knitty mcknitsalot

I've been knitting up a storm on this trip. I finally finished the fishnet arm warmers I started in Thailand (that was back in January, for those not keeping track). Unfortunately they're two different colors at the moment as one of them got so dirty and bleached by the sun in Thailand. I didn't really like the pale blue anyway, so I think I'll just bleach them both and then attempt to dye them with beet juice.

Still left on the needles is "Under the Hoodie," a hooded sweater pattern from Stitch 'N' Bitch. This was started back when it was cold in November. I've made so much progress the past week that it actually looks like a sweater. Ok, so maybe it's more like a tunic at the moment, but still. I've been messing with the pattern to avoid sewing seams, which I know I will hate. I did the shoulders with kitchner stitch, undoing the binding off (that's when you take the thing off the needles) to avoid sewing the curling in bound off edges. And for the sleeves, the pattern tells you to knit them flat then sew a seam up the arm to make them round and then to sew them to the sweater. Well, I'm going to instead, pick up stitches from around the upper part of the sweater and then knit in the round (using these cool short circular needles I picked up in South Tahoe) so I won't have to sew any seams at all for the sleaves. The only seams left to actually sew will be the sides of the sweater.

This yarn shop (often abbreviated LYS for local yarn store) in South Tahoe was a trip. The lady in there was super nice and super chatty. She had a cute little Shitzu with crazy long hair and when Adam asked if she had ever accidently knitted him into something she was making she told us to wait a minute and she disappeared into the back room. We all look at each other with that look of "oh my god, what are we about to see?" She returns and tells us of the shitzu she used to have, Sosumi (named by her attorney husband, say it out loud, So sue me). It was her baby, she loved it so, it got sick and so she began to collect the hair from it's daily brushings for a year. Sent them to this company who sent her back a ball of yarn that is 60% Sosumi hair. Creepy, eh?