Flying Pig Knits

Borked

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:23:00 +0000

My computer...it is not in the best shape...

More a.s.a.p.

'Remember to Remember'

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:41:00 +0000

'Drive-by' would be an exaggeration

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:47:00 +0000

But it's still November 10, and this is technically a post, so that meets my notNaBloPoMo requirements.

WIP Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:16:00 +0000

And hey, it's a hat!

This is a Dean Street Hat for my niece Sarah, in Malabrigo Worsted. The colourway is called Shocking Pink. I disagree with the name -- it's far too bland to be 'shocking' -- but it's lovely nonetheless. When it's done, it will look exceptionally similar to this one, knit for Sarah's big sister Elizabeth:

This one's also in Mmmmmal Worsted. Colourway: Hollyhock.

I love this pattern. Cabling without a needle for the win! The designer, Mal Gal extraordinaire Nina Machlin Dayton, gives a nice tutorial for the procedure, which makes it easy, too. I see many more of these in my future. Oh, and it's a freebie, too, and also comes in a chunky weight version -- the math's all done for you.

What's your latest favourite pattern?

Heading towards the Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 07:57:00 +0000

Perhaps 'Hurtling towards the Holidays' would be a better title, in Piggy's case. I don't enjoy being the bearer of bad news, but in the interest of lighting a fire under my posterior (and those of my fellow pre-process knitters and crocheters who may want a nudge), I feel impelled to mention Christmas is but 46 short days away. And Channukah, although a tad on the late side this year, just 41 days away.

It's about this time each year that I begin to appreciate just how ridiculously optimistic the gift-knitting plans I made early in the year truly are (seriously, I must have been smoking something particularly strong this summer...a couple of days ago I came across a handwritten -- well, scrawled, anyway -- list that suggests I was planning to knit no less than five cowls, four scarves, three lace shawlettes (LACE? WTF, Piggy?), two children's cardigans and a pair of socks...I'm astonished eight maids-a-milking or 11 pipers piping didn't make the list, frankly), and I start to scale down. Waaaaaaay down.

Problem is, I really do have several people I want to give a gift to this year. And I'm broke. And I have, well...rather a lot of yarn. Hand knits really are my best option. So...

Hats. Hats are good. Small. Quick. Portable. Plenty of options for different yarns. Yessir, hats are the ticket. And it just so happens, I have a whole bunch of new patterns to pre-process before starting this year's frenzied Giftmas knitathon:

Interweave's Weekend Hats has a surprisingly large number of patterns I really like. I generally go by the one-to-five rule: for every five dollars a magazine or book costs, I want one pattern that I really think I'm likely to knit. Realistically, I never knit any of them, but I need to really think I will...
This book has at least 10 designs I want to knit. Starting with Laura Irwin's Layered Cloche, Tanis Gray's Everdeen Beanie (pictured on the book's cover, above), and Kristen TenDyke's Shore Hat.
You can see all the patterns in the book on Ravelry here.
So...what are you knitting for the holiday season?

Exhausted

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:04:00 +0000

Just a drive-by post today, I'm afraid; its been a long and mostly craptastic day, and this night owl is struggling to stay awake at the ridiculously early hour of 9 pm. But it's notNaBloPoMo, so something's got to go up here.

How about a link to a recipe I'm hoping to try this winter...once "my" parsnips in beentsy's garden are harvested?

Parsnip Cake (yes -- CAKE!).

Knitting stuff tomorrow. Really.

Not at all...they could be carried.

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:44:00 +0000

Carried home with me from Whole Paycheque every week, methinks... The coconut yogurt -- excuse me, the 'cultured coconut milk' -- gets a thumbs-up. Not as nommy as yogurt, yogurt, but much nicer than soy yogurt.

If the titles of this and the previous post make no sense at all to you, you might need some schooling in one of the best films ever made:

Knitting content tomorrow!

Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 06:50:00 +0000

Something wonderful happened today.

On my way home from my shift at the shelter, I made my standard visit to Whole Paycheque. And, as I've done pretty much weekly for months and months and months, I headed to the yogurt section, in the hopes of finding a certain something. Something one of the very nice Whole Paycheque staff (and kitten adopter!) told me way back in 2010 was supposed to arrive in mid-February. First week of March at the latest. You know, just as soon as all the red tape surrounding importation of this item into Canada was cut and disposed of.

May I remind you that:

Piggy is not the most patient person on the planet; and
it is now November.

Ahem.

So I might, I think, be forgiven for losing faith in the nice Whole Paycheque dude who loves kittens. And for issuing a rather loud, stage-whisper-like "squee" (or rather, "SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" upon seeing these:

I might even be forgiven for dropping my basket on the floor in surprise, and doing a bit of a jig. You know, had I actually done that. Which I would never, ever have done. Nope.
These coconuts, against all expectations, finally arrived.
Now I'm just worried it won't live up to a year's worth of expectations. Verdict to come tomorrow.

In which Piggy's clock goes THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 06:49:00 +0000

I have never wanted children. Seriously, never. When I was about...I dunno, 10? 12? I told my dad that I might want to get married one day, but I didn't want to have babies. His response?

"Well then, why the Hell would you want to get married?"

But that's a philosophical discussion for another day. Or, well...not. I digress. Wildly.

Point is, this evening, my ovaries started doing somersaults in a rather peculiar way.

This happened while I was holding the absolutely, uncontestably perfect new life that is baby Ava...

...who just happens to be wearing my Friday Finished Object,a teeny-tiny ribbed hat in Piggy's favourite pink yarn (Fuchsia Malabrigo Worsted) for Miss Ava, whose lovely wee head is still a little bit small for all the hats her lovely mum megknitficent had on hand. One tweet-to-arms later, and I cast on this afternoon.

I was a lucky Piggy indeed to be able to deliver the hat this evening, and steal the babe from her mum, dad and grandma for a bit.

There really is a biological clock...99% of me doesn't want babies, but tonight, the other 1% took over. If only for a half hour or so.

Ooooh, baby!

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:38:00 +0000

Make that babies.

Fortunately for Piggy, it doesn't really matter that I don't have any exciting accomplishments to write about, three of my knitting pals have each done something remarkable in the last couple of weeks. The same thing, in fact. Well, same-same, but different, as one of my favourite Indian expressions goes.

Carly, Gabrielle and Megan have all welcomed new babies recently. And I actually managed to get some baby knitting done.

First came Carly's gorgeous baby girl, Zélie. I still have to get her present packed up and sent to Newfoundland, but here it is, anyway...

That is an in threes cardigan (love this pattern!), in Spud & Chloe Sweater, along with an improvised beanie.

Next up was Gabrielle, who has a new bouncing baby boy. Who will have a new hat delivered to him on Monday.

I know, you've seen this picture before. :o) That's a Sweet and Simple Baby Hat, in Malabrigo Worsted. So soft and cuddly.

And last, but not least, Meg delivered her wee baby girl (known affectionately -- really! -- as 'The Dictator'), arrived last night. It'll be a little while before she can wear my shower gift:

Yes, that would be another in threes. I told you I loved the pattern! This one is in Malabrigo Rios. Nom, nom, nom.

Welcome, babies! And congratulations, parents!

And hooray for baby knits. I really love knitting for babies...like the recipients, the projects are super-cute, and I don't have to deal with them for too long. ;o)

Now with more vikings

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 06:25:00 +0000

I almost forgot I was blogging again! (Surprise, surprise, surprise.) Time is ticking down on November 2nd, so a few minutes ago I opened Flickr to dig up a few recent pictures into a quick 'wordless Wednesday' -style post. Not a terribly inspiring effort, it's true, but better than nothing, right?

Well, as I went through my photostream, it occurred to me the I should probably introduce you to some newcomers chez Piggy:

I've known these guys for as long as I can remember. They lived on the dining room bookshelf in the house I grew up in, and then on a shelf in the guest bedroom of the house my parents retired to. And then, this summer, when my mum downsized (a wee bit) from that house to a townhouse, I took the opportunity to plunder (see what I did, there?) her belongings, and they came to live with me.
Clearly they are the Flying Pig Knits new mascots. Only problem: they don't have names. Suggestions, anyone?

This is not a NaBloPoMo post

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 06:20:00 +0000

I am planning to post every day this month, as I've attempted to do each November since starting this blog. But unlike the previous three Novembers, I will not be participating in National Blog Posting Month.

I have mixed feelings about what I'm about to write; in fact, I was about to skip Day One entirely, rather than talk about it at all. So I'm churning this out quickly. Which is probably the worst thing I could do -- publishing a rant without the benefit of a sober second thought.

But I'm doing it anyway.

This year, NaBloPoMo moved from its original 'home' at ning.com and is now being hosted at BlogHer. BlogHer, as you might guess (if you are not already familiar with it), is women-centric online community that "creates opportunities for more than 27 million women who blog and their readers to gain exposure, education, community, and economic empowerment."

Which is fine. Great, even. I'm all for celebrating women's blogs. I am, after all, a woman. A woman with a blog, in fact. (A sadly neglected blog, to be sure, but it's a blog, damn it!)

But for me, NaBloPoMo isn't about celebrating women and women's blogs. It's about celebrating blogs, period. And I'm not really comfortable with this event being hosted on a women-centric site.

To be clear: BlogHer is not discriminating against NaBloPoMo blog posts written by men (or dogs, cats, balls of sock yarn, or anyone else, I presume). There appear to be plenty of blogs written by men on the November blogroll.

Yet something about BlogHer hosting NaBloPoMo just rubs me the wrong way. And this bit of encouragement from NaBloPoMo's founder, Mel, in a parting e-mail, The Old NaBloPoMo Site Closes Tonight, doesn't assuage that feeling:

And yes, yes, 1000 times YES, guys are welcome to blog on BlogHer -- not only on NaBloPoMo, but anywhere on the site.

Maybe I'm cynical, but methinks she doth protest too much. If you have to keep reassuring men (and let's face it, the main target of that sentence is men) they are welcome, you're doing it wrong. And it just rubs me the wrong way.

So no NaBloPoMo for me this year. I will, however, be back tomorrow, with another post (this time, with knitting content!), and with luck, another the next day, and the next day, and the next day...

Somewhat more often, anyways...

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:28:00 +0000

...12 days is better than a month or so, right?

So, what's new chez Piggy? Not a lot, really. I'm looking for work (again!), yet despite having an abundance of free time, I have been singularly unproductive; my knitting mojo seems to have dried up entirely in the last few weeks. The actual stitching part, anyway; I remain very busy on the pattern queuing and online yarny window shopping (ok, some actual shopping, too -- hey, I stuck to the yarn diet until June 1, which was about four months and 28 days longer than anyone expected me to hold out!) front.

Hopefully I'll feel like doing some actual knitting soon. Really soon. This time next week, I'll be in Portland for Sock Summit! I'll be rooming with several of my bestest local yarnies and our pal from Ontario, which should be a blast. And I'll be meeting several online pals face-to-face for the first time, which I'm really looking forward to. And there's going to be yarn. A lot of pretty, pretty yarn. And the world's largest independent bookstore.

It's not the most responsible thing I've ever done, going away to a yarn-shopping paradise while unemployed, but thanks to an unexpectedly nice tax refund, I should manage to remain sheltered and fed come August. Perhaps not well fed...but fed. All the more reason to eat lots of yummy stuff while I'm away, no? So it's a good thing Portland has a metric shit-tonne (excuse me, a veritable plethora) of food establishments I will be aiming to visit. Too many to link to.

Oh, and while in Portland I'll be getting tattooed. For the first time. A knitting-themed tattoo. One the very lovely artist (bonus: she's a knitter!) I have been communicating with via e-mail thinks should be on the "bigger" side.

Which means I should bloody well make sure I a) get my knitting mojo back a.s.a.p. so I can justify having a knitting tattoo; and b) find a new job and/or a sugar daddy even sooner than a.s.a.p.

Seven more sleeps!

I'm going to blog more often...

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:20:00 +0000

...even if all I post is a quick drive-by hello to let anyone still out there know I'm here.

Crossing fingers, holding breath...

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:28:00 +0000

Tonight is Game Seven. In less than an hour, I'll be enroute to Surrey's Central City Plaza, to watch the game with beentsy, KelleBelle and a few thousand of my bestest buds. It's where I watched games five and six.

I was going to write up a decent post about the playoffs and the Vancouver Canucks' quest for the Stanley Cup, but I'm running out of time, so that will have to wait. For now, here are a few shots taken at Game Five.

My latest Finished Object: Lord Stanley's Cup

MrsQuimby, beentsy, KelleBelle and a few of our bestest hockey buds.

As always, Don Cherry dressed up for the occasion

Best. turban. ever.

Timmy's doughnuts, including ~~Boston~~ Vancouver Creams and Canucks sprinkles.

Actual knitting content.

GO CANUCKS, GO!

Still going strong

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:44:00 +0000

Remember that tree cozy? The one I showed you back in January? And then in February?

It's still there. A little faded, perhaps, but still there.

The cozy has completely blended into the scenery, methinks. None of the passers-by gave it a second glance as I was digging through my bag for the camera. It was only when I started taking pictures of it that anyone took notice. Of me taking notice, not of the knitting.

Nice, eh?

Hopping on the bandwagon: The ABCs of me

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 16:07:00 +0000

Pinching this from two of my favourite bloggers, Sara at Lazy Knits and Purls and Sarah The Student Knitter. I'm now a joiner three. :-)

A. Age: Thirtysomething. I won’t be able to say that for all that much longer. Honestly, anyway.
B. Bed size: Double. I’m very single.
C. Chore that you hate: Ironing. I always seem to create as many wrinkles as I remove, so I don’t do it. I’ve always said I’d need to marry a man who was handy with an iron, like my father, who did all his own ironing. See (B). As for chores I actually do...dusting pretty much blows, too.
D. Dogs: Love ‘em! None of my own, but I dogsit a fair bit, and hang with the doggies at the SPCA.
E. Essential start to your day: Coffee. Strong coffee. Two cups.
F. Favorite colour: If I have to pick just one: green. With purple and hot, hot pink close behind.
G. Gold or silver: Don’t really have any of either to speak of. I prefer the look of silver, I suppose. If I ever find me the ironing champion of my dreams, I suppose I’d go for a white gold ring.
H. Height: 5’ 6.5” (172 cm)
I. Instruments you play: I played clarinet in school. Also oboe for one year. Haven’t played either for decades.
J. Job title: Job seeker. Unemployed editor/writer/administrative dogsbody. Still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
K. Kids: Nope. I’ll play with yours for a bit and give ‘em back, though.
L. Live: Erm...yes. In a one-bedroom apartment I moved to recently.
M. Mother’s name: Janet.
N. Nicknames: Piggy, Hils, Hilly
O. Overnight hospital stays: One. It was crazy. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.
P. Pet peeve: Gah! Too, too many. I’m not the most tolerant person. Drivers who don’t understand the concept of a passing lane; old-school sticky price tags that don’t peel off cleanly, especially on books; when people use ‘I’ when they should use ‘me’...
Q. Quote from a movie: I can never think of one when asked. Let’s go with “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
R. Right or left handed: Right
S. Siblings: One younger sister.
T. Time you wake up: Six-ish.
U. Underwear: Jockeys. Comfort, baby, comfort.
V. Vegetable you hate: Turnips. Blech.
W. What makes you run late: I don’t run at all. Ba-dum-dum. Thanks, I’ll be here all week.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Teeth, hip.
Y. Yummy food that you make: Everything I make is yummy.
Z. Zoo animal: I don’t like zoos, but favourite wild animal...probably elephant.

Ride2Survive 2011: help kick cancer's ass!

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:03:00 +0000

And the icing on the cake: a shot at some Wollmeise, plenty of other yummy yarns, or a pair of socks knit just for you!

In less than three weeks -- on June 18, to be precise -- a bunch of crazy-awesome people will get on their bicycles and set off on the 2011 Ride2Survive fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society. They'll be riding from Kelowna to Delta. That's 400 kilometres (259 miles). Over two mountain summits. 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) of climbing.

And they'll be doing it in a single day, folks.

You see where the "crazy" in "crazy-awesome" comes in.

Among the riders will be my friend Dotty's (aka yarnfloozy on Ravelry) husband, Markus. So Dotty and her pal and co-blogger Gladys (aka wenat) are having their annual raffle and auction over at yarnfloozies. There are some seriously fabu prizes, plus an auction for a skein of rare Wollmeise.

Pretty much everyone either has been or will be touched by cancer in some way, and we all want to find a cure, right? So donate to the Ride, won't you? 100% of your donation goes to the Canadian Cancer Society for research for a cure. And if you're in Canada or the U.S., you'll even get a tax receipt for any donation $25 or higher (yep, in the U.S., too: the Canadian Cancer Society is registered in the U.S., too).

F*ck cancer!

Piggy's back -- now with socks

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Fri, 06 May 2011 22:50:00 +0000

Well, sock, anyway.

(Hi – how’s by you? It’s been a while, eh? Rather longer than usual. Apologies.)

This morning I completed My First Sock – Attempt the Umpteenth. It was epic, friends, epic. Inexplicably, the paparazzi failed to descend upon my living room to capture the event (perhaps they were unaware of my recent move...more on that later), Piggy was forced to document the scene herself:

Fortunately my sock-picture-taking should improve considerably relatively soon, because ZOMG I got into Franklin Habit's Photographing Your Fiber class at Sock Summit!

I'm going to Sock Summit! And I've actually knit a sock! And I've already started its mate!

Wonders never cease.

Iced, Iced Baby!

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:53:00 +0000

Or, to be truly accurate, Iced, Iced, Iced Baby!

And no, I’m not talking about a certain rapper-turned-contractor. I’m talking about my first sweater-in-progress, Carol Feller's Iced cardigan. And two of its many cousins, which I met last night at my first North Van knit night at urban yarns.

Here they all are, hanging out together at the end of the evening. Apologies for the craptastic shot. Left to right: mine, T(h)eresa’s and Betty’s.

Betty had cast off just a few minutes before; all that’s left for hers to graduate from WIP to FO is a button or two. Here’s a closer look:

That's Mmmmmalabrigo Rasta, piglets! It's gorgeously soft and wonderful, and I think I might need to cast on a second Iced as soon as I finish the first, either in Rasta or possibly the gorgeously soft and chunky Fleece Artist (Big Blue, I think?) that T(h)eresa (totally forgot to ask for the spelling -- apologies!) is using.

You might have noticed that my Iced looks a little...well, flimsy compared to its cousins. That's because I'm knitting it at a thinner gauge, using Cascade Eco+ and 7.0 mm needles. I chose to do this after knitting (and washing and drying, I'll have you know!) the Swatch that Ate North Vancouver...

...using some of the teal Eco+ leftover from the Super-Secret-~~Birthday~~Wedding-Prezzie-Made-of-Lace™.

I got gauge using the Eco+ double-stranded. But I didn't like how thick and sturdy the fabric was. So I went with the lighter fabric of the first section of the swatch. Fortunately, no tricky math was involved: by using my preferred gauge and knitting the 3X size as written, I should end up with the 1X size, which is the one I want.

Although having seen the heavier gauge knitted up, I really like it, and think it would make a great spring jacket, rather than a layering cardigan. So I might actually need a second Iced. :o)

Here's a better pic of mine, several inches of body ago:

Super-smooth sailing, almost all of it done on the bus. Piggy likey.

Tickle Trunk Times Two

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 02:52:00 +0000

In the comments for yesterday’s post, Rae asks, “...what exactly is your nieces’ tickle trunk?”

Sometimes I forget that Canadian popular culture is generally not so pervasive as that of our neighbours – or should I say neighbors – to the south. And, in the relatively rare instances when Canadians do rise to global prominence, too often – to Piggy’s mind, at least – these figures are not entirely worthy of such attention. I’m looking at you, Justin Bieber.

Ahem. Back to Rae’s question.

As pretty much all Canadians who haven’t spent their lives under a rock can tell you, a tickle trunk is a large trunk filled with clothes for dressing up in. Or, to be more accurate, the Tickle Trunk is a big red trunk decorated with painted flowers where Mr. Dressup keeps all his costumes.

Tickle Trunk sighting at 38 seconds:

Mr. Dressup -- along with his puppet friends Casey and Finnegan -- was appointment tv for the under-six set five days a week for 38 years on the good old CBC. It was a gentle, low-tech show that entertained while educating through stories, crafts and games.

Everyone watched Mr. Dressup. He was a huge part of the childhood of practically all Canadian children during his time on the air -- and beyond. I remember crying like a five-year-old when he died; it was just a week after 9/11, and his death was one of the few non-9/11-related items to make the national news that night.

I carry my own tickle trunk with me just about everywhere. Really, it's known as the tickle trunk among my local yarnies. Mine's not full of costumes, though...

I might have to send some Mr. Dressup DVDs to my nieces in England, along with the rainbow shawlette. They may live in England, but they're still Canadian girls. :o)

Craft-a-Poem February: (After the) Storm Cloud Shawlette

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:25:00 +0000

For this month's (just in the nick of time!) Craft-a-Poem entry, I chose a lovely poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Place Where the Rainbow Ends. And, like last month's project, I knitted a none-too-subtle interpretation: a rainbow shawlette, pictured here pre-blocking:

The Place Where the Rainbow Ends

There's a fabulous story
Full of splendor and glory,
That Arabian legends transcends;
Of the wealth without measure,
The coffers of treasure,
At the place where the rainbow ends.

Oh, many have sought it,
And all would have bought it,
With the blood we so recklessly spend;
But none has uncovered,
The gold, nor discovered
The spot at the rainbow's end.

They have sought it in battle,
And e'en where the rattle
Of dice with man's blasphemy blends;
But howe'er persuasive,
It still proves evasive,
This place where the rainbow ends.

I own for my pleasure,
I yearn not for treasure,
Though gold has a power it lends;
And I have a notion,
To find without motion,
The place where the rainbow ends.

The pot may hold pottage,
The place be a cottage,
That a humble contentment defends,
Only joy fills its coffer,
But spite of the scoffer,
There's the place where the rainbow ends.

Where care shall be quiet,
And love shall run riot,
And I shall find wealth in my friends;
Then truce to the story,
Of riches and glory;
There's the place where the rainbow ends.

Project Details:

Pattern: Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz (not on Ravelry? really? go here)
Yarn: Kauni Wool Effektgarn 8/2, EQ colourway, 280.4 metres/306.6 yards
Needle: 5.0mm/US 8
Modifications: None
Notes: Quick-and-easy pattern with a lovely result. Cast-on to cast-off: 8 days, knit mostly on the bus to and from work. I'll definitely make this again in a more Piggy-friendly colourway. Perhaps in Malabrigo Silky? I'd make it longer next time. This one will be for my nieces' tickle trunk.
Ravelled: yarnpiggy's After the Storm Cloud Shawlette

Now onto March! I haven't chosen my project yet, but I suspect it might be knit with Malabrigo, as Malabrigo March Madness starts tomorrow!

Surprise

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:44:00 +0000

Remember that yarn bomb I happened upon last month? I'd promised to let you know if the cozy was still keeping the tree warm the following Wednesday.

And then I took a different route to my appointment, bypassing the tree. Two weeks in a row.

I’d completely forgotten about it, and wasn’t looking for the tree yesterday, when an entirely different appointment took me to the same neighbourhood. So I was about half a block past the tree before I thought to check.

And guess what?

Still there. And in good shape, too, despite some truly craptastic recent weather. (Well, perhaps not by the bulk of North America’s standards lately, as it’s just been rain, not snowmageddon…but still.)

I was surprised enough to grab one of the freebie papers from a nearby box for proof:

Yeah, ok, Piggy’s a bit of a dweeb.

Finished Object Friday: Turn a Square Hat

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Talk about your bandwagon knitting. May I present my contribution to the 7,915 Turn a Square Hat projects in the Ravelry database:

Like my lovely new model? I picked her up on Monday at Dressew, Vancouver’s ginormous fabric-notions/tacky costumes-and-a-bit-of-yarn shop, which was having a 50% off everything sale to celebrate its 50th anniversary. She needs a name; suggestions are welcomed.

And no, I didn’t buy any yarn. I remain firmly seated on the yarn diet wagon. Miracles do happen, piglets.

This pattern wasn’t really on my 2011 agenda; it was more of a spur-of-the-moment thing. Sometimes those are the best projects, no? My pal beentsy had recently finished one, and I was intrigued by the double-decrease crown shaping (that’d be the square you’re turning):

It’s awesomesauce, dudes. I think I’m going to use it a lot – with or without the stripes.

As for the stripes…I think I might have goofed with the jogless stripe technique, whereby you knit the first stitch of the second round of the new colour together with the stitch below it (in the old colour). It’s supposed to make the joins ‘virtually invisible’, but…

I’m not entirely satisfied. Is it supposed to look like this – one super-tall stitch of the new colour at the join?

I should point out that I haven’t blocked the hat yet, so that might help. But if I’m missing something obvious, please let me know.

All in all, I love this hat, and it is definitely staying with Piggy – no gifting of this one!

Project Details:

Pattern: Turn a Square by Jared Flood (Rav link)
Yarn: Cascade 220 in unidentified charcoal (label long gone): 59.4 yards; Noro Kureyon, colourway 229: 44 yards
Needles: 3.75mm/US 5 & 4.5mm/US 7
Modifications: None. Well, I maybe knit a smidge more ribbing than called for.
Comments: The man’s a genius. And I am a Noro Whoro.

FO Friday: F@ck Cancer! Hat

noreply@blogger.com (yarnpiggy) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:06:00 +0000

Hooray for a finished object! Boooooo for the necessity of this one.

Here is the completed F@ck Cancer! Hat for TangledSkein's mum:

Sorry for the craptastic pic; winter at the crack o'dawn isn't conducive to quality photography. Couple that with my severe lack of skillz, and you get what you get.

A close-up of the lacy bits (oooh, that sounds a tad naughty!):

Project Details

Pattern: Lace-Edged Women’s Hat by Julie Hentz
Yarn: Rowan Calmer, 112 yards of the Plum colourway
Needles: 4mm/US6
Modifications: None

I knit the medium size; the designer says she encourages people to go with the small, as it is a really stretchy hat that will fit most people, but I wasn't convinced going in. I'm even less convinced now, as it is rather snug on me.

I'm not entirely thrilled with my choice of yarn. Calmer is stretchy – sproingy, even – which doesn't really show the lace off to its best advantage. The fabric also manages to be stretchy yet just a bit stiff at the same time. Mind you, that is likely user error: I didn't swatch (surprise, surprise), and I don't think I adjusted my tension to compensate for the yarn's give. I suspect going up one needle size might help.

But even if it doesn’t fit TangledMom, it should get some use; she is planning to donate several of the mountain of caps she’ll be collecting to other chemo patients.

Which sucks, of course. It would be far nicer if there was no need for this particular FO.

Fuck cancer.