This is what I get for procrastinating on the blog

Hi, yeah, sorry about that. I've been doing lots of things, and managing to document most of them on Ravelry, anyway.

I'm on a secret test-knit right now, so I can't tell you anything about it except that I'm using this Tosh Merino Light I bought at the grand opening of Penelope Craft's new premises (EPIC cupcakes were had, you really shouldn't have missed it). The colorway is called Mineral, it was the last of its kind in the shop, and it just happened to be a perfect match for some beads I've had since... oo, probably 2005 or so. You see, if you just hold on to things for long enough, eventually they'll tell you what their purpose is.

I've also made it to the sleeves on Aliénor II, but apparently the last picture I took (that wasn't a super close-up detail of a gusset or dart) was this one. Maybe I should do something about that...

I finally managed to struggle through the Knotty gloves. I love the pattern, they fit perfectly and are beautiful, but dang that's a lot of fingers. I hate knitting tiny tubes almost as much as I hate tucking in ends. And I still have about a squillion ends to tuck, so I'm not listing the project as finished yet.

No progress on Namarië. Because I am the worst friend ever.

And finally, there was another test-knit, which is done so I can write about it. Adri from http://adriprints.blogspot.com designed this neato lace cowl and loop and I tested the cowl but loved the fabric so much that I frogged it and bought another skein so I could make the loop. That's it on the left - the Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend is a joy to work with, and I'd been wanting an excuse to buy the Wildflowers colorway since Harlequin first opened. So I worked on it until it was really wide enough, and I still had some yarn left over.

These make me ridiculously happy.

And yes I have to republish Aliénor (I've told too many people I'm doing it now) and I'm also working on a new pattern plus the aforementioned super secret test knit, but there was that extra yarn, so I picked up some needles and started noodling around and came up with matching mitts.

I'll fill you in on the new pattern soon, but first I have to take some pictures. I've just checked the folder and all I have is a couple of sketches and a scan of the swatch. How did I forget to take pictures of this? Duh.

Stripety Mitts

So here's what I made with that yarn I picked up at the Handwerkbeurs from Zeven Katten. I'm still trying to decide whether and how to publish the pattern. Probably should be free, since it's so simple. Do I need to find test-knitters for a free simple pattern? Meh, probably. This business of needing other people can be problematic.

and this also happened

 ... like, aaaaaages ago, before the bag from Petra even, Arja made me a yarn bowl in her pottery class. I think this is the first thing I've ever commissioned; she showed me some bowls and I said "One like this please," and I chose the colors, inside and out. And I paid her in yarn, but still! Real (functional) art! And I love it, even with a center-pull ball which should render such things unnecessary, this bowl is still the shizzle. The photos don't really do it justice. I'll try to add more, but dang, it took me weeks just to get these taken and uploaded. Probably because I was too busy oohing and aahing over my fab new awesome YARN BOWL, Y'ALL!

'Twas een mooie dag!

So I went to the Handwerkbeurs in Zwolle with my friend Patricia today! And it was fun, and all y'all who didn't come with us? You totally missed out.

For not intending to buy anything, I think I did fairly well - I really did need the beading wire, and here was a chance to look at it in person instead of buying from the internet. But then I got to the Zeven Katten stand, which was imperative, since we had to say hi to Arja (who wasn't there), and well. It's a single-ply! In semi-solid colors! With long repeats! Talk about your triple whammy. 

In order to justify the purchase I came up with a plan for the yarn right there on the spot, and I still like my plan, hours later. I will even publish the pattern, just to make it extra-justified. Because the world totally needs another wristwarmer pattern. Yes it does.

Look what Petra made me !♥!

Totally unsolicited! I have the awesome friends. The outside fabric? Is from Senegal. SENEGAL. Okay, I have a new mission and that is to buy fabric in every country I visit. You read it here first.

Outside

Inside

Finished the hats!

... and here's one of them! Mr. Husband's hat is also done, but I can't get him to hold still for a photo. His hat does have the button holes, just in case he decides later to go with the beard option, but so far he's pretty adamantly against it. Let's hope Mr. Secondborn is more open-minded.

Insert Title Here

 Right, so if I didn't have time to blog, it must be because I was KNITTING, right!? Yeah, sort of. Here is the final photo of Space Princess. I love how it turned out. And an old high school acquaintance (I wouldn't say we were friends in high school, because I wasn't really anybody's friend. I was kind of a bitch back then, and it's really nice of a lot of PTHS alumni to forgive me for that, I must say) has a nearly-two-year-old daughter who is hilarious and adorable. And while I was working on the dress it frequently mentioned that it would like to go live with Eleanor, so I wrote to her mom and asked if that'd be okay and she was all, OMG YES! Because she's a handknitter too, and therefore Gets It. It took me several weeks to get it mailed off, but it's finally out of my house and en route to my old home town - my old home street, even - to a very good home. This makes me happy.

You may also recall that the acquisition of a skein of Wollmeise DK weight made me happy as well, and I wondered aloud if I'd actually make the Flinders vest I was intending for it. Lo, less than a month later, here it is, and I am just so pleased with it. I was worried about running out of yarn, so I could have made it a bit wider, maybe - in the event, it was well long enough. The pattern, I'd give it an A and a B-. That is, the garment is fa-habulous and I love it a lot. The instructions are a bit ambiguous in places and I had to make a few guesses, but hey it was free, so one can't complain too much. This was also my first finished garment with bust darts, so there's another skill to add to my list, that's never a bad thing.

And then! Well, the inimitable, the amazing, the fantastic The Fat Squirrel did a particularly hilarious podcast featuring Faye Kennington's Lumberjack Hat, and I may have watched it a couple-three times because it was so fun. Not long after that, the Sniglet, away at boarding school, mentioned that it had started snowing in Bavaria, and I said "oh, yayfun?" and he said not really, his face got cold. And I said, almost with a straight face, "I think I may have a solution for that..."

Even better, Mr Husband grew a beard for Movember, spent a month clawing at his face and complaining about the itch, and finally shaved it off at the beginning of December, to my clearly stated disappointment. A week or so later, he asked me to make him a hat! He didn't actually ask for a hat with a beard, but it was clearly implied. So! Matching father-son beardy hats! There's no way that could go wrong, but I will make the beards detachable, just in case.

And finally, a pair of gloves, because I'm using the Sniglet's fingerless gloves and it's getting really cold on the bike. The pattern is Knotty, a free pattern by Julia Müller aka Laris (LOVE her work, LOVE. IT), and the yarn is a black/purple/turquoise Versuchskaninchen (a colorway she tested and ultimately decided not to keep, I'm pretty sure) from Wollmeise which I have dubbed Nachtfee/Nightfairy because I have a lot of Versuchskaninchen yarns, and I need some way to differentiate them.

No word from Interweave on my proposal yet. To be fair, I did kind of ignore their mood-board, so they may be wondering how to fit this into the issue - but it is a holiday gifts issue, and it was a very holiday-ish proposal. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, I'm putting another proposal together, this one for Twist Collective. Well, technically, at the moment I'm thinking of ways to distract myself from the proposal I should be putting together. I should probably get to work on that...