Lunch, This Week

Another week, another set of Mr. Bento lunch photos. On Monday, I learned that tomato soup will stain and discolor the plastic if I microwave it for too long. It gets too hot! That tomato soup is the greatest, though--it's from a local schmancy grocery store, and if I could figure out what they put in it, I could save a lot of money on the fancy stuff I can't resist when I go there for soup.


My favorite salad of the week is the one with cucumbers and strawberries. Delicious with Newman's Own lite honey mustard dressing. That's my current favorite dressing--usually I prefer homemade, but this stuff is really good (if you like a sweet, mustardy dressing).

I'm going out to lunch today, for L___'s birthday, so only four bentos this week--which works out well with the photo mosaic, it will only take four photos.

Got My Skeleton Key

What a nice surprise! I finally got my hands on a copy of Knitalong, and photos of my Skull Meathead and Pink Socks 101 are both in the book. For some reason, I thought that I had pre-ordered the book, which came out late last month, when in fact I just added it to my Amazon wish list. I finally realized that I didn't have the book yet when I read Mama Urchin's post about her hat. Anyway, I'm very pleased that my projects made it into the book, especially because so many people participated in the knitalongs! There were so many variations in the hats that put my little pirate flag to shame--my favorite was Adrian's little bird. The skull embellishment was almost an afterthought--it was leftover from a halloween card plan that never quite came together. Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, check out the Meathead flickr gallery, or the Knitalong site that has galleries of other projects in the book as well.

The book only arrived yesterday, so I haven't read the whole thing, but what I have read is really interesting. It's part pattern book, part KAL instruction manual, part sociology thesis. I want to start the Pinwheel blanket immediately, I think that it might be a good travel project. And I want to knit the Entomology mittens, because who doesn't want bugs on their hands all winter? Now if I could only turn some heels and finish some socks (more on that later), I could in good conscience start another portable project.

They Go Hand in Hand

New Electronics, and Pouches For Them

When I travel, I frequently take my laptop (or my work laptop), and it's really a pain. I rarely need it for more than basic internet connectivity and entertainment, but it's heavy and it takes up a lot of room in my carryon bag. And even though I'm reasonably careful, there's always a chance that I'll break it, or that it will be lost or stolen. Ever since I started planning my trip to Europe, I've been thinking about alternatives. One alternative that I pretty quickly dismissed was going off grid for a couple of weeks--it's just so much easier to find information (and in English) if I have internet access. With seven different flights to catch in five different countries, there's plenty of room for delays or missed connections, and then there are baseball scores and blog posts to keep up with.

The alternative that I decided to go with is an inexpensive, very small portable computer, the Asus eee. Asus just released the Windows XP version this past week, and so far I'm pretty impressed with it. The computer has a small hard drive (4 GB, and it's basically full of the operating system), but there are a couple of different expansion options. I included the spool of thread above for scale. The screen is 7", and the whole thing weighs about 2 pounds.

And what does every tiny computer need? A tiny case! I whipped up a case for it on Saturday, using fabric that I had on hand, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. The outside is a fat quarter of quilting fabric, and the lining is green flannel (you know, to keep the computer from scratching). I also used flannel as batting, for a little more protection without a lot of bulk. I sewed a pocket into the lining using vintage fabric. The pocket is really two pockets--I sewed a long rectangle into a pocket with a flap, and then sewed the pocket to the lining along three sides, with the top open. An elastic band holds it all together. There's no velcro (velcro is the enemy of yarn, and there's always yarn nearby!), no buttons, and it fits nicely into my small-ish bag. The pocket is big enough for a small external hard drive, or extra memory cards, or some cables.

I'm hoping to test out the travel-worthiness on a quick trip to Boston this weekend--I'll report back (or from the road!) with the results!

Nothing Says Spring Like a Heavy Wool Sweater

It's nice and sunny and warm today in the greater Seattle area, a very welcome change. A guy at a shoe store told me that it was the first time we've been above 70 degrees since October, and it's not hard to believe. I managed to get just enough porch time (the dogs were sprawled out catching rays there on and off all day) to photograph the Vickie Cardigan sleeve that I finished this week. The last time I showed you this sleeve, I realized that I'd made an error in the X-O cable that required some re-knitting, but otherwise it's been a pretty easy thing to knit. Note that right after typing that, I got up and re-checked the X-Os on the sleeve to make sure I hadn't made the same error.

The three patterns have different row repeats, but the cabling itself is pretty predictable. The diamonds move every right side row, and the X-Os move every fourth row--it's not hard to see when the cable happens. I tend to get into trouble with cables that move less frequently, I'll either cable two rows early or two rows late, or I'll think that I've cabled too early or too late.

Sleeve number two is now underway, and even though it's "hot" here, I think I'll still be able to work on it tonight. Until it's time to go out and rock, that is!

Lunch, Last Week

Part of my 2008 plan involves eating better, and toward that end I've been trying to take lunch to work most days rather than eating out. The lunch options near my office either take a lot of time or are fast food, and it feels really wasteful to spend $30-$50 a week on food that I don't particularly enjoy. This past week, I started carrying a "Mr. Bento" lunch jar, and four of the five lunches (plus either an english muffin or a mini-bagel for breakfast) I took to work are above. I like that I can take a wide variety of foods, and as long as I think a little bit about what I'm including (like use the smallest bowl for the fatty pasta salad, and the largest bowl for a green salad), it's neither too much food nor too many calories. I doubt that I'll take lunch every day (let alone photograph it every day), but I think that 3 - 4 days a week is reasonable.

Knitting content coming soon--it's really nice out today so I may be able to get some natural light photos. Or maybe I'll just get out into the natural light . . .

Songs as Stark as Black and White Stripes

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I managed to take one of my Endpaper Mitts to Arizona (where it was 85 degrees) and to lose it. I keep hoping that it was in my luggage and just got shuffled round when I unpacked, but so far there's no sign of it. I got a lot of use out of them, and there were things about them that bothered me, so it's not a tragedy. The purl seam between the front and the back looked really ugly on one of my mitts, and they didn't have quite as much hand and thumb coverage and I could have used. I do really miss having a pair of fingerless gloves, though--we're still getting some frosty mornings, and full mittens are inconvenient for driving and dog-walking. Plus, drinking beer at baseball games is completely impractical with mittens on!

I started a new pair of fingerless mitts on Friday, and thanks to a very, very, very long Democratic District Caucus meeting on Saturday (Go Hillary!) *, I finished the first mitt. It's a semi-convertible item, and just like Safeco Field I can wear it with the top extended :

or retracted:

I think that this will solve the problem of the too-cold fingers while preserving access to fingers. For instance, while walking the dogs I prefer more coverage, and while scooping poop I prefer less coverage.

I basically made up the pattern as I went along, and I hope that I took enough notes to make the second mitt. It did involve some ripping out, and a little "creative darning in" at the end to neaten up the thumb connector.

I can hardly take credit for the "design"--I'm sure that I've seen that roll down top somewhere before, but a quick Ravelry search didn't turn up anything with that feature. Please let me know if you can tell me what I "borrowed" that from. I researched the thumb gusset methodology on Knitting in Color's blog, and while the gusset is quite deep on this mitt, it works well for me because my thumbs are long.

Also, as with the Wee Tiny Sock Swap sock, I was heavily influenced by Grumperina's recent series on helix stripes, and even though I knew I'd knit a new pair of fingerless gloves, I would otherwise have just picked one of the many really nice fingerless patterns that are overflowing my Ravelry queue. I used three strands of yarn (Gems Light Worsted) to make the stripes, one purple and two blue. I wanted that thick / thin look, but my first attempt to start the stripes in the rib looked like garbage so I settled for solid ribbing.

If the second mitt comes out as well as the first one, I'll write up my notes into an actual pattern, unless there's a very similar pattern out there that I've somehow absorbed and only minorly changed. If that is the case, please let me know, so that I can give credit where credit is due!



* Note: just because I'm mentioning politics in this context doesn't mean that I intend to discuss politics here, or that I want anyone to try to convince me to support a different candidate, any more than I'm trying to convince any of you to support my candidate. That's just not how I roll. Peace out.

It's a Small, Small, (tiny sock) World

My tiny sock arrived yesterday, isn't is great? I love the colors, and the stripes! It was made for me by AllyB, who is crocheting a really pretty spring dress, and who happens to be the mother of my downstream tiny sock swap partner Rena. What a coincidence!

The tiny sock totally salvaged my Friday, I was pretty worn down by the time I got home and the sock brighted my day. It was a looooong week that included:

• a re-org at work, which translates into a million meetings (but which is otherwise fine with me)


• my favorite pair of clogs breaking a strap, rendering them unwearable until fixed


• the realization that I need to find a new hairdresser, because my current hairdresser has no evening appointments for the next five weeks, and I am incapable of planning a hair appointment that far ahead


• walking out of the office on Friday to see this:

That's my first M's sock, which evidently fell out of the car when I came back from an afternoon meeting.

Anyway, you can see how the tiny sock was a really nice way to end what was otherwise a very trying week. Thanks, AllyB!

So It's Root, Root, Root for the Mariners . . .

Opening Day at Safeco Field. 50 degrees at gametime. The announcement about the roof being rolled open was great . . . until we felt the raindrops. The roof rolled shut as soon as it was all the way open, and it got very cold--it was snowing for a few innings! But the Mariners won, and it was a pretty good game, and we had a delicious pork sandwich at the Bullpen pub.

Before the roof was closed, I managed to take a quick photo of the sock I cast on while we waited to get in the stadium:

The ladies below my sock make better doors than windows--they got up maybe five times, mostly for beer. Never between innings or at bats, either. Poor form!

The yarn is Duet Sock Yarn, which was part of Renaissance Yarn's Stitch 'N' Pitch package last year, and I really meant to get this pair going before Spring Training. I brought yarn and needles with me today, and got the first couple of rows done before we got into the park. The pattern is the 56 stitch 56 row sock from Chic Knits. I didn't have much time to knit on the inside of the park, though, what with the lunch in the Bullpen Market, and checking in with our season ticket partners, and walking all around. It's hard for me to knit during a game if I'm in the park, there's usually too much going on and/or too much food around. Today there was a LOT going on, and I was wearing mittens, so I'm still working on the ribbing!

Hey, Ho, Spann den Wagen an

I met up with my friends G_____ and L___ from Germany in Los Angeles this past week after leaving Spring Training, and they brought me the greatest thing ever. I had planned to have some Wollmeise sent to them to carry to me, but the VAT savings pretty much equalled out the shipping cost so I just had it shipped to me. Instead, I requested Kinder Überraschung, and one volume of the Bavarian Twisted Stitch books that was available used on Amazon.de. I've been interested in these books for quite some time, I first heard about them after seeing Eunny Jang's Bayerische socks--I loved her swatches as much as the final sock pattern, and did a little googling about this knitting tradition. There wasn't much out there, but these books came up as a good (but elusive) source. Instead of just the single used volume I'd found, G_____ was able to track down the whole set, new:

I'm so excited about these! They are all auf Deutsch, of course, and my German isn't good enough to get much out of the text, but they basically are stitch dictionaries of Bavarian twisted stitch patterns. Since the patterns are charted and shown in good photos, there isn't all that much to figure out--the tricky part is just following which stitches are moving over or under others, and that's a challenge with any cables. Each book is about 70 pages long, with maybe 100 patterns each, as well as a couple of garment patterns per book. I'm looking forward to trying out a lot of these patterns, and maybe incorporating them into some socks or cuffs or something. They're a little labor intensive, though--I can't quite manage to cable without a needle on tiny cables, even though I've been using this technique exclusively on my Vickie Cardigan sleeve. Here's a swatch that I made this evening:

The pattern is called "Sechsfache Streifenkette", which means something like "six strips chain". It's Dale Baby Ull knit on size 0 needles. Or maybe they're size 1--I can't find my needle gauge! I know that I should include a penny or something for perspective, but the swatch is about 1.25 inches high and maybe 1.5 inches wide. I'm not sure whether these patterns can be knit back and forth--I just strung the yarn across the back for the swatch, since I'm only doing this to see how it looks rather than to calculate gauge. I'm looking forward to a lot of entertainment from these books!

A Tiny Little Gift To Me

It's been awhile since I've done a swap (I've been trying to stay deadline free and work on my own projects), but I couldn't resist the Wee Tiny Sock Swap. Sure, I could have spent that time on the Tiny Mittens that have fallen by the wayside lately, but a swap that is completely finished in less than a week is very appealing. I signed up on Wednesday, knit the sock yesterday & this morning, and will mail it on Monday. No muss, no fuss, no rounding up a box of extra crap that my swapee may or may not even want.

Here's the sock:

I used leftover yarn from Disco Stu and my Endpaper Mitts, knit on size 0 needles. The sock is about 3 inches high. Earlier this week I read Grumperina's posts on Helix Stripes, and thought that this was a pretty good project to try it on. I still haven't completely wrapped my mind around how it works, but I don't see the color jogs at all. You can see on the toe where the spiral ends, and you can see on the top where it starts, but otherwise I can't tell where the spirals overlap. Pretty cool!!! I love the glittery effect of the silver thread in the blue yarn.

The most trouble I had with this sock was eliminating the pointy toe. Eventually I just kitchenered it with 8 stitches left, and that worked out pretty well--my two previous attempts were very pointy and I couldn't just pull the point to the inside. I think that it would also have worked to pull the yarn through the last stitches with the sock inside out, but fortunately I didn't have to make a fourth attempt!

Now I just need to package this baby up, and wait for my own sock to arrive! I'm a little sad that I don't have an extra sock blocker keychain to mail it on, but this all happened too fast to get one.

Seriously, Snow on March 26?

I took this video tonight, March 26, after getting home from work:

Maybe another week in Phoenix would have been a good idea . . .

Walking Out in Confetti and Sunshine

I'm back from AZ and CA, and am trying to get back into the normal routine, both blogging and otherwise. Above are some shots from the trip--fireworks and sock photos from the Texas Rangers stadium, all the rest from Peoria. The M's didn't play that well, and there was a major screw-up with our game tickets (as in the travel agent "lost" them, but all of her seats were occupied), but being out at the park felt really good. Only one more week until Opening Day!

Clackin' That Bat, Gone With the Wind

Greetings from Peoria, AZ! This photo is from the our first Spring Training game, it's my first official 2008 Baseball beer. It was incredibly delicious. Here's the view from the outfield during warm-ups:

I love going to the park in the evening. Gorgeous sunsets, temperate weather, no big deal if you forget the sunscreen, and, of course, beer.

I forgot my camera battery charger and the cable that links my camera to the computer, but via a complicated camera to phone to e-mail upload to e-mail download process I was able to get these two photos out. They may be the last before I get home on Monday, but I think that the beer photo was totally worth the trouble.

Guilty Feet Have Got No Rhythm

My biggest yarn splurge of 2008, two skeins of Wollmeise Lace-Garn, arrived last week. The photos above show the top and bottom of each gigantic, 300 gram hank. After many, many attempts to order Wollmeise (both from Claudia and from the Loopy Ewe), I was finally able to get some and I couldn't be happier with it. The lace yarn is the same unique texture as the Wollmeise sock yarn that I've seen, but finer. My original plan was to keep the color I liked best out of these two, and trade or sell the other one (at cost--I'm not into scalping), but I'm not sure if I can part with either one of them. The blue and black is Mitternacht, and it's a slight favorite over the brown Spice Market. In general, I'm not one of those yarn-sniffers, but Wollmeise has the most delicious, clean smell, and I love the brown-paper packaging.

So what about those guilty feet? It's not related to the Wollmeise, which was (and really still is) on my very short list of buy-whatever-you-want yarns for 2008. It's another yarn purchase, eagerly anticipated but not yet delivered, for this gorgeous kit, that I feel a little guilty about. I ordered the Arabian Nights colorway, and I can't wait to see it in person, even though it I probably won't start working on it for awhile--I do want to start up the hibernating Bee Fields shawl now that it's spring again, and the Vickie Cardigan is in heavy rotation right now. Basically, it wasn't a purchase that I planned to make, but I am looking forward to knitting the shawl and both the yarn and pattern are something special. I'll probably omit the beaded fringe and possibly the beads on the edges, because I can totally see myself hitting myself in the face with them. In any case, I'm not asking for absolution or encouragement, I'm just noting that I spent more on yarn this month this month, and when I'm drinking coffee at the Floridsdorf Anker instead of Demel's, I'll look back and remember why.

p.s. I still don't feel guilty about the Wollmeise.

p.p.s. My official time for the St. Pat's Dash was 42:37, better than I expected!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What was the best part of running the St. Pat's Dash? The delicious, delicious beer that I drank afterwards at Elysian Fields. What was the worst part? Standing in line for the bus for pretty much as long as it took to finish the course. It's too early to get my official time, but the clock was at about 44:45 when I crossed the finish line, and I crossed the start line about two minutes after the official start. I wasn't expecting to run the whole thing (and I didn't), but I'm pretty happy with how I did and that halfway through March I'm still sticking to one of my TCB resolutions. And my Dash Hat held up very well--I was really glad to have it, especially while standing in line for the bus.

The route is about 3.5 miles, and according to my iPod & Nike + I went 3.89 miles. I'm not sure how much of this is a calibration error, but I didn't start and end the workout at the start and end lines. At the beginning, it was too early to think about, and at the end I wandered around for a couple of minutes before thinking about it. The most interesting thing to me about looking at the Nike+ graph is that there isn't a huge speed difference between my walking and running, but it sure feels different!

Frieda and Gretel have no respect for my photographs, by the way:

Moments after I took that photo, Gretel peed within INCHES of my shirt. Yes, it's perfectly normal for her to pee in the backyard, and she didn't pee on the shirt, but it was still a little close for comfort.

What, Too Busy to Knit?

I'm back at home, but preparing for another busy week. Mom and I leave for Spring Training on Thursday, and I'm still a little behind from last week, but the yarn for my Vickie Cardigan arrived so I started the first sleeve:

So far, so good--I had a small problem with the first transition from the "O" to the "X" on the side cables and had to rip back several rows, but otherwise all is going well. The color of the yarn is exactly what I wanted, it's a Cascade 220 Heather that's a navy/red blend. I'll try to get some natural-light photos to see if the color will show up better--the photo above looks more grey to me.

ETA: Crap! I just noticed a mistake in the photo above. Maybe I can crochet hook it back into order?

The Smooshy socks are moving along, I'm just about to the heel. Nothing like six hours on a bus to promote sock knitting progress! I'd like to finish the heels this weekend, so that these are back on auto-pilot travel project status.

I haven't had a chance to respond to the comments from the last post yet, and I really need to get to work, so here are answers to the questions:

What color is the Smooshy?
Dusky Aurora. I love it, the colors are beautiful and the transitions are really subtle.

Sleeping Lady?
Yes, Sleeping Lady. I wish that I could live in a cabin like that (with maid service and a delicious cafeteria, of course). Wouldn't that be a great place for a knitting retreat? Maybe they already have them there.

Stitch Pattern hard to memorize?
No, not at all--one row of real pattern, three rows of following the rib. After the first inch or so, I've only checked the pattern to see how close I am getting to the heel.

Two Socks at Once hard?
The only tough thing is getting the two socks started at once, and ripping out two socks instead of one if you make a mistake. I take the easy way out, and start the toes one at a time and then put them together. I usually knit the toe (or cuff) and a bit of the pattern to make sure I'm happy with the gauge/color/pattern before starting the second sock--I really don't want to rip out two whole cuffs or toes.

Two Toe Tuesday: Out of Town Edition

I'm out of town at a work retreat in gorgeous Leavenworth, WA, and I've got to get some sleep but here's the new pair of socks I started last week. I got a lot done on the bus on the way here, and I'm loving the pattern (The Double Eyelet Rib (pdf download) sock by Wendy, available at the Loopy Ewe). The yarn is Smooshy, and it's really really great. I'll try to take some nature-y photos tomorrow, it's really gorgeous here.

Our faces Stitched in Sewing

One problem with procrastination is that it doesn't leave enough time to take decent, comprehensive photos of finished objects. Instead, you end up pulling over on your way to the baby shower, and draping the baby quilt above over the back-seat, and taking what you can get. Then you cram the blanket into a gift bag (along with an Octopus and a book that features an Octopus), and are thankful that you finished it at all.

I started making this last weekend, and finished it up late last night (oh, and put it in the dryer this morning). The pattern is very loosely based on a quilt in Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts and further inspired by Jessica's doll-sized version. Being both lazy and short on time, I didn't cut individual rectangles. Instead, I strip-pieced four or five fabrics into blocks, then cut the blocks into stacks of rectangles. Then I mixed and matched the blocks, and threw in a few single-cut blocks to make it slightly less matchy-matchy. I chose the dark solid brown for good contrast, and to make it less pinky-girly. I think that a mauve or a purple would also have looked good, but I like the brown the best. The back is brown with white dots that is so cute that I almost substituted something else so that I could make myself a skirt out of it to wear to the baby shower. The actual quilting is minimal, because I wanted to retain a very clean look. The "batting" is flannel, so close quilting isn't necessary.

One thing that I learned while making this quilt is that my sewing skills have gotten unacceptably rusty. The fact that you can see the back of quilt fabric in the photo above grates a little, and getting the topstitching to match up was a problem. Yes, this is a blanket that is meant to be used (i.e. vomited on) and washed frequently, and it will hold up just fine. But I was struggling more than I should have to struggle to get less than ideal results, and I think that I need more practice. Good thing that I know 1,000,000 people with babies on the way, and a bunch of new spring skirts to sew. And a wallhanging--I want to make a wallhanging for my office.

Another thing that I learned is that the sewing room, which offered so much promise last summer, is now a pigsty. This summer's project be to whip it into shape, and it will probably involve a lot of work and some tough decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of.

Forget I even mentioned that! Here's a pre-assembly close up of the top:

I think that the single little gnome is my favorite part of this quilt!

Two Toe Tuesday: Hawk Monkey Edition

When I jumped into the Ravelry January Sockdown KAL, I admit that my plans were a little ambitious--two pair of socks, one of which was the Mystery Sock. The mystery sock is still in the works, but I do still like the pattern and I plan to finish them. Although I fell short of finishing both, these Monkeys squeaked in before the deadline. I'd really like to do another pair of these soon, possibly at a tighter gauge and in a yarn that is a little less busy. Don't get me wrong, I love the yarn (Hazel Knits Hometown Football Team) and the way the socks turned out, but I'm not always trying to show my Seahawks spirit. As a matter of fact, it will be quite some time before I think about football again, now that baseball season is less than a month away.



One interesting thing to note about the Monkey socks is that when I first posted about mine two months ago, there were 2,300 finished and 3,200 total Monkeys on Ravelry. Earlier this past weekend, there were about 3,100 finished and 4,100 total on Ravelry. That means that 1,600 Monkeys have been finished in the last two months--amazing. I know exactly how dorky this sounds, but wouldn't it be cool to see some sort of popularity growth curve for projects over time? Wouldn't it?

Stones That Throw and Feet That Run

In May, I'm going to be travelling with my friend S___ to Vienna for a wedding, and there are a couple of side trips planned. S__ will be running the Prague Marathon, so I thought that I should strap on some shoes and run, too. Not the full marathon, of course--that would be stupid. Not only have I never run more than a couple of miles at once, but I can't think of anything I'd rather do less than run for five hours. Instead, I'm training for the 4.2K family mini-marathon. It's a lot less running, with the same guarantee of unlimited free Czech beer at the after-party. Anyway, I've been running regularly for two months now, and I'm in week 6 of the Couch to 5K program. It's going pretty well (not counting the soreness), so I've decided to try the St. Pat's Dash.

Part of any good training program involves preparatory knitting, and this is no exception. It could be a little warm for a hat, but I knit one anyway:

The St. Pat's dash has a costume contest, and this is pretty much as far as I'm willing to go. This is the Jacques Cousteau Hat, knit in the Duet Sock Yarn (colorway: Leprechaun) that I failed to knit into Jaywalkers last year. I love the decreases on this hat, and I love the colors in the yarn. I started this on Feb. 22, and finished it over the weekend--it went very quickly.

I had a request for a photo of the Octopus with a household object, so that the size is easier to gauge. The Octopus isn't very big . . .

. . . but he sure is thirsty!

Into Your Arms, Into Your Arms I Can Go

Oooh, I really like this Octopus--I can't believe that I didn't find the pattern sooner. It's a quick knit, started yesterday evening, finished early this afternoon. And, I should add, I spent a good part of the morning buying baseball tickets, running 2.74 miles, and scoring my first ever order of Wollmeise (two hanks of lace yarn in Market Spice and Mitternacht, but I'll probably only keep one). Plus, as you can see below, I stopped several times to take photos, because I really like the colors and how weird the individual parts look.

The construction is interesting and the instructions are very thorough. Joining all of the pieces together is a little tricky (there some "invisible grafting" that you can see if you look closely above), but at the end I had only ONE end to weave in. Considering that the legs have a total of 32 yarn ends, I think that's pretty awesome. I also like that it's about as realistic as a knitted octopus is going to be--it's not cartoonish, and the legs are naturally asymmetrical.

I used about 11 grams of the green and 17 grams of the purple, but I tossed out a lot of trimmed ends (mostly green bits from the many long-tail cast-ons) amounting to probably a couple of grams. I'm looking forward to making another one soon--maybe I'll try reversing the colors, or digging out some remnants of Cascade that I have lying around. This one is likely to end up with a young child, so I didn't use pipe cleaners to make the legs poseable--that's another option I'd like to try.

Lies Beneath the Ocean Waves

This is at least the third Friday this month that I've started a new project:

I'm 3/4 done with the legs, which is a pretty good start. The yarn is Cascade 220 from Renaissance Yarns (leap day sale + gift card = no guilt). The pattern is Octopus (Ravelry Link) by Hansi Singh and you can find it (and other very cute patterns) on Hansi's Etsy site. I saw this pattern for the first time yesterday, and as I am incapable of independent thought, and I have maybe five friends expecting babies, I now have six tentacles. The pattern is very detailed and has great instructional photos--I'm very impressed with it and I've enjoyed the knitting so far, too. More legs to follow!

Why Do You Taunt Me, Cascade 220?

The downside of being inspired by all of the beautiful knitwear that people bring to Madrona is the feeling that I, too, should have made something gorgeous to wear. It's not like I didn't know that it was coming, or that I didn't think about it ahead of time, but I was still sorry that I didn't have a Bohus sweater or a Bee Fields Shawl to wear. The other downside of Madrona is that you immediately start thinking about the whole year you have to knit something, and how great it is to start a new project, and if you bought the pattern AT Madrona, well, that's even better.

So that brings us to the swatches--I spent much of last week swatching for Vickie's Cardigan (Ravelry link), the pattern I bought from Black Water Abbey. I really love the Black Water Abbey Yarns (the colors are AMAZING), but given that I haven't finished a sweater in about 10 years, I decided to go with a less expensive option. Cascade 220 fits the bill--it's inexpensive, comes in a lot of colors, and I have a Renaissance gift card. If this cardigan works out, there's another Black Water Abbey pattern that I have my eye on, and another opportunity to use their yarn.

Swatching is, as always, trying, but on a sweater a small gauge problem can get big in a hurry, and I want this to be a spectacular, wear to Madrona sweater. I pulled out a ball of Cascade 200 Heathers from my stash, started swatching with the recommended needle size (US7), and within a few rows decided that it was going to be much too big. Ripped it out. Dropped two sizes (I had no 6's on me), knit a giant swatch. Washed it--much too tight. Went up to size 6, knit the diamond cable and then a few inches of the gauge pattern. Washed it--still too tight. Went up to a size 7, knit a swatch. Washed it. Gauge is perfect. Arrrrrrgh--hours of swatch time wasted, when I could have just followed through with the size 7.

Now that I'm happy with the gauge, I have only to wait for my yarn to arrive. Renaissance carries maybe a hundred or a hundred and fifty colors of Cascade, and is very well-stocked. Of course, the only color that I can possibly settle for (a dark heather blue), is a few skeins short of what I need, so I have to sit on my hands for a little while longer. Good thing that I have a few other projects available to work on . . .

Madrona, Part 3: Haapsalu Rätik Estonian Lace

I know that it's been almost a week since the end of Madrona, and that this weekend evernyone's at Stitches West, but I wanted to finish up my class project from Nancy Bush's Haapsalu Rätik class before posting. The project was a little sample shawl, using traditional techniques. The shawl consists of a center panel with a lily-of-the-valley motive, and a border that is knit in two halves and then sewn to the center. Here's the my tiny shawl before blocking:

Here it is during blocking:

And here it is, complete (except for weaving in the ends):

I really enjoyed this class, although it was a LOT of pretty intensive knitting in six hours. I made it through the center and most of the first border during class, and knit the second half of the border after I got home. Sewing the border on was the toughest part, because I was already cross-eyed from knitting when Nancy demonstrated it. The handout instructions are very good, though, and once I got past the first corner turn it wasn't so bad. I mean, I'll probably never sew a lace border on ever again, but for a small rectangle it is manageable.

Looking at the photos above, I could have done a better job of blocking the points out evenly. I didn't use blocking wires, because my wires are so much bigger than the sides of the rectangle. The angle of the camera exaggerates the difference between the top and bottom a little, but there is a difference. If I decide to DO something with this (maybe put it in a frame?), I'll reblock it and sew in the ends.

close-up of the center

Before this class, I was a little afraid of nupps (the mini-bobbles that make up the flowers, see), but with Nancy's instruction they weren't tough at all, even though I was using blunt clover bamboo needles. At the risk of sounding overly fawning, Nancy's class was really great--she has so much knowledge about what she's teaching, and is clearly not afraid to challenge her students. I learned a lot, and I'm looking forward to knitting something full-sized using the lily of the valley motive. Bring on the nupps!

To Gather Flowers Constantly

The first class I took at Madrona was Ruth Sørensen's Kauni Hat class. Ruth designed a batch of 10 or 12 gorgeous hat patterns using Kauni yarn, and brought a giant bag of yarn for each of us to choose from. I chose the low-crown flowered hat, and these two colors:

The colors in my stash are grey and blue, so I thought that these would be a good change--and I wanted a lot of contrast, so these fit the bill. Strangely enough, my next-seat-over neighbor used a black/gray skein with red, and reversed where she used them. She finished her hat VERY quickly, and it looks great--I just love those goofy flowers. Evidently, there was blue in her "black" skein--I totally missed that.

While we knit, Ruth talked about the properties of Kauni, and showed us a ton things she designed using Kauni and similar yarns. Stephanie posted some photos yesterday of the extremely cute skirt that Ruth designed using one color of Kauni, I was too overstimulated by choices to take any photos during class. This was a three hour class, and although I spent the bulk of it knitting up to the picot edge of my hat, I really enjoyed it. It was enough time to get a good start on the hat, and it was really inspiring listening to Ruth talking about her designs. I've got two different colors of Kauni, and while I like those rainbow cardigans a lot, I'd like to do something that is a little less square-y. I've also been a little concerned about the scratchy texture, since I'm a little bit sensitive to wool, and it was good to feel the sample hats, which were quite a bit softer after washing.

I worked more on the hat after I got home on Saturday, but I'm not quite to the flower section yet:

I started with the darkest end of the neutral skein, and the brightest end of the red skein. Conveniently, both were in the center. My hope is that there will be a lot of contrast this way, but who knows? It's funny to me that the neutral color looks so much darker on the hat that it does in the skein, and that the red looks so bright, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they change. But I'm almost done with the class project from Sunday, so I might have to wrap that up first . . .

Saturday and Sunday, Everybody Rocks

The Madrona Fiber Arts Festival was this past weekend, and I'm really, really grateful that today is a holiday so that I can rest up! In addition to attending Lucy Neatby's talk on Friday, I took a half-day class on Saturday and a full-day class on Sunday. The whole weekend was so inspiring that I'm going to break it up into a few posts rather than end up rushing through just for the satisfaction of pushing the "publish post" button. Fingers crossed that I don't totally space out on anything!!

I'm still working on my class projects (one will take a long time, but I'm hoping to wrap up the other one today), so I'll put off writing about those for now, and just give you my general impressions, especially vs. last year.

One thing that was very different for me was the number of knitters I knew this year, either from classes I've taken or from the knitting groups I attend. Last year, I went to a few events and took two classes, and I literally knew nobody at all (except my mom, who went to one event with me and shopped during one of my classes). I didn't walk away feeling like I'd really met anyone, either, which is fine--I didn't feel that anyone was unfriendly, and it doesn't really bother me to do things by myself. I do think that I enjoyed it more this year, though--it was really nice to run into so many friendly faces, and have people to exchange vital shopping information with!

Also, a couple of people on Ravelry made Ravelry avatar id tags, and although I neglected to request one (it was a super busy week, I was barely online at all), the tags were a great idea and I saw a lot of them around. In one of my classes, I sat next to C_____a and across from A___C both of whom I recognized right away from their Ravatars. C_____a uses a photo of herself as an avatar, so it's not surprising that I'd make the connection, but A__C has recently been using Sigmund the sea monster, and I'd never have made that connection without the tag!

So, what didn't I like about Madrona. . . . hmmm. Nothing really bothered me this year. The hotel is under construction and is a total mess, but it really didn't inconvenience me, and I think that it will be beautiful and interesting when it's finished. The makeover is long overdue. The hotel is using Tacoma's city-of-art-glass reputation as a starting point and going hog-wild with it, though I don't think anyone will really believe that they are in Murano when they are really in Tacoma. I love the glass viking ships in the lobby (example above), and my understanding is that the renovated rooms have a clean, modern feel. I decided that in my bid to be frugal now for my trip in May, I should cancel the night I'd planned to stay at the hotel, and earmark that money for the Marketplace, and given the renovations I think I made the right decision.

Oh, the Marketplace? You want to hear about the Marketplace? It was bigger this year than last year, with some great vendors that were totally new to me. It's really a nice mix of people who travel from show to show and have a fairly specialized set of products, and a few local yarn stores that have a more comprehensive selection. I saw a LOT of stuff I liked, but decided to concentrate on a smaller quantity of unusual items. I exceeded my budget a little, but not by too much, and the things that I bought are not readily available locally so I feel fine about it.

Here's what I bought:

1 skein of sock yarn from Tactile Fiber Arts, a company that is new to my stash. Their booth was small, but the wall of sock yarn was just gorgeous--the colors blended together so well that it was very tough to make a decision, and also very tough to walk away with just one skein. I have no idea what this color looks like on your monitor, and I'm not totally sure what it is in real life, either. I thought it was a corally dark pink when I bought it, and when I took it outside it looked more red, and the photo above looks kind of orangey. The base yarn is very nice (reminds me of Louet), and the yardage is generous.

Now, the super special yarn that will have to wait for a super special pattern to do it justice:

1,000 yards of handpainted, laceweight cashmere, in the prettiest blues evah. EVAH. It's from Just Our Yarn, and I walked into their booth to take a look at this particular yarn (I researched the vendors in advance, so I wasn't walking in blind), and I immediately walked out with two skeins.

That's it for yarn--when I think of it as three skeins, it doesn't sound bad, right? I also picked up 4 oz. of Bamboo roving from Tactile, I was looking for some to make thrummed mitts ala Grumperina. I also bought a couple of patterns from Black Water Abbey Yarns, they had some beautiful samples out. Someday, I will have a Texture Tote and a Vickie's Cardigan on the needles, but I had the foresight to realize that today is not that day, even though I am all of a sudden very interested in starting a big, cabled project.

Whew! I think that that's more than enough for one post. It's time for my weekday holiday nap, assuming that I can get some dachshunds onboard for that plan!

Lucy Neatby is the Coolest

Mom and I went to Madrona last night to check out the Marketplace and attend the evening talk & teacher's gallery. I have no photos to prove that I was there, but I have to say how much I enjoyed Lucy Neatby's talk about design. Her background and designs are pretty unique--for instance, the vest she was wearing had maybe 20 or 30 bright colors in a South American style pattern with a few bicycles thrown in. It's a beautiful piece of knitting, and it appeals to me even though I tend not to wear bright colors, but it's the kind of design that is so unexpected that it makes you think "where did THAT come from?" Lucy's talk really demonstrated the link between her design inspirations and her actual life--the landscape she lives in, her interests and those of her family, textiles she collected as a merchant Navy officer. It was a really inspiring talk, and it reminded me that I've got these mittens in my Ravelry queue and I should get cracking on some of my WIPs so that I can start them. I really wanted to take a class with Lucy this year, but couldn't quite cram everything into my schedule (and budget), and they filled up very quickly.

The marketplace is great, but I'm trying to shop smartly so I just checked things out yesterday instead of going nuts with $48/skein artyarns cashmere. It was tough, but I've got a dollar limit in mind and I want to make sure that I spend it on yarn that is difficult to get at local shops and that strikes a balance between awesome and thriftyness. But seriously, that artyarns cashmere is delicious, and if only I didn't have two or three lace projects going and some Blue Moon lace yarn in the stash, I'd probably talk myself into a $96 scarf.

Today I'm taking Ruth Sørensen's Kauni Hat class, I'll remember to pack my camera! I heard that her sweater design class (which was one of the classes on my short-list, but it fell off in favor of vacation-day hoarding) went really well. I saw the hat samples yesterday at the Teacher's Gallery, and they're amazing--and they confirm that Kauni does in fact soften up with washing. In the interest of including a photo in my post, here's some Kauni that it's my stash:

Why Do You Taunt Me, Westminster Dog Show?

I do like beagles (even Frieda's archenemy Chester the beagle), but how can Westminster continue to overlook the breed responsible for this type of comedy gold:

At least it was a hound that won!

p.s. Hopefully this will be my last post-of-outrage of the week (I'll skip right over Valentine's Day).

You Got Me Thinkin' That I'm Wastin' My Time

What on earth happened with these stripes? How did I screw up the stripe pattern on mass-produced striped sock yarn ?

I was very careful to match the toes:

I paid attention to my gauge, to make sure that things matched up. That is, as well as can be expected on socks that are knit a row or two at a time while waiting for trains, or meetings, or jump-starts (thanks, S___!). I even marked the afterthought heel at the same row, and they looked pretty good:

But wait. Look a the last couple of stripes on the top of the 2nd sock. There's pink where there should be brown, and now the pattern repeat that I'm on is several inches off of the pattern on the right:

Arrrrrgh. How could this happen, you ask? I asked myself the same question. Then I turned the finished sock inside out, and I found my answer:

Although I have no recollection of this AT ALL from sock #1, there must have been a knot in the first skein that was tied out of sync. I am not sure if this is at all typical of this yarn (Regia Kaffe Fassett), or if it was just a fluke, but I'm not pleased at all about it. I'm glad that I found this out now, when I only have to rip back a few inches--it was really pure coincidence that I even looked at it, usually this project stays in the car.

After ripping out, a couple of inches, and then pulling maybe another inch worth of yarn, it was pretty simple to get the stripes back on track:

I'm a little concerned that the stripe matching here and at the beginning of the 2nd sock is going to result in a shortage of yarn when I come to the heels, especially if the heels are to match. I think that a contrasting heel would look great, but I've yet to see any yarn that's a great color fit. I supposed I could just slap on another blue . . . but hopefully it won't come to that.

Why Do You Taunt Me, Grammys?

It's music week at the trivia night I go to, and so I am watching the Grammys. It's not broadcast live here on the West Coast, which is stupid, and the show is long, but if anyone asks me who sang "That Old Black Magic" with Keely Smith, I want to get the answer right. Although there was a Kid Rock question last week, so that's probably not what I'll need to know.

I've never placed much faith in the Grammys, even during my long years as a Music Industry Executive Receptionist. But somehow I still find it shocking that Wilco only got one nomination, and didn't win Album of the Year. All I can do is link to one of the many great songs on Sky Blue Sky, below, and continue to wonder about Yoko's hat.

Can I Get a Drumroll, Please?

Before:

After:

Obviously, the Rot wie Feuer Bayerische socks are no longer "active". The stripiness of the yarn was really obscuring the twisted stitch pattern, and there didn't seem to be much point in spending all of that time cabling when the stripes are all I can see. The bright light makes the photo of the sock in progress looks better than it did in real life. This yarn is destined for greater things, and I'll probably give the Ravelry Sockdown a pass for February since I'm still working on the two pair I started in January.

Given that I'm going to be spending the weekend trying to repair / rebuild my failing, blue-screen-of-death laptop, ripping out an entire weekend of knitting work seemed like a fine idea--I'm so annoyed at my computer that I barely felt a thing. I have use of an alternate computer (obviously), but it's not convenient so if I haven't responded to comments I apologize!! I hope to be up and running again in the next couple of days, although it is a painfully slow process.

Couldn't Build A Fire To Save My Life

The tiny, twisted stitches of Friday have started to turn and wrap around each other, this is (of course) Eunny Jang's Bayerische Socks. I know you've seen it before, because it's in 1,200 queues on Ravelry (plus the 250 already underway). Although I love this yarn (Sundara Sock in Heirloom Tomato), there's a little more stripey-ness to the color that I expected, and I'm not sure I really love it. I'd like to go a little further, though, before I give up. These Rot wie Feuer (red like fire) socks may become wristwarmers, or may end up in a different sock form. One thing is certain--all these tiny stitches take a lot of time.

A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

Sometimes I think that this poem perfectly describes my life, and other times I know that it absolutely doesn't:

Lucy Ashton's Song

Look not thou on beauty's charming;
Sit thou still when kings are arming;
Taste not when the wine-cup glistens;
Speak not when the people listens;
Stop thine ear against the singer;
From the red gold keep thy finger;
Vacant heart and hand and eye,
Easy live and quiet die.

--Sir Walter Scott

I've been thinking about this poem lately. My Boston-era books are either out in the garage or destroyed by my poor storage techniques, so I was glad to have a reason to look it up.

This is my first time participating in the Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading--more about the event here (by way of Cara). Copyright restrictions prevent me from reposting my first choice, but that doesn't mean I can't link to it.

It's Friday, I'm In Love

These tiny twisted rib stitches on size 0 needles are making me very happy. I'm not sure if the happiness will hold, or if this is the beginning of socks that will never end, or if this is a crazy control-freak reaction to an out-of-control week at work. Either way, at 10:49pm on Friday, February 1, I love them.