Baby Socks

Two pairs of baby socks made for two young friends. Pair #1 were sent off in January, pair #2, which are red, cream, and green striped, were made on location this weekend. Both pairs are Dalegarn Baby Ull, and the baby sock pattern is from 50 Baby Bootees (50 patterns in the book, and I've made the same one twice - but they're so cute!).

Switch, swatch

Today I swatch, yesterday I swatched, tomorrow I will (probably) swatch again.



The light blue is thrifted yarn from my latest find. I unraveled one sleeve and knit a swatch to test it before investing the energy frogging the whole thing. It knit well, I got gauge (well, I got very close to gauge). This one's a go.

The dark blue (so dark it's almost black) is my new project, for which I now have all the yarn. I think I need to reswatch this one, but we'll see what the wet-blocking accomplishes. I think it has grown a little already. I knit back and forth, so I think I'll try doing a circular swatch before changing needles sizes.

Pouring

A quick post before bed - three things, unrelated (except the obvious) :

• found a sweater yesterday at the thrift store that I think I can frog and use to knit the Lace Leaf Pullover. It's a wool/acrylic blend, but I'll try not to hold that against it. This particular thrift store I tend to not frequent, as it makes me sad. There usually aren't many good things there, anyways, because everything gets so picked over (one of the things that makes me sad - so many people shop there because they clearly need to). I also have a tendency to make up stories about the people who owned the clothes and things before, and why they ended up in the thrift store. This time around I linked the crooked half-complete granny square blanket with the seventies acrylic yarn, three of the crinkly old lady raincoats, and massive orangey-brown cookie jar shaped like a giant russian teapot.
• have been talking to the LYS ladies about a particular sweater and the particular yarn for that sweater - it came in today! but only some of it - the main color wasn't included in the shipment for some reason, so will have to wait a little longer.
• started mini-project today (which will also remain nameless), while reading what I discovered tonight was the novel for a class next month, not this week. I'm eight hours ahead in reading, and eight hours behind.

Bag-ette

I'll stage a more interesting action shot once it has dried, but here's part of what I did this weekend. Mom and Dad gave me Knit One, Felt Too and the yarn to make this pattern from it for Christmas! I really like it. I finished the knitting in the early days of January, but waited until now to do the felting.

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I started the job by hand in the sink, which worked well up to a point, then I switched to boiling on the stove with occasional cold water rinses, then kneaded and worked it by hand for a while. All of this was pretty successful (although tiring), but it seemed like the wool just reached a point where I couldn't get it to seize up anymore. I tested it out for size, and it was still 2 inches larger than the pattern called for, and although I happened to like the size a lot, I was afraid it would stretch too much with use since the felted fabric wasn't very dense. So I let it sit overnight, and then went to the laundromat the next day. I was a little concerned it wouldn't felt much in the machine because there was no selecting the load size. But the suds and mechanical agitation did the trick, and it felted down (felted up?) the two more inches.

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loose and floppy before- - - - - - trim and shipshape after!

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I decided to leave the rolled brim unrolled - I enjoy being able to see more of the lime color. I'll have to keep my eyes open for some neat beads for the points of the green triangles (or not - I do like it the way it is), and also pick up a little magnetic closure or something, to keep things inside.

New! Now with 5 fewer fingers per serving!

Wrists are important, and I've always got half an eye on mine. I whipped these up at a birthday party (after the real party part, when we were just watching a dvd - Herzog's documentary on Timothy Treadwell the bear enthusiast, in which Herzog comes out sounding almost equally eccentric, although ultimately, in what proves to be a crucial difference, not eaten by a bear) and an hour or two later that week. I don't know if keeping one's wrists warm really helps the odd twinge, but I think I've noticed a difference.

They're really cozy and yet make me feel sort of tough - like I'm about to get all sweaty dancing around a punching bag. Ha! So far they've spent more time curled around a mug of tea then doing anything truly fierce. They've been called "cool" by the coffeeshop crowd, who collectively have a pretty strong grasp on what is and isn't cool.

The pattern is the 'fingerless mitts' from Weekend Knitting, and the yarn I used is one skein of Nashua Handknits Wooly Stripes (88yds) plus a moeity of leftover Lopi when I ran out. It's not visible in the picture, but this colorway also includes blue, fuschia, and purple - in a felictious turn, the end of the skein where I ran out was purple, the same exact color as the Lopi. It's impossible to tell I switched yarns.

Pterodactyls would like this, I think

I have the last of the three scarfs to show you today, but first, a few words:




It picked up a few words that were, well, boring, so I made free and replaced them with words that fit alphabetically. This means that in the interest of true and accurate representation, I feel compelled to use the words "beauty," "bootees," and "pterodactyl." Bootees will pose no problem - I've been making some recently and will post some pictures soon. Mellor's "50 Baby Bootees" is a real beauty of a book. Conceivably one could even convince a pterodactyl to wear some of these bootees of beauty. (I decided to let "objectionable" stand, even though I think it's a blogger word - so maybe I should use that too. I see nothing objectionable in the gratuitous use of words I like. There.)

(Also? I'm really tickled that "atwitter" is first, and "momma" and "shizzle" made it. Also trying to imagine what in the world a lord marker might look like, let alone a large lord marker.)

A(nother) scarf, this one quite long, quite warm, and wooly. Pattern, if you will, here. The yarns, Manos and Peace Fleece, came from my mom's LYS, which we visited together at Thanksgiving. It's nice and long, long enough that I had to block it on the back of the sofa, and quite cushy. The Manos color is "prairie," I believe - the darkest brown looks loamy, like it should smell moist and dark.

scarf bit

Another Scarf

Here is another scarf. This was the first warm wooly knit of the fall. It is the Brioche Scarf, again from Weekend Knitting, and the yarn is Cascade Pastaza. I used one skein of each color, which made for a rather abbreviated scarf - but the brioche fabric is so thick and cushy that more than one wrap around a neck would be immobilizing. I think that this is a muffler if ever there was one.

My favorite part of this scarf is the stripy I-Cord edge, the corners, and the way the other color peeks through from the other side. It was my first attempt at brioche. It was a pleasant surprise how quick it was, for a stitch pattern that more or less requires knitting each row twice. I started and restarted several times, until I figured out how to decode and fix mistakes in pattern.

Scarving for Attention

I like scarves - I wear one everyday in winter to fill in the neckline of my winter coat, and will often keep it wrapped around my neck in class, or around the house. I've knit four scarves this winter; one I gave a friend, and the other three I've kept.

Here is the most recent, the Lopi Lace Scarf from Weekend Knitting. I used the Lite-Lopi yarn that the pattern called for and a little bit of contrasting dark pink Lamb's Pride for the ends. The simple lace pattern suits the Lite Lopi beautifully - the relative stiffness of the yarn holds the lace holes open just enough, and the flexibility of the lace makes for a very fluid scarf. The color looks pretty much like this in real life - sort of a vibrant blueberry. Yum!

Back! With a vengeance! (sort of)

Hmm, easing back into the blogwaters with a Christmas FO - Museum Sweater from Little Badger Knitwear, smallest size, Elann Denim yarn. Nice stuff - I was blue when it was finished (and so were my needles).

Mugshots

Things that I like:

Tea. Flowers. This teacup, which is special to me. The saucer is, too - Mom and I found a whole box of old diner china at a garage sale last summer, when I was preparing to set up house. Once I moved in, we used them for our first breakfasts here, and then I used them for getting acquainted teaparties with my new friends.

The Space Program and spaceshuttles. My name. Family vacations. Coffee. The word "shuttle."
This teapot, which was my Great-grandmother's. Double Bergamot Earl Grey. Fiber.

Whistling in the dark

Green!

Two little projects that have happily arrived at their new home - a fuzzy Ipod cozy for Carl, and a baby hat for the wee one-to-be. I started the hat on the train in Maryland, and had it finished and bound off by the time I got off in Chicago.

I must have really liked it!

I've been eating a lot of eggs in the last few days. Scrambling them with vidalia onions, cherry tomatos, bacon, and cheese, frying them up gently and eating them with lots of salt and pepper. Lunch today is egg salad, by itself because I don't have anything flat and breadlike to put it on, and I'm ok with that. I am eating the eggs like there's no tomorrow. Yesterday, I even bought a little egg cup so that I could eat eggs in yet another way (and also knit them a bunch of little minisweater cozies).

Yes, I am loving the eggs, which is strange. I don't, usually. There was a day when I would run gagging from the room if someone began to crack one into a bowl. But now, I'm eating them. With relish. A lot.

Is it because it's hot, and they are a nutritious, self-contained little package of food that's easy and fast to prepare? Is it because they're cheap? Why am I suddenly fixated on all things ovoi-

oh.

no.

Oh dear.

My subconscious is weird.

And, my momma's good-looking.

Things I secretly like about late summer:

sweating until you're dripping.
The word "sultry."
ditch flowers.
not needing to use lotion 3x a day.
the hum of fans at night.
festivals in parks.
washing sandal-dirty feet before bed.
potato salad and berries.
pop-up thunderstorms.
this dense, hazy, visibly thick humidity (see "sweat", "lotion", and "sultry" above).

Lord of the Wrings

I've refined the formula. Size 8s and working to 44 stitches before beginning to decrease means I get two dishcloths from one Lily Sugarn'Cream skein with very little remaining. At this point, after 7 or 8 months of this I have finished sets of matching dishcloths stashed all over the apartment, ready for foisting on unsuspecting visitors. Here you can see three lifestages of the standard dishcloth: larva-like, the dishcloth gathers strength by consuming yarn as its stitches paradoxically dwindle in number. Then, it is cut loose from its skein, and revels in its plump, cushy, thick-stranded potential, until it finally meets soapy water for the first time and begins its career as a Dishcare Professional. It is a good life, filled with lots of exciting meetings (Hullo, dirty plate! Hello, glass!), similar-minded coworkers like the Sponge and Scrubbie, periods of relaxation spent draped over the faucet, and regular laundering.



Yesterday for dinner I made 2 little yellow cakes with black raspberry whipped cream. Yum.

Tanks for the memories

Blue!

One half of one blue tanktop. I'm sort of improvising this one as I go along, but I started out using the Mudflap tank for SnB Nation for it's schematics, but took the arm binding off and neckline from a different pattern. I'm expecting this to shrink in on itself and tighten up a bit when I wetblock it, but I'm waiting until I get the second half done so I can make sure they are more or less the same.

The yarn is Patagonia Nature Cotton, from Araucania Yarns (not to be confused with these araucanas). I like this yarn a lot. It's a thick-and-thin bulky, so it's knitting up quickly. I bought three skeins of it, which should be just enough for the tank itself. The plan is to apply some sort of edging along the, er, edges, to neaten things up, and provide a little bit more stability. I don't think I'll have enough of this left over, so will have to go get a little bit of something cottony to finish this off.

The Living is Easy

Prettiness on the Porch

Still-Life in Flowered Blue, with Dishcloths.

Dishcloths of Disquietude

Nothing too exciting happening around here, so here's a picture from my last Time Away. The Alleghenies are as picturesque as their name is difficult to spell.

In other news, I have completed a couple little knitting projects, but they're on their way out as gifts right now so pictures will have to wait (Hi Carl, Hi Katie! Watch your mailbox!). I'm in the doldrums between larger projects right now, which means knitting energy has been focused soley on the Dishcloths of Disquietude that I have been knitting compulsively for 7 or 8 months now. This time around, I considered briefly using a different pattern than the old K2, yo, k - but I couldn't do it. Apparently, the sameness, the rhythm, the nonthinking of simple old pattern combined with chewed up old size 8s and smooth pleasantly variegated cotton is enough.

Here's more of the Trip East. Cue the patriotic music, please.

This was George's cabin when he was a young man. Itsy bitsy flags for the itsy bitsy cottage! Er, headquarters.

Speaking of headquarters, here are the kitties in their Cat-estoga for the move out. The kitties were ok in their little temporary mobile home, although it took them a little while to get used to it. You should have seen them kissing the solid ground with their little kitty lips when we let them out.

Howards End

I knew it was familiar:

Like many others who had lived long in a great capital, she had strong feelings about the various railway termini. They are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them; alas! we return. In Paddington all Cornwall is latent and the remoter west; down the inclines of Liverpool Street lie fenlands and the illimitable Broads; Scotland is through the pylons of Euston; Wessex behind the poised chaos of Waterloo. . .

To Margaret - I hope that it will not set the reader against her - the station of King's Cross had always suggested infinity. Its very situation - withdrawn a little behind the facile splendors of St Pancras - implied a comment on the materialism of life. Thos two great arches, colourless, indifferent, shouldering between them an unlovely clock, were fit portals for some eternal adventure, whose issue might be prosperous, but would certainly not be expressed in the ordinary language of prosperity. If you think this is ridiculous, remember that it is not Margaret who is telling you about it; and let me hasten to add that they were in plenty of time for the train. . .

E.M. Forster, Howards End

The not-so-Iron Chef

A recipe and a discovery, from Chez Gwen:

First of all, my new favorite way of making dinner! Take a pot. Put 1 cup of water in it and start heating it. Open the freezer, pull out a bag or two of veggies and that bag of frozen cooked turkey bits. Put some of each in the pot with the water, add salt and pepper. Look around the kitchen/fridge for other yummies to toss in. (Tonight I added a little pesto, also courtesy of the freezer). When it's boiling, add 1 cup of instant rice and remove from the burner (at least, that's what my instant rice says it wants - I don't know if they're all the same or not). Let it sit the requisite five minutes, then fluff. Add cheese at this point, if you want, to make a gooey risotto-type thing - by this point, the thing has enough thermal mass to melt shredded cheese within a few seconds without turning a burner back on. Eat half, and save the other half for tomorrow. Or, eat half, try to save the other half for tomorrow, then decide you're still hungry and eat the rest of it which wouldn't really be enough for tomorrow anyways.

At least three good things are happening here, as I count them. First, I get to eat the water that the veggies are cooked in, thus scoring bonus kitchen points. Second, it takes about 7 minutes from start to finish. Third are the endless possibilities of combinations of veggies, tidbits of cooked meats, and other things. So far I've had turkey/peas/cheddar, and turkey/broccoli/pesto/mozzerella.

Also, I make my french toast in the George Foreman. It's a little weird, but it works very well, and I like the tidy little efficient feeling of having both sides cook simultaenously.