Can I Decorate Like This?

So I'm not much of an Urban Outfitters girl, but you have to check out their creative headquarters, it's a pretty fantastic space. My favorite thing though is how they decorated this wall with GIGANTIC crocheted pieces. I could totally do that for an apartment one day.

Tis The Season of Giving

Swap stuff!

 Just wanted to share with you guys what I gave my swap person in the Stitch-n-Kvetch Chanukah Swap. The theme was Blue and White and she likes jewel tones so I made (another) Spring Beret in NaturallyCaron.com Spa yarn in the color "Spruce." I also gave her two skeins of Bris yarn which is a Soy/Wool blend and is SO SOFT. There's an Interweave Knits Weekend pattern magazine, a plastic cup with a Menorah on it and a bag of blue and white Hershey Kisses.

Bris Yarn

Spring Beret

At First You Don't Succeed

Try, try again. Well, I finished my prototype hat, and I have to say, I'm not so pleased with how it turned out. I think i need to make the band narrowerer from top to bottom, but wider around, and make the band bigger. Anyway, I'll probably have this as a long-term project that I keep fiddling with.

SQUEE!!

Swap Goodness!

I finally opened everything from knitnskate from the Stitch-n-Kvetch Chanukah swap. She is SO amazing as a swap person, really, she gave me FANTASTIC stuff. The best of the best thing is Jared Flood's Made in Brooklyn. Have I mentioned how much I love, LOVE, everything that Jared Flood does? He has the most beautiful patterns and photographs them SO WELL (um, and he's cute). Ok, done swooning. The second best thing she gave me was two gorgeous skeins of Araucania Ranco Multy which is a fingering weight wool/nylon blend. I have no clue what I'm going to do with it right now except just admire it. She also gave me Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen. I'm always up for something else to read, I'll let you all know how it is :D There was also some tea, nosh and a bar of Endangered Species Chocolate, which is pretty nice. Thanks Knitnskate!

Knit Anxiety

So I'm sitting here, waiting for The Wench to come pick me up so that we can go to Michael's, stock up on yarn, and do a sweater Knit-Along (KAL). I really, really want to make this hooded pullover that was in the Fall 2008 issue of VogueKnitting. But I was going through everyone's comments and such on Ravelry about this pattern and it seems like there are SO many issues with it. Like the pattern is written badly, and the hood pulls the neckline, and the gauge is wonky, and the acrylic yarn stretches to look like Swiss-cheese. To top that all off it's supposed to be knit in bulky yarn and they say you shouldn't put bulky yarn on a bulky person because it just makes them look even bulkier. I think I'll attempt it anyway. I want to be a fearless knitter. I've definitely improved since I first tried to make a sweater and if I have to do it along with The Wench, hopefully it will give both of us motivation to finish.

Sow's Ear

Recycled Silk Yarn

To a silk purse. On Sunday after Thanksgiving The Boyfriend and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary (!!) by going to the American Visionary Arts Museum to see their exhibit on what makes us smile. It was a pretty great exhibit, I totally recommend it if you're in the Baltimore area. Of course, though, no trip to a museum is complete without a visit to the gift shop, and just so you know, the gift shop at AVAM is pretty darn spectacular. Anywhoo, at the gift shop The Boyfriend bought me this ball of recycled silk. I think I would like to make it into a bag that I could carry with me to weddings and such.

Monkey See, Monkey Knit

So I was recently in Virginia with The Boyfriend and his family for his cousin's Bar Mitzvah (which was a grand bash), and one of his aunts was wearing a very cute hat (which of course I didn't get a picture of >_<). Anyway, I decided I wanted to try and copy it, but put my own tweaks on it, and it's in the process right now. I'm using some grey Wool-Ease that I have on hand from a sweater I started back in college but never finished (that's a story for another time). I started by knitting the band that goes around the head, casting on 12 stitches and increasing them in the middle until I had 40 stitches across, then decreased back down so the band is sort of a football shape, and then sewed the two ends together (actually, not sewed. Kitchener stitched together because I provisionally cast on.) 

Then, with a circular needle I picked up 75 stitches around one edge of the band and decreased every 15 stitches every other row, on the wrong side of the fabric (I know this doesnt make a lot of sense, hopefully, when I'm done, I'll write a pattern that makes sense). After that, I picked up stitches on the other edge of the band that I am knitting in order to sew a band of boning into the edge.  

But, since I had to buy some boning today, I also ended up with three skeins of yarn from Jo-Ann's too. Two skeins of Vanna's Choice (hey, I'm going to have to test-knit the hat, right?) and a skein of Red Heart: Heart & Sole in Ivory, which I'm going to try and dye with food coloring (which I feel is a step up from Kool-Aid).