Things that make my day

Thanks to Knitting Nonni, who gave me a "You Make My Day" award! I'll spread the love by giving the shout-out to ten blogs I love to visit. All the blogs in my sidebar are ones I visit daily, but here are ten that are not in my sidebar, and that I visit just as often:

1. Tech Knitting: Unbelievably simple technique instructions and clear illustrations (okay, it's in my sidebar, but under "links").
2. Ruthless Knitting: Got hooked on this one because of the "Adventures of Florence."
3. Ysolda: Gorgeous and creative designs.
4. Spooky Knitting: It's always a pleasure to see what Batty's been cooking up and what trouble her cats have gotten into. Plus she's a prolific commenter and a fellow medievalist!
5. Fluffbuff: Just spent hours the other night poking around her very funny blog.
6. Wooly Ewe: Her ability to finish beautiful fair isle sweaters shockingly quickly makes me seethe with envy.
7. Zimmermania: Awesome inspiration from a bunch of EZ aficionados.
8. Knititch: An inspirational EZ knitter.
9. Anny Purls: Gorgeous baby designs that make you want to get knocked up just so you can knit them!
10. Geoffrey Chaucer: Can't be a bona fide medievalist without nerdishly giggling over this one.

Reading these blogs definitely makes my day.


And the other thing that makes my day is a finished object!


This is my baby-sized Cobblestone. Knit by the seat of my pants, top-down, without following directions, and improvising button plackets and increases. It was hard for me to get a good shot of the whole thing in today's super-strong light; here's the best one I could get:


Andrew's getting so big that his sweaters won't fit on my windowsill anymore!

I forgot to knit the roll-collar, so I knit on an i-cord that looks like a rolled collar. I think it worked pretty well. My favorite thing about it is the buttons, though:


I think that these are plastic imitations of bamboo buttons, but they might just be real bamboo. I found them in the "99 Cent Zone," my favorite neighborhood dollar store!

Tweed Heaven

The best thing about my graduate school (or perhaps the most dangerous thing, from the point of view of my bank account) is its proximity to School Products, one of the best yarn stores in New York City, and a great place to score a sweet deal on mill ends or cones in addition to the vast selection of Karabella products -- Berta Karapetyan, the store's owner, is also the founder of Karabella Yarns.

Recently, after taking a French test, I decided I had reason enough to visit School Products -- after all, taking the test had been stressful, right? And after that stress, I deserved a calm yarn shopping trip, right?

So I ended up walking out of there with this cone of yarn, a little less than 4 pounds of aran/bulky weight wool blend tweed for a little more than $75:


I'm not sure of the fiber content; after a little research on the School Products site, I think that it is a wool/silk/cotton blend, with about 66% wool. It was oiled for spinning, so after finding it just a little too tough to manipulate unwashed, I wound off a big skein and washed it pretty thoroughly with dish soap. Here's the ball of washed yarn:


Looks pretty normal, right? But here's my coffee cup for comparison:


The difference between the washed and unwashed yarn is pretty significant:


I think I'll have enough to make a gift for a friend and a sweater for myself, and perhaps I'll even have some left over for mittens or a hat or something. I've already swatched up for a vest using the cables from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Saddle-Shoulder Aran sweater: