Not My Knitting

Look what my mom gave me for Christmas!



It's a Clapotis! My mom is the sneakiest lady ev-ar. We went yarn shopping ages ago and we were drooling over some burgundy Malabrigo Silky Wool. Well she bought more than she needed so she could knit me this scarf! She is one sneaky lady. And I'm freaking IN LOVE. I'm going to wear this thing forever. And my mom made it, how cool is that?! I taught her to knit in April and she's taken off knitting all sortsa things.

Well she's not the only crafty lady in the family.
Look what I made her for Christmas





It's my first quilt! I made her the Stacked Coins Quilt from Last Minute Patchwork Gifts. It was a fun pattern and seemed to be good for a First Quilt. Certainly not perfect, but fun! I can't wait to make another one...

To wrap things up, here's Mo!



And if you've been wondering what I've been doing instead of blogging, go this page and scroll down to the picture.

Happy Boxing Day!

My First Mystery Knitting!

I've always been a little jealous of people who decided to take part in all of that Secret of the Stole mystery shawl knitalong thing. I thought it would be really cool to be given a piece of the puzzle/pattern each week. But I am picky about shawls. And I knit them in DK or sportweight yarn, and not all shawls can be done in heavier yarns. So I was super excited when I found out about Through The Loops Mystery Sock on Ravelry. Sweet! Here's my finished sock (the basic version... there is also a cabled version)


They're knit in Socks That Rock Lightweight in Brick on size US1 needles and I love them! And they're done in time for NaKniSweMo, for which I will be casting on for my Tilted Duster (attempt #2)!

Scarves, Scarves, Wonderful Scarves!

So I've been finishing scarves. I've had a major case of finishitis. Last Sunday I finished two Shifting Sands scarves. This one was started last December (hey, size 5 needles, can you blame me?) and uses the recommended (now discontuned) Sundara Sport Merino in some kind of wine colorway. Black over Merlot or some other wino color. The colors remind me of the movie Sweeney Todd, which in my memory involved a lot of black and a lot of blood. Behold, the Sweeney Todd Scarf!


Shifting Sands Number Two was knit on size 9 needles with Malabrigo Worsted in Bijou Blue. I now know, thanks to the two sweaters I've knit with Malabrigo, that this thing will look like shit in about five minutes. But for now, it is a nice, heavy, cushier version of the scarf.

This one was started back in May. What can I say, I take forever to knit scarves!

I also totally fell in love with Knitting School Dropout's Entrelac Scarf and I did something really shameful:

I knit the same exact scarf. I fell in love with the colorway of Noro Silk Garden, sought it out, learned entrelac, and knit a scarf out of it. And I don't regret it one bit! I'm just a tiny bit ashamed is all. Apparently some people find entrelac to be super-fiddly and annoying but I finished this thing in four days. Four days! Clearly I must be a sucker for entrelac, especially in Noro. So forget what I said about taking forever to finish scarves, apparently I'm a liar.

Moving onto something significantly more original (though not completely original, as it is based on a published pattern), behold my Fancy Lace Scarf that I finished yesterday!



This puppy is based on a scarf from Victorian Lace Today that has a boring name. I took the pattern and only knit one repeat instead of two and did a slipped stitch border instead of the knitted lace border in the book. It is knit with three skeins of Manos Silk Blend on size US 6 needles. And... it is seven (seven!!) feet long. Pre-blocking it was a mere five feet long but it sure as hell grew with blocking. I guess I didn't think it would grow so much because it is a DK weight yarn, but, um, I was wrong. So it wraps around twice or it looks slouchy and French (ew. I'm a Francophobe). I also started this scarf in May.

The last thing is a wannabe scarf. It's a cowl. Some say that the cowl is the new scarf. I've loved cowls for a long time and I'm kind of excited that there are so many "patterns" (some of them are pretty basic, hence the quotation marks) out there these days. Meet Gloria, or as I like to call her, Big Blue


She's knit with one skein of Malabrigo Chunky and size US 13 needles. She's pretty great. And Bee Tee Double-You, Malabrigo Chunky seems to hold up better than its worsted counterpart so far. This particular non-scarf was knit in just a day, woohoo for chunky yarn and size 13 needles!

Yay for November, hooray!

P.S. My arm is getting way better and clearly I'm knitting again. Thank goodness!

Crap, Does This Mean I Have to Sing That Annoying Saving Jane Song?

Your results:
You are Supergirl

Supergirl 88% Superman 70% Iron Man 70% Spider-Man 65% Batman 65% Green Lantern 65% Wonder Woman 63% Robin 60% Catwoman 55% Hulk 45% The Flash 40%

Lean, muscular and feminine. Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Oh dear

Well, I done broke m' arm.

I wrecked the Vespa ::sob:: and have two distal radial fractures that require surgery (tomorrow, yikes!) so there has been no knitting in the last two weeks here at Chez Cabbage and I've got probably another month (if all goes well) before I'll be capable. Not to say that I haven't tried. Three times, no less. In the meantime, here's Mo enjoying sheepy goodness. Mo loves sheep!



P.S. If you click on that picture and go back a few pics in my Flickr stream you can see some pictures of some lovely road rash. Y' know, if that's your thing.
P.P.S. Mercury is in retrograde so do not leave your house.

Some Damn Socks!

Here is why my blogging has sucked lately:









Those are some damn socks. From the top:
1. Fibranatura Yummy in Peridot Spring. Not the softest yarn in the world, but that probably means it'll hold up a long time. The amazing colors and amazing pooling more than make up for the minor amount of roughness in the yarn (btw it is rough, not itchy. big difference).
2. ShibuiKnits Sock in Bark. Ohmygod I want to marry this sock yarn. It is the most freaking amazing sock yarn I have ever felt in my life. Talk about squishy. This yarn is going to have, like, ten thousand of my babies. Amazing. Purely amazing. I have another sock's worth of yarn in Pagoda that I'm dying to try, but it'll have to wait. I'm into trying new sock yarns at the moment (clearly).
3. Araucania Ranco Solid in Charcoal. Apparently I love this color so much I bought it in their sock yarn, their Nature Wool, and their Limari. Huh, who knew?

Those socks are all done. The rest of the socks are all in progress (including the one that just looks like a skein. It is currently 20 rows of ribbing. BTW, I have decided that 1x1 ribbing looks fantastic on everything, especially socks).

4. The Bane of My Existence socks(this is Silk Garden Sock). Mr. Cabbage saw these in the yarn shop and about swooned. He swoons for Noro really easily. He has about a billion Zeebee hats in Silk Garden. Really. Plus some scarves. Swoons. Really. But this yarn SUCKS to knit with. I will never, ever buy it again. Along with Colinette Jitterbug (way, way too many bad reviews) and Claudia Handpaint (knit socks out of this yarn and they freaking fell apart so fast, it was ridiculous).
5. Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Rosehip. This yarn has a little mohair (but not too much) so they're very soft and have a slight halo. Also not as stretchy. Note: cast on 2 or 4 extra stitches next time I use this yarn. Thanks, mohair, thanks a lot.
6. Some lovely Sundara Sock Yarn being made into some Waving Lace socks.
7. Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Sock being made into a really, really scrumptious pair of Spring Forwards. This is another sock yarn that is on my "buy again" list. I don't know what the hell she uses as her base or what the hell she uses for dye, but this yarn is like knitting with pearls. Smooth and with a sheen. Love, love, love. Once I make more of a dent in my current sock yarn stash I'm buying more.
8. Creatively Dyed Yarn's Almost There (discontinued). Got this stuff in St. Louis and even though it is just ribbing, it is already very pretty. Yay, blue :)

P.S. Sorry for the blurry photos. I don't know what's up with my camera but it can't take a good picture to save its life.

FO- CPH v2.0: Organic and Purple!

This bad girl is finally finished!
Deets:
5 1/2 skeins of Vermont Organic Fiber Company O-Wool on US 8 needles (US 6 for the ribbing). I did this one in one piece from the hem to the underarms and I did an attached garter stitch button band. I started this thing back in February and it stalled for some reason. But I've actually worn it three times already, despite the fact that it is August. Yay for purple cardigan hoodies! Oh yeah, and this pattern is Central Park Hoodie. Did I even need to say that, though?

FO- Yay, Seamless Hybrid!

Well, my main man turned 27 a couple of weeks ago and I decided to continue in the tradition I started last year by knitting him a sweater. Except that I sort of started this thing almost a year ago and decided to finish the last half of the hibernating sweater in time for his bee-day. Meet EZ's Seamless Hybrid, my first EZ sweater. I had previously knit two pair of her mittens (here and here) but had yet to try one of her sweaters. This one will definitely not be my last. I'm envisioning one for myself in pink DK weight tweed...
Anyhoo, this one was knit with 6 balls of Plymouth Galway, and I'm actually pretty impressed with the yarn. Its nothing fancy, just a good, cheap, standard worsted weight wool. But I think we need more of those. I'm not a fan of yarns that have too much acrylic, but those seem to be some of the only cheap yarn you can buy (I think this yarn was 5 or 6 dollars for 100 grams. 100 grams! holy moly!). Lamb's Pride is 1-2 dollars more, and has mohair (meh) and is single-ply (nice sometimes, but not as sturdy as plied). Personally I find Lamb's pride to be pretty fucking itchy. So I'm excited about this yarn, fo' sho'. What else? Size US 7 needles, 41ish inch chest, and oh yeah... the neckband...

for some crazy reason, my tubular bind-off looks like this. WTF?! I thought I did it too tight so I ripped it out and did it again and steamed it to try and relax the yarn, but nope. Luckily Mr. Cabbageeatsyarn thinks this is a design element (and I believe so did someone else that commented on it on Ravelry) so that's what I'm calling it. A design element. Here's an on-purpose design element:

a nice flat hem. I'll take credit for doing that one right.
Finally, here's a picture of the sweater being knit in the wild, bar-style. Gasp! Its Cabbage's face! I was beginning to doubt the existence of her face!

The Year of the Sock?

Holy moth-eaten yarn, Batman! I can't believe I haven't posted since May! Dudes, I have kind of lost my crafting mojo. And bad timing, too, because I just bought a sewing machine (yay!). I've been feeling some major summer crafting lethargy lately, which I sort of always go through this time of year, except this time its pretty bad. And on top of that, all I want to do is knit socks. I've cast on for many (many, many, many) other projects, but man I have so many long-term WIPs, and all I seem to be finishing is socks!

For example, check this out:

I started this sucker in February, it is another Central Park Hoodie, and everything is done on it (including the knit-on button bands) except for one sleeve! Why can't I finish it?! I. have. no. idea!

But in the meantime I've started and finished these socks (sorry all my pictures suck, I need a new camera):




And I've cast on for Spring Forward using some really, really awesome yarn, plus a pair of socks for BZ in Lorna's Laces (my first time using this yarn, another pair of socks for BZ using Araucania's Ranco (worst name ever, great colors, hopefully this will soften up in the wash because its a little on the rough side right now), and some Waving Lace socks in some of the most awesome sock yarn ever:


When will the sock madness end?!

Hopefully never, though my sweaters-in-progress are getting jealous.

Some Socks

I had long been eyeing the Embossed Leaves socks from Interweave's Favorite Socks book, but it wasn't until I saw Alligator's that I took the plunge.

Embossed Leaves socks, knit with Socks That Rock Lightweight in Jasper on US 1 needles.
It's funny... when I first started knitting socks, I turned my nose up at lace socks. I mean, first of all... lace... socks... I don't own any commercially purchased lace socks, why on earth would I want to spend hours knitting some? And they seemed so impractical... wool, to keep you warm... counteracted by lace... which has tons of HOLES! How silly! But I looooooove knitting lace, and wearing lace socks is not the problem I thought it would be. Bring on the lace!

And here are a pair of boring stockinette stitch socks I knit for that dude I live with :)

These are also Socks That Rock Lightweight in Corbie, US 1 needles.

And, because he's the best cat ever, I give you Pickle

(kindly ignore the baking soda on the fabric cubes behind him. We tried some green- as in environmentally friendly- carpet cleaning last weekend and made a mess. Oops!)

Blackbird Shawl- FO

Another shawl! I love to knit lace (just not in laceweight yarn)! Here is the Swallowtail Shawl knit from a little less than 4 skeins of Elann Baby Cashmere in Black, US 5 needles. Love it!


My hair looks very Anton Chigurh in this photo for some reason.

Luna Moth Shawl- FO

I recently took a trip to visit Bek in Saint Louis. We had some seriously good food (srsly) at Everest and LemonGrass and an Ethiopian place I don't know the name of, amazing strawberry lemonade at Mokabe's, a fantastic custard sundae at Ted Drewes, and (AND! AND! AND!) I went to three (THREE! THREE! THREE!) yarn stores! It was kind of funny... we went to the first one because I was dying to shop for Malabrigo in person (none of the three major yarn stores in Columbus had it until about a week ago, and the one that now carries it, Knitters' Mercantile, carries a lot of the variegated stuff that's not that great. Maybe they'll get the solids and semi-solids in soon?). I bought some Malabrigo Silky Merino for a shawl, and was thinking I had brought the right size needles, but then realized I hadn't. So we went to a different yarn store (where they had more Malabrigo!) and I got my needles and Bek got some yarn for some hats. Well Bek got home and realized she didn't have the right needles for the hat she was planning, so out we went to the third yarn store in St. Louis! And let me tell you, they were all awesome. If I could knit with one kind of fiber for the rest of my life, it'd be 100% wool. But coming in a close second are 50/50 wool/silk blend yarns. I LOVE them. Srsly. Love. And Malabrigo did not let me down. Out of 2.15 skeins of Silky Merino in Marron Oscuro and US 9 needles came this lovely shawl




This is the Luna Moth Shawl, I did 4 body repeats instead of the recommended 6. My shawl has a 52" wingspan and a 33" height. I really love the finished product, but the lace pattern didn't make as much sense and wasn't as easy to memorize as other lace I've knit. Overall, I'm very happy with it and I'm really excited that I have almost two whole skeins left over!

For My Mama

Here is my mom's Mother's Day/birthday present, modeled by me:


Erm, my mom is thinner than me. So I think it will fit her well. Me, not so much! But I'm happy with it, it came out well and it steam blocked like a champ.
The stats:
Silken Cowl Tank from Sensual Knits. I knit the smallest size (tiny Mommy) and I knit it on a smaller needle size than recommended. I did this because I have knit with this yarn before and know that it knits up waaaay more loosely than the ball band (and patterns) say. In general, I wanted the sweater to come out more large than the smallest size, and my needle choice was purrrr-fect. I used about 2 1/2 skeins of Tilli Tomas Pure and Simple in color Hope. I scored this yarn for super-cheap when Sarah's Yarns carried it at an already-discounted price and decided to stop carrying it and discounted it further. Nice. So since I already had this yarn I didn't want to spend lots of money on its sequined accent yarn that is called for to knit the cowl, so I just used the same yarn throughout. I also lengthened the body of the sweater, cuz my mama's got a long torso, like me.
And that's all I have to say about that.

Wicked Buttony Edie- FO

Taking a cue from hybrid cars, I decided to knit a hybrid sweater!

note the Take Back the Night pin :)

Stats:
A hybrid knit of Wicked, Buttony Sweater, and Edie, using US 7 needles and 8.5 skeins of Noro Cash Iroha (yay for ebay yarn!). Overall, this is a pretty okay sweater. It looks way better closed than open, and its kind of a floppy sweater, so I moved the buttons in a little bit after I took these pictures, as there were gaps that were showing.

And, for fun, here is a hat!

Another Zeebee, this one knit on US 10 needles with a ball and a half of Noro Silk Garden Chunky (wow, this is a Noro-y post, I guess). I cast on 30 sts, wrapped 8 stitches (7 plus the Crown Stitch), and it fits nicely except that it could have been a stitch or two longer.

Ciao, babies!

You have to watch the whole thing!

Ramona- FO

Ramona by Jared Flood from the book Sensual Knits

Knit with a little more than 8 skeins of Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK in "Ocean," size US 7 needles. No mods. I wish I'd knit the smallest size, as the yoke is a bit baggy. I am not sure what happened, since I got gauge and am a 36" bust (I knit the 34" bust size). Oh well, I like it anyway!

Placed Cable Aran- FO

This is the Placed Cable Aran knit from EXACTLY 9 balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto on US 7 needles. And when I say exactly 9 balls... well I had to go into my wastebasket (no worries, pretty much only paper and yarn scraps go into this particular wastebasket) to get some of the ends I had trimmed off after I'd weaved them in so that I could finish seaming the last arm in. All that, and then I put the sweater on and realized it needed to be longer. Not a difficult prospect, since it is a stockinette hem, but still annoying since I was scrounging in the trash for seaming yarn. I ended up modifying this sweater to make it a set-in shoulder sweater instead of a drop sweater. Otherwise everything is the same!