283 Projects

Impressed (and somewhat jealous) of the hat I made our boss earlier in the season, Esther decided she had to have an Emily-made hat for herself! After I convinced her to choose something other than the same pattern I used for Gary, we came up with this slightly slouchy look for her. The pattern is katherine by Erin Archer (available for free on her blog). I sent Esther to Purl Soho to choose her own yarn and was so thrilled with what she chose. Firstly, the color is magnificent. The blue/purple is so rich and has so much depth to it! Secondly, its cashmere(!!!) and was soooo lovely to knit. It is called Anzula For Better or Worsted and the color is Periwinkle. Only one skein was needed.

Naughty naughty Purl Soho, displaying their sale yarn with each colorway in a ziploc bag, ready to grab and go!

 :-/

Last night I dragged out ye olde Maroc Socks. I need the needles for another project. But rather than transfer Maroc to waste yarn I decided to try and figure out where I was and continue them.

I was pretty confused by what I saw, and I couldn't find my notes on that section, but I just ran with it, didnt chart anything else and finished it! YAY! I have one Maroc Sock!

A few months back I dropped into Purl Soho to get some needles and as usual I walked about for a few minutes squeezing things and smelling things and generally pawing at their yarns. And even though I was supposed to be on a yarn diet, I ended up falling so head over heels (love at first squeeze) with Imperial Stock Ranch's Tracie yarn that I had to come back the next day and buy it!

What's so lovely about this yarn, you ask? First, its minimally processed so it smells like lanolin. Its oh so very squishy (this is my new favorite characteristic in yarn) with lots and lots of bloom. It claims to be a fingering weight, but with all the squish and fuzz its more like a light DK I guess...I'm using size 5s. Its just wooly wooly goodness! Encapsulated. Or, skeined. Lol.

So this wooly wooly goodness is slowly transforming itself into my first ever custom raglan sweater. I'm loosely basing it on Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage system, but because I want it to be very fitted I'm just sort of starting there and making other adjustments on the fly.

So far so good, I'm working on the sleeves at the moment. Here are some pics:

So, it's been a while. Much has happened.

Three days after my last post, just after midnight on Easter Sunday, the pharmacy that has been my life, my job, my family for the past 7 years burnt to the ground. Or almost. No one was hurt, our tin ceiling saved the building, and we moved into a new space to continue operating just about as seamlessly as anyone could.

Next on the list of stuff-that-happened is my trip to Mexico. I got my tax refund, found a cheap ticket and away I went! Spent 6 days in Mexico City and 3 in Puebla. Que chido!

Then there is the quasi-emergency minor eye surgery I had yesterday, which is why I'm home instead of at work today. Last week I went for a check-up, just to see if my glasses were still ok, and my (wonderful) doctor found a little something on my retina that he wanted me to have looked at. Thursday I went to the specialist's office, spent 2.5 hours being poked, prodded, injected and inspected and was told I needed to have laser eye surgery asap to prevent a possible detachment of my left retina. Boy was that a surprise. So here I am, at home recovering, mostly blind in one eye, typing by feel, using the right eye when I actually need to see. :(

Oh! And you might notice from my pictures that I also moved since my last post! LOVE my new apt.

But enough about me, lets move on to what this blog is really about: the projects!

#1: Granny's Multnomah Shawl

When I went to Morocco last summer I decided to make some "traveling socks" with the idea that all of the wonderful things I saw there would inspire the patterns. Unfortunately, though I was very inspired, I didn't get to do much knitting while I was there. And since I've been back the little bit of a sock I started has sat in a bag, with the yarn, and I've been ignoring it. Until yesterday.