Tag Archives: knitcircus

appropriate

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storm has past.  all is well.

yesterday’s rain kept my kids inside

and my 8 yr old wandered into my little workroom.

he was looking politely, so i left him as i went off to tend other fires.

later in the day, he comes to me to say,

‘mama, can you knit me a hat?’

‘sure,’ i say,

‘what color do ya want, bud?’

‘blue,’ he says, ‘lots of different blues, please.’

and i run through my stash in my head and can’t place variegated blues,

i say, ‘i don’t think i have any of that.  sorry.’

‘yes, you do.’ he says, ‘i saw it on the shelf this morning.’

sure enough, he walks in and pulls exactly what he wants out.

IMG_5709tempgreat stuff from knitcircus.  bulky and lots of blues all in one skein.

if the mix of shades didn’t hook me (which they did),

the color name would have.

how can you go wrong with a name like ‘blue skies ahead’?

who wouldn’t want to knit with it.

‘skies’ taken from 26:7 of job.

playing catch up

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2011

has been a year

of merrily knitting along

at a consistently rapid pace.

and somehow my secretarial skills

(really my organizational skills)

lagged sadly

behind.

so in honor of 2012 being just around the corner,

i’m attempting to get caught up.

today i added:

6 nearly new,

1 newly translated

(‘stature’ into russian),

1 link (‘cobblestone vest’

now available for individual sale)

and 1 absolutely new pattern

(see pic at right).

you can check them all out here.

whew! and

now back to knitting.

yee-ha!

‘rapid’ taken from 5:8 in ezra.

the tipster

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thanks to amy detjen‘s post here,

double knitting just got that much easier.

my duplicity cowl is meant to be a starter project.

if you can knit in the round, then double knitting

is the only new skill required.

and here are a couple

of other double knit projects

that i’d like to try my hands at:

amy christoffer‘s ‘feather in your cap’

(knit here by indigotweed)

and kalinumba‘s

yasmin fingerless mittens.

these look, to me,

like magnified henna tatoos

must be really warm, too

as they’re 2 layers thick.

what double knit pattern

do you really want to cast on?

‘feather’ taken from 39:13 in the book of job.

the opposite of being undecided

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today knitcircus released their winter 2011 issue.

sold as part of that collection is my ‘duplicity’.

inspired by the stark branches of winter as

they set against the cool midday sky,

i wanted it to be a clutch

but it balked

and became a reversible buttoned cowl instead.

it’s double knit so that there are no strands to be carried across

the long stretches of color.

this also allows the mc and cc

 to swap places on opposite sides.

i was thrilled for the opportunity

to try classic elite yarn’s

eco-friendly yarn

‘woodland’.

it’s softness

was a surprise

since it’s partly made

of nettles, but soft and fairly silky it is.

the wool takes dye differently

than the nettle fibers do,

so the yarn has a way of looking solid & heathery at the very same time

…already my mind is racing to work out the details

of the next project i will knit in this fiber

whose nettles belie it’s smoothness.

now, there’s some duplicity for you.

‘duplicity’ taken from 11:3 in proverbs.

and the prize goes to…

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…lindsey!  yeah! enjoy your 13 new patterns from the knitcircus’ “gifts 2011” issue.

lindsey‘s correct guess was a bag.

i am always in search of just the perfect bag.

this one doesn’t have pockets,

which can be a deal breaker for me

but, it’s very strong, roomy & comfortable on your shoulder.

it’s two layers knit in the round, one at a time,

and then sewn together at the top edges.

the colorwork is intarsia, the end result is purely functional fun.

‘search’ taken from 39:79 in job. photo courtesy of knitcircus.

pretty things

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i have a pair

of red velvet gloves.

you would think that they

might be from my life before wee ones

(kids & red velvet don’t get along),

but they were a gift that i

specifically asked for

just this past Christmas.

because i really

like pretty things.

i have a 5 yr old and a 4 yr old

both often covered in goo-

mud to bubble soap to peanut butter and jelly sandwich crumbs,

a teething one yr old (think drool in lots of crazy places),

and a sweet 11 yr old who inherited my general clumsiness.

so ‘the good stuff’ at  my house is up high or secured inside the china cupboard…

but equally as well,

i like plain old rocks.

i like beach rocks and

broken sidewalk rocks

and even gravel when it glitters in the sunlight.

if i go someplace special, i tend to bring home a rock.

not sure why

but they feel real to me-

solid, strong and substantial.

i even have a few special ones with

crystalline growths in them from a small

island in maine and from my bass player’s wedding.

now tomorow, knitcircus will release their summer issue.

my contribution

is a pattern that marries

these two pieces of my life

(the fragile but pretty things and

the sturdy things that carry their own weight) seamlessly together

and really

what knitter

doesn’t love nearly

anything without seams?

*

*

‘fragile’ taken from 8:14 of job.

wanna win this time?

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i’m not sure i knew before this that you can subscribe to knitcircus.

you sign up and then the full collections are sent when the issues are released.

how cool is that?

don’t cha just love it?

and jaala has generously allowed me

a full subscription

(starting with the recently released winter issue)

to giveaway w/2 extra copies for runner’s up.

can i hear a woo-hoo?

here’s how we’ll play:

just leave your comment

saying, “my favorite knit circus pattern is _______”.

i’ll choose 1 grand prize winner and 2 runner’s up on monday, november 22nd.

you’ll have the new patterns just in time for thanksgiving day knitting.

and knitting counts

as post-turkey

exercise,

right?

ok, that’s it for me today.

you have until midnight (est)

on sunday, november twenty-first.

feel free to commence with commenting…

‘time’ taken from 29:7 in genesis.