Step Into My Thimble

Look what I got today! Thanks Monica and Lynette!

And this is no ordinary bunny, oh no. It is a Vosges BunnyGianduja, which means it includes caramelized hazelnuts and almonds, in milk chocolate. The shape of this little guy is that of an Italian Hare, long ears and strong back legs for high jumping. Right into my mouth!! Yum.

I saw the above mentioned M. and L. for a little lunch-time knitting today. Here’s what I’ve been dragging around lately:

It’s the Old Shale/Feather and Fan scarf out of Koigu. This is the 5th do-over, and I finally feel like I’m in the mode. I think I might even be sad when the yarn runs out and it’s all done! Koigu is wonderful. Lest you think this little picture is all you’re going to get, here is one closeup without flash:

and another with:

On my monitor, the real color is somewhere between these two.

Odds and ends are on the agenda for this post.

1. Mariko sent me the cutest silver thimble charm! Because I’m the thimble girl. I made it into a necklace, all the while wondering if I should ask her to buy me a whole bunch of other ones to make stitch markers out of them. Right now I want to be the only one on earth that has this. But–would you buy a thimble stitch marker? Maybe I’ll get some more.

Here’s the necklace I made. Simple isn’t it? Nice KSH fuzz all over the background too. And the charm!

2. I have just made a pile of new stitch markers to sell or give away.

3. I’ve been working on my Kidsilk Haze shawl slowly. Now I have done one full pattern repeat so you can see both the left and right cables. I think as this gets longer it will look nicer. Warning: the popup is kind of a big picture.

Shawl

4. KIP is tonight! 2144 W. Division, 7-9 p.m., in an all-new remodeled Letizia’s!

It is “parasol stitch” from the Reader’s Digest stitch library. Not a great photo–I should have used a dark background!

Also, last night I had concluded that I wasn’t going to rip the Old Shale scarf, but today I remembered one of the good reasons I was considering it: on the edge where I carried the yarn (it’s two different ones) I was pulling the spare too tightly. That edge doesn’t nearly have the stretch the other side has. That alone is enough to do another do-over. I’m only about 18 rows in, so it’s not the end of the world.

Carolyn suggested knitting both yarns together on those edge stitches. I’ll try that because I think it will be a good way to ensure stretch without any weird looseness.

Yesterday I drank a bunch of wine with dinner and any evening knitting was out of the question!

Along with that wine, I made a soup recipe that Rodney found in Oak Park’s weekly newspaper. It’s called Shrimp, Corn and Sweet Potato Soup. I’ll put the details in the extra part below.

Also, I made the granola from Sandy’s Knitting. She’s right–it is really good. I did a double batch, one half with just pecans and coconut, and the other with pecans, coconut and raisins. It was warm and ready for breakfast this morning. I ate mine with orange juice on it since I hate milk, and it was super tasty. There is something about the combination of butter, maple syrup, and pecans (in the middle of all the other yummy ingredients).

And this morning I made a submission to CrochetMe. I don’t know if it will get accepted because it’s kind of goofy. We’ll see. I’m just glad there is something for crochet out there now besides the usual acrylic toilet-paper holders and whatnot.

Recipe below.
Read the rest of this entry »

Soooo…last night I made a few more attempts at the Old Shale/Koigu scarf. (Thanks to Monica for the pattern info by the way.) I started over two or three times, once to get my yarn-overs straightened out because I was definitely doing them wrong before. And the second time because I didn’t count YO’s and K2tog’s correctly. What can I say, Gourmand had its open mic night and the performances were, um, a little distracting. (My knitting reeks like smoke too.)

Here is the much-improved beginning of the scarf:

Now, I’m considering one more do-over on this project, because I like the variegated Koigu a bit more than the solid sage green. The green shows up much more because it’s in the garter row. It was too dark last night to notice this (we were seriously knitting by candle light) or I might have started over again then.

And today’s bonus picture: Stanley also tried to help me decide, but in the end he told me that the Koigu is better for wrestling than knitting.

Kitty and Koigu.

That stripe of sunlight looks weird on Stanley!