Adding Insult to Injury

The Original Stash Configuration:




The injury:



The insult:



The response:


Have a wonderful New Year, everyone!

A Handmaiden's Christmas Tale

Santa was clearly not paying attention to the gloomy economy prognostications when he visited chez fleegle this year.

Having fallen in love with Susan Pandorf's magnificent designs, Roy took it upon himself to order the yarn required to complete three of her shawls. And then he added some more stuff for emergencies because he's a prince, **supreme panjandrum** of a husband.

Handmaiden Seasilk in Mermaid, for the Iris Scarf:


Handmaiden Seasilk in Poinsettia, for the Poinsettia scarf:


Handmaiden Seasilk in Pale Autumn, for the Zinnia scarf:


And a few non-assigned skeins of Seasilk.

Pumpkin:



Blackberry:


Fleur:

Renaissance:


Some Jojoland Melody for lace:





An exquisite skein of Art Yarns Beaded Silk Rhapsody:


And, just in case I get overwhelmed with complex lace beading, a simple shawl kit from Colinette:



And finally, to keep me warm while I am playing with all this lovely stash, a cashmere bathrobe:


Harry watched the unwrapping process with a furtive, avaricious look in his eyes. He became profoundly depressed when he saw that, along with the stash enhancement, came some first-class SWAT-designed stash protection. Sitting proudly atop the chain-locked, police-taped plastic box, is a spray can of BUG REPELLENT! Merry Christmas, Harry!


I hope you all enjoyed your holiday as much as I did!

Pearly Blues

Disaster struck the fleegle household this week. Harry pranced in the door a few days ago with an iPod Nano that he won cheating in a poker game. He then spent two days downloading the lyrics to his tunes--an ominous portent of things to come.

With astounding proficiency, he proceeded to jack the iPod into a pair of speakers only slightly smaller than Toad Suck, Arkansas. And in a final display of arachnid ingenuity, he added some tiny wheels to the Nano, turning it into the world's first MP3 skateboard.

The next day, our nearest neighbor (who lives a half a mile north of us) called the police, complaining that a brain-melting version of Irene Cara's Fame was blasting out of her poinsettia.

Fortunately, Roy and I had invested in sound-suppressing earphones minutes after we were introduced to Harry's karaoke machine. We never heard (a) the police hammering on our door or (b) the high-pitched yelps as they fled from the vision of a ten-inch break-dancing spider draped in Red Roxx earbuds, caroming around the dining room on a purple iPod.

And anyway, I was too busy finishing this sweater to bother about the noise.


The design is loosely based on the Feather and Fan Sweater in Gathering of Lace. The original reminded me pleasantly of a raspberry sundae, but I am past the days of wearing ice cream, so the first thing I changed were the colors. I didn't care for the shapeless bottom hemline, so I added a neat twisted ribbing. The sleeves of the original were way too long and wide for someone who cooks on a gas stove, so the shape was streamlined. And during the cuff redesign, some pearl beads wandered in.



By this time, I was having too much fun deviating from the original, so the feather and fan pattern itself was modified (didn't care for the purl ridges) and more beads were added around the neckline. Having been knitted with Blue Sky alpaca/silk. it's a luxuriously soft and warm confection.

Small Bits

I am still somewhat clobbered by whatever I caught last month, so my knitting has been unusually sporadic. I did start the Dragon of Happiness shawl with some hand-dyed Fino, but decided that I really dislike knitting Fino on #1 needles--the resultant fabric is stiff and weirdly hairy.


I ordered some brilliant red Colourmart cashmere/lurex and will try again when I am feeling better. Or not. Somehow, the design isn't calling to me at present.

In search of something different, I happened upon Susan Pandorf's lyrically gorgeous designs and purchased five of them. Despite my dizziness and chronic cough, I managed to cast on and knit a bit of Triad:


As you can see, I added little gold beads to this design, which is being worked with Handmaiden Lace Silk in the Rainforest colorway. The formation of the trefoils is especially interesting, requiring cast-on's in the middle of purl rows and other challenges to eye-hand coordination. I did figure out how to avoid turning the work around to do the cast-ons, which in my physical state, is no mean feat.


Stitches South!
Finally! A Stitches event near me! I signed up for only one class--Fiendishly Difficult Stitches with Merike Saarniit, but I hope to meet up with friends on Friday. Anybody coming? Let me know!