Can Wool-Ease be not evil?

That's the question. Some kind in-law gave me a random skein of oatmeal colored Lion's Brand Wool-Ease for Christmas. 80% Acrylic, 20% Wool. The weird thing is, I actually really like it. It feels soft and not dry/crunchy/static-y. But I'm wary of getting burned yet again by affordable synthetics that turn out to be crappy. Obviously, acrylic sucks. It's not warm, it snags on any little piece of rough skin around the fingernails, and it pills and looks like something the cat vomited up after wearing it once. However, I do know that some acrylic is crappy and some is much, much more crappy. What if you combine only slightly crappy acrylic with wool?

Also, I had the happy coincidence of finding a patttern for a dishrag (hmm, it's around here somewhere...I'll post it when I find it) and then seeing a baby blanket at a LYS made like a jumbo dishrag. It's the exact some pattern, just supersized. So easy! But. In the past I've crocheted baby blankets with Sugar n Creme cotton. They turn out kinda heavy, and I'm not sure how soft they are after you wash them. I like the natural fibers a lot. Especially for babies, 'cause they can get rashes from synthetics (it's plastic!--traps moisture), and they can give off chemicals. Ick. But, for some reason I'm not jazzed about the idea of making a 100% wool baby blanket. Superwash is expensive for a whole blankie.

So, am I crazy in thinking Wool-Ease may not disappoint me terribly? Is it worth a try? Or am I just deluding myself?

Scarf pattern for your consideration

What do you think about this scarf pattern? It says it's easy to memorize, but I'm not so sure.

http://yummyyarn.indus3ous.com/patterns/MJG_Liesel.pdf

But maybe I can use it to make a scarf with only one skein (216 yds) of malabrigo "dusty".

Hmmm.


List of partially completed projects:

baby bib
Mom's socks
Dad's socks
argosy scarf
*new* superlong wrap from those knitting flash cards that I have

Hmmm.

Thinking about Knitting is as good as Knitting, right?

My next project to get done is my friend Kristin's baby kimono. I was surfing for some good patterns and came across this one. I also went and bought some lovely lilac yarn, Misti Cotton brand, which is sooo soft. I will at some point get around to knitting this one. I think that the blanket won't get made. It calls for thirteen 50-gram balls of yarn. My pocketbook isn't so big.

The past few weeks have been pretty brutal at school. My memo draft is done and was turned in on Monday so I've had a little more time to think about knitting. I got my hands on Dorothy L. Sayers' The Unpleasantness at the Belladonna Club on mp3 and have been listening to that while I knit.

malabrigo found

I needed some post-therapy session, TGIF, yarn store browsing (touching, squeezing, swooning) today. Which turning into yarn buying. Surprise!

But my lys had a whole new section of malabrigo yarn, and I'd been in the market for some nice different-yet-harmonious colored yarn to use in my very first entrelac project: www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter05/PATTdanica.html .

I wanted to get the grass green color, but realized I'd feel like wearing the wine color and pink-tan color a lot more often. Sheesh. I even had to sit down on the little couch they have at the store while I made up my mind.

Still working on the "Argonaut". I'm almost ready to join up the second skein, so it's about half-way done.

Gauntlet, stalled project

Here's a picture of my intended gift for my roommate, Liz, for Christmas. Unfortunately, I have only gotten one of the pair done. That and I kinda think it makes it look like I have a cast on. Hmmm...next time I might do it in white and stitch doodles on it as though it was a real cast.

The pattern that I used was this one that I found on Knitty.com. I added an extra cable twist on the cuff since I hate too short gloves. It's bad enough to get the cold air hitting your wrist, but snow is the worst. I am using a chunky alpaca yarn from Frog Tree. I like the alpaca except that it's really heavy. My first intentions were to knit a scarf (surprise!), but halfway through it, I realized that I'd need to have someone spot me while I lifted it onto my neck.

Also, the yarn isn't colorfast. This isn't too big of a deal except that my needles are now blue and for awhile I thought that I had a serious bruise on a couple of my fingers. :}.

Works in Progress

Yo, I realize this post is lame without any pictures. Pictures will be forthcoming, as soon as the shots of the big dent that appeared in our car overnight (thankfully, along with a note under the windshield wiper) have been downloaded for safekeeping.

Works in Progress (in order of motivation to finish):

Argosy scarf http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTargosy.html with Atacama alpaca yarn. This one I'm keeping for myself.

Baby Bib O' Love from Mason-Dixon Knitting http://www.masondixonknitting.com with Sugar n' Creme yarn. I have a whole friggin' pound of "geranium", which I also used to make a matching Baby Genius Burp Cloth for my niece's 1st birthday a few weeks back. It was supposed to be a 2-item gift, but only the burp rag got done in time. My brother and sister-in-law are probably the worst targets for handknits (not crafty themselves, prefer store-bought stuff). But for the 1-year-old who just received everything she could ever want for Christmas just a month or so back, it was hard thinking of anything else to buy her. She seemed really into drooling and spitting up when I was hanging out with her at Christmas, so I thought she could at least put a pretty burp rag to good use. Plus, I have all that pink yarn!

Socks for Dad (shhh...don't tell him...it's supposed to be a surprise....) I've only finished the cuff and a little of the 4x2 ribbing pattern on the ankle of sock #1. This is the project I carry around in my purse when I'm running errands. (That pound of Sugar n' Creme just isn't that easy to haul around on the bus.) The pattern is vintage Vogue, circa 1950's, hence the US size 1 needles it calls for. I'm using modern yarn though--75% wool, 25% bamboo. Did I mention that Dad was the one who gave me the Mason-Dixon Knitting book for Christmas?

Socks for Mom, made with superwash worsted Brown Sheep yarn in "cornflower", size 5 needles. Poor Mom, this was also supposed to be a Christmas present for her too. The frustrating thing about these socks is that I had 1 and 1/2 of them done before Christmas, which is about the same number of socks that I still have done. They would've been finished by the time I left Missouri, except that I'd run out of yarn. Once back in San Francisco, I picked up an extra skein, and then that was it. OK, to be fair, there was also the having to frog the entire heel because of a super-loose weird-o stitch aways back. So, I'm working on re-knitting the heel flap, and that's where I've stalled out. The sock could easily be done in a day or two if I just sit down and get to work.

Mom's Christmas Scarf-yeah, I know it's February

Here's my current project that has had some fits and starts to getting underway. I originally had planned on using a vibrant read llama yarn that I purchased in Rolla, MO at Uniquely Yours over break, but the short fibers started getting too fuzzy so I switched to one of my favorite yarns Malabrigo in Saphire Green. The yarn is wonderful. I knitted my first scarf ever out of Malabrigo in Parisian Midnight and fell in love with knitting.

I got the pattern from Ysolda. I love it. It makes me look like an expert knitter but the pattern is super-easy once you get a feel for it. The only problem is that I don't know if I'll be getting it done before St. Patricks.

Welcome to Load of Knit!

I have of late found myself spending way too much time browsing the internet looking at other people's posts about their new knitting projects and such. I was also talking too many people's ears off about my current knitting project. These people, usually just acquaintances that I should be making friends with instead of scaring them away talking about yarn, were not the ones who should be on the receiving end of my obsession.

Additionally, there were several people that I used to have yarn talk with that now live too far away for our usual knitting discussions. So this is my attempt to 1) be active on the internet with respect to knitting, 2) stop alienating potential friends, 3) build a east-coast, west-coast knitting circle.

So here it goes. The idea is that this blog would used to post pictures, links, ideas, encouragements, and rants about what you're currently knitting, planning on knitting, or have knitted. At first I'm limiting access just to get the ball rolling. I am open to suggestions on how to juggle the blog and on what the name should be (I picked Load of Knit in a pinch).

knog on!

Emily