Girasole - finished!

Here's the problem with secret knitting projects...

You have to keep them a secret. This means you definitely can't blog about them, especially if the intended recipient is a regular reader of your blog. This was the case with my Girasole by Jared Flood [Ravelry]. I was knitting it as a wedding present for a good friend, and I didn't want to ruin the surprise!

On March 8, 2009, my Girasole was only two skeins of Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair full of potential.



Over three months later, I ended up with this final product:



Well worth the effort! Look how pretty and sparkly the yarn is.



Now is the time to bow down in deep reverence for Mr. Jared Flood. That man knows how to write a damn good pattern. Girasole was a labor of love, for sure, but its dirty little secret is how easy the pattern is to knit! Jared's pattern breaks each section up into small, easy-to-follow charts. They're repetitive enough to keep track of, but small enough that you never get bored.

I do have to say that I was pretty anxious to get this sucker off the needles after a while.



Lace is so lumpy and unattractive before blocking, but I kept the faith that it would turn out beautiful in the end. A few hundred pins later...



...and you got yourself a pretty lace shawl! Shazam!

Here's some technical stuff for the other knitters out there. I used size 8 (5mm) needles, and all of two skeins of the Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair, which comes out to 1120 yards. I skipped one repeat of chart E because I was afraid I'd run out of yarn.

Turns out I ran out of yarn just at the end of the knit-on edging. I was really pissed off. So pissed off, in fact, that I swore I wouldn't go buy anther 600-yard skein just to use 10 yards of it. I was actually finishing the edging during the Lakers' championship game against the Magic, and my boyfriend's delight at his team winning the big prize inspired me to keep on trucking. I HAD to finish that damn shawl.

So, in an effort to save yarn and get the damn thing done, I proceeded to fudge the edging quite a bit. Basically, I was knitting 3 stitches together instead of 2, and I kinda smushed the ends together. Guess what? It's nearly impossible to see the difference... plus, what's that whole thing about needing imperfections in your work so you don't offend the gods? Yeah, that, too.

I gifted the shawl to my friend and now I have to say I'm kind of itching to knit another Girasole! This time, I want to make the blanket size. What do you think? Should I go for it?

(I'll buy extra yarn this time if I do.)

In L.A.? Come see my new play!

Do you live in Los Angeles? If so, you should come see the world premiere of my new play, "Beneath Her Feet" (co-written by Jason Matthews). It's about living and working and loving in Los Angeles, and it's sure to be a good time.

April 3-5, 10-12, 17-19, 2009. Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm. 4735 Lankershim Blvd, 91602.

It's a 3-week run, so there are 9 -- count 'em: 9! -- chances to come see the play!

Tickets are only $10! Make your reservations today -- don't miss out! Exclamation points!!!
http://www.abovethecurvetheatre.com/reservations.php

Can't wait to see you there!

iPhone Mittens

It's cold in Chicago.



I live in Los Angeles (currently 66°F), where it's easy to forget that most of the country is experiencing this thing called "winter." I also don't realize the special challenges that bundling up under countless layers of clothing presents.

For example: my friend Danielle, a PhD student at the University of Chicago, told me she was getting frustrated with wearing gloves all the time. It's too cold in Chicago to go bare-handed, especially while walking her dog. But when she gets a call on her iPhone, the gloves get in the way of her answering the phone. The solution?



The iPhone Mittens! (Ravelry) They have a flap to cover your fingers that can be quickly pulled back to answer your phone:



The pattern is my own, yarn is Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran (Ravelry). I used the majority of two skeins, and cut it REALLY close with the black. If I were to re-create this pattern, I'd use the grey on the finger-flap to make sure I wouldn't run out of yarn.

I'll write this pattern up if there's interest -- let me know if you'd like to see this pattern online!

Warning signs?

I've never really considered knitting a high-risk hobby. Sure, my wrists are often sore and I even gave myself tendonitis from knitting too much. As a naturally paranoid person, I have considered the unlikely chance of getting stabbed by a needle while driving or during plane turbulence. But as I had never heard a verifiable story of such a stabbing happening to anyone, I brushed the notion aside as urban legend.

But then I started to read The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life by Ben Sherwood. (On my Kindle -- the original version, not the new spiffy Kindle 2, but oh well.)

The VERY first story of suvival was about Ellin Klor, titled "A Knitting Needle Through the Heart" (click link for excerpt). I had to do a double-take. A knitting needle where exactly? The heart you say? Egads!

The very next day, I was knitting and watching TV, and I stumbled upon Mystery Diagnosis on the Discovery Health channel. After a story about a boy who had breathing problems, they played a piece about a woman who stepped on a crochet hook and impaled her own foot! Yikes! And the scary thing is this injury triggered a slew of other health problems (hence the mystery diagnosis) and kept her essentially bedridden for weeks.

If the universe is trying to warn me against knitting, I'm not listening. Though I'm now being a bit more careful about where I keep my needles when I'm not knitting, lest I sit down on them and pierce my behind.

Whether it's the cosmos trying to put a damper on my knitting or just the result bad planning, I knit the ugliest bathmat in existence recently:



It was supposed to be Absorba (Ravelry), from Mason-Dixon Knitting, but since I don't actually own that book, I decided to ad-lib the pattern. This was not a good idea. Once I realized the color scheme was all messed up, I gave up and just made the edge striped. The good news is that it's comfy to stand on and it absorbs a lot of water, so it's not a complete loss. Since I accidentally bought twice as much yarn as needed, I'm making a new bathmat in a different stitch pattern to atone for the ugliness of my existing one.

Final question for my readers: have you ever injured yourself while crafting? I'm curious to find out if it's as dangerous as reported!

Bathmat-itis?

OH HAI!



Last night, I stumbled upon the Ravelry page for Absorba, The Great Bathmat and something snapped in me. I just had to knit it. It didn't matter that I didn't have the yarn or the book containing the pattern. So, I jumped in the car and headed to Michaels and came back with this:



I'm knitting with 3 strands of Sugar N Cream held together on size 15 needles. Needless to say, this is a fast project. Since I don't have the actual pattern, I'm just ad-libbing the log-cabin technique. Maybe not the best idea, since my colors are coming out kinda wonky:



But, meh, who cares? It's a bathmat. My current bathmat is kinda disgusting, so anything will be an improvement.

Post-Valentine's Post

Usually I'm not one to think twice about Valentine's Day. It's never really meant much to me as a holiday, maybe because I've usually had very low-key Valentine's nights or because I like to have low expectations to hedge against disappointment.

So imagine my pleasant surprise when yesterday turned out to be an awesome, fun, romantic day! I started off the day by blocking Piper's Jacket:



(I've gotta remember to block on neutral-colored stuff from now on, 'cause the bright pink beach towel is a little distracting.)

I ad-libbed an i-cord flower to use as a button. I think turned out pretty cute:



I figured the flower would work as a closure for the jacket, without it being a choking hazard for little Piper. I made the 0-3 month size, and I finished it in under a week!

Then I got flowers from my special gentleman friend:



I made him "conversation heart" cookies as a Valentine's present:



We then we went out to a fancy dinner, went to see Phantom of the Opera at the Pantages (my friend Anne is a stage manager for the show and she hooked us up with FANTASTIC seats -- thanks, Anne!), and ended the night at the Standard downtown. Now, is that a Valentine's Day or what?

Piper's Jacket - WIP

A friend of mine just had a baby. He and his wife named her Piper. So I'm making Piper a jacket:



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!