I'm a Rebel

Today I went out on a not-so-secret mission with the South End Knitters. Our mission was to put tags on the rings at the Southwest Corridor park in the South End of Boston.

The tags came out beautiful! This one is mine:







I like the way those flowers came out. The first pattern I tried was for a Narcissus, and something went tragically wrong there and the color yarn I chose may be part of it:



Doesn't that look more like the sort of flower one would find in, say, a lady garden?

Here are the other tags:





















Overlooking all of these tags is a guardian gargoyle:



This wasn't my first brush with the nefarious underworld of knit tagging. Two years ago, Mike and I helped put up the tag outside the Animal Rescue League. I was fairly new to the group at the time, and hadn't contributed to the tag itself, but was thrilled to help put it up. We also gave the ARL a big donation on behalf of the group.

I've thought about doing some tagging on my own, but haven't found any spots that need it (besides the hook on our front door). Oh, and don't despair - the tags do get taken down after a while (the rings get taken down seasonally) and get washed and put away. Sometimes pieces of the tags "disappear", and I hope whoever took them gives them a happy home.

Happy Mardi Gras!

I finished my Mardi Gras socks with more than a week to spare:





I've even worn them a few times, and guess what? They don't stay up. I suppose I need to thread some thin elastic through the tops (the question is, how do I attach said elastic? I don't think I can very well tie a knot in it, so I guess I'd have to sew it on.)

I'm wearing them today, along with some Mardi Gras beads that I caught at one of the parades in 1994 or 1995. No, I didn't show for them. ;) That doesn't happen as much as the media wants you to believe, although you will see many boobies along Bourbon Street. I never saw them Uptown, and don't really think that would fly.

Anyway, back to the socks -- I will forever love Dorchester Farms (sorry, I can't find a link for them!) for offering sock yarns in Mardi Gras colors - purple represents justice; green, faith; and gold, power.

I'll leave you with a little song:

Angry Scotsman

My friends Kate and Snag converted a room in their basement to a bar, which they call The Angry Scotsman. It's a helluva great place to hang out, watch some movies, and drink.

During the fall, we were there with our friends Lisa and Lou, and I was wearing an old pair of fingerless gloves that I had made years ago with my first handspun. Lou thought they were the coolest thing EVER, and I made a mental note.

Lou's birthday was at the beginning of February. Guess what he got?





The pattern is called Manhandlers (blog link) and the Ravelry link is here. The yarn is the now-discontinued Filature Di Crosa 127 Print, which I've had in my stash for a few years. The pattern was super-simple, and the yarn awesome to work with. I'd probably buy more if it weren't, you know, discontinued.

When I gave them to Lou he got really excited and said, "BEST FINGERLESS MITTS EVER!!!!" If you knew Lou, you would laugh, because it is so what he would say.

This Beer's For Kara

Should I even post this? I haven't sent it to her yet.

My niece, Kara, really liked Mike's Frilly Pink Beer Cozy so much that she asked me to make one for her, in red (her favorite color). I finished this a while ago (January 12, to be exact), and it's been sitting at home, waiting to be mailed to Virginia for her beer-cozying pleasure.



I used Berroco Weekend, which is a decent acrylic/cotton blend. The frill is a little fidgeting to start out with, but once you get that knit it's really, really easy.

Sunday Swing Socks

I finished these in the beginning of January, having started them right before Christmas:



The pattern is the Sunday Swing Socks from the Summer 2009 issue of Knitty. I noticed that I average about a year behind on Knitty patterns; I think that's because it's near impossible to get on there due to traffic when a new issue is out, and then I simply forget to check it after a while. About a month later, I think to check it out, and glance at the patterns, say, "Oooh, that's nice", and get back to what I am knitting.



These were fun to knit. I've had the yarn, Opal Krokodil (a/k/a Crocodile) in my stash FOREVA (FOREVA meaning since about 2006) and decided it's high time I use it. I looked around on Ravelry for projects made with it, and didn't really like what I saw as far as the pooling goes. I'm glad the colorway I have is black and gray/white, as looks a little bit better. I still think the pattern is rather obscured by the yarn, but overall I like the socks. They are warm and the yarn appears to be quite strong (I've heard that Opal wears like iron).

So, it's been about 2 months since I finished these socks and it was still only 12 degrees when I left for work this morning. I was forced to keep sexy alive by bundling up:



I feel pretty.