Thanks, Ravelry!

You can now easily download the Nouveau Sack Hat pattern through Ravelry... go ahead and click on the sidebar, that will lead right to the PDF. I'm so happy to be able to offer links like this without leaving good old free blogger. Anyway, the hat pattern is $6, has a complete chart, seriously, it's a no-brainer, and the perfect way to learn 2-color stranded knitting or use up dk to worsted weight leftovers!



On the Grellow front, I found these for $29.99 on my way home from work yesterday. The last pair in the store, size 8 1/2.

Vote Weaverknits

Alert! Free Pattern for Absolutely Fierce Armwarmers is HERE!

I may or may not be wearing them today, to, you know, test them before I send them to Beth The Otherweaver. If I were, I would tell you all about how they stay up, and are so soft and super warm, allowing me to wear a lovely short-sleeved tunic in Cold New Job today.

I've decided to take part in a contest. Recall that I am a beginning lace knitter. My first impulse, before holding my skein of Trenna in my hand, was to make a hat or cardigan or something other than a shawl with the yarn, something unexpected and profoundly chic in its unexpectedness. Then I got the yarn, which is laceweight if ever there was laceweight. So I decided to do the shawl/scarf thing, but set myself parameters:

1. Must be wearable by many for many occasions. This, to me, meant not making a huge-ass shawl. I decided on a wide scarf. Mine will be very long, hopefully about 9 feet, but it can easily be made shorter by working fewer pattern repeats.

2. Must be easy and fast. So easy and fast that much progress can be made while watching TV. Even good TV. Like the new show Ax Men on the History Channel. Or DVDs of The Wire.

3. Must somehow make use of traditional patterns or design, rathern than simply representing a selection from a stitch dictionary.
Well, I'm just posting a tease picture here, but rest assured that I've succeeded. If my pattern is a finalist, it will be up on the little knits site for your votes! If it wins, it will be available through little knits. If not, I'm going to make it available as a PDF for a nominal price. I am working to make lace FIERCE! And EASY! WHAT COULD BE BETTER?

Since my color choice in Trenna was grey, I'm adding a little you-know-what as a finishing touch. My new friend stinkyfromage on Ravelry sent me this adorable little package containing just enough leftovers from one of her projects to give this scarf that Grellow Magic.

Yay!

Oh, I have a blog. Right.

YES, I've been knitting, including these absolutely fierce armwarmers that Other Weaverknits Beth and I conceived during our weekend of fabulousness in Chicago.

Okay, so only one is done, but I've decided to write up the pattern and post it for free on Ravelry. Look for it over the next few days! Above you see the thumb hole option.

Or you can push them up and disregard the thumb hole option. We're LOVING the grey and yellow combination seen on the runways for fall 08 and will be rocking them all year. Plan on much, much more action in these colors here at Weaverknits. If you don't like it, you've been warned.

P.S. Can anyone explain these weird virus software warnings I've been getting in my comments section? Anyone? I use a Mac and don't run Windows, so they're totally irrelevant to me. I'll send you a prize if you can explain. Really!

Not only better, but FABULOUS.

So I got better and flew to Chicago to see my sister and friend Hannah. Let's start the blog post off with a photo of something my sister Beth is knitting. Beth: The Other Weaverknits. The one who only knits scarves and shawls, but has perhaps the best visual sense of anyone I know. This is one of her scarves. I have extracted a promise from her that together we will write out the pattern.
And the shopping. Oh, the shopping. The shoe department in the Chicago Nordstrom was better than Saks and Neimans in Boston combined. On the yarn front, we went to Nina, which I highly recommend. It's a beautiful space with a fantastic selection, a staff who were helpful but not intrusive, and reasonable prices. In this photo Hannah and I sit on what we called the "pods" in the front of the store. I came home with one ball of Be Sweet tiny boucle, the softest boucle I have ever felt (come on, don't you often feel like recoiling when you touch boucle and feel that nylon stiffness?) and a bunch of alpaca for some long, long armwarmers for Beth.

What have I been knitting? Some socks for my Grandma, among other things. She recently made a few passive-aggressive mentions of the fact that she only has one pair that she has not worn to shreds. While I could do without the passive-aggressive, hey, it's Grandma, and she gets what she wants. I hope she can wait until Mother's Day; I've got a lot going on!