Video Magnifique

Have you seen this YouTube video by the band, Tricot Machine? Watch carefully, as each frame of the the knitting actually changes! Inconceivable for me to even contemplate that much knitting for that little exposure time.

Do you think they were all knit by different people, or that just one or a few did a LOT of creative tinking and frogging? Do you think the changes could be computer-generated? Make sure you watch until the end when the answer is revealed.

The video itself is quite an artistic accomplishment and very absorbing to watch. However, the french music?.....not so much. I guess it's an acquired taste, like escargot or goose liver pate......But no matter because (with apologies to the band) watching the video is really all about the knitting content, no?

We Love Surprises!! - Part II

Usually surprises are far and few between around here, but the past month has been a bonanza of surprises! Did I say I love surprises? Oh yes, I think I did...

Here's the latest surprise to show up in my mailbox last week---the Defeat the Winter Doldrums swap box from my lovely and generous pal, Katie! It was hard to fit all of the contents in one picture...

Wow, what a box! Katie sent a fabulous dishcloth and two matching scrubbies in a pink/tan color that I love, as well as another plus-size cloth with a rubber-duckie motif--hard to see in pic, but so cute! (BTW, Katie and I share a little secret concerning rubber ducks, which shall be revealed at a later date.) The yarn is Knitpicks Cot-Lin, which I've been wanting to try, in a beautiful bright turquoise color as well.

There is also an assortment of tea bags, soaps, a candle, a notepad and a heart-shaped sucker! And down at the very bottom of the picture, there are some truly gorgeous stitch markers that Katie made, which deserve a much bigger picture of their own...



Hard to capture in a picture, but aren't they especially pretty? I absolutely love them and will use them often!

Thanks so, so very much, Katie, for all of the lovely gifts you sent! I couldn't have chosen more perfect colors for everything if I had chosen them myself! Your box and your great note truly made my day!

Katie is not only a swap pal extraordinaire and the sweetest girl ever, she is also adventurous and brave and works as a pilot! Yes, she actually flies big jets for a living. Go over to her blog and pay her a visit, and see a picture of her in the cockpit! How awesome is that? Not just your average knit-blogger, that's for sure! (...but I can see why her mom gets nervous sometimes when she reads her blog...).

In which she proves that there really IS knitting going on...

If you read my blog, you would think that I spend all of my time wrangling minions, untangling ravaged stash, returning damaged stash and acquiring more stash, with no actual knitting going on. Well, yes, most of my time is spent in these pursuits, but not all of it. While FO's are scarce at times, there is occasionally a little actual knitting that goes on around here.

I recently joined the "Defeat the Winter Doldrums" swap, and made this cloth and scrubbie set to send to one of my pals...


The dishcloth is the DW cloth, a free pattern that can be found here. It was a fun and quick knit and great for variegated yarns. I've never made a scrubbie before, but this one was a snap.... The scrubbie is also from a free pdf pattern called "Dishcloth Duo," which can be linked through this page. The scrubbie as written in the pattern is cute, but comes out very small, so I modified the pattern to super-size it! I just increased the number of CO stitches and proportionately increased the number of rows knit, and got a bigger and better version.

Here's a little yarn pron interruption.....

It's the Knitpicks Bare laceweight I also included in the swap box. I have never seen this yarn in person, so I took a chance on ordering it, but I was pretty impressed with it when it arrived. (It was tempting to keep it for myself, but I didn't). It is very soft and cushy, and has excellent yardage for the cost. I even think it looks very pretty undyed as well. I'll definitely be keeping this in mind for a future project of my own!

Back to the FO's---here's a little something I knit for myself with a lonely skein of Noro Kureyon #134 from my stash...

My first pair of fingerless mitts! (modeled by cute hubby so I could take the pic)...He's so good about the knitwear modeling. Remember this? (scroll down past yet another yarn tragedy...). I'm sure he'll be thrilled about me sending everyone to have another look at that one...heh!

Anyway....I've never made mitts before and wanted an easy pattern to master the thumb-knitting thing without too much fuss, and this pattern certainly fit the bill. The pattern is "Maine Morning Mitts," from The Knitters Book of Yarn. (Great book, btw, if you haven't seen it.)

I believe the pattern is also available free on the web, and is linkable on Ravelry. The pattern is pretty straightforward and clear, so if you haven't knit mitts before, this is a good place to start. I only modified the pattern slightly by knitting on two circs, and picked up a couple of extra stitches around the thumb hole. They are comfy and fit very nicely, and after a long soak are now soft and cushy!

One warning if you use the pattern---it calls for one skein of Noro Kureyon, and it does mean the whole skein! So if you only have one, make sure you don't waste too much because it cut pretty close for me with only a couple of yards leftover! Of course, your mileage may vary, but I'm just sayin'...

I have a couple of other recent FO's, as well as the contents of the awesome swap box I received from my fab swap pal Katie, but still waiting for enough light to take some pics of all of it (what happened to all of our sunny days?...wahhh). As the queen of lollygagging and general procrastination, I can't say for sure when that will be, but we can shoot for soon, I hope...

A minion's work is never done...

As cute husband was heading out for work this morning, he came across a certain minion engaged in what can only be described as felonious activity of the highest degree. He found said minion on the floor with a blob of what was once a skein of Frog Tree sportweight alpaca, arms shoved in up to the armpits, nuzzling the yarn with his pointy little nose (can't say as I blame him for that part).

I'm not mentioning any names, but he has a lot of toes, is always busy, and was too inexperienced (or dumb) to realize he was even doing anything wrong. Cute hubby reports that he appeared to be quite pleased with himself and was enjoying the felonious activity immensely---so much so that he didn't even bother to stop or run away when caught! (Which begs the question... exactly how long CH let him continue before he stopped him....ahem).

Since the two older minions probably had the good sense to run away, I'm not sure he was in it alone, or if he got to it after prior assault by minion-y accomplices, but here's the result...

Busy, busy, busy---A minion's work is never done.