Recently in Birthday Box o' Knits Category

Thanks to all the comments on the lace camisole, it's great encouragement to have other (seasoned) knitters compliment on my efforts! Annie, thanks for your perspective (hee hee) on the climbing pictures! You had the same reaction as my mom and a few other non-climbing friends!

I finished the 3-cable hat and the circular scrubbies/spiral dishrags. They were both super quick knits and took just 2 days total to finish all. Here they are all nicely packaged for the trip to Nuremberg:

Patterns: 2-Cable Hat and Scrubbies
Yarns: Lion Brand Wool-Ease in #233 Autumn Print; Red Heart Super Saver in #318 Watercolor

I got the scrubbies pattern (this links to a PDF) through Mariko's site. The original Japanese instructions were then kindly translated by Gwen of Knitability (scroll down to her May 8th and 9th entries). I knit the small scrubbie using her directions, then did some calculation to make the bigger scrubbies. I used leftover Red Heart Super Saver in #318 Watercolor which I hope is rrrrrough enough; it's really neat-o how the variegation makes its own stripes. Red Heart acrylic is useful for some things! For the hat, I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease in #223 Autumn Print and modified this pattern to have 3 cables instead of 2.

Okay, what to knit next? I'm in the mood for C A N D Y colors right now...

Lastly, joined Annie's Anna Karenina Read-Along. Care to join? My book comes in at 840 heartstopping pages of 9 pt. Garamond (not small, but your heart does skip a beat), but hey, the Russians know how to do stories.

Lace Camisole Last night I finished the back of the cami and started on the front. I made two changes, shortening the back (and will do so with the front) by 2" for my short torso, and I added eyelets so the ribbon will wind around the cami. Because I didn't have the right needle my ribbing is a little tight, but ya know, the only person who will see me in this is BF, so it's not like he's going to say, "You should've used the #2, schnuckie putzie." I really like the yarn, so I'm going to stash up on all the colors.

Laurie Lambkin Seamin' along. Got the ears and tail done. I'll need a glass of wine for the gusset and the body, and another glass for the stuffing and embroidery. Seaming is almost as hard as knitting with the yarn, all those nubs getting in the way, the yarn splitting, and the most annoying thing of all, which is when it breaks. I have 1 1/4 skeins left, and I will probably knit a simple scarf, just to get rid of it.

I gotta get away from garter and stockinette stitch. My next project has got to have some yarn-overs and inc's and dec's and cables and knit-two-togethers. Interestingly enough, I don't have the urge to knit Charlotte's Web; in my mind I've knit 5 or 6 of them through osmosis of other knitblogger's Charlottes. I'll have knit an additional 2 once JenLa finish theirs, they've been sucked in!

We're sending a birthday box over to Nuremberg sometime in the next week, so I'm going to do some quick knitting. Maybe another 3-cable hat for the birthday boy (BF's bro), some spiral dishrags (BF's mom) and something-for-BF's-dad. I know, a beanie in June? Yes, a beanie in June; I can't think of anything else to knit in 3 days. If I was Wendy (go Wendy go) I would've knit him a sweater with some really complicated intarsia pattern using super yummy yarn, with a day to spare.

But I'm not. So I hope he likes his beanie.