09 July 2007

Le chou en noir

chou top and bottom
Hi friends! My chou bottoms are coming right along, as you can see. I'm really having fun knitting them - it's like putting together one of the larger LEGO kits. You just follow the directions. Comfort knitting. And let me say: Cascade Fixation is great to work with. I've never used a cotton yarn my hands liked before this - and the elastic means it's nearly impossible to drop a stitch. There's nothing hard to manage as regards tension, either - just regular ol knittin.

Like Stacie, when I tried on the front of the hipster, I thought: whoops! Shouldn't have made the biggest size. But when I tried on the back last night, I was thankful I had, because, um: More to accommodate back there (surprise!).

invisible cast-on results. did i make a mistake?
I used Eunny's invisible cast-on instructions instead of the ones that come with the Chou pattern, and while her cast-on is easy to master and wicked fun to do (very swooping and rhythmic motions), it leaves these criss-crossed loops on the bottom set of stitches - pretty hard to purl together with the top set when you get there a few rows later. I think for the bra I'll have to try again to figure out the instructions as given, which unfortunately come with a hard-to-parse set of illustrations. (Stacie actually performed the work for me when "I" cast on for the front of the hipster. Now you know my shame...)

June Taylor jams
Breakfastcam update: Have I mentioned June Taylor to you before? Perhaps once or twice? I have been addicted to this brand of breakfast stuffs for over ten years and have never strayed far - all else is inferior to June's English-style California-made preserves. Heaven. As was the weather this morning! Cool, overcast, and humid. Yes: heaven. What New England has done to deserve a nice summer, I can't even guess at.

Hello Yarn laceweight
So now I leave you with a little yarn porn, some lovely lace and sock yarn from Adrian at Hello Yarn. Aren't these colors wonderful? I love brown and green together, and as you know, fashions change, so when my tastes are in vogue, I seize the moment. Even when I don't know what to do with, say, lace yarn. Maybe a Kat Coyle Lala scarf...

Hello sock yarn
And this would make excellent Monkeys.

3 comments:

NJStacie said...

Um, yeah, so I was looking at that exact lace yarn to get just the other day! So what are you going to do with it???? Should I get some for another -along????

Your Chou looks splendid Max!

Anonymous said...

I'm trying to figure out what you're knitting in that first photo. Whatever it is it looks pretty groovy.

Max said...

They're knickers, Felicia! And I'm only halfway done, because I'm doing the matching bra. See here: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer04/PATTpetitchou.html