I've added two syndication feeds that I haven't posted about before. First is morcatknits who has a knitting blog at http://morcatknits.typepad.com/ - its a great blog, and she was the one who did the awesome presentation of stitch definition in different kinds of yarn for the KBTH Virtual Aran Conference.

The second is a newer blog, called healthytension at http://www.healthytension.com . She's a new blogger, but seems fun to read.

Behind the cut is the list of free Felted Bag Patterns I collected. I thought perhaps the mods would like to add it to the memories.

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Why is intarsia so darn unruly? I swear... there oughta be a law!

Current Mood: weird

I'm sure several of you have either already read this article or otherwise know of this technique, but I never had on either account and found it very interesting! It will save me a lot of stress! So I thought I'd share again for those of you who hate ripping out: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter03/FEATwin03TT.html

Hey guys,

I've decided to knit everyone in my family a hat for Christmas and I've found some very lovely patterns for hats online for my mom and sister and I'm making a "Hot Head" hat for my brother.

However, I have NO idea what to make for my dad. He's kind of an old faishoned guy and I have yet to find a really nifty "Dad" hat for him. I don't think he'd like a toboggan or a Hot head hat.

So, any suggestions? Have you found a nifty men's hat that you think would be cool to make or have made?

Is this a typo, or have I just never heard of mi before?

From the PomSquad pattern: Round 1: * K1, mi, K5 (end of first needle) K5, m1, K1*.

I'm assuming that it's supposed to be m1?

Got my copy of Annie Modesitt's book from Cafepress this morning. Various observations:
( which got a bit longer than I was expecting )

Current Mood: somewhat opinionated
Current Music: but generally pleased

so im knitting the to dye for sweater from stitch' n bitch. as this is my first sweater id like to make sure im doing everything correctly. everything has been going fine and dandy until i got to the neck shaping on the front. and i just cant make out what exactly im supposed to do.

work 17 sts, attach another skein of yarn, BO center 8 sts loosely, complete row. working both sides at once, dec 1 st at each neck edge, every other row 4 times - 13 sts each side.

im not at all certain what it means by "attach another skein of yarn" - attach it where? it seems as if one should attach the second skein after BO the center stitches - thusly having two working strands for each side of the neck. but the pattern says to do it before.

and work both sides once? - im assuming that means to knit normally just skip over the BO stitches. but id like to make certain.

im looking forward to finishing this sweater and im Oh So very close. but ive reached a block were i just cant understand exactly what im supposed to do next.

can anyone whos knit this particular sweater spare some advice? or maybe im missing the obvious and a wonderful kind experienced knitter can jump in and explain in plain english.

OK divas, help me out here.

I'm about to start Bella. I've swatched, and was looking at the pattern to see if I needed to rework some sizing issues, since I have a lovely, rather distinct pear shape. Oh yes. Big ole pear. Trust me.

So, I want about a 41" chest, 45" hip. The pattern is sized for both. Believe it or not, I can do that. There's only one stitch difference between the counts of the two after shaping. (Make sense? The waist shaping calls for you to take in 10 stitches, and the difference between the two sizes is 11 stitches. Woo hoo, easily adapted, go me)

Look at the diagram further and gasp in dismay as I find that the sleeve width for a 41" chest is only 13". Now, I have abnormally large arms. Because I'm muscular. No, really. See? See? I have muscle! Ignore the rest of it flapping in the wind! Want me to move some furniture for you! Too bad, I'm trying to knit!

Sorry, where was I? Oh yes. Pattern has 13" sleeve width for my size, while I need about 16" for a good fit. Which the pattern has. For a 56" chest. And since the pattern has set in sleeves, I believe this is important, because otherwise, the sleeve will not fit in the armhole. Yes? No?

In consulting my VogueKnitting Bible, I have found no good answers. Of course, I probably should have spent more than 5 minutes looking, but it's easier to ask you guys and it's been a hard day.

It seems that to resize the sleeve to accomodate my upper arm flab (and I am not trying to squeeze my poor arm into a sleeve 3" too small for it. If I wanted to do that, I'd save myself the aggravation of this stuff and buy a shirt from Old Navy!), I would end up resizing the sleeve cap. And it's not like I could go up a needle size to make it wider, because the sleeve cap would still be too wide (not too mention that all the lace would look weird).

Any suggestions?

Should I just sit down with my calculator and make a face like Condi?

I'll probably just do that anyway. Gosh and golly this is a long entry.

Has anyone worked with Lion Brand Landscapes? I am curious how it is to work with. Also, where can you purchase it (AC Moore, Joann's?) and what should I expect to pay?
Thanks!

three swatches in i got gauge for my rogue!!!

i'm using cascade 220 in color 4008 which is a dark burgundy. i'm totally loving the way it's knitting up, though i had to use 10.5's to get gauge (the label recommends 8's - apparently i'm a super tight knitter!)

i've never attempted something like this before, and i'm sure it's way beyond my skill level, but what the hell! i'd love to attempt the cool cardigan mod, because i think i'd wear it a little more, but that might have to be rogue version 2.0 for me.

you guys are all such an inspiration for this new knitter! thanks so much (in advance, because i'm sure i'll be asking about 12 million questions in the rogue process!)

cheers!