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O'ahu born and Rockville bred, both Maryland and Hawai'i are home. Middle-aged knitter (believe me, my 40 is NOT the new 20) seeking the courage to live consciously, each and every moment. Now if I could just remember where I put my keys...

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Hot Child in the City (not)

No freakin' clue why, but this song has been going through my head for a few days. Nick Gilder? Why couldn't it be Nick Cave? I mean, really. Sometimes I want to give my synapses a good talking to...

So. This was taken Sunday, October 10, 2010, on Penn Ave in DC. The vestish long drapey thingee is actually Iris Schreier's "Chevron Ruana" from her book Lacy Little Knits. Which I own, and am knitting something from, but can't find! ARGHHHHHH!!!!!! My one knitting book that's MIA.

The yarn, hold your breath, is Colinette Tao in the Madras colorway (#153). Here. Breath again. This yarn is sooooooo beautiful - warm golds with glints of dark amethyst and deep turquoise. The Tao yarn is a single-ply, fairly smooth, nice silken cord. I've made some shawls with it, and loved them, and making this solely with about 8 skeins of luxury stuff was an investment - let's not talk about what I don't have in savings because I'm wearing a couple hundred dollars worth of yarn (and hours of knitting). Ok, changing the subject...

Iris' book will be linked here once I consult with my webmistress about how to do my Amazon Associate hookup. (ETA! WOO HOO - figured this out on my own!) I am a jump-right-in kinda girl - I DON'T read the manual - give me the quickstart guide every time, please. However, I will say that if you haven't knit an Iris pattern prior to knitting something in that book and figured everything out on your own, you probably should at least cruise through the intro. And swatch. Yes, I know, it sucks. But there's less super-direct instruction in her patterns than I was used to and more reliance on the techniques in the intro ("K 5, P 3: end of row is 8 stitches" vs. "knit until it's about 5 inches measured the Iris way").

That said, and this was the first thing of hers I knitted, and I did NOT swatch, and I barely skimmed the intro, I'm happy. I had to start the damn thing about 5 times (swatching would've taken about 3 false starts off that), and if I had to do it over, I'd sew up the armholes a bit tighter, and maybe make the whole thing a little smaller 'cuz the yarn stretches out.

But this pattern + this yarn is a total winner. Especially if you dig looking like a bohemian kinda funky chick and are in denial that you're middle aged (even though you're dressing like a crazy old aunt).

And a shout out to Chico's. Damn, I never thought I'd say that. If you are going the Statement Piece route (and this is a Statement Piece), they have great plain tanks and tops and pants to set off the color. Jewelry's a little pricey - I like the sale counter at TJMaxx or Marshalls. Or Etsy.

OK. Dogs need walking and I just remembered something I forgot to do yesterday at work... crapola. Happy Wednesday and happy clicking.

ETA - Ravelry page on this project here
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2 comments:

  1. Whutup dorky knitter chik? ;) Just wanted to let you know someone is reading this stuff! Hehe... kidding. Looks like you have quite the following. Great work! :)

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