Long Time No Post #2

My Ravatar

I may be making a habit of this. I'll just post annual updates on my blog. Seriously, Ravelry takes up most of my writing and internet time. For example, this is my new license plate, and my Ravatar. I should just post the best of my Ravelry updates here as well.

I've also been designing for Your Knitting Life and Crochet Today!, but I'm taking a break right now because design deadlines took all of my spare time and I wasn't getting anything else done. Hmmm, that just might be another reason I haven't posted much.

I designed and knit these cabled socks for Your Knitting Life, Flirty Footsies, about a year ago. They are knit toe up in aran weight yarn on size 5 needles, and work up pretty fast due to the heavier wt. of the yarn.

I also designed this cute Peony rug for Crochet Today! last fall. It was inspired by a few vintage doily patterns, but crocheted in bulky yarn instead of thread.

Meta Carolyn and her mom & dad's legs

Nathan in his Bear Hat

I've also become a great aunt twice in the last 2 years. My niece had a son, Nathan, in Feb 2011 and my nephew had a daughter, Meta Carolyn, in January of this year. Meta is named after my mom, her great grandmother. Of course, these major events demanded some hand made gifts. Since crochet is faster than knitting, and I was on a time crunch as usual, I crocheted Meta a blanket and a cute little bonnet.

Meta Carolyn's Granny Rectangle

Meta's Easter Bonnet

The yarn I used for the blanket

Market Bag in the Rose Garden

I'm really trying to knit down my stash, and have been crocheting market bags from sock yarn. The market bags are crocheted with two strands of yarn, so they use up two 100 gram skeins fast.

amandine: the beginning

I also just finished a test knit for myself. It is a top down cardigan named Amandine. It used fingering weight yarn, and took eight weeks to knit. Usually I lose interest before finishing, but this time I persevered, although I missed knitting a Ravellenics project because the test knit started just before the Olympics, and I couldn’t wait to start--as it was I needed two extra weeks to finish the test knit. I am waiting for DD to bring my (our) camera back, so I can take pictures. I used some hand dyed sock yarn from Newton’s Yarn Country which I had purchased for just such a project. It’s a good thing I got the large, 1.07 lb. skein (over 1900 yds.), because I have just a golf ball sized ball of yarn left over (enough for repairs). I need to get my camera back from DD so I can take a real picture.

This is the view of the CC in Terra Linda from the freeway

Before I finished the test knit I couldn’t resist starting a new project, the Terra Linda Cardigan, and now I’m knitting the end of the yoke, where there’s a lace pattern. It’s a top down design by Romi Hill, and it’s lovely. I’m using some yarn from my stash--Kathmandu Aran in navy, that I got in a Webs sale. Romi grew up in Terra Linda (where Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Marin County Civic Center in one of his last projects), and I grew up nearby in Mill Valley.

As if I needed more evidence of how much time I spend on Ravelry, (mostly editing yarn entries and moderating the Sock Knitter's Anonymous group) I had kind of an anxiety dream last night just before waking (so I remembered it). Someone had published a design of mine in a free e-book collection, and I was trying to copy the text and make it into a new PDF so it could be available separately as a Rav download from my page. I woke up before I finished the task. Since the e-book was free, and my name was credited as the designer, I don’t know why my dream self wanted to make it a separate download.

I also had fun on Talk like a Pirate day on Ravelry. Me pirate name be Dead Man George Sparrow, blimey!