reruns

I'm cheating a bit today, folks, as I am lazy and it is driech outside.

Driech = Scottish for "cold, rainy, damp, dreary and generally crappy". I'm advised by my resident Scotsman that the Scottish have about fifty words for "rainy weather". Note, however, that this is unconfirmed and he has been known in past to tell some pretty wild stuff about Scotland to see if people believe it. Then if they do buy whatever preposterous stuff he's come up with, he usually says "Tek your heid oot your arse, sonny jim/hen, and see the world".

Such a gentleman, eh?

In celebration of the fact that a couple of my designs have been published on Knitting Patterns Central - a great free resource - check it out and submit your own patterns! - I thought I'd re-photographs some of my blasts from the past...

(besides, with all that new TV stuff on ... finally... I must confess I'm kinda missing the reruns! Strange, eh?)

1. Crazed Harlequin Dress

Aphrodite looks stunning in this dress, if I do say so myself, even in the winter!

It is actually a tank sleeve dress as you will see from the link, but I've taken to wearing it with a black silk blouse underneath for winter.

Multicoloured goodness!


2. Rainbow Tunic Dress

This dress actually shows off Aphrodite's waist quite well. It doesn't fall in quite such a flattering manner on my Greek peasant bod. Oh well.

The dress was a great way to try samples of yarns and use up single skeins from swaps and such.
Va-va-voom!

(My breasts are bigger than hers, though. Heh heh.)


3. Montego Bay Tunic

which was originally my first lace project ever... ! I realise now that my lace career started on 27 August 2007... wow, just seven months ago!


I had fun with this one, and the coworkers all got a kick out of it too. I got called "Barbarella" for the next week...

I wish!



Well, I feel less "driech" now - how about you?

Anyway, that's it for me for now (told you I was lazy!). Oh, in knitting news, I'm working on a vegan Tuscany shawl commissioned by co-worker H. Hope to provide some pics of that in progress plus another rant or three tomorrow when I am back to my regularly scheduled programming!

Happy Tuesday!

vale Kristina, Queen of Lace!

Ahem... well, that might be overstating it a tad. However, bloodied but not bowed, I return from the Land of the Secret of the Stole II (Clue No. 1) - triumphant!!!
Obviously the photographic skills still need some improvement... but you get the drift.

Perhaps my wee rant yesterday got my demons out of my system, I don't know. However, I finally have a beginning that I can live with - just in time for the release of Clue No. 2!

Isn't she pretty?

I'm glad I finally managed to figure out this diamond pattern in the middle:

It may be a bit messy, but it's mine! And I'm glad I switched back down to the 3.25mm needles - I like this fabric better than the first one I came up with.

So - clouds, silver linings, all that!

(It strikes me in hindsight that I should have been much less hard on myself - after all, I have managed not so long ago to come up with these works: the Montego Bay scarf:

...whic, as you may recall, morphed into this tunic:

...as well as these two scarves:



So, a couple of tips from the front line for other neophytes to lace:

• be patient and don't go flinging UFOs off balconies - in only because you brain a neighbour, you might get evicted, and then wouldn't have anyplace to keep your laceweight stash!

• as beautiful as it is, avoid using Malabrigo laceweight for a first major project. It sticks to itself a bit too much, making the inevitable frogging more difficult.
  

• do not delude yourself that you are so skilled as to not have to use LIFELINES. Millions do, apparently.
  

• do not attempt knitting lace when your eyes are tired from having spent 11 hours that day revising extremely boring legal papers on computer screens.

• did I mention LIFELINES?
  

Anyway, I'm quite chuffed. In addition to finishing Clue 1, I managed to get this little hat done as well - to go with my new car coat!

It is actually still in progress - maybe. The pattern is the Beaded Tresses Hat by Cat Bordhi. I may or may not add the tresses... but don't you like the beads?

Yarn is Manos del Uruguay 100% yarn. Initially I wasn't too fond of the bumpy texture, but now I think it works with this design quite well. The scarf, by the way, is done in Fleece Artist Goldielocks and is also Moebius in nature.

And what are the big plans for the weekend, pray tell? I plan to get a good start on a design project using this:

(Handmaiden Silken. The colourway is Sangria - more red than I can manage to reproduce here. Beads by Earthfaire.) I have submitted this idea to Interweave Knits sometime back but have heard nothing - so I suspect I'll be putting up photos next week regardless.

But not tonight. Why? Because tonight is the monthly summit of the Tenant Advocates!!! Today's excuse: it's Rabbie Burns Day!!!! So right now I'm sipping on a wee dram (of diet coke - can't stand whisky!) in honour of the grrrreat JJ, King of Tollcross... and will be hoisting something a bit stronger come 3:30 p.m 5:00 or so. I will be toasting all those (Scottish or not) who left me kind messages and words of hope regarding my lace travails.

Slainte!

Knitextravaganza: intentional Moebius and Montego Bay tunic!

I guess one could say it's official: Brouhaha is back off the knitting wagon!

Here are some concoctions over the past two days:

1. Moebius Capelet


I bought the yarn for this while on an unsuccessful quest for Handmaiden Flaxen at the LYS - but this project seemed fated in light of a dramatic error I made in sewing together my last knitting project, the Brioche Man's Vest...
And here is the back of the Moebius:

As usual it looks far better on Aphrodite than me. This is likely because Aphrodite, although Greek like me, does not talk with her hands. After the first fifteen minutes it was on, here is how it looked:

Finally, halfway through the day I gave up on it and started wearing it like this:

Good perhaps for bad hair days - but as you can see it doesn't necessarily work to hide anything. All I wanted to become was a classy capelet-wearing doyenne (is that too much to ask?!?), but I guess it wasn't to be! So, it will be going to a better home very shortly.

Specs:

Yarn: Fleece Artist Grande Godiva, two 100g skeins (174 metres) - 50% silk, 50% wool
Pattern by: Cat Bordhi (sold with the yarn)
Needle Size: 9.0 mm with 47" cord
Time spent: 3 hours approx.

Notes: This was rather fun to knit - that is, after I got over the initial hurdle of casting on for the thing. This involved casting on 75 or so stitches over the coiled cable attaching the needles, then stretching them around enough to knit the first round. This took me about an hour to figure out and by the end of it I was just about ready either to wrap the addis around my neck or fling the whole thing over the balcony.

Patience won out though... and the rest of the knitting was surprisingly easy. It didn't hurt that the yarn. And I think I have finally exorcised my little "stupid, stupid knitter" voice by making an "on-purpose" moebius. Goddess knows I've made enough of them inadvertently when trying to knit in the round!

Highly recommended - and I will be picking up one of Cat Bordhi's books. I'd like to make a hat with a Moebius brim and hope she has a pattern!

2. Montego Bay Tunic

This is a reconfiguration of my first lace project, the Montego Bay Scarf by Amy Singer.

The scarf was beautiful - but I just have to face facts. I am scarf challenged and could not manage to wear this long slim scarf without it getting all tangled around my neck (I detest those who can carry it off - but they could make some money giving people like me a seminar).

This is how it used to look (damn and blast Aphrodite!):

...and this is what it morphed into.



From this:

...to this:
The original scarf was made out of Handmaiden Sea Silk (swoon...) on 4mm needles. To put it together, I measured it around and marked off 16 inch increments. I then crocheted two thirds of it together in a tube at the edges, then brought the end edge over the right shoulder and crocheted it into place with some raspberry sea silk I had lying around. The right shoulder strap was crocheted with some old Fleece Artist stuff I had hanging around.

I'm thinking of doing a trim all around - but got lazy last night and want to wear it today. (It looked fine last evening on me - even better than on Aphrodite for once, I would say! But I suspect it will stretch badly. Having said that, I like it.)

I should note that JJ is concerned that I am going to wear this to work (or, for that matter, the staff holiday party) without any undercovering. This, I intuit from him calling me Barbarella last night when I pranced around with it on. I reminded him that the average temperature is -4 C these days, but he didnae seem convinced. Oh well.

And, finally: here is my progress on the Tilted Duster - I managed to complete this much of one sleeve during my commute!

I will never dread sleeves again. I would never have thought I'd find anything that would make me stop abhorring slowdowns during rush hour on the TTC....

Happy Tuesday! And, any proud Canadians visiting should be happy to know that today marks the 76th anniversary of legislative freedom from (and equality with) the United Kingdom. Why anyone thinks it's a good idea to make laws from thousands of kilometres away, I have no idea (but then I guess half of Canada can say that about Ottawa...SIGH).

Cheers,

Kristina

'tis the season to be grumpy...

...especially when one has to head out to the mall of a Sunday afternoon in December.

Oh, the weather outside was frightful:


(Ah, Toronto in the wintertime! Such lovely snow!)

... and frightful as well was JJs temper when the classical music station played "The 12 Days of Christmas" twice in a row and I kept singing it after that!!

JJ: Will ye' stop singin' that bloody song, lassie?!?

KB: Yeah OK, Ebenezer.

JJ: Did ye just call me an "old geezer" again?

KB: Isn't it time to go for that hearing test, EBENEZER?!?

But really, I should have cut him some slack. He was the one driving the car, and this was the scene at the Yorkdale Plaza parking lot:



(This, on the side where there are always available parking spots... and this after John had driven around for 15 full minutes looking for a space on the main entrance side...)

We finally managed to find a parking space here:
But, because every cloud has a silver lining, I was able to knit all of this while JJ was circling and cursing:
(Actually, I lie to you. I did not seriously knit all this while we were in the parking lot. However, I did knit all this while sitting in the car on the way to and from the mall, and I would say that 50 per cent of it got done while desperately seeking a parking space).

I did not have the heart to take any photos while in the mall. Suffice it to say that the number of people thronging Sears made the parking lot look like an oasis of tranquillity.

We did manage to accomplish what we set out to do: buy lounge pants for me:
... a sport jacket and trousers for JJ (which have been left for alterations), and the rest of the Christmas gifts which I can't show by reason of being secretive. (But don't get too excited, o blessed future gift recipients - you're just lucky that Sears is smart enough to put gift certificated cards next to the tills).

I had the requisite holiday shopping altercation with a complete idiot who was allowing her kids to play hide and seek in the menswear department. I stepped on one of them by mistake (really by mistake! Although I'm not a big fan of kids I would not deliberately do one harm, really!) and was immediately threatened with bloodshed and lawsuits by his raging mother. This kid, by the way, had nearly knocked JJ over while careening around like a madman, while mommy blatted on blissfully into her cell phone. So JJ stepped into the fray... and let's just say that I won't be facing a $2million lawsuit as had been originally promised me.

By the time we left, I finally understood the meaning of this ugly sculpture that has been haunting me for years in the Yorkdale parking lot.

It is a giant wraith of shopping-fuelled rage!

But our shopping adventures were not yet over. I asked if we could stop at Shoppers Drug Mart on the way home. JJ initially refused: "Haven't ye had enough o' the shoppin', lassie?!? And it's snowin'!" However, we needed essentials:


... and so we did have to stop.

When we got home, I decided to take out the mountains of recycling which had piled up in the last week or so (damn and blast the Toronto Star for sending "free" newspapers that we don't even read!!!) and in this regard, passed through the apartment lobby. This is what you first see when coming in the front entrance to the building:

... and here are the holiday displays in their full glory:

Kinda cute, eh?

Oh - and check out the fancy candleabra next to the elevator:



See what a high class building I live in?!

And finally for some craft stuff. Here was my progress as at yesterday afternoon on the Tilted Duster

I love this pattern! What other pattern gives you something that starts looking like a garment in just a few hours?!?



(This would make a great tank-style bra with some Cascade Fixation, wouldn't it? Hmm...).

I'm also hatching a nefarious plot involving my Montego Bay Scarf which I can't seem to wear as I am scarf challenged and keep tripping over it (it's 80" long). Of course, I could give it to one of these people I love to hate who actually knows how to wear scarves... but why? Stay tuned...

And - in parting: let's lift a glass to the memory of Eugene O'Keefe, Canadian brewer, who was born on this day in 1827:
(sorry it's not O'Keefe's, Eugene: I kinda lost interest in the brand when the stubby bottle died:


...but I'm sure you'll approve, Eugene, of my Christmas tree! I do wish it were mine, actually, and that I'd thought of the concept: this came through on some group Email or other, unattributed...)