Fiber Fiend Bulky Wool is available in 5 colorways:

Seas:

Peacock:

Red Hot:

Mars:

and Woods:

Oak Bark Cabled Hat is knit in Bulky Wool (I knit a sample in the Seas colorway) and so is Wanda (in the Woods colorway), which I will publish as soon as I’m able to sit at the sewing machine, cut a pattern for the lining and sew it in. You can also knit a Customizable Monster with Bulky Wool and a fuzzy novelty yarn held together! Buy some Bulky Wool today! Find it on Ravelry! See more pictures on Flickr!

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I just added the inventory for Bulky Wool to my website, in case anyone was looking for it (I linked to it in my last post). I’ll show nice big pictures of it here maybe tomorrow…

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I took some new pictures of my Spiral Hat (click for free pdf or free Ravelry download – also click if you want to queue it) the other day.  The one I had wasn’t all that great.  Blogless Tina has knit some really great hats with this pattern using Fiber Fiend Bulky Handspun that she bought from me, and I keep asking her to take pictures before she gives them away, but I don’t think she has.  My hat is in the Flame colorway, although it was a different lot than the skein I have in stock, so it’s slightly different in color. I’m planning on knitting a Spiral Hat up in Indiecita Baby Alpaca Grande Paint (Ravelry stash link) if it ever starts getting cold around here…

I don’t think I’ve ever tried taking photos at arm’s reach with my big Canon Rebel before…

I also took some pictures of the Oak Bark Cabled Hat (Ravelry link) I knit in Fiber Fiend Bulky Wool in the Seas Colorway.

Come to think of it, I don’t think I showed you the photos I took of this hat on my glass head…

And here’s a hat Lisa knit in this yarn in the Child’s Size…

P.S.  The pain during the neurotomy wasn’t so bad.  They did all 3 joints simultaneously, so it only lasted 60 seconds.  The pain afterwards has not been so great.  Hopefully it won’t last too long and there will be very positive results, because both my spine specialist and my pain doctor don’t really have any other ideas if this doesn’t work.

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I went to a baby shower on Saturday and gifted this Bunny Blanket Buddy, a free Lion Brand pattern

Here’s a close up of its face

I got the idea from Abigail, who made a bunch of these a little while back. I was feeling quite a bit better at the end of last week, so I thought driving (riding actually, R was nice enough to drive me and sit at Starbucks until I called him to pick me up in case I was in too much pain to drive myself home, which I think I was) 45 minutes to Livermore and back for the shower and sitting in a regular chair (even with my ergonomic back rest from Relax the Back) for an hour and a half (that’s all I lasted, fortunately other people left at the same time and the main festivities were over) would be a good test to see if I was ready to return to work after my follow-up visit to the spine specialist today. Unfortunately, I’ve been in MUCH more pain (~8/10) since then.

SO, my doctor agreed to stay late tomorrow and perform a lumbar neurotomy so I don’t have to wait another week in tons of pain (he only does surgical procedures once a week). I’m supposed to be there at 1:50pm, so the procedure is probably scheduled for 2:50pm. Wish me luck!! He told me that he doesn’t numb before the procedure because he puts the probe in the right location under x-ray and then if he took it out to numb then put it back in it wouldn’t be as accurate (he said he might be off my 1mm or so) and he might not get as good of a result, so he said it’s going to be really painful for about 60 seconds and then he’s going to take the probe out and put the anesthesia in. And he’s doing this to 3 joints, I think, so I’m going to have to endure 3 minutes of horrible nerve burning pain without anesthesia??? If my pain doctor was doing this I would be at the hospital instead of the surgicenter and I would have an anesthesiologist helping out instead of a nurse and I could get general anesthesia and not feel any pain, like I did during my cervical neurotomy. I remember it, for a few minutes I was pain free, it was the best feeling in the world. Too bad it didn’t last.

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Here’s a swatch…

And here’s some progress on a sleeveless shell, Aria, I’m designing for Crystal Palace Yarns in Panda Silk DK.  I really enjoy working with this yarn.  It’s so soft!  I’m glad I get to keep the sweater!  =)  Aria will be available on the Crystal Palace Free Pattern website as a free pattern sometime soon…

The biassing comes out when you block the sweater (I did that yesterday, so I know it for a fact), so the lace lines go straight down the body, like in the swatch.  Here’s my Ravelry link for this project…

P.S. I went to a baby shower on Saturday.  I’ll show you what I made for it tomorrow!

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Tomboy is a fun textured sock in diagonal rib with a complementary turn-down cuff, great for a woman or a man. You can see more pictures in the Flickr gallery here, and the Ravelry pattern link is here! Tomboy is shown in Superwash Merino Sock Yarn in the Mars colorway, but instructions are given for any sock yarn at any gauge.

The sock shown fits a Mens size 9 foot. Size ranges from 6-9.8 inches in circumference, depending on gauge (6.5-8 stitches per inch) and size (S, M,or L) chosen, which is explained in the instructions. Superwash Merino Sock Yarn is sold out in the Mars colorway, but Fiber Fiend Soft & Sturdy Sock is available in the Mars colorway.

Unfortunately, you can’t see the pattern very well in some of these photographs, although I think it looks quite nice in person.  Anyone want to test knit this sock in a semi-solid?

(Note: This pattern was first published at Stitches West 2008)

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I picked up Wendy Bernard’s new book Custom Knits over Labor Day weekend, and I have to say I LOVE it!  It’s one of the best knitting books I own, and I own a lot of knitting books! (see most of them here in my Ravelry library).  It’s more than just a pattern book, it’s a reference book  as well, which you can kind of tell by the title, yet the book does contain 26 patterns.  I queued four garments from the book, a rare thing for me.  The things I queued cross the gamut from a sleeveless tunic, Jewel, to a long-sleeved loose-fitting comfy sweater, Ingenue, to a close-fitting cardigan, Favorite Cardigan (which I would lengthen), to a skirt, Karma Skirt.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to cast on for any of these projects any time soon, because I have a whole bunch of designing to do, and birthday/holiday season is right around the corner (my parents’ birthdays are in October & November they’re both turning 65 this year, and my brother and brother-in-law’s birthdays are on the same day in December).

Back to reviewing the book, in addition to all of the wonderful patterns, it starts off with a practical pattern reality checklist a great tutorial for making your own dress form out of duct tape and an old t-shirt.  Then there’s a chapter on top-down raglan sweaters (of which is Ingenue one), a chapter on top-down set-in sleeve sweaters (of which is Jewel one), a chapter on round-yoke sweaters, and a chapter on designing on the fly (that’s where Favorite Cardigan and Karma Skirt fit in).

Finally, the book closes with a chapter on “Unleash[ing] Your Inner Designer” and describes “Elements to Alter and Starting from Scratch.” Wendy goes through an overview of raglan and set-in sleeve construction and then talks about how to alter neckbands and collars, armhole depth, length, and shaping. She then goes through afterthought sleeves, and how to change a pullover into a cardigan and vice versa. She goes over substituting edgings. And she goes over starting from scratch using three different constructions: top-down raglan, top-down set-in sleeve, and bottom-up round-yoke. She even goes over determining how much yarn to buy. She also has a nice section in the back explaining abbreviations and special techniques. If I weren’t a designer already, I think this book would have inspired me to start designing.

P.S. Speaking of good designs, you should check out Janice’s (Ravelry) new sock Baroque in the Fall 2008 Knitty.

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I finally got my Ravelry Pattern store, so now all of my patterns can be bought with one click through Ravelry for your convenience! Of course you can always buy them through my online store as well.

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I just accidentally deleted the last 20 comments made on my blog.  I meant to delete one spam comment, but I upgraded WordPress and the new interface confused me.  I thought I was selecting one comment, but apparently I selected the whole page, which was 20 comments.  Oops!  Oh well.  I’ve also been suffering from a 3-day long migraine (including one all-nighter of nausea and vomiting).  It’s finally getting better now, but I also had one a few days earlier, which makes 4 days out of the 8 days since I decreased my migraine preventative medication that I’ve had migraines, so I don’t think this dosage is going to work.  And the higher dosage was driving me nuts with the side effects, so I guess it’s time to try a new medication.  Cross your fingers for me!  The good news is that my back is feeling a bit better, so there’s a slight chance I might go back to work after my follow-up next Tuesday.

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Catching up again!  Here’s Ruby, a design that combines lace with cables to create a delicate fun-to-knit sock. You can see more pictures in the Flickr gallery here, while the Ravelry pattern link is here!

Ruby is knit up in Fiber Fiend Soft & Sturdy Sock [75% Superwash Corriedale / 25% Nylon] in the Red Hot colorway on US #1/2.25mm double-pointed needles.

Thanks to Teenuh for test-knitting!

This is the same pattern I used to knit my mom socks for Mother’s Day in 2007 (I posted a small picture then because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the design at that point), except I shortened the legs, because she likes shorter socks.

This yarn is 95% merino / 5% cashmere fingering weight yarn that I got from Yarn Place and hand-dyed.

The dye pooled quite a bit in the cuffs, but my mom loves them, so it’s all good.

(Note: This pattern was first published at Stitches West 2008)

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