Knitting Inspiration

Malabrigo Sock Yarn in Arbol, originally uploaded by Filipina Sakura.

I was cleaning out a bag I had brought to Stitches West in February and found this free pattern Malabrigo handed out called Coprispalle. I remember how beautiful it was on the the person wearing it. In Italian, Coprispalle translates to "shrug" (via google translator). I think it's more of a cape than a shrug though. Whatever it is, it's beautiful.

I needed some inspiration to kick my knitting rut and this was it. I've been really bummed by my past sweater projects not working out and decided I need to not make any for awhile. So, this one size fits all cape will do for now. I hope I get some use out of it if and when I finish. At the rate I'm knitting I'll be done by the Fall months which will fit this colorway. This is Malabrigo's yarn sock in Arbol...a bit of olive green and chocolate brown. Personally, I'm not a fan of wearing garments that have a lot of variegated color but I think I can pull this one off.

I casted on twice (269 stitches!!!) the wrong way until Erin pointed out to me that the instructions to the double needle cast on was at the end of the pattern. Goes to show that you should always read the directions first before casting on. =/ After looking through youtube videos and slowly reading the instructions step by step, I finally cast on succesfully yesterday. Sheesh.

New month*New season*New knitwear!

Happy September! I don't know what it is but I keep finding new patterns that I love. The gals at Zephyrstyle.com sent me an email about their new Juliet cardigan pattern. I think I'm in love with it. It's tooooo cute. I must knit it. NOW!
Well, not now but it moved up to the top of my knitting queue. It doesn't look like a difficult pattern and it can be modified to your liking - long or short.
As soon as I finish my mermaid gloves (after knitting Bubba's Dashing gloves) I'm going to knit this baby up so I can get good use out of it in the fall. They suggest using Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and knit it double stranded. I may substitute different bulky yarn so I don't have to knit it double stranded. I'm not very good at substituting yarn though.

*Progress Report*

Fingerless gloves for Bubba:I used Knitty's "Dashing" pattern for the large size. It looks like a blue tree trunk. Looks better worn because it shows off the cable pattern.

Red Socks for a friend:

Only got through my first ever sock. I don't like the heel. There seems to be too much material there and I don't know what happened. The foot seems gigantic too. Hmph. I'll have to figure it out with the second sock and make some modifications if I can.

Erin and I left today's A's game early and she took me to an amazing yarn store in the SF financial district of all places. It's called Artfibers. There's a lot of yarn in that small shop, but you couldn't tell by how well organized the place is. The yarn is beautiful and high quality. The pricing is quite reasonable too. I walked away with only one cone of lovely 100% tussah silk and will transform it into a Kira K (store manager at Artfibers) lace scarf design.

That's all for now. After I get all my instant gratification projects out of the way I'll get started on Juliet. I keep forgetting I want to learn to crochet though. I'll fit that in sometime.