project: mike's a little more dashing

SPOILER ALERT!!! MIKE'S BIRTHDAY ISN'T UNTIL OCTOBER 24TH!!

But I'm thinking he could use these now for biking to work, so he might just have an early birthday gift coming his way.

A few years back, Mike requested that I knit him some arm warmers for his birthday. Mike is a very tall guy, and sometimes has a hard time with sleeve lengths. The idea was that these wrist warmers would help with the length of his winter coat.

Well, as usual, I got busy and didn't get around to knitting them until now. I've had the pattern, yarn, everything. Just never got around to it. But they have turned out lovely and I think they will fit him wonderfully!




I purchased Cascade 220 wool yarn from Weaving Works, and one skein made both warmers. The pattern was a Knitty pattern from back in 2007 called Dashing. It is the men's version of the warmer, and I must say, I'm glad that Mike is a big guy because these warmers turn out very, very long. I do wish there were more cables in them as well. Now that I have made the pattern, I will definitely make my notes to tailor them a bit better for future recipients.




The yarn was a breeze to use and knit up fairly quickly. If I had more hours in the day, everyone would get a pair of these for holiday!

These songs are part of my Summer 2010 playlist. Since Labor Day has ended, I think it is time to commit to these songs and start sending them out to my friends for a good listen.

playlist: mike's a little more dashing

"glitter" - no age
"mouthful of diamonds" - phantogram
"round and round" - ariel pink's haunted graffiti
"to the east" - electrelane
"marathon" - tennis
"jesus" - dom
"heart to tell" - the love language
"sleepy tigers" - her space holiday
"from the mouth of gabriel" - sufjan stevens

project: the ott girls hats

Yes, I've already started my holiday projects. This is what is going to be the challenge about blogging now: not to give away what people might be receiving from me this holiday season. While I am known for working on numerous projects at once (and rarely finishing them), I can at least try to balance a holiday project for a friend and something for myself!

So one of the first knitted holiday projects I've started were new hats for the Ott girls: Avery, Claire and Nora. This has been a request by Momma Ott for quite some time, and while on the Chicago Yarn Hop, I came across Noro Kureyon yarn on sale at Loopy Yarns. Perfect! The hat pattern used is one I've adopted from the book, Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. It's a great pattern that has kept many a heads warm throughout the years.

Each hat's colorway has been chosen to fit each girls features. I opted not for full on pom poms at the top of each, but rather what I call "sprigs of yarn." How organic of me...

Avery's hat

Claire's hat

Nora's hat

Let's just hope that Momma Ott can contain her excitement and keep these photos from the girls until December!

In the meantime, let's finish off the summer season with one more summer themed playlist...


playlist: the ott girls hats

"summersong" - the decemberists
"summertime clothes" - animal collective
"deadbeat summer" - neon indian
"all summer long" - the beach boys
"it's summertime" - the flaming lips
"summertime" - the sundays
"summerteeth" - wilco
"summer song" yacht
"here comes the summer" - the fiery furnaces

project: stephanie's birthday socks

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEPHANIE!

Well, it only two two weeks after the fact, but I finally finished Stephanie's birthday gift! I must have sent her three packages full of little birthday gifts before she got the big one: a pair of hand knit socks! And, of course, I used my favorite ankle sock pattern and Lorna's Laces yarn to create them.

This yarn was purchased at Nina's in Chicago, and the colorway is South Shore. I knit the socks in about two weeks, and I must admit, was some of the best drinking-while-knitting that I've ever done!

Haha, look at Karma's butt!

This playlist was created in honor of Stephanie's birthday actually being in the heat of the summer, and that summer is quickly coming to a close. The more songs with the word 'summer' in it the better! And I had so many in my itunes, another summer word playlist is soon to come...

playlist: stephanie's birthday socks

"everyone has a summer" - lovage
"wait for the summer" - yeasayer
"66 sleepers to summer" - hope of the states
"jogging gorgeous summer" - islands
"summer on the westhill" - kings of convenience
"indian summer" - pedro the lion
"summer skin" - death cab for cutie
"in the summertime" - the rural alberta advantage
"sweet summer's night on hammer hill" - jens lekman

project: shauna's baby socks

Oh, hey. Yeah, I still blog every now and again...

This past weekend I got very ambitious and decided to knit another pair of baby socks. The Costume Shop Manager, Shauna, at Chicago Shakespeare is leaving in a week to focus on the baby boy that will be coming out of her very soon! With this in mind, a baby shower was put together at the last minute to celebrate! Key words here: last minute.

So instead of buying something, I went to the Knitting Workshop (now located in Bucktown) to get some Cascade Fixation yarn in a boy-ish color way. This happened at noon on Sunday, the shower being held at 4pm Monday. Damn.
Had I decided not to go to North Halsted Market Days, I could have gotten the socks done in one afternoon. But there is just something about many gay men wearing very little that leaves nothing to the imagination that really gets me going...

I finished the socks around 3:30pm on Monday. Just in time for the shower. And they were a success!

So tiny and cute! Just like the little boy that is on his way!

In other news, in case you haven't heard, I was doored on my bike ride home from work last Thursday. If you don't know what that means, look it up on urban dictionary. Very painful, but thankfully nothing was broken. But in honor of getting doored, and still being in shock that it happened, I made a small playlist. This is it:

playlist: shauna's baby socks/getting doored

"the shining" - badly drawn boy
"polar opposites" - modest mouse
"someone great" - lcd soundsystem
"fluorescent half dome" - dirty projectors
"benton harbor blues" - the fiery furnaces
"summer in the city" - regina spektor
"i don't want to see you" - camera obscura
"let me know" - the yeah yeah yeahs

project: tammie's birthday socks

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMMIE!!!

After five years of Tammie being my best friend, I realized that I never knit her a pair of socks. This woman is waay overdue for a pair of hand knit socks!

Since she has moved to el lay, I figured a pair of anklets would work best with the heat. And the colors, shown in Rockwell by Lorna's Laces, are just screaming Tammie!

Note: ever since I was offered a full time job at Lorna's as a dyer, I swear by only purchasing their yarn for any future sock project.

So I've used this sock pattern for the 4th time now, and I am still in love with it. I still need to use it to make a pair of socks for myself...

I hope this is the best present a lady could ever ask for! I LOUVE YOU!!!

playlist: tammie's birthday socks

"sentimental x's" - broken social scene
"all my little words" - the magnetic fields
"it doesn't have to be beautiful" - slow club
"40 day dream" - edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros
"o katrina!" - black lips
"our deal" - best coast
"shelia" - atlas sound
"home" - lcd soundsystem

project: logan square market bag

It's finally Sunday Market season! Oh how I miss those lazy Sundays in Ballard, when there was nothing better to do than to take the puppy on a lovely stroll down to the Sunday Market. The flowers were always the highlight of the trip (and maybe a cupcake from Cupcake Royale). There were a few Sundays when I would decided to get an impromptu haircut from Loufel at Rudy's as well. Ahh...those were the days!

Now that it's summer in Chicago, it's also market time! The Logan Square Farmer's Market just started last Sunday, and I am more than excited to take my bike down to the square every Sunday until October to gather my weekly produce and enjoy some fresh [city] air!

How ready am I? So ready, in fact, I even knit a market bag for the occasion!
Let's be honest. That's a total lie for two reasons: a) I purchased this yarn back in 2007 while vacationing in Key West. b) I started this bag on a trip to Portland in 2009. And here we are in June, 2010.

The yarn is awesome (and expensive) Euroflax Originals. It's 100% linen, machine washable and dryable, and also discontinued. The fact it's now discontinued proposed a slight problem when it came down to me deciding what to do with it. I original purchased 3 skeins of it at Knit Wits: 2 in a green colorway and 1 in a yellow colorway. I figured the easiest and safest thing to do was to pick a smaller project and have left overs. A market bag was the most logical project.


I used a combination of two bag patterns: the Everlasting Bagstopper from Knitty and then the Ilene Bag by Hannah Ingalls. A majority of the bag was following the Ilene pattern. I did a smaller cast on and other variations along the way, but the lace repeat was the same. I do feel like I might have made the strap too long, but we'll see how it goes when I actually take it to the market and fill it up.

I am very excited about this bag, and am hoping that the linen fibers hold up well. The lace repeat is super stretchy, so it should be able to hold many delicious items of produce!

Now I need to figure out what to do with the other 1.5 skeins I have left. I thought about knitting some dishcloths (with the fiber content being linen) but the yarn was so damn expensive. Any suggestions on what to do with some Euroflax leftovers?

playlist: logan square market bag

"bang bang" - nancy sinatra
"louisiana" - the walkmen
"percussion gun" - white rabbits
"i want you back" - the jackson 5
"julie" - jens lekman
"trying my best to love you" - jenny lewis
"myriad harbor" - the new pornographers
"starting over" - the black lips
"i know what i am" - band of skulls

This is a playlist I originally made for Summer 09, and it - hands down- is one of the best playlists I've ever made. This is only half of it; I'll save the other half for a rainy blogging day. Enjoy it and the sunshine for the time being!

project: nikki's birthday hat

A few years back, I knit my friend Nikki a hat from some lovely Noro yarn. When I moved back to Chicago this past winter, I asked Nikki where the hat I made her was, and why she wasn't wearing it.
Here's the story: apparently it got left outside in the snow, and her (not knowing the properties of wool) put the hat in the dryer to, well, dry it.

Are. You. Kidding. Me.

After being slightly heartbroken and then explaining the properties of wool and how they have scales on their fibers so that leads them to felt when being wet and agitated, Nikki got it. And I love Nikki, she's a best friend and a part of the Dream Team, so for this year's birthday gift, I decided to knit her another hat.
This hat is the same pattern as my Mariposa hat, only using Manos del Uruguay yarn. I believe I purchased this yarn at Weaving Works in Seattle a few years back (again- using up the stash!). The colors seemed right for Nikki, and I know she enjoys the variegation of color in hats. While taking a break from my market bag (which I finished last nite, btw), I whipped up this hat.

I finally saw Nikki this past weekend while we were meeting up with the girls and gave her the hat. As the nite went on, we decided to have a photo shoot with the hat:

Here is Kayla wearing the hat

And Carrie wearing the hat

And, finally, Nikki wearing the hat. Can you sense the anticipation for winter to come???

Next post: logan square market bag!


playlist: nikki's birthday hat

"let the cool goddess rust away" - clap your hands say yeah!
"can you tell" - ra ra riot
"lost coastlines" - okkervil river
"heart it races" - architecture in helsinki
"yeah yeah" - matt & kim
"ambling alp" - yeasayer
"let's go surfing" - the drums
"whirring" - the joy formidable
"10:1" - rogue wave