One fish, two fish, green fish, blue fish.

the ladies of Friends Knit Together and i are currently taking on a mini-knitalong for Pomatomus. what it is, more or less, is a fun way for us to finally force us to sit down and outsmart the pattern.



it's working! twisted rib gets me every time. i just love those perfect little rows that curve to form perfect little fish scales. the pattern is really easy to memorize too, which is especially nice. logic is terribly refreshing!

Monkey 2.0

my current obsession with colourwork has made textured knitting new and exciting once more. while my addiction to colour and motif is by no means on the wane (the second Sea Mineral mitten is progressing nicely,) there's a special place in my heart for nice, textured socks.

i didn't want to get too distracted from my colourwork plan of attack (wait til you see what else is headed down the pipeline!) i cast on for my second pair of Monkeys. at first i didn't know if i was even going to be able to write about these socks without finding suitable song lyrics about monkeys (recall what happened last time?) but i'm proud to say i'm doing fine. besides, the only songs that came to mind were Monkey Man, Shock The Monkey and Monkey Gone To Heaven, none of which are applicable at present. i am at a loss, but i have a nice pair of socks in my future:



that's Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Hercules slowly being coaxed into what i call the Kuzunoha Monkeys (i'm still addicted to that palette!) who knew knitting with seaweed could be so lovely?

Colonia Mittens, FO.

Yarn: Colonia in Lettuce Violet from handpaintedyarn.com
Needles: Clover Takumi Bamboo dpns, US 5
Pattern: Basic Mitten Pattern, by Ann Budd
Started: 8 August 2007
Finished: 11 August 2007

Notes: i am a big fan of the "peasant thumb" mitten, but i thought i'd try something new. the pattern and i crossed paths at the right time--it's like it was meant to be. it went up so fast--these could be the perfect last-minute Xmas gift!

i've had this yarn lurking in my stash for a long, long time now. when i first picked it up i was fairly sure that it was going to be destined to spend the rest of its days as a hat, but thankfully the mood passed (i was feeling dangerous. combining "feeling dangerous" and "hats" hardly ever results in something that one would want to actually wear in public.)

i've been told that this yarn is the budget-friendly alternative to Malabrigo, and i'm not about to argue. both come from Uruguay, and while the Colonia is nowhere near as soft as Malabrigo, one can't argue with the price (it's currently going for $6.30 USD.) one small caveat: keep an open mind when purchasing the yarns on handpaintedyarns.com--they are hand dyed and often the colours one sees in the pictures often aren't exactly what one gets. i've ordered from them several times and i've yet to be truly disappointed with the colour of my yarn!

Fun Fact: i knit almost the entire second mitten on my way to visit Heather in the big city.

Hungry for colour.

while driving out int he county yesterday i couldn't help but stare at the wildflowers at the sides of the road--deep brown finished thistles, white Queen Anne's Lace, golden yellow flowers whose name escapes me at the moment and grasses parched to a light beige were everywhere i looked.

once at home i threw this together:

all KnitPicks Palette, of course.

and then i got to thinking.

a quick stash-diving excursion produced this:

i love it when this happens! the observant might note that the beige in the upper palette is actually Palette in Twig, while the beige seen here is Palette in Tan. i was ready to settle until (to my delight) further diving yielded a ball of Twig! so now i have my current dream-palette, sans the purple that i surreptitiously included (i had spotted an errant still-blooming thistle in one wildflower patch.) i can live without the purple (for now.)

so it seems that i have another Latvian-style mitten-in-training on my hands. my brain is already ticking...stay tuned to see what transpires.