!@#$#@^%*(&!

Whomp!

That was the sound of the knitting goddess whomping me on the head for the sin of hubris. I’m knitting the Forest Canopy Shawl, which I keep referring to as an easy lace pattern. It has 8 pattern rows, half of which are straight purl back rows, and a 5th row is plain knit, so there are only really 3 rows that you have to pay attention to. Should be easy, right?

On top of that, I’m getting close to the end, and have what I think is enough yarn for a couple more repeats and then the 8 row border pattern, which is just repeated once. I’ve been trying to think out how I could safely use as much of the Zephyr lace yarn to make the shawl as large as possible, and still have enough for the border. I finally came upon the brilliant idea of using my drug-dealers scale. I finished a row 8, weighed the remaining ball of yarn, then started in on another pattern repeat. My plan is to finish another repeat, weigh it again, then I should be able to calculate roughly how many repeats I can get out of it. There will be a little fudging with this, as of course the rows get lonnnnger with each repeat, but it should be better than just guessing. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for coming up with this plan. Even a little above average, I would say.

So I’m knitting merrily along, about 3/4 across a loooonnng row 5, and discovered I’d somehow dropped a stitch or something screwy. I haven’t been using lifelines with this one, as it’s a pretty easy pattern to tell when you’ve goofed up. (More hubris.) The only hope was to tink back, stitch by stitch, across lonnnnnggg rows until I got to where I’d fracked it up. I ended up unknitting 3 rows before I found it. Somehow I’d skipped 3 yarnovers all in one little inch long section. I probably didn’t forget to do them, but somehow dropped them on the purl back row. I apparently screwed up the “easy” purl back row. I’m also more than a little embarrassed to admit that it took me that long to figure out that it was dropped yarnovers. Those actually are fairly easy to fix without tinking back, if you know where they should go. An average knitter could probably figure that out.

There are no photos of this. A blob of knitted lace done correctly doesn’t look much different in a photo from a blob of knitted lace with mistakes. Just imagine them, OK?

This is where a knitting blog turned out to be a blessing. I had the very brief, but very definitely serious thought of ripping the whole thing out into a pile of ramen yarn, then taking it to the backyard and burning it. Except I’d have to admit to all of you that I did it. Sooner or later somebody would comment “whatever happened to that pretty green lace shawl you were knitting”, and I’d have to confess. So I tinked. I tinked three very loooonnnnnnnngggg rows. And I reknit, and now I’m back to that row 5. I still don’t know how many repeats I can squeak out of this baby. I’m off to knit rows 6-7-8.

I’m Still Alive…

OK, another 2 weeks got away from me. All of a sudden it’s August, the month of visiting friends and relatives. Our extra bedrooms are fully booked for the next 2 weeks, so if any of you want to come out and visit, take a number. And of course, now that we have people coming to visit, the weather has gotten crappy. It’s only in the 50’s this morning, though it’s supposed to get nicer later.

Here’s what I’ve been working on.

I’m close to the armhole decreases. I’m still working with a somewhat nebulous pattern. I want a v-neck, but after Lisa posted this, I’m revising how v-d it will be. I don’t want it to grow into something I need to wear a camisole with. I also want three-quarter length sleeves, but I’m not sure I have enough yarn. Of course, if this stuff grows that much, I can just do short sleeves, and wait.

I’ve also been working on those Krauterbeet socks, yarn from the Wollmeise. I have one done, and the second started.

I can’t even tell you how much I love this yarn. Wendy posted recently that the hank she had split like crazy, and was very twisty while knitting. It is very twisty, indeed. Mine doesn’t split, though, I’m not sure why the difference. I have, ahem, four more skeins of this in different colors in the stash. Well, I couldn’t just order this all the way from Germany and just order one hank, now could I?

And here’s the shawl and Riley, being Kinneared:

Sorry about the crappy quality of that photo. I just held the camera down and clicked, hoping to get some version of the shawl and the lake. Riley was a bonus. No, she wasn’t drinking the wine, I was, that might account for the photo.

Here’s what else I made last week.

Upscale BLTs, with pancetta, arugula, and mozzarella, and heirloom tomatoes. These were yummy enough that we’re doing them again today, this time with the burrata cheese that the recipe called for, and homemade bread. The recipe is in Bon Appetit from August this year. You can find it here. These are just unbelievably good, so go make some. I’ll take photos of the finished project and post them later!

Project Roundup!

This has been a bit overdue. In looking back in the posts, I keep promising a knitting update, so here it is.

But first, a few photos from the 4th. A bunch of the boat owners on our lake have a boat parade late morning on the holiday, so we turned out to the beach with a few friends and some refreshments to watch.

Here’s John opening the refreshments. There were also Bloody Marys (Maries?) involved.

The parade:

There was knitting going on. My boss is learning how to knit. I gave her the first lesson Wednesday morning. Yes, I know how lucky I am, having a boss that wants me to teach her to knit.

And here is the promised Project Roundup. These are the 3 projects in active rotation. First is the sock.

Yeah, yeah, I know I haven’t made much progress. There have been other things interfering. For those of you not paying attention, this is the German yarn, the Wollmeise Krauterbeet. I just love the color name, Krauterbeet. It’s much more purple and green than in that photo. This is just lovely yarn, which is a good thing. Since I had to order it all the way from Germany, I couldn’t just order one hank of it, now, could I. Some day I’ll show you the rest of it fermenting in the stash.

Next is the Forest Canopy shawl. I really have made progress, it’s just hard to tell, being a lace shawl and all. This is Zephyr wool-silk, in Bottle Green. I thought it was Basil, but I’m pretty sure it’s the former. I love this color enough to buy more of it.

This one’s getting close. A couple more repeats of the main pattern is about all I will be able to stand, then it will be on to the border, then done.

Now, my new project. I am using South West Trading Company’s Bamboo, in a color called Butter. The color is actually more like real bamboo than butter. If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to have the stuff growing in your backyard, you know what it looks like. I can only hope bamboo yarn really takes off. I have a bunch of it growing wild along my side yard fence. It could be an investment.

Here’s the first attempt. I am making a tee-shirt like top, though if I have enough  yarn, I’ll put 3/4 length sleeves on it. I’m doing a picot/cable edging from one of the Nicky Epstein books for the bottom hem. The first version reminded me of chicken satay on skewers.

Then I had a little mishap and it ended up looking more like ramen noodles. The mishap had nothing to do with the pink wine in that photo. Since I’m making this one up as I go along, I didn’t like the first iteration, and decided on a do-over.

And here’s where I am now. The hem is turned up and pinned so you can see it. The edging is done by knitting 5 rows, doing a picot turning row, then knitting more rows, then a simple 4 stitch cable crossing all the way across.

I haven’t quite come to a verdict on this yarn. It is listed on the ball band as a worsted weight, which isn’t even close. I finally ended up with 3.25mm needles, and it measures out to be more like a DK or sport weight. Oh well, I really didn’t want to wear it this summer, anyway.  It’s making a lovely, drapey fabric at that gauge.

Off to bed, another fun-filled work week starts in the morning!

Purply Picots

I promised a photo of the new sock yarn, so here goes. I ran across this yarn on somebody’s blog some time back, and after a bit of dithering, decided that I needed to have some in the stash. It’s from Rohrspatz & Wollmeise, a German fiber company. Check out that link. If you click on the yarn blobs, you’ll get to the fiber section. There’s a little link on the bottom for “englisch”, in case you don’t speak German.

I emailed the owner, Claudia, and within a matter of hours had an order ready to go. I ordered several different colors of the sock yarn (as long as the boat was sailing this way, you know), and as soon as I finished the Easter Egg socks from the last post, had this one on the needles. Claudia couldn’t have been nicer to work with. Though her website doesn’t have a shopping cart set up, it was no trouble to email back and forth until we got it together. The only real trouble that I had with the order was deciding which colors to get. I really want them all.

Her yarn colors come in three intensities, and the stuff I bought was “medium”. This one is called Krauterbeet, which I readily admit, I bought simply because of the name. And how can you not like purple and green together?

There was a little mishap with the ball winder and swift, which is totally not Claudia’s fault. I readily admit to a measure of operator error in this one. I ended up winding the whole hank by hand, then rewinding it with the ballwinder into 2 equal cakes.

Click on that to get an idea of how lovely the yarn is.

And here’s the beginning of my sock. It should be no surprise to anyone what pattern I’m using.

In fundraising news, Claudia is doing her annual bicycle ride to raise money for the National MS Society. She’s already very close to her original goal of $20,000 ($20,000 all from knitters, people!), and has raised the bar to $30,000, with the deadline on June 25th. Go donate, if you haven’t already. If you do, you will help some folks who really need it. If you don’t, who knows, you just might have very bad karma for the rest of the year. At the very least, you’ll feel guilty if you don’t send her money. And if we can afford blogs and yarn, we can afford a few bucks for a good cause, right?

I’m off to pack. I’m going on a little surprise trip for the weekend, so I can’t say where. Now, what knitting to take?

Call For Help

Remember this photo?

That’s my Birch shawl, with a big honking hole that I found last fall. I stuck the pin in it until I could muster up the nerve to fix the thing. It’s been in a heap ever since.

The thing is, I don’t have any of the Kidsilk Haze left. I know I had some leftover, I must have tossed it out in a fit of pique, being quite done with KSH at the time. I could probably do a real half-assed job without extra yarn, but I spent so much time on this sucker that I’d like to try to really fix it.

Which is where the Call For Help comes in. I’m hauling out the Knit Signal.

Does anybody have some of this yarn in their stash that they would be willing to part with? It’s Kidsilk Haze, by Rowan, in the color Liqueur, a very deep nail-lacquer red. I don’t have the dyelot number (if I’d saved the fracking yarn, I’d know the dyelot, now, wouldn’t I?), but at this point I’m willing to give anything a shot. I probably don’t need more than a few yards, so if you have a bit leftover, I’d love to have it.

In return, I’ll go shopping in my stash (a deep, extensive stash, I might point out) for a little something to compensate you. If you are the one who has the KSH in your stash, I’ll even let you pick the category: something for a scarf, or a hat, or perhaps a pair of socks.

Call it a blog contest. First one to say they can send me that yarn in the right color wins.

Added later:

I knew I could count on you guys. I have multiple offers of KSH, so I should be all set. Thanks!

Five Rows Short Of A Sleeve

Or, Where I Am In That Crazy Never-Ending Eggplant Sweater


I really am going to finish this one of these days. For those not keeping track, I started this way back in December of 2005. Not 2006, but 2005. It sat in time-out for most of last year due to a variety of issues. I’ve been pretty sporadic about working on it, but I swear, I am not starting one more thing until this is done. That’s the first of two sleeves, and seriously, I’m thinking it would be preferable to just amputate an arm at this point. I don’t mind seed stitch, as I don’t mind purling, but given the miles of seed stitch in this sweater, I am getting heartily sick of it. That cable pattern going up the sleeve is of course the same one repeated across the front and back, so it’s all just boring at this point.

Not boring:

The Easter Egg socks are just wonderful. I love this yarn, even if I clearly can’t take pictures. While the yarn is a bit fuzzy, it’s my photography skills, or lack thereof, that makes them THAT fuzzy. I now have proof of why I buy as much yarn as I do for the stash. I only have one color of this yarn, this one, and they don’t make it anymore. Do I need any other evidence? I’m about ready to turn the heel on this one, my favorite part of sock knitting.

And in the category of funding my yarn retirement program:

Oh my. This is Dream In Color sock yarn. I was following clues on the internet one day, and found this. A few quick emails back and forth to Kris, the owner of Sonny and Shear, and she had a order on the way to her online shop. It came last week. It came, I ordered, it was delivered. She of course normally mails things, but we belong to the same knitting group that meets weekly, so she delivered it to me Wednesday in person. She had it in a brown paper sack so I could sneak it into the house without any interrogation. It sort of reminded me of a drug-dealer handoff.

Turns out I didn’t need to sneak it in. John took one look at that brown yarn, and claimed it as his own. (For socks for me to knit for him, not for him to knit!) Go buy some of your very own before Kris sells out of the stuff.

We’re off for another adventure tomorrow. We’re using a week of timeshare to go to Hilton Head.  My sister-in-law Ena will be there for part of the time. She emailed me to say that she’s learning how to knit, so I’ll have a partner in crime while I’m there. Woot! You’ll have to excuse me, I need to go pack knitting projects.

Added Later:

I promised Teyani a photo of my knitting spot in the kitchen:

When we remodeled, we got rid of our kitchen table and put in comfortable chairs for people to hang out in while we cook and chat. It’s turned out to be my favorite place to knit. When I’m in the kitchen by myself, I turn one of those chairs around to face the lake. Perfect!

Uh-Oh, There Goes The Neighborhood

John and I were running errands earlier this week, and on the way home, saw this sight:

A new yarn store! It’s not open yet, and when I peered in the window, it’s still an empty building. So why is this so exciting? It’s less than a quarter of a mile from my house, people. A yarn shop I can walk to from home. I’ll keep you posted.

I obviously didn’t get around to doing the requisite “Happy Easter” post. We had a quiet day at home, with little lamb chops cooked on the grill. We had to grill them in between hail storms, but that’s sort of normal for spring weather around here.

For dessert, I served Peeps and chocolate sauce. Here’s my “recipe”.

Put Peeps on plate.

Nuke them in your microwave for 20-30 seconds. This is the exciting part. It’s hard to get a good photo of the blown up Peeps, as they collapse quickly once you take them out.

Add chocolate sauce, and serve.

Don’t laugh until you’ve tried them.

In knitting news, I’m still working on that Shedir hat. The pattern calls for one skein of Calmer. Here’s how far 1 skein got me.

In case you’re wondering, I’m on row 58 of an 83 row pattern. The rows get shorter pretty quickly from here, but still. This was yarn left over from when I made Audrey, so fortunately I have more:

I wound up that partial ball and weighed it on my handy-dandy drug-dealer’s scale*.

15.6 grams. I’ll weigh what I have left and let y’all know how much more than 1 ball this sucker takes.

*Have I mentioned how much I love my drug-dealer’s scale?

More Pink Knitting

I actually got a comment today asking where the hell I was. She worded it a little more nicely, but that was the gist of it. I really didn’t pack up the yarn stash and move to Siberia to knit in peace and quiet for the remainder of my days. Though I’d consider it if they’d let me take the yarn.

I’ve been here, knitting away, though once again I have little to show for it.

There are a few more inches on a lace shawl that looks like one of those crocheted market bags at the moment. It wasn’t worth taking a photo. Look at this one (scroll down), it has a couple more rows than that now. And no, I really don’t need a reminder of how slow I knit. There’s been a little project creep around this house (meaning more than the usual three projects going at once), and that means nothing ever gets finished.

I spent most of last week working on this:

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Yes, that would be Shedir, from Knitty. You can find the pattern here. I got this far, then compared it with the pattern photo, as something just didn’t look right.

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See the nice little crossed cables over there, marked by the little purple arrow, by the teddy bear*? Click on it to make it bigger so you can see the arrows. Now look at the non-crossed cables, over there on the left, by the red marker. I crossed the first two sets, then didn’t cross them again all the way around the hat. Frak.

I looked at that for quite awhile. I even stupidly kept knitting, even after I noticed it. Then I realized that I would hate this project forevermore, and probably never finish it with those frakking uncrossed cables. You can probably guess what comes next.

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I did try to just rip it back to the ribbing, but because this yarn has a good bit of stretch to it, I couldn’t get it back on the needles without a lot of yarn splitting and bad words, so out it came. I’ve started over, and am partway back to where I was up there in that first photo.

More pink stuff:

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That would be the Mystery Riley project (for my soon-to-be-born niece, Riley, not the dog Riley). That’s one sleeve, and the beginning of the second sleeve. The good thing about baby sweaters is that Sleeve Island is a much smaller, more intimate vacation destination. I finished the first one in an evening, and the other one will hopefully get done tonight. Last night’s episode of Robin Hood is Tivo’d, and tonight there will be a new episode of Battlestar Galactica to satisfy my sci-fi jones. And we have three whole discs worth of the first season of Rome from Netflicks at the ready, in case we need any more television.

Last but not least, here’s this week’s bread recipe. The first photo is before it went in the oven.

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And after:

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Here’s the recipe, or rather, the ingredient list. Look at any general cookbook, or a bread machine recipe book, or my prior bread post, for how to put it together.

Lorette’s Thursday Rye Bread

1 Tbl butter

1 Tbl sugar

1 Tsp salt

1 1/2 cup unbleached bread machine flour

1 1/2 cup rye flour

2 1/2 tsp yeast

1 cup water

1 Tbl Ground caraway seeds

1 1/2 Tbl gluten flour**

After the second rise, top with whole caraway seeds and salt, then slash and bake. I use a gourmet flake sea salt for the topping, and crush it a bit. Bake it at about 375 degrees, use an instant-read thermometer to tell when it’s done (190-200 degrees in the center).

Next post: Yarn Shopping with friends! Loot!

*Yes, I have teddy bear stitch markers. You have a problem with that?

**Makes it rise better with less effort. If you want to knead the hell out of your bread, then leave it out. I like less guesswork with my cooking.

Man Can Not Live By Bread Alone…

So we’ll get back to knitting!

First up, the socks. Solar Energy is the color name for this yarn (Dicentra sock yarn), and it’s a good name for it. It’s quite sunny in appearance, and for a change it’s sunny outside today. The ducks are out there on the lake doing their little head-bobbing thing around each other, pairing up as couples, so baby ducks can’t be far behind. Well OK, they are a ways off yet, but I can hope.

A reader, Michelle (no blog), asked a week or so ago how I managed to do gussets without holes. I’m not sure I have any magic tricks, but have tried several things in the past. One thing to remember is that even if you get holes at the corners, they tend to disappear with washing and wearing. If all else fails you can always cheat and cinch them together on the inside with a bit of yarn and a sewing needle when they are all done. Yes, I’ve been known to do this. It does get better with practice, so if you get holes, just keep knitting socks. After several pairs, it seems to go away. I’ve also found that mine are much better since I’ve gone down to 2 or 2.25 mm needles for my fingering weight socks.

Here’s what I do currently. I’m a heel flap and gusset girl, all the way, so if you do short row heels, I can’t help you. First, I don’t pay any attention to how many stitches the pattern* tells me to pick up along the side of the heel flap. I do a slip stitch along the edge of the flap, and pick up one stitch for each slipped stitch. Sometimes I end up with 1 more on one side of the flap than the other; no worries, I just decrease more on that side. Trust me, nobody will be able to tell.

So here I am at the corner, after I’ve picked up the stitches along the first side of the flap. You can click on all of these photos to make them bigger.

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Now I pick up one extra stitch right inside that gusset corner, sort of like a raised increase. A tiny crochet hook makes this easier. I’ve seen instructions to pick up this stitch in the running thread between the two needles, just to the left of where I’m picking up, but I’ve found that this tends to make a little hole of its own, like a “make one” increase does.

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Now knit across the instep stitches. When you get to the other heel flap, do the same thing.

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Some knitters pick up two stitches at each corner, the second just opposite the first, so it would end up on the instep needle. I don’t bother with this, as just doing one seems to do the trick.

Here’s my finished gusset corner:

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By the way, that little crochet hook is one of my most-used knitting gadgets, and believe me, I have lots of knitting gadgets. It’s got a tiny crochet hook on one end, and a pointy “probe” end on the other.

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I use this so much that I have two of them, one in my regular gadget bag, the other in my sock knitting kit. Patternworks has these, though I’m sure you can find them elsewhere. The little probe end works great for getting knots out of things.

I’ve also still been working on the eggplant Jo Sharp sweater, though you wouldn’t know it by my progress. I’m currently marooned on sleeve island. After getting part way through the sleeve increases, I decided I didn’t like the holes that I was getting with the “make one” increases I was using. So I ripped all the way back to the seed stitch border and started over, using raised or lifted increases instead. Increasing inside seed stitch is just a bit more entertaining than doing so in stockinette stitch. Here’s where I am after all the ripping and reknitting.

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All those little pins? I think I’ve posted this before, but I use them to keep track of increases (or decreases). If I have to increase x number of times, I string that many pins together and pin it right to the sleeve, then take one pin off and mark the increase as I make it. When the pins are gone, I’m done.

Please ignore all the extra dog hair. We have Rae the neighbor Corgi with us for a few days, and she’s left fur all over the house. I was way too lazy to vacuum and dust before I took photos.

Speaking of Corgis, here’s what happens when you leave a Corgi in a room alone. This used to be the cable needle in the sleeve above.

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Fortunately, I have a whole bunch more of these (see gadget comment above).

Next time: My latest knitting gadget.

*I actually don’t often use a pattern anymore for socks. Or, I do, but it’s in my head. Plain ribbed or picot top, stockinette cuff, heel flap/gusset, standard decreased toe, grafted together. The number of stitches I start with at this point is one of those “force be with you” things.

Been There, Done That…


…Bought The T-Shirt!

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The theme this year was the changing face of bluegrass, and as such, included a few artists that stretched the definition a bit. Some of it didn’t work for me, most did, as usual.  I’ll listen to it all, though my favorite is still traditional Appalachian style old-timey music. There wasn’t much of that this year. Uncle Earl was as close as it got, and they were every bit as good as they were last year.

Other favorites? Crooked Still, with a great lead singer and a cello player (yes, cello!) that will knock your socks off. All the girls seem to like him, too. There was a lot of girly screaming every time he played a solo.  Blue Highway, playing more straight-up bluegrass, and with one of the best dobro guys around, Rob Ickes. John Cowan, Darrell Scott, and Pat Flynn, each a great musician, and together they were dynamite. Cowan’s voice will send chills up your spine. The Infamous Stringdusters are a great bluegrass jam band. Mike Dowling is a wonderful acoustic roots-blues guitarist, and was one of my favorites of the festival. Doyle Lawson and his band were polished, as usual.

My personal favorite? This one was a surprise to me. Mike Marshall has never been one of my favorite performers. He plays mandolin, and is one of the best in the business, but his music tends to run a bit experimental for my taste. This time out, he performed with Hamilton de Holanda, a Brazilian bandolim virtuoso. Their music is astounding. I don’t buy many albums any more, as I can listen to pretty much anything I want on Rhapsody, but these two were good enough to warrant buying the CD. Mike also did a solo performance on Sunday of Bach’s Chaconne (yes, Bach on a mandolin) that was terrific.

The festival also provided many hours of uninterrupted knitting time. I saw a couple of other knitters there this year, including Leah, who is knitting Rogue. She was also knitting it in a dark purply yarn, in near dark. I was having trouble just managing socks in stockinette. I didn’t take any photos at the festival; after I lost my binoculars a couple of years ago at Wintergrass, I try not to take anything that might tempt another thief. (You’d think bluegrass fans wouldn’t be pickpockets, but there you have it.)

And the socks, you ask? How much sock can I knit over a four day festival? (Actually, two evenings, Saturday afternoon and evening, and all day Sunday.) I started on Thursday evening just past the gusset on the first sock. Here’s where I finished Sunday night.

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Can’t tell from that photo? Here’s another:

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I also have been working on the mystery baby project, using some of my closely guarded Cotton Ease stash. I still can’t show a real picture, or it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now, would it. Here’s a hint:

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By the way, Cotton Ease is back on the market, with newer, better colors. Once I use up the stash I have, I might just have to buy more. (Who am I kidding, I probably won’t wait that long!)

And just to tempt your taste buds, here’s the bread I made earlier this week.

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It’s white-bread, but with cooked brown rice, polenta, and enough wheat bran to give it a nice chewy texture. It’s already gone, so I need to go make more. I make my bread in the bread machine, but generally bake it in the oven. I’ve finally gotten to the point where I don’t need much of a recipe; I just start with the right proportions of flour and water, then add the other ingredients according to whim. Yum, now I’m hungry.

Oh, and in case you can’t find it, here’s a link to Wintergrass. Yes, I already have my tickets for next year. Did you really need to ask?

More Sunsets, Knitting Update

Here are more vacation photos. See the previous few posts for details of where we were, in case you haven’t been hanging on every word that I post.

Yet another sunset from our condo. In weeding through the photos, it appears that we took at least 50 sunset photos from our balcony on the various evenings that we were there at sunset. Thank heavens for digital, is all I can say.

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We did make it out to Catalina Island. I had that silly song in my head for the whole trip, by the way. We took the Catalina Flyer over, and spent the whole day, taking a bus trip inland to check the place out.

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Here’s the bus:

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And more beach/knitting shots.

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We stopped at the Wrigley ranch for refreshments part-way through the tour. I took a knitting break with this fine fellow.

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There were cute horses, and a cute real cowboy.

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There were buffalo:

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And the ferry ride back to the mainland, at yet another sunset.

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We met our Germany friends for breakfast Sunday morning before we took off for home. We discovered the Crystal Cove Beach Cottages during our trip. This was a thriving beach community from the 1930’s to the 1950’s, and subsequently fell into disrepair. It has been turned into a historic district and is slowly being restored as rental cottages. The restaurant on the property, the Beachcomber, is just a hoot. I want their martini flag for our dock. We didn’t get any photos, as it was drizzly that morning, but someday intend to go back there for a vacation.

On to knitting. I worked on the Laurel Hill sweater during the trip, and finished both the front and back. Now it’s on to Sleeve Island, nothing like Catalina Island, I’m sure. Maybe playing that song would make it go faster. Then again, maybe not.

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I also got quite a bit done on the first of the Solar Energy socks. I wasn’t quite certain that I liked this color once I started knitting, but it’s growing on me. It’s striping in a rather interesting fashion.

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It’s actually not quite that…yellow. It’s more maize and khaki, with light purple and orange in the stripey part. I’ll try to get the color better with the next, hopefully daylight, photo.

I’m also still working on a lace project, but it’s gotten to that point where it just can’t be photographed without looking like a blob. The last photo I took of the Forest Canopy shawl was way back in September. It’s bigger than that now, but too big to spread out and get a decent photo. You’ll just have to wait.

This week is a work week, so stay tuned for another post. Who knows if I’ll get any knitting, or posting, done this week. All I have to say, is that it’s cocktail hour here, with or without the martini flag.

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An addendum: One of my new favorite knitting blogs:  TECHknitting; check it out!

New Socks! New Yarn! Madrona!

First, the new socks. I finished the hot pink babies earlier this afternoon, and here they are.

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Note Lucy’s feigned indifference. Here’s another photo:

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Specifications:

Yarn: Socks That Rock, lightweight, in Hotflash.
Pattern: basic top down, 2 by 2 ribbed cuff, stocking stitch, heel flap, etc. Nothing fancy, but it works. I use a Twisted German cast on, just because I like how it looks.
Needles: Ivore, 2mm for the cuff, 2.25mm for the rest.
Started: A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. (Sometime in October, for crying out loud.)
Finished: Today.
What I learned: I’m still not bored by a plain vanilla sock pattern. I have tons of sock patterns, and don’t ever use them. Every time I start a new pair of socks, I look through them all, and end up making one just like this. Socks are my carry-around-to-knit-in-public project, and the thing I pick up when I only have time for two stitches and nothing more. You can gauge how busy my life has been by how long it takes me to complete the socks. It’s been a busy few months for me.

Here are two photos to show you my latest stitch marker invention. I’m always on the lookout for ways to keep track of gusset and toe decreases (I don’t use stitch markers for socks except for those parts). I used to use two markers of different colors linked together, but came up with this:

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It’s a two-colored double-ended stitch marker! When I get to the beginning of the round, I turn the marker upside down. If the top bead is red, that means that the round I’m working needs decreases. If it’s green, I just knit around straight. Very ingenious, if I do say so myself.

What’s next on the sock knitting agenda? I just reached into the bag* and came up with this:

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It’s Dicentra Designs, in Solar Energy. In real life it looks more orange and purple. Because you can’t have too many orange and purple socks. This looks to be a bit finer weight than the STR, I am even contemplating trying it on 2mm needles. Guess what pattern I’ll be using? Yup, same thing. I’m not even looking through that stack over there. For a change I’ll use a different brand of needles, so I don’t get bored.

Last but not least, Madrona. I went again for a few hours on Saturday, to knit and shop. I used my “free” yarn day** and bought some lovely things. I also met up with some lovely knitters in the lobby and had a little knit-in. Let’s see; Stephanie, Kris, Ryan and TMK, Rebecca, Saralyn. I think that’s all the blog-people. There were many other apparently blogless people there knitting, and one guy who sat there all afternoon with his laptop. I never did figure him out. He wasn’t knitting, he didn’t look at all interested in picking up knitters, maybe he just randomly picked the Sheraton to hang out.

Now, I know what you really want to see. The yarn. It’s all about the yarn. When I cave and go shopping, I don’t screw around. Looky here.

The whole yarn pile:

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What’s in that mix, you ask? First up, some Sea Silk. I’ve been coveting that yarn forever, but wasn’t about to pay that price without being able to touch the stuff. One touch, it was in my shopping bag. There are many more colors that are flashier, but this cream stuff just makes my mouth water. It’s the color of English clotted cream.

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The color in the second picture is more like the real thing. This will be a lace shawl someday.

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That’s Blue Moon Fiber Arts Bambu, in Henpecked. For a lacy stole.

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More BMFA, this time Seduction sock yarn, in Downpour. This is a simply divine merino/tencel blend. I wasn’t the only one that got sucked in at the BMFA stand, by the way. It was nearly a stampede.

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This is more sock yarn, because as we all know, sock yarn doesn’t count. This is Monarch merino sport weight, in Red Hat. More purple.

Don’t any of you dare email my husband and tell him how much all this cost. As far as he knows, yarn is yarn, Sea Silk and Encore are interchangeable. Let’s keep it that way, eh? Can I count on you?

It’s martini time again! Until next time…

*Okay, okay, the sock stash isn’t in a bag, it’s a whole stinking closet. You know what I mean.

** Free Yarn Day, from YFC. Link is above.

Laundry Day

This is what sock laundry day looks like at my house:

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For the record, I do my socks in the washer. I throw them in on the delicate cycle, and they mostly do OK. Our washer and dryer are on their last go-around, and I’ve told my spouse that I don’t care about any other features for a new one, it has to have a handknit cycle.

I went to Madrona last night to hear the Yarn Harlot (do I really need to link to her?) speak about charity knitting. Of course I took my charity knitting:

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Yes Kris, those are different needles than I started it on. I got about 5 inches done last night, got home, decided the fabric was much too stiff, ripped out, started over. Repeat as necessary. The yarn is Beaverslide Dry Goods, their 2 ply fisherman weight 100% wool yarn. The color is Alpine Fir. I have a bunch of lone skeins of worsted and heavy worsted weight yarn in the stash that is perfect for Dulaan hats, mittens, and scarves. This will be a scarf.

We had dinner at a little Thai restaurant just up the street from the convention center. The place was packed with knitters, most of them knitting. There was a line waiting for tables, most of them knitting. I can’t imagine what the people that run that place must have thought. In my ideal alternate universe, this is what every restaurant would look like. Of course I forgot my camera. I sat beside Fiona Ellis at the knitting bee, and she was wearing that lovely cabled hoodie, Celtic Icon*, from her book, Inspired Cable Knits. I wanted to steal it. I didn’t think she’d want to trade for the 5 inches of ribbed scarf I had on the needles, so I kept my mouth shut, and just sat there and envied it. Once again, no photos, as the camera was at home.

Tonight she is talking at a free session about the Knitter’s Muse. Unfortunately, for some reason that escapes me**, I signed up for an extra work shift, so I can’t go. I’m going tomorrow just to sit in the lobby of the Sheraton and knit with all the other people that didn’t get around to signing up for classes. Come on out and join us if you’re in the neighborhood!

*Does anybody else think that this sweater would look better just in one color? Even with the subtler color scheme used in the book, I think I’d like it better in all one color.

**Oh yeah, my husband reminds me that it’s to pay down the yarn debt. Now I remember.

Pink Knitting


First, I joined Rebakah’s Yarn Focus Challenge again this year. That’s what the newest ticker is all about up there. So far, so good, though Madrona is this weekend, so I’m betting that one of my “free” days gets used up.

In pink knitting, I’m still working on those pink STR socks. The last few months have been sort of hopeless on the knitting front around here. I’ve made it to my “weekly” knitting night maybe twice, and haven’t started (or finished!) a project in ages. I made a bit of progress on these last night while catching up on Desperate Housewives and Battlestar Galactica.

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A few more episodes worth of knitting, is what I’d guess. What we need around here is a good bluegrass festival, with lots of knitting time. (Guess what’s coming up, soon!)

And more pink:

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That’s Cotton Ease, from the stash. It’s a swatch, in case you hadn’t guessed. I can’t tell you what it’s for, as it’s for a baby-on-the-way*, and her mom occasionally reads the blog. All I have to say is that they better be right about it being a girl. And that color is pretty accurate. It really is that shade of pink.

Here’s something I found on the camera that’s most decidedly not pink.

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That’s Will. Isn’t he a handsome boy? Though I think he looks a little grumpy there, I must have woke him up for the photo.

Last but not least, my Monday Sky. I’ve missed Saturday Sky countless times, and usually don’t think about it until I’m making the blog rounds and see everybody else’s pictures. Yes, it really is that gloomy around here today.

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I prefer to think of that as five days early, not two days late.

*See previous post. This is the Mystery Knitting Project For Baby Riley. Hereafter known as MKPFBR. Angie, I hope you like Pepto Pink!

Firsts

I was tagged by Denise to post a list of “firsts”. Here goes.

What is the first thing you did in the new year?

Cleaned up the kitchen from the NY Eve party. There were no wine bottles on the lawn this time, thankfully.

What is the first thing you ate in the new year?

I don’t remember. I think I had a banana and peanut butter for breakfast. The first “real” meal was those BEPs from the last post.

What is the first thing you knit in the new year?

See below.

What is your first ‘blessing’ of the new year?

Waking up next to my sweetiepie, the lovely man I’m married to.

What is the first thing you will do to make the world a better place in the new year?

Not tag anyone for this meme.*

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Just kidding, I’m not really anti-meme. I just liked the whiskey part.

Post the first photo you took in the new year!

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Those peas turned out just lovely, by the way. A little overdone, but I had an excuse. Kris came over yesterday afternoon to knit, and before we knew it, the peas were done and it was time to eat. So I shared our good-luck peas with her, and she took the leftovers home for her family. And yes, BEPs do bring good luck; I got to knit half the afternoon with a friend!

Here’s what I worked on. This is the Jo Sharp sweater that’s been in the timeout pile for a long while. I have the front finished, and started on the back yesterday.

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The pattern directed me to bind off the shoulder stitches, then later sew the shoulders together. As these have no shaping, but are just straight across, that made no sense to me. Ever one to look for shortcuts, the shoulders are on string holders, to bind off together later.

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Last but not least, my New Year’s  Resolutions. They’re simple. Knit more, read more. And knit more from the stash, read more from the stacks. I have enough books and yarn around here to last more than one lifetime. I’m not outlawing purchases of either books or yarn, just resolving to at least look at the current stash before I buy more. There you go.

I’m off to Arizona to visit my sisters. One of them lives in Phoenix, the other is going there on a holiday. I’ve mentioned our rule previously, if any two of us get together, the third one has to show up, too. Otherwise the other two might talk about her. So we’re going for a few days, will get caught up on a lot of celebrations we’ve missed, and party a bit. Diane does have internet access, so if there’s a moment when we’re not either shopping or partying (or getting tattooed-remember the last trip?), I might get a post in.

Enough of this! Now let’s go have some whiskey!

*If you want to be tagged for this one, have at it. Leave me a comment so I can go gawk at your answers.