Last winter and spring I expected to be blogging a lot more while Stitchy and I were touring with the trunk show for Knitting it Old School. Except then I didn’t blog much at all and consequently missed posting a bunch of FOs. I have one particular FO that I’ve been sitting on not because I don’t like it, but because it’s really not my best work at all. Nobody likes to talk about their failures, right? This one isn’t a giant failure, just a failure to listen to instinct …

It’s no secret that I’m usually about 97 million degrees warmer than everybody else and I’m constantly complaining that it’s too hot wherever I am. (How I lasted in Texas for so long, I’ll never know.) So it’s no surprise that in the winter, I can often be found in a pair of mary janes without any socks. I wish I could be one of those people who can wear handknit socks, but I’m just not.

The trouble with Mary Janes in the winter is that my feet do get a little cold. A stiff breeze will go straight up my pantleg and hoooooo, doggie. Brrrrr.

It’s possible that in 5 years I will have knit everything out of our book and I’m ok with that. It means they’re all projects that I want, which in turn means I am my own demographic. Success!

I know I say this every year, but there is nothing better than a weekend knitting retreat with your friends. Food, gossip, belly laughs, drinks, cheese, food, knitting. I think I should stop calling our KBC weekends a retreat, but I’m unsure what name to give them. Weekend of Shenanigans? Weekend of Cheese? Margarita Madness? I dunno.

We usually organize a swap of some sort for our weekends of tomfoolery (I’m just throwing names on the wall here people) and this year was no exception. Hats!
Heather (ADDKnitter) was …

You know how sometimes you’re watching TV and an image sticks in your brain? It sits there like an earworm and won’t go away until you do something about it.
When Futurama hit Instant Netflix, the husband and I watched full seasons at a go. Episode after episode,  day after day. I hadn’t seen most of it when it was airing, but I caught up and HOW. After watching Volume 5, episode 4 (Proposition Infinity) I had this image in my brain that I couldn’t shake.

(Oh Bender, I love you.)

I decided …

Amy Herzog is genius, did you know that? When Stitchy and I  were planning the sci-fiber chapter of Knitting it Old School, we ganged up on Amy and told her that she needed to design our Barberella / Planet of the Apes / Matrix-y sweater in the style of the future past. She resisted at first, but it’s almost impossible to say no to us. (We’re so charming!) Plus it was mostly just math, and Amy loves math. Thus was born the Apocalypta sweater.

The yarn is Berroco Seduce, which is …

The husband celebrated a milestone birthday this year near the beginning of February. One of those birthdays that couldn’t be acknowledged by a simple Amazon gift card or a new tie. (Does anyone still give ties? Such a lame gift) I wondered for months what to get him, and of course he kept saying he didn’t need or want anything special. I stewed for ages on what the gift would be. Dude is a tough man to buy for.

I have waxed poetic about my love of Valley Yarns Northampton before, and you’ll hear me do it again. There’s a reason I chose it for my two sweaters in Knitting It Old School. For $4.99 a ball, at 247 yds, you can knit up a good sized sweater pretty inexpensively. My version of Rude Girl used 5 balls in the burgundy colour and a couple yards each of the black and white. Total cost if you don’t get it on sale? $25. How rad is that?

Probably time that I officially introduced the sweaters I knit for Knitting it Old School, right?

When we first figured out the different chapter themes and names, I knew I wanted to fit in a his and hers set in the Shake a Tail Feather chapter. I’ve always had a love of dance and ska, and since the two-tone movement started in the 70′s, what better way to sneak in my own influences! In case you don’t know what ska or rudies are, I found youtube vid to explain some of …

After giving shawls the ol’ college try last year and still feeling lobster-bibby about them, I decided to try again but with a pattern more scarf like. I wanted something that would still be lacy and pretty, but that wouldn’t make me feel like asking for more butter and a shrimp fork.