Two Friends are Better Than One

One of my most awesome work friends (hi Kate!) is super fun and crazy and always makes me laugh.  She isn't a fiber-crafty lady, but she good-naturedly puts up with my own craft insanity.  Recently she pointed me toward a cool crafty blog by another friend of hers from BC, Fig Cottage.  Turns out the lovely lady who writes this blog recently posted her first published pattern, a cute little toque called Kitimat.  I decided it might be a neat idea for me to knit one for myself (newbie knitwear designers gotta look out for each other, after all) but then I had an even more brilliant idea: why not knit one for Kate, then it's like a crazy mashup of two of her fibery friends, one who designed it and one who knit it.

I used Patons Classic Wool - when I saw this fantastic greeny yellow colour (called Lemongrass) I couldn't say no to it, and I thought it looked pretty awesome (dare I say "modern"?) with the dark grey mix.  Of course a huge pom pom is a must.

What matters most is that Kate loved it.

Serenity Now!

So I've had this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn for probably four or five years.  I used other skeins of this yarn for other socks, and had some issues with pooling and flashing, so I was waiting to imagine the perfect design that would make some beautiful socks.

However, since I've started my new pledge to find peace with the random designs made by a bunch of stockingette socks in variegated yarn, I pulled these skeins out and just knit 'em up to see what would happen.

Turns out that 68 stitches on 2.25 mm needles makes some pretty cool stripes.  Once I did a few increases to accomodate my large instep and calf, all hell broke loose.  There were some definite blobs, some fat ol' stripes, and they definitely ended up more fraternal than identical.

The name I chose for these socks is Serenity, partly because the sock colourway is called "River" which makes me think of River Tam on Firefly, and also because of the crazy way they turned out, which makes me think of the Costanzas.

Working Girl

I am not a monogamous knitter.  I like to have several different projects on the go at all times, so that I have something to work on, no matter my mood.  Cables or lace for a challenge, simple little stockingette socks for more mindless moments.  Instant gratification projects like hats can begin and be finished at a moment's notice, no matter what else is in the queue.

The last thing I showed you was a cabled pullover I've been working on.  Although I am tantalizingly close to finishing it, I was still lured in by the siren song of a knitalong over at Celtic Cast On.  This particular knitalong is using a free pattern by Tanis Fiber Arts, Business Casual, which I've been coveting for a long time, and since I had a skein of Tanis' Blue Label in Pink Grapefruit just sitting around waiting to be made into something lovely, how could I resist?

Somehow my sweater (and yeah, that other sweater and some socks and... well... let's not think about all the rest, shall we?) sat bereft in its knitting bag while I was monogamous with these lovely little socks, for a whole week.  It's true: since the pattern is really mostly stockingette, these adorable little things only took a week (and a day) to finish.  Which means that, if you wanted to, there's still lots of time for you to join the knitalong and finish your own pair by the March 25th deadline.  I dare you.