Moebius Fibonacci scarf

In response to the many requests (well, one indirect question) here is a pic of one of my Moebius scarves, made more or less from a pattern from Cat Bordhi's book, "A Treasury of Magical Knitting". The stripes do not follow her pattern, but are in a partial Fibonacci sequence (I can HEAR you say, Oh, right, Da Vinci code!), but coming from a long line of geeks I knew about Fibonacci numbers BEFORE Dan Brown brought them to the attention of the world. It's a bit long on my model for this pic, I know, but it's a pretty good length on an adult, and can even be used as a hood/scarf thing. I need to make two more for Xmas, so I'd better get knitting. Love the I-cord bind-off, by the way, this was my first exposure to that technique, and I have become simply mad for i-cord, whether cast-on, built-in, bound-off or otherwise.

Project Spectrum

I discovered Project Spectrum today. I like this idea, also it fits in well with my future knitting plans for Xmas, etc. Blue for June (can't do green for May, sorry, nuh-uh, good thing it's almost June), Purple(!) for July, then neutrals.

The Shedir is coming along, but I am devastated to have discovered three, count 'm three, errors, which I can't really remedy without starting all over again. Hopefully, no one will ever notice but me, and it's a gift, so the secret can remain with me. I will take pix this weekend, as my DD is away for the holiday weekend with the family of a friend.

Great swag!

Last Friday I went to a luncheon to benefit the Marin Abused Women's Services, since a friend of mine was on the board, and Anne Lamott, an author I like, was speaking. She was very, very funny and thought-provoking, and lookie what I bid on (and won!) in the silent auction:

Very purple, very me, very impractical. I think this will become a knitting bag for very small projects, since I can comfortably loop the handles over my wrist to knit in line. Fortunately for me, I don't spend a whole lot of time standing in line, so that doesn't bode very well for knitting progress by that method.

Today, I received three (count 'm, three!) packages in the mail. One was the fab Crazy Aunt Purl t-shirt (available through CafePress). Can't wait to wear it to the next SnB.

Package two was the Anthropologie sweater brought to my attention by Grumperina's blog, and the commenter who let us all know (thank you!) that it was on sale. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where the monitor color lied to me. I thought "peacock" would be a lovely shade of blue, but instead it is green. Green! I'm allergic to green. I have virtually zero items of green clothing, and next to no decorative objects of green in my home. I would try the red one, but although I love wearing red, I'm extremely picky about my shades of red, so I don't think I dare to try it after this experiment with "peacock".

Package three was a great new knitting bag from BagSmith.

It has zillions of pockets, which should be great to load up with knitting tools, so that I should always (ha!) be able to find them. The price is good, too. Can't wait to load it up. I'm not sure this will be my "traveling" knitting bag, more like a central depository at home. I got mine from Rosie's Yarn Cellar, since I could not get the basket to work on the actual BagSmith site. Thanks, Rosie!

Lastly, here is my progress on the Shedir. Note the lovely stitch marker, part of a set made by my friend Carin last holiday season as part of our SnB gift exchange (sorry I stole these from you, Patty!).

Wish I had progress to report on my Sonnet for the KAL, but Shedir has been distracting me. I learned to do cables without a cable needle, thanks to Grumperina's site, which now feels very natural. I don't know how well it will work for me with cables bigger than 2 stitches, though, but we'll see. This is part of my progression to teach myself cabling -- Shedir, then the Celtic Cap, then -- Rogue! I so want a Rogue cardigan. Alas that my skills don't measure up to my wants.

Short Rows -- Help (me)

So on the Sonnet KAL, Ang and I have been mulling over using short-row technique to add some waist shaping to the Sonnet. Just in case I'm not crazy enough yet, I decided to throw in some more crazy-making stuff, like short-row waist shaping. Also, I love the Sonnet, but boxy is not the most flattering thing on me. I'm boxy enough as it is.

Some places for tips:

Nona's Tips

(see her tutorial on three different techniques for short-rowing)

Knitty Summer '03
(deconstructing the free Shapely Tank pattern, and its use of short rows in the bustline and hem)

Knitting.about.com
(short row shaping applied to a neckline)

knittinggeek.com magic-of-short-rows
(with examples of 3 different methods)

"The 'I Hate to Finish Sweaters' Guide to Finishing Sweaters", available here:
bigskyknitting.com
(mostly discusses short-row shoulder shaping, as I recall)

None of these specifically applies short-rowing to waist-shaping, alas, so that will take some more thought. Darn.

[ETA this link: Purlwise: Shaped Cap Sleeves with Wrapped Short Rows]

What was I thinking?

I have three projects in progress, a lot for me. Project One is a Klein bottle hat (shh, it's a surprise for my math professor uncle). It's in a very weird-looking (and boring to knit) phase. The light grey part will fold up inside, get decreased and grafted to the tube coming in at the side. Ignore the fact that there's a hole in the side to let in that tube, a true Klein bottle has no hole by virtue of existing in the 4th dimension. This will be, as my uncle would say, a knitted representation of a Klein bottle. (When I sent him the Moebius scarf I made for him, I was thanked for a "knitted representation of a Moebius band".) See the links for more on Klein bottles, and representations thereof.

I did not intend originally to change yarns for the light grey part, but the other is a bit too itchy. I did provisional cast-on, crocheted chain method, couldn't get the chain out due to using same yarn (travel emergency) and it being too "catch"-y, picked up stitches and left chain in place, and went merrily on. My two big fears: the grafting, which is 1x1 ribbing (but will be in a hidden spot), and -- will my uncle end up looking like a Teletubby? Better that than some Klein bottle hats I've seen, though.

Project Two is Knitty's Sonnet, and here is the swatch. I did I-cord cast-on and bind-off (me I-cord freak), with built-in I-cord on the left and on the right, it is "slip stitch double-knit edge" per this pattern by Annie Modesitt: http://www.modeknit.com/blog/alisons_scarf.pdf
They both look good to me, hard to decide which one to use. This is KnitPicks Shine Sport in Hydrangea. For once I actually intend to swatch (obviously) and even wash my swatch, since they say it is machine washable and dryable, and I'm darned if I will throw a whole sweater I have labored over into the washer and dryer without trying it on the swatch first.

And here is 12 rows of Shedir, Project Three -- or is it a holder for stitch markers? I am new to reading charts and working this kind of cabling, hence the many many markers.

This is Jaeger Extra-Fine Merino DK weight, color Blackcurrant, not the recommended yarn. Hope it works out, but Eunnie's did, with a DK weight. I have made lots of hats, and the stitch count and weight seem right to me. I love this color.

Haiku

I am new to this whole blog thing, but I did set up a blog for my SnB group, Eweforia. We came up with that name as a group, and I think it's great. I will put up a link to them in the links section.

I am joining the Sonnet KAL hosted by Ang of Raleigh (my birthplace), and this is the child-size Knitty Haiku that I made for my niece, by the same designer and with the same basic design, although simpler. Sweet, huh? If I do say so myself. The buttons are from JoAnn's and to be honest I did not think I would find anything quite so nice there.

Mods: shoulders done with 3-needle bind-off, sleeves knit in the round in stockinette stitch, and my odd choice of stitch (backstitch) used to attach sleeves, which seems to have worked out, but next time I will try a different technique. Also, my niece is skinny and tall, so I fudged it by using lengths from the larger size and widths from the smaller size. I haven't actually seen it on her (she lives across the continent), so I hope it worked out. This is in worsted weight mercerized cotton from Plymouth ("Fantasy Naturale"), and it was a bit splitty to work with.

For my Sonnet I have KnitPicks Shine Sport, gauge 6 st./in., color Hydrangea. Love that color.