beautiful things

Giraffes in their natural habitat

The baby's room is coming together.  The sofa was delivered on Friday and a friend came over on Saturday to take some pregnancy self-portraits.  However, she seemed rather more interested in photographing the giraffes than me... ok, just kidding, but only slightly! 

I do so love the giraffes, even if I say so myself. They work perfectly in the room, and I love the room too. 

Medium Giraffe

Date:
October 12th - 24th, 2008

Yarn:
About 56 yards of Sundara Sock Yarn in Citrus Zinger LE and about 40 yards of MadelineTosh Sock Yarn in Citrus.

Needles:
US #1 Addi Turbo 32" circulars

Pattern:
Little Giraffe by Christine Landry

The story:

Citrus Zinger captured my imagination from the start and for some reason lead me to... giraffes.  Although I wasn't able to obtain other Sundara Sock for the contrast colors, the MadelineTosh worked out great.  This was one of those projects that came together just how I imagined it, or possibly better.  No, we didn't pick the paint color to match the giraffes but that worked out well too!

Now that I have more Sundara, I'm planning on 100% Sundara giraffes at some time in the future...

See also little giraffe and big giraffe.

In progress shots:

 

Finished shots:









Flickr set is here.
Ravelry link is here.

The giraffes move in

Today was a big day for the baby's room.  My husband finished painting yesterday and today cleared out all the drop cloths and painting stuff and put the crib together.  We're planning on having the baby in a bassinet in our room for the first few months but nevertheless, it's not a baby's room without a crib now is it?  

Also, the giraffes moved in.  This is what I had in mind when I first discovered Sundara all those months ago...

(These were quick shots in low level light so not the greatest... better photos to follow!)

S, M, L

Giraffe production is progressing...

One large giraffe leg

Last night:

Hubby: I'm going to bed
Me: Already?
Hubby: But I understand if you have to stay up and make giraffes!

Little Giraffe!

So, I've been waving various giraffe body parts in front of my husband's face for days with little reaction, but when he came home today he noticed, unsolicited, the finished giraffe sitting on the dresser and said "cute giraffe!"  This was closely followed by "how long did it take?" which you just know is going to be followed by him placing an "order"... he makes an excellent sweatshop taskmaster!

Anyway, I am going to be extremely novel and write up the FO on the day I finished it!

Little Giraffe I

Date:
September 30 - October 7, 2008

Yarn:
By my calculations, about 28 yards of Sundara Sock Yarn in Citrus Zinger LE, and about 21 yards of MadelineTosh Sock Yarn in Ginseng

Needles:
US #1 Addi Turbo 32" circulars

Pattern:
Little Giraffe by Christine Landry

The story:

So of course I recently got into this whole crazy Sundara business of competitive yarn buying... and was strangely drawn to and somehow managed to score some sock yarn in citrus zinger (limited edition).  I think that even at the time I had some idea in my head of a giraffe soft toy.  Of course, the challenge was to get my hands on a contrasting color and while I did manage to get some toasted orange over pistachio from the ravelry boards, that wasn't until after I had already ordered a whole bunch of MadelineTosh sock yarn in various giraffy colors.

The pattern itself worked out great and was very addictive.  The legs were a little fiddly, and I did soak and block them to even out the color work.  Once you join the legs together though you start stuffing as you go so you can't do that with the body or neck.  It didn't seem to matter though.  I think all in all it was 6-8 hours of work.

There does some to be an error in the neck chart as all of a sudden the squares aren't centered, so I changed that.  I hesitated about adding the horns but I'm definitely glad I did - it's an extra little cute detail

All in all it was an incredibly satisfying knit - quick and oh so cute!  And it uses so little yarn... I'm going to have tons of sock yarn left for other projects, even after I knit a medium sized and large sized giraffe by upsizing the pattern.  

In progress shots:

Finished shots:

 

And here little giraffe is frolicking amongst the yarn for the next giraffe or two...





Little Giraffe is about 5" tall.

Flickr set is here.

Ravelry link is here.

Love!

The rest of my MadelineTosh arrived last week and I am at last ready to start making giraffes!

From left to right: Victory Garden, Lettuce Leaf, Citrus, Bark and Ginseng.

I LOVE ginseng - I think it is one of my favorite colorways ever, and all of them are luscious and beautiful and perfect giraffe colors... except perhaps for Victory Garden which I bought more because it looked like a pretty colorway than for its giraffe-appropriateness.  It's not as light as some of the others I've seen photographed (eg this one) but I like it all the same.  

Of course now I have been obsessing about which combinations to use for how many giraffes of what size... all the solids plus ginseng look great with the citrus zinger and victory garden and lettuce leaf look good together too for some other project.

I'm also thinking now of 3-color projects - a sock giraffe (ravelry, pattern) as well as a Baby Surprise Jacket or three.

For now, I have started on a very tiny giraffe in citrus zinger and ginseng - I finished all four legs last night.  Yes, I am finally knitting with some Sundara and I have to say that I love it all the more!!!  The yarn is sproingy and gorgeous to knit with.  The colorwork on the legs is fiddly and it's hard to tell how the MadelineTosh is as I am not knitting with it on its own ever but so far this is looking to be one cute little giraffe...

Inspiration explosion

Over the past few weeks, my "fantasy knitting life" has completely exploded, rather at the expense of my real knitting life I might add.  It's certainly balancing out what I'm coming to think of as my knitting monastery days of the wedding stole where I was focused on the one project and had no time for ravelry or yarn shopping or thinking about let alone touching other projects... plus I was working in laceweight white!!!  No wonder I've been going gaga over color!

Although my aesthetic tastes tend towards the more minimal (ie non-decorative) I've always loved color and texture and of course, knitting is a fantastic outlet for that.  I think it's why I keep getting drawn back to sock yarn, even though I have never actually knit a pair of socks with sock yarn (my only socks are the Tyrolean Stockings).  I could see getting into socks... one day.  Or at least knitting a pair or two.  I loved knitting the Tyrolean Stockings.  I don't think it's a "waste" to knit socks, but I do feel there are so many other items deserving of knitted attention that enhance a wardrobe in a more visible way.

But yeah, sock yarn.  I think people are more willing to go outside of their normal wardrobe color comfort zone with socks, so it would make sense that there is a wider variety of colors available in sock yarn.  I'm not sure if this is actually true, but it certainly seems like it.  There's more variety, more experimentation, brighter colors, and more interesting color combinations.  It's enough to drive a person crazy!  

I also like the higher yardage of sock yarn and the comfort of knowing that even if you don't knit socks, you can probably find a one skein project, like, oh, say, the Baby Surprise Jacket!  I'm sure I've said this before but I've made about a million of these in my head with every beautiful skein of sock yarn I've ever seen in person or online.

Anyway, all this is to say that, um, well, I have totally blown my yarn budget for this month.  Determined to make a Little Giraffe with my Sundara citrus zinger, and failing so far in my quest to obtain the contrasting Sundara color of my dreams through cash or trade, I decided to *gasp* look at other options.  Through the hilariously titled "Satanic Sock Yarn" thread on the Sundara Love ravelry group I received lots of good pointers for beautiful sock yarns with a similar yarn base that would be compatible and this led me to MadelineTosh.  

You know how if you hear a name a lot it suddenly hits home, even if you don't really know where you heard it before?  Well, that's what happened with Sundara, and now MadelineTosh.  A quick look at the site led me quickly to the conclusion that I needed to look no further - this was the yarn for me!  In addition to Sundara of course... to go with my Sundara.  Think of the considerable advantages in this particular situation: a) yarn is available with minimal time investment (I did have to do a little searching to find the colorways I wanted available in various places) b) I don't have to part with one of my precious citrus zinger skeins in a trade and c) I was debating between brown, orange and green as the contrasting color... now I am getting all of them and planning on making a family of three giraffes, big, medium and small!!!  

Actually, I *um* *cough* *splutter* ordered 5 skeins in total: bark, citrus and lettuce for brown, orange and green respectively, and I couldn't resist adding ginseng not only because it is so so pretty but because it pretty much has brown, orange AND green in it, so I might use it for one of the contrasting giraffe colors - user stash photos give a better sense of it eg here (ravelry, flickr) and here (ravelry, flickr) is a really cute giraffe that uses multiple colors so that's an option too.  

Then, well, I also got victory garden just because.  Again - so pretty!  Ironically, the official photo has it looking a lot more like ginseng but user stash photos have it looking rather different (ravelry, flickr). 

So I am dying to receive the yarn and get started on Sundara/MadTosh Giraffemania!  (By the way, I ordered from both Yarn and Fiber and Sealed with a Kiss as not everything I wanted was in stock or available at one store.)

My recent online travels have also had me drooling over Mama Blue (although forget it, that's as hard to get as Sundara - here are ravelry and flickr links) and, more attainably, Oceanwind Knits (their hand-dyed merino in particular), and Pagewood Farm (Alyeska and Yukon in particular).  I'm holding off though, and there's a much longer list of recommendations that I am avoiding for now... and I am absolutely not signing up for any more yarn subscriptions!

In other wallet-damaging news, my custom order of Big Tryst is ready so that's another hit on the old budget, although very very exciting... I can't wait to receive this order as well, and it means I'll have 9 of the 13 colors!  I'm going to make the barn raising quilt (ravelry, book website) from the book Knitalong: Celebrating the Tradition of Knitting Together although I do want to try one square first and see if this is the best use of this beautiful yarn.  I was going to wing it on the pattern but I think I'm just going to get the book, which has lots of other beautiful patterns including the Pillow of Sei Shonagon (ravelry, flickr) which I have always admired. 

Speaking of sKNITches, here are some better photos of my recent order:

In other exciting news, I'm going to start swatching for my Pakucho blanket.  I received the two books I ordered and I think I have selected Courtly (ravelry, flickr) from the Big Book of Quick Knit Afghans.  This is a very "meat and potatoes" kind of book - more of a booklet really, with no frills, just photos and patterns, and while the photos are pretty good, the book is laid out in a strange way so that the photos and the patterns do not correspond at all!!!  There are some beautiful blankets shown though, and all are knit with worsted weight yarn doubled up on #17 needles so they should live up to the "quick" of the title.  Actually, I randomly saw a post on ravelry this morning asking about Knitpicks Options which lead me to review which tips I have and realize that I actually have #17 tips, which is fantastic as I was thinking I had to go and buy needles before I could start this.   I've now entered all my tips on ravelry under sock dpns, which I am pretty sure I will never buy, so I avoid this problem in the future.

In other news, I received yet another package from my Secret Pal.  I didn't mention it before but she had some beautiful stitch markers sent to me from Ruby N Purls a few weeks ago, and then just the other day I received an unexpected package from Amazon containing Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard.  Oh my!  I love this book!  My Secret Pal has done a great job of introducing me to new things while pegging my tastes really well.  I had actually seen and queued a couple of patterns in this book without actually taking note of or looking at the book... and now that I have the book, there are many more that I could see myself knitting.  My Secret Pal was very sweetly worried that the patterns in the book are simple and possibly not as challenging as I like... ha!  I explained to her that I have not yet knit what I would consider to be a "proper" sweater yet - the lacy hooded tunic doesn't really count in my mind as it didn't really need much fitting.  That to me is the daunting and challenging part - not so much the knitting itself but selecting the right pattern and yarn and getting the right fit that will look good on me.  The asymmetrical wrap doesn't really count either and look at the problems I have there with wearability, even though I knit it exactly as designed!!!  (I am going to give that a go this winter though and see if I can figure out a way to wear it.)

So yes, I am looking forward to the challenge of knitting my first "real" sweater and I think this book is really going to help.  Ingenue (ravelry) looks like something I would wear, and my other favorite is the Lion-Neck Cardigan (ravelry), although I don't really count that as a "real" sweater either (I imagine it's much easier to make a cardigan that fits).  I also love the Paradise Beach Cover-up (ravelry) and the Karma tank (ravelry).  There's nothing like a good cover-up and/or tank!  Sorry, no flickr links yet... the book is new so there aren't any FO photos in ravelry yet.  

I won't list all the other patterns in the book that I like but I am getting those fall sweater/cardigan urges.  Here's another one I like - Starsky (ravelry, pattern) although not with the belt (again with the belts!)  I particularly like this version (ravelry, flickr).  

I love watching my friend's activity on ravelry - it's like a constant feast of inspiration.  Still, I have to remember to occasionally actually knit... which I am off to do right now!

Home delivery!

I was working from home today and hubby was home sick... imagine our surprise when the doorbell rang at 8am. Usually we're both out of the house by then but this morning it felt very early.

Turns out it was the Con Ed lady to read the meter!!!  

But then, imagine our further surprise when the doorbell rang again at 8.30am.

My husband turned to me and said "yarn delivery?"

How did he know?!

How beautiful is this yarn?  Absolutely gorgeous, that's how!!!  It's kind of silly, but I always like it when all my yarn in a purchase looks good together, even if they're for separate projects.  I've been carrying this yarn around with me all day and petting it, it is so soft and pretty.  I haven't knit with it yet but so far I have to say, I am not disappointed.  In fact, I am getting more and more addicted, as anyone who has me on their friend's activity on Ravelry may have noticed when I favorited about six hundred thousand Sundara sock yarns from other people's stashes...

Of course the question that has been on my mind is, what am I going to knit with this lovely yarn to do it justice?

I adore the bright yellow-orange (citrus zinger) - it was my first choice of what I wanted from this update, but I was drawn to the other yellows too.  However, it's not the greatest color for me (or really for most people) in terms of clothing, apart from socks of course, but I'm not much of a sock knitter.  I think I could become one but it's not why I bought this yarn.  It's something I've noticed though, that I fall in love with a much wider range of colors than I would actually wear, especially sock yarns, but I guess that's precisely why there are a lot more colors for sock yarns than other yarns.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is sacrilegious but... I'm thinking stuffed toys!  Don't you think they would really brighten up a nursery?  I can't quite decide which one yet... maybe Sheldon (ravelry, pattern), Elefante (ravelry, pattern), Elijah (ravelry, pattern), Little Giraffe (ravelry, pattern) or Sock Giraffe (ravelry, pattern).  Maybe with some green highlights from the lemon lime, even though I hadn't really planned on using them together.  By the way yes, the lemon lime is actually more green than it looks on the Sundara website, which I am happy about, and actually, I have kind of fallen Shetland Shorty (ravelry, pattern) for the lemon lime, although I'm not sure if I have enough (or any?) outfits that would go with it... nor do I typically wear shrugs.  It's such a pretty pattern though, and I think I have just enough yarn for it.  Otherwise, I wish I had 2 skeins so I could make a tank.  This cowl would be great too.

I've also become kind of obsessed with baby hoodies.  I love hoodies in general although they are a little awkward under a coat (and NYC doesn't have a long enough spring or fall for there to much time for sweaters without coats).  Look at these cute baby hoodies though: Cardigan for Merry (ravelry, pattern, flickr), Debbie Bliss Duffle Coat (ravelry, flickr).

So much knitting, so little time!

Yowsa!

Wow, that was absolutely the craziest thing ever.  Remember how I was marveling at competitive yarn buying?  That was nothing!  

I've known about Sundara for a while now but every time I went to her site there was nothing for sale and I figured oh well.  Then brooklyntweed wrote about his Sundara Spiral Yoke Pullover and I thought hmmm, I really need to figure out what this is all about.

This time, the new website had more info, plus some searching around on Ravelry lead me to... well, go at your own risk, the Sundara Yarn Love and the Seasons Yarn Club groups and it was all downhill (or uphill) from there.  Ordering one season was a pretty easy decision, but then I found this thread with images of last year's seasons collection (here are the flickr links for spring, summer, autumn and winter for those not on Ravelry).  So totally and utterly pretty!  That, in addition to browsing around the forums and observing the fanatic love for this yarn (I mean look at this or here on flickr) and the extreme difficulty in obtaining it, lead me to, um, cough, well, yes, shhhhh.... I signed up for all three other seasons!!!  I was in particular not expecting to love winter, but in the end I decided that only in getting all four would I avoid any regret, even though I have never actually seen any of this yarn in person!!!  Also, it's within my yarn budget (yes I have a yarn budget, instituted just recently) but only just... and only if I really don't buy much of anything else in the next 8 months, which is completely unrealistic, but I am going to try and restrain myself from doing any more "collecting" and only buy yarn if I have a specific project in mind, at least during the subscription.

Except, of course, for today... I work from home on Tuesdays so when I saw the update hadn't gone up yesterday, I started stalking the site when I got home last night, and hanging out on the gigantic update thread (I won't bother linking to it - it has over 1,000 messages, most of them not particularly interesting if you are reading them after the fact, but it was a lot of fun while it was going on including side discussions on, amongst other things, the olympics and The Closer).  There was no update last night so... I figured I'd try my hand at it today.  I've never even been around for an update before but today, whaddya know...

 

..."out to lunch"!!

This "out to lunch" screen indicates that the update will be posted soon, and this is also the point at which crazed Sundara stalkers the world over starting hitting F5 like crazy people (except if you're on a mac in which case it's apple-r).  So I was apple-r-ing away and at the same time giggling hysterically because I mean, seriously?!!!  Totally crazy!  The site kept going down with a variety of error messages and people would occasionally risk a few precious seconds away from the website to post on Ravelry... thank goodness for that chatter so I a) knew I wasn't the only crazy one and b) was encouraged not to give up and c) it made it fun.

Then, gasp, after at least half an hour of "out to lunch", possibly more, I forget, the yarn seemed to be up.  I had different tabs set up in one window with the different yarns I was interested in so I started reloading them, selecting the quantity and hitting purchase... only to still get error messages.

The extreme level of fanaticism on Ravelry along with helpful tips from veterans lead me to persevere... I knew it was going to be hard and very competitive, and I was prepared to both stick it out and be disappointed.  Thank goodness I was home because I could never have done this at work and would never have even attempted it.  

So I kept refreshing on various tabs, while trying not to have too many refreshes going at once to overload my connection.  I was not getting through to an actual shopping cart but I could tell from the updates on the Ravelry thread that not many others were either... so I kept going until...

 

...progress!  

I'd heard that it's better to avoid paypal and just try by credit card, but neither link worked for a while so I just kept hitting both until one worked, which happened to be paypal.  I'd also heard that it's better to just focus on one colorway and getting that through so that's what I did, although I did try other yarns in between.

After a few tries, I was able to get through to paypal, lost a few precious seconds because my phone number was not saved into my paypal profile, then back to the Sundara site but still, it wasn't over yet, I still had to confirm my order...

Several tries failed until finally, there was a long pause (by this point I am muttering "pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease" under my breath and looking heavenwards) and then...

...success!!!

OMG wow.  I scored 2 skeins of limited edition Citrus Zinger Sock!!!! (I'm not sure how long that page will be up as limited editions come down after the update.) I was so happy, it was what I really wanted.   I'm not sure why, but it really captured my imagination.  I don't think I've ever even owned any yellow yarn before, and it's not like it's a particular favorite, but this just looked so lovely and sunny and happy, and I have a very special project in mind for it, which I will detail further when I have it worked out a bit more.

By the way, I was warned that limited edition yarns are almost impossible to get, but I figured yellow is not that popular a color, and there wasn't much buzz about it on the Ravelry thread, so I decided to give it a go.  Plus I dreamt about it, yes that is how obsessed I have become.  My dream was highly specific - in it I woke up and the update was happening so I put Citrus Zinger in my shopping basket, considered checking out but got greedy and added Spruce over Sage, only to have both disappear so I went for Daffodil instead and managed to get it!!!  That was how I decided to go after just one colorway but after I was done, well, I decided to keep trying and... I also managed to get 1 skein of limited edition Lemon Lime Fingering Silky Merino.  I didn't even try for Spruce over Sage, even though I really liked it as that seemed pretty popular on the thread.  I almost got Thriller as well but it disappeared before I could confirm the order.  

So yes, that was absolutely the craziest and most ridiculous thing I ever did for yarn.  I'm not sure I would try again with such persistence - is this yarn really so much better than other more readily available yarns?  Probably not, at least not proportional to the effort required, but I couldn't resist the challenge and I would like to think I would have had fun no matter what.  Unfortunately many who did not score are bitterly disappointed, which I understand (I'm not sure "fun no matter what" would have held had it been my third or fourth unsuccessful try), but I feel bad for them being so upset, and slightly guilty for having scored twice, even though, well, I think I was relatively restrained, and all is fair in love and yarn stalking, no?!!!  

But anyway, all I can say either way is... YIPPEEE!!!!!