orangina, orangina, where you been so long?

as promised, here's a progress shot of my orangina. none of this is new progress - this is as far as i got with the project last july, when i started it, pre-blog. back then, i was sooooooo excited about getting this done - i loved (and still do!) the design, and couldn't wait to wear it. but then a few gift knits got in the way, and before you know it, it's april and i still don't have an orangina to my name! still, that first half is complete, and i think the second half will go pretty fast as well. not that i've cast on for it yet! soon, soon.





the yarn is rowan 4-ply cotton, which is lovely and soft to work with. the color is 'fennel,' which is fun to say and always makes me smile. i'm excited, if nothing else, to just not have it hanging over my head. but i think i'll enjoy wearing it as well.

and i try not to post too many pictures of my cat, but i can't resist sharing this one. he's just too darn cute here! he was helping with the photo shoot.

feeling blue

hello!

first off, i wanted to say thanks to chris for the cute card she sent me this week as part of the knitterly letter swap. look, it's knitters, knitting:



thanks chris - your return letter is on the way!

in my last post i mentioned that i was going to focus on getting two sweaters done in the next two months: finishing my orangina from last summer, and starting rusted root. well, rusted root came first, and so far i'm really enjoying it. this is my first top-down sweater that i've attempted, and i can already see why people like this method so much. i'm almost done with the raglan increases, and it looks, believe it or not, like a sweater! this thrills me way more than it should, i know. but...like i said before, i've started many a sweater and not finished a single one, largely because i get bored of knitting large rectangles, and have a hard time imagining the final product. here, i can definitely see the puffy sleeves taking shape, the neckline is obviously a neckline, and the length of the sweater is growing. i hope to get this done in the next few weeks, as it's knitting up really fast, and i'm feeling really motivated by the project. and as long as i don't have any more mishaps like i had the other night, when the two connected cords of my denise needles spontaneously unconnected, leaving me with a few severely dropped stitches, then i think that goal is attainable.



i'm using lamb's pride cotton fleece, in the 'emperor's robe' color. i know, i should have picked a pink or a green! but when i went to buy the yarn, none of the pinks or greens really thrilled me, and my orangina is green anyway, so i thought i'd go for another color. now that i'm knitting with this color, i'm not sure if i like it or not. i kind of wish it was more of a navy blue, but oh well. maybe it will bring out the blue in my eyes!

hopefully i'll have an orangina progress shot for you later this week as well...

fake-a-gamo completo!

it's been a while since i last posted, mostly for lack of anything to post about. i feel like any knitting i've done over the past few weeks has fallen into some mysterious knitting black hole, leaving me nothing to show for my efforts. but finally (and it does feel like ages since i can say this), i have a finished object to show off - fake-a-gamo is finally done!





i got really excited about this project the second i laid eyes on it, way back in october. and i remained excited through the first side of the bag. but when i realized i had to do it all over again, what originally seemed fun and cool and whatnot suddenly seemed...not so much those things. i REALLY struggled to bother finishing the second side. i'm still not exactly sure if it was worth the effort either - i think it looks nice, but i don't really know how much i'll use this bag - i need a BIG purse, and this is not that. it's teeny! at about 11 inches across and five or six inches tall (not including the handle strap parts), this bag basically holds my pretty darn big wallet, and not much else. so i guess it will get use as an occasional bag when i go out, but i don't see me using it as an everyday bag. but i sound so negative! i do like it - i like the triangle patterns, i love the lining, and i think it's a super cute summery bag. so yay- a cute, finished knit!

the details:

pattern: fake-a-gamo (this is a free pattern - i just emailed kate and she sent it right to me)
yarn: lamb's pride cotton fleece, in buttercream - one skein (a sidenote on that...i bought WAY too much of this stuff. i really don't know what i was thinking at the time, but seriously - way too much. after i finished the first half, it looked like i had used less than 1/2 of the first skein, so i took the other skeins back to the yarn store and exchanged it for another color, for another project. of course...i ran out of yarn before i got to the end of the second half of the bag. i felt *this* dumb. luckily, i ran out on the last folded-over handle bit, and luckily, i had a wool yarn that matched almost exactly, but still...silly me.)
needles: denise needles, size 6
modifications: i didn't do the little curlicue thingies at the bottom, and my bag is quite a bit smaller than the dimensions in the pattern, which is because i used a different yarn and didn't bother swatching first...i figured it didn't matter too much since it's just a bag. i'm just lazy like that.

i've decided that for april and may, i'm going to focus on finishing my orangina that i started last july (it's green, for project spectrum!), and also finish up another sweater that i started this week - the popular rusted root. please keep me honest here - i really want some cute summer tops to wear this year, and i'm excited to work on these, but i always lose steam on sweaters. i've actually never finished one (orangina is a good example of my typical sweater experience), though i've started many. i find that really sad, so i'm hoping to change that soon.

oh yeah! last week veronica emailed me to say that i had won some yarn on her blog. we both live in seattle, so last saturday we met up for chai, which was a fun treat, and she gave me this:



that's three skeins of art yarns regal silk, and one of a matching art yarns silk tape. it's gorgeous! i keep petting it. thanks again veronica! i'm not sure what i'm going to do with it yet, but i'm starting to think about making a second, smaller clapotis. any other ideas?

pink, green, yellow...the colors of our lives

today lolly asked to see our pink, green and yellow stash, and i was happy to oblige...i think green is the most represented color in my stash. i can't get enough green! and if it's the right pink or the right yellow, i can't get enough of that either.

so here are the greens:



(that's roughly, from top right, trekking xxl, rowan 4-ply cotton, yarn pirate in 'sadie,' frog tree, socks that rock in 'alina,' yarn pirate in 'apple,' socks that rock in 'watermelon tourmaline,' the knittery (shade unknown), and louet gems in 'fern')

and the pinks (much fewer of those):



(knit picks shine in orchid - i have LOTS of this stuff!, and yarntini in 'pomtini')

and the yellow:



(that's jamieson's shetland spindrift in 'flax,' lisa souza sock! yarn in 'ginger peach,' and some unknown cotton that i used last year to make my mom some dish cloths)

and some more project spectrum around my house...

about five or six years ago, i bought these japanese/chinese language flash cards at a little boutique and bought some cheapo frames from ikea to frame them. i painted them yellow and green because that matched my bathroom at the time. these live in our kitchen now.



tea is a very important part of my day:



soy bean afro ken!



this is an afghan that my great-grandmother crocheted. i love it!



this is where my button collection lives:



and some buttons:



and my book journal, where i record lists of all the books i read in a year: