Feathers and Fans

Crazy feather yarn I purchased at Whitefish Bay Farm. The Turkey Feather Yarn was crafted by Fiber Artist Laurie Boyer in Wisconsin and consists of turkey feathers, Salish x English Leicester wool, and cotton thread. I have ten yards and am thinking of some sort of scarf/necklace thing to wear to a charity fashion show next month with a grey wrap dress.



And here is some 100purewool yarn for Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket from The Opinionated Knitter in Pasionaria for my brother-in-law-in-law's new baby girl (that would be my brother's wife's brother's baby). I haven't done one of these yet, but the yarn has been sitting in my stash for a while and needs knitting, and I think the variegated yarn should look lovely in this pattern.



And here is the Zephyr DK (which I consider more of an aran or knitting worsted) at the start of my Slouchy Cardi. First sleeve is complete, and I cast on for the back last night. I've come to the conclusion that for me, now, knitting stockinette back and forth is sometimes easier on my wrists than in the round a la Cobblestone. Knitting in one piece means you have the weight of all the yarn on your needles, even though it's distributed along the circular needle. Some knit-bloggers extol the virtues of top-down raglan knitting, but with Cobblestone I realized that I like knitting the sleeves and then attaching them to the body, rather than knitting the sleeves once the body is complete.



Loving the yarn! The sheen! The texture! I foresee more Zephyr in my future.

As for fandom, the new Knitty is up! Neiman would give me an outlet for the two skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk in Turquoise sitting in the stash. And it's a bottom-up seamless raglan. How apropros! And I haven't done any stranded colorwork yet, so this would be good. The other appealing pattern at first blush is Cinderella. I started a pair of socks recently using the Yankee Knitter family sock pattern (#29 at the bottom of the page) and some nice sock yarn from Laughing Rat Studio. I started out OK but got bored (sorry, sock knitters of the world!). But Cinderella may kindle an interest in socks again. I really like that heraldic pattern and had tagged it in my copy of BW's Second Treasury. Plus these are knit on US4s!

Happy Birthday to me!

Make a wish...


Off to storytime with my girl, but not before receiving a beautiful bouquet of roses from a dear friend for my birthday.


And tonight we've got a pizza party with my BFF's family. The Wilson Family dinner is tomorrow night.

I'll post a picture of the crazy feather yarn during naptime. Promise!

Finished!

OK, I just popped Cobblestone into a lavender bath. I hope it fits the intended recipient. There will be pictures after it's been gifted.

In the meantime, how about some "live" shots of Icarus?

Fashion

Just a quickie today, peeps. I have more knitting to do! Jeepers, garter stitch just eats yarn, doesn't it? I'm about to start the second set of short-rows, which means we're near the top of the yoke. Thank goodness! The deadline approacheth.

There will be bloggable knitting soon, I promise, as well as pics including a crazy skein of feather yarn.

Anyway, I've been thinking more about fashion lately. Perhaps it's the crisp fall air, perhaps it's starting the job search, which means I'll need some grown-up clothes, perhaps it's Tim Gunn upon whom I have quite a crush. So, I bought the September issue of Vogue. And I have to ask myself "WHY!?!" Out of 840 pages, on first flip-through, I dog-eared five pages, four of which were ads, and the fifth was a brief profile of a woman wearing Twinkle's Shopping Tunic. The cover is awful, as is the spread that goes with it. Ugh. I may have to give you a page-by-page review here in the future.

American fashion magazines are rubbish, aren't they? As far as the serious business of fashion goes, anyway. I read Lucky occasionally. It's my airport go-to, since there aren't really articles, just lots of fun things to look at. But I don't fly much these days and when I do I usually have a very mobile tot in tow.

Ever since Liz Tilberis passed away and Harper's Bazaar was Marie Claire-ed by Glenda Bailey, Anna Wintour has no goad to make Vogue all it could/should be. I still remember the first cover of Bazaar after Ms. T. took over: white studio background and Linda Evangelista looking gorgeous. Check it here (#9). What I'd forgotten about the Tilberis era was the fantastic typography. Check out that last "A"! Clean, gorgeous, one headline, not the junked up covers we see today.

I read the September issue of Harper's Bazaar over Labor Day weekend, and it was crap, too. At least Vogue has Jeffrey Steingarten's food writing, which I quite enjoy. But I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to read Ms. Wintour's editor's letter. For more opinions on the issue, be sure to check out Cathy Horyn's blog entry and don't miss the comments.

Birthday/Blogiversary Pending

Where does the time go? My birthday is coming up on the thirteenth (lucky girl!), and my first blog post was one year ago on the fourteenth. I should probably have some sort of contest to get my dear lurking readers to join the conversation. What do you think?

Happily, Jill was finally able to comment today. I may have to join the Knitini trip to Belize in February. Wouldn't that be nice?

In knitting knews (hehe) I've joined the sleeves and started the garter section of the yoke on Cobblestone. Yeehaw, short rows. This is going very quickly! Now, watch, I'll hit a snag. Hope not, as there are other things I'd like to knit soon (the danger of Ravelry).

Sorry this is a dull post. I have to get my pics off the camera...

Likey Zephyr

That Zephyr DK is seriously yummy. The silk just gleams. I'm almost through the first sleeve, and then I'll be able to block it to be super-sure I've gotten the gauge I want (on US6s). There will be more projects in this yarn in the future. But I'm back from a weekend in Door County so need to get back to the Cobblestone - thank goodness for air-conditioning in Wilmette as a lap-ful of alpaca is a bit much, even in the balmy weather up nort'.

And I've just joined another KAL. When did I turn into such a joiner? Who knows. Anyway, Keri started a new gang for knitted mitts and wristers Fingerless Mitts for Fall, and I've decided it's time to do some colorwork so am going to knit up Eunny's Endpaper Mitts. Maybe once I accomplish those I'll feel up to doing her Anemois, which are so pretty.

Some Douceur et Soie may have come home with me in a stormy teal colorway from Easy Stitchin' in Sister Bay, Wisconsin. Just reporting the facts.

Back from Hiatus

Yes, chickens, I'm back and may have acquired three pounds of yarn somewhere en route. Ahem. There is a one-pound cone of Zephyr DK, which is really more of a light worsted as far as my needles go, in Steel (same as the color Keri and I split for the MS3 that has yet to be cast on) waiting to become that slouchy cardi from Greetings from Knit Cafe - the one shown in lavender, the one with the hood. Look, people, my scanner is in a different time zone, so you'll have to use your imagination or go check your own copy.

And the other two pounds are two cones of Jagger Spun's Maine Line 2/8 (fingering weight) yarn in Pewter and French Blue to do Eunny's Venezia in two colors (there's a post somewhere around here with links to a lovely one done in black and cream). That will be my first fairisle/steeked project. And is on smallish needles. Eep. And, yes, two cones is probably enough yarn to make two sweaters, but it was much more fun to acquire two cones than a bunch of mini-cones. Don't you think?

But I have the intended project to complete before then. My first idea (cabled vest of my own design) ended up being a bit too hard to read in the dark yarn. Well, the cables looked good when I didn't miscross them, but I was following written out patterns for four different cables (Lobster Claw, OXOX, Twin Waves, and Ensign's Braid) in two different books (Barbara Walker's first and second Treasuries) and had trouble charting them I don't have BW's charting book so had trouble drawing something to indicate the more complicated crosses), so I was going crazy. I've tabled the idea for now and reclaimed the yarn. There may be a Cobblestone in the works, and I'm not linking to it here because the intended recipient might be clicking around here. If you don't know about Cobblestone, check me on Ravelry or drop me a note. Progress is good. I just hope it will fit my friend.

I'll try to get some pics of the pounds of yarn. BTW, it came from the amazing Halcyon Yarn in Bath, Maine. Very helpful folks there.