Mr Greenjeans

Pattern: MrGreenjeans from knitty.com, size small

Yarn: Dream in Color - Classy "Chinatown Apple"

Needles: Size8 knitpicks circulars (did not decrease to the size7s for the cabling

Cast on: March 30 Bind off: May 22

Okay, since cast off, I have not taken this sweater off! I love it! It is so amazingly comfortable, and soft, and gorgeous. This is the most perfect cardigan EVER! The yarn is amazingly soft. And yes it grows. The sweater grew even more than my gauge swatch did. Before blocking, I tried it on and it was overly snug, but blocking completely turned this around.

The pattern is very easy to follow. I did not find a single error. A few modifications: 1) I lengthened the sleeves. I believe (from other's pictures) that the shorter sleeves make it look like the sweater was knit too small. I lengthened the sleeves far to long, as seen in the second picture here. I might have to go back and frog a repeat or two.


Mod#2) I did not decrease needle size to make the cabling tighter; my hips are big enough, I don't need the cables to pull back anymore accentuating this. Mod#3) I added two rows on both sides of the buttonhole to make the buttonband a bit wider. I was thinking that I wanted the cardigan to close a bit and I really like the result. My only complaint is the glass button that I chose is too heavy. It pulls on the front and makes the buttonhole gape. I plan on leaving it on because it is stunning, but I might not be using them on my Central Park Hoodie, which I get to start next. I bought enough Dream in Color - Classy in November Muse during the LoopyEwe's Knit Along discounting on DiC.

Check out my Raverly notes here on this sweater if you would like further info.

The Cabo Wabo hit my Jaywalkers...

Pattern: Toe-Up Jaywalkers by Natalia Marek from Raverly. An adaptation of Jaywalkers on knitty.com edited for toe-up.

Yarn: Cameleon Colorworks Dyeworks & Fiber Studio Footsie in "Taos" made of 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon. 400yds, 3.5oz

Needle: Addi Turbos, size1, 40" circ, two socks on the one circular

Cast on: April 8th Bind off: May 17th


I got the yarn from MorseCode as a super nice "thank you" donation for sending her my unloved s(p)in club yarn. She was kind enough to send this wonderfully dyed yarn. I love the color, it is so "up" my alley! The texture is questionable, but getting better after consecutive washings. Most suprising of all was the pattern. That was a beast all of its own. I did not realize until I was ON THE PLANE that the toe-up version was not complete. Natalia refers several times to "follow the original directions" in which I did not print off before boarding. Who has time to pack, clean the house, make certain the kids will be fed, the dog will get let out, AND the pattern you just printed off has all the directions? Now don't get me wrong, I do not mean to b!tch so much for I LOVE traveling with a new sock pattern, or even a new technique. I love it because if I get frustrated, I can't just throw it into the UFO basket on the office floor and walk downstairs to get a beer. I am forced to sit in that ultra-swank, super-roomy excuse for a seat the airlines are go generous to seat us in and fester until my brains liquify. Once I calm enough to re-attempt to continue the knit, I figure it out and work on. Well, there was not a lot of calming, soothing feelings I had when I realized that I was 30K feet above any form of internet and the airlines no longer host $5/minute phones in the back of seats. At this moment of "brick wall knitting" my husband surely wouldn't care how much a phone call eats into our travel budget. "For the love of all things holy, Krista, calm yourself. You will find the rest of the pattern when we land." As if that would calm any knitter down! The only saving grace was Brenda Dayne and Cast-On on the Zune soothing the savage knitter within and guiding me safely and sanely into Seattle.

We did land in Seattle, home of all things Starbuck and wi-fi so that I could find the original pattern. I read the whole toe-up version several times over just to make 100% certain that I wouldn't run into any more of these special moments in Mexico. The next flight to Cabo San Lucas was a much smoother flight, for my knitting, as well as for my husband.
If you click on the photo to the left, it should bring you to flickr where you can see my lovely, smart-assed comments on the mistakes that I made in the jaywalking. I left them in (even after the first rip back) because the tequila made me do it. I love Baja California: dry air, high heat, perfect weather, with nothing to do but relax, drink tequila and knit on the balcony of the hotel. I only achieved mid-foot on the Baja. We were busy swimming in the pool, playing on the beach and recovering from the nights.


Mostly, I was just relaxing before the hectic tourist season started. This was the last time I can leave the town of Fairbanks without permission until October. Tourism keeps me busy.

Currently: Dredge property is open for business; start-up has come and gone. (I live on company property, so when you hear people say, "I live at work," well I really do. I live at work. I eat Dredge, I sleep Dredge. I wake up to tours going on outside my window on the weekends and I go to sleep listening to the frogs croak in the Dredge pond, the trumpet swans flying over, and the seagulls establishing their nesting territory.) Needless to say, I have been working 16 hour days, sleeping 4 hours a night with barely enough time to take a shower every other day or so. Both blogging and knitting have been neglected. This is the starting of the second week of Tourist Season. I was luck enought to get five hours to myself and finished off my Cabos. I miss Mexico, but more than Mexico, I miss "Winter Krista". The girl who is perpetually relaxed, continually knitting, and planning my next vacation. I now have "Summer Krista" who is ready to party as hard as she works. And let me tell you, "This Krista really knows how to work." wink, wink

another winner....

Muddy Paws is the second blogger chosen. Darcie - please send me your mailing address and have fun with your new goodies!

and the winner is...

Kate/massachusetts: Congratulations!

Hope you need some Options Needles and other goodies!

Hey, Kate: You have until Monday, May 5th to email me your mailing address, cause I only got a blog name to a KAL blog that last posted in December! If I havent heard from ya by then, I will randomize again Tuesday morning.

Oh, yeah... and another winner is ME! I win because this is my blog so that makes me a winner! ha ha

but I didnt win anything cool, like Kate/massachusetts did!

WOYN Wednesday

So, What is On Your Needles today? I have my 2nd sleeve for my MrChinatownApplePants. I had to drop into Inua Wool to pick up some size9 dpns, cause the size7dpns didn't cut it on the 1st sleeve (which still needs to be frogged). Pattern calls for a size8, I only had dpns in size7 and thought they would work. Well, low and behold, my dpn guage is much tighter than my circular guage, so off to the frog pond for sleeve#1.

And can I tell you how evil Inua is? I go in their for a simple set of dpns and end up walking out with a new sock in my queue! I have been drooling over the Annetrelac Sock and the Six-Stitch Tessellated Faux Entrelac from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I plan to combine the patterns by using the Komi Star and the Pinstriping on the foot from the Faux Entrelac then using the entrelac from the Annetrelac. I am excited to start on this soon. It is not on the needles yet, but I believe I will be doing this one next. I am just curious how the Noro will mix with the Koigu, and would love someone to comment on how you feel they will wash up together.

And still on my needles are my CaboWabo toe-up Jaywalkers. As you can tell from my balls of yarn there was some frogging on these this weekend. I got to the finishing of the first heel and tried them on to find that they were about an inch and a half too long. Too narrow to gift to someone with larger feet, I decided to frog back and inch and a half past the increases for the heel (which left me with three inches of the sock left) and start again. Working all week, I am finally four rows away from re-starting that first heel.

I can't knit as much anymore as work has started here at the Dredge. I would wax poetically about how excited I am that Tourist Season has finally come and my focus is shifting to getting the property ready for 46,000 guest, but IT SNOWED AGAIN LAST NIGHT!!!! Can you believe it? Is this April 30th or April Fool's Day?

Oh, and tomorrow is the drawing for the Blogiversary giveaway. Tonight is the last chance to enter for the Options needle set. Good luck!

So much for a weekend bike ride.

DH and I were heading down to summer storage and were just about ready to go on our first bike ride of the season, when we looked out the window yesterday morning and saw this. More snow. Almost all of our snow was gone. The summer bikepaths were cleared off all the gravel, the weather was reaching into the high 50's, when BHAM! SNOW, SNOW, and more SNOW! Well, at the very least, I have more time this weekend to knit. Oh, and rip. But I will save the frog pond for Sunday.

My hair is GONE!

Okay, I went in today for what felt like a dramatic change in my life. I went from waist length hair to shoulder length. I haven't had hair this short in well over six years. And seriously, it needed to go!

I would be driving the work truck and go to turn my head to look for oncoming traffic and my hair would be trapped between my body and the seat. I would wake up at night with my DH sleeping on my hair. And I don't want to talk about the nasty rats that I pull from every orifice in the house: shower drains, vacuum cleaner, lint trap, uh. And my knitting. How often did I knit a pair of socks only to find a woven hair trailing a couple rows. Far too often!

Well, not any more. I told my stylist to cut it. Chop it off. Do it quick before I change my mind.

Here I am in Bonaire on the cruise with my hair down.

And here I am today, all short. All that friz, gone. All that weight pulling on my head, gone. All the split ends, all the stringy hair, all of it... ...gone.

And what goes great with an awesome haircut? Yeah, an awesome tube of lipstick. The salon is an Aveda retailer and they use the best Aveda shampoos and styling products. My hair smells as amazing as it looks, and I could not pass on the new Aveda shades. I love this one.

I can say that DH is not happy with my decision. He hasn't said a single thing about it, which means he is smart enough to keep his opinion to himself. I was really starting to hate my hair, so it was time for it to GO!

I just try not to think about the cost and how much yarn I could have bought.