Forget Turkeys and Pedicures

Let's get back to knitting, shall we?

I just finished this cowl:

Får Away, free pattern on Ravelry

I made it for a gift, although I hadn't chosen the recipient yet. As it turns out though, I made it for me. It is so soft and so comfortable that I decided to wear it ONCE, then wash and block it and give it away. Never happened. It's mine, all mine. Another knitter, less selfish than I, made a beautiful scarf as a gift, wore it once, then washed and blocked it, and gave it to her daughter-in-law for Christmas!!!  

I am in awe!


I am also working on a second Easy Folded Poncho in a purple silk. It requires about fifty inches of stockinette stitch knitting, so it's both easy and boring. I'm making good progress.

Easy Folded Poncho

AND, I have promised myself that I will finally finish the sweater (Trillium) that I (on my broken ankle) hobbled into a yarn shop to buy the Shelter yarn for, oh, two years or so ago . I have swatched multiple times, knitted, frogged, knitted, frogged, and by all that is holy, it's time to finish the %^&*I(* thing. 

I'm using the same color yarn that the model is wearing in the pattern and I may not do the zig zag patterning. I don't think it shows up well --- or at all in this photo. Shaping for the armscye is done with short rows, and although short rows are easy, so I'm told, I am always intimidated by them. 

So we'll see.

But first to finish the poncho. It's dark out at 10:30 in the morning and cool and damp and promises to stay that way all weekend. Good knitting weather.

Dear Reader, I Am a Fiber Artist!!!

How do I know this?

Well, quite honestly, I've always suspected it, but on Saturday it became official. I was wearing this:

and I was on an elevator at the High Museum.  A totally random (but very knowledgeable and intelligent) woman looked at me and said:

I have one of those (ponchos) and held out a blue one.

FA (fiber artist, me) said:  Oh! Did you make one too?

RW (random, but very knowledgeable and intelligent) woman: You MADE that?!

FA: Yes.

RW:  Oh! You are a fiber artist!

FA:  (modestly) No, I'm a knitter. 

She said that I'm a fiber artist, and just like when the Internet says something, it must therefore be true.

Although, and this is a big although, I didn't actually make it. Explaining this to her would have been complicated and a longer conversation than the two-story trip in the elevator would have allowed. I did intend to make it, but as Sallyknit was laying hers out to block when were all at a house in Asheville, Anna (Knitting Wizard) said: I could make that in an afternoon on my knitting machine. (Knitting it by hand takes forever!) I raised my hand to stop all conversation and volunteered to make mine on her machine. She agreed.  

Back in Atlanta, we did try to have me make it on the machine, but the machine is tricky and it kept jamming. So Anna (Knitting Wizard) had me leave it with her, and she worked on it bit by bit when she had time and patience.  

So I didn't actually make it, but I totally could have.

Sincerely,

Your Fiber Artist

Really Random

First of all, don't try this at home.

"What?" you ask. "Knittergran has mousetraps....on her kitchen counter? Does Knittergran have MICE....on her kitchen counter?"

No, Knittergran has a kitten...on her kitchen counter, and Knittergran thought that putting mouse traps on the counter would scare kitten off when he snapped one. Instead, kitten carefully weaves his way around the traps, as if he knows what they are.

Knittergran, on the other hand, was moving them so that they wouldn't go off while she and dH were away from the house and SHE was trapped by one.

This hurt!!!! Really, really hurt. So the mousetraps are gone, and thank goodness they didn't snap on the kitten's widdle paws.

I didn't realize that the traps were so powerful, but as dH said, they are designed to KILL.

I feel like a fur trapper, and that's not a good thing.

And now, for something completely different:

A completed hat!!!

It's the Koigu Beaded Beret, published by Churchmouse Classics, and made with just one skein of Koigu KPPPM. I just made it, with only 86" of yarn left over. Phew. This yarn would make wonderful socks, but there is not enough on one skein for a single sock, so a pair would take three, and that would make for expensive socks. But as a one-skein project, this one is nice. It is supposed to have beads on it, but I left them out. (You're welcome, S.)

The instructions say to "Wear at a jaunty angle or pulled down over your ears," so I guess it can be a beret OR a watch cap.