cosmicpluto knits!

a minor setback

Crap! I was up into the thumb gusset of my first glove (and at the end of the first ball of Baby Ull) when I discovered that the wrist is too big. I have puny wrists and hands, people.

So I just had to rip back 5 inches. Of fingering weight. In a glove which was over 17 inches long so far.

At least the good news is that I have to decrease more, and more quickly? Maybe it’ll go faster this time.

hibiscus revisited

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve deactivated the Hibiscus shawl pattern from my Ravelry store. I’ve done this so I can reknit the pattern to investigate some problems that people have been having.

I’m knitting it up in some nice merino sock yarn from Maple Creek Farm, a Rhinebeck vendor that has great yarn but I don’t think sells anywhere else! I’ve been working away at it and I’m almost done. I’m also taking this opportunity to add stitch counts throughout the pattern.

The pattern should be back up for sale very shortly. I’m also going to continue donating a portion of the sales from this pattern to Haiti relief through February. I haven’t calculated the total for the January fundraiser yet, but I know it’ll be an amazingly generous amount!

Thanks to you all for purchasing patterns and helping to donate. If you’ve had your eye on any of my patterns, you’ve still got one day to contribute a portion of the purchase price to MSF and the Red Cross.

Hope you’re keeping warm this weekend.

on focus

Thanks to everyone for your generosity – today I was able to donate $1000 to MSF! I have to wait a little bit for my credit card to clear up to donate more, but it’ll keep on coming. I’m planning to take a look at the end of the month and see what more I can send off.

The yarn above is three different balls that I wound the other night, for three different new projects. Somehow I’m feeling a bit lacking in the sweater department at the moment – I tossed (donated) a bunch of sweaters when I moved and I’m sort of feeling the wardrobe gap. What I really need is some neutral coloured sweaters, so I tossed the stash for awhile and came up with these.

Top one is Colinette Jitterbug for a lighter weight version of a side-to-side cardigan I knit awhile back (you know I don’t think I ever blogged the finished version, I’ll have to do that).

Bottom left is Handmaiden 4ply cashmere, less blue and more grey in real life. I only have 5 skeins which might be a bit tight for a sweater, but we’ll see. I might do a pullover instead of my standard cardigan.

Bottom right is some label-less, DK weight merino that I bought at Rhinebeck in 2008. It’s super light and fluffy, really like a handspun with a really wholesome, rustic tweedy look to it. I’ve already cast on for a simple cardigan! My goal is to knock out a couple of really basic sweaters for everyday wear, since that’s what I seem to be lacking.

Of course, it isn’t like I don’t have lots of other things to knit! One of my students asked me a few weeks ago how many projects I have on the go at once. Current answer is way too many, obviously. In my sweater-knitting mood I even dug up this brown Casbah sweater which has been sitting in a bin for over a year! The body and upper yoke are done and I just need to knit the buttonbands, and the sleeves down from a provisional cast on.

I know I can’t just go casting on for more sweaters since then I won’t be able to finish any for awhile, and that’s not useful at all. So I’m going to try and buckle down and get some WIPs off the needles.

Aaaaand…..GO!

random wednesday

Not much to talk about knitting-wise today – I’m still working away on my sister’s HP scarf, the lozenge socks (almost done) and some other bits and bobs. I’ve been doing quite a bit of math the last few days, so that I can write up my new red cabley cardigan (which still needs a name) and this older sweatercoat. And of course I have lots of ideas for new stuff but gotta get the gift knitting done first!

So, some other randomness:

A wood alphabet cutout from bookhou here in Toronto. It’s super light and is hanging just on a nail in my living room. I LOVE this thing. And I hardly have anything on my walls so it really stands out.

Super super super soft organic cotton throw by Jenna Rose. Also massive love – I kind of want to get another one for the end of my bed. She has an Etsy shop but not much in it at the moment.

I bought this throw and the alphabet hanging at the Toronto One of a Kind Show along with some other stuff (clothes, candles) and had lots of fun! The free re-admission is great too, I might go just one more time this week. It’s still open till Sunday (although I’d go during the week if you can help it, the crowds on the weekend are insane).

Looking longingly at this Dream in Color (Grey Tabby and Midnight Derby) earmarked for a sweater. I got rid of quite a few of my older ones when I moved, and now I’m finding I really want new ones!

So much knitting, so little time.

the big 2-5

Today’s my birthday, and I’m 25 years old.

In my stronger moments I realize that I’ve actually done quite a bit for my age – got a degree, written and published a book (!), started a pretty successful business. And I can get recognized in Hawaii! Of course, there’s still so much to be done and sometimes it feels like time it just slipping by.

Thanks for reading, commenting, tweeting (find me @cosmicplutoknit), and generally being awesome. I don’t know what I’d do without my fabulous Internet Friends and the knitting community at large.

Knitting’s pretty much the same old projects right now – but I’m hoping to move up and onto some new ones soon! In the meanwhile, of course I bought some yarn for my birthday – Koigu.

Got enough of the purple-blue for a sweater, and two skeins each of the pewter and pink – I’m thinking it wants to be colourwork. I ordered a Hanne Falkenberg kit that I’ve had my eye on for awhile too. I don’t know when the last time was that I was this excited to knit someone else’s pattern!

Have a great summer weekend. Mine involves cake!

random things

My knitting is really fighting back lately! I forgot my sock project at a friend’s last week just as he was going out of town so I couldn’t work on that. I keep having to re-do the math on a compound raglan and ripping out what I’ve knit.

Then today my Honeybee cardi was fighting me too – I knit a whole hem (around the body) and found out that it didn’t really work. So that was a day’s work ripped, and I ended the day right where I started. Booo.

Hopefully I can get my knitting back on track and get some new projects on the needles too. I’m going to be traveling in July so I need knitting I can count on! My parents and sisters and I are taking a vacation to Hawaii!

We’ll be staying in Waikiki, and on Kauai and the big island. I don’t intend to spend all my time with them, so I’d like to do some exploring on my own too. Does anyone have recommendations for things to do, places to see, eat, or shop? I love unique sorta boutique-y shops for clothes (I’m especially fond of dresses and skirts from local designers) but I’m having a hard time coming up with particular places.

And so this isn’t a photoless post, how about some eye candy?

Megan brought me back this gorgeous, huge skein of laceweight from Squam – it’s merino from the Woolen Rabbit. Beautiful!