Mother’s day is coming up quickly, as is my Aunt Net’s birthday, so I’m trying to finish gifts for both of them. I started Maman’s project Monday night. I’d planned to finish it last night, but I found out that I was signed up for a raid in World of Warcraft that I hadn’t signed up for (grr!) and so I got nothing useful done.

In Progress

Pattern: Anne (again, yes I’m a little obsessed)
Source: Download from mk carroll. $5.50 US Dollars and still well worth the price of admission.
Size: N/A
Yarn: Yarn Bee Soft Delights Extremes in EX brown 1 skeins.
Hook size: US H, 5 mm (Worth swatching in an I 5.5 mm or J 6 mm hook)
Pattern Modifications: I expect more repeats of the third motif.

Mom’s allergic to wool, so I’m working with an acrylic. It’s fuzzy and soft and reminds me a bit of working with mohair. Crochet that’s too tight is impossible to unravel.

Self striping yarn shades back and forth between light and dark.

It’s thick and plush. The fuzz eats all the stitch details, but the shape remains

It reminds me of some cutwork felt and polar fleece pieces I’ve seen.

Over all, it’s got good drape despite the apparent density of the piece. I wonder if it’s worth trying to “kill” the yarn for better lace definition. I don’t know if it’s laziness or not, but I don’t think I’m going to try it. I like this as it is for it’s plushy, fuzzy self.

The flowers have come in on the bush with the thorns that grows under our living room window. It came with the house, so there’s really no way of knowing what kind of plant it is. It seems to be thriving where it’s at, so I’ll put it as one hit out of far too many misses for the previous owners of the house. They planted hostas on a southern exposure and put burning bush on the east side of the house where it’s shaded the silver maple that looms in the back yard.

A sea of blooms.
Neither one of can count ourselves as any kind of gardening expert, but there are some basic things we know. Hostas like shade or they burn in the heat of summer. Burning bush likes full sun or else it doesn’t really fire in the fall. Identifying the random plants that the people who owned the house before us planted is mostly my guesswork.

An abundance of buds.
The flowers look like wild roses and, as the Rosie One has noted, the plant is particularly bloodthirsty when you try to trim it. The leaves aren’t quite right, though. I expect roses, even wild varieties, to have leaves with toothed edges but the edges of these leaves are smooth.

One open bloom hiding by my volunteer hosta.
It does bear a striking resemblance to some floribunda species, in particular Crazy Dottie, and that’s a much stronger possibility to me since the leaves look much more like floribunda leaves than rose leaves. Assuming the low temperatures overnight didn’t get to the flowers, it won’t be long until there’s a veritable explosion of flora right outside my living room window.

This is a good thing, because the Flowering Korean Spice Viburnum I planted last year didn’t make it. It looked like it was doing so well last year, too. I suppose I’ll have to get another one this spring to replace it.

So much packed into such a tiny blossom.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that something not much larger than a quarter has so much detail packed inside, let alone that something in nature could be that vibrant. It makes me want to knit something that color even though I look horrible in that shade of pink. Maybe I can find some pink and green sock yarn and minimize the damage by keeping it as far from my face as possible.

In Progress

Pattern: Japanese Vines
Source: Download from Another Knitting Blog. $5.00.
Size: The three motif repeat option.
Yarn: Limeade Semi solid hand dyed yarn by Brooke at the painted tiger.
Needle size: US 3, 3.25 mm
Pattern Modifications: I’m planning to knit both ends of the scarf and graft them together in the middle, so the vine pattern runs the “right” direction on both ends.

Half the first pattern repeat, shot in daylight.

The koi pond handpainted highlights socks are still on hold while I battle my spring bout of arthritis in my hands. Knitting with toothpicks + arthritis flare-up == not so enjoyable. Luckily going up just two needle sizes is enough to solve the problem and keep me knitting.

All the first pattern repeat, shot with the flash.

It was a pretty casual day of knitting. I did a little in the morning, before errands and going for a walk and playing World of Warcraft with our friend Steve who comes over to play because it feels more social to have a friend over on our third computer. I did a little in the evening, after errands and going for a walk and playing World of Warcraft. I don’t think this would take long to finish at all if I were working at it with any intensity.

A little detail.

The semisolid yarn really seems the way to go with this pattern and I’m liking the spring green color of the yarn, even if I’m finding it impossible to capture the color of the yarn exactly. Check out the link to the yarn in the project notes to see a picture that does actually manage to capture the color.

The pattern itself is a nice way to play with sock yarn if you’re afraid of sock knitting, or if you’re like me, think that sock knitting is crazy. (Pay no attention to the sock in progress beside my knitting chair.) The yarn itself is really nice, soft and sproingy. Brooke’s done a great job of picking out a base yarn to work her color artistry on.

Boo, just before she got shooed away from the photo shoot.

It’s tempting enough that both my kitty yarn testers have been dying to get their claws into it. I’ve shooed both cats away from my yarn bag and even caught Sully trying to casually walk off with the skein like it was a cat toy. If only I’d been quicker with the camera.

Finished

Pattern: Anne
Source: Download from mk carroll. $5.50 US Dollars and still well worth the price of admission.
Size: N/A
Yarn: Bernat Cashmere Natural Blends 1 & 1/2 skeins.
Hook size: US G, 4 mm (I run tighter than most designers gauge, but it’s a scarf, so I just made more motifs.)
Pattern Modifications: Fifty-two repeats of the third motif instead of the forty-two recommended in the pattern.

This was made for my sister, to celebrate how well she’s been doing with her physical therapy after her knee surgery.

Pook wasn’t feeling well, so I modeled it.

We tried a couple of different pictures. Rosie cut off my head, because she’s that way, I guess. The only picture that we got with my face in it had me doing my “model-like look of disdain,” which wasn’t a good look for me, this is what we’re stuck with.

And yes, I did retouch the picture to remove an ugly scratch on my chin. It was taking away from the beauty of my stitch work, so it had to go.

Some stitch detail, as taken by Rosie.

Next time I’ll take my own stitch detail pictures. Rosie doesn’t do anything handcrafted, so she really doesn’t know how to read the motifs to frame the picture. Still, it’s enough to show just how different the motif looks in a solid color rather than a variegated color.

This pattern is still great fun to do and works up quickly. I foresee another Anne or two in the future, because they’re great for gifting.

I frogged the start of the Juliet sweater I was making. The yarn was just too pale piggy pink for the sweater and I want to do it as a pullover instead of a cardigan. That being the case, there’s nothing to show for that effort but some circular needles I need to put away.

The Koi socks are still sleeping. They haven’t changed since the last last photo, so there’s nothing to see here. I’ll be getting back to them, but I felt inspired to do some crocheting.

Unfortunately, it’s going to be a surprise, so it’s secret crocheting. I can’t show that here, either. All in all, I’ve been busy. I’ve just got nothing to show for it.

I wanted to show a sock with the heel turned today, but I still have half an inch to go on the heel flap before I can decrease. The monotony of the heel stitch pattern, while pretty and allegedly reinforced, is getting to me.

It just doesn’t feel like I’m making the same amount of progress I did while I was knitting in the round. It like it’s in some sort of sock stasis, refusing to grow. I just don’t have the patience at the moment for knitting and knitting teeny tiny stitches without any signs of progress, so I’m putting the sock to bed early.

Tonight, it sleeps in it’s bag, perchance to dream.

Maybe sock knitting faeries will come and make it grow. For myself, I’m going to go give myself a false sense of accomplishment with a bit of the animated ultraviolence. With any luck, my WoW Warlock will get a new hat out of it.

Thanks to the Department of Agriculture for a couple of really good links, I’ve identified our little blue flowers as a variety of Blue-eyed grass which isn’t grass at all, but a member of the iris family, and comes in colors ranging from purple and blue, to yellow and white.

Her Rosieness wasn’t nearly as impressed when I shouted “I found it!” after pouring through hundreds of pictures saying “nope, nope, nope,” but now I know. They’re native and they’re not endangered, which means we no longer have any excuse not to mow.

In some ways, I wish we had the larger, yellow-eyed grass. It’s on the endangered plants list in Iowa. It would have been really cool if we could tell the neighbors “We can’t mow the lawn. That’s an endangered flower and the Department of Agriculture will fine us if we mow.

I’ve had a migraine today. I spent most of the day laying down in a dark room taking medication and icing my head and back to little effect. I don’t feel like complaining about it, though.

I feel like talking about knitting with toothpicks, instead.

In Progress

Pattern: Handpainted Highlights Socks
Source: 101 One Skein Wonders
Size: Medium (My feet are, by US sizing, a size 8 and D width.)
Yarn: Koi Pond - Superwash Merino & Nylon Sock Yarn, 420y/100g, by Brenda Brooke at the Painted Tiger. Sorry, Brooke. I’m blaming the migraine for that one.
Needle size: US 1, 2.25 mm (Okay, it’s not quite knitting with a toothpick, but it’s close.)
Pattern Modifications: None so far.

Someday, when this grows up, it will be a sock
Knitting with toothpicks, um, size 1 needles, isn’t any worse than any other knitting. It feels a bit odd at first to use needles so small, but like everything else, a little practice is all it takes to get used to it.

The pattern’s mindlessly easy, once you get onto it. It seems like it would make the most of about any hand painted yarn used to knit it. I think it’s turning out especially pretty and I’m rather proud of myself for picking a good pattern for the yarn on the first try.

We’re coming up on needing to mow the lawn for the first time this year and I just can’t quite bring myself to do it. I have these little blue flowers growing all through my lawn, and I don’t want to kill them. I may have to break down and send a photo to someone at the state conservation office, because I haven’t had any luck trying to identify them by myself. With my luck they’re some kind of invasive species and my not mowing them down is hurting the native wildflower population.

These little blue flowers grow everywhere in my shady back yard.

They’re not violets, obviously. I don’t know what they are.

I think they’re pretty, whatever they are.

Pattern: Anne
Source: Download from mk carroll. $5.50 US Dollars and well worth the price of admission.
Size: N/A
Yarn: Aquarium Sereknity Hand Painted Worsted Superwash Merino, 4oz., under a skein, over half a skein.
Hook size: US G, 4 mm (I run tighter than most designers gauge, but it’s a scarf, so I just made more motifs.)
Pattern Modifications: Sixty-one repeats of the third motif instead of the forty-two recommended in the pattern.

I have to admit, since I started knitting, I haven’t had much desire to crochet. This pattern brought back some of my love of crochet. I think it’s a perfect example of why people should be able to do both. I also think it’s a good pattern for a novice crocheter. It’s all done with four of the most basic stitches (US: chain stitch, slip stitch, single crochet, and double crochet. English: chain stitch, single crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet) so you get practice working them all. It works up quickly, so within a few days you have either a nice gift or a little something special for yourself.

Blocking.

I couldn’t wait to share this one and I wanted to block it, because even crochet lace deserves to be blocked, so I took my pictures in my normal blocking spot: On top of the washer and dryer. The designer shows all her examples in solids, but this shows off the beauty of the Aquarium so much better than the socks I made from the other skein, it looks like it was made especially to make this.

It’s about 64 inches long.

Looking at the scarf, you’d think it took forever, but it was mostly done by the time I went to bed last night. I only had to add on nine motif repeats this morning and it was ready to have the ends woven in. Because it’s joined as you go, there were only two ends to weave in at the end. Yay! That’s a design bonus in my book.
(Please pardon the mess in the the background of this picture. Our basement is only semi-finished and the laundry room/work room is in the unfinished part.)

A view of the end.

The design of the scarf is such that both ends look very similar. I love the scalloped edge and all the little flowery picots. I think it’s going to look fabulous against my white denim jacket.

Stitch detail.

This shows just how beautifully the colors blend one into another and it’s very color accurate, at least on my monitor. I imagine that it’s very similar to how the skein looked when Heather from Sereknity.com was actually painting the yarn. Hand dyed yarns look so different between when the artist dyes them, when they reskein them after they dying process, and then when someone actually works with them. It’s like seeing three different yarns. This particular pattern works out perfectly to bring some of the original back.

I love the way it turned out. I loved it so much, I made an LJ icon from one of my photos.