Friday, August 26, 2005

Hiatus and Intarsia-plaid!

Sorry about long break, I've been in transit. I moved from Japan back to the states on July 10th.. well, I took a week break in Seattle then came back to my parents house in NY, now I'm packing even MORE stuff to move in with my boyfriend in Maryland and hopefully get a job at this kickass yarn store down there! I've already talked to the owner, who is looking for someone, and provided we get along well hopefully she'll hire me! How often do you find people who are completely flexible with hours AND are obsessive knitter/fiberfiend/teachers?

While I was in Seattle I went to this great yarn store called The Weaving Works. They had a nice selection of knitting yarn, weaving yarn, AND lots of spinning/dyeing supplies! I went there with two friends, one is an ex-knitter and the other is a non-knitter. They had a blast squeezing every ball of yarn in the place :) My ex-knitter friend who I promised to knit a hat for even picked out his own yarn (with some help). We decided on some GORGEOUS Manos del Uruguey (which I had actually never beheld in person). We got a hank of mottled deep red, and a hank of this varigated black-gold-red that knits up a bit like a tweed. Both are absolutely stunning, I think it's my new favorite yarn!

While still in Seattle I was brainstorming in 3D (on the needles), and Dayvd said he wanted the hat to be a beanie-bill, and a work of art, so I should go nuts.
And nuts I went!
I knit the hat flat. It's my first flat hat. It's also done in an interpretive INTARSIA-PLAID based on the Magknits plaid vest. It's a combination of intarsia and slip stitch techniques, and I knit the thing completely patternless. I had about 5 hours on the plane from Seattle to Atlanta, then another 3 hours in the airport to work on it, and have been picking at it here and there since. Yesterday I finlly got the brim done (it's not really a brim, so much as an embellishment), and wove in all my ends! Whoo hoo! And lo and behold, it fits! (my dad, couldn't try it on Day, but they both have bigger heads than me). I really like it :)

Unfortunately, my camera is being retarded and my USB port on it is broken and I don't have a card reader, so I wont have the pictures till tonight because I have to take it to the photo store and burn a picture cd.
But pictures of the amazing hat soon!

Also I got to go to the new Adirondack Yarns Knitting cafe here in Lake Placid! They just expanded and the new store is really cute, and was packed with people! They had some really really lovely handpainted specialty yarns along with all the old favorites. I managed to walk out with NO NEW YARN, but did pick up Stitch and Bitch Nation, Nicky Epstein's (sp) Knitting Embellishments (chotto takai$$$), and the summer Vogue Knitting with the great summer scarves in it :)

Next project I think will be matching armwarmers with the rest of the manos!
And I will have roughly 28 hours in the car (to MD, and back up, then to MD again) to knit! yay! I love how knitting makes sitting around while going places sooo much more enjoyable :)
I haven't knit in the car in a long time though, hope I don't get motionsick...

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