Candle flame scarf finished! And others...

Last weekend I finally finished the candle flame scarf. This is intended to be a Christmas present for Grandma St.Charles- but hopefully she doesn't mind that I wore it for modeling pictures- and that I let a rock wear it for further modeling pictures.




To start with here are pretty blocking pictures of the scarf- Hopefully you can see the lace detail.

Pattern: Candle Flame Scarf
Yarn: Malbrigo Worsted Weight
Colorway: Cuarenta
Modifications: Instead of knitting the scarf in two parts and splicing them together I just knit it in one part and decreased along with the ends of the flames at the end of the scarf.

And now pretty modeling pictures! Chris and I went to the Eno and I asked him to take pretty pictures of me wearing the scarf. However, being aware of the fact that I am not very photogenic and that a good picture of me is hard to capture I took a back up picture- the "doesn't this scarf look great draped across this big rock" type of picture. So- doesn't this scarf look great draped across this big rock?

Chris went through a specific process taking my picture- having me stand in the middle of a pool of sunlight and saying something to the effect that lighting is everything he managed to capture the rare- Jordan looks pretty picture! Now really, the picture is about the scarf;).








In other news I have finished the first sock of my Clessidra socks from Knitty Spring '07 issue. I love having a knee sock. However this took a little while to knit and I'm shelving the second sock until after I've finished the Christmas knitting. It will be nice to have them finished before I go back to Michigan- knee socks will be warm for winter.

Update!

Mom, here is a pretty picture of Cinderella's castle for you. All of my other pictures from disney world are of the halloween decorations or pictures that I took while in the Haunted House when it decided to stop, they aren't very pretty:(.


Now here are some pictures of some socks that I've managed to finish:



Here is my pair of Jaywalkers made with Gypsyknits BFL superwash fingering. I love these socks, I think with this color way they look like candy canes. After a few washes they've become very soft and fuzzy. I'm wearing them today.








Now here are my Nutkins made with my first skein of wollmeise in the spice market colorway.






Next I have some pictures of the many projects that I am currently working on right now:

This is my Joy cardigan from the Rowan Vintage Knits book. I'm knitting it in Yorkshire Tweed 4ply. It is also my reading knitting, currently Villette by Charlotte Bronte, which so far, is no Jane Eyre, yet still enjoyable.






These are my Clessidra Stockings. I have been obsessed with knitting these for over a year but earlier I thought that I wouldn't be able to due to lack of sock making skills. I have since knitted a few pairs of socks and feel more confident in my abilities.






This is my sock yarn scrap blanket. Its not really getting so much work, just whenever I don't feel like knitting something else, I'm afraid it will be eclipsed by my upcoming committee meeting and xmas knitting for the next few months, however I look forward to having a beautiful colorful sock yarn blanket eventually.








The first of the Christmas knitting. I've forgotten the pattern at the moment and will put it up when I remember. In the meantime this is knit with malbrigo yarn, so yummy...






And finally a pair of socks, Bellatrix, which have been forgotten in favor of the beautiful clessidra stockings. Not to say that these aren't beautiful, they are, they're just suffering from second sock syndrome.

Not much to report...

Well I was going to say not much to report but I realized that I never posted pictures of my finished Indigo Ripples skirt. Here is Dora looking bug-eyed as I kidnapped her in order to look cute in this picture.

Pattern: Indigo Ripples Skirt from IK Spring '06
Yarn: 9 balls Elann Den-M-Nit
Modifications: In order to have a skirt that sat on the hips rather than the waist I cast on for the second smallest size and only completed enough increases for the smallest size. I am not smart enough to have figured this out on my own and credit Amanda at the Sticks and Tones blog for this.

For my birthday Chris gave me an iPhone and my only other complete project since then has been this little iPhone sock. It is made with left-overs from a pair of Shibuiknits socks (previously blogged). It is a simple 36 stitch tube on size one needles with a half-inch of ribbing and closed with kitchener bind-off.

And finally guess who made out really well during the last upload of Wollmeise on The Loopy Ewe webpage? I serendipitously happened to have clicked reload as they all went up. Then I accidentally order twice as many hanks as I meant to. I had heard previously that one should order more than they intend to buy since this precious yarn has a habit of spiriting out of one's cart during the checkout process. Following this advice and being one of the lucky few who didn't lose any yarn led to my accumulation of four beautiful hanks. My excuse is that they are birthday presents. For myself...

FO: Twisted Tulip Socks

Pattern: Twisted Tulip Socks, Spring '08 IK
by Chrissy Gardiner
Yarn: Shibuiknits Sock in Autumn
Needle: 5 Size 1 DPNs




These were fun to knit except for the hand cramps that I developed from juggling the needles and the tightness of the fabric due to all of the twisted knits. I love the pattern when its possible to see it, it gets a little lost in the variegation. I love the colors for this yarn, and doesn't it look so pretty in the hank:
This was my first order from The Loopy Ewe. I have since accumulated several things of sock yarn from them.

Socks are too complicated to knit and read at the same time, so these were the product of many The West Wing episodes and lots of time listening to NPR.

Evolution of Sock Photography

I have finally finished my first pair of socks! The emphasis on pair: Last year I noticed that everyone online seemed to be crazy about knitting socks so I decided that I would give it a try, went to Yarns, Etc, and picked out some sock yarn and needles. At home I looked up a tutorial on sock knitting and over the next month slowly progressed through my first sock. After completing it I found it too boring to continue with the second sock- a basic ribbed sock. At the time I just thought I wasn't interested in socks, now I suppose that that was just my first taste of second sock syndrome.


Pattern: Monkey socks by Cookie A
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM
Needles: Size 1 dpns

I think it is terribly funny to look at how people choose to photography their socks- there is such a variety of poses for the feet. I'm not a good photographer by any means, I rely on my flash most of the time and am absolutely ignorant on how to make myself appear attractive in photos. So I decided to have a little sock photoshoot of my own where I tried out some of the more popular sock poses. Mostly I found the photos to be really funny. And so I share them with you...

This is the classic sock in progress photo, I think my toes look cute poking out of the sock. Now a more fashionable person would have painted toenails, I will try to remedy this at some point.




The "staring down at my own feet pose".













This is the timed photo where I jumped in front of the camera, and unfortunately between the camera and the light source. My socks have a nice silhouette, yes?












The "Daylight is superior to artificial light" pose. Also the "flex your feet" pose.













Now this pose I've seen quite a bit lately and I don't quite understand- I think the purpose may be to show off the colorway of the sock yarn- I think of it as a goofy lotus position photo- not a fan.











And finally my favorite, the "casual crossed ankles" pose. Can you see how I messed up grafting the toes on the right sock?

Finished- Printed Silk Cardigan

Guess what I finally finished!!

Pattern: Printed Silk Cardigan by Connie Chang Chinchio in the Sprint '08 IK
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine sport in hollyberry, 11 balls
Size: 34"
Start: April 26
Finish: May 22


In the two hours that I've been wearing this I haven't decided if I like it yet. So if I'm standing still and have had a chance to adjust the cardigan I really like it, however when I'm walking around its constantly slipping down my shoulders- I'm not sure if its too big or if the neckline causes that, or maybe the yarn is too heavy causing it to fall. I've gotten several comments already and I think it looks quite pretty. If I were to make this again however I think I would choose a different yarn. It feels rather heavy and I'm dreading the walk back to my car this afternoon when it will be in the 80's. Also while I was knitting the yarn was constantly shedding these red fibers that coated everywhere that I knit. After I put on my deodorant this morning the stick was covered in the same fibers. So I think I would like this better if I had made it with a different yarn- all the same at the moment it looks quite nice.

Yummy bread!

Sunday morning our brown brown bananas were starting to stink up the kitchen so I decided to try making some banana bread. I found this recipe for a yeast banana oatmeal macadamia nut bread in The Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook in the fruit and nut bread sections. This is very good, slightly sweet and only slightly smelling of bananas, and a nice occasional crunch from the nuts. I'm using this for my morning toast. And isn't it pretty?
In other food news last night Chris and I cooked a grilled pork chop with thai peanut sauce using a recipe from the latest Gourmet (Quick kitchen section) which I forgot to take a picture of. Very good as well, Chris wants to think of a sandwich to add the sauce to.