Emphatic Knitting

Committee Sweater 2010

2010-03-01T19:16:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Now that the Knitting Olympics are over, Committee is hanging over my head. Now we're on to the annual Committee Sweater. I bought the yarn almost 3 years ago, the first time I went the Shepard's Harvest with Aubree, Tess, and Tracy.

It's sinfully soft merino from Blue Hills Alpacas and Fiber Mill. (The color is really orange there- it's much more red in person, but I'm struggling to get a good picture). I loved it so much that I bought all they had at the festival, and then got them to send me more. And I've been searching for the perfect sweater pattern ever since.

Enter Twist Collective, and Audrey in Unst. A perfect transition piece, and something completely wearable both at work and to social events, etc.

Swatching happened before the Olympics, and now I'm working the hem. It is a much finer weight sweater than anything else I've knit during committee, so it might not get finished during committee, but I think it'll be worthwhile.

Olympic Knitting Complete

2010-02-28T20:08:00.001-08:00

Kathleen-
I was down to the wire, but I finished my olympic mittens during the closing ceremonies tonight, just as they were ending.

Ends still to be woven in.

Knitting Olympics 2010

2010-02-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
So apparently I'm blogging once a month (once in Jan, once in Feb, even if the posts are separated by 6 weeks!).

In keeping with tradition, I'm knitting stranded mittens for the Knitting Olympics. These are a bit more complicated than my project 4 years ago, but since the whole point is challenging yourself, and I must be a better stranded knitter than I was 4 years ago, right?

I'm knitting NHM#8 (Ravelry link) from Selbuvotter, and adoring them. They were meant to be a very large mittens as a present, but apparently my combo of very tight knitting and fine fingering yarn made them about half the predicted size.

My sizing issues mean that the mittens fit me in circumfence, but would have been too short for your small hands. Mucking about with charts led me to add a third snowflake, and now they fit me, so I guess I'm getting mittens out of the deal!

These pics were taken before the weekend of knitting, but give a sense of the pattern and yarn:

Mitten #1 is done, but for the thumb, and tonight I should finish 1 of the 3 snowflakes on mitten 2, so I might just squeek in and finish them for the Olympics.

Just in time, too, since Committee starts next week, and I'll need to be working on my Committee Sweater!

I'll try and pop in with an update on these and my committee sweater before the craziness starts...

Happy 2010!

2010-01-02T09:33:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
We both fell off the blogging wagon this year, but I found that I miss it, so though I'm not much for resolutions, I figured I'd try to start occasionally blogging again in 2010.

The turning of the decade, and the many ensuing blog posts, makes me reflective (yes, mathematicians, I know that the decade doesn't technically change for another year, but this seems like the time to reflect).

I hadn't really thought about it until this week, but it does turn out to be a momentous decade. I graduated from high school, went to college, graduated from college, worked as an EMT, a 911 dispatcher, a political fundraiser, and a college admissions officer.

I traveled halfway around the world, and all around the country for fun and for work. I averaged getting on a plane every month (though it was mostly much more concentrated than that).

I met amazing people, and gained amazing friendships (including you!).

I met Mike, and by the end of the decade, we'd moved into the house we bought together.

I lost one of my favorite relatives to cancer, and watched the ripple effects on my family. Both of my parents had a stay in the ICU, reminding me of how fragile health can be, and how lucky I am that they both made it. We lost friends and family to illness and tragic accidents, and watched friends have children, bringing a whole new set of joy.

I learned all kinds of new skills, from academic research and public speaking to driving, saving lives, spinning, and weaving. I knit a ton, keeping me sane through all the transitions.

10 years ago, I welcomed in the year 2000 standing on the edge of Grand Canyon, 2 years ago, Mike and I celebrated New Years Eve at the bottom (and went to bed at 8pm!). This year we were sitting on the couch in our house.

So what are my resolutions for the next decade? To keep my life in balance. To travel for fun, and spend my time with people I care about.

For 2010 in particular, to spend more time with my spinning wheel, knit more projects that I love, and use up my Sock Summit stash. To blog, from time to time.

Sock Summit!

2009-08-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
I'm so glad you dragged me to Sock Summit (though to be honest, I was pretty happy to be dragged!).

Following is a selection of photos, with more to come (I haven't photographed all my yarn yet!).

Flying into Seattle:

Name Badge:

Portland welcomes Sock Summit:

Delicious cupcakes from Saint Cupcake:

Book Signing with Nancy Bush(!)

Ravelry Party! With Shetland Triangle Shawls:

Barbara Walker and her AMAZING lecture:

Matching yarn:

Matching Socks (and Clogs!):

My spinning class with Abby and Denny, who are hard to take pictures of since they're always moving! Sandi Wiseheart was in the class too (but I'm choosing not to post the picture I took of her, since apparently I can't make it non-blurry). After accosting her in the elevator when we first got there, it was nice to have her in class!

Sock Team overlooking the Marketplace:

The amazing luminary panel:

Steph and Tina doing thank-yous, just before singing Happy Birthday to Elizabeth Zimmerman.

I'm still jet-lagged, and need to go through all the new yarn tonight, but it was a fantastic trip!

Bike Racing

2009-06-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
Long time no blog! the house-hunting on top of a full-time job and a very busy summer (including an exciting visit for you), leaves very little time or inspiration for blogging.

This weekend is packed, but last night we went to see one of the races that is part of the Minnesota Bike Festival. A friend of Mike's from HS is racing in the women's events, so we went with friends to cheer her on.

Having never attended a bike race, much less a crit (where the riders do many laps on a short course), I didn't know what to expect...though I certainly did not expect the convertible/front car:
Because they raced on city streets in Uptown, including tight corners, measures were taken to protect the racers from obstacles such as fire hydrants:

Here are the leaders rounding a corner:

The pack spread out behind them:
Mike's friend Anna zooming by (she's the one with #71 on her back):
And the finish:
It was good fun, and lovely way to spend an hour on a Friday evening.

And what bike race would be complete without a visit from the mascot of the Minnesota Wild?
Because as a spectator, you get a minute or so break every lap during which there are no bicyclists going by, I brought along my knitting, and got lots done on my Sunshine Socks (Rav link)

Top of the World

2009-05-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

The trillium are in bloom! There is a mountain across the lake from where The Aunties live and the trail up it has hundreds in bloom right now. Trillium are white flowers, but as they age they turn purple. Last weekend all of them were totally white and this weekend some had started to turn.

Naturally, last weekend I forgot my camera. This time I was prepared. This is the view from about halfway up.
This is looking straight across the lake.While in MN and AL I missed my home state and totally love to go out and revel in it.

Knitting? I suppose there has been some of that. I'm working on the Whisper cardi. The delightful Melissa gifted me with some yarn in a beautiful lavender. It's about 3/4 the way complete.
All my other projects are stalled. I am not liking any of them enough to finish but don't really feel like ripping them out. Sigh.

Happy End Note: I get to come visit in 34 days!

Belated Blogiversary

2009-04-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

Happy 3 year anniversary to US (a few days late).

Year 3 is leather. According to Ravelry there is no leather yarn. Guess we'll have to buy both yarn and something leather (shoes? handbag? both?) to celebrate.

My favorite (wedding) anniversary gift was from you on our third anniversary. The package showed up and it was very very small and compact. I was then somewhat nervous. It turned out to be personalized leather coasters. So delightful. Thanks by the way.

I hope a week ago yesterday- the official 3rd year of Emphatic Knitting- was delightful and when I come visit in June we'll be sure to have cake.

Be a TreeHugger!

2009-04-15T16:36:00.001-07:00

Hey Flan,

I am the Lorax I speak for the trees...

A quick post to celebrate Arbor Day!!
(Photo from my trip to see The Brother last November. These are exotic DC trees)

There are lots of free tree distribution places around my great state, and I hope other communities have them as well.

So go get yourself a tree... or maybe just go hug one- but definitely go get "The Lorax" from the library!

Spring Cleaning

2009-04-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

During my visit you asked about the shawl I'd done for The Gma's Xmas gift and I realized I'd never put it on the blog. Not that this is a surprise to anyone. I seem to have finish-nesia in that whenever I finish something I immediately disavow any and all knowledge of it ever occurring. They might have happened, but no one has proof. There are never any photos and since I usually give away anything and everything I knit, they can't be traced back to me.

While perusing the Ravelry boards I found out this is not the normal way of things. Yet another way in which I am out there in left field whilst everyone else is partying around home plate.

Anyway, I realized I actually took photos of the Shetland Triangle I made out of the beautiful SeaSilk you so generously gifted. The Gma is nearly 92 and totally knit worthy. The last wrap I made for her was out of a light gray/ white and I'm not sure she could see it very well, which makes the bright pink a delightful choice. Isn't she cute?!The Mommy and I went to visit her on Valentine's Day and I found it displayed on her favorite chair. I knew she would rarely wear what I had made, but what I did not expect was that she would turn them in to impromptu furniture cozies.

Lastly, it's finally and officially spring here in the PNW. The daffodils are up and trumpeting its arrival. With the end of the winter snow comes the beginning of flip-flop season in my world, but it also heralds the beginning of hiking season for The Aunties. We convinced The Mommy to go with us and here they all are.I love that this is 30 minutes from the house. I wasn't sure I would be all that in to hiking as it conjured scary images of peeing in the woods, but then I found out they just meant going on a walk up the side of a hill and, well, I can do that.

There are other projects which have been completed, but they are for some of the spring and summer babies and their mommas haven't received them yet. Once I have the green light to send them off to their final destinations there will be photo evidence (maybe).

What a Suprise!

2009-03-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
What a fantastic surprise!

Like Kathleen said, we went to the zoo, where I snapped this picture of Kathleen and Mike:

As well as this picture of Kathleen's favorite animal (that's a moose, for those who aren't up on their ungulates)

And of Kathleen with a statue of her favorite animal:

I ended up buying the yarn we picked out for 2 pairs of stranded mittens, and started the first:

(I can't resist the cute picture of our friend Sue's cat playing with my yarn:
And we threw a successful baby shower at knitting, where I gifted the mom to be with the TINY baby booties I made while you were here:
Apparently Minnesota decided it's not spring yet, as we're supposed to get a rain/sleet/snow mix, so I leave you with this sunny picture of a leopard from our trip to the zoo.

Surprise!

2009-03-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

As you now know, your big birthday surprise this year was... ME! M and I had a delightful time planning my cross country weekend jaunt and, for the record, I had an utterly delightful time. Here you both are looking happy to see me even though I arrived at a truly ungodly hour.
For anyone who doesn't know (and before this weekend, that included me), Flan really likes to go to the zoo. The weather was nice and Sunday off we went.

This tiger is amazingly gigantic. Ergo, not all of him/ her would fit into the frame. Well, he/ she might have if I'd been a better photographer, but I'm choosing to over look that possibility. Really freakin' big animal.The zoo has three bears in this particular habitat. I think this one is a golden bear, but I very well could be making that up.I love raptors. Birding seems so passive and calm, until you remember these bad asses. Here we are at Flan's most favorite animal, the otter. She likes them so much we went back twice. The second time we were in time to watch the keepers handing them frozen fish patties in the shape of stars. Total replica of a natural habitat if you ask me.
The rest of the weekend was just as delightful as the zoo. There was some crazy good food, awesome people and a whole lotta yarn. So sad that I had to come home again.

Birthday Month!

2009-03-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan (who is probably knee deep in committee),

Happy Birthday to The Sister!!! My one and only darling sister is celebrating her birthday today. Well, we're all celebrating, just not all together. Her plans for the day, 1: do not go to work, 2: go to the spa, 3: buy shoes. I've taught her well.

Here's a picture of my lovely sister. (If my future BIL is reading- this is NOT her W dress, which is, as we have explained ad nauseum, bright purple with feathers)It's been awhile since I regaled you with any mention or photo of my utterly delightful niece, LittleBabyGirl. So neglectful of me as her doting auntie, but on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure that The Brother really wants that many pictures of his darling daughter all over the internet, so I'll try to be selective.Isn't she adorable?!?!?! Of course she is. Happy sigh.

Knitting update. Gracie chose either option 1 or 3. I had both patterns and yarns all ready to go so not a moment would be lost when the decision was rendered. I chose the third option, pulled out the Jaeger Siena and was off. Actually, I turned out to be off pattern and not off to the races. The deceptively simple 4 row repeat soundly kicked my arse and after three separate start-overs, I declared it "not meant to be". Three strikes and you're on permanent time out.

I pulled out the yarn for Option 1 (which turns out to be "Lyndon Hill" and not "Bristol". Memory, it seems, really is the first thing to go). I was delighted by the discovery as I think the Pima Cotton/ Silk blend will be much better suited for a late July baby than one of alpaca/ silk. The pattern is as heavenly as the yarn and, by repeat count I am 1/3 of the way through!

YAY!

2009-02-23T08:07:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

Sorry for "going dark" like that with no warning. It's been a busy couple of months adjusting to being back in my beloved Pacific Northwest.

Now, for some truly exciting news- Gracie's having a boy! She has asked me to make the baby blanket and I had 5 options- two for girls and three for boys, more for the boys because that's what I was predicting she'd have. I've sent the choices to her and she'll pick whenever she leaves the doctor's office, runs around and finds all things blue, gets home, has a nap and then finally checks her email.

Here are the three that I had picked:
1. An "Ostrich Plume" from one of the Vogue Knitting to go Baby Blanket books. The yarn would be the sumptuous "Bristol"- a delightful alpaca silk blend.2. I have been dying to make this cabled baby blanket of Debbie Bliss' ever since I first saw the pattern years ago. Inconveniently, everyone's had girls and the Rowan yarn I have that would be perfect is blue. Maybe it'll finally get it's chance!

3. Lastly, the "Heirloom Silk Shawl" from Erika Knight's "Baby Bloom"- though I think it's in "Knitting for Two" as well. There's a truly beautiful Jaeger mercerized cotton in a pewter blue which would be so nice.
So who knows what she'll pick. I'm excited about knitting any of them and am really honored she'd ask me to make her son's baby blanket. I have been trying hard to stave off startitis, having what I feel is far too many WIPs (as always), but knitting for babies doesn't count, so I can cast on just as many things as my little heart and big old stash desires. Happy sigh.

Water, Concerts, and History.

2009-01-19T16:10:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
This is the scene outside my front door as I type:

When Mike left to run errands today, he called to tell me there was a water main break across the street. I dutifully called it in, and was told that water mains were breaking all over the city (it's comparatively warm, and apparently that means we find out what broke during the cold snap), and that it would be a wait, since water wasn't flowing into houses. Fair enough.

Several hours later, they finally showed up. By then, Mike and I had gone down to look at the low spot near our house, where there was better than 1 foot deep of mixed water and ice. As cars drove through the water/ice combo, they were spraying water all over the nearby parked cars. I don't envy those people when they try and get into their cars.

They've closed the street outside, and they're currently using a backhoe and drilling up our street. (The house is shaking). On the positive side, we haven't lost water pressure yet. I'll let you know how it all turns out. Oh my. The drill just hit something very loud and hard.

On an unrelated, but important note: I watched yesterday's webcast of the We Are One concert, and I have to share my two favorite moments. The YouTube Links seem to be dead, but if you can find them, they're well worth watching.
1. The opening song, Bruce Springsteen backed by a gospel choir, singing one of my favorite of his songs, The Rising.
2. The second to last song of the concert, Pete Seeger, his grandson, and Bruce Springsteen leading hundreds of thousands of people in a sing-along of This Land is Your Land. I cried buckets.

Tommorrow, I'll sit in my office and watch history happen. I can't wait. I truly think that no matter who someone voted for, they can't help but be moved by the sight. (I'm also pretty excited that for the first time since I was old enough to vote, the candidate I voted for is the one who will stand up and take the oath of office).

Committee Sweater

2009-01-14T08:14:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I'm reviewing my options and preparing for the committee sweater. I need to make a decision by mid-February, and cast on so that I'm prepared when committee comes around.

The major requirements of a committee sweater are: interesting enough that I can knit on it practically nonstop for two weeks. Simple enough that I can knit it without constantly looking at my knitting or consulting the directions. An occasional glance down at the pattern or to fix a mistake is fine, but constant reading of the pattern is not.

Here's a little preview of some of the options I'm considering, in no particular order. I'm linking to pictures, or to Ravelry pages.

The Amanda Jacket from the book A Fine Fleece.
I love the shawl collar on this jacket, as well as the texture of the main body. Current yarn plan: Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL in a gorgeous blue-green.

Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert.
I've loved this jacket ever since it came out. Current yarn plan: Cascade 220 in a lovely burgundy.

Phyllo Yoked Pullover by Norah Gaughan. I probably would never have looked at this sweater without seeing Sarah's gorgeous version in person (Ravelry link). I like how hers is more tightly fitted, and tightens up the collar so it doesn't fall off your shoulders. I'd also add a bit of waist shaping. Yarn: I don't know. Possibly the very soft RED merino I bought at the Shepard's Harvest festival.

Radiance Cabled Jacket by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. I'm linking to the Ravelry page on this, because I think the publicity photos don't do this jacket justice. Yarn yet to be determined.

Tangled Yoke Cardigan by Eunny Jang. The only problem is that I think the cable chart on the yoke wouldn't be very committee friendly. Planned yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed in a lovely pale blue.

So what do you (both the Kathleen you and the blog readers you) think? Which sweater would be the most useful, and walk the line between helping my survive committee, but not require too much thought?

Knitting Goals, 2009 Edition

2009-01-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I got so wrapped up in actually seeing you in December, I actually thought I'd blogged when I hadn't!

I thought I better put my goals up in writing, in an attempt to create pressure on myself.

Goal #1: Knit up some of the stash. I'm not taking a "no new yarn" pledge or anything, but I'd like to use up at least a sweater's worth of my stash (as well as some of the other yarn!). This leads nicely to...

Goal #2: Knit another sweater in committee. I've got yarn in the stash for, and am considering, a bunch of different sweaters...I'll do a little preview in my next post.

Goal #3 Finish up some languishing projects. I've got some stuff that's been on the needles for far too long. To that end, I recently picked up my Rogue again (that's a Ravelry link), and am making good progress. The body is done, one sleeve is done, and I'm working on sleeve #2:
I'd also like to finish up the vest I gave my mom (on the needles!) for Christmas. And then I have a couple of shawls and scarves on the needles I'd like to finish, as well as a couple of pairs of socks. I did have to start a new pair so I'd have some mindless knitting for concerts and movies and other dark places:That's J.Knits sock yarn I bought in Texas this year. But I worked yesterday on my Lighthouse Gansey socks (Rav Link) that have been long stalled, in an attempt to get my patterned socks up to speed!

And then there's some other long-term projects, some of which must remain secret for now.

It was lovely to see you in December, and I can't wait to see you in June in MN!

Merry Christmas to ALL

2008-12-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

To Flan and Everyone:

I hope you and yours have a delightful December 25, with whomever and whatever that may bring.

From Kathleen, who is enjoying every single snowflake here in the Pacific Northwest.

Plan B

2008-12-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

So somehow I thought that with a transcontinental journey, I would somehow warp the space/time continuum. Somehow, the SEVEN Christmas projects I needed to work on would get done by space warping, creating eight of me- one to drive and seven to knit- all whilst speeding up my general knitting rate until it fit in to the time allotted.

However, it seems the general fabric of space and time chose not to follow my plan. This means the knitting is NOWHERE near where it should be. To top it all off, I am so tired and on the brink of illness I have COMPLETELY STOPPED CARING.

Yup, don't care any more. I'm seeing YOU later this week! BIG HORAY!
However, do you think I could find the needles that I need to pick up around the neck for your supersecretproject?
Nope.
Do you think I could get The Mommy's Cardigan out of the bag and slog along the body- straight stockinette which should be good for illness?
Nope.
I have ONE legwarmer for The Sister completed. I had her try it on to see if she liked it. She did. Now I have the other one to do. Think I can be bothered?
Not in the slightest.

What am I working on? A Swallotail Shawl for LittleBabyGirl to be wrapped in while christened. I decided non-white was better than white, so it's indigo. Very pretty, very soft Malabrigo lace. The thing is... THEY DON'T HAVE A DATE FOR THE CHRISTENING. It could happen at any point - or at NO point. CHRISTMAS, on the other hand, has a definite date.

PLAN B:
Have decided to warp the space/time continuum my own self. Have decided to deny that Christmas has a definite date and am going to classify it in the "wedding" category. According to Emily Post, a person has a year after the wedding in which to give the gift.

I will have 364 days from this December 25 to get this year's gifts completed and they will STILL not be late. At some point during the next year, mysterious packages wrapped in holiday paper will arrive at their destination, hopefully bringing joy and really "keeping Christmas throughout the year". Merry Christmas! It's July and here's some Wool! Festive, no?

THIRTY (30)

2008-11-25T17:11:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

Just as a public service, not to frighten anyone: Christmas Day is exactly thirty (30) days from TODAY.

Baby!

2008-11-15T15:01:00.001-08:00

Hey Flan,

In a pure fit of Auntly necessity, I purchased a plane ticket and flew to observe the tiny creature The Brother and SIL produced. I can honestly say they've done quite an amazing job!

Here is my self portrait:

We were a little worried as LittleBabyGirl was not putting on weight, however, she seems to have gotten over that and we are all very excited. Here is a stretched out shot of the string bean:As I had never visited our nation's capital, The Brother and I left LittleBabyGirl with her mother and grandmother and did a little bit of drive-by tourism. We observed the Washington Monument through the Mini's moon roof.
I took a picture of the IRS building out of spite.

Finally, we went by the White House. It looks just like it does on The West Wing, only without Toby, Josh, CJ, Leo & Charlie (sad).
The Brother and SIL left me to babysit! Can you believe it?!?! This was after I informed them I would be the Auntie that would teach her all kinds of inappropriate phrases. They had lots of faith in their daughter not to listen and she slept practically the whole time.
Isn't she precious?!??! I'm so smitten.

A post script on the first photo here and on her announcement photo:

The pink flower hat was from "Itty Bitty Hats"- an excellent book that everyone should buy immediately. I've knit practically half the book for LittleBabyGirl already. I had some pink alpaca whose yarn label is long gone (I believe the phrase "catalina" was on their somewhere, it's worsted wt). I made the smallest size.

The purple one above is from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts". I used an Australian yarn called "Heirloom". It's their cotton and I did it on 6s.

With baby hats I pretty much don't check gauge, which is unusual for me. Most of the time I am extremely paranoid trying to get the numbers to come out just so, but with baby hats I simply can't be bothered. For her, I've been making the smallest sizes (which are still far too big) in whatever needle size is recommended and whatever yarn happens to be lying around. Thankfully, so far she hasn't seemed to mind.

Vote!

2008-11-04T07:34:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I voted this morning, and I have to say it was inspiring. Walking to our polling place (we're lucky enough to live less than a block away), I wondered where the heck all the people were coming from. There were literally people walking toward the polling place from every direction. I've never seen it so crowded.

I knitted in line, and chatted with various neighbors, and they moved us through quite quickly (40 minutes, start to finish).

I'm cautiously optimistic that Obama is going to win, and though all the polls are in my favor, what liberal doesn't worry, after the last two presidential elections?

So anyway, the point of this post is to tell people to vote! This election is important, and regardless of your position, I refuse to listen to complaints if you chose not to vote!

I made the Hat...

2008-11-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

... They made the BABY!
Little Baby Girl is HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Future Niece is now HERE Niece!!!!
Little Baby showed up yesterday morning.

Isn't she beautiful and perfect and EVERYTHING!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm thrilled to bits to be an Auntie and want to knit her even more. Thank goodness she was born during a cold season.

Bartlett for President?

2008-10-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
I got to work Monday, and my students told me that Martin Sheen (aka Jed Bartlett, my favorite president ever), was visiting campus Tuesday.

So I arranged for my lunch break to fall during his visit, and heard an impassioned Mr. Sheen talk though a power outage (which meant no microphones, he just projected). He was funny, smart, and compassionate, and even though it was Martin Sheen, and not Jed Bartlett talking, I couldn't help but think of how much hope and eloquence I found in the West Wing when it was on tv.

Here are the best of my pictures from the event (you can tell which Senate candidate he's campaigning for by the backdrop).

Given the election, I suspect there'll be more political posts from me in the next few weeks, and I think anyone who knows me can guess that I'll be voting for Obama...but I still sometimes wish that someday I'll walk into the voting booth, and see Jed Bartlett's name on my ballot.

I'm a Bad Blogger

2008-10-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
Ugh, apparently this wasn't my best summer/early fall for blogging. Summer busyness combined with an early start to the school year here, the RNC, and Fall travel season have completely killed my will to blog. But today, I want to blog, so we'll go with it!

Since my last post: I turned this:

Into this:

and filled my freezer with fresh pasta sauce.

We went to an excellent concert:

Went frisbee golfing in northern MN:

Played with bumper boats:
We had a great baby shower for Maya:
for whom we made a fun group blanket, and I made the tiniest and most adorable baby booties (if I do say so myself).

I had occasion to drive into downtown Minneapolis before dawn:
I just got back from Texas (ack, Texas!) where I saw a giant statue of Sam Houston on the side of the interstate.

I also explored 2 yarn stores in Houston, one of which I just saw the sign for out of the corner of my eye, the other of which I sought out. Both were great, both contributed to my stash.

And somehow, by the time I got back from Houston, it was Fall in Minnesota.
Nothing like autumnal weather to get the knitting going. I'm working on Christmas presents, a long abandoned scarf, and itching to start something new for mindless knitting.

September Already?

2008-09-07T06:07:00.001-07:00

Hey Flan, Wherever the summer went I do not know. I sort of remember a work induced haze of screaming children and angry parents. Thankfully, all the "little darlings" are back in school and work is back to the regular chaos and insanity and not the extra strength version.

We dodged the bullet on Hurricane Gustav and are now watching for Ike. Who knew that so many people could discuss the potential doom and gloom for so long? My co-workers and customers alike had one topic of discussion and all the focus on what "the storm" could do was very freaky to those of us who had never experienced one. My preparations largely centered on having enough wine in the house. I was told not to buy anything that had to be refrigerated, so I bought red instead of white. Then I decided that might not be enough and bought some gin as well. Our part of the Gulf Coast was fine and in our little section we didn't even lose power. Fingers crossed we are lucky enough again.

We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary by going to the Georgia Aquarium and looking at all the fishes. Apparently, fishes are romantic. Seeing as I am generally terrified by all things aquatic, I felt that inviting The MIL along would be a fine idea. She had a great time and the fishes are rather impressive.

Naturally, I knit on the way up, the way back, and a little whilst we were there. Delightfully, The MIL asked if I would like to go to a yarn store and I got a little trip to Knitch. There was some beautiful yarn that I got to make a little something for my future niece and a lovely time was had.

Sadly, my knitting mojo seems to be sputtering. I picked up stitches along a neckline and, when I had over 100 too many, decided it would be fine. 450 stitches at 1x1 ribbing and an inch and a quarter later it's not fine. That one's on time out.

I got some knitpicks Crayon and made all the bits of a pullover and then lost interest in making up, so that's on time out too.

I'm working on a project for the future niece, but it's worsted wt on size 6s. Very slow going. Bribe myself to work on it.

Started the Cables & Os from "No Sheep for You" for The Mommy's Christmas present. Started a sleeve as a swatch. Found out that the guage I have is 1/2 an inch too small. Time out again.

In sheer desperation, I started the February Lady Sweater for me and had to rip back and start again. So far, looking ok, but now I'm paranoid and overly cautious.

I have had to delegate the laundry basket for all of the items on time out. There were too many when just lying around the house. Today, I am going to try and organize a bit. Hope everything is going well.

J

2008-08-21T16:32:00.000-07:00

is for Jam. Yes, I'm still behind, but still working on catching up. I grew up making jam with my mother, who made it with her grandmothers. It solves a perennial gift giving dilemma, and provides a delicious taste of summer in the midst of a Minnesota winter.

This is my jam total so far this summer (minus a few already given as gifts). On the table for this picture are 78 jars of jam.

There's raspberry
Peach
Blueberry
Strawberry
and Rhubarb (this is more like spread than jam as it was an experiment that didn't quite set).
Still to come? Grape Jelly if the concord grapes survived our weird summer of weather.

Most of my jam lives in closed boxes to keep it out of the light. But I keep a selection in our little corner cabinet to grab quickly for gifts:
Seeing all that jam on the table makes me feel a great sense of accomplishment for the hours spent prepping fruit and cooking jam. Plus I know how much I'll appreciate the fresh fruit taste come winter. Store bought jam just can't compare.

I

2008-08-19T11:13:00.001-07:00

is for iPod.

Mike and I gave each other iPod Nanos for Christmas last year, and though it may not be the most romantic gift ever, it ranks up there in the most used for both of us. My blue one accompanied me every day during reading season, allowing me to block out noisy coffee shops, office chaos, and concentrate on my files.

It also was key when I was training for the Grand Canyon New Years hike, getting me through quite a few long workouts, both at the gym and while traveling.

This fall, my iPod will travel with me to at least 3 states, making plane rides and airports more bearable, and catching me up on books I've not had time to read.

Which brings me to one of my favorite things about my iPod. Although I'm capable of (and regularly do) knit while reading from either a computer screen or a book, there's something very pleasant about listening to an audio book while knitting away. So I is for iPod, my faithful companion.

PS: See that extra layer of plastic on this thing? Those that know me are aware that a) I am a klutz who drops things and b) that I like to be able to just throw things in my bag and not worry about them. The hard plastic protective case accomodates both of these tendencies.

H

2008-08-17T19:31:00.000-07:00

....is for Hedgehog. When I was a kid, my family took care of the science department hedgehog (creatively named Sonic) for an entire summer. What I remember the most of that is the snuffling noises Sonic would make.

A couple of weeks ago, Jen brought her hedgehog, Mina to Knit Night. She was on her way somewhere else with her, and it was too warm to leave her in the car, so we had a special guest at Knit Night. As you can see, we were all enchanted with her.

Here she is with Carly:
With Maggie:
In close-up:
And finally, with Jen:
(oh, and my memories of the snuffling? Totally accurate.)

Playing Catch-up, Again?

2008-08-15T06:12:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
My summer blogging laziness apparently took over, since I haven't posted in almost a month. There's been knitting and spinning, but mostly there's been being busy.

So, a few things I missed:

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Graduation to the Hubby!

Mike and I drove all over the Midwest, visiting our friend's babies, seeing my grandparents, and attending an amazing Hindu wedding. We also visited the sights in Chicago, and spent lots of casual time hanging out with people we don't get to see much of these days.

A quick photographic recap of things that have happened since my last post (no pictures of the babies cause I'm not sure how their families would feel about them being posted on the internet):
Visiting the new Grizzly Coast exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo, featuring a water fight between the 3 Grizzlies!

Finding out that Mike has the wingspan of a Bald Eagle:
Seeing Sue the T-Rex at the Field Museum:
Being distorted by the Bean in Millenium Park in Chicago:

Fireworks over Navy Pier (from a boat out on the lake):
And for a wedding that was a multi-day affair, there were a lot of different outfits:

(and I'm actually missing one that I managed to get no pictures of). As has become par for the course this summer, I have lots more pictures, knitting, spinning, and ABCalong to catch up on, etc. I'll get there eventually!

Day at the Beach

2008-08-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

Friday, in celebration of The Hubby finishing his undergraduate degree (!!) we took a day and went to the beach. I was ensconsed in a UV Protection tent and wearing 50 spf sunscreen along with regular clothes (as opposed to swimming attire) and - of course- still managed to get sunburned. Pasty people really do not belong on a Florida beach in August.

I re-read Matilda, a wonderful book and thought about knitting. Turns out holding the book and knitting needs more talent than I possessed.

We were visited by a friendly heron. At least, The Hubby said it was a heron who was molting- looked like a tall, skinny, brown bird to me, but I don't really know.

Mr. Bird helped The Hubby fish all day (even during the rainstorm that drove me to the car). I knitted on the way over and knitted in the car whilst listening to my audio book. All in all, it was a very nice day.

So... The knitting front.

Anyone else started their Christmas list yet??

So far I have:

3-4 sweaters

3 scarves

1 felted vest

a "few" pairs of mittens- might have lost grip on reality there.

2 baby hats

1 regular hat

AND

2 pairs of socks- yeah, I know I don't knit socks, I have no idea how these got there.

That does not include the blanket and christening veil for future little niece to be, who, inconveniently, is arriving during manic knitting season and not after. Guess it's a little too late to ask them to change the due date. I told The Brother that they could name it after me and if they did I'd knit her twice as many gifties. Somehow he didn't seem very swayed by the offer...

G

2008-07-17T05:44:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
Continuing in my attempts to catch up with the ABCalong, G is for Garden.

I've had gardens all my life, and one of my favorite things about our townhouse is that I have 2 garden beds. The front bed is full of hostas and lilies planted by a previous occupant, and the clematis planted by me. The back are is all edibles, including a huge pot of basil:

a bunch or herbs for cooking, a cucumber plant:
And two tomato plants in containers.

Both of which produced their first riped fruit this week:

There's really nothing like a sun warmed tomato, picked fresh off the vine!

F

2008-07-10T20:37:00.001-07:00

Kathleen-
F is for flowers, whether the daffodils, clematis and lilies in my garden.....

\Or the flowers in public spaces.....

Or tulips that brighten up the depths of Minnesota winter......

Or Farmer's Market flowers in July.
F is for flowers, indeed.

E

2008-07-08T05:41:00.001-07:00

Kathleen-
I really struggled with E. And then inspiration hit.

So E is for Elm trees, like the ones that grace the campus of our alma mater (and my current employer). I love these giant elms, that survived the Dutch Elm epidemic, and tower over the lawns.

They even have a stark beauty in the winter.

So Sorry

2008-07-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
I'm so sorry to hear about your Grandma, she was a truly wonderful woman. We're thinking about you here, and as Friends say, holding you and your family in the light.

To continue your tradition of randomness today, I've written the following post.

I've been spinning quite a bit: I joined Carole's 10 minutes a day of spinning, as well as the Tour de Fleece. This week I finished this:

About 200 yards of Shetland fingering weight yarn in blues, greens, and purples from my long ago Spinning/Roving Swap.

And I've been working diligently on turning this 8oz of Frabjous Fibers BFL Top in the Purple People Eater colorway:

I'm spinning very fine in the hopes of a light fingering weight yarn at the end. It's unbelievably soft and easy to spin. We also had a special visitor to knit night:
Yes, that would be a hedgehog!

Random Catch Up

2008-07-05T04:56:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

As you know by now, I am unexpectedly in Washington. There was a death in the family and after the call went out all three of the children managed to get ourselves across the country within 24 hours of notification. Our country is definitely large, but thank goodness for modern means of transportation. I kept thinking about what would have happened if we lived in the horse and buggy days.

I haven't visited my hometown in over two years and it's kind of trippy to see what has changed and what hasn't. The world's most fabulous Cherry Lemon Sours are still at the Soda Fountain and, most important of ALL, there is a new Knitting and Tea shop! Yarn in the front half and tea in the back. Could it be more wonderful?! Actually, it could have been open when I was there (was the 4th of July...), but thankfully, I have a few more days in town.

The Parents have a new puppy. She's a lot to handle and has an affinity for ankles. I named her "Attila". The Father can't remember the name he gave her so keeps calling her by the previous dog's name. We've all told him to just re-name the current dog as he can barely get our names correct.

One of the best parts about visiting my parents during the summer is the food. Not food that they make, because somehow they seem to survive on cheese and crackers, but food grown in the valley where they live. Currently, the cherries are ripe and cost a delightful $1.99/lb. Also, blueberries and raspberries are in season. I can't wait to go to the farmer's market.

Sorry this is random, turns out if you accidentally fall asleep on the couch at 8pm, you just might wake up at 4:45. Not too bad if you adjust for the change of Central to Pacific time, but a little early for coherent thoughts nonetheless. Hope you had a nice 4th.

D

2008-07-02T13:08:00.001-07:00

Kathleen-
Want to know how far behind I am in the ABC along? I'm on D. D was supposed to be back in February. But having only recently found the necessary photos, I'm plowing ahead.

I was lucky enough to grow up with a series of really wonderful dogs. All Airedale Terriers, all strong-willed, funny, affectionate, and protective. I think you met one when you visited my mom's house in college.

Last year, mom got a new airedale puppy, and just like the others, I think he's wonderful (though more of a handful than any previous dog I've met). So D is for Dogs, and particularly for Coltrane.

Next post: Updates, spinning, knitting, visitors to knit night, and more! And soon to come: ABCalong E-J

What Happened to Blogging?

2008-06-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
Since last I blogged, I've been to Madison for a conference, where I saw this guy perform (SO funny).

Then we went to Montana for vacation. "Montana?" you say. "Don't you usually do that in August?" And we do. But this year we're attending a ton of weddings, and this is when the trip worked. So to Montana we went.

We were supposed to start with a river trip, but due to abysmal weather conditions, the trip got called off. So we went to the Archie Bray Foundation, and looked at cool sculptures:

And creepy ruins.

Then we went to the ranch, where we spent lots of time feeding the wood stove and relaxing:

And watching the deer cross the bridge because the river was too high to cross otherwise (indulge me, I love this picture of a startled deer).

Followed by a river trip that included Mike and I each learning to row a raft:

Snakes:who climb trees (can you say creepy?!)
Lewis and Clark historic campsites:

Beautiful sunsets (which followed cataclysmic thunderstorms)

birds:

and really cool rock formations:
Then we came back to Minnesota, and I got stuck in a post-vacation catching up kind of slump. Combine that with the traditional summer blogging slump, and you get the gap from my last post.

But I'm back! And I've been knitting! and spinning! and I have projects! All to be shown in my next post, since I've got enough pictures and catching up in this one.

Coming Up for Air

2008-06-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

I would apologize for being incommunicado for the past 6-8 weeks but I'm too exhausted. I had forgotten about how The Job morphs in the summer, having totally repressed all memories of last summer into a nice black haze. Total stressful and exhausting chaos regins supreme.

Enough about that though. Knitting news! I decided to make a passel of hats for The Future Niece/Nephew. Given that we don't yet know if it is a niece or a nephew I decided to hold off on the blanket making. However, I could not repress the urge to knit for it, so hats it was. Someday I'll find the camera and take pictures, they're totally adorable. Also instantly gratifying as they're small and go quickly.

My new knitting obsession is knitting on small needles. I'm currently making a super secret project on size 3s. I've been officially judged mentally unstable by all the knitters who think that making grown-up sized garments on baby sized needles is an undeniable sign of crazy. I think it's turning out rather well.

Around Memorial Day one of the knitters and I sojourned to a not so local but oh so delightful yarn shop. The people are fantastic and very nice and there is a wonderful selection which spans from the usual and economical to the crazy expensive but so very covetous. I was lured in by some Malabrigo and some Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton. Yarn shopping was in the budget, but still I felt extravagent and a little guilty spending so much money on yarn.

However, last week I was listening to NPR and they were talking about the golf course at which the PGA was having their contest and how it was at a public golf course. For the shockingly low price of $38 you too could walk the 18 holes where Tiger had played. I heard the statistic and thought, "$38 for a single game?? That's 3 skeins of Malabrigo and it'll take me far longer than a couple of hours to knit that up." At the end, those guys will have had a nice walk spoiled, but at the end of mine I'll have a scarf, hat and possibly mittens. I stopped feeling guilty.

One last thing, Franklin has a compelling post for today.

Critters and Wagons

2008-05-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
The week at a glance:
Shepard's Harvest was this past weekend at the Lake Elmo fairgrounds. Aubree and Tracy and I went, and took Aubree's son Ben.

There were cute critters:

(Ben says this one looks like a cow)

and cute kids: (Ben and Aubree at lunch)

I was very restrained. I bought some GORGEOUS Como roving and unprocessed fleece from Riverwinds Farms, and an extra skein of yarn for the kilt hose I'm planning on knitting for Mikey. But it was lots of fun, and the weather held till after we'd left the festival.

In other news: This week MN celebrated its sesquicentennial. One of the many random events highlighting 150 years of statehood was a wagon train. So while driving down out street on Sunday, we saw these......

Let me tell you, covered wagons don't roll down my street every day!

This week I also have a FO (which will get its own post). I finally finished the Baby Soft Cardigan from the Knitter's Book of Yarn for K&B's daughter.

399

2008-05-10T17:22:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

Happy Anniversary to US! By the way, this is the 399th post! Sorry for being incommunicado. There was the stressful insanity of Finals followed by the delightful insanity of a family visit followed by exhaustion.

But first of all, here's the yarn acquistion- not counting the Jaeger for the future niece/ nephew

There's a completed Rowan Sampler blanket made with Pakucho Organic Cotton; the Princess Pram Cover in Debbie Bliss Organic Cotton, Eco Wool, Knitpicks Andean Silk, Knitpicks Cotlin in Key Lime, Cascade 220 in green, Berocco Ultra Alpaca and Rowan DK Something in green and red.

But back to the family visit...

Here's The Sister wearing my silk pjs and her NEW CPH!

We had a "little" dinner party (5 course dinner for 8 cooked by The Brother) and at one point The Hubby was celebratorily dunked in the pool.

Also, for what it's worth...

We had a great time and it was super fantastic to see everybody. It's getting warm here (90s) so the summer knitting is starting. I had been working on a wool vest but wool is hot and so I've mostly switched to cotton.

Blogiversary #2!

2008-04-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
Can you believe it? We missed our blogiversary! Yes, that's right. We started this humble blog 2 years ago this month. Not only that, but we're approaching our 400th post!

Who would have thought, 2 years ago when you were packing to move to Alabama, that we'd still be blogging 2 years later?

I'm working to redeem my blogging credentials by posting twice this week. Since my Central Park (non) Hoodie is not portable anymore, I've started taking Elizabeth's Baby Soft Cardigan everywhere, which does miracles for progress. It's also been a long time since I knitted baby stuff, and so it feels like it's going very fast. See?

I did extend the button band down to make it longer- we'll see if it pays off proportionally.

Also, there's quite a bit more spring in my garden:

Though to counteract those signs of spring, we're predicted to get an inch of snow tonight. Apparently, this winter is determined not to give up. We've also had quite a bit of rain the last few days, so everything is magically green all of a sudden.

But really, can you believe it's been 2 years?

Flan's Turn to Catch Up

2008-04-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
Apparently April isn't a good month for blogging for me, since I just checked, and I last posted in March! I've got no news as exciting as yours (an AUNTIE!), but here's a sampling of the past few weeks:

Lots of work...but when I wasn't working, I knitted:

Central Park (non)Hoodie: Sleeves done, body done, button bands knit. 1 sleeve set in, the other partially set in. Collar (no hood for me!) stitches picked up, but I decided that I couldn't figure out the appropriate length of the collar till the sleeves were fully set in,
Baby Soft Cardigan (times 2!). One for Harmony is cast on and I'm working on the first front. I'm about to cast on for a second one (for Elizabeth, the beautiful daughter of K&B), and I'm going to try knitting the body in one piece.
Monkey Socks: ripped out! Wrong size! I haven't decided what to do next.
All other projects: Untouched due to all the work.

So in the past month, we went to Iowa to see Mike's cousin play hockey:
And the mascot rode a unicycle on the ice:

We went to the Minnesota zoo, and saw the dolphin show:

And I got my picture taken with a (brass) tiger family:

And a brand new (less than a week old), baby camel:

And spring came to my garden!

I'm plotting my next adult sweater project- I'm thinking Sunrise Circle Jacket (which, for those who don't know, is a limited time free download from Interweave as one of the 5 Reader's Choice patterns), in some lovely Burgundy Cascade 220.

I'm also plotting Mike's kilt hose. I've swatched the stockinette, and now need to swatch the cable pattern....

I'm terribly behind on the ABCalong, since I still need D, E, F, G, H, and now I!

How to Make Your Sister's Heart Stop

2008-04-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

As I told you via email- I'm going to be an Auntie! Here's how I found out:

I was at work as I usually am on Wednesday nights. When on the way out of work I noticed there were TWO missed calls from The Brother as well as a voicemail that said "call me NOW." I started seriously freaking out. Our parents were visiting him and I couldn't remember if they were flying out that night (hence potential plane crash senarios) or the next day (hence potential car crash senarios).

When he answered his phone I demanded "what is going on?" He countered with "What are your plans for Christmas?"

Thinking one, the other or both of our parents had met with some unspeakably terrible fate and then be asked about our plans for the holidays threw me just a bit. After I ascertained that all parents were fine he said I was going to be an Auntie at Thanksgiving. Whew.

MAN- I tell you I can work up a really good freak out in no time. If anyone out there ever needs emergency preparedness senarios to practice they should just call me up. Also, I'm extremely prepared in case of natural disaster.

Back to the story, the conversation with him mostly consisted of "Ohmygoodness!" followed by "stork! stork! stork!" I then called The Mommy who didn't answer and then The Sister and our entire conversation was the two above sentiments along with "I know!"

The Mommy then called back and I had the "ohmygoodness!" "I know!" conversation all over again. Anyway, we're all very excited about the 15mm peanut and this Christmas might be spent fawning over a month old infant.

I told them not to worry about names yet but that they could name it after me if they wanted to.

What to do when finding out that there's going to be a baby born in WINTER (most favorite knitterly season?) buy some YARN. The WEBS sale is seriously hurting my bank account. I bought some beautiful pewter blue Jaeger cotton and I already have a bunch of bright pink, though I'll probably use the blue regardless of gender.

There has been stunning progress on the CPH and it is almost complete! I am down to the final ribbing. However, I seem to be having more problems then usual with picking up stitches. I picked up every other one and ended up with 94 per side instead of 146. Then I picked up almost every one and have 157. Next time I'm going to carefully measure, put markers in and attempt 73 per quarter. Oh! I am loving how the sleeves turned out. Like I said, I reverse engineered the sleeve caps and then knit them in the round to the wrist. I seamed them in last night and they look pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I was a little worried about whether or not they'd fit. Hope yours is going well.

Catching Up

2008-04-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

I hadn't really realized that it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I can't really remember what's happened in the last two weeks, but I'm sure there was something. Currently, I'm getting over a cold. How I've gotten more colds living on The Gulf as compared to when I lived in the frozen tundra I'll never know, but my theory is that the extreme cold kills all the germs whereas the more temperate climate just helps them flourish.

All of my yarn stalking paid off! UPS has the most fun game where you play "where is my yarn now?!" It's very engaging as you google your tracking number over and over and over and over again to watch it move from state to state. The day the yarn arrived I whipped out my swift and winder and wound it all into lovely little yarn cakes. And then I put it in the cupboard and haven't touched it since.

The CPH is shockingly close to being finished! However, as the deadline (TWO weeks from TODAY!) nears I find myself working on it less and less. I had gotten to the ribbing of the second sleeve and realized I had added an extra row in between the cable for the last three repeats. The Hubby assured me that no one would ever notice, but I ripped out anyway.

I've also picked up and started the hood. I really don't like the lack of cast off between the back and the hood, so am thinking of ripping back, casting off the back stitches then picking up again. As always, I'm worried about running out of yarn.

Hope the crazy at work, the visit from your mom, Yarnover and the Harlot went well.

Random Thursday

2008-04-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

Sorry for being incommunicado. Things are moving along but at no notable pace.

Tuesday, I received an email from WEBS saying that they just happened to be havin' an anniversary sale that they wanted to let me know about - just in case I'd like to stop by and browse a little- but no pressure. So after Knit Night I plunked myself down in front of the computer and just kept clicking. What'dya know but there was $100 of yarn (worth far far more than $100 but it was just such a fabulous sale). I managed to dial it down to $80 and as soon as my feverish tracking on the UPS website pays off we'll have photos. I remember purchasing yarn for 3 projects, but who knows about what will actually show up.

Tuesday was also delivery day from our group knitpicks order. I ordered yarn to make this:

I ordered a cotton linen combo in "key lime" which is sort of a spring green. I'm thinking of making it in the smallest length so that it isn't too long for my very short self.

HOWEVER... once I pulled out IK and rediscovered this photo:

I have plans to make it but with 3/4 length sleeves.

Today it was 78* which is apparently above the magic number at work so the air conditioner came on. Welcome to the frigid South. I think there is definitely a need for several cardigans to be added to my work wardrobe so layering can commence.

I decided (as always) that I absolutely must finish something before starting anything new and with all this new yarn around, Startitis is coming on strong. I am almost halfway through the second sleeve for the CPH and then the only thing is the hood. I have 4 weeks before The Sister will be here to receive it.

Enough with the blather. I'm headed off to watch some TV, eat some raw cookie dough and try to get more than 3 hours of sleep. Have a good weekend.

I'm Throughly Sick of Snow

2008-03-31T15:29:00.001-07:00

Kathleen-

Yesterday we visited the Como Conservatory and Zoo (by the way, any readers in the Twin Cities, the Coservatory is maybe the best single place to go in the depths of Minnesota winter for flowers and greenery and warmth. It's free (with a suggested $2 donation). We saw these gorgeous lilies and visited the many animals at the zoo. I know I keep posting zoo photos, but although I always feel guilty in my enjoyment, I love seeing the animals up close. So I'll restrain myself to one shot of the twin polar bears, and this big silverback gorilla....

It was beautiful and sunny, and we wanted to enjoy the outdoors before today's weather. Because given that it's the last day of March, Minnesota has chosen to reward us with more snow:
And not just snow...wet heavy snow that the forcasters here call "Heart Attack Snow." The reason being, it weighs about a ton, and people have heart attacks trying to shovel the stuff.

Here's the finished fiber I was working on in my last post: That's about 250 yards of 2-ply Blue Faced Leicester dyed by Fleece Artist and bought at the Stychen Time Quilt and Yarn Store in Jasper National Park in Canada this summer. And displayed in today's snow...

On Saturday I went out to Detta's Spindle, where I bought my beloved wheel. I rented a drum carder from her to process some of the mountain of alpaca fiber I got from my Dad.
Which means I now have this:
There's PLENTY more too....

Also we went to Ikea to get a shelf. As you know from your visit, our kitchen is quite challenged in terms of space and storage. This helps quite a bit.

I'm off to stare at the snow...but it is supposed to be 55 by the end of the week. Gotta love MN in the spring.

Spinning, not Knitting.

2008-03-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
I'm way behind on the ABC along. I'll be catching up in the next week or so, but for now, there is spinning progress.

Ever since I was freed from the crazy work hours, I've been wanting to spin. And more, I wanted to spin something kind of special and different. So I pulled out some sliver I bought at the yarn store in Jasper this summer. It's from Fleece Artist, and I think the color is Polar Sea. I split the fiber in half lengthwise, and spun it onto two bobbins over the past few days:

Bobbin 1:

Bobbin 2:
I'm hoping for sock yarn, but it may be a bit too fine and end up as laceweight. But I love it.

So far the best thing about this week? I get to go to Knit Night tomorrow after missing it for weeks because of work. I can't wait!

Happy Birthday Kathleen!

2008-03-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! And a happy birthday to you! I hope you enjoyed your sojourn to New Orleans (and yarn buying!)

Were I there, I'd bake you a cake, but virtual flowers it will have to be in this case. Tulips (which I'd love to see right now...we got more snow this weekend.)

Enjoy your birthday!

NOLA

2008-03-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hey Flan,

We have returned from our weekend celebration in "Nawlins" or New Orleans LA and oh what a time we had. I even found yarn.

The one thing everyone tells you when you announce you're going to New Orleans is that you must go to Cafe du Monde for beignets and coffee. Ever one to follow directions, here's a photo of mine:

The hotel where we stayed was pretty unremarkable, so no link for them. However, we had dinner at a fabulous creole restaurant.

The following morning we enjoyed a jazz brunch buffet. There was an abundance of local cuisine and a 3 piece jazz ensemble to serenade.

Fortified, we hit the French Quarter for some shopping.

There was the MOST fabulous pen shop with a French proprieter who makes his own inks.

There was a delightful store split into two halves, one for lingerie and one for clothing and accessories.

We had lunch- well, everyone else had lunch and I went yarn shopping- outside Jackson Square.

I found some Malbrigo worsted weight and it's the softest yarn EVER. So in love. Sadly, the store has no website. They're The Quarter Stitch and have needlepoint and yarn. Also, they wrap your purchase like a present, with colored tissue paper and then a clear bag and then colored ribbons. It was so pretty.

We went to THREE used bookstores. Apparently, there's a law in New Orleans that used bookstores must play Opera really really loudly. I was not aware of the fact that I absolutely detest opera, but now that it's been played very very loudly and gave me several headaches I am no longer in favor of it.

A bit shopped out we decided to go to the Aquarium. Ironically, they had lots of birds.

Ready for some food, we went to a bar and enjoyed some $1 daquiris. The "to go cup" is very popular and I admit I ordered another at the end of the meal so I could walk around outside with it. On the whole, I think I was a little underwhelmed with the novelty, but the daquiri was quite nice.

Now we are home and recovering from walking miles and miles. I hope you had a nice weekend.

Also, Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FLAN!

2008-03-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

This is the most recent photo of the two of us. You're really tall and my self-photographing skills leave a wee bit to be desired.

I hope you have a splendiforous and relaxing birthday!

Free at Last!

2008-03-19T17:56:00.001-07:00

Kathleen-
Committee is over! And there are flowers to celebrate (more tulips from Mike).
Just how long is committee? This long:
I finished the body (all in one piece), and got more than halfway done with a sleeve:
The color is off in that last shot, I forgot to take pictures when the sun was out today, so I'm using iPhoto to compensate.

Acquisitions

2008-03-18T05:12:00.001-07:00

Hey Flan,

I hope the meetings are satisfactorily finished and everything went well.

Last weekend was the Library's annual book sale. Last year I found an out of print knitting book for $0.50 and this year I was hoping for similar success.

First, there were cookbooks:

Then there were knitting books:

The Hubby insisted on showing up to the preview sale and being early to that so we were some of the first people in. True to the spirit of comptetion and greed I headed straight for the craft section and grabbed everything I thought I might be interested in.

This was one of them:

Not so fabulous really. All the patterns are 80s fabulous and I really don't know what I was thinking- must have been the frenzy of it all.

Later, I sat down to cull through what I had rashly shoved in my bag and started flipping through the above.

This is what I found:

Oh yes, an original "Wool Gathering" from March of 1988! I couldn't believe it. These aren't even on ebay. Somehow, the person who donated the Vogue Knitting paperback didn't realize they had left a pristine copy of the newsletter within.

Got to love that book sale.

Knitting Mojo

2008-03-11T18:49:00.001-07:00

Hey Flan,

Your CPH looks great. Also nice to know that you're at least getting some modicum of sanity during the two weeks of mania.

THe CPH got frogged tonight. All the way back to the ribbing. Last weekend I finished the shoulders, short rows and all, and the damn cables didn't line up! They were about 3 stitches off from each other and it just grated on my nerves. My Knit Night cohort and I decided to eliminate one of the front cables instead of trying to move the back cables closer together. If there's any size other than small they might line up but there is no space to move them around on the teeny tiny thing.

I also had been trying to reverse the sleeves so that they could be easily increased or decreased. I was tying myself into knots trying to figure out how many to pick up and when and whatnot. In the end, I decided to knit the sleeve cap flat and then knit the arm part in the round and seam the sleeve cap in at the end.

I have also been working on The Mommy's sweater. I knew the pattern was truly horribly written when I chose it, but decided to try and use it anyway. That wasn't a good idea. After lots of consultation, I decided to just use a different pattern.

Today was one of those days where the whole world seemed to crash down upon my head and thankfully, I think it might be a bit calmer tomorrow. Here's to hoping at least. If nothing else I know that I've made forward progress with the knitting instead of having it kick my butt. Off to try and get a good night's sleep.

Popping In

2008-03-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

Kathleen-
I'm dropping in to say that I'm not dead yet! After day 1.5 of the 2 week meetings of doom (characterized by really long, unpredictable days spent sitting in a meeting room), I asked my bosses if I could try knitting during the times that I wasn't presenting. Given the hours, my concentration had been lagging consistently in the after dinner hours, and we'd still have 4 hours left to go.

They agreed to let me try, and see if it would bother anyone. Needless to say, I jumped on the chance. As a result, I have actual knitting content! This is where I was last night on my Central Park Hoodie:
With a closer look at the texture:
Its scrunched up on the needles, so you may not be able to tell that it's all in one piece to the armholes. I got a couple more inches done in today's round of meetings, and I'm about to split for the fronts and back. Oh! The yarn used...Dream in Color Classy in Blue Lagoon. It may be a non-hoodie in the end, I'm debating a nice wide collar.

Other random photos since I last blogged:Valentine's Day tulips...

Dusk at the cabin on our quick weekend getaway a while ago....

I'm back to work for the evening. I'll emerge after St. Patrick's Day when the meeting craziness abates.

Visualizing

2008-03-06T18:09:00.001-08:00

Hey Flan,

I have had one of those days where it took all of my imagination to visualize myself in a hammock on a sandy beach. Eventually not even that worked. After work I made macaroni and cheese from scratch even though I was starving and the process takes 45 minutes from start to finish. It was totally worth it and it remains at the top of my comfort food list.

Regarding the camera, The Hubby had a brilliant suggestion and popped the USB thing into another slot and magically the whole thing worked.

HERE is what the CPH looked like...

... before I realized that I had forgotten to cast off 2 again at the beginning of the armhole. Yeah, I discovered that 17 sts do not equal 15 sts when I was getting ready to short row and cast off for the shoulder. At that point we were each sent to Time Out and have been there for 30 hours. I think it might just be long enough and will probably rip back (again) tonight.

I decided that the liklihood that The Sister will want longer arms on the sweater is pretty high so that doing them wrist up would probably be stupid. Plus, I'd really like to just pick up the stitches and do the sleeve in the round instead of seaming. Once again, my imagination exceedes my knitting prowess as I discovered when trying to reverse engineer a sleeve capped sleeve. We'll see how this goes tomorrow. I'm starting to have a better mental image of the whole thing, but usually that means very little.

Happy Friday.

Arg.

2008-03-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

I was all excited today to share photos with you of the CPH. The Mommy was very generous and sent me an early birthday present of a cute little camera. Mr. Nikon we found dead at Christmas. It was a good little camera except that getting pictures out of the damn thing was nigh on impossible. I had such high hopes for this new little one.

For some reason, the computer- which has been properly installed with enclosed cd- doesn't seem to recognize the USB thing and of course The Hubby has left for the day. Now we are back to where we started. The photos are IN the camera but refuse to come OUT. I am unreasonably frustrated by this and think perhaps I should have some breakfast.

Oh! Franklin is going to be at Yarnover! I am so jealous! YOU could be one of the 1,000 knitters!

Anyway, if I had photos to show you they would be of a completed right side, back and nearly completed left side. After consulting ravelry and the KAL I decided to do it in one piece bottom up to the arms and short row the shoulders. I cast on the smallest size and during the ribbing was quite concerned that it would be large enough for a 5 year old, much less The Sister. I emailed her and she emailed back and the smallest size continues.

The pattern is lovely and delightful and I'm happy. The Cascade 220 superwash you so enthusiastically encouraged me to purchase is going quite well and I think she'll enjoy it. I think there'll be some negative ease, but she likes her clothing snug, so it'll be alright.

Good luck w/ the mountain of work.

Hello Bandwagon

2008-02-26T05:10:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

So I was trying to figure out what pattern to make for The Sister's birthday. Originally, I was going to make a Ribbi Pulli but then got all infatuated with The Central Park Hoodie. I took the drastic step of actually asking her which one she would prefer and she went with the CPH. I cast on (twice, because apparently I can't do anything properly the first time) and it's going swimmingly.

I decided to make the smallest size but then started worrying that it's too small. Par for the course really. So I emailed her again to ask if she's going to want to layer under it. If she says yes I'm going to have to rip out the 10" I've done so far and start over, but that doesn't really stop me from knitting on it.

The Sister and The Mommy are coming EIGHT weeks from tomorrow! I'm so very excited I'm very nearly beside myself.

Hope things are going well.

(In)Voluntary Transitions

2008-02-20T05:46:00.001-08:00

Hey Flan,

I hope your mountain of work isn't too daunting.

This week seems to be an unexpected week of transitions and it's only Wednesday.
Yarn related transitions all translating into me having nothing to knit:

I finished a Baby Surprise Jacket. Although I'm excited about the finsihed part it turned out to be very very "Granola Crunchy" and not at all "JCrew". Unfortunately, the people that were going to be the recipients are so much more the JCrew set than the GC, so that won't work.
I got out The Mommy's Sweater from last Christmas and thought about ripping and beginning again, but haven't actually made it that far.
I noticed that my most beloved felted slippers that I adore have actually been used enough as to have a hole! I've never worn out a piece of knitwear before and am both happy and sad by my discovery. Undaunted, I took myself over to knitpicks where they were having a delightful sale and purchased some yarn for a replacement project. Of course it isn't here yet.
I went so far as to email The Sister to tell her I'm going to knit her a sweater for her birthday and would she please choose a pattern so that I could get started- and hopefully finished- in the next 9 weeks.
Wanting to have something to knit I unearthed the Baby Bootie Book and some Rowan Cotton Glace. I can concentrate enough at lunch to work on the itty bitty booties and finished one yesterday. It's adorable but they really don't take very long so it's more of a stop gap measure than an actual project.

Life related transitions:

The Hubby will (hopefully) be finished with his last final NINE weeks from TODAY! With the newly minted diploma he will be able to get a "real" job, we will be able to move from Lower Alabama and all will be well.
However, we found out Monday night that the owner of the house we're renting is now wanting to sell. We would have 60 days from whenever it is sold and the house across the street took a good few months to sell. We do want to move from this house, but being the control freak that I am, I wanted to do it according to my timeline.I'm trying to be grateful for motivational factors of all types and to remember that we were homeless once before in Alabama and it turned out ok.

Off to clean the house so it isn't completely frightening when the real estate agent comes by later today. I was trying to figure out what to do with all the yarn. The Mommy suggested I hide it in the dryer.

The MOST Ridiculous Thing I have Ever Heard...

2008-02-14T19:07:00.000-08:00

... ever.

Hey Flan,

I was perusing the new books today and came across two tidbits of knowledge that are simply too outrageous not to share.

1. If a venemous snake bits another venemous snake of the same species the bitten snake will not die. The book did not state what would happen if one venemous snake bit a venemous snake of a dissimilar species, but I guess we all need something to ponder. The paragraph did point out that some snakes just go ahead and eat other snakes, so I guess it's sort of a six of one, half dozen of another kind of deal.

2. There was a book that shall remain nameless. It falls into the "Weight Loss" genre. As I am currently perusing quite a few of those books, I picked it up to look at the back cover. This particular book was espousing the virtues of cutting sugar out of one's diet. The quote, as directly as I recall said:

' If you have a sweet tooth try chewing on a cinnamon stick to squelch the craving.'

That is singularly the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, seen or witnessed. Who -other than the freak of an auther- has ever thought/said/ expressed the sentiment that cheesecake, chocolate, pie, cookies, tortes, mousses, flans, flambes, brulees, jams, jellies or anything else that could possibly be considered for entry in something found on the Food Network be satisfactorily replaced by NAWING ON SOME BARK???

That's just ridiculous.

Charlotte

2008-02-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Aubree of Knit Night and the previous baby shower, had a beautiful baby girl 3 weeks ago (3 weeks ago today, actually). So in honor of having seen Aubree almost every week of her pregnancy, and the Baby Blanket, C has to be for beautiful Charlotte. Tonight Charlotte came to Knit Night for the first time (or at least the first time not in utero), and slept through the whole thing.

And yes, she is wearing the Baby Surprise Jacket I made her (I'm so proud!!)

Her accomplished knitter of a mother placed knitting needles in her hands...
And she grabbed on like she was born to....which of course, she was!
And see those cute booties knit by a great-aunt?

Aubree and Charlotte at their first post-birth Knit Night!

So C is for Charlotte....a baby truly wrapped in the love of handknits.

Quite a Week

2008-02-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

Last week was one I was estatic to bid farewell to. The one bright spot was that I acquired a new EZ book! The Opinionated Knitter has been added to my collection and I am beyond thrilled. I think that leaves just one book (Knitting Around) that I do not yet have. I don't knit that much from the delightful EZ, but reading her books makes me feel smarter. Two things I'm very excited about in regards to her are the pictures found on Ravelry- the other is mr.brooklyntweed who loves her patterns and shows us all how it's done. My brain is not nearly gifted enough to imagine what the final product will bring, so the photos are indespenisble. Also, did you know the Schoolhouse Press website sells YARN!?! I was trying to figure out what 10 oz of Sheepsdown meant in "regular" terms, googled it and there you go. So exciting.

Other news... Let's see... The main part of the knitting for The PPC is finished! Well, that would be exciting if I were any less bumfuzzled about how to put the whole thing together. I checked out practically the entire knitting section from the local library in an effort to figure out how to put it together. The winners are: The Ultimate Knitting Book from the nice people at Vogue, and Knit Fix. They both had suggestions for what to do with reverse stockinette. HOWEVER, there is NARY a word about what to do with reverse stockinette on a diagonal. I decided The PPC and I needed some time apart and shoved the whole blessed thing in a bag where it will remain until Knit Night when I'm planning on pleading with the more expert knitters for guidance.

Thoroughly besotted with my new book and equally as thoroughly disgusted with the making up of a blanket (which EZ would have had the good sense not to have started), I decided that the world really did need another Baby Surprise Jacket and have cast on in a delightful combination of slate gray and "willow leaf". The ladies at the yarn store looked slightly askance when I combined gray and nearly puce green, but I love it so far.

Hope you're staying warm and that M had a nice birthday.

We Interrupt the Blog...

2008-02-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

For a public service announcement. Today is Super-Tuesday. If you (like Kathleen and I) live in any of the 24 states holding primaries or caucuses today, please vote.

Minnesota has caucuses (so voting is restricted to a couple hours in the evening), and my dedication to voting is such that I'm skipping Knit Night to attend...sorry lovely Knit Night ladies!

Incidentally, if you're in Minnesota and want information about how the caucuses work, try this website:

MN Secretary of State For nonpartisan information on all the precinct caucuses, to find your caucus location (which is probably NOT your normal polling place) and how caucuses work.

Most importantly perhaps, is that you can choose just to cast your presidential ballot, and then leave, not staying for the party business section of the caucus. Best to check with your political party to make sure of the open ballot times.

We'll be back to knitting tomorrow!

Befuddled

2008-02-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

So it's Mardi Gras weekend! That means, for citizens of two US cities (ours, the one where Mardi Gras started, and the other one who borrowed it and made it famous), there are two days with no work (!) following two weeks of parades, balls, coronations, etc. Today is Joe Caine Day. Mr. Caine was the man who restarted Mardi Gras following the Waw-uh (The War of Northern Aggression if you're on this side of the line) and today is dedicated to him- and I heard something about a football game happening but didn't really pay attention.

Instead, my attention has been extremely focused and a gaping anomaly. Ok, when trying to find a top down sweater pattern (btw: big shout out to Shelly who recommended the Barbara Walker book! It's on order and hasn't yet arrived, so that project is on hold, but rescued from permanent hold by her excellent suggestion) there were only patterns in parts to be found.

HOWEVER, when trying to find seaming and blocking methods to use for The PPC (Princess Pram Cover) it seems that ALL blankets/ afghans EVERYWHERE were worked in one piece.

Does anyone ELSE see that disparity?

Sweaters only come in parts, but blankets only come in single bits.

My main findings; block first (check) then mattress stitch (nu-uh- don't wanna). Firstly, I'd like to say that I love the mattress stitch. Absolutely love it. Fantastic for all those sweaters in pieces of nice stockinette that need to be fashioned into one. However, I find that it makes the reverse ugly. Not bad when your tummy and shoulders are the witnesses to the ugly as is the case with a sweater, but not good when anyone (including the infant recipient) could just turn the blanket OVER.

HENCE, a better method is sought and not yet found. I decided that maybe the secret lies in the blocking and I'm going to try it again just for fun. THEN I'm going to call in the Knit Night reinforcements.

Tomorrow: GUMBO and 'nana puddin'. I make ONE pot of Gumbo per year. It takes ALL afternoon and, in my decidedly non Southern opinion, is not very delicious. However, The Hubby likes it and I make it for him.

B is for Borealis

2008-01-31T19:59:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
B is for Borealis Yarns (in St. Paul, MN). In my personal opinion, Borealis is simply the best LYS in the world.

How can it not be when the walls look like this, stuffed with every color and fiber I can imagine:

The bookcases look like this-- stuffed with knitting and crochet books.

The staff are the most helpful I can imagine:
And Tuesday night knitting is such great fun!

Borealis is even conveniently located next to a coffee shop (with a connecting archway so one doesn't have to go outside. (I sound like a commercial)

Now Kathleen, I realize I don't have to praise Borealis to you....after all, you brought me to Borealis for the first time (after mutually frustrating experiences at some other LYS). But to others who might not have discovered the wonder...stop by!

P.S. There would be a picture of the store sign, but when I took these pictures, the temp outside was -13 before windchill, and I decided that it wasn't worth risking my health or my camera to try and get a good shot!

Knitting and Storage....

2008-01-30T13:39:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Nice job on the baby blanket, I'm impressed at your speed!

In knitting news, I spent 2 hours (cause I'm dense) grafting, ripping out, and regrafting the top of the hood of my Rogue. That means that all I have left are sleeves and the attached i-cord on the front.

The color is completely inaccurate in this photo, but you can at least sort of see the cables (the flash was a necessity).

I also swatched for my Central Park Hoodie at Knit Night last night....I'm loving the way that the Dream in Color Classy is knitting up, and the color is great (that's Dream in Color Blue Lagoon, the same that I used for Grandpa's socks).
The big excitement in the past few weeks was that I reorganized my stash and desk space. We went to Ikea and I bought one of the Expedit bookshelves, assembled it, and turned it on its side. Then in the As-Is section, I found a conveniently the same height, already assembled kitchen cabinet piece. Put one on each side, put desktop handmade by my Dad on top, and I have a lovely desk for when I work at home, as well as tons of (very decorative) storage space for yarn and knitting books.

The whole thing looks like this (pardon the flash and generally dark picture distorting the view).

The bookcase full of yarn and fiber looks like this:
And closeup of each end of the bookcase (note that these overlap by one set of cubes in the middle)

I love it! Lots of inspiration, and a nice space to work to boot! I think I'm going to get some more low baskets just for containment purposes, but otherwise, it turned out even better than I thought!

19 Day Victory

2008-01-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted, but I really wanted something exciting to talk about. As of yesterday afternoon, The Sampler Baby Blanket is FINISHED!! 19 Days after beginning (the second time) it is DONE! There was one person out there who openly questioned whether a baby blanket I began in January would be finished in 4 1/2 months and to you I say "HA!".

What to do when finished with one baby blanket? Start another of course. After hours and hours (and hours) on ravelry, I found this:

It's honestly called a "Princess Pram Cover". How could you not love something with that name?! There's a free pattern for it too. I pulled out the formerly rejected DB cotton angora and cast on. You make little squares triangularly starting with the stem and then put them all together. After finishing one I pulled out my handy dandy kitchen scale and weighed the square and the remaining part of the ball. As always, I'm concerned about running out of yarn. Instead of doing two big squares by three big squares I think I'm just going to do a 2x2 square, all finished with an edging from the Nicky Epstein book. I'm so smitten.

High on the completion of the 19 day blanket, I picked up my Kw/oT, a favorite sweater I would like to replicate and swatched my little heart out. I discovered that a US 3 and US4 are only 0.25mm different and no wonder I wasn't getting a different gauge. I love many things about the brilliance of the seamless sweater, but I really really like to do sweaters top down and am thus trying to reverse engineer directions for how to make that happen.

It made my brain hurt. A lot.

I even considered purchasing sweater designing software until I realized it's not in the budget and that people have been making sweaters for centuries without it and it can't really be that difficult. The main problem I'm finding is that none of the "ready made" sweater patterns are in a small enough gauge. Many hours of odd diagrams and scribbling later, I decided to go to bed and rest the brain- though I did put some books on hold at the library and I'm hoping those will give me a hand.

Hope your weekend is going well.

Cute Little Bags?

2008-01-21T15:28:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I suddenly understand the love for cute little accessory cases for knitting.... due to a windfall of such bags this Christmas.

First there was the sewing part of your Christmas present to me:

Hooray for containment of circular knitting needles! Also hooray for the very Mac colors, and the amazing matching theme of fabric and closure! I promptly packed it up with all my non-Knitpicks needles, and it works like a charm:

Then Aubree gave me a cute little sock knitting case she found on Etsy:

Inside is a smaller case in the same fabric for a couple of sets of Double points or accessories. She got it from Zig Zag Stitches on Etsy, and I love the fabric so much that we're worked out a custom order for a tote bag!

I think I've caught the cute knitting bag bug.....

Embossed Leaves

2008-01-15T09:21:00.001-08:00

Kathleen-
I somehow managed to knit an entire pair of socks with no blogging about them? Enter the Embossed Leaves Socks from Interweave Knit's Favorite Socks book.

I think these may be my fastest socks to date: I started them on December 23rd, and finished the knitting on Jan 13th (grafting the 2nd toe took until the 14th). Even so, that's 3 weeks, start to finish.

I knit them in my beloved Dream in Color Smooshy in the color Visual Purple. This second picture is more accurate to color. I'm wearing them today, and they are comfortable and surprisingly warm for lace.

I knit these on size 3 needles (actually one needle, a 12" Addi Turbo that I found in a Southern MN LYS in my travels this fall), and though I've never used the super small circ method before, I have to admit I liked it. However, I think the Smooshy would have benefited from a smaller needle size...maybe the 1.5 I used on Grandpa's Socks.

So now the question is: what to take to Knit Night?

Plans

2008-01-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

I'm so impressed with not only your mega hiking but also the fantastic baby shower!

The Baby Blanket continues- at least a reincarnation of one. I was working away with the DB cotton angora and the yarn, the pattern and I were not getting along. All reviews of this yarn say that it fluffs angora like crazy. I think I may have gotten an odd batch or something because there is really no fluffing happening- it is way over plied so that might have something to do with it.

Plan A morphed in to Plan B. What to do when the yarn doesn't work? Get new yarn. I went back to the stash (being on the yarn diet and all) and pulled out some organic cotton yarn I'd gotten from elann awhile ago. Originally, this yarn was going to be used for a sweater for The Mommy, but it quickly got repurposed. Now, the new yarn is rocking the old pattern and everyone, especially the knitter, is very happy.

However, you know how I like to have plans for all of the yarn in my stash, so what to do with the DB?? Embroider that bad boy. Yup, you heard me, with sewing. I decided that the garter and stockinette bits of Plan A looked much better than the pattern bits. Then I remembered that I had seen a cotton bag with some beautiful embroidery in one of the Debbie Bliss books. Off to the local library and the internet to do some serious embroidery research. Have become solidly convinced that most of the embroidery/ needlecrafts available are complete crap, but a small margin might be worthy to grace my knitting. New plan: make a plain stockinette baby blanket with garter edging and embroider it with pretty flowers. It could happen- maybe.

The realization that babies in utero probably won't wait until proper embroidery skills are acquired and then baby blanket be knit before arriving into this world means that the DB baby blanket probably won't be done in time for this particular child was shocking. The fact that I realized it before attempting this feat shows progress I think.

So... for the time being I am trucking right along on the cream cotton baby blanket and am 23% done. One week ago it didn't exist, so am feeling pretty good about that. The fact that 23% got done in one week and the laundry and dishes didn't might not be too impressive to The Hubby but at least he knows by now not to comment.

Hope your week is going well too.

Accomplishment

2008-01-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I've joined the ABC-along that Vicki is hosting. I loved this when people did it in 2006, so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon this year.

The resolution is helped by my cute new camera, a Christmas present from my father for the hiking of Grand Canyon. Which brings me to my entry for A.

Accomplishment.

Mike and I upon arriving on the rim after hiking the Grand Canyon. The longer (and picture heavy) post is below.

On the morning of New Years Eve, we started out on the South Rim.

The view from the rim looked like this:
A couple hours later, at our lunch stop at Indian Gardens, we were looking up at this (note that its still Fall down here):
After lunch, we were looking down at this: Known as the Devil's Corkscrew.
Five hours after we started, and a vertical mile later, we were on the banks of the Colorado River. I promptly twisted my knee on the sandy section of the trail. At the time, just badly enough to brace it and limp for the rest of the trip.

Being at the river bank meant we still had 2 miles to go to our stop for the night, the incomparable Phantom Ranch. At the bottom of Grand Canyon, it's like a mirage to see a collection of cabins that look like this:

One of the joys of hiking Grand Canyon in the winter is that there's almost nobody around...which is also why there are virtually no pictures of Mike and I together in the Canyon....nobody to take the picture!

We had an amazing steak dinner at Phantom Ranch on New Years Eve, stopped by and chatted with some NPS people who were staying at the Ranger Station, and were in bed by 9pm. I have to say I didn't miss staying up till midnight one bit!

The next morning we got up EARLY for breakfast, packed up, and started to retrace our steps.

Note that its still partially dark when these pictures were taken (also cold!)

We ran into some friendly deer just a few steps down the path.
Recrossed the silver bridge (oops, I didn't tell you about the bridge on the way down. Phantom Ranch is on the North side of the Colorado River, we started on the South. There are 2 bridges, and we crossed the silver bridge, which is used just by hikers. It's a suspension bridge, impossibly long and swaying when you're on it.)
And a few minutes later, turned and looked back as light broke into the Canyon.

Before we left the bottom, pictures of us at the river:

Scenic views from lunch on the way up (what you can't tell is that it was so windy we had to constantly hold on to everything loose, or it would blow away).

A friendly bird that came within a foot of me while I was lying on the bench at our lunch spot.
We still have all that to climb?
1.5 miles to the top (still cold, windy, and I was moving VERY slowly by now).
We hiked up that!
The light was starting to change as it moved towards sunset, and it looked like an impressionist painting:
A kind gentleman took the photo about 150 yards from the top. At this point, I was good to go. Note that it's getting dark again.
Accomplishment! Mom took this pic when we hit the top. Note that it is actually dark at this point. It took 10 hours to climb out, literally dawn to dusk. We probably would have been quite a bit faster were it not for my bum knee and the fact that both Mike and I had colds.
That's accomplishment on both our faces!

And no, I didn't take my knitting! But my next post should have knitting...

Surprise!

2008-01-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
So we've spent months plotting a baby shower for Aubree (technically due at the end of the month, but she's full term). And tonight was the night. Aubree knew we were doing a little thing, but not about the extra surprise we had in store.

In the past few months, 14 knitters knit sections of the Circle of Friends Blanket. At knit night, pieces would be slipped in my bag when her head was turned, or handed off surreptitiously in the coffee shop next door. This weekend, I seamed. And seamed. And wove in ends. And more ends.

The finished project was so worth it!

There were, of course, other knitted gifts. An adorable (matching!) hat.

An ruffly pink hat:
The Baby Surprise Jacket I knit earlier in the year:
An an adorable sewn sleeper gown.

So now the baby is properly outfitted, she can arrive!

Right Aubree?

Coming up in my next post: our Grand Canyon trip in pictures. And: New Knitting Priority List.

New Year New Yarn

2008-01-04T04:41:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

I hope you're having a good New Year's so far.

With the New Year came new yarn. One of The Brother's friend and his wife are having another baby and The Mommy asked me to make a baby blanket. I had just received the notice from WEBS that they just happened to be having their sale and there just happened to be some beautiful DB cotton angora and some also delightful Rowan Cashsoft DK on crazy crazy sale. I had been planning on using my beloved Rowan Calmer, however for the price of one blanket's worth of Calmer I could get both of the above.

The box of yarn arrived yesterday and I'm so very happy. I think I'm going to use this pattern from Rowan for the DB. However, instead of making 20 separate squares and then sew them all together I'm going to just knit it in one piece.

I am beyond ready to cast on and get started. However, with the New Year has also come new resolutions- well really just a dusting off of former ones. I have one project that has been slogging along on the needles for a very long time and if I focus I could actually get it done- shocking. If I don't then I have a feeling it will get shoved to the black hole of the knitting basket never to be heard from again.

So, for now at least, I am holding my own yarn hostage. There will be no casting on for the beautiful baby blanket until the current WIP gets finished. Years ago this is the only way I worked. I worked on one and only one project at a time. It worked for awhile but quickly went by the wayside the more obsessed I became with knitting. Startitis is making my hands itch to begin and we'll see how long my resolve lasts.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Beginnings

2007-12-31T04:43:00.001-08:00

Hey Flan,

I hope your Christmas went well and that your plans for New Year's are all in place. We're going to have a fondue party tonight. These are the exact same plans we made for last New Year's. However, tonight will be fundamentally different than last year in several ways. First of all, I will not have food poisoning and will not be very very ill.

2007 pretty much sucked. I'm hoping to chalk it up to "life experience" and, after tonight, never ever think of it again. Thankfully, we have some good looking plans for 2008.

1. I plan on applying to Graduate School! After hauling myself out of bed extremely early I began the process. Turns out my complete ignorance of GPA- overall, the last two years and within major- means that I have to order myself a transcript so that I can do math before continuing on. I also picked a date to take the GRE (Feb 1, in case you're interested). Fun stuff ahead.

2. I found the most wonderful book. It's a 52 week plan for going on walks almost every day. I love this author and am very excited. You know how much I love a plan. I figure I might as well give this a go and see how the next year turns out. Last year resulted in me having to purchase clothes in a larger size than I ever have before, so a new plan seems to be in order.

3. Moving! You were there for the last (traumatic) move. Somehow, moving always seems to be exceptionally bad- sleep deprivation combined with totally too much stuff and not enough places to put them combined with a deadline... However, this move could be different. The date arbitrarily chosen by me is July 31. The calendar is marked and the countdown (147 work days) will begin tomorrow. We may not choose to move, but we have a date in case we'd like to.

4. Knitting. This is going to be the year of me. While my own made up rules do not say that I have to knit for myself, I won't accept any commissions I don't want and will be selfish when it comes to general projects. I suppose those things should be self evident when considering a hobby, but I'm re-imposing them for a year.

Some random news:
EZ got me through Christmas. I worked on the February sweater whilst the family was here and finished it a couple of nights ago. Granted, it needs some buttons but all the knitting, seaming and end weaving is done. I love her and I love this pattern. The Hubby thinks the sweater is so cute he won't let me give it away. I kind of agree.

I have a grand total of ONE project on the needles! Can you even believe it?? If I resist the urge to cast on a million things I will have Naked Needles by almost the beginning of '08.

Happy New Year's!

Merry Christmas To ALL

2007-12-25T13:15:00.001-08:00

and to All a good night.

Merry Christmas from the Southern half of America.

Love,
Kathleen

Ho Ho Ho...

2007-12-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

I'm done with work for the day and don't have to return until next Thursday. That's Christmas present enough and if nothing else is under the tree I'll be happy.

So I've wrapped some gifties in anticipation. I've told The Hubby that two of them are for him. While I put tags on all the packages I have not yet written on the tags, so there are no distinguishing marks other than the tags themselves. The Hubby is getting quite excited and would really really like to rattle his gifts. He says that I will forget whose is whose. I told him to have more faith in my memory and that Christmas Eve is the day they will receive names. He told me I was mean.

Oh, Kathleen's Quote of the Day (as uttered by Kathleen at work): "Every Christmas Needs a Grinch and Today I'm IT."

I did not throttle or otherwise bodily injure the person whose presence brought forth this utterance, but all the same it's probably best that I do not have to clock in for another 6 days.

I'm all out of knitting!! I don't know how that happened! That is NOT to say that I'm out of yarn. Just current WIPS. I need something that's exciting but not too exciting- portable but not socks... I was thinking about possibly a hat for The Hubby, but I'm just not sure. I think I'm going to have to go stash shopping.

Off to watch Love Actually and finish painting my toes before making a cake. The Parents arrive tomorrow night and I am elated. Now if only I can get to all 4 grocery stores, whilst managing to clean the car, go to the bank, pick up some gifts while dropping off the cake, purchase The Grandmother's gift, print some photos, have my hair cut, finish cleaning the house, clean the other car and make dinner all before remembering to meet The Parents at the airport on time everything will be hunky dory.

Christmas Knitting Finished

2007-12-19T18:45:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Grandpa's socks are safely off in the mail. This picture was taken immediately after casting off, and pre-blocking. I wove in ends on the plane, and blocked these in my hotel in Seattle. I didn't get another chance to take a picture before I sent them along. They're beautiful and cushy, and I'm pretty sure they'll fit well.To review, the green is Smooshy in Blue Lagoon, and the heels and toes are Louet Gems Pearl in Caribou.

As this was my only Christmas knitting this year, I'm now done, and I'm working on two things:

Jeanie. I'm just past the first dropped stitch row, and I'm loving this pattern and fabric.
This is also Smooshy, in the color Nightwatch. That bit of green you see at the bottom is my provisional cast on, which I did with one of my ends from finishing Grandpa's Socks, which was all I had on the plane.

Also found on the camera: a picture of our Christmas tree.
I'm just starting the Embossed Leaves Sock (also in Smooshy, this time in Visual Purple. I think I'm in love with this yarn.) Nothing to show yet, as all I've done is cast on.

I Could Blog

2007-12-14T20:43:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I could blog about the lovely job we did decorating our Christmas tree, which makes me smile every time I walk in our front door,

or

I could blog about casting off for Grandpa's sock #2 last night,

or

I could blog about swatching for Mike's hat,

or

I could blog about my new knitting project that's all for me.

But. The pictures documenting all of these things are on either the camera or one of our house computers....and I'm in Seattle.

Hmm. So. In order of mention:

We decorated the Christmas tree, and bought our ornament for the year. I love it. It literally puts a smile on my face every time I walk into the room.

I cast off Grandpa's sock last night, and wove in all the ends on the plane this morning. All ready to go, and quite handsome, if I do say so myself. :)

I seem to have forgotten how much yarn it takes to float across the back while swatching in the round. Swatch attempt #1 got ripped on the plane.

I started Jeanie! I had a serious mental block on the setup row, and I can already read the knitting well enough on row 5 to be able to only glance at the pattern for each row.

Calm Before the Storm

2007-12-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Warning: long, picture heavy post to follow.

I believe we've now reached the calm before the storm in my job. After a chaotic late Nov/Early Dec, we've now got a touch of downtime before craziness starts again in the New Year. I'm off to Seattle at the end of this week for 4 days for work- anything I shouldn't miss in my downtime in the evenings? Several people got the dates of my Seattle trip mixes up, and therefore called me during last week's flooding to make sure I was ok. I was completly confused until I figured out that they thought I was in the NW!

I've been VERY focused on Grandpa's Socks. Current progress:

That would be sock #1 done! And sock #2 only needs 2 repeats of the pattern and couple inches of ribbing to be done. I'm beginning to think this is going to happen on time. In the past week, I've knit on these socks at home, at work during lunch, on the bus, in the car (as a passenger!), at knit night, while bowling, while playing board games, at a really excellent concert, and at a party. They've been quite promiscuous about being knit in public.

Here's a closeup of the texture- the color is inaccurate in both the pictures, as we're officially experiencing "dreary" weather.

Friday Mike and I picked out a Christmas tree. It turns out I have an interesting relationship with the size of our living room, but it worked out. We'll be decorating it tonight:
Friday I also experienced credit card slippage at Borealis:
That would be 3 skeins of Smooshy in Nightwatch for Jeanie from the new Knitty: I'm hoping to cast on before heading for Seattle (as soon as Grandpa's Socks are done). Here's a closeup of the shade:
I also ended up with one more skein of Smooshy for socks for me, this one in Deep Seaflower.

Today once I finish cleaning up the living room and start dinner, I'm planning on working a bit on the following secret project... not knitting, blocking!

And last, but certainly not least. I won a contest on Shelly's blog, and the prize was a copy of the Knitter's Book of Yarn, which is fabulous! I've already read most of it since it arrived yesterday, and its chock full on interesting information about yarn.

Made it to the Weekend

2007-12-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

Hey Flan,

I hope things are going well. I was felled yesterday by a massive migraine followed by another massive migraine. Instead of calling it a migraine I chose to name it a "tension headache"- much different ring, don't you think? If you have a migraine you have to sleep it off, but if you have a tension headache you just do all your errands whilst trying to ignore the pain that is your head.

Friday's Accomplishments:
1. Picked up The Hubby's vehicle from the repair people. This means we each have cars to drive.
2. MAILED the FINISHED gifties to the people taking them to The Sister. I honestly did not think I was going to meet that deadline. Massive relief.
3. Had the tires on my car rotated. Fiercely ignored the tire people who wanted to do $135 of superfluous stuff to my car. Wanted to ask why on earth they were looking at the state of my windshield wipers and then JUDGING that state when all I asked them to do was to fiddle with the tires.
4. Made hugely significant progress on The Mommy's gifties.
5. Took a nap.

At this moment I am exceedingly happy I am no longer at work and am looking forward to a relaxed night of movies and knitting. Hope yours is equally nice.

Random Wednesday

2007-12-05T04:51:00.001-08:00

Hey Flan,

I hope things are going well in the midst of the massive piles of work you have.

We're having a cold snap here. It's in the 60s in the day but the 30s at night. Our floors are chilly, so out come the felted slippers I made all those years ago.

The Pacific Northwest had a crazy major storm. There was extensive flooding on both sides of the mountains. Here's a photo from the Seattle Times. This is not my hometown, but one over the mountains where I've been. It's stunning what mother nature can do.

On a slightly happier note, I've found the most adorable gift to give any child under the age of 5:

This cutie can be found at over with the fabulous people at LLBean. I think it's so adorable I'm considering getting knocked up just so that I have an excuse to buy it.

I do have knitting news to report. The Sock Marathon is almost over!! I have approximately 3 inches to go and it will be done done DONE!! During Knit Night last night I was very disciplined and knit on the remaining sock for about an hour. After I just couldn't stand looking at the sock anymore I switched to a super secret project on size 6s (such a relief after 1.5s) and was very happy.

Today the goal is to get to the ribbing. Tomorrow the ribbing and blocking if it's warm.

Productive (?) Weekend

2007-12-02T19:24:00.001-08:00

Hey Flan,

Way to go on the Plo Bloggy Thing. It certainly was nice to hear from you every day.

This weekend is mostly a blur, much like many of my weekends sadly. However, the Christmas bug has bitten and I actually did some shopping. I am very proud of myself that I waited until December 1 for the non yarn purchases.

I purchased a Birthday Gift for The Hubby whose birthday is inconveniently two weeks before Christmas. I also purchased gifties for a friend and some stocking stuffers. I purchased The Hubby's Christmas giftie as well. Today, I purchased The SIL's giftie and had a delightful brainstorm so far as her stocking is involved. Additionally, I made headway on developing a circular needle case. I made one last week but it is so flawed I'll probably rip it all out- way less fun with sewing than with knitting.

The Sister's socks are finished and are drying on sock blockers (graciously lent by Gracie). The other pair is going well. The first sock is done and the second heel got turned tonight (!). I found out the couriers don't leave the country until Dec 15 which seems to be a very very long time from now.

Wow, this is turning out to be really really boring. I'd apologize but I'm way too tired.

Oh yeah, my ultra fun idea! Guess whose birthday is on Mardi Gras this year? MIKEY'S!! Y'all should come down!! We get time off work and I make good gumbo. Also, it'll be 75 and Sunny here whilst it is -75 and icky there...

Back from NC

2007-12-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Less than 36 hours in NC, one very successful wedding, and some knitting too! Although I had work to do on the planes, I knit quite a bit in the airports.

I'm currently at this point in Grandpa's socks. Two heels turned, remaining yarn split in half, and I've commenced knitting up the first leg, and it's going fast! These are still the priority, since the dreaded date of Dec 25th is fast approaching.

The morning of the wedding, Mom and I had some extra time in Asheville, and we went exploring, and found a truly excellent LYS: Purl's Yarn Emporium. This is a little gem of a store in downtown, where the yarn was organized by color, which is quite a sensory experience! Not one to turn down souvenir yarn, I ended up with 2 skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in Azul Profundo.

The skeins are actually slated for different uses. I'm planning on using 1 skein to line Mike's snowflake hat, and to knit it at an extremely tight gauge (goal: virtually windproof, and super soft). The other skein I think I'll turn into a really soft wristwarmers for me!

Day 30 (The End!)

2007-11-30T10:03:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Well, NaBloPoMo has taught me several lessons.
a. Not doing this again next year!
b. Can't write a good post every day, or even every week when I'm writing every day.
c. November is not a good month for this in my life.

I'm off shortly to catch a plane to NC for a wedding, and though I'm taking some work, I have hope that I'll be able to knit (hard to work in the airport waiting areas), though I'll need to work on the plane. I'll be in NC for significantly less than 36 hours, which is a bit crazy, but there you go.

I'll not have e-mail or internet while I'm gone, but I'll be back Sunday, maybe even with pictures!

Day 29

2007-11-29T21:26:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Another exhausting day at work, and hosting Game Night tonight means I have little to report. I do have pictures of the new yarn I bought for Mike's hat though (when all else fails, post yarn pictures).
I knitted at game night, but I'll be ripping out most of my progress. I'll have a bit of time to knit at the airport tomorrow (of to NC for my Aunt's wedding.....)

Day 28

2007-11-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I'm exhausted, and had a rough day topped off by hitting my head hard enough on the shelf in my office to draw blood.

Therefore...
Random Fact #5.
Although I've successfully combined patterns (see my coronet with shedir top shaping), and modified patterns (adding length to pretty much everything), but if I succeed with this hat pattern for Mike, it might well be the first pattern I've made up from scratch (though with much in the way of inspiration credits!)

Off to nurse my headache....

Day 27

2007-11-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I have yarn! (New yarn I mean). I took the smooshy (still one of my favorite yarns ever) to Borealis tonight to buy white yarn for the snowflake hat, and was browsing around. I looked at the white with the smooshy, and decided that the blue was too light...so then I browsed myself over to the Auracania Ranco in Color 106. And it came home with me....

Random Fact #4.
Although I'm still super sensitive to scratchiness, I've slowly worked up my tolerance to wearing 100% wool. Now I wear wool sweaters all the time.....though only of nice soft merino!

Day 26

2007-11-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Lovely to chat tonight!

I missed my random fact yesterday, so today you get two in lieu of actual knitting content (sock #2's heel is partially turned!).

Random Fact #2
I'm well known in various restaurants and bars in the Twin Cities for knitting in their establishments. So much so that I regularly get "you're the one who knits!" when we sit down. Usually I knit socks, though other knitting has been known to creep in. (Mittens, scarves, baby sweaters, and occasionally even adult sweaters)

Random Fact #3
I seem to have a little love affair with patterns by Jenna. You may know this, given that I've now knit two Shedirs, an Eris, and I'm in the process of knitting a Rogue. But I also pretty much love everything she has designed with cables on it. Incidentally, I'm considering another Eris in a different yarn.

I'm writing my amalgamation pattern for a hat for Mike. I'm drawing inspiration from the BrooklynTweed Red Light Special, as well as a bunch of other hat patterns found on Ravelry.

Day 25

2007-11-25T16:31:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Can I put in a plug for the always lovely Smooshy sock yarn from Dream in Color? I buy mine in Borealis, and its what I'm using for Grandpa's socks. I think if his feet weren't so big around, I'd have no worries about getting a full pair of socks out of them. Certainly I think I could get a pair for myself easily out of the (450 yard!) skeins. And its machine wash and dryable (though they suggest taking it out of the dryer before totally dry).

I buy mine at my much adored Borealis Yarns, and I would of course be happy to enable you with some with some color guidance (try that top link).

Last night I pulled out the last repeat of Grandpa's socks (stupid mistake), but tonight I think maybe I'll get to turning the heel on sock #2!

Today I spent time browsing Ravelry with Mike trying to get a handle on what he wants for a hat. You see, he's decided that a new hat would be a helpful thing to have. Of course we already did Christmas presents, but I think this might end up being an early Birthday present. So far we've established that it will be two color with snowflakes on the brim, and will have a double layer over the ears. I'll be searching for the perfect yarn (I'm actually thinking of using Smooshy in Summer Sky as the blue, and then find a white.....)

Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall...

2007-11-25T06:33:00.000-08:00

... what sock yarn has the most yardage of them all??

Hey Flan,

This year the Xmas gifting is coming out in a different manner than it has ever before. Usually it's The Brother I have problems brainstorming for. This year I found something perfect, and then another thing that'd be perfect and another and another. However, for The SIL it's becoming extremely difficult.

My delightful SIL is very tall. Taller I think than even You (though I'm not sure). She shops at stores where the inseam of the pant come up to my armpit. The Brother suggested that I shop at one of these stores as they have socks and stockings that fit her. In a truly cruel twist of fate, they don't list those products on their website.

Also, you know what the word "sock" does to a knitter. They make my brand new ultra fantastic Harmony needles just quiver with excitement (seriously, anyone who knits on dpns NEEDS some of these and if you don't usually do dpns you will). This also makes the knitter take a deep breath when she realizes that her needles are possessed and quivering with excitement.

This leads us back to the original reason for her shopping at the specialty stores- big feet. Big feet mean more yardage, more yardage means the type of yarn needed must be chosen carefully so as to not run short (the problem to begin with). When pressed to knit socks I do so toe up and a short row heel. Depending on whether or not it's varigated yarn I will do a short row toe as well. Man I love short rows.

How to choose the yarn? The beloved Aryarn is beautiful but driving me crazy with all the extra twists and it has less yardage than others. Lorna's is always beautiful, can be purchased at my most beloved yarn store and picked up by The Mommy, has 215 yds/ skein and can be machine washed but not machine dried. Louet Gems can be machine washed and dried, but has 185 yds/skein. Regia silk has 22o yds/ball can be machine washed and dried (allegedly) but is hard to find.

What to do? How to you choose?

P.S. Hi Flan's Mom!

Day 24

2007-11-24T19:38:00.001-08:00

Kathleen-
It really turns out that I can't write a good post every day, or even a good post once a week when I'm posting every day. I have nothing to report. I spent a good part of today working, and the rest running around with Mom. No knitting to report, though we once again visited Borealis.

I'm about to go traumatize the occupants of a divey little karaoke bar with my knitting, but thought I'd better post first in case we were out late.

In honor of this, I think for the last few days of NaBloPoMo I'll post one random fact per day.

Today's random fact:
Though I seem to frequent karaoke bars, I NEVER sing karaoke. Too many karaoke kings and queens among our friends. :)

Day 23

2007-11-23T21:52:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
In the squeaking in under the wire category...as I type it's 11:48 pm.

I spent all day today discovering fiber tools in antique stores, none of which we bought. A bunch of old spinning wheels, a swift, carders for spinning, a flax comb for making linen, and a needle sizer, all old and interesting (and out of my personal price range).

In other news, I'm just about to start the heel of sock #2, and Mom and I went to Borealis today, and are probably headed back tomorrow. Need to get all her yarn shopping in since she lacks a LYS.

Day 22

2007-11-22T17:12:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
Happy Thanksgiving!

We're back from a raucous Thanksgiving gathering with Mike's family (it's a patented family tradition. If there are 11 people at the table, there are at least 13 conversations going on). Our requested contribution was rolls and JAM. The last said with the proper emphasis by Mike's Grandma. I'm one to follow directions in these things, so this morning I baked rolls, and I took a selection of jams to Thanksgiving. Blueberry, Peach, Raspberry, Strawberry, and Grape Jelly.

An enormous quantity of food was eaten, and a good time was had by all, complete with much discussion of hockey, and a tour of his Aunt's workshop for her fleecewear business.

I'm off to work on my gusset increases on Grandpa's socks. Mom and I are planning on going antiqueing in Stillwater tomorrow, along with a bit of yarn shopping (imagine that!).

Day 21

2007-11-21T19:30:00.001-08:00

Kathleen-
Mom and I are having a quiet evening at home watching old episodes of CSI and knitting on the socks. Did I mention this? As I'm racing to knit socks for Grandpa, Mom is knitting socks for Grandma.

Best of luck on your bug bitten foot, the emphatically speedy knitting, and the cooking for your most favorite holiday of the year! I'm making rolls and bringing jam to Mike's family's Thanksgiving, which, if all goes according to the norm, will involve a lot of discussion of hockey.

Happy Turkey Day! I'll be feverishly knitting on the sock!

Bug Bitten Bottom of Foot (Day 1)

2007-11-20T19:30:00.001-08:00

Hey Flan,

Firstly, Welcome to MN to Flan's MOM! I remember the first time I met your mom and I didn't know her name, which turns out to be the same as The Sister's name, so I just called her "Flan's Mom" for awhile. The first time I met your mom was at Parent's weekend. We were in the dorm and you were looking for something in your room which was messy, so we turned her around to look into my room which was clean and she could imagine that's what yours looked like.

This morning I managed to get a bug bite on the bottom of my foot. Whilst sleeping nonetheless. I had stuck a foot out of the covers and apparently it was good because I now have a big bug bite which was SO super fun to stand on all day at work. Today I really really wanted to tell the patrons that I could either be nice to them or deal with their icky-sticky return items, but not both. My boss said it wasn't an either/or situation. I still beg to differ.

It turns out that one of The Sister's bags was stolen. At first I thought the situation was much more dire than it is, but it still sucks. Her predicament spurned me into knitterly action and fully convinced me that I can knit 2.3 socks in 10 days. Who knows- it could happen.

I decided to give myself an extension on The Mommy's sweater. I might have been on schedule if I hadn't screwed up the back so royally. Turns out those knitting voices that say it will all be alright are much more powerful than I had thought.

My MOST favorite holiday of the entire year is coming up Thursday. I'm just as excited as usual. This year I'm making stuffing and an apple almond tart to contribute. I'll post the recipes in the next couple of days- or whenever I have a minute from all that sock knitting I'll be doing.

Day 20- Flight Status Edition

2007-11-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I just got back from knit night, and I'm sitting on the couch checking the flight status of Mom's flight approximately every 30 seconds. Mom arrives tonight and stays through Sunday, and we're doing Thanksgiving with Mike's extended family this year, it should lead to some good stories!

Knit Night was a banner laughing time tonight. I don't even know what we were so amused about, but we were laughing and laughing and laughing. Naturally, I worked on Grandpa's Socks. Almost to the gusset on sock #2. Just one more repeat to go.

Oops! Her flight is in. I'm off to the airport!

Day 19

2007-11-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
I'm squeaking in under the line with a brief post for the day. But the excitement of the day is that we spent all evening cleaning in preparation for my Mom arriving tomorrow night for Turkey Day.

I knit exactly 2 rounds on Grandpa's socks today, so its not even worth picturing.

So that's my quick useless post for the night. I said I'd blog every day...not that the blogging would be up to my usual standards.

Day 18 (Geeky Post)

2007-11-18T19:45:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
We spent all day playing a game called Here I Stand, which is about the Protestant Reformation in Europe. (Told you it was geeky). This would be a giant board game with about 8 billion pieces, and very complicated conditions on everything.

And for the first time in the history of me playing big complicated games, I managed to win! Much celebrating ensued.

And I knit on Grandpa's sock #2. A lot. However, no pictures, as I still haven't replaced the batteries in the camera.

Day 17

2007-11-17T14:26:00.000-08:00

Kathleen-
A sweater? I want to see this mythical sweater (which I'm sure is beautiful and fits very well indeed).

Today....what the heck happened to today?

Oh right. IKEA. So have I mentioned our recent houseguest? Our friend W has been staying in our guest room most of the week as he waited to sign his lease. Having signed his lease, he went to Ikea.com to order furniture for delivery. And then discovered that the delivery fees were, to say the least, prohibitive. So he enlisted our help (and Mike's large car) for a quick run to Ikea.

Quick and Ikea should almost never exist in the same sentence. By the time we finished the top floor, it was noon, so we ate lunch. Then on to the bottom floor...which took another hour plus. You see, he's starting from scratch, and I was supervising the shopping, and saying things like "laundry basket" "bathmat" "plates and cups." So then we loaded up Mike's car and another car, delivered stuff to the new apartment, and got the bed put together and the kitchen stuff dealt with. The rest we left to him

I think in the end he has the basics, and can be pretty happy with his studio apartment. But it took a long time, and pretty well killed our day.

Finished a Sweater...

2007-11-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

... still don't know if I like it.

Hey Flan,

You sound like you had a nice trip. Also, lovely Christmas gift!

The Grandfather's Socks are looking very nice.

So tonight I finished a sweater for me. The first thing expressly for me in awhile. I had it all seamed a couple of weeks ago, but between yesterday and today managed to get the final edge ribbing on it. The pattern was written by a Swede and modeled by a Swede. I think the fashion industry uses so many Swedish models because everything must look good on them. In case there was any doubt- I am definitely not Swedish.

I just don't know that I like this sweater very much. I'll take some pics and you can vote. So far the final product is balled up on a chair somewhere. THIS uncertainty is why I knit for others. Somehow I know what will fit them and how to choose what colors to pick. For myself I have no idea and so the things that I try come out like crap.

Anyway, I am exhausted and The Mommy is convinced that everything looks better in the morning. Maybe the theory of beauty sleep isn't a fallacy after all and both the sweater and I will look better tomorrow.