Friday, January 30, 2004

Someone wrote and asked if I could post a picture of the beanie hat I made the other day. Here it is:


Obviously, I'm not a terrific photographer although, in my own defense, I purposely overexposed the picture so you could see the centered double decreases. I like the look because they don't lean either to the right or to the left. Also, because two stitches are decreased at once, the top of the hat is nice and round. Hmmm . . . wonder how it would work on an afterthought heel?


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Thursday, January 29, 2004

While I was driving to work this morning, I heard Bob Edwards interview an amazing singer on NPR Morning Edition . Her name is Mindy Smith and her voice is just spectacular.

On the knitting front, I started a scarf for the Utah Legal Services silent auction. I'm using one strand of red Dazzle and one strand of a thin wool boucle I had in my stash. I'm knitting it on the bias on 7mm needles. I just love making these bias scarves. Because of the increases and decreases, they require a minimum amount of attention but they're more interesting to knit than plain vanilla garter stitch scarves. Although it's still too early to tell, I fear the gauge on this red one is a bit too tight. It's working up quickly, though, so I think I'll just keep going and decide later whether it needs to be redone on an 8mm needle. My plan is to make one red scarf to attract bidders who attended the University of Utah College of Law and one blue scarf to attract BYU alums. I guess I'll just have to hold my nose while I work on the BYU scarf and keep reminding myself that it's for a good cause.


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Wednesday, January 28, 2004

I wasn't able to work on my second Broadripple sock last night 'cause I was finishing up a hat for my hair stylist. Here's a pic of the first sock in progress, though.

For the hat, I decided on a cross between the London Beanie and Allison's NY Street Cap. I used Paton's Wool Classic and size 4.5mm needles (U.S. size 7) and cast on 90 stitches. Then I worked 10 rows of k1 p1 ribbing, changed to st. st. and knit even 'til the hat was about 5" long (about 31 rounds). I placed 6 evenly spaced markers and worked a centered double decrease every third round two times, then every second round until 6 stitches were left. I really like the way it looks; the top is not too pointy and the cap is nice and tight.


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Tuesday, January 27, 2004

I got a fun call yesterday. Utah Legal Services wanted to know if I would make a knitted item for the silent auction they're sponsoring during the Utah Bar's Mid-Year Meeting. The proceeds go to their "and Justice for all" campaign. I think someone at Utah Legal Aid told them about the Barbie clothes I knit for the Legal Aid fundraiser in October. They sold for $150.00; not too bad. Can't decide what I'll make this time, though. Probably a scarf or some small felted bags. I think people will be more likely to bid on something like that.

Two positive things today! First, I finished the first Broadripple sock this morning while I drank my coffee. I really like the way it turned out. The pattern broke up the striping nicely. I'll post a picture tomorrow. Second, and more important, the sun is actually visible in the sky today! Yippee. For the last few weeks, we've had the worst smog I can remember. I love the way the die-hard locals around here insist on calling it "fog." Honestly, it was like living on the far side of the moon. Even worse, it was impossible to escape the gunk by driving to Park City 'cause the town was overrun by Hollywood types in for the Sundance Film Festival. In any event, I'm going to soak up the sun today, even if it is only 20 degrees out.


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Monday, January 26, 2004

OK, it's about time to start writing in this blog again. I had to frog the sock I was making from LynnH's handpainted yarn 'cause it was clear that I was going to run out of yarn. Tonight maybe I'll comb Barbara Walker's books to find an openwork pattern that won't use as much yarn.

After the disappointment of the frogging, I cast on a sock out of Lion Brand's Magic Stripes yarn. I'm using the Broadripple pattern from knitty.com. I had prepared myself to hate this yarn (after all, it's marketed by Lion Brand), but it's not that bad at all. The color is a little splotchy, but the Confetti sock yarn I used last year was much worse. On the plus side, I'm using only 56 stitiches on the 2.75mm Bryspun double points I got at the fabulous Las Vegas yarn store so they're working up fast!

The One World-One Purse project should be up and running within a week or two. This is the bag I knit up in the car on the way to Vegas. Isn't it great!



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Running commentary on my unending quest to knit up my stash.