Fake Isle Finally Finished

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I love projects that just fly off the needles and still look like I slaved over them. Fake Isle is one of these projects. It looks much harder than it is, and it's a very quick knit. Case in point: I frogged my first Fake Isle on Monday, and it's now Wednesday afternoon and I have already finished my new, unseamed one. Have a look:



This time I knit the larger size. It's still snug, so I'm glad I did. Another action shot:



Here's a shot of the join and the color-jog:



I'm so glad I frogged and re-knit, because even though I still get the color-jog at the join it looks leaps and bounds better than the seam did.

Oh, and my brother got his hat today! I'll post a separate entry about his hat later on, when he's sent me more pictures.

Frogging Fake Isle

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I thought I had this one in the bag. I finished Fake Isle in two nights and was feeling pretty smug about it. Check it out:



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!

Not just any library...

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I was just sitting here, eating my tuna salad sandwich during a rushed lunch, minding my own business when I saw something that is just very cool. See for yourself:



Holy moly! That's me in the Library of Congress!

Okay, so I know anything that's been published in any way, shape or form is in the Library of Congress catalog. (And the fact that they spell it "catalog" instead of "catalogue" is very distressing to me.) And I realize that when I actually got a book deal from Chronicle Books I should have realized that this would happen. But this is a first for me, so give me my five minutes of giddiness and then I'll go back to eating my sandwich.

Meanwhile, in my actual knitting, I've finished a secret project called "Sky Birds" for my brother (pics will be posted once he receives it), and I immediately started knitting a Fake Isle hat:



Excuse the poorly-lit, low-resolution photo. Yes, I used my iPhone to take the picture. So sue me. I do everything with my iPhone these days. Soon I'll teach it how to knit and everyone will be happy. And by everyone I mean me.

Fake Isle is nearing completion already, so expect an action shot in the near future. Now if only the weather would cool down enough for me to wear it.

You too can be published!

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Hey everyone! My lovely, wonderful publisher, Chronicle Books, is having a contest for knitters and designers! Check out all the details their blog!

Here's the gist: submit your own intarsia chart and your design could be included in my forthcoming book, Picture Perfect Knits. How cool is that? Plus, you'll get a free copy of the book and MAD bragging rights. If I weren't the author, I would totally submit a design...

SoCal is burning...

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...and I'm making a double-knit hat. The irony is not lost on me. Thankfully, the hat is for my lovely brother, who lives in the forest for half the year and thus has occasion to wear a doubly-thick hat.

Meanwhile, the local weatherman is using these terms to describe Los Angeles weather:



My roommate mentioned that our forecast sounds like a nice gouda.

My brother is aware of the hat, and he's seen grainy, iChat-relayed images of it half-done. But because this is technically a secret project, I will not post pictures until he has the hat on his head, hopefully sometime next week.

Meanwhile, I have finished a project for myself. Yes! It's true! Something I will keep and have actually worn in public since its completion. Observe, in all its glory, the Leavened Raglan:



From Interweave Knits Magazine, Fall 2007, designed by Carrie Bostick Hoge.

Some detail:





It's comfy and warm. I used Lambs Pride Bulky and it took just under 5 skeins for the medium size. The Lamb's pride sheds a little more than I'd prefer, but in the end this is a good catchall sweater. I've worn it to the movies twice already. It also only took about a week to make, and it positively flew off the needles. I think it only took about eight episodes of Veronica Mars to complete.

Perhaps I should start a system where I measure the time it takes to knit something in number of TV episodes or movies. I know it took me the whole first season of Heroes to knit a project for my forthcoming book.

I'll have to think about that one...