Somebody Stop Me

I need an intervention. Seriously. I can't seem to stop knitting Baby Uggs.


They keep popping onto my needles when I'm not looking and a couple of hours later, there I am embroidering the white fluffy parts and wondering how I ended up with another pair of finished Uggs.

Believe me, they're cuter than the photo would lead you to believe. I should've stuffed the toes with cotton and done all the stuff a serious knitwear photographer would do but I'm a writer, Jim, not a photographer and sometimes the best I can do is point, shoot, and pray.

Speaking of socks, there's still something to be said for the thrill of knitting a very plain sock in a very fanciful yarn. That's Regia 4-fadig Square below and I can tell you it was a pure joy to knit with. Bright juicy colors, fun patterning, Regia quality. Square made plain old stockinette fun.



Did I mention my cowl obsession? It started late last year with Tudora and continues apace. That's the start of Thermis below. I'm about 80% finished now so a (bad) finished photo should be coming in the next day or two.

Don't say I didn't warn you!


GIVEAWAY WINNER: Kathy M won the evil baby yarn. (Say a prayer for her, okay?)

NEW GIVEAWAY: If you'd like to win two skeins of Regia Square in the colorway shown above, drop me a note here with Square in the subject. Winner will be announced Tuesday evening.

Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi from Hell

Oh, I know it looks all innocent over there, wide-eyed and pink and oh-so-sweet but don't you believe it for a moment. That cardi is the devil's workshop.

The pattern was beautifully simple, clear, well-written, error-free. You couldn't ask for more. So why oh why did I struggle so much with the #*@*!@( thing?

I'll tell you why: the yarn. Plymouth Baby Boutique (also spelled Boutic on some ball bands) (See what I mean? If the yarn doesn't know its own name how can you trust it?) made me totally crazy. I swear it has a life of its own. It's not meant to be a stretchy yarn but some end-of-row stitches stretched out to three and four times their length. And let me tell you, that's one scary sight when you have almost 300 stitches on your needles and no desire to tink, frog, or jump off a high building.

It's a mystery, that's what it is. A knitting mystery. Stretchy yarn shouldn't stretch like that. And it shouldn't spring back into position as if it never happened. Shouldn't there be a calling card left behind? Some little hint that the knitter at the helm isn't crazy? That the whole now-you-see-it-now-you-don't thing wasn't a figment of her imagination?

Don't answer that.

In case you were wondering, I have been sucked into the Facebook universe and am struggling to return to the land of Blogger where thoughts can be expressed in more than three sentences. But oh how I've come to love Facebook and if you're over there too, please friend me. (I never thought I'd type that sentence. "Please friend me." Friend as a verb. Oy.)

SPUN BY SORCERY is set for release in November and my anxiety attacks are gearing up in preparation. I'm hard a work on Sugar Maple #4 and struggling to come up with a title that combines magic and knitting. And that's a whole lot harder than it sounds.

Because I've missed you (and have an inherently evil streak) drop me a note here with Baby in the subject header and you'll have a chance to win some of that possessed Baby Boutique yarn. But don't say I didn't warn you.

So what have you been up to?