The Curse of Frankie W.

Since I was an architecture undergrad student, and even as a (semi) professional, there are two things people ask that bug the crap out of me. 1) Have you read The Fountainhead? 2) Boy! You must sure like Frank Lloyd Wright, huh?

No, I have not read The Fountainhead, and people expecting me to since I am in the architecture profession makes me not want to read it at all. Out of stubbornness, I will probably never read the damn book. I have however read this text for my professional practice seminar, which is just as good if you ask me.

And no, I sure don't like Frank Lloyd Wright. His buildings leak. I have been in many of them, some are amazing, but overall, he's not my favorite. Frankie, I'm just not that into you. However, some of his graphic designs are quite beautiful and I would love to become the expert knitter who can someday create something like this, or this.

I would be the hit at all the architecture functions. At least the ones in chilly weather. Otherwise I would just look like a suck-up.

Irish Hiking Scarf Yarn

I forgot to mention it- this one is also being knit in Patons Classic Merino, color winter white. It's so inexpensive, I love it! I swear I don't work for Patons!!!!! No, really! I don't!

And yet another new project

I had to start another project. I've wanted to make a cream-colored long wooly cabled scarf for myself, that was one of my goal projects this summer. I had an off-white scarf that was some felty cashmere ripoff, I've had it since junior high. About 15 years, I guess. People who know me well know how cheap and thrifty I am, so this probably does not come as a surprise to them that I still wear clothes from 7th grade. Well, the old scarf was developing holes and getting thin, so I figured it was time to move on.


Here's the scarf. It's the Irish Hiking Scarf pattern from Hello Yarn, which, understandably, is a really popular pattern. I think it will be perfect as my new white scarf. And I'll probably wear it for 30 years. I made some serious mileage on it sitting in the financial aid office this past week. Not as much as I would have liked, however. :(

You know you're a knitting addict when a guy offers to trade you numbers at the financial aid office, meaning you can be out of there an hour earlier, but you are disappointed because it means less knitting time.

Yarn used for Lopi scarf

Love this pattern, but I am not, however knitting it in the Lopi Lite yarn because I don't like to wear clothes knitted out of barbed wire. For all y'all un-knitters reading, Lopi is a brassy, rough Icelandic wool that is often used in traditional (Icelandic) patterned sweaters. I guess they wear it to remind themselves that there are things that suck worse than the weather in Iceland? Ooh! Snap! I had all this Lamb's Pride superwash in my stash from a project that didn't turn out last winter (Wavy from Knitty- not a good yarn choice for it), so I figured I'd put it to good use. And it's softer than Lopi. So are hedgehogs, but that's besides the point.

Lopi Lace Returns

After going on the Knitter's Review forums, I got some much-needed help with YOs. And the scarf is turning out!



I know it's only like, .75 inches long. But still! It works!

Lopi Lace Scarf Update

Ok, I am having problems with the scarf pattern. The first half of the pattern and the second half just don't add up. And neither adds up to the 29 stitches the pattern says to cast on at the beginning, the first half of the pattern adds up to 33 and the second adds up to 35, and I can't see anywhere that you increase or decrease. I know there are yarn overs and ssk, but doesn't a yo with an ssk equal the same number of stitches you start with? If anyone who reads this has done this pattern with success, please help! I am not sure what I am doing incorrectly.

Book Review- Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick

I purchased this book from a great little shop in Pagosa Springs - Edelweiss Needlework Chalet. It is quite the chalet, on main street in town, tiny little shop. Good yarn selection, but small.

The first thing I thought when the salesman handed the book to me was, my, what an unfortunate last name. After my 8th-grade gutter mind got over that, I paged through and was hooked, happily made my purchase to a small local business and we were on our way to the Old Fashioned Malt Shoppe, which served their machined malts in paper Coke cups and the place was full of flies. But, this is not a restaurant review, I digress.

The title of the book is highly misleading. These are not projects to be completed in a weekend, rather the theme of the book is relaxed, and weekend-y. Like, if you had a whole weekend to do nothing but knit, drink tea and relax, the book captures that essence. I am a sucker for beautiful imagery, and the book has wonderful photographs of multiple angles of each project. And the variety of projects is great. Your standard scarf and sweater fare, gloves, mittens, and then some unique items, beautiful socks, chair and cushion covers, pillowcase lace. And some ridiculous things, like egg cozies and finger puppets, for the masochists, I guess. My eggs don't need tiny sweaters, and I can't imagine knitting tiny finger puppets with insane detail with tiny needles. But those were the only two projects I deemed totally useless. Out of fifty, not bad.

The projects are really unique, and challenging, and inspiring. You won't find your standard garter-stitch scarf in here. This is not a book for beginners, but it is really great for intermediate knitters needing a challenge, and some projects I consider to still be too advanced for me. But that means I will be using the book for a while. And it has already inspired me to create some designs of my own. There are notes in each project detailing any difficult parts of the pattern, and the patterns are described pretty well. Apparently there were some errors, you can find the corrections online, I have only started one project, the Lopi Lace scarf, so I haven't encountered errors yet.

The yarns called out in the projects are ridiculously expensive. It is easy to trade out yarn, though, which is what I've already done with the Lopi scarf (even if Lopi was dirt-cheap, it feels like a potato sack). I mean, I would never buy a $200 sweater, why the hell would I knit one?

The most fun parts of the book are the extra things thrown in that really complete the weekend-y mood: cookie recipies, how to prepare a relaxing bath, list of movies that have knitting in them, quotes on knitting, how to make a gift basket for a knitter. Fluff, really, but a nice touch. Certainly would not work if all the patterns in the book sucked, but they don't, so it does.