jetlag

Five easy steps to a tangle - a tangled yoke cardigan!

Pattern: Tangled Yoke cardigan by Eunny Jang, Interweave Knits, Fall 2007
Yarn: Artfibers Nirvana, color #9 (undyed), every last bit of 2 cones (about 1200 yards). Size 5 Denise interchangeables for the body, size 3 and 1 straights for the neckband and buttonbands.

Not a lot of modifications for this project. I lengthened the body by a couple of inches and the sleeves by an inch. I also added an extra button. The buttons I used were these coconut buttons I found at Jo-Ann’s on sale. I loves them! The yarn was undyed Nirvana, a yummy silk/cashmere blend I purchased at Artfibers in San Francisco. It’s a bit hairy, but super soft. I think the undyed yarn sort of tarts it up a bit too. Although the cardi is totally wearable as is, the buttonbands pull just a bit. I may add some grosgrain ribbon to it later to stabilize them.

Can I just join the knitting masses in saying how much I enjoyed knitting this? Miles and miles of stockinette stitch notwithstanding, the finished sweater is totally worth it. It fits like a dream! This makes the second consecutive garment I’ve made that fits well, which totally boggles my mind. I may be anal in some things, but swatching and pattern reading are not those things. I’m almost afraid of what the knitting gods have in store for their future amusement.

I suppose it was inevitable. The first snowfall.

I have it in my head that the first snow of the season should be pretty. Beautiful white flakes quietly falling from the sky and lightly settling on the grass and trees.

Instead this morning it snowed. And sleeted. And hailed. All at the same time. With a vigorous serving of lightning and thunder on the side. Complete with power outage.

Bah! I’m not ready to be c-c-cold yet!

Might be time to whip up some hat and mittens.

I. My friend Lisa got married! I made a quick trip to Houston for the occasion. She looked gorgeous, the ceremony went off without a hitch, and the wedding banquet - OMG, I could sing praises for a long time about the food. Mmmm…..

Lisa (in red), Felix and Sandra (Lisa’s sister). The women are wearing the chi-pao, a traditional Chinese dress for special occasions, like weddings!

Lisa and Felix chose to have a traditional Chinese wedding banquet, which involves multiple courses. This was the first time many of the people at our table had ever partaken of a Chinese wedding banquet - I had fun “translating” what were in the yummy dishes. Fortunately, everyone at our table were good sports and refused to be cowed by my sometimes rather, umm, interesting descriptions of the ingredients. More photos here.

the lobster of happiness - mine, mostly

II. I got to hang out with the Houston gals!

Kelly and I took a trip to Twisted Yarns, where a skein of scrumptious Mad Tosh yarn (so soft!) fell into my hands and refused to return to the shelves. I’ve been hearing plenty of wonderful things about this yarn all over the blogosphere. What kind of knitter would I be if I left that poor skein of yarn back at the store?!

Madeline Tosh in Robin’s Nest

I also got my twisted (violently!) by Kelly and managed to take a skein of Wollmeise yarn off her hands. Can you believe how rich the color is?

Wollmeise in Farn - dark

There was a trip to Chinatown with Amy, Liz and Susan (with Brian in tow). Not only did they allow me to order for them at the restaurant, they also allowed themselves to be dragged into the Asian market with all its, umm, exotic treasures.

Doesn’t look like any bird I’ve seen

III. Look at what I got in the mail the other day -

Isn’t it cute? The project pouch is the work of the lovely ladies at Piddleloop. For the longest time, I’ve been looking for an excuse to purchase their stuff. Then I saw the cute owls on their Etsy store and found my excuse. They also sent along some extra goodies - these cute stitch markers and sheep-y tags. There was candy too, but that ended up in my tummy lickety split.