Jon's Knit Blog

I Still Know How To Blog

I have some new professional stuff going on which is keeping my life a little busier than usual, but I've had the time to put my creative juices to work now and then. Some knitting, some more knitting, but mostly I've been having a lot of fun planning my quilt top.

I am really excited about my quilt top.

I'm obviously not done coloring it in, but don't you love my quilt top, too? Yay quilt top! Now I just have the fascinating project of getting to turn it into fabric. I can't wait!

And of course, you know me... the little squares will only be 2" wide... but it's going to be a lot of fun! Hope you'll stay tuned to watch what happens.

The Mexican Hat Dance

I took that photo this afternoon. Surprise, I'm in Mexico!

More photos later :-)

Something New

So someone pointed out that there's a new patchwork shop in the City.

Did you know that patchwork is a lot cheaper than knitting? Faster, too. So far tonight, I got two five inch squares done - from cutting to sewing. I'm rather pleased.

I bought a lot of fabric; I'm going to make a queen sized quilt. The pattern is going to be based on a tie I have which is actually in a fairly traditional patchwork pattern, just a crazy color-way, and I'm really excited about it. I would show you a photo of the 27 fabrics I bought, but they're at the laundry, being washed and pressed for me. Because, well, they have to be washed and pressed before you sew them.

I wonder if I'll have to change the name of my blog, if I'm not exclusively knitting anymore. I still am knitting, though. In fact, my tiger sock yarn (inspired by Wendy just came in the mail. So there should be lots of exciting stuff coming out of here soon. So you better stay tuned!

Guess What I Did Today!

So mostly I've been knitting green stuff for the afghan, and I've also been knitting yellow for another baby sweater (Baby Ull in seed stitch is slow). But today I had time to do some errands, and one of the errands I've been wanting to do for some time is to find the perfect buttons for Zauberflote. It never occurred to me that I'd find them at the first store I visited.

I went to Tender Buttons, a great little shop here in NYC. They have so many wonderful buttons and if you're in the City, it's worth a visit. They have a huge range, from very contemporary to antique. And given the style of Zauberflote, I thought that more old-fashioned buttons would be in order.

Would you believe that I found brass and cut-steel French buttons from the 1880s? They were not cheap but they're gorgeous. Here's what they look like on the card:

And if you promise to be patient, you'll get to see a photo of what they look like on Zauberflote! But I promise they look awesome.

Here's another photo I took today from a boat in New York Harbor:

Have a great Thursday! I'm going to see "Akeelah and the Bee" and even knit during the movie!

Thanks!

I am flattered by all your kind words about the squares.

Want to hear something fun about the square that is still left to finish? Even though I have a good start on the mini-aran sweater, there's something about it that just... wasn't for me. So guess what I'm doing instead! I'm going to make a mini-intarsia pseudo-Weasley sweater! It's going to be a cute little tiny pink sweater (because the baby is a girl) and it's going to have a cute little tiny mint-green "B" intarsia-ed in it (because the baby's name starts with "B"). I offered the choice between Aran and intarsia "B" to her mom yesterday, and she sounded SO excited about the intarsia idea. Plus I think the tiny bit of pink from the sweater will just somehow round everything out.

I started seaming the squares yesterday, and it turns out that one of them is not nearly as big as the others, and will therefore need a border-y pseudo-gusset to enable it to fit properly. I've been going over pattern ideas in my mind, and I think I know what I'm going to do; it will entail short rows and grafting and all sorts of fun, but after everything I've learned from all the squares in the blanket, I know that I'll be able to do it.

Now I just need to get to the point where I can start the border, and we'll be on our way to finishing.

So can anyone explain why last night's knitting has a few rows of the Debbie Bliss matinee coat? Well, I can, in fact. I wanted to knit something stupidly simple, and long rows of stockinette fit the bill just perfectly. And I'm gearing up for knitting at the movies, evidently -- I knit to the light of the TV and didn't turn on my regular knitting light at all!

It's Gonna Be A Long One

Yup. That's a stack of 12 Aran Afghan Squares. They're all even blocked. There's still a fair amount left to do: I have to finish the mini-sweater, do the seaming, and make and attach the edging. Still, having 12 finished squares (except for one mini-sweater) is a pretty good thing.

Want to see them? Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the Squares!

They're all from the Great American Aran Afghan book, except for the second one which is based on "Tara" from Starmore's Celtic Collection.

And they're done! The strands you see don't need to be woven in - they're at the corners, and I'm going to use them for seaming. Of course, there will be a lot more seaming than that yarn allows for, but I have enough yarn left. Yay!

Anyhow, hope you like the squares. I sure do!