beautiful things

Bunny!

So, my sister was here. We picked her up from the airport on Sunday night and I took the day off on Monday to have "sisters time." We treated ourselves to an exquisite lunch at Jean-Georges and then strolled over the Central Park to enjoy the beautiful sunny afternoon. This has been a relatively recent tradition of ours, as we mostly spend time together with our parents also, and we only do it one or two times a year, so it was a real treat. We caused a bit of a stir on the subway ride home as we were giggling so hard about something - I can't even remember what it was!

Anyway, the lovable bunny was received with much squeeling and glee! Bunny came with us for a quick photoshoot in the park.

Lovable bunny

Date:
May 3rd - May 13th, 2007 (or thereabouts)

Yarn for bunny:
Just over 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight in Natural White 500.
About 1/2 skein of Belangor French Angora in 802 pink.
Needles for bunny:
40" US #8 Addi Turbos
Pattern for bunny:
Rabbit from Lovable Toys in Last Minute Knitted Gifts

Yarn for dress:
Perhaps 1/3 skein of Banana Silk Yarn in Denim.
Needles for dress:
40" US #8 Addi Turbos
Pattern for dress:
My own - knit in the round from the bottom up, casting on 48 stitches and decreasing to 36 stitches. Straps knit together with Kitchener stitch.

Yarn for scarf:
About 1/2 skein of Belangor French Angora in 802 pink.
Needles for bunny:
32" US #2 Addi Turbos
Pattern for scarf:
My own - cast on 7 stitches, knit in seed stitch until the yarn was pretty much done (about 12" long).

The story:

As well documented in this blog, I LOVED knitting with the Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight. It was a gorgeous knit. The only annoying thing about the pattern was that 2 skeins was about 1 yard short of enough yarn! I didn't have enough to do the seaming so had to buy another skein. Luckily I am quite sure I will be knitting with this yarn again in the future.

The dress I made up as I went along, although I was inspired by the banner image at Knitting Auntie.

The little scarf was a final touch that used up the rest of the 33 yard Angora skein. It must have looked funny at the family gathering where I knit much of it, in the absence of the actual bunny, although people nodded politely when I told them I was knitting a bunny scarf!

In progress shots:

Finished project:

Flickr set is here.

Spring evening

I do so love spring.

And there's nothing like popping down to Soho after work on a beautiful spring evening and stopping by a bakery on the way to pick up a nice ciabatta that only cost 75c! Now maybe that sounds normal to you, but I guess when I buy fancy bread I'm used to paying about that much for a dinner roll and several times that for a loaf.

Granted it's not as amazing as the ciabatta Elizabeth brought with her to Philly...

Speaking of Elizabeth, she requested some handwarmers, and as no one else has asked me to knit them anything, she has been bumped to the top of the queue! Also, I am in Blue Sky Alpaca withdrawal, not to mention a holding pattern with the bunny while I wait for the stuffing to arrive. I did start to knit up what I hope will be a really cute dress for the bunny out of my banana silk yarn (same yarn I sent to my KTE partner).

I think it's going to come out nice, and the color I'm using (denim - the photos don't do it justice) is so so pretty, but it's so coarse and gnarly compared to the buttery smoothness of the alpaca that I am craving something else. Under other circumstances I think I would enjoy knitting with this more. This was a case of picking the best of what I have (which isn't much) for this project rather than picking a project to suit the yarn or vice versa from the infinite choices the world has to offer.

Anyway, the handwarmers - I had a hard time making a decision on the yarn. Elizabeth selected a particular pattern (the "fingerless garter mitts" from One Skein also shown, ooh, cute, look, interesting stripes here). The thing is, I just couldn't find anything in the specified sportweight and her requested color (crimson) that I liked. Actually, I couldn't find anything in crimson that I liked so I broadened my interpretation of crimson to be... purple!

Yes, I fell in love with Manos del Uruguay handspun multi in colorways 113 (wildflowers) and 118 (mulled wine) (the Purl site doesn't have wildflowers but you can see it here. Both colorways are shown here).

The thing is, it really isn't the right yarn for this project, as it's much bulkier (worsted to chunky). Not only will this require serious ammendments to the pattern (like, divide everything by two!) but it will really just be an entirely different end result.

So, dilemma. Do I get the gorgeous yarn that is not really right for this particular pattern, or get the right kind of yarn but without really being happy with color. I had to rush my decision in the end as the store was closing, and decided to go for love. I mean, what's the point of knitting with something you don't love? Even if it is for someone else, or maybe especially if it's for someone else. I didn't get the wool wound into balls so I could always return them or... use it for something else.

Which, by the time I got home, I had decided to do, because what I really wanted for this project was some Koigu as I am still totally obsessed/in love with these. However, Purl didn't have anything I considered to be even close to crimson or as appealing as the Manos. But their website (different stock) does! So, I have ordered 1 skein of Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino in colorway p115. Yummy! Plus it's the right yarn and kind of crimson-y.

Another friend wants a scarf... oops, I guess she was the first to make a request, so I think I might use the Manos for that instead... that's probably a more appropriate use of the wool. Yay!

After all that, I'll probably just keep knitting with the banana silk for a bit but it's nice to know I have some options for my next project. I also want to look for ideas for my Noro Geisha skinny scarf - just straight garter stitch or something more interesting?

Here are some banana silk yarn photos:

The three colors are celery, natural and denim. The photo on the left was taken in natural sunlight, thus the vast difference in color. I did a quick 18 st swatch and overlaid it on the yet-to-be-stuffed bunny to get an idea for how it would look.

Lovable bunny goes to the country

We went up to my aunt and uncle-in-law's house by the lake yesterday. It was beautiful but, um, colder than one might have thought. I sat by the lake with three sweaters on and a blanket over my lap knitting (I did think to myself, wow, by the time I'm an old lady, I'll feel right at home!)

Here's the view from where I knit:

Yup, lovable bunny got to go to the country too!

Don't you love the soft halo around the angora? It did shed quite a bit in knitting though. My two year old niece liked it. "Tha pretty" she said pointing. "What color is it?" I asked. "Pink!" she proclaimed with confidence. She's starting to get the colors down! Just a week or two ago she was still wildly guessing.

Anyway, all the knitting for the bunny is done, just some sewing up now and of course the stuffing, which I ordered express last night. I hate to pay more for shipping than the item itself but, well, what can you do?!

My new love

I know I still have to post all the photos of the a-line tank but I just have to share with you my new love... Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight.

I love this yarn. I was already in love with it when I bought with it, but now I am knitting with it... it is gorgeous. This is the kind of yarn where every stitch is a pleasure to be savored. It's definitely on par with Manos Cotton Stria - those are my two favorite yarns so far, by far. Noro Silk Garden is my third.

I have to say that as much as I love how the a-line tank came out, and as beautiful as it feels as a fabric, the yarn was nothing special to knit with. I mean, it was a good knit, just not "drool over every stitch" good.

I should be done with the lovable bunny soon... (my sister comes next weekend so I'm going to have to express order some wool stuffing, unless anyone can tell me where I can buy it in Manhattan).

These photos were taken in the backyard yesterday, and today looks like it's going to be just as gorgeous. Yippee!

More yarn purchases

I am still salivating from yet another visit to Purl where I made Unscheduled Yarn Purchases. Yup, that's right, I have yet another "NYS" project.

(By the way, I have semi-invented my own nomenclature for knitting projects:
NYS = Not Yet Started (but I've bought the yarn)
WIP = Work In Progress (ie on the needles)
UFO = Unfinished Object (ie the knitting is basically done, it just needs finishing)
FO = Finished Object)

So, first of all, kind of annoyingly, I ran out of the white Shepherd's worsted for my white hat in part, or perhaps in whole because I used it to knit my homework swatches for the finishing workshop I attended on Sunday (more on that in a future entry). Today I was going to just stop by quickly at Purl on the way home and pick up another skein. And then I decided, well, now I have this whole other skein, I should use the rest of it to knit the lovable bunny from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for my sister who is visiting next month.

So I picked up the Belangor French Angora in 802 pink for the insides of the ears. And then, you know, I browsed a little more, and found the original yarn specified in the pattern, Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight and I fell in love. Especially as I remembered that this is the same yarn that the Ombre Alpaca Blanket uses, and that blanket is SOFT. (The blanket, sadly, is no longer on display in the store for fondling.) I decided that a really soft bunny is better than a soft bunny and voila, another project!

There were a couple of other yarns that I particularly noticed. Alchemy Bamboo is gorgeous but, um, expensive! Also, Terra from The Fiber Company has a gorgeous texture and striking colors (also shown beautifully here). I've yet to buy yarn without knowing what project I'm going to use it for though. Perhaps that's part of being a beginner knitter.

I didn't knit at all yesterday and it feels like years! I'm hoping to finish the hat tonight. I'm completely addicted to Etsy by the way, but I can browse while knitting.