Magical Moebius Knitting

I've been enthralled with Cat Bordhi's Treasury of Magical Knitting books for quite a while now. I checked them out from the library several times each, and finally bought them from amazon.com with a gift certificate I earned through MyPoints*.

The cast-on is ridiculously fast. She calls it MCO - Moebius cast-on - and it is essentially a provisional cast-on. I MCO'ed 269ish stitches in about three minutes...yeah, long-tail cast-on is fast, but I don't think it's that fast. I say 269ish because despite counting several times, at the end of my first round, I had 11 extra stitches. It worked out great, though, because the lace pattern I'm using is an 11 stitch repeat.

Anyway. The first half-round is the hardest part. Every other stitch is mounted backwards and you have to knit it through the back loop. The stitches are also spaced oddly at first. But once you past the first half-round, it's easy peasy. Suddenly everything is where it should be and all is right with the world.

I'm making a lace shoulder wrap from the first book. I substituted Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Lapis for the recommended yarn, and adjusted the number of cast-on stitches to accommodate the slightly different gauge. (Half a stitch per inch is a lot when you're talking 48-50 inches.)

So I'm nearly through with round 7, after starting it Thursday (?) night. (The cast-on number is deceptive. You actually end up with twice as many stitches as you cast on, because you're knitting both the top and bottom rows at the same time. Therefore, in my case, each round is 550 stitches. The upside is that I only have to knit 40 rounds.)



(Click for a close-up that traces the edge(s) of the wrap. It'll blow your mind...)

It's slow going, but I'm hoping to have it finished in time to wear it to the fair, assuming there's a chill in the air when we go. One never knows with this time of year in Oklahoma. Our fair is always the last weekend in September and the first weekend in October, and I can think of times when it was freezing, when it was raining, and when shorts and a t-shirt felt like too much clothing.

Other projects currently on the needles:


Dream Swatch, currently just shy of 28" long


Very basic 3x2 ribbed hat in the merino/alpaca/silk blend previously scored at Tuesday Morning. (I also got several more balls of it at the other Tuesday Morning store near my house, so I now have plenty to make a hat, scarf, and probably fingerless gloves...and will probably even have some leftover after that.)

* If you're interested in signing up with MyPoints, let me know and I'll send you a referral email.

Baby's First Sock

I've never successfully turned a sock heel. Until tonight. (Thanks http://www.knittinghelp.com!)



Yeah, okay, it's a crappy picture. I'll make more of an effort when it's finished and when it's not 10:25 p.m. on a school night. :( Sadly, I think this might turn out to be Tallulah's stocking, because it's much smaller than I intended. Oh well. I did pick up some sz. 15 DPNs tonight (for $23 with tax, ouch!) so hubby and I can have larger stockings. At least it knits up quickly. Mine was originally going to be this red one, but I think I'll go with two strands of Lion Brand Wool-Ease in White Frost instead. Yeah, okay, that's a crappy picture too. It's white and sparkly, though, trust me. Mr. Nekkid's will be Red Heart Soft Yarn in Grass Green (which I already have on hand).

Bonus Wifey pic:



I do indeed have it folded in half and then pulled through. That's why I like my scarves long and skinny. :)

Tomorrow: with any luck I'll have a finished Christmas stocking to show off. Hooray!

Wifey is done!

That didn't take nearly as long as I expected.



Three skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky in red
Crystal Palace bamboo sz. US 10.5
13 stitches cast on, simple moss stitch pattern
Finished size: approximately 3.5" wide by 100" long

Since I have so much time before I need to finish Cozy, naturally I've started something else instead.



Pattern: Cabled Christmas Stocking by YarnThrower
Yarn: Two strands of Red Heart Soft Yarn in Wine (color is not well-represented in this photo...it really is a nice wine/maroon color)
Needles: US 10.5 Crystal Palace DPNs (Yes, this is quite a bit smaller than the pattern calls for. But Wal-Mart didn't have anything even close to US 13 so I had to use what I had on hand. No, I couldn't wait until the LYS opened tomorrow...)
Gauge: Nowhere near what is called for. But it's a Christmas stocking...it doesn't really matter much. A smaller stocking just means that pretty much only cash and gift cards will fit. :P

So much for originality.

I thought I was being really clever and unique when I called this blog "nekkidknitter". It's a running joke sort of thing...you probably don't want the whole story so just suffice it to say that I had my reasons. Anyway, imagine my surprise today when I stumbled across http://www.nakeidknits.com. I was a little mortified, actually...because this person has clearly been blogging since before I even learned to knit. So I've emailed her to ask if she is okay with me using this name...because I figure that's the polite thing to do. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Wifey is coming along nicely. I didn't do much more than a row or two yesterday - work was nuts. But today, a friend was in town from Seattle, and I worked on Wifey while we hung out at Borders. I also worked on it some more this evening, and this was the result:



It's approximately 25" long, and I haven't used up the first skein yet. I think 3 skeins will be just about right.

Yarn diet? What yarn diet? My friend Lora called this evening and wanted me to go to Michael's with her. I was very good there, honest...all I bought was a frame for our Glamour Shots collage and the stuff needed to make it hang. But then, then we went to JoAnn's. I am absolutely in love with their Tesoro yarn, and have been buying it a skein at a time with my biweekly(ish) 40% off coupon. Till Tuesday, though, this lovely yarn is on sale for 40% off, no coupon required. When I walked in, I had absolutely no intentions of buying any more. I've managed to accumulate about a dozen balls (same dyelot!) of the lavender color I intend to use to make myself a winter set. I don't know how, but I never noticed that they also had it in pink. Still, I was going to be strong. Then I saw this:



My sincerest apologies for the glare from the flash. I'm too tired to do anything about it, and my camera battery barely lasted long enough to get these pics off so there can be no new pics at the moment. Anyway, this was on sale for $15, and I'm not sure why (especially since I generally loathe fake gold stuff) but I fell in love with it. That, and a few other miscellaneous things, put me at a total of about $21. Well, I also had this coupon for $5 off a $25 order. If only I could find something costing $4 or so...it would be like getting it for free! You know where this is going. I bought three skeins. Why three? Because I'd only been loosely adding to come up with that $21, and I had to be absolutely certain that my total would be over the requisite $25. Honest.

Ugh. So tired. It feels like it should be about 1 a.m., but it's only 11:37 p.m. It's been a very long day, and tomorrow will be even worse. Tomorrow is the day that I deliver all the stuff I've been accumulating to the woman whose house burned down. I'm actually pretty proud of myself - with the help of my family, she'll be getting:

- practically new full mattress and box spring
- eggcrate-esque mattress pad, two pillows, two sets of sheets, and two cotton thermal blankets
- set of pots and pans
- vacuum
- 46-piece flatware set
- set of three stainless steel mixing bowls (these have lids which I will eventually locate and also give her)
- fleece lap blanket
- red heart-shaped "squoosh" pillow - this serves no real purpose, but I think her 9 YO daughter will get a kick out of it
- package of Thank You cards

I also really need to make a decision about the dinette set. I have been on the fence for weeks about giving mine to her and getting one of my grandmother's tables and chairs. The primary obstacle has been the fact that the room with all Nanny's furniture has been piled high with stuff; well, that will change tomorrow because there's no other way to get the bed out. So I'll have the opportunity to check out the available tables - and I've got to decide once and for all. Tomorrow would be an ideal time to take my dinette to her, because it's got a glass top which could be protected in transit by resting in between the mattress and box.

Oh well. Tomorrow's a new day. Mr. Nekkid's already asleep on the couch, so I think that's my cue.

Fickle-hearted woman.

Good news first: I found the rest of the yarn for Cozy! Not surprisingly, in the same box was also my red Cashmerino! Hoorays!

So much for not starting anything new. But this is necessary, honest...see, it turned cold today. Yes, I have scarves, but what I don't have is a scarf made out of cashmerino that will actually keep me warm. I have cheapy synthetic scarves that do nothing to insulate - they just make me sweat underneath them, and offer no protection at all for when the wind actually picks up. And I couldn't steal Mr. Nekkid's scarf because he actually bothered to wear it today. Since the Cashmerino has been found, I cast on - with apologies to Judy Blume - the Wifey scarf tonight. (I figured it was only appropriate since I called the previous one Hubby.)



Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky in red, Crystal Palace bamboo DPNs (only because that's what I happened to have) sz. US10.5, moss stitch with 13 stitches cast on. For comparison, the Hubby scarf had 23 stitches. It is approximately 3.5" wide, and I will probably use 3 skeins for it too. Yes, that will result in a scarf significantly longer than I am tall, and yes, that is exactly what I want. :) Surprisingly enough, even though I used the flash on this, the color is fairly true. Maybe this throw pillow is an ideal backdrop for such things...maybe it's so bright that the camera thinks it needs less flash. Who knows...but I'll have to try it again and see if the results can be duplicated.

Meanwhile, Cozy will be relegated to WIP storage (also knows as my living room floor) until Wifey is finished. I just have to finish quick, because Cozy needs to be done by the first week of February. It takes me just over 1 hour to finish 1 pattern repeat, and my roughest estimates indicate that I will need about 50 more repeats. Yes, I could technically knock that out in a week or so...if I did nothing but work and knit. Mr. Nekkid, however, has the expectation that he will be able to spend at least a little quality time with me here and there (I know, the nerve!) so that's not going to happen. Instead, once I'm back on it, I'll shoot for one repeat per weekday, and two repeats per weekend day. Hopefully that will enable me to finish it before the deadline even if I don't get back to it till after Christmas.

In other news, we met Tallulah on Tuesday night. We were very taken with her, and have stepped up preparations to bring her home. In keeping with my tradition of putting the cart before the horse, I have already chosen her food dishes, bed, litter box, toys...but have no concrete plans on where these objects will actually go. Ah well, it will all come together. I would have spent tonight getting some of those things in order, but instead, I spent it baking a Praline-Pumpkin Cake. (Recipe calls for store-bought icing but I made C&H Cream Cheese Icing instead.) Yum yum. I'll probably make it again (if for no other reason than to use up the leftover pumpkin) for Thanksgiving. Oh, and Sunday's project is the Hershey's Brownie Cemetery Cake...my boss turns 50 on Monday. >:-D There will definitely be pictures of that.

Nighty night!

I think it's working!

I'm already inspired. So inspired, in fact, that tonight I finished Mr. Nekkid's scarf! This has been a WIP for, oh, six or seven months now. It was just really hard to work on it during an Oklahoma summer - it was like a little skinny lap blanket. But now it's done, just in time for the 70 degree November weather. >.<



Pattern: simple moss stitch, CO 23
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky in black
Needles: Crystal Palace Bamboo, sz. US 10.5
Finished size: approximately 5.5" wide by 6' long

Now I just need to finish the Pea Pod Baby Sweater for the baby that's due in January. It has lacked only attaching the sleeves for, oh, two months now. I've never actually done that before, and I want it to be just right. I need to take it to the LYS and get some help...but I'm trying to resist because that place is always bad for my budget. And it's already stretched pretty thin thanks to all the things we needed for the move. Oh well. Someday soon I'll just have to leave the CC at home and venture out...