Nupp Zombie!

I won't share a picture of the Firmaments Lace Shawl as it doesn't look all that different from last time (I've finished two more repeats of the same section). Instead, I'll share something new.

Clearly, when I need a break from lace knitting, the answer is to do more lace knitting, no?



Behold, the Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush. I can't seem to take a good picture of the nupps but trust me, they're there. Five of them in every repeat and I've finished 30 out of 32 repeats.



They really are quite addictive and I find myself looking forward to them each time. Granted, that might also have something to do with the fact that they are at the midway point of each repeat so they kind of divide up the work a bit.

Also on the needles are another pair of Hourglass, this time for myself.

Actual Knitting Content

I have been knitting, I swear. For whatever reason, I just haven't been able to motivate myself to blog about it until now.

Around the beginning of May, I started knitting a circular lace shawl. In one month, this is how far I've gotten.



Not bad, huh? I've got about four repeats of the last chart left before I start the border. I'm only on the second 50g skein of KnitPicks Shadow. Lace weight is amazing.

An even greater yarn conservation method is to knit with something that's not yarn. When sorting through some old shirts for donation or rags, I decided to cut some up and knit a market bag.



It only took me two nights which is good because it was kind of hell on my hands. Granted, I also stopped as soon as it was anywhere close to a reasonable size.

To make the strips, I cut the hem off the bottom of a shirt completely. I then cut around the whole shirt in a spiral ~1/2 in. wide all the way up to the armholes. At least, that was my intention. There's a reason most of the stripes are pretty short and it wasn't the shirt's fault. Fat girl=plenty of t-shirt material.

I used US13 needles. Instead of fiddling with knitting a handle, I cut three more strips and braided them together and then tied them through a yarn over on each end of the opening. I'm not entirely thrilled with it and might at least go back and knit an i-cord to fasten to it in a similar manner as the braid.

Belated Geek Pride

In honor of my new t-shirt coming and finishing a pair of Rose's Wristwarmers in the appropriate needle size (last time I used US3 instead of US4) and in a yarn closer to the original color, I'm celebrating Geek Pride Day a couple of days late.

In keeping with the theme, I must pass along a video that a friend shared with me yesterday.

It Came Out Of Nowhere

I bought this shirt. Either you're really going to get it or you're not the same flavor of geek as me.

It Came Out Of Nowhere

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All the Small Things

I have a new love. It is a BBC choir drama named after a Blink 182 song. No, I am making this up.

The show is called All the Small Things and it's quite addictive. Bryan Dick has a very amusing smirk and extremely pretty hair (he's the red head with the waves). My favorite song so far is this version of "God Only Knows".



For complete and utter crack, though, see this version of "What's My Age Again".



Possibly one of the oddest things to come of this is that it's made me realize that Enema Of The State came out 10 years ago. Whoa.

I Just Gotta Finish this Level

I have been knitting but I don't feel like talking about it so instead I'm going to share random stuff from the Internet.

First: Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcake Recipe I haven't tried the recipe yet myself but they sound freaking delicious.

Second: Dalek Dresses

Behold, geekery at it's hottest. The Doctor Who Easter Special gave me my fix, but this gives me a smile to get through the news that the next special isn't until November. The tiny Torchwood S3 will help, too, if they ever set a date. For those of you that get a bit tired of my ranting on about British SciFi, sorry. Although, with there not being a new season this year, now would be a perfect time to catch up. Just saying.

Third: Super-geeky love song from which I totally cribbed the post title (Give it until 1:09 before it really gets going)

Pure and Utter Madness

This weekend was spent knitting like a mad woman. Cast on for the first round of Sock Madness Thursday night and finished Sunday morning. Two and a half days! The crazy open afterthought heel was pretty fun, especially grafting 63 stitches at the end. I like the Kitchener stitch. It gives me a sense of accomplishment.

The yarn is Malabrigo Sock in Abril and I used US1.5 needles. I know that part of the reason this went so quickly is that the leg is a little shorter than I usually would make it. The heel also made it quicker as there were far fewer gusset decreases than you normally would have when using a heel flap.

After the marathon sock knitting, I went back to the pigs. I now actually have seven done (one has been sent off to my mom already) and I have two more bodies done. I'm going to go buy another skein of the light pink yarn tonight and I'd like to get the rest of the bodies done either tonight or tomorrow night. Then it's all down to the itty, bitty parts and sewing them on.

Whatever my next project is, I think I need it to be something decidedly less girly. All this pink and purple is messing with me. Black or charcoal gray sweater, perhaps.