(There aren't many songs that reference knitting. How odd! I did find one or two, though, in addition to the one I used above)
So I still haven't really recovered from the tablecloth, in that I've just been doing little projects. Here are two of my favourites:
The top is from the latest Interweave Knits, an issue worth purchasing, in my opinion. It's the cover garment, the "Lotus Blossom Tank".* 4mm and 3.75 mm needles, smallest size, Euroflax Linen, 3 skeins almost exactly. I really like the neckline, and it's a quick knit. The linen is hard on the hands when knitting, but it softens up miraculously after a trip through the washer and dryer.
The knitted supervillain is Hellstryke, R:tAG's main character in CoV, and it was my (somewhat late) birthday present to him. Let's look at the little guy closer up, shall we?
He's a mix of various worsted-weight stash yarns (fun fur for his goaty legs... one of the few valid uses for fun fur) on, um, 4mm needles IIRC. I needed a dense fabric so the stuffing wouldn't show through too much, but as you can sort of see on the shoulders I probably could have gone down a needle size. The horns and spines are sock-weight yarn on 2.5 mm needles, the cape is lace-weight mohair on 4.5 mm needles. The pattern is out of my own head, based roughly on the last super I knit.**
And of course, socks, because socks don't really count as a work-in-progress. They're the constant background noise knitting.
It's the yoga that let me hold my feet up like this long enough to take a picture. Thank you, yoga! The pattern is the Jaywalker Socks, the yarn is Schaefer "Anne" which is one of the bestest sock yarns I've ever used.*** The socks took most, but not near all, of a 4 oz skein. and I used 2.25mm dps. The colours in the picture are not at all true; the reality is a much warmer, richer blend of browns and jewel tones of red, green and blue.
And finally, also from the latest Interweave Knits, a mini-Faroese style shawl. The pattern is free! I had in my stash a little bit of alpaca handspun (not my hands) that was an odd weight; like a thin sock yarn but a) I didn't have enough of it to make socks and b) alpaca socks would probably make my feet combust.
It was hard to get a good picture because the shaping that makes it stay on your shoulders also makes it into a three-dimensional shape that won't lie flat, and R:tAG isn't home right now to take a picture of me in it. I used maybe 50 g of this handspun stuff, on 5mm needles to get a really lacy, drapey, fabric. Again, the colour isn't near as blue as the picture shows (stupid digital camera), it's a natural warm heathered gray.
So there you go. If I don't mention the knitting, the pressure just builds up and you get a huge post like this one instead of a few sentences at the end of every post.
* And yes, all the jokes about Zen armies using Lotus Blossom Tanks have been made already, thankyouverymuch.
** I actually wrote down what I did for the Statesman doll! I amaze myself!
*** It's also horribly expensive.
Yay, knitting! Hellstryke is totally wicked. I think the cape is really the icing on the cake on that one. Very, very cool.
It's good to be back... the Chinese government hates your blog. Makes me feel like home =)
Yay, knitting indeed! I have to say that it's taken me a while to get caught up on my blogging - reading and writing.
So, I don't expect that you would have read all that I posted recently, but I had hoped you had seen this one as it was for you.