Why, hello End Of Semester. I didn't expect to see you so soon.

This week is shaping up to be "The Week From Hades." I've pretty much coasted through this semester without any considerable stress so I figure it's overdue. With a paper, two tests, and one insect collection due, it promises to be the kind of week where I have no time to knit but have to knit just so I don't kill anyone.

I took a rather extravagant trip to my local yarn store over break. Among my purchases were three skeins of Cascade Ecological wool which I hope to transform into Aidez. If I look half as hip as the girl modeling the sweater, I'll be content.

Yeah, it's going to be grey. So what if I knit things in grey or green most of the time?

I'm the one who will be wearing it!

During one of three (!) turkey-centric meals I enjoyed at home, I made my siblings model some handknits.

Their names are Jackie and Jon, in case you were wondering.

I realized when we were taking these pictures that Christmas is only a month away and I have yet to do ANY Christmas knitting. Ohhhh crap. I suppose Madeline was wise to start her Christmas gifts last spring. Looks like it will be hats for everyone. I can whip those out like nobody's business.

I did git a bit of knitting done over break. I had a lot of time on my hands, so you'll have to excuse the...artistic... nature of these pictures.

This hat was made for the new daughter of a former classmate. She was born prematurely in August and should be headed home soon.

See, sometimes childhood toys come in handy! And to think my mom wanted me to get rid of baby Kermit.

One thrummed mitten down, one to go.

Oh yeah, here's that Gryffindor hat I made. I realized over break that I never posted a picture of the finished hat. I totally wore it when my brother (Jon, see photo above) and I went to see HP7Pt1 over break. Did you notice how many sweaters Hermione packed for everyone!? Apparently those in the wizarding world hate doing laundry.

Bother.

I was going to write a lovely post involving thrums, baby hats and sweaters. But I forgot my camera cable in Kirksville.

Instead I leave you adorable dog pictures I already had on my computer.

Here is JD, the most adorable labrador in Kirksville.

Let's not forget Benny and Barron. They share the title for "Most Adorable Lab in Camdenton."

To make this post somehow knitting related, I suppose I could tell you that a sweater knit from dog hair would be 80% warmer that wool. Then again, if you hang around Madeline Nash there's a good chance you already knew that.

Magic Thrums

Two posts in a week? Who do I think I am? We'll I've caught an acute case of knitting fever and have to share. It involves thrums. And the magic loop (not Harry Potter related, even though we are mere HOURS away from HP7Pt1). I'm currently working on a pair of thrummed mittens.

Hopefully they'll look something like this:

Earlier this evening I described the mittens as "regular mittens with warm, wonderful cotton candy inside." In hindsight that description just sounds sticky.

Interweave Knits does a better job:

The original fleece-stuffed mittens came from Labrador and Newfoundland in eastern Canada. Small pieces of unspun sheep's wool were twisted, and then worked in every few stitches to create a fleecy lining.

Both Madeline and Alex made these mittens last winter and I've been dying to make some. Madeline was generous enough to share her extra roving for my project. Alex also shared tidbits from his spinning endeavors. I've had the roving for awhile but didn't have any yarn the correct color to knit the actual mittens. Luckily, today I was gifted a skein of wool from my friend Caitlin.

The perfect brown and big as a baby.

Once I had my hands on the appropriate yarn, I wasted no time turing my roving into thrums. This involved pulling off small sections of wool and twisting them into something resembling an infinity symbol.

Repeat until you have oodles and oodles of thrums. No matter how inviting they look, resist the urge to curl up on top of them.

See, my cotton candy analogy wasn't completely off.

With thrums complete, the fun part begins. I've knitted my first row of thrums in and the inside looks like this:

Another fun thing about these mittens is that I'm knitting them using the magic loop method. This method involves using an long circular needle rather than a standard set of double pointed needles. It's a fairly popular knitting method but after a failed attempt last year, I've been a bit scared of it. Turns out there was no need to fear the magic loop. Please be reminded that there are still many reasons to fear novelty yarn. That remains unchanged.

I am so excited about these mittens. Thankfully I finished my physics homework before the yarn arrived. I foresee two solid hours of knitting before class tomorrow morning!

They're hungry for blood...and blog posts.

Here's a pie chart of how cool SnB was this week:

As you can see, it's the whole pie.*

Why was it so cool?

For starters, Alex brought in his amazing sweater vest.

I'm green with envy. (get it???? It's green! Bahaha)

Anna is flying through here mistake rib scarf.

I'm a big fan of the yarn combo Lilia is using for her drop stitch scarf.

Jordan II finished her amazing squirrel mittens. Madeline is jealous.

Kat's boyfriend Aric will be the lucky recipient of the "Hackysack Hoodie." I'm sure this won't end in a manifestation of the sweater curse...

Allison's recruit Cassie is working on a stockinette scarf in a chunky wool yarn. (GO WOOL!)

I'm also training my own knitting army. We will spread love through handknits and fight evil with burning balls of acrylic. Here are three of my new recruits.

While I'm certainly excited for Thanksgiving break (food, family, HARRY POTTER) I will miss my fellow Stitch 'n Bitchers while away. To cope, I'll just have to do copious amount of knitting. I think I'll survive.

*Mom, you're probably confused right now. Please click here.

Baby, Do You Like My Sweater?*

Tuesday was the big sweater unveiling! Mr. and Mrs. Nash rocked a pair of fabulous sweaters knitted by the latter. Alex wore a cardigan that would make Elizabeth Zimmermann proud. I'll admit it made me swoon.

Squirrels! What else?

Yes, that's totally a Hogwarts house sweater. John's a Slytherin.

Lookin' good!

Nash bookends

Clara, our littlest knitter, has been making progress on her red scarf.

Anna, a new addition to SnB, has an aunt who moonlights as a knitting fairy. Harmony needles and Noro yarn for her first project? Classy.

We also had a crocheting panda stop by for a bit.

Emily (Shewhomustnotbepictured) finished her first hat! Next up: learning how to purl. Of course, she has to obtain some more yarn first. Since I successfully converted her to a wool lover, she may have difficulty finding anything in Kirksville (insert plug for combination yarn store/bike shop in Kirksville).

As for me, I've been chipping away at Selbu Modern. I'll admit the ribbing section made me want to punch a baby. But not a baby in a cardigan. No amount of anger could make me want to punch a baby wearing a cardigan. Anyway, the colorwork section has proven to be immense fun. I'm optimistic that it will be finished for Deathly Hallows, Pt 1 premiere.

*500 bonus points if you correctly identified the title as Relient K lyrics. They played this weekend in Kirksville. Of course Matt Theissen got married before I finally saw him in concert.