Maia Spins

Biodiesel Socks *

Dulaan Knit In
On Sunday I went to Rachael's house for a Dulaan knit-in in honor of our friend Janine, visiting from Seattle.  We had a great time socializing.

On the left is Rachel (known across blogville as no blog Rachel) and our lovely hostess Rachael.  On the right is Becca and Cindy.

The lovely Lala with Miss Idaho modeling the hat Lala made.  Miss Idaho is such a little star.  She knows how to work a crowd.  Half of the pictures I took include her.

I managed to take bad pictures of the other attendees, Janine, Breanna, Jeni, and Celia.  I hope they will forgive me.  I know they would if they saw the pictures!

I tried to start the hat from the Master Knitter program.  First I realized that I have brought the correct needles for the body of the hat, but not the ribbing.  Rachael kindly loaned me some needles and I cast on.  I counted my stitches and recounted my stitches and worked k2, p2 around to find an odd number of stitches remaining.  Twice.  Twice.  I can take a hint.  I switched over to my Latvian mitten for a few rows and had to stop because I had forgotten to bring the directions for the thumb.  Doh!

Not much else to report for the last couple of days.  I finished my February fiber from the Spunky Club.  It is 350-360 yards of Navajo plied fingering weight.  I divided the roving into 4 strips to keep the stripes fairly wide.  It will hit the needles this weekend.  We are going to "the lake" and I need a travel project.  More on "the lake" this weekend.

I may have learned my lesson about backgrounds.  I usually use either the side board (pale wood) or my dining room table (medium wood).  Both are very warm wood tones that have very little contrast with the colors I gravitate towards.  Then there are the pictures of yarn on my wheel (pale wood) against my hardwood floors (almost as pale wood).  It was all starting to wear on me.  Today, I tried my lavender sheets and didn't have to tweak the colors to get the yarn to pop in the picture. 

* In a recent Google search string, I came up first in biodiesel socks!  Two of my favorite things.  I'm sure the searcher was looking for sock filters for biodiesel, but hey, it makes a catchy title.

Fun and Easy EZ

If you want a laugh out loud, laugh until you cry, laugh until you worry that you've wet your pants movie, run out and see Little Miss Sunshine.  I laughed so hard that I missed some of the movie.  Really folks, you need to see it.

My first Elizabeth Zimmermann project is finished.  In keeping with her spirit, I made some modifications.  It is the baby surprise jacket from Knitting Workshop.  I threw in stripes of red and green without much forethought and they turned out well; better than if I had planned them out.  Buttons are pending.  I can't decide what color they should be.  Red?  Input is welcome.

I apologize for the awful pictures.  The colors are off and the sweater isn't square (it is in real life - really).    I am too tired to pull out the lights and if I wait for natural light it will be a while.

Anyway, I used a provisional cast on.  After I finished the sweater as defined in the pattern, I knit the shoulder/arm seams.  I'm not a big fan of sewing knitting so I picked up the ridges as if they were stitches and did a three needle bind-off.  That left me with live stitches (from the cast-on) for the sleeves and at the back of the neck.

Mongolia is cold, so I figured that a little more at the neck and wrists would be appreciated.  I picked up stitches along the neckline and made a 2x2 ribbing with a button hole.  The pattern makes a jacket with 3/4 sleeves so I knit the green stripes and 2x2 rib cuffs.

Front and back.

Fugly yarn does good

Sometimes I take things too far.  But, that is a good thing.  It stretches my limits and tells me when to back off.  And, when it is yarn, no harm is done. 

A few months back I was playing with colors.  I decided to see if I could take an odd combination and make it work.  The result was a truly fugly yarn.  It sat in my basket thinking about what it had done.  When I was looking for yarn for Dulaan knitting, it popped up.  A small skein, but, it looked like enough for a hat.  If I was poor and cold I wouldn't mind a warm but fugly hat.  Right?  Right.

Some combos are interesting enough that I would make skein with them.  Overall, combining rust, milk chocolate (yummm), white, mint green, pink, and violet seems a bit much.  The third one is obvious, just like Neapolitan ice cream.

Not too bad.  It is warm and very soft (100% merino).  I would wear it.  Well, I would wear it around the house. 

What do you think about the topknot?  It will fit an adult.  Adults don't want fugly and dorky in the same package.  Right?

In other Dulaan knitting, I made mittens to go with a hat I showed you earlier in the week.  They are so cute I can't stand it.  There wasn't enough green to finish the mittens like the hat so the orange stepped up.  Thank you orange.  The stripes are from my Big Bag pattern.

The green yarn has bits of colored thread carded into the wool (another one of my experiments).

I think I will line the hats and maybe the mittens like Norma does.  Such a smart idea.

Dulaan Knit-in

On Saturday I went to Becca's house for the Berkeley Dulaan knit-in.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Dulaan, it is a project where folks knit garments for impoverished people, especially children, in Mongolia.  Read more about it here or let Ryan at Mossy Cottage Knits know that you want to participate.

Here is Rachael (being silly) in her new sweater (fabulous).  That is Kirsten (a.k.a. Stella) working on her Ribbie IV sweater.  Quite a lovely sweater.

Celia finished off a big red scarf and is seen here working on her Bayerische sock (pattern by Eunny).  Next to her is Rachel (a.k.a. no blog Rachel not to be confused with blogless Rachel).  Somehow I missed out on what see was making even though I ogled her yarn the whole time.

Lala (I don't have a parenthetical statement for her except to say that she plays a mean banjo) did a fine job of casting on for a mysterious project.  Karen (lovely and also blogless) started a lengthwise scarf.  And, last, but certainly not least, our lovely hostess, Becca also making a mysterious project.

We had a lovely time visiting and knitting.  Many thanks to Becca for getting us together.

I started the hat on the right.  It looks a lot better on a round head-like object.  I finished it last night and then moved on to the hat on the left.  Hats are fast!  Both are made with some handspun that has been kicking around looking to become something.

I picked up some yarn for Dulaan knitting.  Some Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Hyacinth and some Reynolds Mandalay silk.  I plan to spin a soft wool and ply it with the silk yarn.  It should make a warm tweedy sweater.  I'd like to make both into Elizabeth Zimmermann surprise sweaters.  I have never made one and feel that I won't be a complete knitter until I do.  No, not really, but it does seem like a fun project.  Now, I just need to find my copy of Knitting Workshop. . .