"Snow People" is an inside joke from my recent trip to Albuquerque.  On the last day, there were those of us who decided to stay in downtown Albuquerque and those who decided to play in the snow at the Sandia Mountains.  They ended up being stuck out there for hours thanks to all the taxis servicing Albuquerqueians on St. Patrick’s day.  It’s become a jokingly derogatory term.

So, am I a snow person for wanting to use two separate knitting patterns to make one sweater, one of which uses 10, yes 10, different colors?  Well, at least I’ll be warm in my insanity!

(hey, before we get with the post, I’d thought I’d say that I’m working on getting a dump of info to transfer over from the other blog)

I am trying to cobble together a sweater from the Equinox Yoke Pullover from Interweave Knits Fall 2006 and the Hourglass Sweater (HG) from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  Here’s a badly lit photo:

Mostly the yarn I’m using is Valley Yarns Amherst (soft, squishy merino) and 1 skein of Elann Peruvian Highland Wool:

Let’s see.. we’ve got: Cayenne, Gold, Charcoal, Navy, Olive, Light Grey, Canyon Red, Burgundy, and Eggplant.  I still need to buy some yarn to stand in as "light tan heather."  ???

By the way, I had never planned on doing this sweater this way, but I ended up getting all the VY Amherst in a swap and the colors just happened to essentially correspond with the colors used in the Equinox sweater.

I’m using the Eggplant as the MC.  For the body, I’m following the HG directions as written, except for the fact that I’m using M1L and M1R because they’re a lot flatter than kf&b.

For the sleeves, I’ve thus far been able to work the color pattern into the HG directions.  The "seam" is a little funky, but I think that can be sorted out when I weave in all those goddamn ends.

hahahahhahahaaa   This is what I’ve been keeping track of rows with.  That baby sure is happy that it’ll now have relief from the pain and itching "down there."  Oh I know I’m bad.

In efforts to delete SPAM comments, it looks like I accidentally deleted my most recent post, which I spent a lot of time writing and formatting.

FUCK YOU SPAMMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way, I’m going to soon move this blog to my website.  http://cgi.electro-k.org/wordpress/

If anyone wants to suggest to me how to make that url shorter, please suggest to me!

p.s. Don’t drink and internet.  It’s BAD. 

Last week I started again on the My So Called Scarf (because the first version was stolen!).  I remembered that when I cast on for Version 1, I first tried the knitting on CO, decided I didn’t like it and opted for the old standard: long tail cast on.  The thing is, when you’ve cast on the proper number of stitches, they’re oriented so that the next row would be a purl row if working in Stockinette stitch.  If you’re doing a stitch like the herringbone one found in MSCS, you’re not going to want an awkward 1st two rows of Stockinette.

So what’s the solution?  Do the long tail cast on BACKWARDS!  The following is a tutorial for doing the long tail cast on backwards.  If you’re not familiar with doing it the regular way, go familiarize yourself with the very helpful video found on the knittinghelp website, which is found above.  This is rocket science, but I thought I’d share with the world a solution to something I’ve long had a problem with in knitting.

 This is your typical swatch knit using long tail cast on the regular way.  CO X sts, purl next row, continue in Stockinette stitch.  blah blah blah

And this is how you typically hold your yarn: 

Let’s switch things up a bit.  This time, the needle will be held in the left hand and the yarn will be in the right hand.  The yarn tail is still in the FRONT and the working yarn is in the BACK.

Then, start working the cast on as you would regularly.  Scoop the yarn tail from underneath:

Then scoop the working yarn from the top:

And pull through the yarn tail’s loop:

And tighten the newly-made stitch, but NOT TOO TIGHTLY.  Et voilà, you’ve made two stitches:

And just keep repeating that until you’ve got the requisite number of stitches made.  Remember, with the long tail cast on, you need to make sure the yarn tail is long enough to make X stitches.  Once you’ve got your stitches, the next row should be a knit row.  Just as with the regular version, the cast on row counts as your FIRST ROW.  The following knit row would be row 2.

Ok, now I think it’s time for me to get some sleep.  I’ll update soon with photos of stuff I’ve been working on in the past two weeks.  It’s exciting, I swear!  (Cosby sweater anyone?)

Last Thursday night, Lucas’ car was stolen.  In addition to the car, he lost a majority of his wonderful cd collection.  I lost my purse, which had all sorts of important things in there, and my backpack, which had ALL of my notes for this semester and two WIPs. 

My lovely Sahara #2 and My So Called Scarf were in the backpack.  I was worried about handpaintedyarn.com not having anymore of the Sotobosque colorway, but thank Jebus they did.  I bought the last two skeins!  However, elann.com is currently OUT OF STOCK of their Peruvian Highland Silk in Calypso Green.  I submitted a "Desperately Seeking" request on their website, so hopefully they’ll either update their stock soon or someone will want to sell some to me.  I have yarn to start another, but not enough to finish a long sleeved version.  sigh, again

It’s going to be a while before I have the courage to start knitting it again.  In the meantime, I can keep knitting on other sundry projects I have lying around.

Speaking of, I finished the silk garden cable scarf that some of you have seen at the SNB.  I’ll post a photo later. 

Here are some photos of things I’ve been working on lately.  I always have a ton of on-going projects, but these are the ones I’ve been devoting the most time to.

 Lovely Sahara #2 in Elann Peruvian Highland Silk–Calypso Green.  When I first started this, one of my coworkers asked me if I was knitting a baby sweater. 

Entrelac scarf in SWTC Karaoke.  I don’t know how I feel about how these colors are turning out in this pattern.  Please give me your opinions! 

 I like this one a lot though.  It’s ‘My So Called Scarf’ in handpaintedyarn.com’s Colonia 140–Sotobosque, which means ‘underbrush.’  I love the subtle zigzags of the colors.

A Finished Object!  This is one of two Dashings (from Knitty) made with Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Hyacinth.  I need to knit its mate.  I’m not really in any hurry as it’s gotten to the time of year when I sweat in my house.  I love how this one turned out.  BTW, I knit the small size, of course.  I’d like to knit a pair for Lucas, but I don’t know if the large would fit him or not.  I guess I’ll just have to knit and see!

Such simple, lovely cables.  yum 

P.S. I might get to go to Norway, land of gorgeous knits, in May!  I’m crossing my fingers.