Did you know Offhand Designs was having a fundraiser? All purchases benefit the Alameda food bank. This is a Stella Bella bag, something out of character for me but it’s cute and I think it will make a great project bag. And the pattern? It’s called “Chicks In a Row.”

And these boots from PiperLime complete with little chickens (they called them Fat Birds, but to me they are chickens). I won’t be wearing them until spring but I have a feeling the real chickens (and turkeys!) will really get a kick out of them.

These scarves have nothing to do with chickens. I finished up some Christmas knitting and will be sending these out. They are in Lion Brand Moonlight Mohair, a yarn I have always wanted to try. Guess I got that out of my system.

I still have 2 socks to finish up and I will be done with Christmas 2008. Does anyone ever finish Christmas knitting by Christmas?

Especially when Noro can be *so* distracting!

I knit the Wrapper’s Delight from iKnitiative with some CTH Baby Loop (boucle). Never ending lump of goo. I hate boucle. Pattern was ok.

Then I made Abruzo from local Laura Nelkin on knitty.com with some thick yarn I bought at Hemlock. Easy pattern, love the yarn but when it was done I just wasn’t happy with its fit. Bulky yarn makes me look … bulky.

You will note there are no pictures of my own so far

Then I made a hat for my step-daughter.

Pattern: Fusilli Beanie

Yarn: Cascade Pastaza

and the Noro Scarf made famous by Brooklyn Tweed. This was a really fun knit. I did it on a plane flight.

Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden 244 & 268

On another plane flight I designed some socks. Simply because I had yarn, no pattern and needed a manly sock. I wanted the ribbed cuff to grow out into larger ribs, which I ended up making like a beaded rib. Nothing special really.

Pattern: My own, K4,P1 (allter rows knit all)

Yarn: Three Irish Girls “Campbell”

And another sock in progress which I can’t show you right now *wink. Christmas is coming you know.

I swung by a LYS yesterday to pick up some Jamiesons yarn for yet another Brooklyn Tweed pattern, Druid mittens (cover of last issue of Vogue, I am sure you know which ones) as well as enough for a baby surprise jacket. Also got some Plymouth Boku to try that with the striped scarf and also some white Brown Sheep to do a fake fair isle hat with even more Noro.

Like I said, Christmas is coming

Yarn Pirate Feb Club shipment “I want candy”

I think I have joined a total of 3 sock clubs this year: Socks That Rock of course (been a member since the beginning), made it into the Loopy Ewe Club which starts this spring, and the Yarn Pirate sock club.

What’s different from the Pirate club is we get yarn – and lots of great accessories like pink circs. But no pattern. The rest is up to us. There is a Yarn Pirate group on Ravelry that makes it all very interesting. We can share what we make with the yarn every month.

Spiral Eyelet

My first take with this yarn was the Spiral Eyelet sock. On size 2.75 at 48-ish stitches, the striping is wide. I really liked the stripes, the eyelets not so much. I wanted a pattern to smear the stripes, mix it up a little. I wanted to do something new to me.

Swirl Socks

So I tinked and started over. And started over. And over. Ended up with a toe up at 60 stitches on 2.25 needles. Stripes are still there, but the change in gauge has certainly affected them. I wish I had those wide stripes back, but frankly they would not fit an adult foot at the gauge I had before.

The pattern is Swirl Socks with a little bit of Wendy’s generic toe up thrown in.

Noro Socks

Another recent knit includes the new Noro sock yarn done in a basic cuff down sock at 56st with a short row heel. I am just at the heel on the second sock. I have adjusted the yarn so both socks are the same, and it looks like I will have a lot left over. So a tip for you – on size 2.25 I think it is – you can go more than 6″ on the top of the sock and have more yarn. I would bet you could do 8″, more if you did not care about matching.

Stella’s Hat

I kinneared myself while driving to catch my new hat in action. It’s Stella’s Hat in malabrigo. Quick knit! I did it while watching the Grammy’s!