Why hello! It’s been two weeks since we’ve hung out, mano-a-blogo. Mr. Roboto certainly enjoyed having the spotlight during that time, but I think it’s time to push him a little further down on the page, lest we inflate his ego even more. He would like you to know that he’s flying high these days, happy that he finally found his one true love.

In the meantime, I’ve been obsessing about things a bit.

This is the beginnings of the Phyllo Yoked Pullover from Knitting Nature. This is the fourth project that I’ve knit from the book, and it won’t be the last. I’m making this as a mini-knitalong with Lolly and Jody, and a couple of weeks ago Lolly went ahead and started hers. That spurred me to finally swatch, then I blinked and had a completed yoke. Whoa!

I’m very, very loosely following the pattern - I’m knitting the yoke according to the phyllo chart and the rest of the sweater is from my own numbers. I wanted to use a thinner yarn to shrink the yoke pattern vertically so that I could wear this sweater without having to layer a shirt underneath. I do live in Texas, after all, and layering season is quickly drawing to a close. The Rowan 4 ply Cotton is working perfectly so far. I extended the lace chart by one diamond, and the patterning is the perfect length. Perhaps the color isn’t the best color to show off the yoke pattern, but I want this sweater in black, so black it is.

I knit the fun part first (similar to my Tangled Yoke construction (you should click on that link if you like kittens. gah, they were so cute!)) and now I need to think and do math, which means that this sweater has already been cast aside for something else fun. Norah did some interesting shaping in the front of the sweater to make the front neckline fall lower than the back, which I’m going to try to mimic with short rows. Then it’s all stockinette till the cows come home.

Obsession number two comes in fabric form. I’ve been very good at my yarn diet. The only thing I’ve purchased so far this year was a wee bit of sock yarn. However! All that saved money has funded my brand new fiber stash. And my fabric stash. Not good.

I’ve been thinking, dreaming, pondering about blue and orange lately, hence the sudden expansion. We have a bluish-grey couch and a light greenish-blue chair, and I’ve been planning on making pillows for them forever. Have you noticed that all of the good fabrics contain brown? They do! This greenish-blue and orange combo will be perfect accents.

I’ve had diamonds on the mind lately, too, and I’m finally getting around to figuring out a patchworky pillowy pattern. You would not believe how difficult it is to line up diamonds until you cut them out for some coasters and then try to piece them together as you watch your machine devour all of the tiny little diamond shapes. Or maybe that’s just me. Drafting pattern pieces ahead of time is a much smarter way to go.

The scraps (ha! the pillows will only use wee amounts) might go to a baby quilt. Or maybe I’ll just line them up and take more photos of them.

That Mr. Roboto, he’s such a cornball.

Pattern: Robot (rav link) from Unusual Toys for You to Knit and Enjoy, Mochimochiland Heart
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted and scraps of Louet Gems for Mr. Roboto, Wool/Sarisilk blend scraps for the heart

This is another of those thrown-in-a-drawer, procrastinate-on-the-finishing projects. I had originally knit Mr. Roboto as a graduation gift for Rob (whose degree is in robotics). He graduated about a year and a half ago. Poor neglected Mr. Roboto!

The pattern instructs you to knit both sides of the robot flat, then seam him together. I had the bright idea of knitting him in the round and kitchenering his vertical seams together. I’m not sure that this saved me much work, and I think it produced more ends to weave in. Also, I knit him flat along the length of the intarsia panel, so I had to seam that side anyway.

Then I embroidered the most hideous face on the poor robot, prompting the delay in finishing. I finally bought a boatload of safety eyes, ripped my embroidery, and started over. I tried to embroider the heart to have the same expression as Mr. Roboto, but the heart just looks kind of sad - Rob even pointed it out. Awww!

Overall, Rob was very happy with his V-day gift, and Mr. Roboto is happy to be out of that drawer. Now, if Mr. Roboto could just find a little love…

Usually my participation in Project Spectrum is purely coincidental, but this year I’m putting the teeniest bit of forethought into it.

That’s my sock yarn stash, all 12 skeins of it. I did buy some since making the sock-a-month pledge - the green skeins in the middle that look like they were attacked by cats. Because they were. You can click on the photo to see details on everything.

I fear that my sock-knitting motivation is going to wane once summer hits Houston (um, next month), but I’m going strong for now. I’m planning to knit the next bunch of socks according to Project Spectrum colors. Air is already looking like it’s going to be a weak season, but the other months are well represented in the stash. The fiery looking yarn in the upper-right will be March’s pair.

I may have accidentally added a thirteenth skein to the sock yarn pile.

That wheel that I’ve been borrowing? Well, now it’s mine. This is the first yarn that I’ve spun on it since I bought it - it’s Funky Carolina superwash merino in the Missed colorway.

I wanted to give Navajo-plying a go, so I decided to spin some skinny singles so that the 3ply yarn wouldn’t be too thick. At no point in time did I realize that I would end up with sock yarn. Yup, this is 119g and 350 yards, and pretty darn close to fingering weight. It’s by no means perfect, but I love it anyway!

Oooh, and today is also my two-year blogiversary. Crazy, huh? I’ve got to say, I do have big arrow-pierced hearts for the knitters! It’s such a great, supportive community, and I’m happy to be a part of it. Yay for yarn!

One of my sort-of resolutions this year was to finish-or-frog my lingering projects (let’s not even discuss another resolution to blog more frequently, which I’m clearly failing at). How did I do? Well, the Socks for Veronik were project number 1 out of 6, and here’s number two:

Pattern: Counterpane Clutch from Handknit Holidays
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, less than one skein!

What seemed like a simple project at the time became a monster. I first knit this when I bought Handknit Holidays, out of some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk. I remember being pretty frustrated that it took a little over one skein to make the bag, and the hairiness of the bag was not the look I was going for. So the bag sat in a corner for the longest time. I would root around in my yarn stash and uncover one of the halves, then guiltily stuff it back into its deep, dark corner to hibernate.

Then, last April, I bought a couple of skeins of Pure Silk from Yarntopia’s anniversary sale. The clutch looks much better in a smoother yarn, so the Alpaca Silk got frogged (and subsequently became Center Square). Then I proceeded to stuff the reknit bag into a deep, dark corner to hibernate.

Why all the procrastination? Ugh, the finishing details! I had originally planned to buy a metal claspy purse frame for the bag, which would have cost more than the yarn used to knit it! The clasp ended up being backordered, then gone forever, and I finally just went with a boring old zipper.

I made one small modification to the knitting portion of the bag - I provisionally cast on both sides, then kitchenered the bottom together. No seams! I don’t remember why I didn’t just knit the bag in the round, maybe because of the clasp details? If you’re installing a zipper, you might as well just knit it in the round and make it seamless.

The knitting part of this bag was quick and easy. You can easily get one bag out of a skein of Pure Silk. I even had enough extra yarn that I knit a wrist strap with (but the strap looked crappy and was removed).

I chose the invisible zipper purely because it’s such a close color match, but I’m pleased with the choice now.

The next step was the lining. You should definitely block the bag before figuring out the lining. I drafted a pattern for the lining (scallops and all), which was too small. Then I drafted another one. I actually made two linings - an outer lining that you can see through the lace pattern, and an inner lining that’s a teeny bit smaller. I interfaced both linings, but did not sew them together. The inner lining also has a pocket on each side that’s credit card / money sized. I’m always worried that I’m going to lose money when taking things in and out of pocketless clutches.

Last step - zipper installation. This part is No Fun. I wedged the zipper between the two lining layers, which looks very tidy. There was lots of basting and swearing and rebasting involved with zipper installation. Then there were a few attempts to find a stitch that will look pretty on the inside. I think I succeeded, but seriously, between the Tangled Yoke ribbon facing and this zipper, I was handstitching for a solid week.

My final verdict? Meh. I probably won’t use it much. First off, the yarn is extremely fuzzy and the bag looks quite worn already.

It’s like little sunspots erupting from the surface of the bag. From what? The abuse of being ignored for all this time? The most wear that the bag endured was living in a desk drawer for a few months (as an attempt to get me to finish the damn thing). I now realize that this fuzziness and wear is common with single-ply silk yarns. Boo. The other issue is completely my fault - I didn’t interface the lining enough. I used a fusible interfacing, likely lightweight. The bag is pretty floppy and looks pretty silly. I haven’t tried loading it with my cellphone and lipgloss yet, but it doesn’t look good.

And what about the other four finish-in-January projects?

• Tangled Yoke - needs a single ribbon facing for the buttonhole side. I need to figure out buttonholes on my sewing machine - there’s no way that I’m hand stitching them.
• Petal - No longer looks hacked apart. I need to figure out the sleeve caps, which don’t fit the sleeves terribly well.
• Intricate Stag Hat - no progress.
• Mr. Roboto - Almost done! I think he’s going to become a valentine’s day gift for rob (rather than a graduation gift, an event which occurred almost two years ago).

Now we’re striving for finish-by-Spring. Hopefully!