Sunday, November 21, 2010
Let the Madness Begin
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Oh, A Storm is Threat'ning
Things feel like they are lightening up at last in these parts, enough to work just a little on the holiday. The rest? Spent taking the ferry to Churchmouse Yarns, to pick up a little Shelter. I should have done this weeks ago, I really would like a sweater's worth of either of these colors, but supplies were too low of both. That's Homemade Jam on the left, Button Jar on the right. A few of each will have to do for now (which should be fine, given that I have three sweaters in progress).
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Believe It or Not--I Finished a Ripley
Knitting on the various projects continues, but still slowly. A row on one sweater here, a row on another sweater there, and nothing on those damn Chevron mittens. I wanted a quick win, so I pulled a ball of grey Berroco Ultra Alpaca, and started Ripley on Saturday night. Worsted weight yarn on #10 needles = quick project! I used about 54 grams of yarn, which means that I should be able to get another hat out of the skein, maybe a smaller size with less slouch on top. It fits my large head, but is going in the "potential Christmas gifts" stash for the time being. It's closer than I think, I can feel it creeping up already!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
I See a Ship in the Harbor . . .
. . . and I'd like to say that this will be the last time I quote Depeche Mode as it relates to this sweater, but it's fairly likely that it will happen again. I am not particularly a fan of Depeche Mode, and I can't remember why I called this sweater Blue Monday, but I guess I'm stuck with it now.
I've only posted a couple of times about this sweater, and really there isn't a lot to say other than "I'm still knitting the body." Although I guess that there is news, in that I have reached the waist decreases! It's really cool the way the waist nips in and brings the slipped stitches closer together on each side. I don't have a particularly well-defined waist (and that's being generous), so I am a little concerned that it will pull in too much. I may omit the last set of decreases, once I get there. Right now, I've knit about 7 1/2 inches of the body, which includes an extra inch or so of additional length. Even though I've been carrying around two balls of yarn so that I can alternate skeins, it's been an easy project to travel with. I knit quite a bit in Virginia in July (before leaving it behind at my brother's house), and knit for 3 or 4 hours yesterday while flying back from Boston. I've loaded the pattern on my iPad, and at this point I only have to look at it every eleven rows when it's time to decrease. It takes a really long time to knit eleven rows, I can assure you. The pattern is also simple enough that I was able to read on my iPad while knitting on the plane, which is key on a six hour flight. I should have been working on Chevron Mittens, but I can't manage a chart and a book at the same time!
I really like that there is no visible striping with this yarn (Dream in Color Classy)--I can still sort of see the skein changes on my Black Diamond sweater, but the blue skeins seem to be more consistent. The color is very rich--I got a nice shout-out about it from a passing knitter while taking the photo above.
I'm not anticipating having another concentrated block of time to knit any time soon, maybe even less time to blog. Maybe I'll see you in November?
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Two Toe Tuesday: I Like the Cashmere
My plan to get cracking on some older projects seems to be paying off (at least a little)--I finished a pair of socks this past weekend for the first time in ages. This is a pair of socks that I started in March 2009 (the blue birthday duckies), and there's no legitimate excuse for them taking so long. The first sock was done pretty quickly, and based on my Ravelry project notes, I was stalled at the heel of the 2nd sock from June 2009 to September 2010, because I lost the pattern. Which is stored as a PDF in my Ravelry account, and was free to begin with. Not acceptable.
The pattern is Duckies (Rav Link) by Samantha Hayes, and the yarn is The YoYo CashSport String, a delicious wool/cashmere blend that I got at the Loopy Ewe. It's sport weight yarn, and the socks are not particularly tall, so 19 months is a long time to knit these puppies. They may be a little short for my feet (maybe o.k. after blocking), but there was no way I was going to rip out the toes and go longer. They may be my special birthday socks, but I'd rather give them away than re-knit at this point! This pattern knit up very nicely, and I ran the eyelets all the way down the heel flap rather than leaving them plain rib--the lacy heel will look good with open backed clogs, I think. Since the yarn is sport-weight, they are little on the thick side, but my clogs are a little stretched out so it shouldn't be a problem.
Part of my "get-cracking" strategy has been to work on long standing projects a little bit at a time, and to keep better track of what I've been working on so that I don't set any one project aside for too long. It's only been a couple of weeks now, but it seems to be keeping me on track a little bit better. I keep thinking that I'm now only working on small things (these socks and a couple of other pair, chevron mittens), but I am still squeezing in some time on one of my sweaters in progress. Right now, I don't really have enough time to spend on ANY of the projects, large or small, so we'll see how it goes. Yesterday, I worked a little on the second Appliance Mitten, while I have the needles free from Chevron #3, so my goal is to wrap those up in the next week or so before casting on Chevron #3, #2. While working on whatever else I feel like, a little bit at a time, too. Whew.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Not Really Back in the Habit of Blogging . . . .
. . . but steadily working on a project that is long overdue. Mitten #1 of Chevron #3 is done, except for the thumb. I'll knit the thumbs one after another the rest is finished. I'm still really pleased with this color combo, and I like that the tip ends up black (like my heart). Of course, before I knit the thumb on this mitten or the other one, there's a little bit of cleaning up to do:
Just a couple of ends. Maybe L_____ would prefer to weave in the ends herself, once we're sure they fit? It's interesting that on the inside, the mitten looks a lot different below the thumb (which was finished a long time ago) than above the thumb, where I stopped carrying the yarn across more than 3 stitches. I wish that the top looked as neat as the bottom on the inside, but I'm confident that L____ won't be snagging her fingers on any long floats up there.
I'm not expecting to have much time to blog (or do anything else) over the next month, but will check in when I can (if I've got anything to show / say).
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Sat on Their Park Bench Like Bookends
A really busy summer has morphed into a really busy fall! I am trying to get back into some regular routines--regular running, planned lunches and regular knitting have made some progress since Labor Day. Most of the knitting that I did over the summer was on sweaters, but I've realized that there are a lot of projects I abandoned in the spring that it's time to pick up again. Fitting other things into the routine (knit night & yoga) are next on the list, because both have been subject to fits and starts over the past three or four (or five?) months. And blogging, too, but that's sort of a follow on to the other things--I need to squeeze time in to blog, and I have to have something to blog about. It seems like I usually have one or the other, but rarely both at once. And of course fall is the busiest time of year at work, super crazy busy, which is why I'm looking for order, I suppose.
Anway, I've picked up some old friends and have been working on them! On the left, the second Yarrow sock, which has been almost-to-the-heel for a really long time. Very predictably, reaching the heel was enough to set it aside. The pattern is a really nice looking but simple rib that was my go-to project when I needed to NOT have to pay attention. Once I was close to the heel, it stopped serving that purpose. But the heel was turned last weekend, and now as long as I mildly watch the gusset decreases, it's a no-brainer until the toe, so it's once again a good take-along project.
On the right is a mitten that I started last December for a friend's birthday that it looks like I never blogged about. It's the third pair of Chevron Love (Rav Link) that I've started, and I set them aside for something else and then winter was over and I'm just getting back to them. It would be nice if I had them done for her next birthday (end of October), because I really meant to have them done by the end of 2009. The pattern is easy to knit and I've knit a couple of inches since starting them up again, so I'm trying to work on them a little every day so that they don't fall off of my radar again.
The first two pair of Chevron Love mittens that I've started are also not finished. The Appliance mittens are really, really almost done, but I need to reknit the top of the second mitten because it ended up being noticably different than the first one--I started the decreases in the wrong spot. They are earmarked for a friend who will need them weather-wise in the next couple of months, so I'm planning to transfer the Chevron #3 momentum to the Appliance mittens for an evening soon (maybe this weekend--it could happen). The Metropolis mittens are languishing because I need to rework the color sequence, and since they are probably for me, they are pretty low priority overall. I ran across them when looking for another project last week, and I still don't like the color scheme, so I'm glad I didn't soldier on with them.
With all of this good work on older projects, I did start a new project--a pair of socks. Will blog about them once I have a decent photo . . .
Monday, August 23, 2010
Something Blue is Done
I am not really a fan of headless torso shots, but I can't quite bring myself to post the hideous faces I was making while taking these with a tripod. Really, hideous.
Now that fall is in the air, I've finished my first sewing project of the summer. I'm not counting the dress I made in the 90's that I had my mom make into a skirt (the dress was an age-appropriate length in my 20s, but I'm not in my 20s anymore), because I didn't actually sew that myself. This is a simple shirt, with an elastic gathered neck. The pattern is Built by Wendy for Simplicity (pattern 3835), and after having it cut out over a month ago, I finally found the hour or so it took to sew. This was a test run for some special Japanese double-gauze fabric that I plan to use for a summer shirt, and it works well enough. I may wait to cut out another one, though, because I think that I might still find a better pattern to use, and since it's almost September, it's unlikely that I will get much use out of a summer shirt this year. Back of the queue, Japanese fabric! Back of the queue!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Long Time Gone!
Well, I didn't really mean to let a month go by without a single post, but I spent three long weekends in a row at three music festivals in three different states. I'm pretty happy to be home this weekend (and likely every weekend until mid-October), but I saw a lot of great music, ate a lot of great food, and spent time with some pretty great friends. And took a lot of crappy photos.
Here's what's in the photos above:
Top Row, Newport Folk Festival: What Cheer? Brigade waiting for a boat, Andrew Bird, Scenic View from beer pier, Avetts in a golf cart.
Middle Row, Solid Sound Festival: Wilco sign at Mass MoCA, knitting Blue Monday on the train to western MA, Jeff Tweedy, Wilco.
Bottom Row, Pickathon: Langhorne Slim rocking the barn, Frank Fairfield, Woody Pines
Bumbershoot will be the fifth and last festival of the summer, and thankfully it's on my home turf. In between now and then, I've got some knitting to work on, some sewing that's been neglected, baseball games to attend, and a whole lot of other stuff to catch up one. Busy, busy summer!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
I'm So Tired, My Mind is on the Brink
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the reason I'm so exhausted is due to the following schedule. Times are Pacific (though I start out on East Coast time):
Sunday, July 18:
4:00 am: depart hotel for airport
6:00 am: depart DC for Los Angeles (cheapest routing home)
11:30 am: after sleeping very little, but knitting a bit of Kira sleeve, arrive LAX
2:30 pm: depart LAX
5:00 pm: arrive Seattle
6:00 pm: arrive home
7:15 pm: depart home for Avett Brother concert (see top right and bottom left photos)
9 - 11 pm: rock out!
midnight: arrive home
Monday, July 19:
6:00 am: wake up
7:30 am - 6:30 pm: work
7:10 pm - 9:30 pm: watch baseball game at Safeco field & work on Kira sleeve (see top left and bottom right photos)
10:30 pm: arrive home
In other words, this week is a little more jam-packed that I'd like it to be, although I wouldn't give up the trip, or the concert (it was really, really good, and my seats were really, really great). I should probably have skipped the baseball game, but didn't have time to trade in the tickets before we went to DC. Boo. The weekend isn't looking a lot better, nor is next week or the week after. Man, I've got to schedule some sleep sometime!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Back from DC (but I left my knitting there)
As the blog title states, I'm back from vacation. I made an excellent start on Blue Monday, but left it (and my beautiful new Signature needles) at my brother's house. When his wife called to tell us, my brother wondered what I would do on the plane--he didn't know that I brought two extra projects to work on. Hopefully, I will have the sweater back soon, because I'm making two more trips to the east coast in August and it turns out that it's a great travel project, and it will be at least until I get to the waist shaping.
My brother's family took the visiting folks (my mom, another brother, and me) all over to see the sights, we really crammed a lot into the four full days we had in the greater DC area. We also experienced some of the nastiest summer weather you could hope to find, high 90s every day and really, really humid. And a thunderstorm that knocked out power (i.e. air conditioning) for 8 - 12 hours and shook loose a tree limb across the street from their house, falling on and crushing a neighbor's brand new Volvo. A lot of excitement!
It was honestly too hot to take a lot of photos, but here's what I've got above (all left to right):
Row 1: Monticello (the best tour we took, well worth the heat & long drive), and a gorgeous plaster ceiling from the Kenmore Plantation in Fredericksburg.
Row 2: The Capitol building in DC (we went to the National Gallery, which I love love love), and a carved fireplace from Kenmore Plantation.
Row 3: The Mariners flag in the outfield at Camden Yards in Baltimore, and former Mariner Adam Jones batting. I know that I'm complaining a lot about the heat, but it was 95 degrees at gametime, and 91 degrees when the game was over. That's too hot, people! We had seats that were 15 rows behind the Toronto Blue Jays' dugout, and I'm really glad we went to the game. The only other time I tried to go to Camden Yards, the game was rained out, which was a huge drag, so this was a great treat.
Maybe next year, we should think about visiting earlier in the summer or during the spring (or Christmas 2011?). My brother and his wife have three school-aged kids, so it's hard to find a time that works for everyone--maybe just Frieda and I should make a special trip out there one of these days, I know she'd like to meet the rest of those kids!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
How Does it Feel to Treat Me Like You Do?
I'm leaving to visit my brother's family in VA in a couple of hours, and although I didn't start packing until this morning, my vacation knitting plan has been in action for a few weeks. I've had Sabbatical in my queue since February, and somehow a long, complicated lace sweater converged with a yarn and needle buying opportunity and a little extra cash in my pocket, and I took the plunge. I bought my first pairs of Signature circulars (they are awesome), and beautiful Madelinetosh pashmina yarn, and got right to it. The swatch? There in the upper right? It's not very good. The gauge is too big, the color is too dark to show off the lace pattern. Also, the yarn is so dark that it makes it hard for me to read my lace, resulting in some errors. Or maybe not--it doesn't look quite right to me, but I can't really tell where I went wrong. This yarn and this pattern are not going to work for me, so that relationship is over. I will find a plain sweater for the yarn, and maybe I'll start saving up for the recommended yarn, which is gorgeous but even more pricey than the pashmina.
Since it was Sunday by the time it became clear that the Sabbatical wasn't going to work, the new-project alternative was to pull something out of the stash & give that a try. So I swatched for the Monday Morning Cardigan (Rav Link) in Dream in Color Classy that I've had for a year or so, using US5s. It looks good! I got gauge!! The downside? I need to alternate balls of yarn to blend the skeins, so I'm carrying two skeins with me--it didn't occur to me before I cast on that I should wind off smaller amounts, and now the project is packed. The upside is that after running out of tail during the long-tail cast-on, I remembered the advice that I should cast using two skeins. No way to run out, and since I need to alternate yarn, there isn't even any extra ends to worry about.
It's going to be hot in VA, so in addition to this big project I'm bringing the Iris Waves socks, and the second Kira sleeve. Let's hope that there's some relaxing knitting time in store--I could really use it.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Jump! Jump! Jump Around!
It occurs to me that except for multiple posts about the Super Purple Girl skirt (which still needs finishing), lately I've been writing about a different project pretty much every time I post on this blog. I really do jump around from project to project a lot, and although it means that I rarely finish anything, at least the knitting stays interesting & I don't have to make any quick decisions. For instance, after knitting an inch or so of the Inamorata tank earlier in the week, I completely lost interest in it just as I am getting to the point where I can determine whether or not my gauge / sizing will work out. Maybe the reason I've set it aside is that I suspect it won't, or maybe that it's just been too hot to focus on cables. I'm tempted to just rip the whole thing out, which could still happen. The yarn is too beautiful to waste on something that isn't going to fit, or that will never be finished.
Another old project that was set aside because I was worried about it is Carrieline. It's probably doubled in length since the last time I wrote about it (months ago), a few rows of straightforward stockinette at a time with a few stitches of i-cord edging on each side. I'm alternating skeins of Sundara Sport to keep the sweater from pooling, which is working beautifully except that when I switch the i-cord edging has tightened up in places. Especially in a place where I knit four rows of one color instead of two. See the puckering here:
So for months, whenever I've picked this up, all I can think about is whether or not I should really rip back hours and hours of work to the puckered spot, or whether I should plan to pick up and knit a buttonband (and somehow cut and tack down the tight spot). All the while, it's gotten more difficult to think about ripping out, because I'm getting farther and farther past the pucker. Recently I realized that before I do anything drastic I should just block that edge and see whether the problem works itself out. So last night, before settling in on the back porch with a glass of rosé, a purple sleeve, and a movie, I soaked that corner. After the movie ("An Education", which I highly recommend), I pinned it out, and here's how it looks this morning:
No ripping back required, no need to plan post-finishing surgery--definitely flat enough for me! It's such a relief that the simple solution, requiring the least amount of effort and intervention, is the one that worked out. This is also good news because this is the only knitting I've got going right now that doesn't require a chart or keeping track of rows or any patterning. I will measure my gauge in the blocked section against the pattern & use it to make sure I'm still on track. I think that I swatched for this, but it can't hurt to use a "real" row gauge to double check that I'm getting enough length.
I am still really loving this yarn, even more so now that I see how beautiful it looks when it's all nice and blocked out. The three photos above, taken in different light at different times of the day, shows how the color shifts from blue to grey in an interesting way. It makes me wish a little that I'd taken a bigger color risk when I bought this yarn (bright red, anyone?), but this is a color that I will wear a lot and that isn't a regular boring grey. Now I just need to knit the other 70% of the sweater, and I'll be all set!
Friday, July 09, 2010
Hot in the City, Hot in the City Tonight!
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Oh when I look back now, that summer seemed to last forever
Unfortunately, the skein of yarn is gigantic, so I'm not sure if this will be a great project to take on an upcoming family trip to Virginia, even though it's very climate appropriate. I should start thinking about what else I should take, so there's time get it together. Any suggestions? I could also use summery reading suggestions--I just finished the Dragon Tattoo series, and nothing else I've started has been as gripping.
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Monday, July 05, 2010
Excuse Me, While I Kiss This Guy
I've not been blogging a lot, but I have been knitting a lot of purple stockinette. No, not the Super Purple Girl skirt (cast off this weekend! tons of finishing left!), but Kira, which I haven't posted about since early May. I've knit the body (all in one piece) up to the armholes, and am about halfway through the first sleeve. I lengthened the body by about an inch, which I'm usually too impatient to do, and I knit all of the waist shipping, which I usually avoid in favor of obscuring my fattest parts. We will see how that works out. I suspect that it may still end up shorter than I like (it's meant to be a short cardi), and more shaped than I like, but I'll deal with that when I know for sure.
For some reason, this project was what I pulled out whenever the purple skirt got to be too too boring to work on. It seems odd, given that it's also stockinette, with only the purl rows and waist shaping to add interest. Given that my knitting time has been a little limited in recent months (work pressure, starting yoga, & continuing to run are all interfering), that little bit of interest has been plenty. Time to adjust to slightly more stimulation, though--take a look at that sleeve:
I'm really pleased with this project so far, despite my various doubts and complaints. I've definitely made a lot of progress in a fairly short period of time, while having less knitting time than usual and not working on it exclusively. And maybe by the time it's ready to be finished, summer will have arrived and I will be able to put that part off for while. Wouldn't that be nice?
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Hope Your Fourth is Jam-tastic!
It struck me earlier this week that if I didn't get cracking on making some jam, the local berries would be gone. It was a hard realization, given that we've only had a handful of days over 70 degrees this summer so far, and I've been spending way too much time working to see July coming. It's here, though, and after a long afternoon of canning, I've got 18 jars of jam. I wish that I'd remembered that I linked to recipes LAST July, because I winged it a little. I made Strawberry Lime using a recipe that came with the box of pectin, and then I made raspberry-strawberry without pectin. Both are delicious, but the rasp-straw is a little bit runny. Live and learn. And if I can still get raspberries next weekend, maybe I'll try the recipe I made last year again--it's hard to have too much homemade jam on hand.
Happy Fourth!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
So Sorry, Super Purple Girl
J____'s birthday has come and gone, and her skirt is still not quite finished, along with my blog posts about Sasquatch, and some baby gifts that really need work. I'm not finishing much of anything these days, because I'm spending a lot of quality time with some Excel models & in a ton of meetings. I'm hoping that this lighten up a bit in July. Really, really hoping. Just like I'm hoping that this
is enough yarn to finish. I've knit a picot row & 3.5 rows afterward, and should knit a few more rows before binding off. I may just knit to the beginning of the round, though, and use another color in the he, to make sure I've got enough of the dark blue to sew the hem (or tack down the live stitches). Wish me luck!
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Note: Not one to disappoint a 5 year old, I found the perfect baseball hat for her. Purple, sparkly, and with (I kid you not) a big purple unicorn next to the Seattle Mariners' logo. Only available in youth sizes, unfortunately.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sasquatch Day 1: Sunburn > Cold Wind Storm
Oh, Sasquatch--why did I ever doubt you? Why haven't I been back sooner? O.K., I'll tell you why--camping and freezing cold wind when I went in 2007. This year, I'm not camping, and the weather was ideal yesterday, and I knew to bring extra clothes for when it cooled down after sunset. My biggest problem was totally missing my chest when applying sunscreen, so I've got a bit of a burn (after silently mocking people with sunburns all day) that I will need to keep covered.
Here's what's in the photos, left to right, starting with the top row:
Row 1: Laura Marling, Fool's Gold, The Gorge
Row 2: O.K. Go, Ken Stringfellow of the Posies, the Blue Sea Sock
Row 3: Broken Social Scene, The National, the Hold Steady
Row 4: The Gorge, two Vampire Weekend photos
My clear favorite of the day was Vampire Weekend, who I haven't seen before (but will be seeing again in August). Very high energy set, high energy crowd, and I was able to get right down front. Dear Vampire Weekend--maybe it wasn't nice to say you're the new Haircut 100. I apologize, I love you.
The Hold Steady also impressed me--I really like their album "Stay Positive," but wasn't sure what to expect live. Also very high energy & crowd friendly, they really perked me up after seeing a different band that I had high hopes for that were kind of boring. It was nice to see the Posies, it's probably been 10 years since I last saw them (and 22 or 23 years since I first saw them).
I would like to have gotten a better look at Mumford & Sons, but their stage was mobbed and I couldn't see a thing. I definitely liked what I heard from afar.
Time to start getting ready for Day 2 of Sasquatch. Item #1: better sunscreen coverage!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Let it Grow, Now
On Sunday, I dug into the third section at Safeco Field. The game was the second blowout we've seen this month, and we've yet to see a win this season. Not encouraging, not even a little bit.
At least the weather was pleasant and I'm more than an inch into the section:
Second Inning (Padres 1, Mariners 0):
Fifth Inning (Padres 2, Mariners 0):
Eighth Inning (Padres 8, Mariners 1):
Unless I can miraculously whip through the rest of the skirt this week, I'll be taking it with me to the Sasquatch Festival over Memorial Day. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of great bands (all three days), but am not sure I'm prepared for three days at the gorge with tens of thousands of dirty
As boring as this stockinette has been, I have my eye on Olive (Rav Link), an adult-sized sweater that's a bit of yoke and then pretty much all stockinette. It's such a pretty pattern, though! It's queued up, and I'm trying to figure out what yarn to use, and whether I should start it immediately instead of finishing this skirt or any of the other projects I have underway. Maybe it's time to fix the problem with Passiflora, and wrap that up first? Or to keep up with Kira, which is about 30% complete? Maybe start more medallions for Blue Celandine? Too many options, but fortunately or unfortunately the yarn I'd like for Olive isn't carried by any of the local stores I frequent, so I'll likely hold off for a little bit at least, unless I decide that something in the stash would work out. Hmmm, there's a thought.
__________
"Let it Grow, Now": Pianosaurus, "Let it Grow".



