are six charts to keep up with, but it doesn't seem unmanageable.

Ripple just absolutely intrigued me! I put this scarf in the category of "mathematical knitting." It's fun and not at all "straightforward." I like projects that make me knit. Although, truthfully, I much prefer the shorter one made from handspun/hand dyed yarn better than the longer one made from commercial yarn.

When I first saw Sourwood Mountain all I could think of was what a wonderful sock this would make. Of course I don't think there are nearly enough sock patterns in the world, but I love the cuffs, buttons and leaves on this glove. Who knows I may even make them as gloves (and then adapt them to be made into socks.) If you want some interesting viewing, go check out the designer's website Fiddle Knit Designs She has lovely stitch markers as well as patterns for sale on her etsy shop.

I really love the birds on Flock. I'm not sure I would make an entire flock, but a bird or two flying around my room would be quite fun. And a great stash buster project as well.

I had to save Franklin Habit's contribution for last. He has a semi-regular feature called Stitches in Time and this time it was about a baby's hood. It's a lovely hood and while he is using a super fine alpaca, it still looks itchy and the baby he used for the modelling is just absolutely perfectly miserable-looking. It looks like this baby is itchy or at least very put out at having to wear this eccentric hood. It's wrinkled brown and pouty lips are just all too perfect. No Gerber baby for Franklin. Now all he needs is a pram.

2 comments:

Suna Kendall said...

My friend whom I have actually met designed the Fit + Float scarf. She's Birdy's Knits. It's cool to know someone who got in Knitty!

puggerhugger said...

Hmmm, I just have to get over reading too fast. I thought for a minute you were licking shirts at Beal's. I Loooooove that store.