Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day. Asher got me some roses, and they are blooming nicely despite the crazy weather we've been having:



Last night we went out to a nice Japanese restaurant and had sushi. Their special roll was really good. The atmosphere was very nice, but it was lacking in the Itamae-san (sushi chefs) yelling Hei rasshai! and Arigatougozeiyashita! (welcome and thank you respectively). The cheer used to intimidate me when I was little, but now I rather enjoy them. For dessert, we got one piece of dorayaki, so I offered it to Asher. He was pretty excited since dorayaki powers Doraemon, and moreover, it has anko inside. Thanks for a lovely dinner!

Knitting Olympics/Ravelympics update:

Here are the socks that I finished one hour before the games started on Friday:





Pattern: Spice from Two socks at a time by Melissa Morgan Oakes.
Yarn: Franklin Natural hanked and dyed by Melissa and me ~360 yds
Needles: US1 DPN (my cable needles aren't flexible enough)
Notes: I changed the fair-isle bit so it's just one colored. I didn't do any duplicate stitches.

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And the Knitting Olympics Begins! (fanfare)

And here's your hostess, Miga the bear-orca!




First up is my WIP-wrestling category for Ravelympics:

White Mandala shawl from 2008 mystery shawl along. I didn't get to start until January 2009, and ran out of yarn in December 2009. Since then, I got additional yarn from a really nice fellow knitter named Carol. Thanks again!





Miga marks where the edging ended.



After the opening ceremonies (which I liked a lot)

and yesterday afternoon

Bound off!



...and






blocked!



It's beautiful!

Pattern: Mandala Shawl aka Anniversary Mystery Shawl by Renee Leverington
Yarn: Baruffa Cashwool No. 1 White ~1725 yds
Needle: US3 and US4 circular
mods: I did 1D, 2A, 3D, 4C, 4A.

Knitting Olympics!

The Winter Olympics are starting today. Very exciting! I always liked the skiing events, and looking forward to speed skating too. I have decided to do a challenge myself (along with thousands of other knitters). I was going to knit a sweater version of the Mickey hat in 17 days--start at the opening ceremonies and finish before the end of the closing ceremonies.

I have ordered yarn online, even did a little swatch, and was all ready to go! but the yarn has not come to my door yet. In fact, this is what it's showing:

The package didn't get sent until the 9th, and the yarn is in West Virginia. OK. So we're looking at a week delay on this. boo.

However, it must be noted that just because I ordered some yarn does not mean I don't have any yarn at home. In fact, my drawer is more than full of yarn. I pulled out some skeins and decided to work on some of these until the sweater yarn showed up. Then I can be an extreme knitter and finish the sweater in 9 days. Ha.

1. Grandmother's capelet

2. Grandfather's bed shoes

3. Recycle yarn + handspun vest

4. Asher's birthday socks

5. Norwegian mittens

6. Hitomi's hat

...but before Casting on for new projects, I'm going to finish Melissa's socks and the long neglected white shawl first. Discipline! I'll be posting my progress on these insane amounts of yarn and fun goodness.

Snowmageddon...?

Growing up in Georgia, snow was always a special treat. No school! Snowball fights! Tiny snowmen! Snow bunnies!

All that changed in the last week. We had fun for a while, then the snow and I had grown apart.

Tuesday was fine...we even went outside at night to make the biggest snowman we'd ever built.

I even let the snowman wear my hat.

See how happy we are? Don't you love it when you can actually wear your handknits?

Then Saturday came.

When did we move to Minnesota again?

Umm yeah.

Mickey Mouse Hat Action Shots!

It finally stopped snowing, and after finishing my advertising page for the medical illustration sourcebook, we hiked 3+ miles in knee-deep snow to get a test proof. The Mickey Mouse hat is REALLy warm, and kept the chills out!

I saw a small errata on the chart, so I uploaded version 1.1. Here's the link to the free pattern.






Here are few scenery shots on the way to town:






It's supposed to snow again today (2/9) and tomorrow (2/10). Keep my fingers crossed.

Mickey Mouse Hat Pattern

Yarn: KnitPicks Telemark: Black, Cream, and Garnet Heather.
Needles: US2 and US4

Here is the Mickey Mouse Hat pattern! It sure took longer than planned (1 week instead of 2 days), but sure is pretty and warm. I enjoyed the Armenian knitting technique. It seems to make my stranded work look neater and more professional. I first read about it few months ago in the Holiday Edition of Interweave Knits.

Please leave comments, and I would love to see your projects if you decide to make one for yourself! More pictures coming soon.

link to pattern pdf (336kb)

Atl Visit

I renewed my passport last December, and I had to go pick it up at the Japanese Embassy in Atlanta. I conveniently thought that they would be able to send the passport up to the DC office without any trouble, but after an irritated phone call from the ambassador, I flew down to the good old ATL.

Also, it was a perfect occasion to check out my sister's new apartment, now that she's all professional and all.

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I inspired some flight attendants with my knits, and told them about ravelry. They were REALLY excited. :) I think plane rides are one of the best places to knit (I guess not for projects that require lots of different colors of yarn).

I landed on time, enjoyed the new atrium, and called my sister.

Me: "I'm here."
Sis: "OK. I left work about half an hour ago. I'll see you in 1.5 hours."
Me: "What?"
Sis: "Well, I had to go back to my apartment, pick up recycling, and drop it off at the recycling center. I'm not sure of the best way to get to the airport from the recycling center, so I'm going back close to my apartment, and then I'm going to go to the airport."
Me: "What?"
Sis: "Well, we had to work really hard to clean the apartment, and there's lots to recycle"
Me: "What?"

Well, I noticed that there were lots of flaws in her way of thinking, but I suppose the future of earth is more important than me wasting time at the airport. I can sort of understand that. So I sat around, working on MY SISTER'S ARMWARMERS until she finally came. I'm a good sister, no?



She drove up in her new-to-her car and off we went:


to her apartment complex. Pretty nice.



Then to see her new place. As you can tell, she's really excited about comics and animation.





It also happened to be one of her nights to go karate. Fancy-pants. Their teacher approached me with ideas to illustrate his book he's working on, and that's still a work in progress.






While watching them practice, I casted on Melissa's socks:



We dyed the yarn together last month, and I finally got around to start knitting it.
Yarn: Valley Yarns Franklin Natural/Undyed MC dyed in food color/vinegar and undyed for CC.
Needle: US1 DPN

This day she cooked me 2 kinds of pasta, before and after karate.

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The next day she went off to work, and didn't think that I needed food. Sad. Because I was hungry, it made me angrier. I convinced her to bring back some food for me from a nearby mall, and I felt better.

After she came home early, we went off to go pick up the passport...they wanted me to tell them when I was coming. I joked that they need to know when people come so they look like they are working. Just kidding. Everything went well, and now I don't have to get a new passport until I'm 37. Yuck and Cool at the same time.

After that we went shopping--well, sort of. I haven't been in a shopping mall in Atlanta for so long, I forgot what a big city it was.

When I mentioned Olive Garden, my sister and her boyfriend got really really excited. I mean really. Apparently they go there all the time! Woo, that's nice I called out their favorite restaurant, but wouldn't they want to try something new? something different? well, apparently not. The two are pretty picky with food.

So we went there, and they were really happy. They ordered the same meal. Very cute.



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The next day I finally finished the armwarmers for her. She was pretty pumped. I actually "finished" these in 2008, but I missed a repeat and the two were different lengths. I also didn't understand the concept of peasant thumb, and made the gusset without making decreases for the thumb. I corrected all these things, and now they fit her well.



Pattern: Burtonesque by Jacqueline Landry
Yarn: Domy Heather in Ecru and Lava
Needles: US4 and US7 DPN

I really like the Domy Heather yarn. It feels like Shetland, and it creates a nice halo. I should try making a jumper out of this yarn.

Now that I had one project bag empty, I quickly casted on for the Norwegian Mickey hat I mentioned in the Disknitty group on ravelry:



Pattern: Mickey Mouse hat adapted from a Mickey sweater at Disneyland
Yarn: KnitPicks Telemark Cream, Garnet Heather, and Brass Heather dyed black
Needles: US2 and US4 circular

The sister was further impressed that you can knit a hat with a brim. She really wanted me to make one (hey, didn't I just make a chullo hat for you last month? and these armwarmers just now?). Then she offered to drive me to a yarn store and buy me yarn to make the hat. I concurred.

We went to Strings and Strands on Roswell Rd and got this:

Malabrigo Chunky yarn in red/pink
The pattern I have in mind is the Captain Hat made with bulky wool. I hope one skein will suffice.

We even found these really cute buttons for the hat at a fabric store nearby:



Then we went to go see an indie film at a gallery in Atlanta. Some of her friends were in it, and it was indie indeed. Apparently my sister was also approached to be a part of this movie, but she turned it down. Well, my sister would rather sing than act. And that's what we did:



Thanks for the fun visit. The hat can be expected in about few months. :)

Shawl is done!

I've been very good and have been monogamous in my knitting. So, I finished my gradmother's faroese shawl. Take a look!

Pattern: Faroese shawl by Sivia Harding
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Co. Alpaca Lace

Faroese shawls are shaped in a way that it creates a little dip for the back of your neck, and has a slanted wing shaped so the shawl will rest flat against your body better. The shawl actually stays on my shoulders really well, and I only had to adjust it a few times.

Blocking sure does wonders. Check out the pre-blocked wimpy state:



I must thank Kelley Petkun at KnitPicks to constantly remind her podcast listeners to block knitted work (and make a gauge swatch). I did not fully understand why blocking was so important. Heck, I wore a unblocked shawl for few months before I decided to try on this blocking business.

Now I'm already starting to think about what shawl to knit next. Miralda's shawl from Estonian Knitting by Nancy Bush is looking really good.

I have acquired enough leftover lace yarn and handspun alpaca lace to do one full shawl, so I can probably make a lace shawl and overdye it in one color for harmonious results. I do love the faroese shaping, though. Decisions, decisions.