cogknitive

Purl

If I could have a cyborg, her name would be Purl and her package would look like this:

Beatnik Blues

So, how about I found the most incredibly soft chenille yarn in the world at Michael's last weekend. It just screams scarf and hat at me, so scarf and hat it will be. It's Paton's Bohemian in Beatnik Blues. Update: One skein is not enough! This scarf demands to be wrapped and wrapped. And it needs pompons on the ends. Damn needy scarf. Off to Michael's for more this weekend.

it's time

Seeing as the temperature's dropped from 95 to 82, my subconscious has decided it's time to start knitting again.

First, I surfed my list of knitting blogs for inspiration. Finding projects much to challenging to ease back in to knitting with, I went to my bookmarked patterns. Still with no clear project begging to go first, and my OCD in clear overdrive, I dove into the yarn stash to see if anyone would jump to the head of the line. Low and behold, it was the Plymouth Yukon. "Make me into the 2-hour Hat," it said. So I did.

Knitting season is officially here.

ignoreland

I just haven't felt much like knitting lately. Could be that my "other job" is taking up too much of my time. My "other job" being momtaxi to my soon-to-be eleven year-old. So I guess this is the official announcement of a short haitus. Be back soon!

...and she likes music, too.

So, I realize this is a knitting blog and not an mp3 blog, but you have to give Boulevard of Broken Songs a listen. It's a Party Ben mashup of Green Day, Oasis, Travis and Aerosmith/Eminem and it is genius. Pure genius. | Download the mp3 from Sixxmixx.com.

That said, here's a project update. Added another foot or two to the mohair stole in progress. Still haven't revisited Banff. Whipped up a couple of dishcloths over the weekend since the old ones are getting ratty. Still trying to decipher the Garnstudio pattern. Looking for a dog sweater pattern since the dog really shouldn't have to freeze her tooshy off when I can knit.

Pictures next post. Promise.

Dreaming of a Norwegian Summer

It's 12 degrees outside with a wind chill below zero and I want to make a tank top. I'm tired of scarves and hats and shawls and gloves and all matter of woolen lovelies. So off to the Interweb I go, in search of the perfect/easy/free tank pattern. I found this nice list of choices, but my travels ultimately brought me to Norway, to the endless patterns of Garnstudio. Now these patterns are beautiful, but not many are in English. Especially the one I picked.

I think, "I can't be the only one who's ever wanted to knit something from this site and can't read of word of Norwegian." So off to Google I go. What I found were several wonderful resources to help with the translation:

Bagatell's Norwegian Knitting Patterns Lesson | alternative version here

Garnstudio's Conversion Chart

Surfing the Norwegian Knit

Norwegian to English Knitting Terms

Free Online Norwegian to English Translator. The drop down lists allow translations from a number of other languages, too.

and, if it's all Greek, er, Norwegian, to you, here are some English versions of the Garnstudio designs.

Whew. That said, I'm going to go and decipher my pattern. Adjø.

The Agony of Da Feet, er, Foot

Kate broke her toe practicing ballet leaps in the living room yesterday. The best part of the whole experience (for her, at least) was when the doctor told her she was getting the 'shoe'. "All right!" she exclaimed as she hit me with a hi-five. Kids. At least she can show off her collection of cool socks.

Thanks, Trish, for the Knitting Pattern-a-Day calendar...looks like some good stuff inside. Now I just have to clean off my desk to find it a home!

I've been working on the Steeler hat version 2.0. I'm just about at the place where I lost it on version 1.0. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I'm not going to start on a new project until I finish my other WIP (read, Banff). The SIL's mohair scarf is done but still needs to be gifted.

Knitting aside for a minute, I really love the iPod that I got for Christmas from my DH. The iTrip the team bought me was the best accessory, though. I haven't listened to the radio for anything other than the basketball game since. The benchmark will be this: how long will I use el Pod before I start forgetting to charge it. The PDA lasted 3 years. The phone, 6 months. The digital camera stays charged regularly for the last year. We'll see.