Here is my backyard leaves scarf in progress. Pardon the colours; it was really bright. The red is actually much redder, and absolutely beautiful.

For the backyard leaves scarf, you knit two parts of the scarf separately and then seam them together, but I decided to do a provisional cast on and then pick up the stitches for the second half. The scarf is going well, and I think I’m less than a pattern repeat away from casting off and being able to ditch the stitch holder.

Good news: my slippers felted this time! They’re not felted enough yet, so I’m going to wash them a few more times to get them down to size. And now that I know the slippers felt, I’m going to pick up the second one (I’m only half finished knitting it) and finish it.

One unfortunate learning experience: You can’t really see it very well here, but there is a quite prominent line down the center of these slippers (on the top and the bottom). I folded them the wrong way before throwing them in the washer and they felted extra hard along this line. I didn’t forsee this, although I should have. Hopefully you folks out there who have never felted before can benefit from my mistake! Don’t Do what Evey Don’t Does!

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Here’s an ad for the LA county fair found at potterknitter, who also has some cute cute cute li’l baby socks up for show and tell. I can’t stop watching this video for some reason. It’s just so well done.

Here’s the last of the patterns. And people say I can never finish things.

• Vertigo is a delectable scarf done in Mosaic Knitting. It sounds scary, but it looks beautiful.
• I fell in love with this stitch pattern the second I saw it. It reminds me of a pattern I used in a dishcloth for The Beau’s mom. I forgot to take a picture of it, unfortunately.
• I don’t have holes in my ears, but if you do, you could make use of these beautiful Lacy Blue Crochet Earrings.
• A Stegosaurus Hat!

1. This is the most ridiculous scarf I’ve ever seen. Here are the instructions: Open the ball and pass it behind the neck. Pass une end of the ball trough the other side. Pull. There ya go!
2. From Ornaghi: A simple but quite pretty Sweater
3. From Ornaghi: “Printed Gong” Shirt
4. From Ornaghi: A very sexy shirt named for and in the spirit of Ibiza
5. From Ornaghi: a brown jumper
6. From Ornaghi: a subtle cabled sweater
7. You’ve probably all seen this before, but I just wanted to remind myself of these beautiful Lace-up Opera Gloves. I saw Shostakovich’s Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk a little while ago and I’m going to see Luisa Miller by Verdi in April or May. A good time to start planning for it!

1. These mittens are nice and chunky and they have a gusset that begins in the palm, which I much prefer to having a gusset along the side. My hands fold, I’ve had it since birth.
2. Another nice mitten pattern. From the description, it looks like it’s got a different construction for the thumb than I’ve ever seen. And it looks comfy!
3. The Supple Rib stitch pattern is quite cute and would make a delightful sock or scarf ribbing.
4. The Karaoke Cable Scarf is thin and pink.
5. From Knitting at KNoon: Kathy’s Mittens
6. From Knitting at KNoon: These Felted Christmas Stockings are hilarious, and if you don’t celebrate Christmas, they would also be perfect for a deer that had been hit by a giganto-ray. Giant deer shoes are going to be huge this season.
7. From Knitting at KNoon: a Sunhat that is to die for. It’s so cute! If I gardened, I would knit this.

I have been making note of patterns, recently, and now I really need to unleash them. I’ll put up seven patterns that I like every day until the patterns run out.

1. Cablipstick is quite like Cathode by Stefanie Japel. I think it’s prettier, actually, although Cathode is cute too.
2. Rose of Sharon is a cute hat that’s a bit floppy, but I hear the stitch pattern is the same as that of Orangina, and it looks so delightful from overhead. Which is important for a torso on stilts like me. I think it would look really nice with a bit of wire strung around the edge, too.
3. This Latvian Hat Pattern is amazing. It reminds me of some of the patterns in Hats On!
4. I love both Felicie Chokers from Chez Plum. They’re a pretty basic pattern, though; if you know how to put a picot edging around a swatch and a button hole inside it, you can derive the pattern yourself.
5. Felted Mittens! I was looking for felted mittens so I’ve got a couple stored.
6. Oh lookie here! More Felted Mittens!
7. Mittens! Could they be Felted Mittens?

They are exploding with cuteness.

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Seriously, that is too much cute combined with too much wool. I just want to hug it. Whether I am referring to the kitten or the wool is a matter for the courts.

(Via Mrs. Fife.)

Aieeeeeeee!

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When I was in grade 10, my hair was the most beautiful shade of deep forest green. I was between cameras at the time, but I remember video taping myself the day after I dyed it to keep a record of what a beautiful colour it was. Ever since then, that shade has been my favourite. Until a few weeks ago I’d never seen that shade in yarn form, and then I went to Little Knits, looking for cotton for an Orangina. I couldn’t believe how perfect the colour was:

Classic Elite Provence in Kennebunk Teal (with 3 balls of Noro Kureyon, just for yuks and because it was $15)

I’m sad to say I couldn’t capture the colour with my camera, so you’re going to have to imagine how delicious a green it is. It really is fabulous. The colour is truer in this picture.

I love Little Knits so much!

Oh yeeeeaaaaah! Here’s a handy video for those folks who haven’t yet drunk the continental kool-aid! I’ve found that the continental method is a lot more variable from person to person than the english method, so even if you already continentalize, it’s interesting to see how other people do it. I’m still working on my technique, and lately I haven’t really liked the way the yarn catches on my left hand sometimes and falls out of my hand other times. It’s really messing up my tension. Continentalists: how do you hold the yarn in your left hand? What do you do to maintain tension?

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For those who don’t want to watch the whole thing, here are some highlights:

• One bonus I didn’t realize about knowing two methods is that by changing up the way you knit, you can avoid repetitive stress injuries. Very important for those folks who knit far too much (I’m looking at you! Yes, all of you!). This is even more important for those folks who are totally pro-crochet or totally pro-knitting. I tried crochet for a day and it really hurt my hands, and I’ve heard from other crochet blogs that they have the same experience sometimes. Being able to create fabrics in many different ways will allow you to strengthen various muscles in your hand and avoid over-stressing certain combinations of muscles that are involved in a particular task. Very “handy” indeed.
• The woman in the video holds the yarn in her left hand in the same way as the woman from KnittingHelp.com. Wrapped once (or twice) around the pinky, then bent over the index finger. For thinner yarns, you can maintain your tension by wrapping the yarn twice around your left pinky. I’ve been having trouble with slippage recently, so I’ll have to try that out.
• I’ve tried to knit as tightly as I did with the English method, but continental really loosens up the way you knit. I should be jumping down a few needle sizes and not worry so much about keeping the stitches as tight as they used to be.
• The woman in the video purls by moving her index finger down over the needle. I purl by pushing the yarn down over the needle with my middle finger. I’ve found that the movement of my index finger is too extreme the way she does it (2πr remember, the arc gets 6 times longer the further out your finger is), so I can save time by slipping a closer finger down over the yarn. I think I’ll stick to that for now.