Flashers Everywhere

Remember back in the - what was it? - seventies when people would streak through a stadium? Or how about those perverts that flash people from the bushes in public parks? Well, I've recently been flashed. Several times. And, the kids were with me. Now, before you get all freaked out (especially you, Mom), it may not be what you're thinking (And, I don't know where you could get any strange ideas out of this paragraph. I certainly haven't led you to any weird conclusions, have I?). I was flashed, alright, but not by some freak hiding behind a tree. Nope. I was flashed by a man in his car - several different times, and sometimes it wasn't even the same man. All of them were pretty much driving the same kind of car, though. Suspicious? Not really. It, apparently, goes along with the territory of owning a somewhat rare car. Not that we've got some vintage automobile that costs millions or anything like that. It's just that you don't see that many Land Rover Discovery's on the road. There are quite a few Freelanders around here, but not many like ours. So, when other Discovery drivers see each other on the road, they flash their lights. Funny, really. I knew Jeep Wrangler owners sometimes did a thing like that, but I had no idea it was the same with Discovery owners. Hey! I'm part of an elite club. Woohoo! That's a first.

Anyway, in honor of me getting flashed (because you can't say it's something that happens every day to everyone), I thought I'd flash a few of my current projects at their current stage of completion as well as a few new members of both my yarn and fabric stash. Ready? Here we go (close your eyes if you feel like flashing people is a bit inappropriate)...


First, we have the yarn that Louise brought back from the US for me. She was ordering some fun stuff from Webs and asked if I needed anything. Sure (like I hole in the head), as a matter of fact, I did. The blue, red and yellow skeins are Cascade 220 and are designated for a Superman hat for Lambchop #2 (probably for around Christmas). The eggplanty yarn is O'Wool organic yarn (for a hat for me). I was hoping it'd be softer than it is, but it's nice, anyway. About the same texture as the 220, actually. Then, there's proof of a little splurge in this picture, too. I absolutely love Rowan Kid Silk Haze. I was given some once during a Secret Pal exchange and have been plotting to acquire some ever since. My real dream would be to actually be able to make an entire sweater of this stuff (pjs maybe???), because it's so soft. In the end, though, the pocket book won out, and I only bought two balls. One for a scarf for me and another for a scarf for a friend. It's all I could justify buying.


Now, I'll show you some material I've got plans to sew really soon (incidentally, Blogger randomly decided to rotate this picture clockwise). Lambchop #1 is growing like a weed these days, and has no pants or long sleeve shirts that fit anymore. We've got some boys pants in her size that were given to us, but darn it, if she ain't too girly for that. She won't even try them on. I don't think I'd be able to convince her that many of the cool girls like to wear men's jeans. At this age, it's worthless, I think. Oh well. At least they won't have holes in them when Lambchop #2 gets around to that size.

So, the bright pink corduroy will be some cute bell-bottomy pants. Then, the white fabric with pink flowers will be a shirt to match. I had some other light pink corduroy fabric she turned down. Didn't like the size of the cords - "too thick", says her highness. She didn't like some striped denim I had, either. Once again, thickish stripes. The girl know what she likes. I'm not going to complain, though, because I like the striped denim, and there's enough for a straight skirt for me. Okay, back to the picture: the dark blue denim in this picture will be jeans for her and the light blue fabric with flowers will be another shirt.

Next, we have a picture of Lambchop #2's current sweater. As you can see from the picture on the right, I've made some decent progress. I've finished the body up to the arm pits (classy wording, I know), which is why it's now waiting around on a string for me to do the sleeves. I chose a scallopy edge stitch pattern for the bottom of the body and sleeves. I think it'll look really cute once it's blocked.

The photo on the left shows you something I'm really disappointed in. I don't have any dpns in the proper needle size for this project, so I'm using two circular needles. That's a really fiddly little task with thin mohair yarn, but I'm making due. Problem is, though, and it's pretty obvious: I get huge gaps in between needles. I'm going to try to tighten up around that spot, but it's not easy to do with this yarn. If all else fails, I'll act like it's a dropped stitch and pick it up all the way up to the top to tighten things up. It'll make an extra stitch on each side, and I don't think it'll be a big deal, really. It's in the part of the pattern stitch where it's just stockinette for a few stitches, anyway, so it won't be very obvious, I don't think. Anyway, wish me luck on fixing that, because I don't plan on ripping this mohair stuff back to do it again. As it was, I had to cast on three times, because mohair isn't easy to work on two large cirular needles.







And, now we'll talk about some more knitting. Aren't you just loving the fact that my supposed knitting blog actually looks like a knitting blog these days? You know why that is? It's because, aside from reading and watching tv, knitting is the one thing I've mastered doing while breastfeeding. I don't even jab her in the head with the needles (much!).



This shot is of the alpaca vesty thing I'm making. This is the stuff that I dyed with Kool Aid a while back. You may remember seeing it a couple of months ago. It was a lot smaller then. I haven't worked on it in a few weeks, but the front is almost entirely done. It's a pretty quick knit, even if it is fingering weight yarn. Very soft and cozy. I don't know why I don't work on it more often, because I can't wait to wear this yarn.

And, last but not least, because I'm feeling guilty about having forgotten to take a before shot of the Durrow sweater's collar before I ripped and reknit, I've taken a close-up of the new collar. It may not look very professional, but it's fine for my purposes. It's pretty much what I was intending to do, at least. The decreases you see here made it so that the collar curves upward at the point where the shoulders meet the front and the back. I think it makes it pucker just slightly (because I decreased so fast), but I think a good blocking would help. I'm sure it would have been less obvious if I'd decreased more gradually, but there were really quite a few stitches needing to be gotten rid of in a short distance. Anyway it's done, and I'm very happy about that.



And, in case you're wondering, that first picture up there is just for fun. I'm very aware that a baby in the middle of all this knitting and sewing chatter makes little sense. But, I like to have a picture up top to grab the reader's attention, and who's going to complain about a baby popping up in random places?