Saturday, April 14, 2007

Telegram for Mother Nature

Dear, Mother Nature, it's April! Just thought I'd let you know. What is up with this weather? It snowed last week. Chicago makes me (more) depressed. I was riding on the bus, looking out the window. The sky was cloudy and gray. The buildings were brown and gray. The earth was brown, the trees were bare. Just nasty. I need sunlight. It's always around this time of year that I'm like "okay, Chicago, we get it, you're cold. You can stop now." Cuz we've had enough.

So if I can't make the sky blue and the trees green, guess I'll just have to knit and crochet those colors. So I have this lovely Touch Me scarf that I crocheted. I got this yarn on sale and it was still pricy, especially for the little yardage. And with the speed of crochet, I had gone though (censored) dollars in about 3 hours! It is luxuriously soft, though. The stitch is from 220 More Crochet Stitches, crocheted on an I hook. Chicago's brown and gray + the blue and green I'd like to see come along.



With the leftover, I also made this choker. Band is knit in 2x2 ribbing, flower crocheted, leaf knit. Chicago flowers, please come back!



I still have some leftover in brown and green, that I'm going to use for a small necklace. This one, I think. That's where I got the knit leaf instructions, anyway.

And I finished my Clapotis! In HandMaiden Lady Godiva "Nova Scotia". I used just a wee more than 2 hanks. I knit on size 6s, one less increase section than in the pattern and 2 more straight sections. So if I had only done one extra straight section, 2 would have been enough. The other 1 and 9/10 skeins will be for Perfect Periwinkle from Fitted Knits, I think. I also held with the Lady Godiva a strand of Drops/Garnstudio's "Glitter". Very fine, 10 grams gives 700 yards, so I only need one spool, and at $4, a very cheap way to add glitter to a project.







I absolutely love this thing. I think I've worn it every day since I finished, rather than the Touch Me scarf. I like that it's so much wider than a normal scarf, it's got heft (sorta like me since my recent weight gain). And it's purrrty.

So there are blue and green knits. Um, Mother Nature, take that as a hint.

In other news, I started a group at meetup.com for natural black hair, as I can use all the advice I can get. On occasion, my hair looks, I think the technical term for it is "busted". Totally doesn't help that it's all uneven from when I got angry and whacked it all off with the craft scissors. I have a lot of hair, it is really really thick, and it is a serious effort to keep it reasonable. So I thought I'd get together with other women who wore their hair like this and maybe share some tips. It was great, we're all so cute, trust me.

And my semi-miniature crown variegated African violet trailer is also looking happy. All crowns are in bloom or bud with color, which means it could be a good show plant with a little grooming. Unfortunately, not all the crowns are showing the variegation.



And one final thing, Bloggers, what's up with the restricted blogs? I don't subscribe to anyone's feed, but every now and then I go through the comments left for me and try to look at people's blogs. But for some of you, I click on your name and it tells me that regular folk like me can't view your blog. Damn, I never get invited to the party with the hip kids. Not cool, people, not cool. Ah, knitting, you never reject me!

15 comments:

Adrienne said...

Looking very nice! love that choker! Its too cute!! Your flowers are beautiful too! I kill anything that is alive and green! LOL

WandaWoman said...

I love that Touch Me Scarf, just gorgeous!

Unknown said...

I'm not much of a crochet person but your choker is great & really suits you!
I love your Clapotis!

nordwolke said...

Oh, I love the flower choker. Would love to be able to knit. However, I like making flowers from beads. Maybe you stop by my beading or tree of life blog. In Tree of Life you can see the sunny weather we have in Germany already. Sending you sunshine! ;)

Angie said...

Very nice projects. I love, love, love the Clapotis! I hope to start mine here pretty quickly, I finally have the yarn.

Unknown said...

I've been visiting your blog pretty regularly since the first of the year. Something always makes me smile. Thanks to you I am on my 3rd Falling Water scarf. I had to let you know how cute your flower necklace is. Don't worry, spring is on the way!

NikkiJ said...

I have your same kind of hair and just couldn't take it anymore. I cried when I combed it and it throbbed for hours afterward. I don't understand how someone with our type of hair could be so tender-headed. Therefore, I decided to lock! I'm loving it, even with the negative comments, I can trully say that now I'm satisfied.

Catherine said...

I love your Clapotis AND your Touch Me Scarf AND your choker! Fantastic work. I just picked up a book of knit flower patterns and can't wait to make some too.

I'm in love with your hair. You looked too, too cute when I saw you at Knitwerks in Chicago last weekend!

dickie said...

congratulations on finishing clapotis! i just finished mine and it's been my longest knit ever. o_O
i love your yarn choice.

i'm 100% with you and the weather. i need consistent low 60's at least. it doesn't look like snow in the future, let's hope it just gets better from here.

Jen W said...

Love that Clapotis! When I sat next to you at the Yarn Harlot, I thought the sparkle was such a nice touch. So pretty.

AR said...

Your projects look great! I especially love your clapotis, and the choker!

Deborah said...

The demographic in Chicago continues to amaze me out... I'm from the northeast and I can't believe how many sisters from Chicago are up in here knitting on these here blogs!

James said...

I'm moving to Chicago this summer and I can't freaking wait for the cold! I know it'll be different 5 months into my first winter, but I'm from Georgia and we can only wear wool about 3 weeks out of the year. The scarf is great and your violet is looking pretty awesome!

Kamika said...

Loving the FOs. The Clapotis is a very pretty color. The choker is very stylish.

Your hair texture reminds me of mine. Do you have a hair album? Maybe we can talk hair sometime.

ellipsisknits said...

I don't know what's up with the private profiles either. I think people must just not realize they have to set that up, and are probably wondering why nobody visits their blog. Because, really, why would so many people want to keep their blog private when they're commenting on everyone else's. Unless they're CIA operatives or something...

Oh, and you have my favorite hair. If I got to pick what I looked like, I would have your hair. Maybe that's just because I don't understand the upkeep, but it's still way-cool looking.

-C