After three months off, it’s time to pick up the blog again. Next week I’ll start tinkering under the hood and getting things updated, but for now the weekend goal is finishing some much-delayed finishing work. There’s 3.5 pairs of socks (I do hate weaving in ends on socks, always worried one will hit right on some sensitive part of the foot), assorted dishcloths and such, and – should I still wish for more – 30+ afghan squares. *whimper*

Houston, we have a blog hiatus.

The problem is that after nine long years, I’m finally just about fed up with dial-up. I get as far as uploading photos to Flickr and then run out of steam. Flickr.com is so slow; WordPress.com is so slow; and all the blog-posting software I have has decided to freeze up on me.

Hopefully I’ll be properly DSL-ified soon, but alas, the person who holds the purse strings in this household is a computer-phobic. I’ll try my best to be persuasive, and in the meantime, you might like to check out my Flickr photostream.

Valentine’s Day 2007 found me sick as a dog. Chocolate and candy was wasted on me on that day (though I’ve since made up for it . And although knitting continued throughout, blogging did not. So it’s time for a little catch-up.

This time last year my stash yarn choices for Valentine’s dishcloths consisted of white and ecru. Thankfully, things are more colorful now.

Garterlac in Peaches & Creme Pink Lilacs and Potpourri
Heart Lace Cloth in Sugar & Cream Strawberry
Love Day (AKA February KAL) in red Sugar & Cream

Bored and ill on Valentine’s Day, I whipped this mug cozy up in under an hour. The yarn is some leftover Bernat Softee Chunky in color Carnival (of which I still have plenty left – perhaps a pair or four?). The pattern is from the Winter Knits Kit book, but this specific pattern is also available online for free.

It seems a bit slippy to me in use, but perhaps it would be less so in an appropriate wool. Incidentally, the mug it’s wrapped around is heart-shaped. Neat, eh?

I’ll end this entry with an emergency knit. A couple years ago I knit Mom a scarf for Christmas. Sadly, it went missing in early January and with winter temperatures finally starting to kick in, she needed a replacement ASAP. Mom is a no-frills type of person so I used the same basic ribbed keyhole scarf pattern as the first in another neutral (but not boring – for my own sake as much as hers) yarn. Her only request was that it be “longer.” Every time I showed her my progress she’d say “maybe a bit longer.” Little did I know she meant nearly two feet longer. Two feet in ribbing – one of my most hated things. But thanks to combined knitting, I kept my sanity and finally got it done.

Pattern: Windy City Scarf from Stitch ‘N Bitch
Yarn: Artful Yarns Candy in Toffee, 4-5 balls
Needles: Red Heart Starters 7″ straight needles, size 7
Finished Size: 5″ x 60″

Pattern: Mardi Gras mask by Rainy Kimbrough

It’s shameful for me to see that I haven’t blogged here yet this year! I would blame it on the fact that I haven’t reinstalled BlogDesk yet, but I know it’s really just laziness.

As you might expect, there has been some dishcloth knitting…

Three in One Checked and Snowflake

Some might recognize the first from the MonthlyDishcloths KAL back in August. The yarns I chose back then didn’t have enough contrast, so I gave up on it. I must say I’m really pleased with it now, though.

The snowflake is not actually meant to be a dishcloth pattern. The recommended yarn is wool because only a fool would attempt such complex cables in cotton.

cotton = no stretch
no stretch + muchly cables = owwie hands and arms

I knew this but did it anyway. The result is lovely, but if I get the urge to knit it again, I’ll reach for wool instead.

Speaking of lovely…

Yet another great free dishcloth pattern from Smariek Knits. I particularly love the geometric lace cloth series. I don’t know how she keeps coming up with them!

As it just so happened, Mom was looking for a small gift to give to a leaving co-worker, so she bought this off me for $5! A bit excessive, I thought, but she insisted so it went into the yarn fund. Now I get to knit another one!

And just to prove that I do knit things other than dishcloths from time to time, here’s a WIP:

Party Apron from Knitty knit in cheerful, old school Cotton-Ease. The trim is Fuzzy Fur, one of the infamous $1 Target yarns.

Next time I’ll talk about Project Spectrum, Holiday Headstart, and how 2007 is looking to be the year of the afghan.

1. November Dishcloth KAL – Turkey,
2. Mid-November 2006 KAL – Poinsettia,
3. December KAL Cloth – Galloping Holli (rocking horse),
4. Mid-December 2006 KAL – Snowy Drops lace,
5. December 2005 KAL dishcloth – tree shaped cloth,
6. Peppercorn Ombre Dozen

These bring my total for the Dishcloth Knit Along to an even 40! Not bad for 3.5 month’s work.

I am a bad person.

Why? Because on the Wednesday before Christmas (the absolute last date that a package could be mailed that might conceivably reach Florida in time) my gift to my grandmother looked like this:

The single, solitary sock did arrive on schedule, but the accompanying note was initally overlooked leading to her spending several minutes searching the wrapping, box, etc. for the sock’s mate. When I heard about this I felt so horrible that I vowed not to start any other projects until the pair was completed. Which it was today:

So I was able to squeak another one in for SAM2! They also qualify for the Fixation Sock KAL – should Blogger ever let me upgrade to Beta so I can blog there about them (::grumble::), that is.

Pattern: Lace Wing Fixation Socks
Yarn:  Elann Esprit in peach, less than 1.5 balls

The sock will be sent off to Grandma Monday Tuesday Wednesday. (!)

I’m not sure if it’s just for the holidays or what but HGTV has been airing Knitty Gritty weekdays at 11am ET all month long. This is great news for those of us who don’t get the DIY Network!

…and some of the gifts are finally starting to look finished. I present Twelve Dishcloths Blocking:

Since I know this colorway (P&C Peppercorn Ombre) fades like the dickens, I’m trying the vinegar bath method. They soaked in a half vinegar/half water mix for a half hour, were rinsed, then blocked. The vinegar smell is still very much in evidence, though, and I don’t know I’m going to fix that short of plunking down $2.75 at the laundromat.

The patterns used: Garterlac (of course), Chinese Waves, Bee Stitch, DW, Basic Modular, Eyelets on the Diagonal, and Ballband.

The plan had been to do six patterns, two dishcloths of each, but I started panicking when it looked like the cone wouldn’t last and switched to ballband (with ecru as MC) for the last two. Naturally, I still ended up with quite a bit left. My big discovery was the Eyelets pattern. It’s wonderful, especially – dare I say it – for the uglier ombres. The diagonals break up pooling nicely. When I started this quest I hated this Peppercorn colorway, but I grew fonder of it toward the end – due in no little way to the Eyelets cloth.

But it’s not all dishcloths! My Absorba bathmat now has a little brother:

Knitted with size 13 needles instead of size 15 but otherwise identical to the first Absorba.

I was pretty excited earlier this year I noticed that Netflix has the first Art of Knitting DVD available for rental. After all, most people probably only need to watch crafty DVDs once or twice. Unfortunately, that seems to be the only needlework DVD Netflix owns.

But then Hacking Netflix wrote yesterday about SmartFlix, an a la carte Netflix-like service that specializes in how-to DVDs. They have DVDs on everything from woodworking to movie making that you can rent starting at $9.99 a week. And yes, there are many, many arts and crafts ones to choose from. Pretty neat! I’ll have to try them some day.