Everybody wants a rock...

Things appearing in the sidebar that should not be

Fingerless mittens
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

I finished these. A long time ago. No, I don't want my sister's hands to freeze!

Things not appearing in the sidebar, part II

Kinver Shadow Shawl
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

My sister's shadow shawl, 30 increases from the center point. I'm currently 6 increases away from the middle. I took a break to work on the brioche scarves, and will probably work on the final scarf in the car and while socializing - but then again, I really want to hit the midpoint.

My sister's Windy City Scarf

Windy City Scarf
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

I've finally gotten a photo of my sister's first completed project, a Windy City scarf from the first SnB. Just like mine, only without the twisted stitches and fibonacci sequence. Someday I will catch her with the beautiful cables she has been working on in her current three projects.

Things not appearing in the sidebar, part I

Two-color brioche scarves
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

Obviously the sidebar projects are *long* out of date. What I've learned: I'm not a big fan of felting. Too much after-project work.

I've also discovered that I like playing with color. The two-color brioche scarves are even better than the shadow shawls, since they knit up so much more quickly. The one on the left was the first one that I knit, thought it would work well for one of my aunts. That opened Pandora's box to doing two more for my other aunts. The one in the middle I'm a bit uncertain about - it is "striking" - how many people want a striking scarf? I am also going to be working on a scarf for an aunt on the other side of the family - I can always gift that one instead of the striking scarf and make another.

Secondary result of knitting scarves for aunts - I've had numerous offers to become an adopted niece!

Knitted DNA redux

Yes, I've heard all of the criticisms: the twist is backwards, not the right offset between the two coils, not enough base pairs per twist... But really this trumps all objections - you recognize instantly what it is.

Guts, gut persuasion

Why yes, I have seen the knitted digestive system that has been taking the 'net by storm. Probably, so has everyone else. But I'm updating the geeky knitting section, so this is going in too. I'm also starting to put in thumbnails - I don't want to step on any copyrighted toes, but small photos fall under fair use, and the illustrations really add to the link collection.

Guts, fair isle persuasion

Inside of the first fair isle hat
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

Here I present the insides of my first fair isle hat. I had a request on the comments section of flickr for and inside shot - which struck me as a bit, um, intimate, but perhaps my brain is just wired a bit oddly. Many people seem to show the inside also, so here it is.

And here is the close-up:


There is a Starmore vest (or sweater) that actually has this same color scheme! - I might end up doing this. Or I am thinking about designing using motifs and colors from the southwest - such as from Dine (Navajo) blankets and jewelry.

Things that might or might not be pictured soon: finished 2nd fair isle hat, 2 more two-color brioche scarves, shadow shawl 20 increases from the center point. Or I could do a whole week guest featuring my sister's knitting. Or I could host SO's rant against the Retrospect backup program - anyone up for that?

Kim's Aran

Self-designed aran by Kim
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

All this time without a post, and I don't even have my own knitting up - what is the world coming to? The link between the object, clean surface, light, camera, battery, cable, laptop, battery, upload, blog is a long and perilous journey. Kim does not have a blog, but is an active member of the knittyboard (pumpkinseed aka pumpkim). I feel it is cruel to not share her gorgeous self-designed aran with the larger community, so finally the stars aligned and she brought her aran and I brought my camera on the same knitting night at Borealis. And then the stars aligned further, and camera / cable / etc. all came together and produced this blog post.

And now for the closeup shot:

Here at Chez Arcadia, it's all about the presents.

Sophie bag and TJ chocolate
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

The knitting entry? Below? A thinly veiled attempt to fool you into thinking we actually still knit around here. When really, it's all about the presents.

Here we have an incredibly cute Sophie bag, made by my downstream Knitty SP4 pal, becmclaughlin. She is very tricky, since I had already seen the bags on her flickr photostream (here and here). You can even see the original yarn on her blog.

The inside of the bag even has a cute liner:


Plus, two bars of chocolate from the elusive TJ's (when are they going to make it out here? I am waiting with open arms!).

Shadow Shawl close-up

Shadow Shawl close-up
Originally uploaded by thomasina.

A close-up of the shadow shawl combo. I started this two and a half weeks ago, when we took the cat to the kitty hospital. I've gotten 7 of the 10 stripes done (75 stitches wide), so I'm almost 1/8 of the way through the shawl. I thought I'd show an artistic close-up, since I'm going to be doing this for quite awhile.