2007 January « Twitchy Knitter

Green Day Monday, Jan 29 2007

Dyeing and Yarn twitchyknitter 3:04 pm

Ha!Ha! Not the band, the YARN! I got me some more naked wool yarn. Yeah! I’m dying it green in preparation for St. Patty’s Day. I have a wedding to attend that day, and I feel like I need a new green shawl for the occasion. I give you…green yarn in a pot.

Also in preparation for St. Patty’s Day, Get Stitchy! is hosting a green hat-along. We’re all making green hats during the month of February, which we will sport in our avatars during the month of March. Pretty spiffy, I think. I’m using this yarn…

It’s 2 hanks of some beautiful Koigu that my terrific husband brought home one day just because. He said that I was required to make something for myself with it. That’s an offer I can’t refuse. Oh, you see all that frilly stuff in the pic? The colored ribbons and paper hearts? When you buy yarn at The Quarter Stitch, they individually wrap your pretty new hanks of yarn in colored tissue paper, add in some frilly things, put it all into a clear cellophane bag (so you can see all the prettiness) and top it all off with some ribbon curls cascading down the side of your new little treasure. I always want to rush home from there to unwrap my presents! And then I want to wrap it up again, because it looks so nice sitting there in the stash all gussied up like that.

One Response »

Ugh! Saturday, Jan 27 2007

Failures twitchyknitter 12:21 pm

There is a distinct possibility that I am not meant to knit lace. Damn.

Leave a Response »

Fun with Kool-Aid Tuesday, Jan 23 2007

Dyeing and Yarn twitchyknitter 10:08 pm

Humble packets of Kool-Aid can turn this, into this:

or this:

I’m so intrigued by this, I can’t express it. I have plans for this yarn. Beautiful plans. I so need to stop buying Kool-Aid! Well, at least until I can afford to stock up on naked yarn again. Find out how to make your own beautiful Kool-Aid Yarn here.

Leave a Response »

Raising the Dead Monday, Jan 22 2007

Music and NOLA twitchyknitter 8:55 am

I had a ball at the Raise the Dead Fest (1/13/07). I got the very tough job of being the “Queen of the VIP Room”. Poor me. I got to sit on a big cushy bar stool, behind the bar, hand out beers and sodas to the staff and band members (and other assorted important persons), and knit, knit, knit..
My devil hat got lots of attention and raves. One of the bartenders begged me to make her one. The girls from the burlesque troop that performed in front of the curtain while the bands were changing out their equipment were completely enthralled with the knitting. They wanted to take pics of ME sitting behind the bar knitting. Heck, the guys in the bands were pretty into it, too. My husband, who was working out on the floor, kept getting stopped and asked about his hat. Turns out that the metal community is very intrigued by knitting…who knew? I finished one generic hat and gave it away, and got within about 20 mins of finishing a second, but it was time to clean up, so I put it away to keep it from getting sticky.
The show was a success. Even though the venue pushed the schedule back several hours because they wanted to pull down their big projection screen that covers the stage to show the Saints game. Yeah Saints! I’m glad they won, but geez, the first band didn’t go on until around 11:00. Anyway, the bands were all amazing. The food was great. The crowd loved it all, and it was for a really good cause. The NOLA Underground people worked their butts off to put on a great show, and I’d be totally honored if they’d let me be part of it the next time around. It all finished up somewhere around 3:30 am (I think). I got home at 5am. Talk about tired! I don’t think I knitted a single stitch all day last Sunday.
Photos here. That’s me in the top row of pics, right in the center.

3 Responses »

Yee-haw! Part 2 Friday, Jan 19 2007

Patterns twitchyknitter 11:23 am

First, I did not use the recommended size 13 needles, I went with 15’s. The yarn I used is Moda Dea Cache, in the color “Tootsie”. I followed the pattern well into the ribbing, and then it started to drive me nuts! I couldn’t bear the thought of doing 18 inches worth, and wimped out at around 9 inches. I then took it into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror for a good 20 minutes with it. It was way too long to fold up the brim, and way too bulky to roll it up. What to do, what to do? Maybe a nice wide brim that sticks out? Ok , need something to hold it out. I know, I’ll cannibalize the plastic tray liner from that food dehydrator that’s been sitting in the garage collecting dust for the last few years. Yeah, that’s it. And so I did. I cut a slightly larger than head-sized hole in the center, trimmed the outside edge down a bit, and folded the really long hat down around it. I stitched up the underside to hold the plastic in, and was immediately unhappy with it. I tried folding one side up, like in the original pattern, didn’t like it, and folded up the other side. Hey! That kinda looks like a cowgirl hat! Neato. So, I stitched both sides in place where they were folded upward, and a hat was born.

2 Responses »

Yee-haw! Wednesday, Jan 17 2007

FO's twitchyknitter 7:12 am

Fresh off the needles last night: my knitted cowgirl hat. Made with sparkly yarn (oh, how I love me some sparkly yarn!) from a pattern that very quickly bored me, so I tweaked it…a lot.

And in the interest of transfering all of the stuff from the other blog over to here, I give you…something old. A cutesy little cherry apron made out of one of Hubby’s old dress shirts, from a pattern in Bust Magazine.

2 Responses »

You asked… Monday, Jan 15 2007

Book Reviews and Patterns twitchyknitter 2:03 pm

Quite a few people have asked where the devil hat pattern came from. It’s in this book. I got it for Christmas from my wonderful hubby and I may knit everything in it. Like alot of knitting books, the first half is basically all reference material, the second half is patterns. A few are nice, but not special. Most of them are great and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into them.

Leave a Response »

My Semi-Famous Hat Sunday, Jan 14 2007

FO's and NOLA twitchyknitter 9:33 pm

I figure the knitters among you can appreciate the crazy-wicked-difficult shaping that’s happening with this hat. It was sort of maddening, and definately rewarding to finish this puppy. I love her so. More on the event she was knitted for later.

2 Responses »

NOLA Needs You! Friday, Jan 12 2007

FO's and NOLA twitchyknitter 7:14 am

So, because my husband is involved with these folks, he got involved with this. Which means I got involved with this, too. It’s for the benefit of these folks. Cool, right? Well, it caused a little spark in my head, and I came up with this:

A hand-knitted, glow-in-the-dark tribute