Tales of Pirates, Booty and Woe!

See this neat hat? It's a cleverly designed kids' menu from Cafe Orleans, formerly a cafeteria, now a sit-down restaurant featuring excellent crepes, and located just across from the updated Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Our waiter Glen tells us the chef worked as Madonna's personal cook, neat. The little coin (to the bottom right) is a special edition dubloon, with the Skull and Crossbones logo on one side and a Pirates of the Caribbean banner/ image of an evil-looking pirate aiming a musket on the other side. These collectors' dubloons were hidden beneath a basketful of goldfoil wrapped mint chocolate coins, and brought to our table with instructions to DIG: yay, Buried Treasure! (what a terrific idea!) Thanks Glen, you are an awesome waiter!

I normally take some knitting wherever I am, especially when long waits are anticipated. Summers at Disneyland are ridicuously busy, so I brought the Garter-Stitch Wrap [by Catherine Lowe from the Scarf Style]. This is an easy project, all garter with only a couple places where I could go wrong, but I think "easy, no problem, I'll be careful..." (foreshadowing). Things went very well waiting in several lines, I could knit a few rows per ride, very cool progress. When we got to Splash Mountain, it was great to see a nice long line. Knitting went well outside in the sun, but as we went into a dark indoor wait area, it was too dark, then I blew it: oh jeez, where's the YO? I lost the yarn over! where is it? which row??? can I tink it back? nope can't see it... I'll just rip back a little bit, uh oh... the first 60-some rows of my Garter-Stitch Wrap is now this:

FO's and quasi-FO's

Progress occurred last night! Presenting 2 shell modules for the Hyphen-Boy Modular Felted Backpack, each module requiring 10-15 minutes each, proving to be the perfect project for watching tv, waiting in lines, commuting in a car/ bus/ train, an ideal project anytime anywhere. Knitting modules is easy on the brain and addictive in the hand.

Here are close up photos, including one with a phone handset for size reference. The phone measures 6.5" long, not including the nubby black antenna on top. Not only is this picture taken at a bad angle, but the shell edges are curling so it's hard to see them true to form... when flattened they measure 5"x7" at their widest points, quite a bit larger than I expected, so... they BETTER shrink down A LOT or I'll have a sleeping bag, or another monster-ish Frankenbag! once I turned out a gigantic felted Moebius bag... it was only meant to be large.

Already Big Kureyon's colors are changing from red/pink to green/brown, it's looking really nice!

And finally, here are 2 recent FO's:

the KatHat by Kat Coyle in Koigu KPPPM (50g, 175yd, size 5US needles) which features cute corners that stick out like pointy ears! (far left)

... and this neat Japanese lace beanie called Madge, in Noro Kureyon #130 (below)

the Madge Hat from knittyspin


Although both these hats were each extremely fun and rewarding knits, I honestly don't think I'll wear either one, most of my hats are gifted away, bye-bye little hats!

Post No.1, Vol.1

Hey it's my maiden voyage into bloggingdom!
Today I casted on something special: Hyphen-Boy's Modular Felted Backpack. I joined a KAL [KnitALong] hosted by a friend [who happens to share the same birthdate!! Hi Judy!]. Here's a picture of my yarn choices and another picture of the finished felted bags from Hyphen-Boy. I have bulky weight yarns in Cascade Ecological Wool [in shade #8095, batch # 2643, 437m/ 478yd per 250g/ 8.75oz], and Noro Big Kureyon [color #17, lot A, 160m per 100g], both of these are 100% wool, excellent for making felted bags. I'll use US10.5/ 6.5 mm needles, though normally I would go up a couple needle sizes and knit looser, giving the fabric a chance to lose all traces of stitch definition. Using smaller needles for felting [or fulling] should keep the stripe pattern crisp and clear, with less chance of distortion and fuzzing in the wash process, though the fabric will likely retain some visible stitch definition. Whatever happens, this is going to be a great project!