yarn tootin'

Bob's Lakers Jersey

     My husband Bob has seen this commercial a few too many times...
     

     He's decided that I should knit him a Lakers jersey and I don't even know where to begin.  Every time I talk about yarn or knitting or going to a yarn store, he asks me when I'm going to get started on his jersey.  At first I thought he was kidding, but now I'm pretty sure he actually wants me to knit him a Lakers jersey.  I tried to explain that while I love the color purple, the techniques involved in knitting a garment that says "Lakers" on it, not to mention the great big number 32 that he has requested are tricky and don't interest me.  Unfortunately, I don't think he's going to shut up about it until I knit the thing and he sees how ridiculous a knitted basketball jersey is in real life.  If anyone has a pattern for a great big man sized basketball jersey, let me know.

One More Thing...

    I just got my Wollmeise Sock Club yarn.  This yarn doesn't count for 2009 because I paid for it in 2008.  I think this is the best shipment yet.  Check it out....

     The colorways are both in German and all I remember is that they both start with the letter O.  This shipment came with a pattern for colorwork socks that uses both of these yarns.  It looks really cool, but I'm not even considering going there.  I'm pretty sure that colorwork is not my friend. 

First New Yarn of 2009

     The sun is shining again here in Big Texas, so I took some pictures of yarn.  I used Bob's new SLR camera for these pictures, but I'm afraid they're not much better than my usual fare.  One of these days I'll have Bob give me a tutorial on how to operate the new camera, but you'll have to bear with me with me until then.   I got some new yarn.  This is the first
new yarn of 2009.

     This is Verde Sport from Zen String in the colorway Froze Rose.  Click here to see a better picture of this colorway and the frozen rose which inspired it.  I have missed out on this yarn on two consecutive updates, so when I finally caught it, I had to get it.  I also recently discovered Sophie's Toes sock yarn.  I was browsing on Etsy last week and I came across emilyparson's (Emily is the dyer behind Sophie's Toes) Magic Balls of yarn.  A Magic Ball is basically a really big ball of short lengths of Sophie's Toes and it comes with a pattern for a Patchwork Scarf.  I think it will be perfect for me to take with me this summer for camp knitting.  Hopefully the frequent color and pattern changes will keep me interested and I won't be constantly itching to cast on a new project.

(This picture was taken on one of the dark and dreary days last week with my regular camera.)

     Last but not least, I finished a pair of socks.  Yes, that's right, I finished TWO socks.  Bob took the picture in the kitchen on Sunday morning when it was still a little overcast.  I tried to do that tippytoe thing that sock mannequins seem to do.  Even though it looks like one sock is shorter than the other, they are actually the same length.

Pattern: Leyburn Socks by Pepperknit.   I accidentally added an eighth row of plain knitting to the pattern repeat and I didn't realize that it was supposed to be a seven row repeat until I was almost finished with sock number two.  It doesn't make a big difference, but I think my diamond shapes would look better if I hadn't done the eighth row.
Yarn: Casbah Sock from Handmaiden.  There was no colorway indicated on the tag.  I just checked.  I've mentioned this before, but I love this yarn.  I'm curious to see how it will wear.  It is supposed to be able to go in the washing machine.  I'll get back to you after I try that.

Spring Break

     This week was my spring break week and ironically, we had some of the chilliest weather we've had all winter.  We also had rain which is good.  We need rain in these parts.  In honor of the chilly weather, I knit a wool coat for my computer.  Bob and I went on a trip recently and I didn't feel like taking my laptop backpack.  Truth be told, I'm a little tired of said backpack.  It's a great bag (eBags Downloader - still looks new after four years of regular use), but it's not very cute.  Not for the first time, I wished I had a laptop sleeve so that I could just put my computer in whatever bag I wanted.  I've been meaning to knit a laptop cozy for a long time, and this week, I finally got around to it. 

Here it is before felting:

  

And after felting:

     I knit this with two balls each of two different Noro Kureyon colorways I had lying around.  I think the orange/green one is 128 and the purple/black is 148.  It's loosely based on  this pattern (Ravelry link), but I sized it up a bit for my slightly larger computer. 

     When I first started knitting, I liked to felt things and I made several bags and a couple pairs of slippers.  That was back when I lived in an apartment with a top-loading washing machine.  When I moved to Big Texas, Bob and I bought a front-loader and people always say that you can't felt in a front loader.  Not true!  I put this in with an old bath towel, a pair of $2 flip flops, and two dryer balls.  I used the express cycled on hot and I added two tea kettles of boiling water through the soap dispenser during the cycle.  I had to run the cycle twice, as it was still too big after the first washing, but I suppose that's better than having it come out too small.    I went to Jo-Ann this morning while running errands and bought a couple of snaps to sew on, but I haven't done that yet.  I'm hoping that won't be too hard.  I'm still a little scared of sewing.

     I have yarn to report on, but I'm going to wait for a day that isn't gray to take pictures of it.  It's been overcast and/or rainy here since Tuesday.  I really enjoy this type of weather, but unfortunately, it's not great for taking pictures.