Oh really?

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you. You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil. How you live your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others.

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Eerily accurate, except for the "neat freak" part.

I did a bit of sloppy spinning last week.
This is a single ply spun hastily from some Lorna's Laces Wool Top in the Sherbet colorway that I found at Stitch DC. I was really surprised to find it there since they don't sell any spinning gear at all as far as I know. Maybe they meant for people people to knit strips of it unspun.
That would probably be really nice and fluffy, or very sturdy if felted. Anyhoo, in this case uneveness is a good thing because this slubby yarn is intended for ISE4.
Voila, a modified Loopy and Luscious in progress!

I've also done some sock knitting on the train:
These socks I showed before are for my brother's Not-Just-a-Friend, since they're both going hiking in Whatchamacallit State Park or wherever it is. This is the Mock Croc sock (moc croc soc??) in Paton's Kroy Socks in "Paintbox." It's much brighter than the colors I usually work with. But I kinda like it.

Mis cumpleanos

Illustration by Jersey Girl (look, I'm holding a turtle!).

I had a great birthday last week. Thanks for the well wishes! There was great Cuban food, a yummy cake, and of course the customary birthday swag, including a surprise package from Jinann, queen of fiber acquisition! Check it out:
Geez, can you say WOW? So green and yarny :) Thank you so much, Jinann!

To my dear ISE4 pal, I've been getting your emails but I'm having trouble replying to you. I got a bounce message when I tried sending to your reply-to address. I also sent to your old address, but haven't heard back. Please let me know if I'm emailing the right address. Thanks!

Gulp!

Sorry for the blog silence. In lieu of substantial content, here's a peak at the bits of knitting I've managed:


More details next time I come up for air...

Greetings from the Northern Hemisphere!

One bad thing about spring is that it's no longer wool season, at least not for half of the world. Fortunately, there's a whole other hemisphere to knit for!
These hats (Center Square on the left and Fake Isle on the right) are going to my cousins in New Zealand, who emigrated there last year from the Philippines. They aren't enjoying the colder weather. Well at least they say it's cold there, but I think it may be more a relative term. I did some googling and found that the average temp during their coldest month (July) is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Hmmmm, not what I would consider cold, but I guess if you're coming from constant 90 degree days, that's pretty darn cold.

I also modified a Lion Brand mitten pattern to incorporate the Center Square colorwork:
It worked out pretty well. I added four stitches right after the thumb shaping to accommodate the 8-stitch repeat, which fortunately balanced out the narrowing caused by stranding the two colors. I was so proud of myself that I forgot to decrease by 4 stitches after the motif. This led to a lot of head-scratching when I got the crown decrease: Uh, why are there four extra stitches? (long pause) Doh! I blame the Hoyas. Their come-from-behind antics totally distracted me.