Sometimes Gluing Helps

This past month has been a bit moody for me. Some days I'm great and happy and then the next day I'm sad. Last week I was having a particularly down day and I decided to make something to cheer myself up a bit. In the corner of my eye I saw our stainless water bottles sitting naked on the counter and thought that cozies would be great. I gathered up some batting (the kind for hot pads and lunch sacks), a pair of Eric's old jeans, some glue, needle and thread, and assorted decorations. A couple of hours later I had these:

Kerry's isn't in the picture because he was personalizing his with a Pokemon battle scene. I kind of made it up as I went - cut, sew, glue, cut some more, and so on. I was in a better mood when I got done, too - and I had a great cozy for my beverage while I'm in the pool. It works really well, too. I'm thinking of adding glitter.

I'm really eager to start the Tour de Fleece. I've been swatching yesterday and today - good thing I did, too. I need to go up a couple of needle sizes. Reading the Verena pattern is alot easier than I thought it would be. It looked intimidating but I figured it out in no time. I've heard that Drops patterns are hard to read, so I guess I'll have to try one of theirs, too.

Until next time, my friends!

In Honor of Grandmas

I fell in love with the vintage sweater patterns in the spring issue of Verena. They're glamorous and stylish and cool. As I browsed through the pictures again I realized that two of the sweaters reminded me of my grandmas, so I'm going to knit them the colors that were their favorites and wear them with style. This cardigan is called Stanwick. It's shape and style remind me of my Grandma Bette. I have the perfect yarn for it in my stash - Knit Pick's CotLin in Moroccan Red - a rich winey red that will be gorgeous with the stitch pattern. Grandma Bette loved red. She had pale skin and silvery white hair and red looked so nice on her. I can see her in this sweater with white slacks and a polka-dot blouse under it. I'll be wearing jeans and a tee, most likely, but she'll be with me in my mind.
This one is called Rodgers. To me it's the kind of casual dressy that Grandma D would wear to church or bingo. I'm on the lookout for the perfect yarn for it. It must be blue - something in the sapphire to midnight range, maybe with a shine. It will be great for days when I'm called to work with a skirt and plain shirt under it.

I've started listening to The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I chose it because it's read by Brenda Dayne of Cast On. I love her voice. The podcast is good but I have to fast-forward through the songs. I really like the story so far. The book is in my library but hasn't been opened - when I'm in the mood to read I tend to go toward young adult fantasy-type books like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson - things that are easy to read and take me to a different world. I'm glad that librivox exists so that I can get to enjoy the classics while knitting.

Dress Quest

There's a new book out called Sweater Quest that several podcasters have talked about. It's written by a women who documents her year long knitting of an intricate colorwork sweater. I don't have a knitting quest like that. For years now I have been desiring a vintage '70's Diane von Furstenburg wrap dress. I must have seen it as a child because I really don't remember a time when I didn't want one. The problem is that they go for a ton of money when they're for sale. She began selling new ones a few years ago but I haven't had much luck with those, either. In fact, even the patterns are hot and hard to get. They're great dresses. I suppose that I should be stashing appropriate fabrics - just in case the stars align and I manage to become the sqeeing, jumping-up-and-down owner of a pattern. If I ever manage to get a dress, well, I'd probably pass out.
Last year I considered the idea of joining the Tour de Fleece. It starts up again in July and the Knitmores are doing training in the new podcasts - but the idea of even touching fiber in gross, muggy July is icky. Gigi, however, has started a Tour for handcyclists - knitting. I found a great pattern in the summer issue of Verena - it's a little top called Amaryllis. After diving deep in the stash I found enough sport weight to make it, but there's a small problem. The top says "hot, seductive, able to make men wilt with a glance"while the yarn is "I'm a good girl" shade of pale lavender. I did a bit of browsing on the Webs site and found a few yarns that would work. If any of you have used one or more of these yarns please let me know what you thought of them - Tahki Cotton Classic Lite, Kollage Corntastic, Rowan Lenpur Linen, Dale of Norway Svale, or Berroco Comfort DK. Don't get me wrong, the lavender cotton will be nice but it will change the effect of the top completely.
If I get the top done before the Tour is done I plan to start working on Spring Fling from Knitty. It didn't appeal to me until I saw some finished ones on ravelry. I have some Cotton Fleece for that - enough to make it a bit longer. It looks like a pretty simple knit - if I concentrate on it alone it will probably only take a few days to make.
There's another pattern that didn't appeal to me when it came out but now it's calling to me. Citron on Knitty didn't even get a second glance - but ravelry has so many pretty ones that I just must make one. I recently experimented with dyeing up some self-striping yarn and I think it will work great. It's going to have to wait for a bit, though. Right now I'm knitting a kidney kozy - the first of what I hope will be many to send to Holly.