Dyed in the Wool Handmade

I can finally show you that I indeed have been knitting throughout September! This is the Laminaria shawl from Knitty. I’ve kept it a secret all this time because it was a surprise for my sister. I gave it to her yesterday, and she loved it.

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My foray into amigurumi. I got the pattern here. I used Patons Decor and I left out the feet because I didn’t like them. And I couldn’t find doll’s eyes, so I had to employ my rudimentary mad embroidery skillz. I kept it hush hush until I was finished because they were for Nicci’s birthday.

I gave them to her at the drive-in on the weekend, where we saw Indiana Jones and the Sparkly Skull, and Iron Man. Indy was great – true to form – and and as my friends know, I have a slightly inappropriate old-lady crush on Shia LeBeouf so I loved it. But Iron Man was unbelievable. I am ready to watch it again, and might even have to get a Blu-Ray player specifically for this movie.

This shawl has been completed for a long time, I just needed to weave in a couple of ends and block the thing. So I finally did. I didn’t actually block it on my blocking board, it was way too big, and if I had pinned it to the floor the cats would have parked themselves all over it, so what I did was hang it over a clothesrail along its vertical center, and it blocked itself by its own weight. I might block it again sometime to gain more length along the spine. The shawl contains five skeins of Manos del Uruguay; two brown and three variegated. Here’s the pattern. It’s been keeping my shoulders warm these past few FREEZING May days. It’s damp and grey and cold out there.

Also, here are a few photos from Alex’s birthday.

These are Anne Hanson’s Snow on Cedars mitts. They’re the only gift I knitted for Christmas this year, for my sister. The yarn is my Seasocks yarn (70/30 merino/seacell). I dyed it specifically for the mitts, which I wanted to go nicely with Natalie’s brown coat and have a silvery, wintry quality to them.

The pattern is amazingly well-written and the mitts are lovely. They fit my sister perfectly, but they are way, WAY too small for me (we’ve already discussed my delicate manhands – see the comments) and as I said in the manhands post, I think I can make a pair that fits using a DK weight yarn. My hands are 8″ around my knuckles and 10.5″ around the base of my hand, where it swells above the wrist and my thumb begins. I am also pretty tall with long arms, so please don’t worry about me walking around with giant hands…I promise I’m not scary.

This weekend, me and my giant hands will be walking drunkenly around Debbie’s living room in New Jersey. Apparently they can’t have a party without me over there, so I’m obliging. We’re driving down very early on Friday and spending the evening with her family, then Saturday is the party and Sunday is marathon Rock of Love II that Debbie has been Tivo-ing for me because the only way to nurse a hangover is by eating a pork roll sandwich while watching women craze themselves over Brett Michaels. We’ll be back on Monday night.

This means that anything ordered from the shop before noon today will get shipped today, and anything ordered afterward will be shipped on Tuesday morning, Jan. 29.

Have a great weekend, everyone!