Bouquet of Flowers

Alpaca with a Twist asked if I would be interested in doing some additional knitting for them.  They sent me twelve colors of Baby Twist and asked me to make flowers out of them.

Hoya's Falwers knit in Baby Twist

There was a little army of flowers by the time I was done.

I put them in the mail this morning, and now my attention is back to the socks.

REALLY Finished

This weekend, I went in search of satin cord to really finish the Namaste yoga mat bag.  I was successful in an old-school JoAnn Fabrics store.

While I was there, the cashier, who had "unicorn princess" above her name, started a conversation about my tattoo.  After saying a couple very nice things about it, she said, "It looks like it came from a coloring book!"  I am convinced that this is a compliment coming from a unicorn princess, so I am pleased she liked it.

Namaste pattern knit in Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria in colorway 219

I tried a couple different ways of securing the cord, and I'm interested to see how it wears.  I bought enough cord that I could weave it through the top and bottom and just knot it on the inside.  I plan to go to yoga class tomorrow, so it will get its first use!

Completed Glynis Socks and Namaste Progress

Elsewhere, I have talked about my love for Indigodragonfly yarn.  I have a desire to hoard the yarn in skein instead of knitting with it.  Fortunately, Kim started a KAL (knitalong) in which the only rule was that you used her yarn.  That gave me the push I needed to actually...well, use her yarn.

Glynis pattern knit in Indigodragonfly MCN: The Sock-quel, My Name Is Indigo Montoya colorway

In other knitting, I finished a pair of socks for a Christmas gift for my sister.  Click here if you're a ravelry member and your name is not Brenda.

Now I'm working on a yoga mat bag from Knitty called Namaste.  I found something to make with the cotton yarn that has confounded me ever since I bought it.

Namaste pattern knit in Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria


A friend asked me if I wanted to take a yoga class with her this summer, and we've been going for several weeks.  I'm really enjoying it, although I have to remember not to look at other, freakishly flexible people in our class.  I know that the important thing is that I feel the stretch, not how far I'm able to move a body part.  This is difficult to remember considering my hamstrings are more rubber cement than rubber band.

Onward and upward.

Knitting for Alpaca with a Twist

Alpaca with a Twist sent out a request for volunteers to knit some samples with their Baby Twist yarn.  I volunteered, and they asked me to knit four sample "squares" (read: rectangles) that they would then sew together and hang at TNNA.

Baby Twist yarn, image from Alpaca with a Twist's site

When I received my box and excitedly torn it open, I saw that I was to knit two Zebra Eyes and two Leopard Eyes colorwork samples.  The knitting world pays attention to fashion trends, and I had read that animal prints are very on trend.  I had not anticipated that fact ever, ever, ever to touch my life, but the universe has a sense of humor.  I actively hate animal print. 

Nevertheless, I was excited to get started.  The fact that it was animal print was a tiny setback, but this whole process was going to be fantastic!

The yarn, oh, the yarn.  It's delightful.  It's fuzzy--not mohair fuzzy, but fuzzier than wool, and so soft.  It was a pleasure to knit with that yarn.

I cast on and nearly immediately came upon a problem.

I've done colorwork.  It requires you, if you hope to do it with any sort of speed whatsoever, to hold one color in one hand and a second color in your other hand.  I have knit enough mittens and fingerless gloves that I can knit fairly well this way.  It's awkward, but I can do it.

Do you know what mittens and fingerless gloves have in common?  They're round.  When you knit round things, you are always looking at the front side, and you're nearly always doing the knit stitch.*

I'd never had to work across the back of a colorwork project, and I had no idea how to hold the yarn in my left hand.

It took watching some Internet videos over and over and over again, but I sort of figured out how to do "combination knitting," made famous by Annie Modesitt and, somewhat awkwardly, continued. 

I also realized just how many ends there are in these patterns.  A lot of ends, people.  A lot of ends.

There was one point in the leopard pattern when there are four colors used in a single row.  There's no good way to do this that I know of, so there was repeated detangling of the yarn balls. 

I was really worried about these guys before I blocked them.  They were extremely curly, and although I had tried to be very aware of not pulling the yarn too tightly, I was afraid that I had.

I blocked the heck out of them, and they turned out all right!  I used an absurd number of pins.  I didn't want those guys going anywhere.

Here's one of the zebra squares pinned with a gazillion pins.

Here's the finished product!  They're on their way back to Alpaca with a Twist, and I hope they're pleased with them.  I am, and I'm extremely excited to be finishing up a pair of socks with only one color!

*Yes, I know that's not necessarily true.  If you're a knitter, you know what I mean. 

Origami Garter Stitch

Those garter stitch squares did actually fit together into something in addition to being a good thing to knit while stressed.  Here is what they looked like after five of them were stitched together:

Then I soaked them and blocked the heck out of them.  It took three people to figure out how the things were supposed to fold, but we did eventually get it.  (Thanks, Lynn and Andrew.)

Once I figured out a fold, I pinned it to within an inch of its life.  There are approximately four thousand layers of fabric in that little box after it's all folded and pinned, so it took a long time to dry.

I think because I was using high-quality sock yarn which is thicker and rounder than cheaper yarn, I had a harder time keeping it in its place.  I have lots more cheap yarn than I do nice yarn, so I could certainly try this again with thinner yarn.  I am not, however, convinced I can find uses for these to justify all that time seaming the squares together and folding, grunting, and pinning during blocking.

I like the concept of these.  I enjoyed knitting something that was, in essence, five squares and getting them to magically stay closed in a pinwheel shape.  I am constantly impressed by people who are able to see the possibilities in their head and then create a pattern to match that idea.  I'm glad there is room for people who wish to be creative and create new patterns and people like me who like to knit things that someone else has already had the bugs worked out.

Pinwheel Purse (ravelry link) by Frankie Brown, 

knit in Socks that Rock Mediumweight in Wild Irish Girlie (green variegated) 

and Socks that Rock Lightweight in Happy Go Lucky (pink)

Garter Stitch

People handle stress in all sorts of ways.

They go out drinking.

They exercise.

They complain.

They shop.

I'd like to recommend another option to add to the stress-relief arsenal: garter stitch.

There's something soothing about performing the same motions over and over and seeing tidy, uniform stitches as a result.*

The two small squares you see above wll be joined by three more and then theoretically be sewn and blocked into a small coin purse.  The ravelry link to the Pinwheel Purse is here.

I don't know if it's ultimately going to work, but I don't really care.  It's the monotonous, relaxing knitting that I need at this particular moment, and it's allowing me to have the illusion of control.  I may not have control over much, but I do have control over these small squares made out of scrap yarn.

That's good enough for now.

*One of these squares has a purl row in the center.  It's the only break in the garter stitch for this pattern.

Where Shall We Go?

The luggage tags are finished, and I love them.  I am giving away four and keeping one for myself.

Luggage finders knit in scrap sock yarn, mostly Blue Moon STR