LGS Q1 2007 Catch Up Post

Ketch-up? Cat-sup? Excuse me, sir, but where can I find the "Burns-O's?".

If you CATCH that reference, you're ahead of the game.
Any hoo.....just a little "Catch-up" for those of you not living in our actual house.
You know it's a house with books for a foundation and insulated by various types of yarns and other fibers....

...as proven here. This is one "used to be a flat surface" which now houses Mr. Luscious Gracious' Birthday Booty. As you may or may not remember, he had "35 days of turning 35" all the way back in January, and most of his gifts were knitting related. Do we spy Colinette's new sock weight yarn? Some of that gorgeous Spritely Goods hand-dyed AND hand-spun? What about gobs and gobs of great, wooly, feltable animal fibers ready to become his latest masterpiece? You would think that we could stop buying yarn now, because maybe we already own it all. But you would be wrong, and obviously not a knitter.

Here is the Handsome Devil himself wearing his birthday sweater vest from me (it also served as an anniversary present, if I remember correctly, which I probably don't. Geez, it was MONTHS ago already...). The yarn is Malabrigo "Pearl 10" which is a lovely almost-black shade of purply-grey.

My own pattern, mostly stockinette with a few purl-on-the-knit-side stitches to alleviate the boredom of miles of circular knitting. I even managed to keep it a surprise, knitting as he snored beside me. Ahhh, how romantical.

Here's a little close-up of those randomly placed purl bumps. And, check out the V-neck, which serves to make him look taller. I heard that somewhere....

I wasn't the only one knitting this winter/spring.....and what is this? Ms. Lily models the hat that Stephen made for his father. It's the Mohawk Hat from the Domiknitrix book. The grey yarn is Stephanie/Spritely Goods' silk-merino mix (heaven), and the green single ply thick yarn is our old standby Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky.

Steve's dad (Grandpa Kellie) is a principal at an Indiana middle school that just happens to sport a Trojan mascot, and school colors of green and silver. Basketball is very important in Indiana, and Grandpa isn't afraid to show his spirit, even if it means a crazy hat. Handy for covering baldness, though!

Here's one for Football Season! We actually turned on our television for the first time since moving to AZ (3 years) just to see the grand SuperBowl. You know, Colts win, Prince at halftime, Lily knitting a blue hat and cell phone cozy (delivered before we took a photo) for Grandpa....A good time was had by all, and I get to watch Saturday Night Live again now that Steve lets me have television once a week. I feel like I won on that trade.

Steve also made this scarf for his dad out of the same silk-merino SG's yarn. It's been cold back home this year! I whipped up this beret back sometime this winter....it's the simple pattern from the winter Interweave, and I'm too lazy to look up more info. This one is a purple cotton tape, but I liked the pattern so much that I made one out of the new Cascade "Dulce" yarn for cooler days. It's wooly and orange, but I can't find a photo. You can see both on display at Tempe Yarn and Fiber right now. It's been too hot for hats, cotton or wool, here for months, so I just left them at the store.

The first day that it turned 90 degrees (late February), I threw aside my cashmere project in sweaty disgust and brought out the cotton yarns to whip up a tank top. Illanna brought back the hand-dyed olive tape from a New York trip, and I edged it with Cascade "Fixation" in a simple lace pattern.

Here's a little close-up. Big needles, fast knitting.

I made this felted glove for E2K's b-day last month. Just because I love her a felted potholder's worth. This one is too small to wear, but just right to keep on her keychain for when she's at The Office.

And Steve conjured this felted bag for her. It's just the size of a box of Grape-Nuts!!!! It's a Barbara Walker mosaic design done in the round as one of his fabulous purses. He used one solid (grey) and one of the new variegated (multi-colored!) version of Galway wool.

Lily and E2K weren't the only birthday girls in March!

Dear Letoya FINALLY received the socks I made for her out of Tofutsie yarn. This may not be spelled correctly, but I can't find the label. Hell, it took me three and a half months to find the actual socks after I had knit them! All I know is that this is another bad photo, and that the yarn has some shrimp shell fiber in it. Oh, and that these may be the ONLY pair of socks I ever knit using the reverse-heel flap method on toe-up socks. Unless, of course, Lily's feet don't stop growing. The actual color of the sock is a nice black and white with really subtle amounts of lavendar thrown in that make them "just too girly" for Steve. That says a lot.
Speaking of Steve, and Letoya, he made her this gorgeous bag for her special day. Another felted masterpiece out of Berroco's "Ultra Alpaca" (he says, "It's soft, but it's no Spritely Goods...but it does the job").

Again, Steve turned to his real girlfriend, Barbara Walker, for her Horizontal Parallelogram Check pattern in the first of her Treasuries. In this instance, he converted the pattern to the round and used colorwork instead of stitch texture. This photo is great, but it's a little hard to see the pattern here because of that Alpaca Halo. Just track Letoya down for a better view.

He used the very same pattern here to much different effect. He even used the same number of stitches, but by varying the needle size and the yarn (here Spritely Goods sock weight in a Globe Mallow colorway) this time he came up with a little hat. A wee, perfect baby hat for a long-distance co-worker who just had her first child (Congrats!)

Instead of colorwork, here he followed the patterns' original instructions for knitting and purling for texture. It's a simple stitch combination that makes an awesome ribbing. I think we'll be using this one again, folks.

Baby hats are such fun. I made our sweet Becca's boy one out of Fixation. We were so lucky that she drove to join us on our Indiana Spring Break holiday......we got to meet Ezra!!!

I am in love!!!! And Becca, we will eventually send you some photos from our perfect day in the park. But you see, we are soooooo slow. In every single way. It doesn't mean we don't love you.

That goes for all of you loyal readers. Even Sister Mel, who just saw us in person. Geeesh.

Smell ya later,

Kiki

Coming soon,

Dragons, sweaters, and dragon sweaters.