D'autres distractions

Many things have happened in the past few weeks, and I am sorry to report that there is no news about knitting. We finally found our dream house, which we moved into ten days ago. Needless to say, time for knitting has been sparse.

However, I have had many opportunities to devour furniture catalogs and long for all the wonderful things that they offer. I set my eyes on this little "pouf" (from CB2) . Absolutely delightful!
Until I can make my own....

Petit Pouf!

Et la lumière fût!

Gotta love the way knitting (and crochet) has developed in the past few year(s).

I had to share this article with you and feature some of my favorite examples:

The Granny Lamp

By Melanie Porter

I don't know about you, but I think this is SO awesome! Don't be surprised, if I start knitting rugs, lamps and pillows. Who knew, knitting was the future? or at least part of mine...

Tricot tendance

I saw this while looking at the Roche Bobois website. Bien sûr, it's from P A R I S... everything they design is beautiful and so beyond anyone's means.

Here's to interior design knitting...

Don't miss the larger image here.

Pole/tree cozies - notice the color arrangements.

Deux pas en avant...

Finally a few finished projects to share with you.

1/ Seed stitch cowl with twist. Pattern can be found here:

Seed stitch cowl project with a twist

up close

Finished and on the beast

I gave this one to Killian's teacher as she had kindly complemented me on Killian's scarf. He then insisted I make her something too.

Have I mentioned this is becoming a bit of an expensive hobby? 

2/ Malabrigo Rasta Cowl pattern. The pattern can be found on Ravelry's website. You have to register (it's free) but you should be able to find it. Or go to the Malabrigo website

It's basically an elongated seed stitch with a cast off that allows for you to add buttons.

Cowl with four large buttons

There is a confession to make here: when I purchased the yarn, I forgot to make a ball of yarn from the skein using their antique machine (I'm sure there's a better name for it, but I don't remember - this is what happens after you've had two kids: you forget stuff!).
So I kindly asked the husband to help me out. It worked out great!

Et voilà!

You might wonder why they don't sell the yarn already in a ball? well, it turns out it's easier to ship when the yarn is in a skein and it allows the die on the yarn to dry up easily during transportation. This is what I've been told.

Que faire?

For some odd reason, I bought different skeins of wool the other day but only one of each color.
So I started on this cowl using the pattern here:

Knitted happily until I ran out of yarn...

Seed stitch twisted cowl - en gris foncé

Until I could find enough time to go back to my usual peeps and buy some more yarn, I decided to use this gorgeous red yarn and started on this project:

Infinity scarf / cowl - en rouge

So I have these two under way, nothing close to finished!

Pretty much the state of my life right now. But I can tell you this much:
it's very close to all falling into place!!

Motus et bouche cousue! A Suivre...

Enfin fini!

The "F U Z Z Y" scarf is finished. Different look on different tops! Can't wait to wear it...

on light shirt

on dark sweater

Mostly, I really enjoyed knitting this one. And of course, adding the "double" fringe.

Onto the next project. A cowl ... mais avec boutons! à suivre.

(you can go here to see the initial project and its evolution)

Recommencer pour mieux réussir

As you know, I've been big on cowls. Let's face it: the reward for effort is pretty instant. In one evening, I can take a skein (new word!) of yarn and turn it into a cowl.

I branched out before the holidays into making SCARVES. My first attempt was for Killian. Honestly, a big hit. But so loooooong to make. Over a week!

Before fringes were added

Of course, Ella wanted one too (even if I'd already made her a cute light blue cowl with matching hat). So I made her one, but with thicker yarn and with an awesome pattern of k1, yo, k2tog, k1.

Miss Ella walking with purse (and scarf)

This last scarf opened up a ton of new ideas. I was inspired by this model, thanks to ImagiKnit in the Castro.

ImagiKnit model

Of course, I didn't have any yarn that thick so I just improvised with these two skeins of wool in alpaca I had purchased a while back (Bouton d'Or in Divine Mustang). I had actually tried to make a cowl with this yarn but it was too difficult to knit in the round for some reason. Maybe the needles were too small or I hadn't experienced knitting enough to manage. Using size 10 1/2 needles in bamboo turned out to be perfect.

Alpaca - love it!

I began the above-mentioned pattern and probably knitted fifty rows before I made a big mistake. I kept on, thinking it wouldn't matter but I have to say, it looked really bad. So, I undid the whole thing, which turned out to be quite the job as the yarn was so fuzzy, it kept getting tangled and knotted.

Au tout début...

En cours de route

I finally got back on track. The project is still in the making so I'll make sure to add a finished photo.

Lesson learned: sometimes, you just have to start over to get what you want! 

La moitié est faite