Shut Up & Knit!

It's a Scarf!

It's the Irish Hiking Scarf from Hello Yarn.

The yarn is Paton Classic Merino Wool in Bright Red.  Just under two skeins used.

I used size 7 straight needles for it as I do not have the size 8s that the pattern calls for and it was started well after all the shops were closed for the night.

It took ten days... off and on... give or take.

It was given a bath and rinsed until it stopped bleeding.  It is currently air drying/blocking and stinking up the place like you would not believe.

o.0

It is just under six feet long and wide enough to keep Norma from yelling at me.  She said at least five inches wide, ya know.

My cables go to the right and the pattern said go left.  I am such a rebel.

It was mostly fun and I will do it again.  Just not in red.

Oh, and this is scarf #2.  The first one is resting quietly with some lace weight yarn and will be out for photos later on.

Don't ask.

No... really.

I don't like this trend

Knitty

The new issue is out and that annoying pimp your own shit trend seems to be alive and well. 

No, it is not only Knitty doing it, but they are the reason I'm ranting about this today.

I understand that some places make a designer use a certain yarn... whether it's good or bad.   I do realize that making a profit is what it's all about and there are a limited amount of ways to do that when you're a free online publication.

However, allowing designers to use their own yarns is a conflict of interest.

Sure, they have it on hand and it's a great way for them to pimp their shit.  I do get that part, but I think it reflects badly on the publishers who are allowing this.  It suggests a lack of control on the publisher's part and/or a lack of concern for the readership's ablity to aquire the right yarns and actually make their patterns.

Offering subs would be a simple thing.  It would also be the polite thing to do as most of us are unwilling/able to spend almost two hundred dollars... before shipping no less... on a yarn we have never seen in person or touched for a pattern that may or may not actually work out.

The first two items of the new Knitty are made with yarns produced by the designer of the item.

Good for them.

Btw, my personal fav is the sweater that makes the model look like a preggo.  Yeah, let me order that yarn right now!

Other online mags do the same thing, btw.  Other designers, too. 

I know we live in a world of product placement and cross-overs.  It's part of the fallout from the 1980's.  I get it.  I really do.   I just don't think it's always a good thing.  Showing someone drinking a pepsi in a movie is one thing.  Trying to force a yarn on knitters is another.   Offering choices is a good thing.  No matter how stupid some publishers/designers/companies think we are.

We really are smarter than that, ya know.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to do some math so I can use a nice yarn in place of plastic shit in a pattern I think I like.

The Crazy Girl & Her Sock

While standing on the bed, bracing one hand against the wall in an attempt to get a non-blurry picture for a change and holding a camera in the other while standing over a cat and a sock napping quietly in the sun, I took the following photo...

The best part was the look the cat gave me when I climbed up onto the bed.  She made it clear that she's is much happier when I am not home.

Now to answer the questions before they start to arrive:

Yes, those are the sheets I bought yesterday.  Jersey sheets from Target.

It's a duvet cover without a duvet.  Still too warm for feathers and down.

Yes, I made it... before I knew what I was doing with fabric.  :? 

Yes, it is reversable.  It's blue flannel on the other side.

Yes, that's the return of the ladybug yarn... and, yes, there are two socks.  Only one was awake enough to model for me this morning.

Yes, that is a short row heel.  Thank you for noticing.

No, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  However, I did both heels in one very long sitting out of fear of not being able to make them match.  o.0

Yes, the boy knows I'm weird. 

No, he does not know how weird.  I like the fact that he loves me and, if he ever found out how weird I really am, he'd turn me over the men with the really big butterfly nets.

No... really.

Oh, and mitten news for Sandy.  I have the yarn for fingerless mitts #1 and I'm going to play around with a pattern idea later today.  Assuming the butterfly net men don't come for a visit later...

A Mitten Along!

Sandy is doing a Mitten Along. 

Or a fingerless glove along in my case. 

I fell in love with Norma's submission * to Bitchin'Mittens and wanted to make a pair.  That has grown into several pair as they would be perfect for a girlfriend of mine who lives in England and does not knit.  In fact, I ran out and got the yarn to make her first pair this morning.

I'm also thinking about doing Fetching from Knitty as everyone and their dog is making them and I do love to cable.  Also also thinking about making up my own pattern using the skills I got whilst making the world's most whiny and pink mittens for Bitchin'Mittens.  I love doing the tubular cast on thing and I think it would give a pair of mittens/fingerless gloves a really nice finished looking edge.  Then there's my crazy idea about doing a cable around the wrist and picking up the stitches to the glove part...

Yeah, full of chocolate and ideas.  *L*

* Am I  the only one who thought that the Norma in Mittens picture was very sexy?  And don't lie and say I'm the only one, either, because I took a poll via e-mail and I'm not the only one.  Very sexy The Norma...

The New Traditional

Something went dreafully wrong over at Bitchin'Mittens. 

Somehow I won for most traditional mittens.  o.0

Unless traditional is code for boring, I think something went wrong somewhere...

Painfully pink, yes.

Boring, hell yes.

Yeah, okay... I guess they are traditional mittens...

Many thanks to the judges for liking my boring whiny mittens.  I guess it's a good thing I didn't use the cat hair, after all.  *L*

Oh, and because it's Saturday...

It is wonderfully cool today. 

Not good for yarn that's trying to dry, but it's lovely for me.

I hope we're all having a quiet and peaceful weekend.