Today the US Olympic committee sent a cease and desist letter to Ravelry claiming that the Ravelympics violates their copyright. The letter went so far as to say that knitting “denigrated” the Olympics. Denigrated? Really? The USOC must have received one too many ill-fitting, ugly and itchy sweaters from their grandmas as children.
Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Jordan Ain't Afraid to Knit, so why is the USOC?
I know I’m late to the party here since the knitting community apparently has been fuming over this long enough for the USOC to issue two different apologies – the first of which only made things worse when it suggested that knitters show their support by sending knitted freebies their way. Right, like that was going to happen.
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Whenever I feel the need to destroy something, I rip up a sweater.
No real destructive streak to speak of yesterday, but I did wake up in the mood to do some dyeing, and that meant that I had to unravel a sweater first. I picked a rescued merino/angora ugly pale blue thing that couldn’t decide whether it wants to be tweed or heather. I got six skeins like these out of it.
I skeined these three, then threw into a soup pot with some lukewarm water to prep the yarn, then went for a walk down by the lake while it soaked.
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I’m having a torrid affair with the Pomme de Pin Cardigan. So far the pattern has been easy to follow, it’s visually interesting, the repeats are easy to memorize, it’s easy to spot when my brain goes AWOL and I frak it up… and I picked awesome yarn to boot. I am in love.
First, here’s the yarn:
“Pomme de Pin” apparently means “pine cone”. I would have thought “pineapple”, given the “pomme”, but the name apparently refers to the pine cone lace pattern that makes up the body of the sweater. I loved the idea of sticking to shades of brown to take the reference even further. One of the reasons I’m including this photo is that the ones that follow don’t show off the color very well, but this one is pretty close.
So let’s take a look at my progress.
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Awhile back, I picked up some Chroma Worsted from KnitPicks in the colorway Mix Tape. Because how could I not, right? Especially KnitPicks said it was being discontinued? That’s right. I needed to rescue two skeins immediately, rehome them in a nice, loving yarn stash.
As I was moving, I needed a mindless project to keep my hands busy and decided it was time to figure out what the Mix Tape yarn wanted to be. I must have started and pulled out a half dozen patterns before I gave up and improvised. I finished it two days ago, and I love it, so I’m calling it my first successful improvisation.
Look. Look at this beautifully awesome thing that I did.
Hattie models the awesomeness for you.
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I’M BAAAAAAACK!!!!
You missed me.
No need to admit it. I already know.
So I’m all moved in and finally, FINALLY settled enough to get my knit on. One of the first things I did here in my new digs was run out to IKEA for three bookshelves – two for books and one for yarn. Yarn shelves!
This makes me feel immensely better about my stash. It doesn’t look so bad when it’s tucked into cubbies like so. The two leftmost cubbies are sweaters that I rescued from thrift stores. I’m really excited about the Christmas red cashmere. Oh my!
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I finished the Glam Shells shawl yesterday evening and let it block overnight! Since I made it with Berroco Ultra Alpaca Pea Soup Mix, I’ve taken to calling it the “Pea Shells” shawl. She sells pea shells by the lake shore. Or something like that since I’ve got no sea shells and the only waterfront in Chicago is Lake Michigan. Get it? I am much too clever.
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My little niece, Banana, has a little play kitchen that she loves. So for her third birthday, I embarked on a super secret project: STRAWBERRIES!
Banana loved her strawberries! More than I ever imagined that she would, really. I gave them to her with a set of play dishes, and she poured her knitted strawberries from bowl to bowl. She bounced from one party guest to another imploring us to take a bite. It was beyond adorable.
Of course, this means that I promised her cupcakes.
In other news, I am moving to a new apartment in the next couple weeks. Of course, this means that my knitting time will be replaced by packing for a little while. There may not be much to post until I’m settled in my new digs, but never fear, your fearless train knitter shall return.
All fans of “The Walking Dead” know, Carl is never, ever in the house like he’s supposed to be, which leads to large portions of any given episode being devoted to watching Rick and Lori and the rest of their post-apocalyptic tribe mates running around in a state of panic trying to find Carl. “Where is Carl?” has become one of the iconic lines of the series. It might even be classified as a catch phrase if it wasn’t so damn dramatic.
This is what led my friend Kayti to invent my new favorite game, a photoshop meme in the spirit of Sad Keanu and Ryan Gosling Hey Girl: Where is Carl?
You should go check it out, and submit your own photoshop of where you found Carl if you’re into that sort of thing. For an example, here’s Carl hanging out in front of the Von Trapp mansion with Julie Andrews:
Oh help... I think Captain Von Trapp's mansion has been overrun by walkers!
I’m kinda proud of that one, actually. Putting Carl behind the gate put my photoshopping skills to the test!
Since this is a knitting blog, and Where is Carl is definitely not about knitting, I thought it might be fun to pull together a collection of zombie-inspired knits. Because let’s face it: if I ever find myself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, I’m totally raiding the abandoned yarn stores. I’ll make my way in a post-apocalyptic world trading socks and hats for food and guns. Besides, you can always use a sturdy large gauge knitting needle to stab a walker through the eye.
I made this drop stitch scarf awhile back when I first discovered the Zombie BBQ colorway by Lorna’s Laces:
It is still one of my favorite projects that I’ve ever made. There’s a matching hat and a set of fingerless gloves, but they’re nowhere near as fantastic as the scarf.
Here are some other great zombie and post-apocalypse projects that were made by other folks:
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A co-worker has a baby, I make a hat. That’s just how it works, you know?
The latest co-worker baby, a girl, arrived in February, and I have been trying to make a hat ever since.
Trying.
And, ohhh, is it trying.
The yarn was simple enough. I recycled a bunch of yarn from an old Banana Republic sweater, a soft and fuzzy fingering weight angora/lambswool blend that would be great for a soft and warm baby garment. I decided that I wanted to do something yellow with pink accents, and thus dyed it up like so:
Recycled angora/lambswool blend dyed with Kool-Aid flavors Pink Lemonade, Peach Mango, and Piña Pineapple.
It turned out much brighter than I had intended, but I like it. Still very girl-baby.
Then I set out to find a hat pattern that worked with the yarn.
And this is where everything has gone horribly wrong. Read more…
I signed a lease on a new apartment last weekend. It’s a pretty exciting development since it means I’ll be closer to work and friends, and won’t have to deal with a third floor walk up any more. The new apartment also happens to be within walking distance of Sifu Design Studio!
Well, okay, it’s a still a bit of a hike, but it’s definitely an easy bike ride. At any rate, it was close enough that I couldn’t resist heading over to celebrate, and of course I walked out with a skein of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky in the Jardin colorway. Because you can never have too much green yarn. It is like crack. Crack that I must immediately knit up as quickly as possible.
The pattern I chose for my impulse knitting is the Scrunchable Scarf, and I knitted it on big size 15 needles and attached the ends with a 3-needle bind off to make it a cowl. Is there anything better than than a chunky, squishy, green baby alpaca cowl? I think not!
Of course, in the same week, Chicago decided to go from Winter directly to holy freaking hot mid-Summer, so I’m probably not going to have an excuse to show it off for at least six months. Such a bummer.
