Hi folks! A quick note to let you know that I’m not dead. This week has been B-U-S-Y!

I’m halfway through a hat right now, and it’s a circular hat but I only have straights in that size so it’s a very interesting process. I’m essentially LIVING ON THE EDGE at all times because half of my stitches are off the needles entirely at any given moment.

Today is the last day of the Pretty in Pink contest! There are a few entries that I haven’t talked about yet so I think we’ve actually met our goal! Yay! Pictures of my hat will come tomorrow. Right now, I have a clustering algorithm to test!

This was the beginning of a Christmas present for one of my uncles. I was going to knit this for Uncle #1, and a fantastically self-designed moose sock would go to Uncle #2. (He once got into a stand-off with a moose. It’s a long story.) Then I suddenly realized that it sucks to get socks for Christmas (unless you’re an obsessive knitter), and I decided to repurpose it for someone else.

The question is this: I still want to make a pair of moose socks for Uncle #2, but Uncle #1 will now be getting a DVD. The inequality of these gifts (the DVD is cooler but has less effort behind it) bothers me. Do I knit the moose socks?

Advice please!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/EC6GZkxtNWQ" height="350" width="425" /]

Knitting, nakedness, and spaceships! Over here at the Needle Exchange, we got you covered.

A bunch of folks have emailed me or commented about the fact that it’s hard to figure out where Yarnival is being published each month. Fortunately, the back end of Yarnival! is all managed through one central location, meaning:

• There’s a central feed! Simply subscribe to the feed to be reminded whenever a new issue comes out. (Bloglines users, you can subscribe easily by clicking here! Neat!)
• Submissions are never lost; if you submit an article past the deadline, instead of getting lost with last month’s editor it’s sent to the next editor automatically for consideration in the next issue.
• There’s a central place for you to submit and view upcoming and past issues, as well as a place to email the manager (moi) about being a future editor.

Because not everyone has a feed reader, I’m considering adding a little email list to keep people up to date on upcoming issues. Would anyone be interested in this? Let me know in the comments what you’d like to see!

The Pretty in Pink contest closes on November 30th, so quickly finish up those hats and things! We’re up to 18 now; with my soon-to-be-finished hat and one more, we’ll break the thermometer!

• Julie has knit a Shedir, and it’s beautiful. She’s been having a bit of a hard time lately; head over there and give her an eHug. And while you’re at it, submit to next month’s Yarnival!, which she has so graciously agreed to host.
• Lisa has knit a cute li’l pair of mittens; the first pair goes to charity, the rest for her kids!

On a side note, I’ve got lots of knitting content to put up but I’ve also got lots of grad school applications that are demanding more of my time. I’d much rather blog, but unfortunately the admissions process is a cruel mistress who demands obedience. I’d make an allusion to [[The Borg]], but then I would be even more of a nerd than I already am. Which is great if any of my readers are on the McGill, U of T or CMU admissions committees, but not so great otherwise. Geekiness is okay; Star Trek nerdiness less so. It’s a fine line.

It’s the 16th entry into the Pretty in Pink Contest! Monica has knit a hat to go into the hat box at her local hospital’s oncology center. Her hat is part superwash wool, part sock yarn, which makes me think that maybe all the wool I have in my stash could be used for this purpose instead of being forever hidden from the heads of cancer patients. I’m so afraid of making a hat that’s too scratchy… Maybe I’ll just buy some Rowan Calmer instead and play it safe. Only a week until the end of the contest! I think maybe 50 was too ambitious a goal, so I’ll be happy if we hit 20. Let’s go for 20! I have a week to knit a hat, maybe two, that means I need another two or three entries from you darlings and we’ll hit our (new) mark!

On a side note, do you notice anything that’s disappeared from the sidebar? I finished my aunt’s DNA scarf last night while watching Letterman! (I don’t usually watch, but I only get CBS and CBC and I wanted to cast off last night so I stayed up for about an hour longer than I usually do.) That’s right, my scarf and Kramer’s career, both finished at approximately the same time. It still needs to have some ends woven in and I put in a keyhole that I should reinforce with a bit of crochet, and then it needs to be blocked… Ok, so maybe my scarf won’t be finished for another week or so, depending on whether I’m EVER going to find something to use for a blocking board. We shall see. As soon as it’s reborn as an FO, my cherished knititionnaires, my beloved proletariknit, my precious digknitaries, you will be the first thing it sees.

On a side side note, my breakfast this morning was cinnamon toast. Here is my recipe for cinnamon toast:

Eve’s Delicious Low-Calorie Cinnamon Toast

2 slices of lightly-toasted bread
Butter
Brown sugar
Cinnamon

Spread butter onto the toast. If it’s too cold because you live in Canada or somewhere equally chilly, put it in the microwave on defrost for a few minutes. Sprinkle the brown sugar on the toast. Sprinkle the cinnamon on the toast. Put into the toaster oven for a few minutes. Pull it out of the toaster and arrange on a decorative plate. Munch.

Serves 1.

If you’re a proponent of both [[GTD]] and good design, you’ll love Pixel Notes. I can’t seem to get to the website about it (it may be down), but from the images at swissmiss, it looks like an entire wall covered in post-it notes that get progressively darker as you move further down the pad. Continued use in a certain location results in a darker patch there, reflecting fluctuations in activity throughout the room. I love it. I’d never have to search around for paper again. I’m seriously considering doing this when I finally “settle down.” (My house is going to be a wacky playhouse of mystery and inspiration.)

The impracticality of using post-its near the floor and ceiling make me want to use this, but only as wainscotting (the little band in the middle of the room that separates the paint from the wallpaper, if you do it that way). There would obviously have to be some sort of moulding around the post-its, so that its protrusion doesn’t look ungainly. I think it could be pulled off. (Get it? Pulled off!)

Multidirectional Scarf, started November 13th, 2006, finished November 15th, 2006
Pattern: Multidirectional Scarf
Yarn: Patons Shetland Chunky in High Plains
Needles: 6.5 mm circs
Dimensions: I decided to keep knitting and eventually stop when I hit the end of the ball, so it’s actually a bit small. I like it, though; it just the right size for a stylish jacket scarf.
Pattern Notes: I followed the directions in all respects except that I didn’t have the pattern with me when I had to finish it off, so I made up something that ended up being fairly similar to the instructions. Once it got to the halfway point of the last triangle, I started K2TOGing on the first two stitches and then finished off with a k3tog and a bunch of hairbraininess at the end.
Would I knit it again? This is the fastest scarf I’ve ever knit, I believe. Possibly because it’s the first scarf I continentalled. I’m getting fairly confident with it, so fairly soon I believe I will start purling! Gasp! This is a great pattern to knit for a boy, especially with rugged yarn such as the Shetland Chunky. So if I have to knit another quick scarf, I’d do it again. I’d buy two balls next time, though.

Read the rest »

Those who know me, know that I have a fondness for cute things. So it’s not surprising that I LOVE Pocoyo. He’s a cute little guy with a cute little dog and his duck friend has jaunty hat. For some reason his elephant wears a backpack. I don’t know the back story on whether the animals are his imaginary friends or not; if you have further information (did Pocoyo end up in the big white space because he was coming back from burying his father in Australia?), post it in the comments.

Anyhoo, the reason I’m talking about Pocoyo is because there is a DELICIOUS Pocoyo hat pattern being drawn up over at Not an Artist. It is MONDO KAWAII. It’s in the test knitting stage at this point, so if you want to try one of your own, there’s your opportunity. It is SO CUTE!

It even slightly involves nature:

After knitting bee <– see, there are bees
I’ll be intoxicated
The Dears play tonight! <– awesome

Tonight I’ll be meeting with Miss Ewe as well as some knitters I’ve never met before. I’m very excited. Knitting has become social again! My friend Liz has started knitting again so I’ve been teaching her all sorts of fantastic new things, like keeping the ball band and how to switch colours and things like that. And now she has a blog! It’s called Knit-What and I have a feeling it’s going to be fantastic.

On a side note, I’ve been knitting a multidirectional scarf to practice my continental style, and when The Beau was over last night I asked him if he noticed anything different and he said, “… Continental?” I was so impressed. Even if he refuses to let me teach him to knit, he’s got the lingo down pat. And now he wants to learn German… My heart is SWELLING. I may need a bypass.