Friday, February 19, 2010

Knitting Excitement!

Of course, not for what I'm knitting right now, today, which is a baby blanket that isn't really tripping my trigger. Miles and miles§ of superwash garter stitch... great for the Olympics, not so tantalising for my cashmere-cloaked, circus-knitting soul.

And I have marvelous yarn from Carol Jean - 50/50 wool/alpaca, light green subtly dappled with grey-blue. And a wonderful natural Araucania wool alpaca grey twist. But I don't know what to make with either, so I fondle them nightly and continue kniting miles of garter stitch.

I finished the infamous# Later Gator Sweater,†† but, y'know... camera... upload... we'll get there.

I also knitted lumps of coal for the Family Christmas Party, but I took no pictures, so I don't even have the "too lazy to upload" excuse.

[SUMMARY: Why bother talking about knitting?]

Despite all this waffling, there is some upcoming knitting about which I'm very excited.

Excited to the point of frantic.‡‡

I will be knitting - *whisper* - for myself.

[SUMMARY: That's why.§§]

Sweater.

Then possibly sweaters.

[SUMMARY: I'm not committing to any long-term contract here.]

I plan to knit this sweater%:


Basic Black Cardigan by Glenna C.

Using these needles¶¶:


Kollage Square Circular

In at *least* the green## of this yarn:


Colourmart 2/6NM dk wt 5/95 cashmere/merino bulky wool in pistacho,††† fuscia and azul mel

Finishing with these buttons@ on the respective colours‡‡‡.


from As Cute as a Button

[SUMMARY: A plan! I have a *plan*!]

The yarn should arrive any day. Until then, I sit at my post box§§§...

*open open open*


FOOTNOTE (crossed): "Of course," because the alpaca is always fluffier on the other side of the fence.

FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Though I have dubbed it the Gay Pride Baby Blanket, so at least it has that going for it.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): And even less thrilled now that I've left my state of denial and realised what I've knit so far is the right width for a bookmark and, at this rate, the blanket will be 16" x 12".

FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Yes, we are on a first-name basis. When she's not looking.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Possibly only among the immediate family. Mostly with Dr. Doom, who has been dying for the sweater since he didn't get it on Christmas.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): So named because it was a very, very late Christmas present. And because it is in the shape of an alligator.

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Because it has to come through my post office.

§§FOOTNOTE (here's where I turn on you): So there.

%FOOTNOTE (percented): My decision to knit this sweater has NOTHING to do with the fact that Glenna and I have roughly the same hair.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (let me beat this into you): OMG OMG OMG! I *love* these needles! They're comfy and pretty and the cable is OMG soft as chiffon and it doesn't kink or coil and they warm in your hands like wood and they're just a little grippy without being sticky and OMG did I mention copper and size printed right on the needle and OMG!

##FOOTNOTE (#Cassandra #Juno): A hard-won green, found at last by Cassandra who, while she didn't push me to buy three colours of yarn, did point me to the blue and thoroughly enjoyed shopping with my money.

†††FOOTNOTE (knitting cross - coming soon to an Olympic competition near you): [sic] Apparently, that's how you say "pistachio" and "fuschia" in Spanish.

@FOOTNOTE (atted): It won't surprise you to know I did a search for skull buttons in specific. I looked at every single button on the ACAAB website and kept stopping at this cord lock because it looks so much like a friendly, Hello Kitty-esque skull:




‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (sew buttons): OK, maybe I'll switch the skulls and the pink glass. It's better to be wishy-washy in the footnotes and sound like you know what you're talking about in the blogpost proper. You might also notice I switched from "at least this one colour" to "I have buttons for all the colours." I'm sneaky that way.

§§§FOOTNOTE (boo*hisss*): Which mocks me with its tardy, black, yarnless emptiness.

9 comments:

~Donna~ said...

I absolutely LOVE my square circular needles. They're like butta!

Marin (AntiM) said...

I *know*! I can't believe I lived this long without them! And I feel, somehow, that they will help me live longer and be healthier.

Marin (AntiM) said...

Knitter's Review apparently reviewed the square needles ages ago. Apparently, I dismissed them. Or forgot. But then Addi changed their cables (hate them) and I asked at my LYS if I could get the nice red cords again and they pointed me to the square needles.

Did I mention I love the square needles?

Of *course* you can ask. I'll even answer.

Years ago, someone told me it's smart when shopping to buy more than one of something, in different colours, if you really like it and it fits you. See, if you love something and six months into your love affair it starts to fray at the hem, chances are good it will no longer be available.

When it comes to basics, I still tend to go that direction.

So now that I'm planning on knitting a basic sweater, if I like it a lot, I'd like to have more than one. Still, I reserve the right to turn the other colours into different sweaters if I don't want to knit more than one.

This falls under the category of "knowing way more about Marin than you ever needed to know."

Yvette said...

Hey! I know Glenna. She is a knitting friend. How cool to see her on your blog. Ain't the interweb grand?
Also, I LOVE that middle button.

Marin (AntiM) said...

Very cool! Glenna was very nice when I asked her for permission to post her picture on my blog. You are officially my brush with greatness for the day, Yvette.

I love that middle button too. I kinda want to put it on all the sweaters.

Teresa C said...

Did you get your square circular needles locally?
I live in Ft Collins, and traveling to Shuutles on Saturday, and wondered if anyone in the surrounding area carried the circulars. My Sister Knits in Ft Collins has the DPNs but not the circulars.

Marin (AntiM) said...

I did! Showers of Flowers on West Colfax has them. If you make it all the way to Denver, you can find a good selection there.

Anonymous said...

That's a terrific sweater! I wonder how it would look in sparkly, sequined silk yarn . . . ;)

Marin (AntiM) said...

A charmingly basic sweater. Terrific would be if it were made out of sparkly, sequined silk yarn.

Which, by the way, I'm still knitting on occasionally. I feel I'm not doing it justice. There just has to be a stitch pattern SOMEWHERE that will be perfect.

Hmmm... maybe a grey cardi with a sparkly silk collar...?