around n round she goes

Oh, look. A blog.

2010-01-09T15:24:00.008-06:00

A blog that I've neglected terribly in the last year. Let's hope that things go better this year.

Let's start with Christmas, why don't we....

Hubby gave me a fine-sett modular Tri-loom from Hideaway Homestead. I've been looking at them for ages, so was pretty tickled to get it. It's the 5 foot size so I can make a decent size shawl with it - not huge, but a nice shoulder size.

Weaving goes soooo much faster than knitting. This little thing took me about a week. It's the most basic version of weaving on this loom - just a simple tabby weave using the continuous weaving process. It took less yardage than knitting, too. (Not that I'm about to stop knitting - this isn't terribly portable after all.)

I had plenty of purple yarn left over so I ran to the local yarn shop and picked up a skein of gray in the same wool/linen blend and I'll be doing a plaid shawl next. Plaids are supposed to be really easy with this method.

I've been doing a lot of sock knitting lately, using the two-at-a-time method that I learned at the Sock Summit. It's great to be able to finish the socks at the same time and not have to worry about single sock syndrome.

Here's a random picture of Otis, my parent's Jack Russell. Mom and Dad adopted him years ago and he's getting pretty old and creaky. I tried to get him to look at me, but he's deaf and didn't know I was trying to get his attention. He has a neurological disorder, too, and lists to one side. He still eats well and loves to take (very) short walks with Dad and otherwise is content to sleep in a nice warm spot. Not a bad way to retire. All those years of defending the home fires have paid off.

Next up, my sheep to shawl project. It's finally finished but I still need to take the final pictures. Oh well, that'll give me something to blog about next time.

Cat's Paw Scarf update

2009-09-17T10:24:00.003-05:00

I've finally found and added the chart to my Cat's Paw Scarf (see the side-bar under free patterns). I've had people request the chart and I couldn't get back to them for lack of email info. And I lost the dang chart and then found it again..... I apologize for all that asked for it and I never got back to them.

I may actually post something again... I went to the Sock Summit and had a great time, then came home and promptly got an upper respiratory infection (I blame the plane ride), then got bronchitis ('cause that's always what happens after a respiratory infection for me), then got swine flu (probably from going to that clinic for the other two infections). After almost a month and 3 rounds of antibiotics with a round of Tamiflu to cap it off, I 'think' I may be well. Yay!

Sock Summit part two

2009-05-27T15:07:00.004-05:00

Did anyone else freak out trying to get their reservations at the 2009 Sock Summit? It was at least as much fun as I was expecting and I was glad it was over my lunch break.

It reminded me of the Friday after Thanksgiving with a 90% off everything in the store starting at midnight for 2 hours kind of thing. No casualties that I'm aware of, but it was a close thing. Well, I'm not sure that the Sock Summit Team has actually slept yet, but I hope that they've at least had a meal or two and a beer or three by now.

I was only close to tears once - after trying for 35 minutes to get in to the shopping cart (and stay there long enough to actually select my classes) I had entered my payment information and hit the send button. And waited, .... and waited. And then it timed out on me again. Their server was totally overwhelmed by the rabid sock knitters.

I freaked out. Did it accept my stuff? Did I actually reserve my spot? If it didn't I was out of luck because everything I wanted (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices) was sold out almost immediately.

Fortunately, sanity returned after a few minutes and I checked my email. Yes! Confirmation numbers for all three classes!

It would have really stunk if after already paying for airline tickets and reserving a hotel room and rental car I hadn't been able to actually go to the Sock Summit. It's my primary reason to be in Portland, after all.

So after all that I'll be spending one day with Melissa Morgan-Oakes learning how to knit two socks at one time on one circular needle. Then I get to spend a day with Nancy Bush learning all about Estonian socks.

And to round it out, I'll be spending half a day learning about knitting ergonomics with Carson Demers, a knitter and physical therapist. I'll probably really need this one by Sunday morning of the Summit.

Those were my first choices, too!

Hubby will be exploring the pleasures of the local zoo, gardens and parks on the days I'm in class.

Thank you, Sock Summit Team! Hope you have a chance to breathe soon!

Yarn containment and the fine print

2009-05-20T21:37:00.008-05:00

My sewing/knitting/music/craft room has been a disaster area for quite some time. I literally can't get to parts of it.

In an attempt to control the chaos I purchased some baker's racks from the local craft store. They're pretty wicker shelves with ornate metal sides. It took me a while just to clear enough junk out of the way to set the dang shelves up on the designated wall. Of course it was the wall furthest from the door.

Now to actually corral my stuff and get it on the shelves. The quilting and costuming material isn't a real problem. At least it lies flat and I can stack it fairly easily.

The yarn is another matter. I have a bit of yarn. OK, I have a lot of yarn. I've been knitting for four or five years now and crocheted before that and have managed to accumulate an impressive stash. Impressive even after I've donated yarn to the women's prison a couple of times.

These are open shelves and yarn has a tendency to not lie flat like material. It will roll around, snag on the pretty wicker, and manage to make a bigger mess than its already in. I looked at pretty little baskets and bins and thought they weren't really practical for the creature that is the stash. (Besides, I'm cheap and those dang baskets were expensive.)

Then there's that so-called stroke of genius I had. I'll just go buy some of that decorative fisherman's netting from the craft store and wrap it all the way around some of the shelves, making the whole shelf a bin. A few s-hooks to keep it in place and I'll be good to go, right?

So we dashed off to the store and bought three packages of 3 x 5 foot 'decorative fisherman's netting'. Got it home and opened it up.

Here's that fine print that I missed in my rush to get things organized... 'genuine used fisherman's netting'. Make that WELL USED. This stuff smelled like it just came off the docks after lying in fish entrails for a year or so.

Not to be dismayed I grabbed a bucket and various forms of liquid soap. Lots of soaking and hot water later I was still smelling fish and still getting really skanky looking rinse water in the bucket. I finally gave up last night and let it dry out.

Yep, still stinky this morning. The three nets went into the washing machine tonight with lots of Tide and lots of liquid fabric softener. They're hanging over a rod drying out now and (fingers crossed) smell ok. Can you imagine what that would have done to my yarn?

Granted I have a few raw, unwashed fleeces waiting for some attention, but that just smells like.... well, OK, some of it is kind of strong, too. After all, unwashed sheep can be kind of fragrant. But at least I expected raw wool to smell. And I don't think fishy and sheepy yarn is really what I want to cuddle up to at night.

After all this work I still don't have anything on the shelves. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some headway this weekend. Oops, forgot that I haven't bought any s-hooks yet. Guess that means a trip to the hardware store, too.

Maybe I should have opted for those cute little baskets after all.

what a waste of a Friday night

2009-05-01T21:27:00.005-05:00

HumanForSale.com - Wrinkle Treatment

Sitting around on a Friday night, playing with my new laptop, don't feel too great (got the crud that's going around). So what am I doing? Taking silly online tests and watching The Witches of Eastwicke. Playing Bedazzled, MahJong, Solitaire. I think its time for bed...

Sock Summit

2009-04-05T20:03:00.002-05:00

Anyone else planning to go to the Sock Summit? Looks to be a fab event, even if you don't knit socks. Lots of prestigious teachers/authors. Lots of merchants. Lots of yarn.

My husband and I have decided to make this our vacation this year. (This is re-payment for all those chess tournaments I went to with him.)

Portland looks like a great place to visit so we're planning to stay the whole week. Anyone been there and can give us a must-see list? My DH loves to take nature photographs (especially butterflies and insects) so I'm hoping he'll have lots of opportunities.

Of course, it would be nice if I was actually knitting. I have hardly touched a knitting needle this year - too much neck pain. I'm hoping that will be better by the time we go to this thing.

A few of my favorite things

2009-03-11T17:18:00.004-05:00

My new favorite quote:

"The problem with aging is not that it's one damn thing after another -- it's every damn thing, all at once, all the time."
Old Man's War by John Scalzi

My favorite electronic toy:

My Amazon Kindle - I just got my Kindle2, but I've had the original Kindle since last June.

Favorite features of the Kindle2:
- text to speech. Ok, so the voice is funky, but you can adjust the reading speed and the voice can be male or female. It's great when I'm working on something tedious (like all the keying I've been doing lately).
- variable text size. The original Kindle has this, too, but the large text in the new one is a bit larger. This is great for me, since the vision isn't getting any better.

My favorite professional:

My medical massage therapist. Granted, she's almost fighting a losing battle against the kinks in my neck and shoulders, but she's doing her darndest to force those muscle to relax. If you've never had deep tissue or trigger point massage - it's not the relaxing Swedish massage. It's actually rather painful starting out (or at least it was for me). Of course, I was in so much pain anyway that there wasn't much that wasn't going to hurt.

Well, that's all I have time for now. I was waiting for a report to finish running and it looks like it did. The auditors will be gone after this week and hopefully I'll be on a more reasonable schedule.
Who knows? Maybe I'll actually get to knit again! Or even go to a violin lesson!

Meme time

2009-02-03T11:04:00.003-06:00

When you've got nothing else to blog about, swipe a meme. I found this on Wendy's blog.

Use the first letter of your name to find a word for each of the following:

Your Name - Cynthia
Four letter word - cake (this is a g-rated blog!)
Boy name - Caleb
Girl name - Caitlin
Occupation - Cook
Color - Cerise
Beverage - cola
Something found in a bathroom - coin (found in my bathroom anyway)
A Place - Casper, Wyoming
Reason for being late - crashed
Food - cake (Ok, I know I used this one before. Obviously, I'm obsessed. Or hungry.)
Something you shout - Crud!

I'll be back later when I have something intelligent (or at least amusing) to talk about.

Finished for 2008

2008-12-31T16:14:00.003-06:00

Finished cardigan!
This is the knit-along Bluebonnet Cardigan by Patricia Kalthoff I've been doing with the guild. Size 7 needles and four colors of Cestari wool 2-ply worsted weight. It makes a nice sturdy fabric and I've successfully worn it in freezing weather with no other coat or jacket.
This has been a fun knit and I learned how to do an i-cord cast on and an i-cord cast off. Always nice to learn new techniques.

And this is one of my hermit crabs - Tank. He's the biggest of the group.

Happy New Year everybody!

Dawn Brocco's Flower Baby Blanket

2008-11-05T16:03:00.006-06:00

Pattern: Dawn Brocco's Flower Baby Blanket
Yarn: Plymouth Encore & Sidar worsted weight
Needles: I started with Bryspun circs (size 10.5) and changed over to Denise interchangeables - they were great when this started getting big, since I could just add more cable when I needed it.

This is a great pattern and was a lot of fun to knit. Since it calls for bigger needles and doubled yarn it seemed to just fly by. It's also one of those clever patterns that makes you feel smart when you're done. "look what I did!"
I didn't like the yarn in used in the center the first time around, so after I finished it I took out the middle and knit a new one. Nothing like cutting into a just-finished knit blanket to give you cold chills. It actually worked out great though.

I showed it off at knitting guild last night and had several people ask for particulars - I have a feeling that at least one of them will be ordering the pattern in short order.

I left it casually draped over the guest chair in my pregnant co-worker's office, so she would see it first thing this morning. It was definitely a hit.

So on to the next project - the guild's knit-a-long Bluebonnet Cardigan by Patricia Kalthoff. Pictures will eventually appear.

About that mitten?

2008-10-28T16:44:00.003-05:00

I started it last night, finished the thumb at breakfast, delivered it to Mom at dialysis at lunch... So there's no picture, no directions, nada.

It was just a plain vanilla mitten from the remainder of the Berroco Comfort skein. Warm, soft, bright blue.

Mom immediately untucked her hand from her prayer shawl and put the mitten on, so I think it was a success.

Free Pattern - Arm Warmer for dialysis patients

2008-10-22T11:24:00.009-05:00

Arm Warmer for dialysis patients.

My dad asked me to make one of these for my mom. She recently had to go on dialysis (long story - but her transplanted kidney of 14 years finally gave up).

He gave me some directions that he had found online on KidneyTimes - if you'll go there you'll find out why an arm warmer is very helpful for people on dialysis. The directions they have are perfectly fine but, of course, I had to do my own version. By the way, if you don't like to knit in the round, their directions for knitting this flat are great.

My arm warmer is knit from the wrist cuff up in the round (no seams!) and has ribbing on each end. You don't want it tight, but it does need to stay up and be long enough with the arm bent. If your recipient is handy, you can try it on them as you go. (one of the benefit of doing it from the wrist up)

As a guideline, Mom's wrist is 5 3/4" and her arm above the elbow is 9". You may need to adjust these directions depending on your measurements. Final length is just over 15" long.

Yarn: 1 skein Berroco Comfort (210 yards) - Color 9736 bright blue

(Substitutions - smooth worsted weight yarn 175-200 yards - preferably machine washable and dryable. Something very soft and warm.)

Needles: Size 5 and 8 double points (or circulars if you'd rather do magic loop)

Stitch gauge: 4 1/2 stitches per inch

Row gauge: 6 1/2 rows per inch (but not critical)

Using smaller needles cast on loosely: 40 stitches. I use a knit-on cast on, but any reasonably elastic cast on technique is fine.

Cuff: K2, P2 ribbing for 12 rows

Sleeve: Change to larger needles

Round 1 - 4: K1, M1, K to last stitch of round, M1, K1. (48 stitches after round 4)

Round 5 - 15: Knit

Round 16: Repeat round 1

Round 17-27: Knit

Repeat rounds 16 - 27 (1 increase row, 11 knit rows) until total piece measures 14-15 inches.

Count your stitches. If you have a multiple of four you're ready to start the cuff. If you don't have a multiple of four do the following decrease row:
decrease row: K1, K2tog, K to last 3 stitches, SSK, K1

Upper Cuff: Change back to smaller needles. K2, P2 8 rounds.
Cast off loosely using the larger needle.

If you've got the intended recipient handy, have them try it on before you tie off that last stitch. If it's too tight at the upper cuff, rip back the cuff and re-knit it with your larger needles. If it's too loose, rip back the cuff and do another decrease row with decreasing 4 stitches (so you can keep the k2 p2 ribbing) and re-knit.

Final fit (on a bare arm) should be comfortable and long enough that they should be able to bend the arm without pulling the sleeve down over their elbow. It's very important to not have anything tight on this arm!

I've made this one long enough that Mom has the option of pulling it part-way over her hand if she wants to.

Of course, if you want a pair of these, you'll need an extra skein.

My extra skein is going towards a matching mitten to keep her hand warm, too. Pattern for that to follow....

Dawn Brocco's Sample Sale

2008-10-03T22:32:00.004-05:00

Dawn Brocco is having a sample sale! She'll post more later, so keep checking back with her.

Just think - hand-knit Christmas presents that you didn't have to stay up 'til midnight to finish.

She's trying to defray some medical expenses, so is selling off some of her design samples.

Since I can't knit for very long at a stretch right now, I don't mind helping some of her pretty things find a new home.

more of the same

2008-09-21T21:23:00.005-05:00

I'd post a picture of my Water Turtles shawl, but what's the point. Look at the prior post and mentally add a few rows. At 481 stitches, a row is taking me a while, especially since I'm trying to limit the knitting time. Yeah, that neck thing again.

Speaking of the neck, at least they've finally figured out why it hurts all the time. When I went to the doctor for my CT scan results, I figured there would be one problem - a spur or something (not that a spur is a minor thing). Instead, I got a three page report that described all the little problems with each little bone and joint in my neck. No major problems with any of them, but lots of little problems.

Moderate degenerative disc disease. Joy. At least I know that the pain is not just in my head; it really is in my neck.

I'm going through a month of physical therapy (twice a week) to strengthen the muscles and increase mobility in my neck. And relieving the pain would be nice. Lots of stretching exercises and the therapist trying to gently remove my head from my shoulders by manually pulling it off. She hasn't managed yet, but I'm sure she'll keep trying.

The most fun is the e-stim - electrical stimulation. She attaches electrodes to either side of my neck and hooks me up to a car battery or something. (I'm pretty sure it's a bit more sophisticated than that.) Another few volts, warden, she's still twitching! (that's almost a quote from Art Buchwald)

The main downside to this whole thing is having to watch the amount of time I spend knitting. Since my work involves a lot of computer time, the stress on the neck is dedicated to that rather than my fun stuff right now. Hopefully, I'll be back in fighting form soon and able to get back into the swing of things.

Pictures of the shawl-in-progress and of my new hermit crab tank (a 20 gallon-long) will eventually appear...

Knitting at last - Water Turtles Shawl

2008-09-01T19:21:00.006-05:00

Having more problems with my neck again. Waiting for the results on my CT scan (oh, joy). Maybe we'll finally figure out what's going on...

Haven't been able do much knitting (or much of anything else).

But I have started a shawl from my penny-dyed handspun. Went back to my Wrapped in Comfort shawl book by Alison Jeppson Hyde and have started her Water Turtles Shawl. I actually managed to only completely restart it once, which given my track record with lace is pretty good. I can actually count to 10! That's the design repeat count and I make darn sure that it comes out to 10 each time.

Alison has this pattern rated as Easy which certainly challenging enough for me right now. A big advantage to this pattern - it doesn't have a separate edging and is only a 4 row repeat so I can keep going 'til I run out of yarn. Always a good thing when dealing with handspun. I think I've got about 1200 yards, but that's assuming that I accurately measured the darn stuff when I was making it. I've certainly got enough to make a generously-sized shawl.

The color in the photos is still coming out more blue-gray than the yarn really is. It's more an olive green. I'll try to get better pictures as I progress.

Perhaps I'll be able to post more often now. I'm hoping that work has settled down a bit. We'll see.

Experiment in copper penny solar dyeing

2008-07-21T21:43:00.004-05:00

So.... not much knitting going on. Not much spinning going on. Not much except work and more work.

The perfect time for solar dyeing! One of those things that can really take advantage of the 100 degree heat in the North Texas area.

I took that 1100 yards of spindle-spun 2-ply x-bred wool yarn that I spent all spring spinning and threw it in a toxic solution for 3 weeks. How brave was that! I'd read about copper penny dyeing and was intrigued by the thought that I could dye something with household ingredients and come out with either green or blue yarn. Pretty cool, eh?

I started it off with making a copper liquor from 1/2 cup ammonia, 4 cups distilled water and 80 copper pennies (you get a really pretty blue water, by the way). Then I doubled it. Then I added more (after about 2 weeks). Then I added the yarn (finally). Then I added copper scrubbies (after about a week of nothing happening).

The final formula:

1 gallon of distilled water

4 1/2 gallons of spring water

1 gallon of household ammonia

160 copper pennies - Pre-1982 (they're mostly copper, unlike the newer ones)

4 copper scrubbies (the kind you buy at the grocery store to clean your pots)

16 ounces of scoured wool yarn

3 weeks in the sun with the yarn in two containers. They had covers to keep out the birds, squirrels, leaves, mosquitoes, neighborhood cats, lizards, etc.

I went out every day and inspected for color and every other day gently turned the whole wad of yarn over in the solution.

It took almost two weeks before I starting seeing any color change. I left it longer than that mainly because 1. I was sick (again) and 2. I was working (too much).

Finally took it out and finished it in a very scientific mixture:

1 sink of tepid tap water

1/2 cup of vinegar

(per half batch - I couldn't fit the whole load in the sink)

Then one more rinse in 1 more sinkful of tepid tap water.

I was a bit concerned when it was wet... some of it felt... sticky (yuck), but by the time it dried it seemed to be fine.

I ended up with a soft mossy green with blue overtones and some interesting streaks of, would you believe it, copper! Since the pennies and scrubbies were in the vat with the yarn and were resting up against it, it looks like the copper color actually transferred to the yarn. It will be interesting to see if that lasts or if it will fade out. If it's copper oxide, I think it will probably stay this color.

I've joined the Natural Dyeing group on Ravelry - they're a very helpful bunch over there and gave me lots of encouragement and ideas. I've also joined the Wrapped in Comfort group on Ravelry, since I loved making my Bigfoot shawl and will probably use another of Allison's patterns for this yarn.

Even if I get extra creative and make up my own pattern for this, I'll probably use Allison's suggestions from the book for designing my own. This shape works so well for me, since it stays on my shoulders even while I'm working.

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my experiment in copper penny dyeing. It took a lot longer than I expected, although I think that was mainly because I was trying to dye such a large quantity. It also helped that I had so many other things going on that I didn't really have the time to be impatient and take it out sooner.

The best part was that I didn't totally ruin months of work on all that spindle-spun yarn!

This post brought to you by Tracey

2008-06-28T18:00:00.003-05:00

Look at this beautiful yarn! It's merino/sparkly handspun laceweight. Tracey made it for me on the Hitchhiker spinning wheel I gave her last year.
Isn't it wonderful and delicious? Tracey, I can't believe that you're spinning such delicate, wonderful stuff already. Thanks so much!
And how did you know that redbush (rooibos) is one of my favorite herbal teas? I can't wait to try this one.
Not to mention the great picture of Finnigan.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I think I need to make a delicate lace scarf with this beautiful stuff.

This post was brought to you by the color Teal Green

2008-06-22T23:47:00.004-05:00

You Are Teal Green

You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you.

Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible.

While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks.

Your warm personality nicely counteracts any strange habits you may have.

What Color Green Are You?

my new friends and some spinning and something really important

2008-04-27T16:51:00.006-05:00

My husband took these pictures for me. He's really good at the macro photography.

Jerry - a small Purple Pincher land hermit crab
Lucy - a slightly larger (but still small) Purple Pincher crab
Habibi - a teenie PP crab that has since dug in. He wouldn't come out of his shell for a picture, so this is a shot of his little claws. I may not see him again for awhile.

Tom's another small crab, but I didn't get any good pictures of him. I've had Tom and Jerry for a couple of weeks, and got Lucy and Habibi yesterday. They're living in a 10 gallon tank in my office. Fascinating little critters, but require rather more set up and care than most people know.... humidity and temperature are critical.

I'm learning fast and think I've finally just about got their tank set up correctly. I need to add some netting for them to climb (I'm knitting it, of course). Most people seem to recommend nylon or hemp to prevent rotting or mold. I'm tempted to try wool. Wonder how well it will hold up to warm, humid conditions?

That shot last week was of their tank before I added all the extra stuff... there's a lot more bedding and things to climb on and under now. Lots of extra shells, too. They like to swap shells every now and then.

I haven't been doing a lot of knitting lately since I've been working so much. I have, however, been doing a fair amount of spinning on my little home-made bead spindle.

My singles ready to ply. I ply from both ends of the ball - nothing left over!

My Kundert spindle is great for plying. The singles can take hours, but the plying is 15-20 minutes.

The finished yarn - there's about 40 yards in that hank. I'll combine it with two others to make a ball.

I've got about 570 yards so far. I need 1200 - 1500 yards for the shawl I'd like to make. Got a ways to go!

And the really important bit -

This is our 12th wedding anniversary! I love you sweetheart!

I'll explain later...

2008-04-19T12:33:00.000-05:00

Tom and Jerry

a quick-ish update - ok, so a long update

2008-04-01T22:42:00.008-05:00

I haven't been posting much lately since the job that pays the bills has been getting in the way. I didn't even go to knitting guild last night and they were going to demonstrate knitting backwards. Really hated to miss that, but I'm pooped and I needed to work anyway.

We're going through a conversion of our financial and customer relationship software and having just the kind of fun that you might think. And guess who the manager of this whole process is? yeah... me.

We've also got the auditors in for the next two weeks. Since we went through an ownership change (otherwise known as the 'recap') right near the end of the year, that involves more than the usual fun. Guess who the manager of the audit is? yeah... me, again. (Oh yeah, I'm the accounting manager - that might explain it.)

Rebekah got my zebra socks! I figured she's always doing something for everyone else so someone needed to do something for her. I had a lot of fun making them and they made all those tedious eye doctor appointments go a lot easier.

You know what happens when you drop a ceramic acorn-shaped support spindle on a tile floor? You end up with lots of little ceramic acorn-shaped pieces. I'm using my home-made bead spindle now. It's about the same weight and feel of the acorn and is unlikely to break no matter where I drop it. The bead is stone and a heavy one, at that.

I've ordered another acorn, though. It's an Anne Grout and one of my favorites, so I didn't want to do without.

I've gone a bit spin crazy lately. The bead spindle doesn't hold much, but I'm doing about 25-35 yards of two ply from each cop. I've got about 375 yards so far. Need probably 1200-1500 yards for the shawl I'm planning. I'm spit-splicing three little skeins together at a time to make a more reasonable-sized ball. That way I won't have to splice as much during knitting.

To demonstrate how far the madness has spread, I've reserved a fleece from Nistock Farms. If you click on that link and scroll down to the colored medium fleeces, you'll see that Olive's fleece has my name against it. It will probably be June before I see it though. Robin indicated that lambing is getting ready to be in full swing and a lot of other folks are in line for fleeces before me.

Olive's fleece is a beautiful grey and I can't wait 'til I have it.

And since I can't wait I bought a merino wether lamb fleece through eBay. It's multi-colored black, brown and beige. I've heard merino is a real bear to clean and card so wish me luck. I haven't heard from the seller yet. I'm hoping my fleece will be in the mail shortly.

So what does one do with great gobs of raw fleece? One gets to do a lot of washing, of course! Spinning Spider Jenny has some great tutorials on scouring raw fleece, dyeing and spinning techniques. If I could sit at her feet for a few weeks I would.

Hey, I might even break out the Lendrum double treadle wheel!

Well, I was going to post pictures, but that'll have to happen later. Back to work!

Around and round

2008-03-18T17:11:00.003-05:00

I'm spinning again... My usual lazy woman's version of spinning uses a support spindle (that I usually use more like a bottom whorl) to make singles, then a top whorl spindle to ply.

I've got something shy of 2 pounds of washed x-bred white wool that I bought a few years ago from Hardscrabble Farms on eBay. It's pretty nice and I'm just spinning off the lock. The bits of hay (not much) are falling out pretty easily as I spin and I'm ending up with a fingering weight? 2 ply yarn.

I'm thinking about another shawl out of my Wrapped in Comfort book. I may even start it before I've finished spinning - just to add to the excitement. I did take the precaution of weighing my completed skeins and the remaining wool so I'm pretty darn sure this time that I'll have enough to complete a good-sized shawl.

And since the spinning is only so-so on portability (it's a little ackward to take out at the restaurant), I'm also working on a Socks that Rock sock in Beryl medium weight.And this is what happens when you leave your comfy pillow on the couch for longer than a minute.

When I finally grow up

2008-03-09T19:35:00.012-05:00

You Should Be a Mechanic

You are logical, calm, and detail oriented.

You're rational when things are chaotic, and for you, reason always prevails.

And while you are guided by logic, you aren't a slave to it.

You're flexible when it counts. You are always open to being wrong.

You do best when you:

- Work with your hands

- Can use tools, machines, or equipment

You would also be a good architect or carpenter.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

More socks and other stuff

2008-02-18T17:18:00.003-06:00

I finished the navy and white zebra socks - made with Sprint superwash sock yarn. They'll be finding a home soon (won't say where, since that person may look at the blog). At least, they will as soon as I have a moment to find an envelope, address said envelope and stick some postage on it. The way things are going it may be April before that happens.

I'm on the foot of sock #1 of my Socks that Rock socks (color Spinel). And those knitting needles? A gift to myself a while back - a full set of Harmony 6" dpns from KnitPicks. These are so nice! The warm feeling of wood, but slicker than my Brittany Birchs. They are laminated birch (very pretty, too!).

And looky at my new musical instruments....

That's a concert (alto) ukelele and a Horner Melodica. The melodica was a Christmas gift from my parents and the ukelele was a birthday gift from my parents. (We love strange and unusual musical instruments in our family.)

I'm actually pretty decent on both of them so far, even though I've never had an instrument with a keyboard or an instrument that involved chords. They live on the couch, so I can pick either one of them up and play them whenever I have a moment - which isn't often right now.

I think Mom and Dad got the idea when they saw Gugug on YouTube. Or you can watch the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain - both of them are great.

finished!

2008-01-28T17:30:00.000-06:00

I finished another UFO!

My qiviut scarf, the Chevron and Berry Scarf from Folkknits.

I made one just like this for my husband and started this one last year for myself. Got about 2/3rds done and just stopped. Always nice to get something finished.

And that means I can start something else! My sis & her husband gave me some camel hair yarn at Thanksgiving. I've been trying to think of something special to make with it. There's 150-200 yards of 2-ply handspun. Thinking about maybe doing the fingerless mitts - Fetching, or something like it. Or maybe a hat.

And for my birthday, my DH gave me FIVE skeins of Socks that Rock! That's light-weight Spinel in the picture (it's not that blue - more greeny/blue). I'm almost finished with the wild zebra socks, so can start on this soon, too.

I'm not forgetting about the other UFOs. I can only start a new project if I finish an old one. (we'll see how long this resolve lasts)

Pie Day!

2008-01-23T11:56:00.000-06:00

Did you know it's National Pie Day? Neither did I 'til I visited pieknits.com this morning. She not only has her adorable knitted cherry pie and blueberry pie 'recipes' up, she's got a yummy apple pie recipe (the edible kind).

I haven't made a pie in years, but one of my favorite diet-friendly recipes is the Weight-Watchers Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie.

Now excuse me while I go seek out a less diet-friendly pie somewhere...
hummm, cherry sounds good.

Comfort bedjacket

2008-01-16T09:48:00.000-06:00

Finished!

Here's the surgery -

'Before' shot - rather over-exposed

I picked up stitches just above the offending garter stitch border. (please note beautiful assistant, Scamp)

Then I carefully cut below the picked up row, trying to pull a bit of extra yarn at the beginning to give me something to start with.

Then I just unlaced; cutting the yarn when it got to be too long to comfortably pull.

After all that, I started knitting down, using a 1x1 rib and keeping the edges in pattern.

Much happier now!
Pattern: mine

Yarn: Berroco Comfort (superfine acrylic and nylon blend) in Wild Cherry

Needles: Various lengths of 5mm circulars (Addi Natura) and dpns

Some of the things I swiped (um, borrowed) from the Circumnavigated Cardigan:

1. The nifty garter stitch border with the 2 stitch I-cord edge is used on the CC pocket.

2. The false seam up the sides and on the underside of the sleeves. It eliminates that 'barrel' effect of sweaters knit in the round.

3. You knit the bottom border of the CC down from a provisional cast-on. That wasn't originally planned on this one but the general idea was achieved anyway.

4. Short-rows in the back to help the hang of the sweater

5. The short-row collar isn't from the CC, but has some elements from the shawl collar there.

The yarn:

Comfort is a well-named yarn. It's incredibly soft and cushy. It's also machine-washable and -dryable. A small downside - it's made out of lots of very small strands. Be prepared to occasionally go back and pick up the rest of the strand, 'cause you only caught a few the first time. You'll need smooth needles and smooth skin, too. It will catch on everything. Otherwise, a lovely soft yarn that has enough spring in it for easy knitting. And a picture of Bonnie, since Scamp connived her way into a picture.

Flashback

2008-01-13T09:37:00.000-06:00

I've finished the Comfort bedjacket - except for that irritating flippy garter stitch bottom hem. I'm going to cut the darn thing off and knit a standard 1x1 ribbing instead.

But before I start that I've worked in all my ends. I tend to be a bit of a stickler about this - leaving nice long strands to work with and weaving in for quite a long way. There's a reason for this .....

.....cue fading background and flash back with nostalgic 70's music (is there such a thing?) ....

I can't remember exactly how old I was when I received this gift, probably late pre-teen or early teen. Mom and Dad gave me an afghan kit. Crocheted granny squares, with bright bits of color in the center of each one, kind of an ugh tan around that, and white borders. Acrylic yarn, of course. I loved it passionately.

I devoted hours and hours to crocheting those granny squares with their cunning bits of red, green, orange and blue. I carefully sewed them all together - placing the different colors so it would resemble a garden of flowers.

Then I wove in all those ends. I followed the directions to weave in about an inch of each end and cut it off.

All ends cut, I proudly lifted up the result of months of work to show my family.

And it fell apart.

(I've managed to block out most of the subsequent events, but I'm pretty sure I cried at that point.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You know, I've never done another granny square afghan. I've done lots of other afghans, but not a granny square. I'm probably scarred for life.

Lesson learned: finishing may be boring, but it is just as important as all the fun bits. And don't believe the directions if they don't make sense.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll try to remember to take before and after pictures of my bedjacket surgery and the final results will be blogged about later.

And here's a picture of sock progress.... Do not adjust your set - it really looks like that. Pretty wild, eh? I don't have the ball band with me and can't remember the name of this stuff. It was part of a gift from Rebekah for donating to Sugar Ray, the rescued boxer.

I managed to finish most of the leg on New Year's eve while sitting at the emergency room and doctor's office. Thank goodness for simple knitting!

2008 - New Year's resolution(s)

2008-01-11T11:36:00.000-06:00

Usually a waste of time for me, but I'd like to try a bit this year.

1. Before I start a new project, I must finish an old project.
2. Same as #1

Only caveat - socks don't count, unless they're fancy socks. Plain old basic socks can be started at any time. They're my standard traveling project.

Some unfinished projects....

1. Comfort bedjacket - I am currently on the second sleeve
2. The qiviut scarf - 3/4s done, I messed up and am going to have to rip back a few repeats to fix it.
3. The shetland shawl - sigh...big chart and little yarn
4. The fisherman's gansey - sigh again... size us2 needles and skinny yarn

The first two are very do-able. We'll have to see about those other two. They probably represent 1/2 year work all by themselves.

Wish me luck.

Well, that was interesting.

2008-01-03T10:57:00.000-06:00

I know. I said I wasn't going to make any presents for Christmas this year.
I lied.
I finished thesefor Mother. There's not a finished picture because they're on her feet.

I also finished this

for Mom & Dad. It's got a name,'Family Project', since Mom, Dad and I all worked on it. Again - no finished picture since I forgot to take one before it got wrapped up. (Imagine yellow binding - it really stands out against the black border.)

Favorite projects for 2007?

I practically live in my Circumnavigated Cardigan - that's my definition a successful project.

My Bigfoot Shawl - so fun, so fast, so pretty, so comfy!

Projects for 2008?

Finishing stuff would be nice. I've got the bedjacket, the qiviut scarf, and the shetland shawl all waiting to be finished. We won't mention any other languishing projects that might be hiding in the room (otherwise known as my sewing/craft room).

Starting stuff would be nice, too. I've got two color-stranded projects that have been in the planning phase for over a year. One's a fairly traditional Fair Isle cardigan and one... isn't.

New Year's Eve was interesting this time. I ended up in the emergency room, though not from the traditional reasons (no wild parties for me, thanks). I was at work, looking at a program on my computer and told the person I was working with on the phone that there was something wrong with my monitor.

Turns out there was something wrong with my eye instead. I had a hemorrhage in the back of my left eye, near the center. Luckily, it was small. This is the same eye I had the vitreous detachment in a few years ago, so it's not a great surprise.

It all comes from being extremely near-sighted. My eyeballs are so long that they've gotten very thin and fragile in the back and one of them decided to spring a leak.

I'm lucky that it doesn't need any laser surgery at this point and I'm just waiting to see how well it clears. All straight lines are wavy when I look through that eye, which can be rather disorientating. Bummer. Nothing like trying to work when one eye sees straight lines and the other one sees wavy. Fortunately, I can knit without having to look!

Here's to 2008!

Whatcha Reading?

2007-12-27T14:24:00.000-06:00

Meme swiped from My Middle Name is Patience

1. Whatcha reading? Stiff by Mary Roach
2. How much of it have you read so far? About 1/3 so far.
3. What’s it about? The curious lives of human cadavers.
4. What does the title refer to? ...uh, dead bodies?
5. Would you recommend it? It can get gruesome in places but I have a certain morbid fascination. There's a lot of interesting history and it does emphasis all the good that's been done or discovered by using those bits of us that we don't need anymore.

We shall return with knitting content when we have knitting...

Bigfoot shawl - comfort at last!

2007-12-13T20:53:00.001-06:00

Project: Bigfoot Shawl from Wrapped in Comfort: Knitted Lace Shawls by Alison Jeppson Hyde
Yarn: 1100 yards 2-ply handspun fingering weight merino by Mary Hoge at Woolen Webs (bearspinner at yahoo dot com) - colorway Rose Quartz
Needles: Addi Natura circulars 5mm (a really long set)

I don't think I've ever had a big project come together this quickly - 2 1/2 weeks from start to finish.

I love the pattern, it's just what I wanted. I love the yarn, it's delicious.

Wore it at work today - it's perfect. Not too long (doesn't catch in everything), not too short (I like to keep my arms warm), and it stays on without pinning, tying, or adjusting every five seconds. The yarn so soft and combined with the lacy pattern, provides just the right amount of warmth for the office.

It blocked out to about 24 1/2 inches along the center back. Just right.

It reminds me of the cape that Irene Dunne wears near the end of 'I remember Mama'. I watched the movie (again) not long ago and loved the fit of that piece.

Aaaahhh.... comfort.

Now - back to my comfort bedjacket. I finally picked up the stitches for the first sleeve and am back in the running.

Shawl blocking with cat assistance

2007-12-13T20:31:00.000-06:00

How to block a lace shawl with cat assistance:
1. Spread clean sheet over the dining room rug. Scamp is a tough inspector.

2. Scamp adjustment #1
3. Scamp adjustment #2
4. Scamp adjustment #3
5. Scamp gets to go play in the garage for a while.
6. Damp shawl gets pinned out with blocking wire along the straight edges.

7. Bonnie demonstrates the proper cat supervisory position.

8. Twenty-four hour cat guard - another sheet over the blocked shawl with lots of heavy objects to keep Scamp from removing it.

Reading my knitting

2007-12-07T15:40:00.000-06:00

The nicest thing about a gentle, repetitive lace pattern is that it is relatively easy to figure out when you've messed up. My continued inability to count constantly amazes me. After all, I'm an accountant - count is even in the name, for goodness sake.

How can I end up with nine yarnovers in a place where there were eight before? Obviously I didn't include sufficient decreases in the prior knit row. Of course, after I posted about my counting difficulties last time, Alison mentioned that she's done a version of this shawl that doesn't involve as much counting. Oh well, a bit too late for that and I think I prefer this version anyway.

I'm still loving it. The yarn is wonderful and the pattern is restful, which is just what I need. The nine yarnovers became eight again, through some judicious use of decreases in the next yarnover row.

I'm glad I chose this pattern. Anything busier would have been overwhelmed by the color variegation in the handspun. I've never liked that phrase 'knitting is the new yoga' but I do find projects like this very peaceful to work. You have to pay sufficient attention not to end up with ever-increasing fans, but you don't have to constantly refer to a pattern or chart either. I've got almost sixteen inches (unblocked) so far and there's still about 300 yards of yarn left. That will add probably another 5 inches. Blocking will add even more.

I showed Mary Hoge (the maker of the handspun) my project when I went to guild Tuesday night. She was excited - she tells me she hasn't seen anyone make a big project with her handspun yet.

Scamp is addicted to the yarn fumes coming off this thing. She jumps on my lap and dives face down into it. Since the knitting makes a bag-like form on the needles, she digs herself into the bag and tries to force her face through the mesh. I have to move quickly to save things but I'm usually laughing too hard to do much.

More comfort of a different sort

2007-11-29T11:22:00.000-06:00

Having basely abandoned my Comfort bedjacket, I am now romping down the rows of my Bigfoot Shawl from Alison Jeppson Hyde's Wrapped in Comfort knitted lace shawl book.

Ok, I haven't completely abandoned the bedjacket. It has just gotten too big and cumbersome to be my traveling knitting. The front and back are complete and I'm in the process of picking up stitches for the sleeves - something I hate doing, which may explain why it's still sitting on the couch.

I'm using that beautiful handspun merino I bought from Mary before Thanksgiving. The Bigfoot Shawl is a fan and feather variation and repetitive enough to make it my new traveling knitting. Although, apparently I have difficulty counting to eight. Or sixteen. I only had to rip it completely back and reknit the yoke three times. The third time I put in a lifeline and didn't need it (all that practice, right?). Now that I'm in the body of the thing I should be ok, since I can make sure each little section is working out right. (But I'm not taking out those lifelines 'til I'm done.)

It was just as well that I did cast on again, as the first time I didn't cast on loosely enough. Also, you're supposed to cast on with 2 strands, and the third time I went ahead and carried that second strand all the way through the first two rows. I like it even better that way.

The funny thing is when I was hunting for a perfect shawl pattern for this yarn, I did a little sketch of what I was after. After I plumped for the Big Foot, I found my little sketch (I had completely forgotten about it) and it was almost exactly the same. Not the lace pattern (I didn't go so far as what lace pattern I wanted), but the overall shape and scheme of the thing. The only difference I had was a collar. Who knows, if I have the yarn and the inclination, I may add a little collar. Or not.

I've got about 1100 yards of the merino and I'm using 5mm needles. Alison presents this shawl in two versions: a little over-the-shoulder one with about 645 yards of fingering weight on 5mm and a larger version with 1000 yards on 5.5mm needles. I suspect I'll get somewhere between the two.

By the way, I really like how this book is arranged. Each pattern has a little story about it or about the inspiration behind it, at least one picture on a model, sometimes a close-up of the pattern stitch, and one picture of the shawl laid out flat. Sometimes there's an alternate version pictured also. The pattern is given in words and in charts. She's got them all ranked for beginner, easy, intermediate and advanced. (Big Foot is ranked Easy.) All the pictures are nice and clear and give you a good idea of what you're getting into.

The Big Deal is happening today at work, so hopefully work will resume it's normal state of chaos instead of the abnormal chaos of the last few months.

two-fer

2007-11-27T17:02:00.000-06:00

Shamelessly stolen from My Middle Name is Patience, who shamelessly stole it from someone else:

Two names you go by:
1. Cynthia
2. Laura - at least that's one of my co-workers called me today. I think it was a senior moment.

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. My Circumnavigate Cardigan
2. My SAS comfy shoes

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. Reading. (great minds think alike)
2. Knitting.

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. The freedom to take some of that vacation I'm going to lose at the end of this year.
2. Same as number 1, but whinier.

Two favorite pets you have had/have:
1. Bonnie
2. Scamp
There are lots of pets that I miss, but I'm glad these two are here - even when I'm yelling at Scamp to get off the counter, out of the garage, out of the inside of the box springs, out from behind the dryer.... you get the idea.

Two things you ate today:
1. A banana (my day would not be complete without my banana)
2. A 'be cool' sandwich from the deli downstairs - it involves horseradish, yummy!

Two people you last talked to:
1. My boss.
2. My co-worker (we're working on a big project this week)

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. Working. (see above note)
2. Knitting

Two longest car rides:
1. From Wyoming to Florida.
2. ummm.... any further than that, I fly.

Two favorite holidays:
1. Holloween. I haven't really outgrown the dress-up thing.
2. Christmas.

Two favorite beverages:
1. Caffeine-free diet coke (I know, what's the point?)
2. Water with either pink lemonade or orange flavor Crystal Light

random...

2007-11-14T08:51:00.000-06:00

Stalking the wild butterfly photographer in his native habitat - the Dallas Arboretum. Nothing like taking a picture of someone taking a picture! We spent a glorious day there a couple of weekends ago.

Random beautiful tree and beautiful sky at the Arboretum.
My Comfort bedjacket - the back is complete and I've started the front. I still haven't addressed the flippy border, but think I'll try taking a tuck first and seeing what that does. If it doesn't work, I'll grab the scissors and start cutting.
Gorgeous handspun from Mary at Woolen Webs. She's working on a website but doesn't have it up yet. (E-mail her at bearspinneratyahoodotcom.) She forced me to purchase this 1100 yards of fingering weight 2-ply merino wool - colorway Rose Quartz. Isn't it purty? And wonderfully soft and still smelling faintly of lanolin.

When I picked it up I immediately thought - cape. Not a wrap that falls off my shoulders. A shawl or cape that has enough fit to stay put. A little bit of lace - not much, just enough for interest.

I looked at tons of shawls, wraps and capes online for ideas. Was greatly tempted by Jackie E-S's Cascading Hearts Faroese Shawl.

I thought about E-Z's Pi R Square shawl - a good example here.

Then I found the Strawberry Pie Shawl at SpinDyeKnit. And she's got a whole book of patterns with yoked semi-circular shawls - Wrapped in Comfort. I'll be ordering the book today so we'll see...

Prestrung beads from Mary Jo at knit1beadtoo. (think it's her Earth colorway). I'm going to try her little thimble/amulet bag. She showed us how at the Dallas Handknitters Guild in October. I've had my size 0000 needles for a couple of years and never used them so here's my chance.

Links (the power of)

2007-11-07T16:08:00.001-06:00

Finally got around to fixing some broken links and adding some new ones. I sometimes forget that when someone moves their blog to a new host my link to them goes blotto.

I had a great conversation with Jen at pieknits and Colleen (blogless) last night at our guild meeting. Jen has published patterns in MagKnits, Knitty and Interweave (quick, go get the new winter edition for her Celtic Tote pattern). (There's other stuff, too - she's got a great blog.) I was telling her how tickled I was to have 3 (gasp) people ask me for my cat's paw scarf chart. We all laughed at that and she countered with the fact that people are already sending her emails with questions about her Celtic Tote pattern and she doesn't even have her copy of the magazine yet. As her system of charting is different from Interweave's, she can't answer their questions 'til she sees what they're looking at.

What always amazes me is how people find my little blog.

Of course, then I turned it around and found the answer - how did I find other peoples' blogs? I followed links. I find a blog that's interesting and there's a list of links down the side and I start clicking. Or I'm reading comments on someone else's blog and - look! - there's a link to the commenter's blog. Sometimes I find a blog through a Google search. Or I'm on a site like Knitty and the designer's blog address is right there with the pattern.

Being in the Fair Isle Knitters Ring probably helps too. Even though my own personal Fair Isle is limited to one completed Fearless Fair Isle and two sweaters that have been in the design stage for a year, I'm still fascinated by this whole thing. (So that's how Kathleen found my blog - she's in the ring, too!)

The neat thing about all of these interconnecting links is I get to say a brief 'Hi!' to people that I would otherwise never have a chance to meet. I get to meet (virtually, at least) people that live in other parts of the country or other parts of the world. Some of those people listed down the side are practically next door and some of them are across oceans.

As my husband says - these are my pen pals! Ain't it great!

Comfort knitting revisited

2007-11-03T15:18:00.000-05:00

I'm still feeling the love for my 'oh, so necessary' bedjacket. It's giving me the needed elements of comfort knitting - no looking at patterns or charts, a big enough gauge to make me feel like I'm making progress, not totally mindless, and a nice soft yarn. It's also giving me something else... the dreaded flip.

See? I didn't make my garter stitch border big enough, so now it's flipping up at the bottom. This so totally my fault. I only made it about an inch wide and at the time thought that might be too small. I was right. I should have either made it at least 2 1/2 inches or used a smaller needle to tighten it up (or both).

Some options to fix this:

1. Don't fix it. Not really an option because it will drive me crazy.

2. Pretend I meant to do that and sew it into place like a hem. Will probably look goofy, but represents less work than some other options.

3. Frog it and start over. Are you kidding!? I've got almost 2 skeins into this now!

4. Cut the bottom border off and start knitting down with a smaller needle. Icky, but a pretty good way of fixing the problem.

5. Pick up the cast on row and knit down using a smaller needle and/or different stitch pattern. Again, this will probably look goofy.

6. Pick up the cast on row and crochet a bottom border. Goofy? Perhaps, but again, a viable option.

7. Get sneaky and try taking a tuck along the border from the back of the knitting to see if it will lie down better. I'm all for sneakiness if it works, so this may be what I try first.

I'm pretty sure any attempt at blocking will not help. It's synthetic fibers so I wasn't going to bother to block it anyway.

Any other ideas out there? I'm always willing to learn from my mistakes.

Comfort knitting

2007-10-24T09:20:00.000-05:00

Comfort knitting means something different to every knitter. To me, it's working with yarn that's very soft and strokable, using a pattern that's not so hard I have to sit poring over instructions or a chart or so easy that I could fall asleep working on it.

Socks usually fit that bill, although softness is sometimes an issue with sock yarn. I trade wearability for some of that softness on some yarns, but didn't have to with these. These are my husband's Regia Bamboo socks. Nice and soft!

I've knitted nothing but socks for the last six months. Don't get me wrong - I love knitting socks. I even went to the yarn store the other day and bought more sock yarn. I'm 2/3rds of the way down the leg of the 2nd sock of my latest pair.

While I was at the yarn store, I went and stroked yarn. Fortunately, this is primarily a knitting blog, so that last statement shouldn't sound too strange.

Right at the front of the store I found this beautifully soft stuff in my favorite color - a dark, rich red. I patted it and held it against my neck (checking for itchiness, of course) and squeezed it a bit. I put it back on the shelf and strolled on, looking at the wall of needles and notions, the shelves of wool, cotton, silk, mohair. I picked out my two pairs worth of sock yarn - including some yummy wool/silk blend in a rather bland beige for dress socks.

Then I wandered back towards that dark red beauty. Lying on the work table in front of the shelf was a little baby sweater. Wait a minute, isn't that the same color? Yes, it's the same yarn, all knitted up. And it's just as soft as the skein.

Hmmmm... I need a .... bed-jacket. Yeah, a bed-jacket. It's getting cold and I like to sit in bed and read at night. An old-fashioned bed-jacket, that just happens to be very soft and snuggly, is exactly what I need to stay warm at night. (Let's ignore the fact that I have plenty of other items of clothing that will keep me warm at night and that in Texas cold weather doesn't last all that long. I need this bed-jacket.)

I bought all they had of the dark red yarn. It's Berroco Comfort in Color 9755 Wild Cherry. Somehow it's appropriate that I'm doing comfort knitting with a yarn called Comfort. I whipped up a pattern on my Sweater Wizard software, plus I'm using some of the techniques I learned knitting the Circumnavigate Cardigan.

I'm keeping it pretty simple, since the idea of comfort knitting is to be able to knit without having to refer to a pattern every other row. Stockinette and a garter-stitch border, with a 2-stitch i-cord edge to keep things neat. No buttons to fiddle with, although I may incorporate i-cord ties. Full-length sleeves, but no ribbing, just a bit more garter stitch. It won't be very long, waist-length probably, and is meant to be over-sized and loose-fitting (comfort, again).

It has been a while since I've been excited about knitting. So many other things have been going on (yeah, that work thing) that knitting is one of those things I do in tiny increments of time. A round or two on a sock is all I've been able to manage lately. But now I'm eagerly awaiting lunch time so I can sit and stroke my pretty yarn and do a few rows of the bottom border. (We won't discuss the fact that I sat in my car in the parking garage this morning and knit a row. I was still in the office early.)

It's such a relief to be out of the knitting doldrums. Even my husband has commented that I've not been knitting as much as usual. Who knows, maybe this renewal of spirit will allow me do tackle some of those poor neglected projects that have been patiently waiting their turn. I know that I should have probably picked up one my UFO's instead of a new project, but that's the breaks, kids!

Speaking of my Circumnavigate Cardigan - it's finally been cool enough to wear it again! Yeah for Fall!

My dream knitting room

2007-10-03T15:19:00.000-05:00

Now this is the kind of meme I can go for.... What does my dream knitting room look like?

Shelves, lots of shelves. Not only for the yarn (of which there is plenty), but for the quilting fabric, costume fabric, weaving materials, patterns, books, my violin collection, and other crafty things I've accumulated over the years. These shelves need to cover at least two (or three!) walls and go floor to ceiling. Not to worry if there are a few empty shelves... that won't last long.

Good lighting. I feel like I'm living in a cave most of the time and as I (and my eyes) get older it's getting worse. I've got a small Ott light (thanks, Mom and Dad) but I need more, more, more. Not bright, migraine-inducing, fluorescent light - clear daylight light. Mood-lighting is for younger folks.

Along with the good lighting - one of those fancy, hands-free magnifying lens. I don't always actually look at my knitting, but when I'm doing really fiddly stuff, that would be kind of nice.

A comfortable chair. It needn't be fancy, but does need to be something I can comfortably slouch in. We won't go into the proper posture necessary for knitting. Proper for me involves a slouch. Deal with it.

A corner for the spinning wheel and it's chair - you know, actually set up so I can use the darn thing, instead of folded up by the bookcase in the bedroom.

A corner for the sewing machine - it's actually in that corner in a nice sewing cabinet (thanks again, Mom and Dad). But a corner I can actually get to, and sit and sew.

A place for everything and everything in its place. Being terminally disorganized, I always admire those people that have everything neatly put away and can easily find a set of size 5 birch knitting needles and 6 skeins of blue-gray wool without emptying out three drawers, 2 bins, and 5 knitting bags. Frankly, I also am deeply suspicious of anyone with these kinds of organizational skills. They're the kind that can hide the body and get away with it. (Of course, looking at the chaos that is my current craft room, there could be a few bodies stashed away there and no-one would ever know.)

I actually have a room (the aforesaid craft room) that I could make over into this perfect knitting room, so this isn't pie-in-the-sky talking. It will only take three things:
1. Money (there is sufficient in the kitty for this)
2. Time (alas, there is very little extra of this right now)
3. Energy (sorry, none left)

So when there is time and energy... maybe around June of next year... I'll come back to this post and remind myself that this needs to be done.

Thanks to Rebekah for the meme! She's much more imaginative and entertaining about her dream room.

yes, I am alive

2007-09-23T09:06:00.000-05:00

Just very, very busy. Working every weekend is starting to drive me (more) crazy. Since the work craziness will continue for an indefinite period I probably will be even worse about updating this blog than usual. We'll see.

A few random things.....

I did finally finish those bamboo socks for my hubby. Pictures to follow, when I can be bothered to hook the camera to the laptop.

I started another pair - this time in Sockotta cotton/wool. I couldn't be bothered with any kind of pattern, so they're going to be plain stockinette. That's all my brain can deal with right now.

Tracey has exciting news - go looky! Frenzied knitting must now commence...

The new Knitty is out and I've actually found a pattern I'd like to knit. Frankly, while the patterns are usually cute or funky, I rarely find something I like well enough to invest time and materials on. This one meets at least some of my knitting needs and I love the name....Mr Greenjeans! That sooo reveals my age.

Well, back to the grindstone... I'll check in with you all later.

Ok, forgot something. One of those weird things. I posted my Cat's Paw scarf last Christmas as a free pattern and asked people to email me for the chart if they wanted it. Never heard from anyone, but that's ok. Suddenly, about two months ago I had a request. Ok, cool. Then a few weeks later, another request... Ok, wow! Then another.... Ok, is someone talking here?

Ok, all finished for now...

Important Life Knowledge

2007-09-06T10:11:00.001-05:00

Hmmm.... apparently I'm a History/Lit Geek that's pretty smart and going to live to 85 after being the lone survivor of a zombie attack. (Or am I 85 when the zombies attack?)

Whew! My life is much better for knowing all that.

(This is what you do when the sock is only an inch longer than last time and nothing exciting is happening.)

Thanks to Lene for posting the link to the Nerd test.... which led to all the other tests.

I've got the blues....

2007-08-30T14:58:00.000-05:00

The mid-summer blues....

I don't feel like knitting (gasp!), spinning, sewing, violin-playing, anything.
Blech!

Work has been overwhelming and is going to continue to be overwhelming for the forseeable future.

OK, now that I've depressed myself, let me count some of the nice things now:

1. Work may be a drag right now, but it pays well, has lots of responsiblity and variety (for accounting anyway) and I have a boss that leaves me to get on with it.

2. My DH and I are really enjoying the new kitties.

Scamp is living up to her name and is a growing girl - 1 lb 3 oz gain in 3 weeks! She's about 8 months old now and is looking to be a pretty good-sized kitty when she's finished. She has become a champion ball-fetcher. Throw the ball and she'll race to bring it back to you as many times as necessary.

Bonnie alternately ignores me and uses me as a bed. Which is fine except when she starts kneading my stomach with her razor sharp claws (and that's with clipping their claws once a week). Just when you think she's going to ignore you forever, she flops on her back, gives you that 'I'm-a-beautiful-princess' look and purrs at you.

3. My violin teacher got married this last weekend. He's been floating around on little pink clouds for a while now. They've gone to Hawaii for their honeymoon and I hope they're having a great time.

4. My DH & I are going to either the Arboretum or Lake Ray Roberts this weekend to enjoy the outdoors and take butterfly pictures.

......I feel better now.

And look! One whole sock and part of another! I'm still managing a little knitting even when I'm grumpy.

Regia Bamboo Color, US size one Brittany Birch dpns, a horseshoe cable on each side (which is utterly invisible in the picture - trust me, it's there).

These are for my husband - he picked out the color himself. This stuff is really soft and nice to work with. It's 45% bamboo, 40% superwash wool and 15% polymid.

New family

2007-08-07T09:41:00.000-05:00

Well, that older kitty was still at the shelter. But she bites. I can put up with a lot, but I don't want to pull back a bloody stump every time I try to pet my cat. I hope she finds an understanding family.

But while we were there..... you can see where this is going, can't you?

We brought home not one, but two! cats. The thought being that they can keep each other company. We always felt that Emy was a bit lonely by herself, but we couldn't bring another kitty into a FeLv positive home.

Patch is about 18 months old. Her owner surrendered her because a family member was allergic. She's a beautiful tortoiseshell (with a bit of white) and loves to flop on her back for belly rubs and wrestling matches. She also has an unfortunate obsession in the cockatiels - who now live in a fortress reinforced with wire mesh.

Tootsie (aka 'streak of lightning', aka 'mad hatter', aka 'hell on 4 paws', aka 'no! no!') is 7 months old and was found on I-30. Tootsie is a grey and black tabby shaped like a Siamese. She's got that ear-shattering Siamese wail too. I'd forgotten what it's like having a high-octane kitten in the house.

There was a bit of hissing and spitting between the two cats - mainly on Patch's side. Now, there are signs of play and tolerance, so I think they'll both survive the introduction. We may survive, too, although it's been exhausting trying to kitten-proof everything.

It was worth it when we were both sitting in the living room last night, Patch draped over my lap (and the arm of the couch, with her back legs sticking out in the air) and Tootsie (finally zonked out) stretched out next to my DH with her head on his ankle.

Aren't cats wonderful?

Late update! They've got official names now. The names above were assigned by the shelter.

Patch is now Bonnie (Scottish for 'very pleasing to the eye').

Tootsie is now Scamp (and that one's self explanatory!).

Sorry - kind of took a break there

2007-08-01T16:47:00.000-05:00

Guess I was on a blogging vacation - too bad it wasn't a work vacation, too. I haven't had a weekend in a while and am getting a bit foggy.

Oh, look! I really did finish a pair of socks!

I started on another pair using Regia Bamboo - a blend of wool and bamboo. Very soft... I'll post a picture one of these days. (you notice I'm not making promises on when that will get done)

Not much going on on the knitting front - that's what working horrible hours will do for you.

Read Harry Potter (of course) and even went to see the fifth movie. We went to a late showing last Saturday and there were only about 20 people in the theater. That's our definition of a good movie date - hardly any other people there.

Won't talk about the book here since there are probably people still finishing it - but I did enjoy this one more than Book 5 or 6. The first 3 books are still my favorites and I've even got Mom listening to the first book on audio.

Still taking pictures - this cooperative fellow let me sit down next to him for ages while he investigated the potential of those little white flowers.

My husband and I are contemplating adopting another cat. There's a beautiful tortoiseshell kitty at the local shelter that's been there over 7 months. She's 12 years old and very few people are interested in adopting an older animal. We'll probably go take look this weekend. So the next post may include pictures of a new member of the family.

My Hitchhiker has thumbed a ride out of here

2007-07-12T08:59:00.000-05:00

My Hitchhiker spinning wheel is starting on a journey to its new home today. The poor thing was terribly neglected around here. David at the Merlin Tree made it for me back in 2005 and I used it once. Sad, I know.

But things will change in its new home - Tracey will make sure of that.

Before anyone makes a big deal out of me giving a spinning wheel to someone I don't even know (except on online), let me tell you this is totally selfish on my part. It gives me a large thrill to make someone else happy, even if I've never met them in person. (I'm pretty sure she's happy about it, judging from the number of emails I've received.) Besides, Tracey was threatening to hire out her daughter as farm labor to raise the money for a wheel. I don't think the Monkey would go for that.

I hope if (or when) Tracey decides to get a newer, fancier wheel she'll consider giving this wheel to someone else that is desperate to spin. It seems appropriate that a Hitchhiker should travel.

The Story of Emy

2007-07-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

Emy was born August 27, 2003 in a local park not far from our home - she was the runt of the litter. Her mother was a young tortoiseshell cat that was also born in the park. We know Emy's birthday so precisely because this park was home to a feral colony with two caretakers. Willa and Stanley were dedicated about keeping records of every birth, death and adoption in the colony. Willa gave the new kitten a name - LittleBit.

LittleBit/Emy had a single kitten early on. Willa told us about Emy's pregnancy - she was so small and short-legged that her tummy was practically dragging the ground. This was the only time that she allowed Willa to hold her on her lap. That kitten was caught in due time and was fixed and vaccinated. Unfortunately, the kitten escaped in Willa's neighborhood before she could find it a home and we don't know it's fate.

We first saw Emy when she was about 15 or 16 months old - it was only a swift glimpse, as she was extremely shy. We had been petting another more social kitty called Baby and Willa had told us all about the colony.

Willa called us a few weeks later - she had caught Emy because Emy had been limping and had taken her to the vet. Emy had been spayed and vaccinated - they couldn't find the reason for the limp though. Did we want to adopt her? Yes, we did. That's when she transformed from LittleBit to Emy.

Unfortunately, that limp she was exhibiting was due to abscesses - probably from a fight with another cat. Also unfortunately, that fight involved the passing of feline leukemia, a very nasty virus that hides in kitty bodies and really screws with kitty immune systems.

Emy recovered from the initial illness enough that she was able to be a happy, energetic kitty. It only took a few months for her to transform from a scared, under-weight, sick kitty to a happy, content kitty. She loved to play, especially with the little rubber balls - they were just right for her to pick up and carry around or to chase around the living room. She would sit in front of my husband and give him 'the stare', indicating that it was time to play now.

That insidious monster called feline leukemia was still lurking, though, and eventually caught up with her.

We will miss Emy's owl-like gaze, her manic chasing of laser lights, little rubber balls, bugs, and anything that moved. We'll miss her purr, her soft fur, her nudges. We'll miss everything about her.

Emy died July 3rd, 2007 and has joined Tux, Kissy and Frog out in the garden. She wasn't quite four years old.

It has taken me a week to write this post...it will take us a lifetime to forget her.

Summer of sock?

2007-06-25T16:56:00.000-05:00

Other people are having a summer of socks. I'm apparently having a summer of sock. Hey! I might even start on the toe tonight! And who knows? The second sock may eventually happen too! It's a bit hard to tell in the picture, but there are little cables running down each side of the leg. That's my favorite default sock treatment for the moment.

But on a brighter front, here's the quilt all tied up. I still need to make a binding and machine-sew it on. May get around to that this week, but that means I need to clean up the sewing room (cue ominous music here). I can't even walk through that room right now, so this could be a challenge.

What am I doing?

2007-06-20T08:46:00.000-05:00

Since I don't feel much like taking pictures of my knitting right now, you get flowers instead. Accidental flowers...

This is from a set of volunteers growing on the front edge of the lawn. As you can see if you look closely, the ants love them. They'll bloom for a while longer, then I'll actually get to mow in that spot. I've been carefully manuvering around them for a couple of months. I suspect these were planted years ago - they just keep coming back. I've no idea what they are. Does anyone recognize them?

Life finds a way, doesn't it? My husband and I planted a few hydrangeas the first year we moved into this house (9 years ago, now). They did ok the first year, but really suffered from the heat. We pretty much gave up on them and thought that they had completely died out. Look what I found tucked up under the hedges this summer! Not very big and not many flowers, but there all the same. These flowers are like litmus paper. Depending on the acidity of your soil, the flowers can be pink or blue - that first year we had pink and blue flowers on the same plant.
And does anyone recognize what I'm working on here?

Yes (for those who guessed right). It's a quilt. It's become something of a family project. Mother and Daddy pieced it from a bunch of 'fat quarters' - those nice square bits of material you can get at the fabric store specifically cut for quilters. They also sandwiched it with batting and backing and pinned everything together. They then tried to machine quilt it - using an embroidery flower tacking pattern.

The darn thing didn't want to cooperate with them. It's a real headache to manage a full-size quilt using a regular sewing machine. I've done it but there was a lot of cursing involved. Mom and Dad gave up and the quilt went into the closet.

I volunteered to hand tie the quilt for them so all that effort wouldn't go to waste. So... 16 ties per block times 30 blocks ... 480 ties, right? And then the binding and the finishing.

I got out my Q-Snap quilting frame and put it together. And then put it together again a different way. And then again. And then went online to their website and printed off a picture of the frame and put it together again the right way.

I think I'm almost half-way through the blocks now. That part of it is going pretty well, now that I've got my equipment sorted out. I'll probably use my sewing machine to do the binding, but we'll worry about that when I get there.

There's another sock in progress, too, but I'll post pictures of that later. I still have not resolved the lace scarf problem, but I'm not too concerned, it will be months before I need something that warm around my neck.

proof of life

2007-06-08T10:51:00.000-05:00

Tap, tap, tap of shoes approaching in a darkened room. The click of a light switch. And she's back.

No, I haven't disappeared. Or been kidnapped by aliens. I just haven't had much to say lately and it's hard to maintain a knitting blog when I'm not knitting (or spinning, or crocheting, or quilting, or anything crafty).

What have I been doing while healing my neck? Reading. Listening to audio books. Working. (Boring, isn't it.)

Fortunately, the neck is much better and I'm much more sensible about how much I carry at one time. I'm still having to be reasonable about knitting time (no marathons), but at least I can knit more than a few stitches at a time now.

And look! I finally finished Mom's socks. This is the pair that I was making for Mother's Day. Granted I knew that I wouldn't have them finished by Mother's Day, but this is ridiculous.

And I looked at my second qiviut scarf.... I've somehow managed to lose not 1, but 2! stitches somewhere. Apparently about 3 repeats ago. Sigh. So I'm trying to decide if I want to just magically add 2 stitches in where I think I misplaced them or do I rip back 3 of the 15 repeats and fix it properly. At this point, I'll probably add the stitches and move on. After blocking, no-one will ever know except me and you and you won't tell, will you?

8 random facts

2007-05-22T16:27:00.000-05:00

I've been tagged by Tracey for the 8 random facts meme.

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Here goes:

1. I used to be owned by a horse (back in high school). This led me to believe that I would work well with large farm animals and led me to an animal science major my first year of university. Sanity prevailed later. (Cattle and I do not mix.)

2. My favorite color is blue... or is it red? Well, one of the two.

3. I have more hobbies than time.

4. At one point in my growing up years I wanted to be an Air Force pilot. This, coupled with the fact that I hate heights and carnival rides, is rather ridiculous.

5. I love to read fantasy and science fiction. I also love old-fashioned mysteries and spy thrillers.

6. I have a sneaky desire to own a pygmy hedgehog, but realize this would probably be a bad idea.

7. I'm currently re-reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (Ok, we said this was random, right?)

8. I sat for part of the Certified Public Accountant exam 4 days after a car wreck. That's four days of exams in a cold room with hundreds of other poor slobs. Amazingly enough I passed one of the two parts of the exam I was taking. I sometimes wonder if the whiplash from 1992 is partially to blame for the present chronic neck problems.

I'm not tagging anyone. Feel free to tag yourself, though!

Waiting for Daddy

2007-05-18T16:10:00.001-05:00

Is he coming? Is that his car I hear pulling into the garage? This is important, Mom!

It is! It is! Daddy (aka my best-est playmate) is here!Good shot of the cropped left ear - it's a punk kitty thing. She wanted a tattoo but I put my foot down.

No knitting yet. I tried a few rounds on Mom's blue socks but decided that wasn't the best idea for the neck. No Fair Isle drafting either, guys... you'll just have to wait. Many drugs have been taken and the foam collar has been faithfully worn, so hopefully I'll be in knitting trim soon.

zzzzzzzzzzzz

2007-05-10T16:03:00.000-05:00

Nothing exciting to post about today, just realized it has been a while. Bright blue socks are slowly progressing down leg #2. Qivuit scarf was making steady progress (15 of 25 repeats completed), but I've not looked at it in a week. Knitting life is just bleh.

DH made it back home 2 minutes before a tremendous storm arrived. That's literal by the way. He walked in the door at 7pm, the heavens opened at 7:02pm. Very good timing, although we both felt sorry for the taxi driver that had to make his way back to the airport in that mess.

I messed up my neck (again) so knitting is probably not the best thing right now. Sitting around with a neck brace seems to be the main occupation, along with listening to Agatha Christie audio books.

I've decided that the almost-forgotten lace shawl should be my next project to finish up (after the qiviut). Sorry, FairIsle fans! I figure that between the shawl and sock-knitting, I should be ok for projects for a while.

..... forgetting this morning's wild flight of fancy of a nice cotton cardigan for the office ....
But it would be nice, as I'm presently wearing an extremely worn-out silk/cotton store-bought cardigan that's falling apart .... and a nice, neutral-colored cardigan that I can thrown on over everything would be really, really practical ... and I may even have some 1824 cotton in the stash that would work ... help, me - I'm feeling weak again.

I think it's a spring thing. I had this overwhelming urge to make a cotton sweater around this time last year. Suddenly, wool loses some of its appeal - especially since it's been in the 80s every day this week and very muggy, too.

Any good ideas for a drapey cotton blend yarn? I liked Knit-Picks Shine worsted-weight, but it tends to shed bright blue bits all over the place and also tends to sag with wear. Looking at the tattered sweater I'm wearing right now, I find a dk to worsted weight yarn that's 77% silk and 33% cotton. I like the drape and weight - the silk keeps it from sagging out of shape and the cotton helps keep it breathable. Guess I'll visit Knitter's Review and see if she's got any suggestions.

Carrots and Sticks

2007-04-30T16:57:00.000-05:00

I'm ready for DH to come home. He won't be home 'til Wednesday, though. I miss him.

This is a photo-intense entry by the way....

Isn't it beautiful? The picture doesn't do it justice - it's huge and has dozens of flowers. We celebrated our eleventh wedding anniversary while he was away and he had these delivered to my workplace. You should have seen me trying to get these home. It took 10 minutes just to figure out how to fit them in the car.
That's just one of the carrots to get my work done. Here's the other - some of the things I'm promising myself when it's all finished. As you can see, the qiviuq scarf is making making progress. Actually, it's been a few days since I took this picture - half the wine's gone now.

Now for the sticks:
The accidental compost heap. We discovered the lazy way of creating compost. Just don't bother to bag up the leaves that drift down to the bottom of the driveway. By spring there's wonderful black dirt underneath it all and great big fat earthworms. (And the occasional Texas Earth snake.) The only thing required is to turn the pile every once in awhile - which is what I did on Monday.

These aren't 'before' pictures, more of like 'middle' pictures of the dining room. Large pieces of furniture got moved around. Glassware, pottery and crystal got dusted and rearranged. The wood floor got cleaned. The rug got vacuumed. A picture finally got a frame. A tapestry was hung on the wall. All in preparation for this: Mom and Dad's old oak roll-top desk. A piece of family history. A remarkable piece of engineering. (Can you tell I'm excited to have this?) Dad and I took it apart at their house, put all the pieces in my car and his car (it wouldn't all fit in mine), then reassembled it in our house.

And the rest of the room looks much better, too. This dining room suite was originally my great-aunt's and is made out of rock maple. I love it and am glad I've got a nice big dining room to accomodate it.That mirror above the buffet is incredibly heavy.

So that's how I've spent my time since DH has been gone. Oh, and I cleaned the kitchen (a fairly big deal in itself). Since I didn't end up taking any vacation time, I feel I did pretty good. Not much knitting, but that's ok, I'm going to knitting guild tomorrow night.

I just found out my violin lesson is cancelled tonight, since my teacher's got bronchitis. Guess I'll actually go to the grocery store instead. I haven't bothered to buy groceries since DH left.

I am Bert

2007-04-23T17:08:00.001-05:00

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them!

You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you

You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil

How you live your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Everything is true except the neat part....but I'm working on that

Well, the DH is on his way (as of about 7 minutes ago). Last time he went out of town for awhile, I painted the master bedroom. He didn't even immediately notice that the walls were no longer icky off-white and were now a restful blue. What kind of trouble can I get into now? (insert evil chuckle here)

Of course, I'm limited by the fact that I have to work all week (although I may squeeze in a vacation day later in the week). So that leaves only the evening hours and the weekend for potential mayhem.

I'm also limited by messing up my neck (again). Note to self: Don't try to carry your laptop backpack, your book bag and your purse all on one shoulder - you will pay for it later.

I think I can still manage some interesting things while he's away. My only problem - do I blog about it here while in progress? Before and after pics, etc.? He did say he was going to share my blog URL with his family so they can see it. There's no computer at his folk's house, so that's safe enough, but I'm pretty sure both his sisters have access.

Oh, well. I may just wait 'til right before he's coming home and post everything.

By the way, if any of his family does come visit this site - Hi, everybody! Did you like the socks?

3 weeks, 3 pairs of socks

2007-04-19T17:16:00.000-05:00

I feel like I've joined that 52 pair plunge knit-along. DH will be boarding the plane with these Socks that Rock next Monday.

From left to right - Nodding Violet, Scottish Highlands, Midsummers Night - all medium weight

I'll probably write up one of these (they are all pretty similar) and post it as a free pattern.

And just in case I should go through sock-knitting withdrawal, I immediately cast-on for another pair in stash yarn (for me this time).

But I do think it's time to take some of these poor neglected WIPs in hand and get them finished up:

1. Tina (abandoned almost 2 years ago)
2. The 2nd qiviuq scarf
3. My fisherman's sweater
4. My 2 Fair Isle designs (still in the design and swatch phase)

My first inclination is to go with the qiviuq scarf, just because it's a smaller project that won't take so much to finish up. That's even though I only got about 2 repeats (of 25) done right before Mom's surgery. (Late update - I have indeed restarted the qiviuq scarf - it's now 4 repeats of 25.)

Then Tina really, really needs to be knitted up. She's been patiently waiting for an awfully long time and I've got a lot more lace knitting under my belt now. My vision isn't significantly better, which was the main reason I put her down, but I'd still like to give it a shot.

That will probably get me through 'til July - just the weather for knitting a nice warm sweater. (please note sarcasm in voice) Then I can take up either my fisherman's sweater or one of my Fair Isles (Ok, ok, I know where the vote will go there.)

Let's see if I manage any of the above. I've tried this before and usually go off on a tangent.

Emy so seldom poses for me. In case you're wondering where her attention lies, the cockatiels are over there. If she gets too close Jack will stick his head through the bars and pick at the clothes pin holding up the birdy bloomer until the clothes pin snaps off and flies at Emy. I thought it was a coincidence the first time I saw Jack do this - it wasn't.

And it looks like this fellow has already had a rough spring. I think it's an American Painted Lady. Late update - my DH and I looked in the butterfly book. It's an American Lady, not an American Painted Lady.

A turn of phrase

2007-04-11T08:50:00.000-05:00

I went over to my folk's house the other night and we listened to a short-story, The Night Bookmobile, by Audrey Niffenegger (read by Christina Pickles and presented by Selected Shorts). Rather eerie, but very thought-provoking.

We started talking about favorite authors and their wonderful use of language. A sentence or phrase that causes you to think, "I'd never have thought to use that wording for this person/ place/ thing/ situation, but it's perfect". Words that evoke an emotional response or allow you to 'see' what's going on.

Mother asked me which I'd rather have to live without, beautiful music or beautiful words. This is a tough one, because I really enjoy both. I think, though, if I had to make a choice I'd rather live without the beautiful music than miss the beautiful words.

That's part of what this blog is about, after all. An opportunity to tune my use of words, to pin down coherently the thoughts tumbling chaotically about in my brain. I sometimes will let a post ferment in my head for several days before it gets typed up, and even then I may go back and change it many times before I hit the 'publish' button. (OK, sometimes I'll change it even after then.)

I was mentally composing this one at 3am this morning. I hate it when I wake up and can't go back to sleep. I feel like the 'before' picture of one of those prescription sleep-aid advertisements.

What does this have to do with knitting? After all, this is mainly a blog about knitting. Nothing, of course. But I've realized that some of the blogs I enjoy reading most not only have interesting content but often have that great use of words. Part of the reason I started blogging was to emulate those bloggers and authors I admire the most.

It's all about my search for a perfect turn of phrase.

Cable Surgery

2007-04-05T17:00:00.000-05:00

As a continuation of the theme from 'Toe Transplants' I thought I'd show this one too - my method for fixing a miss-crossed (or just missed) cable.

1. Discover you went too many rounds before you executed your cable about 5 rounds ago.
2. Cry (or swear) - depending on your temperament.
2.a. Decide that, in future, you shouldn't drink wine with dinner and then attempt to knit anything more complicated than a garter-stitch scarf.
3. Decide that, even though no-one will ever notice, you'll know deep within your heart that it's wrong and you just can't live with that.
4. Decide that dropping just the cable and re-doing it will be preferable to ripping back to the mistake and re-knitting the last 1/2 inch of your sock. Besides, this is a great opportunity to document how to fix these things. (This decision may have been influenced by the glass of wine earlier.)
5. Assemble your materials - the offending sock, several smaller dpns (I used some 2mms), a small crochet hook, a really good light. A glass of wine is optional - but you should probably wait until afterwards - see 2.a. above.
6. Isolate the offending stitches (I included the purl stitches on either side) and remove them from the needle.
7. Carefully, drop those stitches until you get down past the mistake. You'll have all those wonderful loops of yarn hanging around - don't worry, we'll deal with those later.
8. Take that smaller dpn and pick up your live stitches.
9. I took it back to the row I should have cabled on, so I went ahead and swapped the arrangement of the stitches so the cabling cross is on the needle in the right order. This is similar to 'cabling without a cable needle' (that link is to WendyKnits' wonderful tutorial).
10. At this point you've got a choice - you can re-knit each row, using the loop of yarn hanging behind your work as your working yarn (be sure to use your smaller dpns for this). Or you can use your crochet hook to pick up each individual stitch row by row (rather like picking up a dropped stitch). Since I didn't have a lot of stitches or a lot of rows, I opted for the crochet hook method. I also didn't have any other cable crossing to worry about. If I had, I would have probably used the knitting method.
11. Carefully pick up one stitch at a time, starting along one edge, and work it up to the top using the loops of yarn in the back of your work. After each stitch, gently snug the work up to your existing knitting.
12. The purl rows were easier to pick up from the back side of my work.
13. Check the work carefully to make sure you got it right this time.
14. Of course, since you made the same mistake on both sides of your sock you get to do this all over again!

Re-knitting the rounds may be an easier option, but knowing how to do just the cable section is real handy when you're working on a complicated Aran sweater with 220 stitches on each round and you find that you crossed a cable in the wrong direction about 20 rounds ago. (Ask me how I know.) In that case, I re-knit each row of the cable section, making all the cabling crossings as they came up.

After you're all done, pat yourself on the back (and have that glass of wine).

Look! She's almost a lap kitty now! The paws and elbows are on my lap! It only took 2 1/2 years!

Auditors

2007-04-04T16:03:00.000-05:00

Imagine StarWars storm troopers invading the home planet.
I'll have my life back in a couple of weeks.
Then we start implementing a new financial software package. My life goes away again.

In the mean time - look at SIL #1's new socks!

Socks That Rock medium-weight in Nodding Violets on size 2 (2.75 mm) Brittany dpns.
Pattern: my own with a little lace pattern from Mary Webb's Knitting Stitches. It's the 'easy lace stitch #2' on page 250. (This cracks me up by the way - the whole book is like that; no names of stitches, just 'medium cable #4', 'easy lace #1', etc..) Don't get me wrong by the way; it's a really nice little book and those descriptions make it really easy to pick out what you want.

'Easy Lace Stitch #2!' I wanted a vine-like effect.

This is my first experience with Socks That Rock. Lovely stuff, although I think I'll go for the lighter weight next time. But before that - here's SIL #2's sock started:

Socks That Rock medium in Midsummers Night. Nice thing about the medium weight yarn - it knits up a lot faster than the Lang Jawoll that I used on Mom's socks.

I may even try for one more pair of this stuff for my MIL before hubby goes off to visit them later this month (or maybe not). I have one more skein of the STR in the Scottish Highlands colorway. I was going to be selfish and knit them for myself, but I may be nice....

And looky at the new spinning wheel! All I've managed to do so far is put it together (very easy) and treadle a bit. Boy, is it quiet! And smooth! But I may not have a chance for too much spinning until the storm troopers leave. And I am planning on using it! Regardless of comments left to the effect that no-one has ever seen me use a spinning wheel. Spindle, yes, spinning wheel, no. It's all a matter of getting the right tools, right? That's why I needed a new wheel, right? ;=)So tell me... do you name your inanimate objects? I know lots of people name their cars, their computers, their spinning wheels. Maybe it shows a dearth of imagination, but my car is the 'new car' (and will remain that no matter how old it gets - this is a family tradition), the computer is 'the computer' (or perhaps more accurately 'DH's computer' since I rarely use a computer when I'm home), the spinning wheels are 'the Hitchhiker' or 'the Lendrum'. See - boring. Maybe it's the accountant coming out. Knitting uses up all the creative juices.

Know your priorities Part II

2007-03-27T10:34:00.000-05:00

OK everyone, thanks for all the enabling! I knew I'd avoid buyer's remorse if you helped validate my decision to buy a another wheel. (giggle) The wheel was shipped yesterday (I hope).

I still need clothes, shoes, house stuff, etc., but what I got to spend my money on this week was a new tooth.

One of my teeth decided to crack (I promise I did nothing to help this along - it did it all on its own). The dentist thought I may need a root canal, but we did just a crown instead. Oh, and a crown lengthening, too. I just went and looked that term up on the internet - sometimes too much information is not good before the procedure. I'm glad I didn't know exactly what they were up to in there. I was at the dentist's office 5 hours yesterday.

Even with dental insurance, I'm now much, much poorer.

Per the dentist I may still need the root canal later on - we're waiting to see if the tooth settles down. Maybe I'll sing it lullabys every night.

Rock-a-bye toothie, in the sore gum,
When the Tylenol blows , the toothie will hum
When the crown breaks, the toothie will fall
and out will come toothie, money and all.

Guess it's a good thing that I've got plenty of stash - the yarn/fiber budget just went down the tubes.

And now for knitting news:

The red Mom socks are done!

Yarn: Lang Jawoll sock yarn (and I never did use that reinforcing yarn they provided)

Color: Bright red (sorry I don't have the number handy)

Needles: Size 2.25mm Brittany Birch double points

Pattern: Kind of my own thing, although I think I got the idea for the leg pattern from a Knitting Vintage Socks pattern - it looks familiar anyway.

And now on to sis-in-law #1's socks. I promised both of the sis-in-laws socks, since they saw the pair I made my father-in-law. (I think it was the way they pleaded that did it.)

This is Socks that Rock in medium weight Nodding Violet. I'm using 2.75mm size 2 Brittany birch dpns and my own pattern.

Know your priorities

2007-03-22T17:33:00.000-05:00

I need new clothes. I need new shoes. The house always needs new stuff. The cat probably needs something new, too.

What do I order?

A new spinning wheel. A Lendrum double-treadle. New in the box.

See - my priorities are all in the right place.

Anybody need a very slightly used Hitchhiker wheel?

Those links are not where I got these by the way. I bought my Hitchhiker direct from the guy that makes them and the Lendrum is coming from an eBay vendor.

My only excuse/reason is that I've been looking at the Lendrums for over a year and this is a heck of a deal. Ok - lame justification is over - I just really, really wanted it.

Toe transplants

2007-03-19T16:05:00.000-05:00

After all the comments last week, I thought I'd try re-knitting my holey toes rather than darning them. You'll notice this isn't the pair I was showing off - thought I'd start with some that were in even worse shape. (Also a pair that I wouldn't cry about too much if I really screwed it up.)

Step 1: Find a row and thread a set of smaller dps through each stitch. Having a striped yarn made that a lot easier. These were originally knit with a 2.75mm needle - I'm using 2.25mms for the repair.

Step 2: Cut into the top of the sock and attempt to find an end.
Step 2a: Cut some more.
Step 2b: Cut some more. Realize that the yarn is fulled so badly that it'll never unravel from it's present state.
Step 2c: Keep cutting 'til I'm one row away from the needles. Slowly pick away at what's left until I've got a set of live stitches on the needles.

Step 3: Knit a few plain rows until I've got a good base. (I did a fold splice with the old and new yarns so I wouldn't have to worry about working in ends.)
Step four: Do my standard decreases until I've got it back where it belongs. Compare with old toe to make sure I've got the right length.
Step 5: Graft the toe.

Repeat steps 1 through 5 (omitting steps 2, 2a, and 2b) on the other sock.

Step 6: Give the leftover toe to Emy - it has provided endless amusement.

I hesitate to try this on my cable and rib socks. These socks were slightly fulled and miserable to disassemble. The cable and rib socks are heavily fulled (even though they were supposedly 'superwash') and I'm not certain I'll even be able to accomplish Step 1. We'll see what I feel up to doing later....

I suspect I will be performing toe replacement surgery on several other pair. I'm apparently really hard on my toes.

Thanks for all the good suggestions!

Spring

2007-03-19T14:25:00.000-05:00

Flowers on the local nature trail - only the true adventurers (or rude local teens) apparently try to take this trail. The trail starts at a park and immediately plunges under the pylons of a local road. The graffiti, trash and generally menacing atmosphere do not impress. If you persevere and continue on, there is a nice unpaved trail that runs through the woods and along a creek.

My hubby and I keep promising ourselves that we'll take trash bags next time and try to pick up some of the beer cans and bottles, cigarette packages and general trash next time we go.

A close-up of a hollow tree on the same nature trail - it's still leafing up, even though a gnome could take up residence inside. Yes, the hole goes all the way through.

A volunteer vine in the back yard. It doesn't do much but does spit out a few flowers in the spring.
A jasmine vine in the backyard - we planted it years ago but thought it had died. It came back and vined madly, but has only this year decided to bloom. This is the side over the fence - on the other side, it's covered in blooms. The yellow is so intense that my camera doesn't seem to handle it well.

Broken mosaic - I painstakingly laid this 5 or 6 years ago (my one and only mosaic project). A few rains and hard freezes later and the whole thing is just lying there - it has popped up from the concrete base. Might as well just leave it until it crumbles - I don't see myself trying to repair it.

The ubiquitous Carolina jasmine. A 'must have' in many local gardens. Covered in blooms in the spring and a darn nuisance the rest of the time.

Some people have garden gnomes - I have a garden gargoyle. He guards the garden for me, although I made the mistake of having him on a tree at first. The squirrels were chewing on him (how rude!) so he got moved to the back wall. I brought him back from a visit to the UK.

Wait a minute! I've got garden gnomes, too! Almost forgot about them... I'll try to get of picture of them later.

Soliloquy

2007-03-15T08:59:00.000-05:00

To darn or not to darn--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the holes and tatters of the present condition
or to take needle in hand and fix the darn things.
(with apologies to Mr. Shakespeare and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark)

If I'm going to darn them, should I wait 'til there are actual holes, or should I do it now while there's still some yarn left holding them together. A little duplicate stitch in the weak areas now might save them for quite a while.

I know the traditional method of darning socks - as often quoted on the 'net:

Carefully hold the offending sock over the trash bin and exclaim 'Darn it!' as you let it drop.

Each pair of socks represents several weeks of my precious 'spare' time and 24,000-26,000 stitches. They get abused - I wear them, then machine-wash and -dry them every week. I have this unreasoning belief that they should last forever and don't seem to understand that they should show signs of wear after 50 or so weeks.

This pair is one of my favorites - my cable & rib socks finished almost exactly a year ago. They're in slightly better shape than some of the others.

I think it's time to do something about them before my toes explode through. Being the person I am, I still have the left-over yarn from these and every other pair I've ever knit. So at least my darning will be with the original yarn.

And look! I've finished Mom's first sock and have started charging down the leg of sock #2! Mother's a lot more careful with the socks I've made her than I am with the ones I've made for myself. She shouldn't need any darning for a long time....

I need a life

2007-03-05T15:40:00.000-06:00

As I was sitting here taking pictures of my feet I realized two things:
1. I'm really glad I have an office door with a lock - I can't imagine trying to explain why I'm taking pictures of my feet to the CFO or the President.
2. I need to get out more, as this is the highlight of my day.

Mom's sock #1 is to the heel. Yes, I remembered to use the carry-along reinforcing thread that Lang Jawoll provides. No, I didn't like it and took it out. I use the traditional slipped-stitch heel and the extra bulk just wasn't working. I'll try it again with the toe (where I get most of my wear).

A rare photo of the species Felinus Emy in its natural habitat. Please ignore the dust. We just leave that around to make Emy more comfortable (yea, right). See the Monarch picture behind her? That did not receive an award at the local photo contest. Neither did the two butterfly photos my husband entered. We've decided the contest is rigged. We'll probably enter again next year as part of an undercover sting operation to find out how far the rot goes. (hee, hee)

Mom got to go home from the hospital on her birthday. Way to go, Mom! She has spent the last few days resting (much better than was possible at the hospital) and will start rehab this week. Dad's relieved to have her home and Mom's relieved to be there. And Otis, their Jack Russell terrier, will be even more relieved to be released from the local prison (otherwise known as the vet) today. Thanks again for all the kind thoughts, wishes and prayers everyone!

Now go knit a square for Rebekah! I've had too many distractions this time around, but I'll hopefully join in the next time. Sounds like she's going to have enough for a nice big blanket.

Home is where the heart is

2007-02-28T17:13:00.000-06:00

Soppy, but true. Home is where Mom and her heart would like to be right now. After over 2 weeks in the hospital, she's getting right tired of the whole thing. So is Dad. He has been staying at the hospital every night, except for the one time this weekend when I spelled him.

She got a pacemaker today - a fashion accessory for the new valves and arteries she got for Valentine's Day. Think of it as an early birthday present. Her birthday is tomorrow.

I'm making her a pair of bright red socks as a coming home/birthday present, although I'm hoping that she'll be home long before the socks are finished. (Pictures coming when I actually feel like taking the camera and the knitting out of the bag.)

I really like the yarn, Lang Jawoll. It's softer than the Regia I usually use and comes with a nifty little spool of reinforcing yarn for the heels and toes. Let's see if I actually remember to use the reinforcing yarn when I get that far. And, as I mentioned above, it's in a nice bright red.

More knitting content when my life slows down...

I'm a sucker for a good quiz

2007-02-22T11:29:00.000-06:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The South
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Interesting thing - I took this quiz twice (because I accidently deleted the code the first time). The first time I came up with The Midland. I must have answered a question differently the second time around. I moved around a lot (Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Texas) when I was a kid, so that probably influences my accent.

Mom is in a regular room right now and slooowly recovering. No one is saying how long she'll need to be in the hospital (which translates to probably quite awhile). I told her she's getting lots of well-wishing from my on-line friends - she says thanks!

Little bits of knitting are still getting done:

Tiny progress on qiviuq scarf #2...

Down to the toe of stockinette sock #2...

A so-so picture of completed qiviuq scarf #1...

Qiviut, quiviut, qiviuq, quiviuq? I've seen it spelled all of these ways...

Qiviuq is the preferred name from Folknits (where I purchased the yarn and pattern). Qiviut is the name used by the Oomingmak co-op. I'm not sure if it is a regional difference or a branding/registration/copyright difference. It all comes from the same source - the downy undercoat of the musk ox that has to be hand-plucked or combed from the animal.

The claims I've heard - Qiviuq is as soft as cashmere and 8 times warmer than wool (can't remember where I read that). As I've had recent experience with cashmere, qiviuq and wool, I'd say it's close to that claim. The fingering weight cashmere I used on those Christmas scarves for Mom and Mom-in-Law was a tad softer. As I was knitting with the qiviuq and letting the scarf rest on my leg, I noticed a definite warm spot. Since it was a very airy lace-weight knit that was quite a lot of warmth for very little weight.

2007-02-19T11:20:00.000-06:00

Mother is still in ICU. Well, let me rephrase that. She's back in ICU.

If you've dealt with major medical issues, you'll be familiar with that kind of thing. She went from ICU to a room; started having trouble breathing; went to the pulmonary ICU; went back to the cardiac ICU. Oh, well. Considering everything, she's not doing too badly.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers - they're much appreciated.

The best knitting for hospitals? Something that can be put down quickly without getting pulled off the needles or hopelessly lost on the pattern. I managed two repeats of quiviuq scarf #2 during her surgery, but have only been able to work on my stockinette socks since. Thank goodness for stockinette socks! Thank goodness for audio books on CDs, also! I've been listening to Agatha Christie's Towards Zero during my sojourns in the ICU waiting room.

I did manage to finish Quiviuq scarf #1 before surgery, but didn't block it until last night. It's always amazing to see the pattern open up when you block lace. I'll try to take an unpinned photo tonight. (Those are blocking wires running through the convenient columns of yarnovers.)

Happy Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T08:48:00.000-06:00

Mom got her Valentine's gift yesterday - after 6 hours of surgery she's got two new heart valves and a double bypass. She's still in ICU but may be moved to the cardiac floor later today.

Happy Valentine's Day, Mom and Dad!

Happy Valentine's Day, Sweetheart! I love you.

This and that

2007-02-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

I almost panicked this morning. I was going to take pictures of my knitting projects last night, but went to bed early and told myself I could do it in the morning before I left for work. Got to work and realized that I hadn't taken pictures. Bummer...

What a minute! Two of the three projects I'm working on are in my knitting bag! So is my camera! (It's been a long week and my brain is rather foggy.)

Still chugging away on my stockinette socks. Only working on these during lunch, waiting in line, etc. I'm to the point where I just want to be done so I can move on.

Quiviuq scarf #1 - I've finished 20 of the 25 repeats. Got through part of another repeat and realized I was totally messing up the zigzag patterns on the borders. I'm going to have to rip back about 6 rows. Yuck! I may have it finished up this weekend so I can start on Quiviuq Scarf #2.
I even spent some time on my marriage gansey this week! I've got another 12 rows done on the body. That was all I could manage, since my hands start hurting after a while.

Lots of people are knitting from stash this year. I'm not going out of my way to do that, but I am going to try to finish up some works-in-progress that have been hanging around. The Marriage Gansey is one of those. It is a physically strenuous knit for me - tight gauge, small needles, tightly spun yarn. And why did I have to include all those tight little cables?

Circumnavigated Cardigan buttons - for those who asked. I didn't want to take it off (it's cold this morning) so the picture is a bit blurry. I got to show it off at the guild meeting Tuesday night. Looks like I'm the first to finish. Told everyone the yarn was from the estate sale of the guild member who used to teach this sweater. They thought that that was incredibly appropriate.

The Dewey Knit initial meeting was a resounding success. I don't think they were expecting near as many people and talked about getting a bigger meeting room for next month. Thank goodness, since I was getting a bit claustrophobic. About seventy people crowded in there - I was glad to see a few men, even one teenage boy knitting away. All ages, all levels of expertise. Should be interesting.

De-stashed! I gathered up a bunch of yarn the other day and gave it away. Acrylic that I'll never use, left-over skeins from finished projects, bits and pieces, even a whole group of skeins from a crochet afghan project from the 80's. It was rather surprising to see to how much there was. My lys is gathering up yarn for the women's prison. The prisoners will be using the yarn to make shawls that will be auctioned off and the proceeds will benefit a battered women's charity.

It's still winter

Brigid, poetry, and a new knitting club

2007-02-02T16:16:00.000-06:00

In honor of Brigid's Feast and the silent poetry reading I present a really bad limerick - proof that I need to keep my day job.

Second Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading
WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2007
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day

There once was a knitter from Dallas
Who wished that she lived in a palace
Upon finding no yarn
“I’d rather live in a barn!
And knit up the wool ‘til I callus”

Yes, I admit I wrote that one myself. (See? I told you I need to keep my day job.)

On the knitting front - I didn't find good wooden buttons of a size to fit my fairly small buttonholes, but found perfectly matching standard buttons (I'm assuming plastic) that are working great. They disappear into the tweedy yarn on the button band and become virtually invisible. I've worn this cardigan for the last 3 days and am enjoying the soft, warm, fuzziness of it.

My local library is sprouting a knitting club - Dewey knit! (Cute isn't it?) The inaugural meeting is tomorrow afternoon from 2 - 3:30pm. I'll probably go and check it out. Always need another excuse to sit and knit for a while with like-minded people. I've already met one of the organizers, since I do all my studying at the library. She always wanders over and checks out my knitting - I sometimes knit and read management books at the same time.

Hope you all have a great weekend - stay warm!

I've Circumnavigated my Cardigan!

2007-01-31T14:01:00.000-06:00

Pattern: Circumnavigated Cardigan by Medrith Glover

Yarn: Body - Estate sale homespun - wool & mohair? / Trim - uhmmm, I'll have to look it up

Needles: various Addi Naturas, Brittany dpns, Crystal Palace dpns

Size 8 for the body and size 4 for the edging

Changes to pattern? Nothing really, although I did the optional shawl collar

All I need now are 9 small buttons - I'm thinking wood would be appropriate. As fast as this thing is developing a nice fuzzy halo, I'm figuring there's got to be mohair or something similar in the mix. And I love the subtle natural variegation of colors. I finished the last sleeve last night, wove in the ends (not many) and I'm wearing this sucker today. Wonderfully soft and warm.

Now that the obsession is over, I can concentrate on other things...........

Fickle

2007-01-25T17:14:00.000-06:00

After waxing poetic about my Circumnavigated Cardigan last week, I proceeded to ignore it for several days - talk about fickle! Instead, I sweated, ripped, and swore my way into the first of two matching quiviuq scarves. Why is it that I can never get a lace pattern right the first time? It's got a 12-row repeat that isn't all that hard - there's only 38 stitches, for goodness sake! I frogged this thing at least four or five times.

I finally got my head into the right 'working-on-lace' place and have been having a ball with it.

I did finally feel guilty about abandoning the cardigan and finished up the first sleeve yesterday, while sitting slug-like on the couch watching movies.

And look at this! Remember that order of J&S that never came? The order I submitted back in September? I got a very apologetic email last week - and a very fast delivery with a discount. I'm tickled to get it even though I had already ordered some of the same colors directly from Jamieson and Smith. There's one skein of Jamieson in there too - a replacement for the discontinued J&S #55. When I finally emerge from my work-induced haze and swatch, I'll be very happy to have all this.

I also finally remembered to send off that scarf I made for Orphan.org. They need them in by the end of the month so they can send them out for Valentine's Day.

So, besides being sick most of this week and getting even further behind at work, it's not been too bad. I'm waiting on a STR order, though... the yarn for my 2 sis-in-laws' socks (and one for me). I probably one of the few sock knitters left in the world that hasn't yet tried Socks That Rock yarn.

Paper

2007-01-18T17:01:00.000-06:00

That's the traditional first anniversary gift. So do I send a ten dollar bill to Blogger or something? Or maybe some nice stationery?

This is the first anniversary of my blog - it's also my 150th post. Not that I have much to say today.... it's kind of a blah day here. Rainy and yucky, but not freezing, thank goodness. Oh well, if it's nasty weather out this weekend, maybe I'll at least get a lot of knitting done.

I'm in the mood for stew, thanks to Rebekah's entry 'why knitting is like stew' so I'll probably go to the store later on and grab the ingredients for Brunswick stew. (I make mine with chicken, not squirrel, the traditional meat for this stew.) Her entry also gives me justification (at least in my own mind) for keeping lots of projects going at once.

And I might as well do this meme from her blog, too:

The Page 123 Meme
1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
3. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Include the title and the author's name.

"He said it so often that I began to smell a rat.
You and Knighton would make a very nice pair, Katherine.
Bless you, my children!"

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie

It's looking sweaterly

2007-01-17T09:59:00.000-06:00

You know how hard it is to stop eating peanuts (popcorn, potato chips, -insert favorite snack food here-)? That's how this cardigan is affecting me. It's simple stockinette, which would normally have me bored pretty quickly, but this has so many little things going on that it's really keeping my interest.

See the shawl collar? (This collar treatment is optional, by the way. The 'standard' collar is just a continuation of the button band.) It's got a clever little trick to make it lie down correctly and is done with a series of short rows. Who knew that garter stitch could be fun?

The sleeve - normally something I dread - is keeping my interest too. It's knit down from the body (always nice) and has a nice little underarm gusset decrease thing going on.

I'm not even pretending that I'm going to work on anything else 'til this is done. So there.
(Well, I'm still working on my stockinette sock #2, but I'm not even off the ribbing for it .... so it hardly counts.)

I see now why some of the guild members are working on their 3rd or 4th cardigan from this pattern.

Look at those needles getting chomped! And that's after I chased her away three times. Bad Emy!

Oh, look... a sock

2007-01-11T12:48:00.000-06:00

I know. How terribly exciting. But, I did manage to correctly graft the toe of this thing while watching the President's speech last night. I consider that either a tribute to my powers of concentration or something about the speaker (I'm not saying which).

Sorry about the slightly blurry picture - I'm too lazy to take another one right now.

Holly Jo wanted to know where to get the pattern for the Circumnavigated Cardigan. I got it from the guild, which (I think) got it directly from the designer, Medrith Glover. That's a link to her price list from the ample-knitters.com website. It's got her address and email on it (I think it's still current).

I've made a little bit more progress on it but not enough for a picture.

Welcome to 2007

2007-01-07T09:48:00.000-06:00

I was going to list all the stuff I knit last year and all the stuff I wanted to knit this year. I even had a post saved in draft. Forget it.

I knit in 2006.... a lot. (I think that's enough of that)

And this is what I'm working on now:

The Circumnavigated Cardigan. Remember how I claimed I was going to knit it along with the guild and not get ahead of the game? Right. Like that was going to happen. I'm nearing the top of the shoulders now.

This is one of those patterns that you need to read carefully and do exactly as written. Trust the pattern, it will get you there just as promised. I was tickled to hear that Medrith Glover will be at our May meeting so she can see a whole guild-full of her cardigans.

See the top of the pocket here? That's where I should have been by now. I'm afraid I got excited about fusing pockets and just continued on.

A plain stockinette sock. I don't think I've done one of these since my first disastrous Red Cross socks. It makes for very soothing knitting. That's Regia sock yarn and my favorite size 1 1/2 Brittany Birch dpns.

And my Christmas present from my husband. He suggested Quiviuq yarn since he knew I'd wanted it for quite a while. I was going to order one skein, but he didn't think that was enough! Isn't he a sweetie! Two whole skeins of Quiviuq yarn and a scarf pattern fromFolknits! These will make matching scarves for my husband and I.

Well, that's about all for now. Since it is year end and I'm an accountant, I'm going to be pretty busy from now until after our audit in March or April. If I'm not posting very frequently, that's why. I'm still reading lots of blogs on a regular basis, but have been pretty horrible about commenting..... I'll try to get better about that, but am making no promises right now. So Hi! to all my friends out there. Hope you're having a great new year.

6 Weird Things About Me

2006-12-27T16:23:00.000-06:00

I've been tagged!

Of course, nothing about me seems weird to me, since it's me. Let's see what I can come up with that might seem weird to someone else.....

1. Most of the time I sleep sitting up. From years of allergies and asthma, I have a hard time breathing when lying flat.

2. I'm terrified of going to the dentist. I realize that lots of people are scared of dentist visits, but my blood pressure has gone so high (it's normally very low) that they've had to wait 45 minutes before working on me.

3. I walk around with a book in hand all the time; even if I know I won't have time to read it. (Just think of Linus and his blue blanket.)

4. I have to read before I go to sleep. Sometimes it's only a few minutes, but I need to switch off before trying to sleep and this is the only way.

5. I considered the cheesy sci-fi tv show Lost in Space scary when I was young.

6. You know how some kids want to be teachers or firemen when they grow up? I wanted to be a nun. Mom told me that Methodists don't have nuns.... (I totally blame movies like The Trouble with Angels and The Singing Nun and tv shows like The Flying Nun.) Since I couldn't be a nun, I wanted to be an Air Force pilot. Then I found out that you couldn't wear glasses and be an Air Force pilot. So I'm an accountant instead?

I'm not tagging anyone (just because).

50 years ago today...

2006-12-23T22:18:00.000-06:00

Roy came up from South Texas and Suzanne came down from Oklahoma. They met up in Dallas - after all that was half-way. Besides, they both had family in the area - aunts and uncles.

Other people assembled; a brother, sisters, parents.

Suzanne was demure in a brocade suit; Roy was a long, lean Texan with dark curly hair.

A wedding happened.

Happy Golden Anniversary, Mother and Daddy!

By the way Mother, I love that you still have that ruffled polka-dot sun suit that Daddy admired you in....

Holiday Greetings!

2006-12-22T15:56:00.000-06:00

In case you couldn't tell from my last two posts, I've finished my holiday knitting with time to spare. Hope you all have a great Christmas (or any other mid-winter holiday you might celebrate). If you're not celebrating anything, then I hope you have a nice weekend.

Wide-Ribbed Socks

2006-12-22T13:49:00.000-06:00

A sock with traditional top-down construction and a heel-flap and gusset.
This sock is designed for a man's medium or woman's large size. A finer yarn or tighter gauge will result in a smaller sock.

Yarn: Fortissima Cotton Socka 100 gram skein
Needles: US size 1 1/2 (2.5 mm) dpns
Gauge: 8 sts/inch, 10 rounds/inch over stockinette

Cast on 72 stitches loosely. I use a knitted cast-on; any stretchy cast-on is fine.
Arrange stitches evenly over 3 or 4 dpns and join (making sure not to twist your work!)

Cuff:
Rounds 1-20: (K2, P2) to the end of the round. Cuff should be approximately 1 3/4 inches long.

Leg:
Round 21: Knit Rounds 22-78 : (K5, P1) to the end of the round (ending on a purl stitch). From the top of the cuff to the bottom of the leg is approximately 7 inches long.

Heel flap: The heel flap is knit back and forth. (The 37 instep stitches are held on 1 or 2 needles and not knitted until after the gusset)

Starting with the first knit stitch of your pattern, knit 35 stitches and turn.
(Slp1, P1) repeat across until last stitch, p1 and turn.
Slp1, knit across and turn.
Repeat the last two rows until you have 19 chain stitches on the edge of your heel flap.
End ready to start a knit row.

Turning the heel: (aka short rows)
Slp1, K19, Slp1, k1, psso, k1, turn
Slp1, P6, P2tog, P1, turn Slp1, K until 1 before the gap, Slp1, K1, PSSO, K1, turn
Slp 1, P until 1 before the gap, P2tog, P1, turn
Continue this pattern until you've purled across to the opposite side. There will be 21 stitches on the heel needle.
Knit across.
Pick up 20 stitches along the right hand side of the heel flap. (I usually pick up through both loops of the stitch)
Knit in pattern P1, (K5, P1) across the instep stitches.
Pick up 20 stitches along the left hand side of the heel flap and 10 of the heel stitches.

Gusset: The beginning of the round is the middle of the heel
Round 1: Knit the remaining 11 stitches on the heel and the 20 picked up stitches (needle 1). Continue knitting the pattern stitches across the instep (needles 2 & 3) and knit the second set of heel stitches (needle 4).
Round 2: Knit to the last three stitches on needle 1, k2tog, k1. Knit in pattern on instep needle(s). K1, Slp1, K1, PSSO, knit remaining stitches.
Repeat rounds 1 & 2 until there are 31 stitches on the heel needles. (68 stitches total)

Foot: Continue knitting each round, keeping in pattern on the instep stitches, until length from back of heel to needles is 7 inches (or 2 1/4 inches short of the overall desired length of your sock). Move 2 stitches on each side of your instep from the instep needles to the heel/sole needles.

Toe:
Round 1: Needle #1 Knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1. Needle #2, Knit across. Needle #3 Knit across. Needle #4: K1, Sl1, PSSO, K across.
Rounds 2&3: Knit
Round 4: Needle #1 Knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1. Needle #2, K1, Sl 1, PSSO, K across. Needle #3 Knit to last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1. Needle #4: K1, Sl1, PSSO, K across.
Rounds 5&6: Knit
Repeat round 4-6 one more time.
Repeat round 4-5 until you have 11 stitches left on your instep needles and 11 stitches on your sole needles.
Knit needle #1s stitches onto needle #4 and arrange your instep stitches onto one needle.

Kitchener (graft) the toe closed.

Repeat for next sock!

Need instructions for grafting a toe? Go here. That's part of a really good online demo of sock-making called Socks 101.

Any questions? Leave a comment (and your email address-seen only by me) and I'll try to clarify.

Cat's Paw Scarf

2006-12-21T10:55:00.003-06:00

Another traditional Shetland lace pattern with many variations. Wendy recently used this pattern for her Lucy socks and charted several of the variations, in case you would prefer a different version. I added a simple seed stitch edge border to keep the stockinette from rolling.

Yarn: Jojoland Cashmere 2-ply fingering weight, 400 yd, 2 oz skein in color C255 (baby blue)
Needles: US 4, 3.5 mm (I used Clover bamboo straights)
Blocked dimensions: approximately 43" length, 8" width

Cast on loosely 61 stitches

(The first stitch of each row is slipped for a nice chained edge, but that's a matter of personal preference. Slip purlwise on garter stitch rows, knitwise on the seed stitch borders.)

Set up: Knit 4 rows

Row 1: Sl1, K1, P1, K1, P1, (K3, K2tog, YO, K1, YO, K2tbl, K9) three times, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 2 and all even rows: Sl1, K1, P1, K1, P across to the last four stitchs, K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 3: Sl1, K1, P1, K1, P1, (K2, K2tog, YO, K3, YO, K2tbl, K8) three times, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 5: Sl1, K1, P1, K1, P1, (K3, K2tbl, YO, K1, YO, K2tog, K9) three times, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 7: Sl1, K1, P1, K1, P1, (K9, K2tog, YO, K1, YO, K2tbl, K3) three times, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 9: Sl1, K1, P1, K1, P1, (K8, K2tog, YO, K3, YO, K2tbl, K2) three times, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 11: Sl1, K1, P1, K1, P1, (K9, K2tbl, YO, K1, YO, K2tog, K3) three times, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 12: Repeat row 2

Repeat Rows 1-12 until the scarf is approximately 41" long (or you've got about 4 yards of yarn left). Finish on either row 6 or row 12.

End: Knit 4 rows
Cast off loosely.

Block to open up the lace pattern (and keep it from curling).

If anyone wants the chart to go with the written instructions, leave me a comment and I'll email it to you - my charts don't translate well onto the blog. (Edited 9/17/09 - The chart is now at the top of this post. Click on it to make it bigger. I apologize to those who requested the chart and I never got back to you. I lost the darn thing and only just now found it again.)

A big box

2006-12-12T11:50:00.000-06:00

is going to Parkland Hospital. We've got itty-bitty sweaters, hats and blankies. We've also got baby & adult size fleece lap blankets (the baby ones we made ourselves).

Many thanks to my knitting group (which is down to 2 dedicated knitters besides me).

The comments I get when I talk about swatching are always hilarious. My favorite one from Friday's entry is from Marina "Unlike Brigitte, I believe in swatching ... ~41 inch circumference x 4 inches. Any bigger and it's a garment ;-)" Glad to hear that you make such a nice big swatch, Marina. You can really be sure of your gauge that way, right? (giggles)

After all my enthusiasm, did I actually swatch this weekend? Ummm.... no. I'm so wishy, not to mention washy about all this. I'll get around to it after I finish my Cat's Paw scarf and the Wide-Ribbed socks. I am actually writing down the sock pattern this time and typing it in draft form into Blogger as I go. Cat's Paw will get written up and posted, too.

Pattern-writing is a really good exercise. It forces me to think about every part of the process. It's easy to leave out a really important bit of information just because I do some things automatically. Hopefully, if anyone ever tries one of my patterns, they'll let me know if any improvements or corrections need to be made.

Still-life with Sock

2006-12-08T17:07:00.000-06:00

Thrilling title, no?

More of the same yarn I used for the Gentleman's Fancy Sock. A simple 5x1 rib top-down, with the heel-flap and gusset. I may actually write this one down and add it to my free patterns. If nothing else, that way I won't lose the pattern when I'm getting ready to do Sock #2.

This one is going fairly quickly, but that means I haven't been working on the Cat's Paw the last few days.

Seredipity! I've been struggling with the all-over background pattern for my Pictish Fair Isle. Just couldn't quite get what I wanted. A co-worker left some Christmas stocking patterns on my desk this afternoon and I was casually looking them over.

All the sudden, the pattern on the cuff of one of the stockings caught my attention. That's what I've been trying for! There's a chart and everything!

Now let's see if it actually works...... swatch, anyone?

Guild

2006-12-06T08:35:00.000-06:00

Reasons to belong to a local knitting guild (in no particular order):

1. Hanging out with really neat people that share your obsession

2. Discussing the merits of knitting two together through the back loops rather than slip slip knit (I really had this conversation last night - turns out, I prefer k2tog tbl and she prefers ssk)

3. Showing off your handknits to people that really understand the effort it took to make them

4. Learning new techniques

5. Impromptu reviews of yarns, patterns, and yarn stores from your table-mates

6. Sharing patterns for baby booties and hats

7. Getting to meet knitwear designers like Beth Brown-Reinsel and Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer

Beth (author of Knitting Ganseys - in it's ninth printing!) was at our guild last night and showed slides and examples of twined knitting, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish sweaters, Estonian sweaters, mittens and socks and other marvels. She's going to be coming out with a new book on knitting Scandinavian sweaters and some of the sweaters that will be in the book were there. If you like stranded knitting you may want to take a look at this book when it comes out.

I purchased her Compass Rose Sanquhar Glove pattern (towards the bottom of the page on that link) and she signed it for me!

Can you tell I had a good time last night?

More bits and pieces

2006-12-04T13:10:00.000-06:00

I very carefully wrote down everything I did for Sock #1. I know I did. It's on a piece of nice, thick notebook paper with all the little dangling bits on the edge that you get from ripping a page out.

How many stitches cast on, how many rounds for the cuff, how many stitches reserved for the heel, how many stitches for the short rows of the heel, how many stitches for the kitchener toe. I was very thorough.

I was also very forgetful and don't remember where I put the darn piece of paper!

Everything in the knitting bag got dumped out and pawed through. Everything in the other knitting bag was also dumped out and pawed through. I would have gone through knitting bags 3 and 4 if I wasn't positive I hadn't been in them for several months.

The laptop bag was disassembled. The various knitting books were opened and shakened upside down. The miscellaneous stacks of paper were dissected and discarded.

I looked everywhere and I can't find the bleeping piece of paper so I can finish Sock #2.

...............................

So I finished it anyway.

This meant looking at Sock #1 very, very closely and re-counting everything at least twice. It took three tries to get the heel turn to look right.

Pattern: based on Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Fancy Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Fortissima Cotton Socka in color 6610 (blue/black marl)
Needles: Brittany Birch US Size 1 1/2 (2.5 mm)

I'm saying it's based on Nancy Bush's pattern since I changed darn near everything (another reason why I wrote everything down). Thicker yarn meant a change in needle size and a change in number of stitches cast on. I didn't bother with the leg shaping, used a different heel, stopped the pattern after the gusset and don't even know if I'm using the same toe (I stopped reading the pattern long before that).

For all that, I'm really happy with how they turned out.

And I'm half-way through the Cat's Paw scarf!

Stolen time:

I'm taking a 10-month management course that's sponsored and taught by my company. Once a week I listen to the HR director talk about the course material as it applies to our company and watch his online presentation from the privacy of my office. There's a test after each of the three books and so far I've passed book #1 - yay!

Of course, I also use this opportunity to knit! He's aware that I'm doing this, by the way. He doesn't mind - I'm paying attention and contributing to the group discussion. I always study the chapter ahead of time, too.

All this means that I get an extra uninterrupted hour or two a week to sit and knit at work. How great is that? I almost feel guilty!

Weekend recap - a little late

2006-11-29T16:16:00.000-06:00

Dang! I'm way behind on blogging....and commenting....and responding to comments. Oh well, time to catch up.

Thanksgiving was great - Mom and Dad came over, the food turned out good (and healthy), the house has remained clean for a whole week, and I had lost weight when I weighed in on the Friday after Thanksgiving. A success all round.

Knitting happened during the long weekend.

The Marriage Gansey was treated to about twelve rounds..... do you think it means something when your sweater can stand up by itself? Drape-y is obviously not the word you use to describe this. (Looks kind of like a corset in this shot, doesn't it?)

Don't worry, it's supposed to be like that - traditional fisher ganseys are very firmly knit. I'm probably not even approaching the really close gauge stuff they did in the past. I did manage to bend my Addi Turbos though...didn't know I had it in me. Managed to straighten them out sufficiently, so things are still going ok.

I must really like cables - I designed a heck of a lot of them into this gansey (as I'm reminded every fourth round). Cabling without a cable needle is definitely a good thing.

Swatching finally started to happen, too! I'm not real happy with this one yet - but it will be a design in progress for some time to come. This is the background for the Pictish Fair Isle. It'll probably change substantially before I settle on a final form.

And of course, frenzied gift knitting is still happening....

I'm almost to the heel of sock #2!

And I'm about a third of the way through on the Cat's Paw lace scarf!

Of course, there's still the Circumnavigate Cardigan waiting in the wings. Fortunately, I've got until our first meeting in January to get to the top of the pockets. Definitely do-able once I've finished my Christmas knitting.

Being Thankful

2006-11-22T11:07:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful for lots of things this year.....

A loving husband
Good health for both of us (ignoring all the usual niggling things - there are no big health issues)
Good jobs (regardless of how much we may complain about them sometimes)
Family - our parents, siblings, a niece and nephew
A nice house in a good neighborhood
Enough money to buy the things we need and some of the things we want
Friends and co-workers
Pets
The ability to make beautiful and useful things
The ability to make music

I'm grateful for these things all the time but it doesn't hurt to remind myself once in awhile.

Fall Cleaning

2006-11-20T11:53:00.000-06:00

I gave myself an instant cold this weekend (at least it felt like it) - I moved dust that had been living in my house for ages.... I sneezed, the DH sneezed, the cat sneezed, even the birds (champion producers of dander) sneezed.

Some people spring clean - I fall clean. I have this irresistable urge to dust, mop, vacuum, and throw away as soon as the weather cools down. I must do it when the urge hits me, because it goes away soon and doesn't return for another year.

So not much knitting going on this last weekend. I didn't even start swatching the Pictish Fair Isle!

I did at least plan my holiday dinner (shock! I'm actually cooking this year!). Mom and Dad are coming over (they get to see the temporarily clean house!). And since all of us have to be careful of what we eat, I've put together the healthiest menu I can manage...

Skinless turkey breast with apricot/rice stuffing (I've made this before, it's yummy)
Cranberry sauce made with Splenda
Mashed potatoes (no salt, no butter, skim milk)
Steamed broccoli and carrots
French-style green beans (no salt)
Baked parsnips (my husband's request)
Pillsbury crescent rolls (did you know they make a reduced-fat version?)
Margarine (the cholesterol-reducing kind)
Crustless lo-cal pumpkin pie (Dad's making that)

And then I get to weigh in at Weight-Watchers the next day. Nothing like giving myself incentive to be good!

I lied - some knitting did happen

Dad - Don't Look!

...and don't let Mom look either!

Happiness is...

2006-11-15T09:17:00.000-06:00

...getting my Jamieson & Smith order! That means I can start swatching...and that means I need to make up my mind on part of my design. I've had the large figural part done for ages, but keep changing my mind on the vertical motifs.

Looks like they didn't have any color 125 done up in the 25 gram balls - I've got a 100 gram hank there that I'll need to wind up.

Even with a color card, it's hard to tell exactly what you're going to get. Should be interesting to see how all these colors are going to work together. (The reds are the background, by the way.)

Happiness is...watching Emy try to scratch her chin with a back paw, while balancing on the other three legs. It would be a lot easier if you'd sit down, Emy!

Old Shale Lace Scarf

2006-11-14T16:21:00.000-06:00

Old Shale is a traditional Shetland lace pattern and has lots of variations. I've made this version, framed in seed stitch, in cashmere for my mother-in-law. Being in garter stitch, it looks nice on either side.

Materials:
Yarn: 100% cashmere 2 ply fingering/lace weight - 400 yards (I used Jojoland cashmere in color C255)
Needles: US size 4 (3.5mm) (I used Clover bamboo straights)
Darning needle
Rust-proof pins (and blocking wires if you've got them)

The Set Up:
Cast on loosely 64 stitches. (I use a knitted-on cast-on - any stretchy cast-on will work)
Knit 3 rows (garter stitch), slipping the first stitch of every row purlwise.

The Pattern:
Row 1 - Sl1, k1, p1, k1, p1, {(K2tog) 3 times, (YO, k1) 6 times, (K2tog) 3 times} repeat 3 times, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Row 2-4 - Sl1, k1, p1, k1, p1, knit across to last 5 stitches, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1.

Repeat rows 1-4 until you've got about 4 yards of yarn left, ending on row 1.
Knit 3 rows of garter stitch, slipping the first stitch of every row purlwise.
Cast off loosely.
Block. (I used blocking wires for the long edges and pins for the fans on the ends)
Weave in ends.

Unblocked, my scarf was about 8 inches wide by 41.5 inches long. After blocking, it was 10 inches wide and 43 inches long. Your mileage may vary.

The length of the scarf was dictated by the amount of yarn I had available. This fully utilitized one skein of cashmere (Ok, I lie - there was about 7 feet left).

The pattern in chart form...

Sorry that it's kind of fuzzy. I had trouble getting it to upload.

On blocking - I usually wet block. This time, however, I put my blocking wires in and pinned it out while the scarf was dry. I then sprayed it 'til very damp and adjusted my pins as necessary. I gave it a full 24 hours to make sure it was dry before unpinning.

Nice things

2006-11-14T13:40:00.000-06:00

The nice thing about waiting over a week to post - I have more to show. The hard thing about waiting over a week to post - I have more to show....

The Old Shale scarf is finished - It's getting its own post so I can write the 'pattern' down.

Circumnavigate Cardigan is galloping along. This picture is prior to a whole lot of knitting. It's a lot longer now. The set-up for this thing looks complicated, but isn't as bad as it looks.

Scary Emy picture - I think she was mad at me for taking away 'her' Addi Naturas. I object to kitties eating my knitting needles.

Mysterious Christmas Knitting #1

My favorite heel (sounds like a '50s tv show, doesn't it?)

Mysterious Christmas Knitting #2

2006-11-07T14:45:00.000-06:00

I have a new mantra......

Swatching is good,
Swatching is nice,
I swatch so I won't have to knit it twice!

(This is probably not original to me, but it feels like it is, so maybe it is. If someone else yells that it's their poem - sorry about that.)

Lorraine was lucky enough to attend Ann Feitelson's color workshop and is showing off her swatch from the class. After a few comments from people who apparently don't swatch, I came up with the above bit of poetry (it doesn't happen often, which is probably just as well).

Tracey was asking me for advice about a good first Fair Isle project. Welllll, I've only done the one Fair Isle so far. WendyKnit's Fearless Fair Isle. (By the way, this is my usual modus operandi. Use a pattern for the first one, then leap into designing my own or at the very least, drastically modifying a pattern to my own specifications.) If you want to try something less drastic than a whole sweater, Anne of SheEweKnits has several hat kits that look very cute.

I also recommend Anne's Fair Isle 101 tutorial. Good step-by-step instructions. Ann Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting is a good book for technique and color planning.

A warning though....Fair Isle is extremely addictive. (But that's ok, we need more Fair Isle addicts!)

Mysterious Christmas knitting..... (details later)

Not so mysterious Christmas knitting.... I was looking through a few stitch dictionaries this week and found this one under Feather and Fan or under Old Shale (so take your pick). I'm at 35" right now and think I may have enough for another 7 or 8". Not terribly long for a scarf, but then again my MIL is only about 5'1" so a shorter scarf will probably look pretty good.

This handsome fellow was in heaven at the local plant nursery (aka butterfly buffet) this weekend. He (she?) took full advantage of all the 'Pinks'.

Country Socks are done!

2006-11-02T10:56:00.000-06:00

Pattern: Country Socks - Folk Socks by Nancy Bush

Yarn: Knitpicks Essential sock yarn in color Pine

Needles: Brittany Birch US size 1 1/2 (2.5 mm) dpns

Changes to the pattern? I left a few more stitches in the circumference of the foot since I was making this for a man rather than a woman. I also did a flat toe instead of the star toe.

I like this pattern - not too fussy, relatively fast knitting, but not just a plain ribbed sock. (I love plain ribbed socks, by the way. I've made a bunch of them and will probably make lots more.)

Well, that takes care of one gift for far, far away.... now I need to get on the ball and finish the lacy cashmere scarf. It's still only about 1/3rd done. That's what happens when I get distracted by other projects.

Marriage gansey? What marriage gansey? Oohh, that gansey.... I'll get back on that shortly.

Fair Isle? Well, I gave up on ever seeing yarn from the previous vendor (at least she never charged my card). I've ordered directly from the source - Jamieson and Smith. Rather than one skein each of all the different colors I wanted to try for both Fair Isle designs, I went ahead and ordered all the yarn I need to make the first one (hopefully enough). Better to concentrate on one at a time. (snort...like I ever do just one thing at a time.)

Circumnavigated Cardigan? We get to cast on next Tuesday! I've been keeping myself from casting on ahead of time - I want to do this one with the group. Besides, there are more urgent projects on the needles right now.

More Butterflies

2006-11-02T09:43:00.000-06:00

There haven't been as many Monarchs lately, but there are still plenty of other butterflys taking advantage of the flowering bushes.

Monarchs
....................................................................................................

.............Clouded Sulphur............................

Tiger Swallowtail (a bit battered - I think the birds have been after him)

Gulf Fritillary - hhmm...this may the same shot I had earlier

I'm trying to talk my husband into entering some of his photos in the local contest - he doesn't seem too keen on the idea, but I'll keep working on him. Is it ethical to enter them on his behalf?

Cynthia's Red Scarf Project Scarf - Free Pattern

2006-10-31T09:21:00.000-06:00

Cynthia’s Red Scarf Project Scarf
A fast-to-knit, chunky scarf with garter stitch borders and a central cable

Go to www.orphan.org for more information about the Red Scarf Project.

Materials:
Two skeins Plymouth Encore worsted weight yarn (75% Acrylic, 25% wool) approx 200 yards & 100 grams each (or any similar weight yarn) (I used Encore color #174)
US Size 13 (9 mm) needles (can be circular or straight)
Cable needle (or double-point needle)
Yarn needle

Gauge:
Approx 3 st/inch with two strands of yarn

Finished Measurements:
Approx 6” wide by 60” long

Use two strands of yarn throughout

Cast on 20 stitches.

Border rows:
Slipping the first stitch as if to purl (Slp), knit across. Repeat 3 times for 4 rows of garter stitch.

Pattern rows:
Row 1 (rs): Slp, K4, P2, K6, P2, K5
Rows 2, 4, 6, 8 (ws): Slp, K6, P6, K7
Row 3: Slp, K4, P2, C4F, K2, P2, K5
Row 5: Repeat row 1
Row 7: Slp, K4, P2, K2, C4B, P2, K5

Repeat Rows 1 through 8 approx. 30-31 times or until you have about 4 yards of yarn left. End on row 4 or row 8.

Repeat border rows - 4 rows of garter stitch.
Bind off loosely and weave in ends.
Block if desired.

This pattern is free for your personal, gift-making, or charity use. Making one for you? Think about making one for your favorite charity as well.

Not quite as planned

2006-10-30T15:42:00.000-06:00

This weekend - So did I work on any of the three projects that I have going right now?

Of course not!

I saw the Red Scarf Project button on Fuzzy Britches' blog, which reminded me that I've got the stuff to knit a red scarf for Orphan.org and well....

Pattern to be posted later this week!

goodies

2006-10-27T10:28:00.000-05:00

Some of you wanted to see the swag from my last yarn shop stop....

** Wow, Mom doesn't usually leave the big toys out for me! ** (no yarn was harmed in shooting this footage - I think she was scared of it)

Sock yarn - Schaeffer Anne sock yarn in a nifty autumn colorway and Steinbach Wolle Strapaz in one of my favorite shades of bright blue. Don't think I've used either of these brands before.

Kathmandu Aran in color Bark - This is the ongoing search for a complimentary yarn for my Circumnavigated Cardigan. I'm not going to have enough of the estate handspun that I've chosen for my main color, so this will be for the bottom ribbing, cuffs, button band and collar. It's got a similar feel and heft as the handspun so should work OK. Any extra may become a matching hat or mittens.

I'm trying to figure out how I spent so much money on so little yarn... and I didn't even succumb to the buffalo yarn!

And a gratuitous shot of Country Sock #2 - I think the odds are good to have this close to finished this weekend!

sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

I've had a couple of requests for the marriage gansey pattern. If I like how it turns out, I'll probably write it up and post it here.

No title, but....

2006-10-25T09:24:00.000-05:00

Marriage Gansey

....everything progresses

I'd post pictures of the Country Socks and the Lacy Scarf, but it's not really necessary. Use your imagination - they are both a bit longer than Monday's picture.

Thanks for all the suggestions on Jamieson and Smith vendors - and for the offer to walk down to Four Seasons and find out what's going on (thanks, Brigitte!). If I don't hear from Jo-Anne in the next day or two, I'll give her a call and get an update. Like I said on Monday, this has not been a typical shopping experience - usually she's very responsive.

I'm probably going to order direct from J&S next time. Marina tells me that she usually has a good turn-around from them.

Speaking of yarn stores - I went to one I've not been to before. Simpatico Yarns in Bedford, Texas. Mary Jane was very friendly, without being pushy. The store's not big, but has a reasonable selection of good, basic yarns (aka- not full of novelty fun fur). Plenty of wool and wool blends, cotton, alpaca, mohair, silk, and even buffalo yarn.

I had a nice leisurely shopping time there, only broken by an offer of coffee or tea from Mary Jane (they have a nice little kitchen area in the back room) and by another yarn browser with an enormous dog in tow. Part Newfoundland and part Great Pyrenees - it was a seven-month old gentle giant (that puppy's going to be huge when full grown). This is a nice store to visit - a bit far for me to go very often, but it's on my list. (yes, I spent plenty of money there, too)