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Sara, Jackie, Em, Melissa and I took on an epic untangling project yesterday. After more than a year of talk, I finally took action and had a pasta making party. Who knew that yarn and spaghetti had similar tangling tendencies?! Jackie, the pasta maker provider, documented the day's festivities. Pay her a visit to see the process and final results!
Wednesday's weather (Snow !?) certainly seemed to be without reason, and April is National Poetry Month. What better excuse to share some of my favorite rhymes with you. Granfa Grig Had A Pig and Other Rhymes Without Reason, a collection of nursery rhymes illustrated and edited by Wallace Trip, has some of the funniest, raunchiest, and yet most beautiful illustrations ever to grace the pages of a children's book. That's high praise to fit all three qualities in one book. Now out of print, my dad recently found a copy on E-bay. I find it just as raucously funny as an adult as I did as a kid. Even if most kids have no idea what a drunken sot might be, it has a great ring to it!
Who comes here?
A Grenadier.
What do you want?
A pot of Beer.
Where is your money?
I've forgot.
Get you gone
You drunken sot.
This page offers an interesting commentary on this poem, a Mother Goose rhyme published in 1765, and the historical background behind many children's nursery rhymes and stories.
So you think Jess Hutch has cornered the market for knit toys? While I love the genius of Ms. Hutch as much as anyone, a UK based blogger at xtreme knitting has designed a series of three knit dinosaurs - a brontosaurus, a stegosaurus, and my favorite, a triceratops, complete with free patterns. Roar!
At last, proof that I have been knitting, and not just talking about knitting. Exhibit A: Grumperina's often imitated, seldom duplicated Jaywalkers in a zesty self-striping rainbow pattern. At first I was concerned that Roy G. Biv would compete with the zigs and zags, but I'm finding that the resulting rainbowed busyness really hits home. A sneak peak into my complete childhood oeuvre of drawings and finger paintings would reveal rainbows. Rainbows, rainbows, and more rainbows, with a heart or flower thrown in here and there for the sake of variety. You can just call these Sarah's Amazing Technicolor Dream Socks.
These socks feature a bevy of GDB firsts. My first socks on two circs. My first toe up socks (with help from Natalia Knits) and my first short row toe. I don't have to tell you that one of the great appeals of toe ups is the avoidance of pesky walnut sized sock yarn leftovers. I took that appeal to the extreme and worked the yarn right up to the bitter end, finishing with socks that fall right at the widest part of my calf. The jury's still out on whether or not the shaping I added will keep them there, but I figure that most people will never see the sock tops. They'll be too busy admiring the dazzling combo of my rainbow socks and my red rubber clogs.
Specs: Pattern: Jaywalker
Yarn: I lost the label, it was purchased at a yarn store in Wilmington, NC last fall.
Needles: Two Addi circs, size 1
Size: Small (I wear a size 8 shoe)
Modifications: Knit toe up (with pattern assistance from Natalia Knits), increased stitches as needed to fit calf circumference
I have been having so much fun checking out everyone's Week in Color shots that I have decided to extend the festivities for a week. It seems fitting to segue from rainbow socks to a daily tribute to color in the world around me. Look for a continuation of color here next week!
I'm playing a slight game of catch up on the blog here. I won't rehash all the glories and defeats, but I couldn't leave out the final chapter of the Licorice Twist yarn's journey to becoming an Hourglass Sweater. The last time you saw the Hourglass, the neckline had migrated past my scapula and around my clavicle. I frogged back to the raglan shaping, and the crisis was averted, with only the occasional curse to be heard. Now all is forgotten and forgiven. I honestly do a little dance when I see it folded in my closet (feel free to take a moment and picture me tap dancing out a lively tattoo). I wish I could take all the credit for the loveliness of this sweater, but really, it's all about the yarn folks. As usual, the pictures don't do it justice, but as much as I wear the Hourglass, you might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it in person!
Pattern: Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, size Small
Yarn: 2 balls Licorice Twist Red Yarn, from Spinners Hill (about 1200 yards) - purchased at Rhinebeck
Needles: Size 6 Addi circs
Modifications: One extra decrease in the body shaping, as well as an extra decrease along the neckline. I'm a firm believer in accepting and dealing with my own shortcomings, so I knew from the start that there was no way in hell I'd be sewing all those hems. Using the no-sew pick-up method, I managed to avoid every hem but the neckline. Ms. Marnie has a great photo tutorial that details this sanity saving step. Highly recommended for the sewing averse.
