Koolsheep’s knit blog

lol. Sorry, that was really bad, but I couldn’t help myself. I stocked the Blueberry soaker at Midday Faire yesterday and at 1:00 pm I had *two* messages in my in-box telling me that it had sold. Doh! Looks like I need to do some more coding to really really make Hyena Cart hyena-proof. Luckily, both mamas are sweet as honey and one of them has graciously accepted the offer of a different soaker.

Tempting is really chugging along a whole lot faster than I had imagined. I carried it around with me while we were running errands on Saturday and finished the 13 inches for the body and got started on the sleeves. I cast on the stitches for the first sleeve on my Denise needles and then didn’t think magic loop was going to work for me. Of course, Isaac was sitting next to me pulling on the needles and the yarn at the same time. So I tried again during an early Monday morning conference call and it worked fine.

Here’s the second sleeve getting magic loop-ified:

This project is turning into a big plug for Denise needles, but I’m just loving not having to go out and get all different needles for every project. I didn’t even need to buy dpn’s! Also, I don’t need stitch holders. I just use extra Denise cables and the stopper ends. It’s funny because when I first got them, I was a little disappointed. I tried knitting a soaker on them and I use size 6’s for KSS knitting. Well, they don’t work fabulously in that size because the cord itself is almost as thick as a size 6, so between the smallness of the stitches and the grabbiness of the wool yarn, the knitting was terrible. The stitches just didn’t want to slide over the cord. But with every other project I’ve used them on (size 8’s and above), they work beautifully.

Here’s the 13 inches of the body:

I just finished the sleeves and am going back to add a few more inches to the body section, based on some of the sweaters I like to wear.

Still thinking about what I’m going to use for the ribbon. Guess I’ll be going out to Joann’s in the near future…

I got a chance to work on Tempting last night. I’m about 5 inches into it — moving right along.

And here’s another cool thing about Denise needles: if you’re knitting in the round and want to try on your creation, you don’t need to slip stitches onto waste yarn or an extra circular. You just pop the needles off, connect an extension, put on some stopper ends and give it a go. Here’s me just making sure the sizing is okay:

At first, I was convinced it was going to be way too big. But if it’s just sitting there, it’s measuring 24″ in circumference, which should be plenty small enough to be form-fitting. I think the problem was I had the part on the needle stretched out which gave a false idea of how it would fit. I think it’s going to be fine though.

And I got new motivation to get knitting on some soakers again. I want to earn some spending money and get a playstand from Brian’s Woodshop for the kids. I think they’ll love it.

Apparently, it was time for me to knit something a bit different. I’m in the middle of a soaker in the yummy BFL, but it wasn’t really holding my attention. However, *this* has really piqued my interest. It’s “Tempting” from the latest knitty.com issue and it is very aptly named. Of course, the picture on the designer is gorgeous, and I’ve seen a couple other great ones as well, here and here. I love that body-hugging fit! I’ve already asked Jenna, the designer, if she’ll consider extending it over the shoulders and including options for crewneck, v-neck and mock turtle. Oh, and multiple sleeve-lengths too. Wouldn’t that be a totally kick-ass pattern? I’d never have to buy another sweater again.

So I ran out last night and headed over to Joann’s. Picked up some Cotton-ease in black for Tempting, and also some Micro-spun in white-white for this little number, which I’ve had my eye on for a while. I’ve been fingering the Micro-spun whenever we’re at the craft store buying supplies for Jules’ and Iggy’s latest projects, but never had a real reason to buy any. It’s just so soft. I wonder how it wears?

Now I’m wondering, do Procion dyes work on acrylic and/or microfiber? I’m so spoiled with being able to dye yarn to any color I want, it might be worth picking up some dyes for when I knit stuff up for myself (although I’ll stick to colors I actually wear from now on).

So I’m a few inches in on Tempting. I just love simple patterns. All I had to do was figure out what size I was, cast on and now it’s 2×2 rib for 13″. I guess some knitters would find that boring, but it’s perfect for me. I’ve done a few sweaters where I had to have a chart out at all times (St. Brigid, for example — I can’t quite memorize that one), and it’s not as relaxing as being able to sit back and just knit in auto-mode. Oh, and my Denise Interchangeables are serving me well. I actually swatched despite my great desire not to. See, it used to be that I didn’t bother swatching since I only had one needle size and if it turned out I needed a different one, I wouldn’t be able to start my project. Now I’ve got the Denise set so I actually have the means to go a needle size up or down as required. As it turned out, size 8’s were bang-on so off I went.

Whew, this soaker seemed like it took forever but it’s finally finished and listed for auction. I’ve had it in my head for a while so it feel good to have it finished and “out there.”

In other news, I got my yummy shipment of Bluefaced Leicester yarn and am already knitting up a little project with it. It really is a beautiful yarn and extermely soft. The only thing it loses out to the FBF in is stretchiness. Full Belly has the great bounce to it which translates into a super-stretchy garment. My BFL soaker is still stretchy, but more due to the nature of the knit fabric itself and not so much from the yarn. I’ll tell you one thing though, the knitting goes about twice as fast since I don’t have to stop and pick out all those little burrs that are in the FBF. And I don’t leave piles of fluffy vegetation everywhere while I’m knitting

The extremely generous winner of the custom slot from last week is cooking up a *gorgeous* concept for her knit pants. This is going to be fun!

I just got a birth announcement from my cousin and if you could see this pic, you will understand why I was immediately inspired to knit something for this little bundle of cuteness. Seriously, this could be the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot, coming from a mother of two.

So I was racking my brain, trying to come up with something that was 1) precious, 2) quick, 3) didn’t involve going out today. As I was walking around outside pushing Isaac on his big wheel, inspiration struck! Didn’t I see something absolutely adorable at Kate Gilbert’s site? After we came in and I defrosted my fingers, I took a look, and yes indeedy, Kate has the cutest little knit bunny rabbits on her site (see Kate’s link in my sidebar).

So I bought and downloaded the pattern and *poof* a few minutes later, instant project! And I just happened to have some super-soft acrylic yarn in my stash. Yes, acrylic. I want this stuffed animal to get used and I know for a fact, that means it will have saliva, spit up, and who knows what else stuck on it extremely often. So I want the new parents to be able to throw that thing in the washer and dryer without a thought.

Two hours later (you might be faster if you don’t need to stop periodically to color with your 4-year-old daughter), voila!

It’s just so soft and squishy and cute. And now I have to knit two more for my own kiddos. Julia was a bit put out when I insisted this one had to get mailed to her new cousin.

In other news, I finished the Dusk to Dawn soaker. I typed in the name, and then thought, shouldn’t that be Dawn to Dusk? But then I thought, well, if it’s used on a baby overnight, Dusk to Dawn is a pretty appropriate name

I have some spring-y projects in mind so keep your eyes peeled for what’s around the corner