I’m making a baby blanket out of Crystal Palace Mochi Plus in the “Intense Rainbow” colorway, and I couldn’t think of a better stitch pattern for this yarn. My stepsister is having a boy sometime around June 12, so I needed to get cracking on a gift! The Mochi Plus seemed like a good choice, as it’s machine washable, really colorful, and gender-neutral. I had four skeins to begin with, but had to order two more after I realized the initial batch would make a pretty small blanket. Right now, I’m almost done with the fourth ball:

I know it will look a lot better after blocking!

And yes, I dress like that whenever I’m in the kitchen as a matter of pride. You believe me, don’t you?

I’ve made two batches already.

It requires a lot of chopping and a lot of patience.

And at the end you kinda think, “I worked all that time for six little jars?”

But then you taste it, and you know it was all worth it.

I’ve also been knitting, believe it or not. Starsky is almost finished! He’s completely seamed up, just waiting on a belt.

And a better picture, of course. Stay Tuned.

Unfortunately, they’re blocking on a mattress over 200 miles away.

I’ll explain:

I went to Fresno for a hometown visit this weekend, and got the brilliant idea that I’d block my pieces while I was there. My mom has all these spare beds lying around that are perfect for blocking. At my little one-bedroom, big-city apartment, I have very little open, flat space on which to block. Also, unlike me, my mom doesn’t have two cats with a deep, yearning desire to destroy all knits at first sight. This was a plus.

The downside is that the wool took way longer to dry than expected, so I had to leave Starsky sitting on her guest bed while I traveled back home to Los Angeles. Luckily, I’ll be back up for Thanksgiving in just about a week, so Starksy will be retrieved in due course. Hopefully by then I’ll have the sleeves done so I can start seaming this bad boy up!

I got the yarn in the mail on Halloween 2007, and more than 2 years later I can finally say I’ve gotten the majority of work finished on Starsky (pattern | Ravelry).

To be fair, I didn’t cast on for this project until March 2008. I worked on it furiously for about a week and then let it fall into a deep hibernation until about a month ago. So what you see here is really only about a month’s worth of active knitting. Poor guy just had to sit around for almost two years.

I’m loving the Berkshire Bulky yarn (Ravelry) and the color couldn’t be more perfect. And guess what? I’m making it for ME! It’s going to be alllll miiiiine! I almost always gift my knits, so it’ll be nice to have this for myself.

Hopefully I can block these pieces and get going on the sleeves this weekend. I’m hoping to have it done before it gets cold here (or, at least chilly… it is Los Angeles, after all), or at least for my New Year’s trip to Tahoe.

I’m using a pattern by Debbie Bliss called (appropriately) “Ribbed Baby Jacket” and using some stash superwash wool I’ve had lying around for over a year. I think it’s turning out very adorable, and it’s super fast to knit. It’s also enabled me to watch a lot of Battlestar Galactica, so I’m grateful for that. (I’m still not caught up, though, so don’t tell me who the final cylon is!!!)

I just realized, though, that I think I placed the buttonhole too far down the front. I’m planning on creating an icord flower to substitute as a button. I figure it’ll be cute, and it won’t be a choking hazard for little Piper.

After this is done I’ll have to finish Danielle’s iPhone mittens, lest she freeze her fingers off in Chicago. Sorry, Dani—I swear I’ll get those done, soon!

Photo by kristi.nicole

But last night the heavens opened up. I was ecstatic. I love rain. I grew up in a desert during a 7-year drought, so rain is exotic and exciting in my world. Sure, I went to college in Portland, Oregon, so you’d think I’d be sick of rain by now. But I haven’t. I still love it.

Last night, I curled up on the couch, listened to the rain, and knit my Noro scarf.

I got to the end of my first two skeins and took a break. I decided to make cakes out of my stashed Noro, just for kicks:

I have two more skeins of the silk garden chunky left for this scarf, but I think I’m going to use half of each and then make a matching hat, or else the scarf will be super long and heavy.

And, before I forget: have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am knitting the above into a sweater. See?

I’ll be knitting this tonight while watching the VP debates. Also, I’ll be posting this as a free pattern once I’m done with it! And then we can all wear it on election night and (fingers crossed) inauguration day!

I designed a bamboo motif for the double-knit scarf—appropriate, since the yarn is made of 100% bamboo. I have seven pages of charts altogether (all 460 rows), which means I have to pay attention to each row.

With the double-knitting, it can get a smidge confusing which color to use, but it looks like I haven’t messed up yet! Knock on wood for me! I’m going for the gold!

Los Angeles to New York via Austin, New Orleans, Atlanta, Clarksville (MD). 3,300 miles. 8 days. Check out the interactive map.

While I wasn’t driving, I was knitting Starksy.

I got the entire back finished and about half of the front left panel. More pictures and details to come.

Looks awesome, right? Well, not so much. Look at the back:

(Magnus has helped me with this project all along.) See the crappy seam? No? Look at this pic:

Bet you can see it now, even with the out-of-focus and uncentered picture. (Note to self: don’t try to take pictures of the back of your own head anymore.)

Now, Fake Isle is patterned to be knit in the round. I decided it would be easier to knit it flat than to go out and buy size 6 double-pointed needles. I was wrong. Even with a selvedge stitch on each side, the seam looks craptastic. So, Fake Isle got frogged:

Magnus helped me out:

So, I pulled out the yarn and started again, this time knitting in the round. I also decided to make the larger size from the pattern because the small one was just slightly too snug for me. I don’t know if it was too tight because my gauge was off (I never bothered to measure… it seemed good enough) or if the pattern runs small, but I definitely recommend making the larger size for an adult-size head, as I have a very small head myself. I do. It’s tiny. Borderline microcephalic, I’ve been told.

Luckily, the yarns (Noro Silk Garden and Knit Picks’ Swish DK superwash) frogged nicely:

(Excuse the cat’s evil eyes.)

Now I’m about a quarter way done with the hat. Hopefully I’ll have it finished before my trip to Portland, Oregon, next week!