The Doctor Will See You Now

I finished my shawlette! (I really hate saying "shawlette." People sometimes think I'm trying to say Charlotte. From now on I'm saying "hip triangular scarf" instead.)

The pattern is Multnomah and the yarn (I doubt I need to remind you) was inspired by the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith (if you are very confused, go watch Doctor Who before continuing). I could not be more thrilled with how it turned out! I gave it a quick soak and let it dry in the only acceptable place in my dorm room: my bed.

Finished Soakin'

Of course, I didn't actually block it until 4:00 in the afternoon so I forced myself to stay up fairly late to ensure optimal drying.

Yes I have a bunk bed. Don't judge me.

I can't help thinking how much I'd like to see Matt Smith wear my "Matt Smith Hip Triangular Scarf". He seems like the stylish sort of fellow who could pull off a pink lace scarf.

Golly, it looks like he already has.

Jordan II also finished a hip triangular scarf recently. I'm a big fan of the lace patterns.

Kassie is nearly finished with a huge baby blanket. I applaud her. Crocheting the trim on a hat last week was enough for me.

I also made significant progress on the colorwork hat I mentioned in the last post. In fact, I finished it. Unfortunately, I kept thinking my friend had a really big head while I was knitting it. "Knit just a little bit more. His head is huge," I kept telling myself. Imagine my suprise when I realized his head was quite normal in size the next time I saw him. Here I was knitting a hat that would fit Jimmy Neutron when he really had a normal sized head all along. Consequently, I'm now reknitting the bottom portion of the hat to get a better fit. The lesson is this: always know the size of your friends' heads relative to your own. If I appear to be sizing up your head the next time we meet, I probably am.

Get Yo' Knit On

I'm proud to report that Madeline completed her March socks over the weekend. The color is appropriate, but I'm not sure if it was an intentional selection.

The pattern is "Par 5 Socks" by Ingrid Hiddessen and Madeline showed them off in an appropriately "golfy" outfit.

"Just give me a second to check my tee time."

Over midterm break, Kassie ventured to the wild state that is Wyoming and brought back some yarn souvenirs.

It's baby alpaca. One touch of this stuff makes you want to have your very own alpaca cria (yes, that is the technical term). We discussed this at length and decided the demand for baby alpacas would just lead to an alpaca population explosion we simply couldn't handle. All SnB members have decided to stay baby alpaca-less for now.

A hand-dyed Merino-cashmere blend. Truly drool worthy. Luckily it's machine washable for easy drool removal.

Jordan III took a moment to show off a scarf she is working on for her boyfriend. Obviously there are perks to dating a knitter.

Bonus: Expression of green hoodie girl in the background. Sass-tastic

About a month ago I finished a pair of leg warmers that I never really...warmed... up to. In the end I decided Anna is more of the leg warmer type to I pushed them off on her during last night's meeting. She claimed to not be the leg warmer type either, but tried them on to humor me.

The pattern is "Some Cloudy Day" by tinyowlknits

Somebody cue the drumroll. There are exciting things in SnB's future and it's all because of the contents of this bag:

It looks pretty unassuming, right?

In reality, it's a veritable cornucopia of knitting goodness.

The mother of my friend Julia is a prolific knitter. She heard of our little SnB group and offered to donate some of her yarn stash. I hadn't expected such a bounty to arrive, though! She also included over a dozen sets of needles. With these supplies, we'll finally be able follow through with an idea that has been thrown around in the past. Hold on to your seats...

We're. Having. A. Workshop.

DOES THE CAPITALIZATION HELP YOU UNDERSTAND HOW EXCITED I AM???

Details are formulating. More information to come. I want borderline obnoxious posters though. Like this one. Can you believe it only took three minutes to make in PowerPoint?

Okay, so it lacks key information. Or any information, really. It's a work in progress.

Was that midterm break?

Well, midterm break flew by. I found myself dogsitting for a friend of the family the whole week. That's right. Two straight weeks of dogsitting. These pups were geriatric French bulldogs. The characteristic raspy breathing of French bulldogs was helpful during the week. At night I just listened for their labored breaths to make sure they were both still alive. I'm not usually a small dog person, but they grew on me as the week went on. It's hard to complain about dogs that sleep 90% of the time.

Mr. Biz and Ms. Brighton

I've spent significantly more time with dogs than with people during the past few weeks. It's likely my social skills have begun to suffer. On the bright side, I was able to get a ton of knitting done and watched every romantic comedy movie on HBO. I'm pleased to present my finished Sedum:

I'm very pleased with the 3/4 length sleeves. I was terrified that it wouldn't fit in the end but was pleasantly surprised with the final product. I'm most proud of the color. Mustard yellow is so bold for me.

I received exciting news over break that I was selected for a summer internship in Boulder, Colorado. Aquatic mountain ecosystems might not interest you, so I'll stick to knitted related things: I've already searched for yarn stores in the Boulder area. There are three.

On Sunday I cast on for a hat.

This one is for a friend. I warned him that if I made a colorwork hat for him, we would have to be friends forever. There was no escaping it. He seemed fine with this agreement. When I realized I wouldn't be able to travel with the project easily (too much yarn to juggle) I panicked and cast on for a new shawl. Yes, I'm using the 11th Doctor sock yarn. I'm quite excited.

You might think, "Okay, Kaylin's knitting two projects. Whatever." But whatever is not an appropriate reaction, dear reader. I have never worked on two projects at the same time. Sure, countless knitters do it without incident. I'm just worried that I'll neglect one. In fact, I can't work on one without feeling guilty about the other for a second or two. I know this sounds strange. I'm working through it.

MOOG

There's yarn, and then there's yarn.

Anna's aunt mailed her some yarn. Actually, it was more than that. In my opinion, it was a Magical Orb Of Goodness (hereafter referred to simply as "MOOG"- sorry if you thought this post might be about a synthesizer).

We don't know who made it or what it's made of. We just know it's magical. How could it not be? Rumor has it there are more MOOGs on the way via the US Postal Service. Of course the MOOGs could probably just levitate all the way from Oregon to Missouri, but they don't want to freak everybody out.

Another treasure appeared at SnB. It's completely unrelated to knitting/crocheting, but humorous enough to warrant a mention.

"How to Defeat the Huns"

It's in black and white to enhance readability (yes, that is an actual word). The creator is obviously a humorous sort of person, so I'll excuse their affinity for hot pink ink on hot pink post-it notes.

I finished the Risk Management Hat but have yet to mail it off. I love receiving mail but, as a rule, I am very bad at sending it.

Perfect hint of slouch.

I'm dogsitting this week and it turns out Bella and Tilda don't like to be left out of photographs. They are skilled at popping into the frame.

Sometimes it was affectionate:

Other times it was just sneaky:

Creepers be creepin'

I relocated to the dining room to capture a shot of the Calorimetry I finished last weekend. You might recognize the K'acha yarn of Ugly-Cute hat fame. I considered referring to it as the "Phoenix from the Ashes" headband but thought that might be a bit much. A simple relocation could not deter the pups. Can you spot Tilda's nose in the photo below?

I also started a sweater over the weekend. I'm really enjoying the top-down construction. The seed stitch is yielding a wonderfully squishy fabric.

The pattern is called Sedum. I'll admit that it was the name that first caught my eye. Sedum is a large genus of succulent plants commonly known as stonecrops. They were some of my favorite plants to see last summer in Montana. I spent several weeks intrigued by a mysterious plant I kept spotting during field work. I knew it was a succulent, but no one could tell me exactly what it was. Finally my co-worker brought a field guide with him and the mystery was solved. It was roseroot, or Sedum integrifolium. Unfortunately the only picture of the plant I captured all summer was from the field guide.

I'm so excited that my midterm break starts in 24 hours. I plan on devoting much of my time to this sweater. And Doctor Who. Yup. Pretty much a repeat of Christmas break.