More colours!

Yesterday I had a day off and was internet-free, so although I should have been working on various projects, including more bags, I'm still waiting to get the yarn I need, which has become peculiarly rare.

So, what to do with all that free time? Dye! of course:

The colourways are...

Bumblebee:

Emilie:

Haystacks:

LoSB:

Little Cayman:

and Metropolitan Purple:

Fruits of the storm: three new colourways

This morning I feel like a mother hen that's laid a few more eggs! Yesterday Ivan's tail drenched the state and there was no sun to be had, so I listened to the whistling of the wind and the lashing of the rain and kept myself amused indoors. After a morning of dyeing in the makeshift colourworks studio, here are three new colourways.

The first here is Twilight:

(close-up)

Gamla Stan (inspired by the colours of the Old Town in Stockholm, Sweden):

(close-up):

and Apple Blossom:

(and its close-up):

If my CraftQ was a country, it would need two time zones... or three, at least

This evening when I crashed in through the door from work, I was delighted to have tripped over the two latest editions of Phildar patterns -- Fall/Winter and Winter 2004! And it looks like my CraftQ Coveted Projects List just about doubled in size. If only there were about ten of me, I could make all of these:











and, this one, too. *sigh*

Why Jasper Fforde is a pink elephant

Is there anything more annoying than getting rather far along on a project and realising that you've missed something from the very beginning? It's like traveling five hours to the closest airport only to realise that you've forgotten your passport and tickets at home. Well, this is how the Chanel jacket looks this morning -- all done while getting lost in The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde. And proof that Fforde is as distracting as as a passing pink elephant.

It looks okay from here, but after careful measurement, I see that I'm about an inch or so short on the sides... Luckily I've got an idea that'll fix that -- like figuring out how to to fax my travel papers to myself at the airport. ;) So, since that's sort of sorted, here's a close-up of the basket weave (look, Brooke!) to give you a better idea of its texture.

(I also did a bit more work on the front of the Bonny raglan, but not enough to be picture-worthy.)

Happy Monday, everyone!

She got gauge!

I was up bright and early this morning with an IDEA! And usually, these creative urges only add to the towering pile of things I've decided to do, but that's another issue. In resopnse to said urge, this morning I swatched this yarn for what will be a Chanel-style jacket from Jean Frost Jackets. (As if I didn't already have enough to work on, right? :P)

On the blocking board today... Bonny, the raglan...

On the needles this morning was the back of the short raglan in the hand-dyed baby alpaca -- not complete here yet, but nearly at the neckline! And it's not properly blocked, now that I'm looking at it, but I pinned it just to take this pic. The alpaca is so soft, it's like knitting with cotton candy (only less sticky), and the 660 yards of it that I have seems to be going quite a long way. In addition, I find that I actually love knitting with tiny needles!

Not to be neglected, I also knit up a tiny swatch of the Happy and Summer Berries yarns. Voici: Happy --

and Berries!

But what will become of them... isn't really up to me at this point...

One more project for the fall: Asymmetrical Cardigan

Just a quickie post before I duck out for weekend errands... Not that I haven't enough already in my CraftQ, but I think *this* will have to be cast on at some point. A free pattern from Phildar.

Doesn't that look simply smashing?? I can almost hear the needles in my box clicking with frenzied excitement!

The International League of Midnight Knitters

It's midnight. Do you know where your needles are?

How many of you are night owl knitters, with needles and yarn in hand, clicking away to the mesmerising rhythm of your stitches? If you think you're alone, think again. Have you ever wondered how many others like you were doing precisely the same thing while the good people of the world are fast asleep in their beds?

Does that sound like you?

Then welcome to the League! Solidarity and a sense of community is what we are about! Let others know you're out there (in the glow of the midnight oil) knitting along with them in spirit.

Subscribing is easy and free. Just post a little hello here (nothing too detailed unless you desire) and indicate your time zone (mine, for example, is Eastern Standard Time).

Displaying a button on your links list is easy:

(1) Right click on this button (courtesy of grsites.com), select "Save Picture As" and save it to your computer. Then upload it to your own webspace. Alternatively, you can have it hosted free by a site like Photobucket.

(2) In your Blogger template, under "links", insert the following HTML code (be sure to replace the brackets [ ] with < >):

[p][a href="http://two_pointy_sticks.blogspot.com/2004/09/international-league-of-midnight.html"][img src=HERE INSERT THE TAG FOR YOUR IMAGE FROM PHOTOBUCKET][/a][/p]

(3) Republish your blog and you're all set!

WELCOME! And Happy Knitting!

A FO at last! Even if it is only a scarf. ;)

Bring on Fall, I say! I could use more scarves like this one in Fuschia.

It turned out to be about 6 feet long! I wish the camera could do the colours justice, but this will just have to do. I can already see it paired with jeans, boots and a cropped black jacket...

ETA: Atropos, this is indeed la laine francaise. The next time you're across the channel (how I envy your proximity), you must check out the current season's Anny Blatt yarns -- they come in all sorts of intriguing colours and textures! :)

Show and Tell (in which Axe definitively proves her lack of will power)

Ahhh, summer. It's nice to know that even with fall just around the corner, we can still look out the window and be inspired by little sights like this:

Anyway, this is a knitting blog, of course, so although I was distracted by the garden for a moment, I really wanted to tell you why I *heart* the UPS guy. Despite the fact that he's not half as sexy as the Fedex guy, he has his compensations. For one, he brings me things like this:

It's my new handy dandy Spaceboard! A sweater-knitter's second-best friend after the umbrella swift. It's felted on the inside and marked with a measuring grid you can pin and block on to you heart's content. And it folds in half to slide out of the way when you don't need it. If you knit sweaters, this might be a worthwhile investment (or a great Christmas gift).

The first item on the board today is the beginnings of a cropped raglan sweater in the baby alpaca that I hand dyed the other week.

A close-up of the knit:

And this is what will eventually be a long, skinny, textured scarf in Anny Blatt's Albatros which I found last week while on holiday.

Close-up of the fuschia scarf. The yarn is really three-ply -- a mixture of soft and sparkly wool and synthetic yarns. The lighting here doesn't do justice to it. It's colourful enough in the daytime, but in the evening there's just the barest hint of a sparkle. And it's super soft and cuddly, which is a nice bonus.

So much so, that, well... you know how strong my will power is when it comes to buying yarn. NOT! Exactly. Which is why I got this colour, "Crepuscule":

And this one, "Naturel", both of which are going to grow up to be scarves. :)

And a good thing, too, because, try as I might, I can't find this yarn at all in this country!