Loopy is the new crazy!
The muppet scarf got bound off and ends woven in and now it sits happily wrapped around a nice bottle of champagne in hopes that Karman will associate that fuzzball with bubbly drunkenness. Yum!
Obviously, upon finishing The Muppet I should have returned immediately to the still half-completed fuzzyfoot which taunts me each day with its partial existence.
Obviously, I started a whole new project.
This project has no pattern, no gift recipient in mind, and no real purpose at all ... other than the sheer joy of knitting it. I LOVE YOU, KNITTING! You make me happy. You know I'm crazy and you love me back anyway, with your 100% wool goodness, with your silly crazy stitches, with your never-ending world of possibility. I know you aren't even disappointed in me for stalling mid-fuzzyfoot. You're just happy to live in a moth-free ziploc bag and wait for me. Love you!
Yesterday morning I was running out the door to catch the bus and needed a project STAT! I reached into the stash (conveniently located right by the front door.) Two balls of Lana Grossa Caldo 100% virgin wool yarn jumped out at me -- they've been patiently waiting since March. A soft, dense lofty wool in a cheerful shade of safety orange -- well, it's deer hunting season somewhere, right?
This yarn is so bulky it's practically polar weight. Therein lies the problem -- I only have two very small balls of the Caldo, enough maybe for a hat. But a polar-weight wool hat in Los Angeles? I may be crazy, but I am not delusional (yet!) so this yarn has languished in the stash for months. Felted bag? Kitty pi stripe? Pompom trim?
For no logical reason at all, I settled in to my bus knitting groove and cast on ten stitches of Caldo with size 15 bamboo straight needles. And the only thing I wanted to do was MAKE LOOPS! Big fat fluffy loops!
I ADORE the loop stitch. I'm not sure I'd make a whole garment out of loops, but a few rows here and there are so much fun! Makes you wonder what the inventor of said stitch was drinking at the moment of divine inspiration. Whatever it was... I want some. Gimme. Now.
Making loops looks hard but it's really easy. It's not an exact science... the loops will never be EXACTLY the same length, and I think that adds to its mod, goofy charm. My loops are the beginning of a scarf because as ya'll know by now, my personal motto is "When in doubt, knit a scarf." (Far better than my old personal motto, "When in doubt, go to McDonald's.")
To make a loop, knit one stitch like normal -- BUT instead of dropping the yarn off the left needle like a normal knit stitch, you leave the yarn on the left needle.
Making loops takes more yarn than normal stitches, so I only made two rows of loops, one on each side of the scarf to give it a whacked-out fringe look.
As a scarf, this little guy was already looking pretty good to me, maker of dead muppet scarves. But the body of the scarf would have to be airy to compensate for A: the small amount of yarn I have and B: the denseness of the wool. Drop-stitch to the rescue!
Drop-stitch is another favorite stitch, because you get this lacy, airy look that knits up in crazy ways depending on your yarn. Ribbon drop-stitch looks totally different from mohair. Plus, it knits up at a pretty fast pace. So, drop stitch + bulky yarn + big needles = super turbo fast!
Progress after knitting on the bus ride home.
This is one funky scarf, the color and the thickness of the yarn make this stitch look almost like macrame, in a hippiefied 1970s kinda way. I'm not sure if I'd wear this ... but I love making it!
And because I haven't posted enough pictures yet in this one entry, here is Soba getting a little warmth from her personal heater and fur blanket, Roy The Cat.
Obviously, upon finishing The Muppet I should have returned immediately to the still half-completed fuzzyfoot which taunts me each day with its partial existence.
Obviously, I started a whole new project.
This project has no pattern, no gift recipient in mind, and no real purpose at all ... other than the sheer joy of knitting it. I LOVE YOU, KNITTING! You make me happy. You know I'm crazy and you love me back anyway, with your 100% wool goodness, with your silly crazy stitches, with your never-ending world of possibility. I know you aren't even disappointed in me for stalling mid-fuzzyfoot. You're just happy to live in a moth-free ziploc bag and wait for me. Love you!
Yesterday morning I was running out the door to catch the bus and needed a project STAT! I reached into the stash (conveniently located right by the front door.) Two balls of Lana Grossa Caldo 100% virgin wool yarn jumped out at me -- they've been patiently waiting since March. A soft, dense lofty wool in a cheerful shade of safety orange -- well, it's deer hunting season somewhere, right?
This yarn is so bulky it's practically polar weight. Therein lies the problem -- I only have two very small balls of the Caldo, enough maybe for a hat. But a polar-weight wool hat in Los Angeles? I may be crazy, but I am not delusional (yet!) so this yarn has languished in the stash for months. Felted bag? Kitty pi stripe? Pompom trim?
For no logical reason at all, I settled in to my bus knitting groove and cast on ten stitches of Caldo with size 15 bamboo straight needles. And the only thing I wanted to do was MAKE LOOPS! Big fat fluffy loops!
I ADORE the loop stitch. I'm not sure I'd make a whole garment out of loops, but a few rows here and there are so much fun! Makes you wonder what the inventor of said stitch was drinking at the moment of divine inspiration. Whatever it was... I want some. Gimme. Now.
Making loops looks hard but it's really easy. It's not an exact science... the loops will never be EXACTLY the same length, and I think that adds to its mod, goofy charm. My loops are the beginning of a scarf because as ya'll know by now, my personal motto is "When in doubt, knit a scarf." (Far better than my old personal motto, "When in doubt, go to McDonald's.")
To make a loop, knit one stitch like normal -- BUT instead of dropping the yarn off the left needle like a normal knit stitch, you leave the yarn on the left needle.
Making loops takes more yarn than normal stitches, so I only made two rows of loops, one on each side of the scarf to give it a whacked-out fringe look.
As a scarf, this little guy was already looking pretty good to me, maker of dead muppet scarves. But the body of the scarf would have to be airy to compensate for A: the small amount of yarn I have and B: the denseness of the wool. Drop-stitch to the rescue!
Drop-stitch is another favorite stitch, because you get this lacy, airy look that knits up in crazy ways depending on your yarn. Ribbon drop-stitch looks totally different from mohair. Plus, it knits up at a pretty fast pace. So, drop stitch + bulky yarn + big needles = super turbo fast!
Progress after knitting on the bus ride home.
This is one funky scarf, the color and the thickness of the yarn make this stitch look almost like macrame, in a hippiefied 1970s kinda way. I'm not sure if I'd wear this ... but I love making it!
And because I haven't posted enough pictures yet in this one entry, here is Soba getting a little warmth from her personal heater and fur blanket, Roy The Cat.
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