People have asked me how I start one of my colour studies:

Here it is folks.

This is my next colour way. All browns and oranges with ribbon, ladder, eyelash, mohair and bouclé! My favorite is the combination of expensive alpaca and ladder type things (UL)and good old phentex (BL).

Also happy to find a use for Bernat's new Bling Bling. oops. who knew it would be so icky feeling. Bernat apparently; they're still not admitting to it's existance on their website! The colours are awesome though. Am feeling V.Ispired. 

Okay insane photo but you can see where I'll lace it like a corset. Sometimes crisscross, sometimes two lines. Will also wire point. Again, lame photo but nice shot of bum. Implies unacheivable sveltness.

I head to Toronto tomorrow for a Med appointment so will cheer myself up by maybe finding perfect lacing ribbon. I'm thinking olivy green, or brown velvet.

Unfortunatly shopping in Toronto gives me aneurysms. There's a reason I moved out east and LYSs like the Toronto LYSs may well be it! There seem to be two kinds; sparse boutique (not my style and I wouldnt go all that way for 5 different shades of hand spun llama, all brown, and at 30$ a pop. sorry.) and the INSANE Romni type place with just too many options and intimidation. thats where the aneurysm comes in.

It's like walking into ALL the online yarn stores at one go, and you wonder 'Is this heaven...or something else.' Not even that, its like walking into all the online yarn store's BACK stockrooms and it turns into a giant game of Amazing Yarn Race. The pressure is crazy. And it's not just me; I've seen other girls shake in these places.

Wow, I need to stop thinking about this. I'll stay in Ken Market this trip. Buy neat things to Add to things. 'Sfice to say I'd never yarn shop in NYC...but I'd love to run into Rebecca Budig shopping at Purl or somewhere like that!
 

The Unblocked Minisweater! I wore it out with a beaded butterfly pin joining the two collar points to a local hippie dive. Good test run. Was too excited to bother about the curling hem. Will fix. 

New FO! Okay I don't have a name for it but it's the second one. A shrug? I need to get a photo of me in it, but it should look like this when it's on:

The new one is Moda Dea's new Cashe in 'Smartie'. See more of the First one in my Finished Objects Gallery.

These shrugs are really hard to photograph but look amazing on and I've got loads of complements on the prototype. hmmmm...pomoboho item? 

Okay, back to the minisweater. I have abandoned the garter stich bottom because of the eyelets. I'm going to do a 1x1 rib instead. The question is:

How do I make a point like in this lame drawing? Straight in the front is covered, but should I start the rib and just not knit the point? But I want the point to be lower....I'm so confused. I'm starting to think I should have already started the rib.

I'm going to have to just see what happens and frog if I need to. I hate frogging btw. 

"Like so many other crafts, knitting has the potential to create magic in our lives."

Kaffe Fassett, you are my hero. Last night I scored some old knitting magazines...including a 1988 Vogue Knitting International with a feature article on Kaffe. It only reminded me that he is a very bosie-licious man.

I've already tried 4 of the patterns in this photo, I will have to try another. But which one?

Oh, revalation; Kaffe prefers circs, a tip he got from the ever circular Elizabeth Zimmerman....well I already knew he wasn't a straight man. story of my life *boo hoo* lol

ps. Kaffe is much cooler than the 'Knitting Prince of Japan', Mitsuharu Hirose. I propose an Iron Chef type battle.
 

Okay, so Mr.Joel Plaskett was robbed at the ECMAs last Sunday. (But he did have the best set. What was with the clown???..not to mention poor Nathan Wiley's dancer. Don't get me started. At least the Trews had the delightful Gordie Johnson...)

Anyway, as Joel is the only celeb I've pushed into modeling one of my hats *yet* I thought I'd make a special post.

His new album came out today! Buy it! He has good taste LOL

 

Here's my latest project (it took me forever to find the yarn to finish the minisweater so I started this) It's Twinkle's cabled vest from Vogue Knitting Holiday04. It's been really inspiring and I think I'll make more with this idea; an oversized cable as collar, sides and front of a top. I also want to do a giant cable as a tube top. **risqué!** 

Shobijin? Is that what they're called? Anyway I want to make little capes like the singing fairy twins in Godzilla vs Mothra wear. So sweet! They are my heros. I'll use the same idea as this :
but use white furry stuff. I might add feathers too. 

Project I will Never Finish Du Jour: Rufus Wainwright as the Lady of Shalott as a Jenny Heart type embroidery or even tapestry. Maybe If I did it on a smaller scale...either way I think I'd end up looking like Holman's version. lol. That's how I look during most of by bigger projects. I pretend to be like the Waterhouse, but I'm totally the Hunt Holman....maybe it should be part of my Pomo Boho Label? 

This is who I want to be when I grow up. Happy Alpaca Lady in Peru. Better yet I want an Alpaca farm in Nova Scotia with a boy to help me tend to them and to sit at my feet to help me wind the wool. He will wear suspenders and crisp white shirts and I will knit Alpaca sweaters for his slender frame. Maybe I shouldn't post this....I'm going to see Tegan + Sara tonight. Do you think I can make them wear these cat ears ala Joel Plaskett?

Here's a photo of the back so far. You can see where I paniced and messed up the eyelets but it wont show to badly in the end b/c I think I'm going to lace it like a corset! It's in Homespun 'Prairie' and this is one of the few times I would take the effort (it's not much I know) and check the dye lot. I want to start a 'normal' minisweater next. I'm just really glad I didn't use the amazing (and expensive) Manos I originaly bought for this project at Lettuce Knit in Toronto at their Stich nBitch meeting on the way to see Rufus Wainwright at the Mod Club....but that's another story. ps doesn't the first photo look like a butterfly? I love it! When I put it on at this stage it looked like the footballer outfits at Alexander McQueen. lol 

The Minisweater debacle: resolution? compromise? After reading the great thread at craftster.org about Glampyre's amazing free pattern for the 'Minisweater' and seeing that Trebuchet had managed to create what I wanted my sweater to look like I took this out again for the frirst time since xmas. Oh dear. See I decided to use eyelet increases which created a different number of sections and I wasn't sure what was sleave and what was body. So I fibbed. The lovely thing is that I now have extra puffy sleaves and corseting action down the back. (will post 2nd photo.) I'm going to join the body now and continue knitting in the round (in garter) to create a whole sweater! So in the end I'm disapointed that I don't have a Minisweater, but SO pleased with what I (think I) will have! **but don't do eyelets!**

New Fiber Arts Rainbow Necklace. I really like this and it deserves a better photo. Lately I've been working on rectangles and how they can be folded and seamed into different forms. ie ponchos, cardis, shrugs, hats... so this was really relaxing to work on. I think I'll wind the back in cord so it's more sturdy. 

My new passion: Trucker Hat Embroidery! This Ganesha pattern is from Jenny Hart's 'Om sweet om' set and can be found at http://www.sublimestitching.com Will post photo when it's done, I'm just so excited that I found trucker hats at the Dollarama!