New Year's Resolutions

Entree to Entrelac: The Definitive Guide from a Biased Knitter

1. Learn entrelac! Armed with Gwen Bortner's latest book, I am confident I can master this technique.

2. Get my teeth cleaned. For serious. Like many people, I hate going to the dentist more than anything else, but I can put it off no longer.

3. Get a physical. It's been a while...longer than I'd care to admit. Not a good thing to put off!

4. Start working through the design to-do list in earnest....because it keeps getting longer.

5. Knit Tyler a sweater. Finally, after ten and a half years of us being together, he will finally have a hand-knit sweater! Albeit, it will look like all of his other sweaters (a black V-neck, perhaps with some ribs, but nothing fancy - he's just a basic guy.) But this one will be extra warm and made with love!!

6. Master colorwork knitting. I've made several colorwork projects that have turned out quite nicely, but specifically, I want to be able to knit a pair of socks that I can fit over my heel. I just got Melissa Leapman's book for christmas, so should at least be on the right path.

7. As always - destash, destash, destash. This will be the third year of keeping track of projects made with yarn I shopped for in my stash. In 2009, I completed 64 knitting projects with yarn from my stash. In 2010, I only made 24 projects (with a stash-funded sweater still in progress)...which I suppose answers my question as to why there is still so much yarn in my stash! Clearly, 2010 was more about re-stashing than de-stashing. I suppose I can also claim (or blame) the influx of design work for the huge discrepancy in destashed FO's between the last two years. There is also the issue of yarn that has been gifted to me, which I'm never sure if it counts as That Which Can Be Destashed. My feeling is, the year it's given to me, no, but in the years that follow it can be counted as TWCBD.

At any rate, my goal for destashed FO's for 2011 is going to be an immodest, improbable, and quite possibly insane figure of 100. I'm all for blowing 2009 out of the water, and hitting triple digits would just feel good!

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App Review & Giveaway: Stash 2 Go

The developers for a paid Ravelry app for iPad and iPhone called Stash 2 Go contacted me earlier this year to see if I was interested in writing a review or their app on their blog. While I don't own an iPad or iPhone, I was able to gift a download to a knitting friend who had an iPad and was willing to let me play around with it for the purposes of this review! This is the first time I've ever accessed Ravelry via an app (on my Android phone, I typically use the m.ravelry.com site), and I found most of it to be easy to use. Some of the features weren’t intuitive to me at first, but once I got the hang of the idiosyncracies, it was smooth sailing. Stash 2 Go makes the most of API functions Ravelry has opened up to developers (there are still several areas which have yet to be completed in the Ravelry programming interface, so developers can only implement what is available through www.ravelry.com/api ). Most of the app's functionality allows the user to view the ...

Australian Superfine Merino Yarn Review & Giveaway

After more than ten years of knitting, I can still have new experiences - even with well-covered territory such as merino yarn! This recent merino experience actually took me by surprise: I've spun with it, I've dyed it, I've knit with it, and I've even crocheted with it...I was pretty sure I knew all there was to know about merino! Turns out, there are four different classifications of merino fiber, sorted by micron count range . At the bottom of the spectrum is Strong Merino , which ranges from 26-22.9 microns; above that is Fine Merino , which ranges from 20.1-23 microns; next up is Extra Fine Merino, which ranges from 20-15.6 microns; and at the very top of the heap is Superfine Merino Wool , with a micron range of 18.5-15.6. If you're into numbers and wondering how these four classes stack up against other fibers you may be familiar with, here are a few for comparison's sake: BFL (Blue-Faced Leicester) has a micron range of 24-28, Cashmere goat down ...

A Finished Sweater, With Cat Hair

After losing Tilly and Robin within a year of each other, I sure didn't think I'd be finding cat hair in my knitting any time soon. But the universe had other ideas. Over the winter, a white feral cat adopted us. I'd noticed her when we moved into our apartment last summer - I would see her hiding in the bushes or sunning herself in the grass when she thought no one was looking. I assumed she was someone's cat until I realized how skittish she was around humans, plus she had a tipped ear, which is a universal sign that a feral/stray cat has been spayed. Neighbors confirmed that she was a feral kitty (descended from several generations of feral cats, in fact), and that she has survived on her wits and whatever food various residents put out for her. We had some bitterly cold days over the winter, and I just felt so sorry for this poor kitty! I started offering her treats and slowly gained her trust. She didn't even want to come inside our apartment at first, much le...

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