one hundred and ten percent

rosamund's cardi is coming along! i actually took this photo last weekend - a three-day holiday, very very rainy long weekend in which i became addicted to the british tv series skins and watched all of seasons 1 & 2 in the loft while knitting. it's kind of like my so called life meets gossip girl, and it's good.* so good that when netflix "watch instantly" hiccuped and one of the episodes wouldn't play, i bought it from itunes. so. go watch and report back!

in the meantime, i've knit through the waist shaping and am heading down the long stretch! i'm going to lengthen it a bit, though, because i find that tunic-style tops flatter me a bit more than waist-skimming. i'm so excited to have a hand-knit sweater in a color that will match most of my wardrobe! i'm also excited to have more wool to wear. 'cause guys? it's darn cold here. i know, i know... it's not below freezing temperatures or anything. but we live in a beach house. with no insulation or central heating. and leaks in our laundry room and bedroom, which can't be fixed until it stops raining and the house dries out. *sigh*

but really, i can't complain. far more insane, horrible things are going on in the world, and i'm sure you've seen stephanie pearl-mcphee's knitters without borders tally by now. over one million dollars donated by knitters to médecins sans frontières, with amazing independent designers giving up huge percentages of their pattern sales to various aid organizations.


little bunny says - i've donated the bit that i can, have you?

p.s. - maeve very much likes our new duvet. thank you all for the ikea recommendation - we went there last weekend and it's working out beautifully!



*dev patel, of slumdog millionaire fame, was discovered on this show!

no foes please

jealous?

i am so lucky to have wonderful friends. b found this orla kiely multi-stem duvet cover online a few weeks ago, and i had been coveting it ever since. of course, it's only available in the UK. i got to the point where i decided it was totally worth the exorbitant shipping costs - and then i found out a friend from london was coming to town, and he would be happy to pick one up for me! the jaffa cakes and tea? total bonus. now we need to find a duvet that'll fit properly inside... any tips other than ordering from amazon.co.uk?

i also made some new friends over the weekend. i decided it was finally time to find a knitting group on the west side of los angeles - i hadn't joined one since moving from pasadena (rose city knitters, i miss you!). so on saturday i headed up the street to the fairview public library and peeked into their community room, where i was greeted by lovely knitterly ladies, tea, and cookies! i will definitely be going back.

while i was there, i swatched for rosamund's cardigan, and sunday i cast on. i suspected i'd need to go down a needle size, and splurged on some wonderful addi turbo #7s (32"). as you may remember, this one's a KAL with malaraky and beigeberry. we're all using very different fibers and emailing each other daily with our progress - during which, we discovered that we're all using a knit picks harmony cable needle that beigeberry gifted us years ago!

i am so looking forward to the long weekend - no plans, lots of yoga and knitting. is it friday yet?

this is just to say

oh, ravelry. where would i be without you? let me count the ways...

1.

i wouldn't be at the second annual unwind anniversary/ravelry party, appreciating super soft, hand-painted merino with a hundred other fellow knitters.

2.

i wouldn't happen upon a pair of mittens knit from my pattern in a random (and beautiful) yarn store in a random eastern seaside town.

3.

subliminalrabbit wouldn't be in vogue knitting.



this winter has been nothing short of astonishing and i'm eternally grateful to jess & casey for the magnificent online tool/database/community that is ravelry - without which, i have no doubt, there would be nowhere near 3,000 pairs of bella's mittens out in the world. so here's my thank you to them, and to all of you who found me through them. happy knitting!

a new year

you know it's going to be an awesome year when you catch a nasty cold the first day, right? ugh, the sinus pressure. i dragged myself into the office this morning but by 3pm couldn't take it any more. a new over-the-counter drug and an hour's nap later and i'm feeling a bit better - and figured wishing 'yall a happy new year might be a nice way to keep me distracted from the sniffles.

i don't really make resolutions, but this year... this year i hope to do more designing. it kind of hit the back-burner in 2009 when life - work, moving, other various and sundry items - made things complicated and hectic, and the last thing i wanted to be doing in my down time was math. so keep me honest, folk. ping me every once in a while and make sure i'm working on something.

but not right now, because my head's in a bit of a fog! luckily, i have a good challenging-yet-mindless project on the needles that i can pick up every once in a while when i'm feeling less headachey - wallis. remember her?




over the holidays i ripped out the sad few inches i'd knit and started over again. this is one of those patterns where i know i'll be in love with the FO, and the lace chart is easily memorized, but in general is not for the faint of heart (or a beginning knitter) - you really have to fudge around a lot on the edges, where you increase. the instructions don't clearly tell you how to do it, and you need your wits and knitting instincts about you!

to keep things interesting, next weekend i'm also casting on for rosamund's cardigan by andrea pomerantz. malaraky and i are doing another knit-along, and this time beigeberry will be joining us! we're already planning our slight mods and i'm really looking forward to this project - it's always fun to knit with your friends, even if they're far away.

okay, time to go rest up a bit more. i'll leave you with a photo of maeve enjoying her favorite xmas present -


happy new year all!