MUKBEL

I have little fear of SABLE (Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy). My bank balance, mortgage payment, and the desire for regular meals will prevent this syndrome from developing. I have empty cubby holes to prove it. Besides, the fear my husband has on my behalf is great enough to eliminate the need for extra fear from me.

However, MUKBEL* (MUst Knit Before End of Life) is becoming a real problem. Until a few months ago, I was blissfully unaware of all the wonderful, creative designs that existed somewhere other than my small corner of the world. I had stumbled past Knitty more than once without really understanding it's full potential. I thought Magknits was the name of, well, honestly, it had gone in one ear and immediately out the other without any understanding what so ever. Mostly, I would thumb through the pages of IK or Vogue Knitting. Maybe, one or two items would catch my eye. Being distracted once every three months kept my list of must knits to a manageable size.

All that changed when I discovered blogging. I don't know how I managed to comprehend blogging but not Knitty and Magknits. With every virtual visit with my ever growing circle of blogging friends my list inevitablyly increases. Recently the MUKBEL list has seen the addition of Calle, Estonian Lullaby Blanket, Kiri, Liesel, and the Shetland Tea Shawl. As a result, my list of must knits is growing faster than I can knit them off the needles. I refuse to acknowledge that I might avoid this problem by finishing something in the same year I start. Sometimes ignorance is a choice.

I thought I would return the favor. If you are looking for some inspiration, may you find it here. If you find your list growing too, don't blame me. The MUKBEL made me do it.

SOCKS
Pomatomus - Knitty Winter 05
Yukon Leaves - woolandwood
Cherry Blossom Socks - Sivia Harding
Cable Rib Socks - Interweave Knits Spring 05
Embossed Leaves Socks - Interweave Knits Winter 05
Waving Lace Socks - Interweave Knits Spring 04
River Rapid Socks - Sockbug (blog)
Crooked Cable Socks - Sockbug (blog)

SWEATERS / TANKS / SHRUGS
Calle - Magknits Apr 06
Tubey - Knitty Winter 05
Crafster Circular Shrug - Momcast (Blog)
Blackberry - Knitty Fall 05
Durrow - Magknits Nov 05
I Do - Knitty Spring 05
Cleo - Knitty Summer 03
Lacey - Knitty Fall 05
Krista Tee - White Lies Designs
Madeline Jacket - White Lies Designs
Cambridge Jacket - Interweave Knits Summer 06
Bias Corset - Interweave Knits Summer 06
Sunrise Circle Jacket - Interweave Knits Spring 06
Miss Mistletoe - Vogue Holiday 06
Eyelet Pullover - Vogue Fall 05
Twisted Float Shrug - Vogue Fall 05
Hooded Pullover - Vogue Spring/Summer 05
Zippered Jacket - Vogue Winter 04/05
Seed Stitch Jacket - Vogue Winter 04/05
Bi-color Cables - Interweave Knits Winter 05
Simply Marilyn - Interweave Knits Spring 04
Corset Sweater - Interweave Knits Spring 03

SCARVES / CAPLETS / NECKWARE
Kureopatora - String or Nothing (Blog)
Flared Lace Smoke Ring - Heartstrings Fiberarts
Thrummed Moebius - Fleece Artist
Shortrow Ribs Scarf - Magknits
Multidirectional Scarf - Magknits Sep 05
Backyard Leaves - Scarf Style
Trellis Scarf - Interweave Knits Spring 06

SHAWLS / STOLES
Estonian Lullaby Blanket - Fibertrends
Ethereal Fichu - Heartstrings Fiberarts
Peacock Feathers Shawl - Fiddlesticks Knitting
Clapotis - Knitty Fall 04
Kiri - alltangledup (PDF)
Icarus - Interweave Knits
Falling Snow Shawl - my own design
Rona Lace Shawl - Knit Picks
Primula - First Book of Modern Lace Knitting
Sunray - First Book of Modern Lace Knitting
Diamond Fantasy Shawl - Sivia Harding
Lady Eleanor Entralac Stole - Scarf Style
Rectangular Shawl - Knitpicks

HATS
Odessa - Magknits Feb 06
Lace Cap - Fibertrends

OTHER
Butterfly - Rowan 37
Felted Hedgehog - Fibertrends
Wrought Iron Fence - Knitabulous. If you figure out how to knit this before she does, I'm sure she would gladly appreciate the help.
Ultimate Needle Bag - Fleece Artist

* I also refer to this as PIMBLE (Projects In Mind Beyond Life Expectancy) or Tomknitok (Too Many Knits to Knit)

Maybe If I Drink This Will Look Right

After much swatching and graphing, I have figured out the design for the center of my shawl. I have also decided to design a peacock that will be colored like a Palawan. Therefore, I have moved on to the next part of the bird.


Does this look like a peacock eye to you? Me neither. Back to the liquor cabinet drawing board.

Sandy's Saturday Sky

Sandy is starting .
She wants to the see sky where ever you may be. I suppose if enough people do it, we could see the whole world. I'm just wondering if she has thought about the fact that our Saturday is Australia's Sunday. Except for the hours of 2PM to midnight in the land of Oz. (Do I have that right?)

Now, Sandy understands that it takes time and effort to take photos of your sky. So, she is offering yarn if you join along and leave her a comment so she knows where to find your corner of the world. Ok, it takes hardly any effort and almost no time, but she is a nice person.

Here is my sky - full circle. It is sunny and without a single cloud. That is a rarity here in Michigan. Even the sunniest days are usually with some clouds. I also live in a neighborhood with several old trees. They frame the sky quite nicely I think.

East from my front door
West from my back door
South to the right of my house
North to the left of my house

Pssst....

... Hey, you! Yeah, you the chick with the pointy things. Over here. No, here. Rumor has it that you are going to be stuck in a moving vehicle for four hours. Need something to knit? Come on, you know you do. That silly peacock thing can't be knit while moving. You have to do math. Math and maps never mix. Hey, don't leave. Didn't mean to be rude to the bird. My apologies. Seriously, I've got the thing you need. I'm sticky so accidental dropped stitches aren't going to happen and I'll be easy to memorize. After four hours, you should be almost done!

Moral of the story: Never listen to the stash. It'll get you every time. This is the result of my road trip on Thursday. Have you tried counting stitches for your cast on in a moving car with mohair? 145 stitches took an hour. Rowan Kidsilk Haze is sticky all right - to itself, not the needles. First row, took an hour since I had to keep a tight grip on the needle, the cast on row, and the yarn I was throwing around. The pattern, Fuzzy Lace Camisole from Weekend Knitting, is easy to memorize - not so easy to execute when moving. You can see the progress made in hours three and four.

Yup, never listen to the stash. It'll show you for the sucker that you are.

Nothin' doin'

Some days don't you wish that you didn't have anything better to do than watch the world go by?

A Father's Love

You know your father loves you when you ask for a simple storage unit and he builds a custom stash cabinet. This weekend my parents arrived for a variety of reasons, Father's Day among them. He brought this beautiful piece of furniture as well.

I had been using crates to hold my stash. However, single skeins would get lost in the back and become forgotten. Also, my crates were fairly tall, so balls of yarn would fall over when stacked. All right, I'll be honest. There was no stacking or orderly piles of yarn to be found anywhere.

I knew there had to be a better way to store my yarn. Searching far and near yielded nothing that fit my needs and my decorating tastes. I needed shelves that were only as deep as a skein of alpaca lace and as tall as three balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran. I wanted it to be wood. Dad to the rescue.

I outlined my thoughts. He said he would see what he could do. I was envisioning something square, wood, set with a few shallow shelves, and maybe Plexiglas doors to minimize the dust. I was thinking simple and utilitarian. What he made for me was so much more. Removable oak shelves in perfect dimensions, stained a beautiful cherry color, and glass doors. That's right- glass doors! As a bonus there is plenty of unused space, so I obviously need more yarn. :)

Thanks Dad! I couldn't have a better father than you. You gave me exactly what you knew I didn't know I wanted. I love you too.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Lace Class

~ Practice makes perfect ~ To see your potential you have to stretch yourself ~ Show and Tell isn’t just for kids ~ Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ~ You have to learn the rules before you can break the rules ~ Give and get to stay balanced ~ Be flexible ~ Don’t be afraid to start over ~ Lace has it’s high points and low points; so does Life ~ Borrow from the knowledge of others; it saves time and frustration ~ You have to look beyond the holes to see the beauty; this goes for people too. ~ Everyone makes mistakes ~ Not everyone fixes them and that is all the difference ~

~ You must take a leap of faith ~


Giving credit where it's due. The idea came from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten written by Robert Fulghum.

Extremely Undecided

My plea for my Amazing Lace partner to get her fiberself home has been answered - mostly. For the curious, she was herding llamas in Tibet.

I have one more class before I graduate magna cum lacey. I cannot begin to describe how sad I feel about this. I have learned so much from this series of lessons. My final assignment is to knit an item of my own design.

We were taught that you should sketch your idea. After all, lace is merely a picture made of yarnovers and decreases. For this discussion, let's ignore the fact that some lace requires you must squint really hard and stand on your head for the picture to come in focus. The purpose of the sketch is to visualize the main shapes.

I started with peacock feathers, because of my current love affair with the pattern of the same name from Fiddlesticks. My internet search of all things peacock led me to the palawan pheasant. I quickly fell in love with the colors of this bird.

For those interested in a real challenge, you place your yarnovers on graph paper to outline the shapes. Then fill in the picture with a variety of decreases to even out the stitch count. Or you get your hands on several pattern reference books and blatantly plagiarize someone else's hard work. Either way, the "have chart, will knit" phase is complete.

After copying creating your pattern, select yarn and needles. I wanted shiny yarn to match the shiny feathers. Much squishing of yarn commenced and a 50/50 silk & wool blend was the final winner. Proceed directly to swatching, do not start actual project. With size US 4 circular Addi Natura's firmly in hand, I swatched.


It is a modified version of the Shower stitch from Barbara Walker's "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns". I think it might work with some fiddling. The multiples need to blend better. I also need to seriously think about the needle size. This may be a bit more lacey than I want.

Also, at some point in this design process, my teacher drugged me convinced me that using a solid or variegated yarn would cause the pattern to lose some impact. Handpainting after the knitting is done will allow the details to "pop" more. She's right or I'm crazy.

Here, though, is where my design comes to a grinding halt. The centers of the two sketches are identical. The feathers, however, are as different as night and day. I have to choose. Grand, showy, peacock feathers or the simple, understated elegance of the palawan feathers. Bright turquoise, gold, and green or chocolate, midnight blue, and dark turquoise.

So, how many weeks are left? What remains to be decided?
Pattern - Blatant plagairizing, check!
Yarn - silk and wool, check!
Needles - US4 or maybe US3, certainly not US1's.
Bird - hmm, peacock, no wait, maybe palawan, hmm...Can I call a friend?
Colors - Midnight Blue and Dark Turquoise, check! Oh, the colors should reflect the bird?!? Hmmm, gold, no wait, chocolate, well bright green is nice, hmmm, so is dark blue...
Sanity - None to be found, check!

Defying Physics

This was waiting for me when I arrived home after a long day of work. If I had known that the inside was bigger than the outside, I would have put something in the picture for scale. (Mental note for next time!) Seriously, this box has defied the laws of physics.

Look at the pile of loot it contained. Not one, not two, but three wonderful books of knitting patterns, including how to make Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. My Secret Pal must be a little psychic because I was about to break down and buy that book. She also sent along Folk Vests from Around the World and Knit Wit.

Let's see. There is also two skeins of novelty yarn that will look great as a little something extra on a scarf or hat. Two chocolate bars were included. What? You only see one? That's because the other disappeared almost instantly upon the opening of the box. Strawberry Crunchies that are going to the office with me for the next time I have an emergency meeting about some crisis that occurred five minutes before lunchtime. The bag won't be around too long. That meeting is probably scheduled for tomorrow. A tea pouch for my eyes so that I can relax after the emergency lunch-canceling meeting.

The nicest gift was the hand knit funky purse. If I'm smart, I'll fill it with something heavy edible. Then I can use it to knock unconscious the chairperson prevent hunger during the emergency lunch-canceling sky-is-falling meeting.

Secret Pal, thank you very much for the wonderful box of goodness! You are incredibly generous. Now I'm off to fill the purse with rocks fruity granola bars and browse the books to see what needs to be added to my must knit list.

Crusoe is Half Way Home.

I have half of a finished object! I wove in the ends Sunday night. Of course, life has gotten in the way of properly announcing this until now. Crusoe socks in Koigu #P105L knit on size US2's.


I am trying to resist second sock syndrome. However, the Palawan shawl is demanding my attention. The call of the potato Pomatomus socks is pretty strong, too. And the Kiri Shawl is being pretty vocal as well. Infact, it's turning into a cacophony of distracting patterns calling for my attention around here. Must. Stay. Focused. Cast. On. Sock. Now.

A Day With Mom

Yesterday's post was brought to you by my mother. Or rather my mother's curiosity. She had come to visit for the weekend and one of the stores we visited during our shopping adventure was a lovely tea store in Birmingham. The store offered a variety of flavored teas. In a few of the jars were little balls of . . . well. . . something. Mom pointed these out and looked a bit dubious at my explanation. They were blooming or flowering teas. Add hot water, get tea with a flower. I could tell she had her doubts, so I insisted that we splurge a little and buy a few to try. The pictures I took, don't begin to do them justice. They are really beautiful to watch as the bloom opens in the hot water.

The whole purpose of my mother's visit was to visit a LSS. My mother makes wonderful cards with her stamp crafting. She is one of the most creative people I know.

Since, she had never been to Royal Oak before we made a day of it. I, of course, had to stop at the LYS. Sorry, there is no website for them. I had never been there before but I will most certainly be back. They had a very nice selection of yarns. I picked up something for my SP and my color swap person. Thus there will be no pictures. Just picture yummy, squishy, and soft yarn.

The biggest adventure of the day was timing our visits in and out of stores to avoid the heavy rain showers. The rain never lasted long, but when it rained it poured!!

After our passion hobby indulgences, we stopped for lunch and then a bakery. Raspberry tart for her and chocolate covered fudge brownie for moi. We both agreed that a nap was in order and the only cure was more shopping. So we headed to Birmingham.

There we visited a few more shops including the aforementioned tea shop. All in all, it was a wonderful day spent with a wonderful woman. In my youth, I did not realize what a great mom I was blessed to have. I am older and hopefully a little more wiser now. :)

Got Blooms?