Short and Sweet

I didn't get Pacific Coast set, washed and seamed. But! I do have an FO from last week.

Chibi Totoro

Pattern: Chibi Totoro Toy by Brella
Yarn: Lion Brand LB Collection Baby Alpaca
Needles: US 2 (?)

Project Page


This was a cute little project for the eldest of my younger brothers, who turned 23 a couple weeks ago. I have a disease that prevents me from getting birthday, anniversary, and any other time-sensitive items and cards in the mail before the recipient's big day, so I mailed it about five days late and he got it just this last Wednesday. He said (and I quote), "Oh my god. This Totoro is mind-numbingly amazing."

We used to watch My Neighbor Totoro all the flippin' time when we were young and I kept stumbling upon this pattern in my queue each time I went through to purge it (I do that a lot. I never gets any shorter than five pages :/). I told him I have a pattern (maybe even two!) for the big Totoro that he might could expect for Christmas. I just have to find my grey yarn. He's super excited. I mentioned he's 23, right? :)

I have three knitting goals this weekend: design and knit a new cabled phone cozy for my super awesome new phone, begin my grandma's beautiful scarf (before winter hits!), and SEAM PACIFIC COAST. It will happen, I swear. I also have a lot of grading and Greek, so...it's going to be a busy weekend.

I'm also due for a Style Saturday post since I was out of town last weekend and didn't do it. It will be much better this time, I swear.

Go see more FOs on Tami's Blog!

Sexy Stripes!

I'm making a Different Lines scarf for John. These colors are so sexy, I can't even tell you! He's going to look even handsomer than he already does in it (if that's possible!).

It's another commute project, but it's going pretty fast. I can't wait to see it finished!

I also finished all the parts of Pacific Coast (pattern: Larch), cleaned the dye off my dpns, and picked up Breezy again. I have half a sleeve! Woohoo! I'll try to buckle down and make myself put Pacific Coast together for Friday. It needs a vinegar bath first, I think.

Head over to Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday posts!

A Burst of Spring

Did you miss me? I hope so. :)

Milky Way

Pattern: Cladonia by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Holiday Yarns FlockSock in Milky Way, Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Lettuce Leaf
Needles: US 7

Project Page


I've loved this pattern for quite a while. I haven't seen an unattractive one, in fact. Even though I've never fancied myself a shawl person, I thought, since I was tired of making socks with my sock club yarn, I'd try a shawl. As you can see, it was a good decision. :) I hadn't intended to use the same colors as the pattern, but my stash treated me well. The Madtosh I got from someone's stash on Ravelry. It had some spots that looked like an animal chomped through one of the plies, so I hope it wears okay. I fixed it where I could, but not every time.

I knit this whole shawl English style (I'm a super fast Continental knitter) and it came out so light and airy, that I've decided all of my shawls will be knit English! The pattern is really simple and mindless (even the lace section was pretty simple), so I knit it on the bus going to and from school. It took me a bit longer to finish it between the English and only knitting on the commute, but it's done and wonderful. My only complaint is that the picot edge took quite a while, but it's so pretty that I can't really complain.

I'm swatching for another shawl (don't call it that, though, or John won't wear it!) today. I'll update you Wednesday (if I have time. School....).

Head over to Tami's Amis for more FO Friday posts!

Dirty Secret

I haven't officially finished anything, but I do have these finished objects. In order to share them, I must confess a dirty little secret: all the socks I've finished and shared on this blog (and one pair that was pre-blog) have not had their ends woven in. Until this morning.

Terrible, yes?! It's pretty much only two ends on each sock and I have waited this long! What kind of knitter am I?! A pretty normal one, I suppose. I should also confess that I've worn these socks before today. Ends hanging and all, haha. Silly. :)

Here are more FO-Friday posts!

Why Yes, School Did Eat Me a Little

I'm alive, I swear! School has begun and it's taking me a whole three weeks to settle into a workable schedule. As a matter of fact, I have to continue reading an ancient Greek medical treatise in order to stick to the schedule for tomorrow, so I have to make this short and sweet!

I'm still working on my Breezy Cardigan, which needs a name soon. It needs only sleeves and a button band, but it's being held up by the fact that I have no skills at Magic Loop and need my dpns to complete the sleeves. Those needles are in the sleeves of Pacific Coast, which has come out of its summer hibernation to be finished so that Breezy might be finished before winter sets in for keeps. I should have Pacific Coast done by Friday, I think. But I make no promises. :)

I'm also working on Cladonia (I'm calling it Milky Way for the stellar yarn) for the Harry Potter House Cup and a Madelinetosh multicolored shawl knit-a-long. It's beautiful! I'm doing it English style (I knit Continental), so it's a little slower than I'm used to, but the drape is perfection and it's super relaxing. It's a transit knit, so it might not be done for a couple more weeks even though it's pretty small and simple.


I have a couple of store samples I'm planning to start tomorrow. I'll try to keep you updated on those too. I'm really excited for them. They should be fun!

Head over to Tami's blog for more WIP-Wednesday posts. As always, thanks for stopping by and thanks for all the great comments. We read every one and love them all. :)

How to Wear a Nebula

Image from Beata at Hedgehog Fibers 

I knit Mama, I Saw the Stars Tonight (pattern Abalone) about a year ago. I adore it. As you can see in project page photos (first link, they are so terrible I'd rather not post them here), I stole the styling from the designer (at right). That's how I ALWAYS wear it. It's the styling I'd always like to wear. But, I must try to push myself out of comfort and into improvement, as kiki so nicely put it, and find a sort of new way to wear it.

Now, mind you, I have no money to improve my wardrobe until September or even October, so I have to work with what I've got. Tell me what you think of this:

So it's not really that different, but it's a start. I hope. The top is from Avon, the jeans from Aeropostale (like all my jeans), and the necklace is an heirloom from my mother that I wear all the time.

Damn! This is tough! I've already got an outfit (and a better lit backdrop) in mind for next month, though, so it can only go up from here. If you'd like to show me how you wear your knits or tell me how to wear mine, let me know in the comments section with a link or suggestion. I'd love to see your style!

A Bit Rambling...

Look! John finally posted! Woohoo! I have to say that I really love to go down to the fish room and peek at all the fishies. Baby angelfish are soooooo cute!

In other news, thanks for all the kind comments (as usual!) on my last post! I used to knit sleeves two-at-a-time when I was still knitting them flat. Now that I only knit them in the round (the sleeve seam is the worst to seam! and I like to seam!), I can't magic loop more than one thing at a time and have to do them separately. I received new Stellar Sock Yarn yesterday and think I'll do another pair of Skew with it, so I will attempt to do two socks at a time when it's turn comes around. The only thing that has kept me from doing that until now has been my laziness. I just haven't gotten around to getting a US 1 circular. That and Thelonious is cuff-down and I'd rather start with toe-up. Speaking of, my friend linked me a pair of toe-up socks with a regular heel flap! Too cool! Thanks so much, Eliza!

Now down to business:

Thelonious Andromeda

Pattern: Thelonious by Cookie A.
Yarn: Jennifer's Flocksock Sock Yarn by Holiday Yarns
Needles: US 1
Pattern Page

Firstly, pardon the terrible project naming. I couldn't decide whether to call it Thelonious from the pattern or Andromeda from the colorway, so I went with both. This is the first sock I haven't waffled about what pattern to use or restarted more than once. As soon as I saw the pattern on Rav, I bought the book and wound Andromeda. The pattern was really tricky to begin with. There are a lot of stitch markers and they all change names or need to be removed or something and I wasn't very good at keeping track. Once I figured out where and how the pattern was moving, I had no trouble whatsoever. I hardly referenced the pattern at all while knitting the second sock. The way the yarn's colors come out in this pattern is so pretty! I hope I've captured the blue and the purple in my photos (the really crappy one at the end is for color correctness).

I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was knitting these as part of a knit-a-long in a Harry Potter group on Ravelry. I've always been indifferent about Harry Potter. I tried to read it in high school and failed. I got a bit over halfway through it, couldn't get into it and yanked the bookmark out. I've never done that without revisiting the book. Since then, I've kinda liked the movies, but had only seen the first two and half of the third. Turns out, John loves the movies. Naturally, when the last one came out, he somehow convinced me to watch every movie and go with him. I'm going to blame the great knits on my new-found love of all things Harry Potter. I'm by no means obsessed (and believe me, I know a few who qualify), but I did find the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup on Ravelry and was immediately enamored. You enroll in courses and produce a knit object on the theme once a month for three months. When you complete knits (or crochet items), your house gets points. They are sorting now, I think, so get in there if you can! It's so incredibly well organized that my mind is blown. I can't go all out in it this semester, but maybe next. In the meantime, I did find the audio books (read by Stephen Fry!), and I think that will go more smoothly than trying to read them again.

Do you see the purple?!?

There. It's a kind of nerd I'm not used to being, but now it's out there. :) In the same post, I mentioned doing a shawl with the Milky Way colorway. It's next in line for the knitting and I think I've decided to do Cladonia. It's had my eye for a while. I have some leftover Tosh Sock from Prairie Grass that should contrast/compliment Milky Way nicely. The catch is that I only have 31g left and I need 50g! If my striped swatch works out, I'll have to see if anyone in the Madtosh forum has 20g left over, because of course she discontinued that colorway. :P

That's enough rambling for one day. Tune in tomorrow to critique my lazy styling and head over to Tami's blog now for more FO-Friday posts! Thanks for reading (and putting up with all these links)!