Hanne, Hanne, Hanne

At the risk of sounding repetitive, here's a post I wrote while on my study-break from blogging! I forgot I hadn't posted this yet....Just a rehashing of yesterday's post, with pics and more links:

Oooooh, I got my Hanne Falkenberg pattern & yarn kit in the mail only 1 week from when I ordered it from England!!! Sure beats the price I would have had to pay in the US for this beautiful kit. So, soooooo excited to begin this project. What a staple for my wardrobe it will be!

Here's the swing jacket pattern I ordered, called Ballerina (in this colorway):


Wow, I just found a KAL for her patterns, here. That's pretty exciting, I will probably join that one or at least lurk to get tips!

And Hanne's webpage with all her designs, here. I love her style, just classy and beautiful.

And here is a knitter who made the same finished product--look how beautiful it is in real-life! And another one in different colors.... :

Swapping

This is some of what I sent to my yarn-swap pal in Sweden. I guess I forgot to take a pic of the full box when it was ready to send! There were 3 more balls of yarn and 2 sweet treats in the box. I can't believe she got it so fast!!! One week to ship to Sweden. (It better be fast for $32!)
Well, I assumed that meant my Hanne Falkenberg pattern kit I ordered from Cucumberpatch in England would get here quickly too. And I was right! Cool!! Here's a pic of what my kit looked like when I got it:
It's the 'Ballerina' swing jacket, and it's so beautiful! I bought colorway 12. Can't wait to get started on it.

And, I can't wait to see what my swap pal got for me. She's been having a hard time lately, and so her package to me has been delayed. Carola, I hope you are feeling better, and that your kitties are all healthy now.

Gift news: now my finished Christmas gift scarf-count has reached five. Yay! I am starting 2 more. Hanne will have to wait, unfortunately.

A friend and I will be starting our first pair of socks after the Christmas season. Looking forward to that! I have a few balls of sock yarn--will have to find the most beginner-friendly yarn,pattern, and needles. Don't need to be using no stinking size 0s on my first pair of socks!

I want a clean house!

Okay, I love my puppy, but....
hello!

What you are seeing are the brushings from one day. My puppy is going through telogen effluvium!!! At least that's what it's called in people. Shedding, is the general term used in animals. But holy moly! That is half his bulk. I wonder, does he have any viable organs under all that fur?

I ask this, because I spent much of last Sunday brushing him, cutting off his dreadlocks, and trimming his chow-chow pants because whenever they are huge and poofy, he gets them full of poop. I shampooed him, even though he hates water, and now I just swept up another pile of hair in my house!

What the ? Sigh. At least the floor is clean now. (There has not been time this week, to keep up with housework, what with illness, death, working, and studying. I don't want another week like this. Ever.) I can't stand when my life gets so overly busy that it prevents me from doing normal things, like staying awake, cleaning the house, or buying groceries!

Knitting content: Finally finished the Crazy Weave Scarf. This morning at 2 AM. Yay, another Xmas present down! Pics to come later....

Next on the agenda: the Dulaan scarf! And the DNA scarf.

I have been recieving fun stuff in the mail. I bought some of the aran pattern books I've had on my list, and slowly but surely they arrived while I was on blogging-sabbatical. Here's a couple:

Fun, huh! I must go knit now.... (and no, I will not be spinning my puppy's massive hairball into any yarn. Come to think of it, though, he does have a kind of sheep-like back half....)

Purl this....!

Written 8/20/07:
I found out I've been doing the purl stitch wrong. THE PURL STITCH. Don't laugh. (I said don't). Somehow I developed my speedy continental style of knitting about 10-15 years ago (out of a book, mind you) with a twisted purl stitch, because that just made more sense to me at the time, it was faster, and I didn't notice a difference.

Until.... I was mostly done with the Crazy Weave scarf when I happened upon a little note by Barbara G Walker in one of her knitting tomes, about continental style knitting and it's common mistake of twisting the purl stitch. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck when I read that! No, no, no....

So I had to learn to purl correctly. This week. I changed my tactics in the middle of the scarf. (And, BTW, old habits die hard!!!) Look at the difference in my ribbing on the crazy weave:

Top half is the old way, bottom half is the correct way. See the diff?

I obviously needed to learn this crucial point, and I'm very thankful I had checked out that BGW treasury from the library. But there is a certain nagging feeling I have that this new knowledge is going to cause me angst!!!! Angst in the form of all the UFOs that are halfway done...wrong! Aaaaaaarrrrrrgggh!

Can't think about that. Must study. Must study. Must study....

Wow. I had to post that, even if it's 3 weeks later! Of course, I was not about to start over on the crazy weave scarf, seeing that I'm 4/5 done. I decided to do 3-4 "weave" repeats in the normal purl stitch, and then complete the remainder in the twisted purl stitch I'd already used for most of it. It's now a design feature. Mmm hmm;-|

Free time-- what's that?

OMG it's done. I mean over. I am completely prostrate after the stress of the past couple of weeks. Between exam review week, a virulent mono-like illness, the board exam today, and the long drawn-out death of someone from our office, I have just about had my fill of stress.

So, on my way home from the exam today, I swung over to my favorite yarn store. It's chock full of the best yarns I've ever seen. Haven't been there in about 8 months, cuz it is somewhat out of the way, and I always spend money when I'm in there.

But I got myself a treat--look at this gorgeous silk yarn:

100% silk!!! Look at the sheen! It's so yummy I can hardly stop touching it! I think I am going to make myself the ultimate luxury washcloth (I can hear the collective gasp now!) Ooooh it's going to feel so good.
And I found she had a stock of one of my favorite yarns: Nashua Wooly Stripes. I love, love, love this stuff. Didn't know it came in so many colorways! I got 2 new ones :)

And a new color of the cotton chenille. Loving the blues and greens together these days....And it seems to be all about washcloths :) Well enough about my treats. The biggest treat of all is being done with the raunchy exam. Sigh. Now my agenda includes a wake tomorrow, and planning for the big trip in 11 days, and a birthday in the next week. Will things ever slow down?! I thought it was supposed to get better when your kids were older....? Where did August go?! I haven't even paid my bills yet. Sigh....

Good news is: I'll see ya'll tomorrow!