Month: September 2005

New Project Monday

It is Monday, right? I’m never quite sure unless I’m at work and have to write the date nine hundred times.

The kids are all back home, and the house is mostly cleaned up. It’s awfully quiet around here, is all I have to say. They were here for 5 days, and I think we ran fifteen loads of dishes and ten loads of laundry, at least, while they were here. I have a new respect for my grandmothers. My mother’s mother had nine children, and fed and raised all of them along with the usual collection of shirt-tail relatives who lived at her house off and on over the years. She helped my grandfather run a farm out in the middle of nowhere, with no running water, and no conveniences of any kind. She made all their meals from scratch, and grew or raised most of the ingredients herself. She washed all the laundry by hand, and hung it out on a clothesline to dry, summer and winter. And here I am, bamboozled by four small children, with all the conveniences in the world! The one thing that they did leave behind was an unwelcome viral visitor. I estimate that the incubation period of that cold virus was less than 36 hours, given how fast it moved from one kid to nearly the whole family.

I appreciate all the comments on my last few posts. I have discovered the secret to getting lots of comments: just post a picture or two of cute babies, and you’re all set!

Here’s what’s happening in my knitting world. Rogue is still drying. That yarn is so heavy that it is taking forever to dry. I didn’t just steam it lightly to block it, as it’s been all over the place in the last several months, and I figured it needed a good washing. I’ll be out of town for the rest of the week, so it won’t get put together at least until I get back.

Here is what the Peace Fleece looks like now:

That color is just wrong. In real life it is much greener. This is going to be my Not-Really-An-Everyday-Cardigan cardigan. (Scroll down the page on that link to see it.) I purchased this as a kit a long time ago, but don’t really like the pattern that comes with it. It’s a bit too cropped for me, and the sleeve shaping has some issues, and I don’t like the way that those dropped sleeves look. And I don’t really like the roll neck, either. So I am using a pattern designed with Sweater Wizard software instead. It is a plain cardigan, crew neck, with set-in sleeves. It’s as basic as it gets, and I bet I will wear it to death. It’s also a pretty quick knit, given the heavy worsted weight and plain stockinette stitch.

We’re off to Georgia to visit John’s sister for the rest of the week. It’s been in the nineties there, so I’m not sure I’ll even bother to take the heavy wool with me to knit. Am I the only sick person out there, or do you all also think “I’ve got x number of hours just to sit on an airplane and knit”, when you contemplate a vacation?

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I keep forgetting to mention this in a post, but I separated out the “knitting medical types” in my “Blogs I Read” section. If you are a “knitting medical type” with a blog, and I’ve missed you, leave me a comment and I’ll get you listed over there.

Do The Puyallup!

Yes, we did it again this year. John’s kids and their kids have been visiting us this week, and no late summer vacation is complete without a trip to the State Fair.  Our trip this year looked much like the trip last year, except that the little ones are a year older and enjoyed the rides and petting farm more. It was also warm and not raining this year, unlike our visit to the fair last summer. We ate lots of junk food, rode rides, looked at cows and chickens. I missed the sheep again this year, except for the few in the petting barn. I think they showed them earlier in the fair. I also didn’t make it to the craft pavilion this year to look at the knitted stuff. We all just wore out and couldn’t have looked at another thing.

I think the grandkids favorite thing was the drumming contraption:

That middle picture is Sam, and the last one is Griffin. Yes, John’s grandchildren really ARE that cute in real life.

Here’s Penelope practicing being a fireman:

She’s cute, too. They’re all cute, did I mention that?

George and I appear to have started a tradition of riding the scariest ride at the fair. Last year we did the Extreme Scream, more or less on a dare. That was pretty scary, I might point out. We decided to branch out this year. After looking them all over, we decided on the Turbo Force. Here we are getting ready to go:

Here is what it looked like:

That is pretty much the most terrifying thing I have ever done. After you get swung around in a big arc about a million times, it pauses at the very top for a few minutes while they change the passengers in the bottom seats. Then you get to do the whole thing again for another million times. And they are right, you don’t get sick. You are just plain too terrified to even think of nausea.

Here’s the sock:

This doesn’t really qualify as Extreme Knitting, because there was just no way in hell that you could have peeled my hands off those safety bars to pull out the sock at the top. Maybe next year.

Here’s the kitchen packed with kids after the fair:

And me and Huck in a quiet moment. He’s even cuter than he was when he was born.

There aren’t many quiet moments in a house with six adults trying to make themselves heard over four children under the age of four. Pandemonium just about describes it. I have gotten some knitting done, even amidst the chaos. The knitting part of Rogue is finished, and all the ends are sewn in. It’s washed and on the blocking mats. All that’s left is to seam the sleeves and put them in, and then to do the hems.

While I’m waiting for that to dry, I’m already plotting my next sweater project. This is a stashed project from a couple years ago, and here is the yarn:

That’s Peace Fleece, in Kamchatka Seamoss. I’ll tell you what it’s going to be in my next post!

More Rogue, Again

But first, the baby! John’s grandson Huck was finally born Friday night. Here’s a just-born photo:

Even though he’s a respectable 9lbs, 2 ozs, the Jolly Green Sweater won’t fit him for awhile. I made his mom promise to get a picture of him in it eventually. He’s of course perfect, which makes four perfect grandchildren in a row for John. We’re all glad he’s finally here!

Here’s where I am on Rogue:

If that looks suspiciously like where I was a week ago, look again:

One sleeve down, one more to go. I had forgotten just how much fun this pattern is. I knit a row, and think, well, I really need to get up and do something else. Then I look at the cable chart, and think, well, really, I’ll just knit another row and see how it looks. This, despite the fact that I know how it is going to look, because I’ve done these very same cables on the body already. I’m easily entertained.

Here’s my newest knitting spot:

We have more or less finished this phase of the remodeling project, and have most of it straightened up. That used to be the kitchen, where there was a traditional kitchen table and chairs. As we have a dining room table about ten steps from here, we decided to do away with the kitchen furniture and put in comfortable chairs for people to sit in. Everyone always ends up in the kitchen standing around and talking, so we decided to go with this. It’s a lovely place to sit with a cup of tea and the newspaper, or a glass of bourbon and my knitting, depending on the time of day. We have a new sofa for the living room on order (to replace the one that is ancient and cat-trashed), and I’ll show pictures of that room in its finished state when it’s here. We’re pleased with the whole thing, though my spouse has that look again, so I’m thinking that if I hold him off on more projects until next spring, I’ll be lucky.

A month or so ago I mentioned knitting while getting my hair colored. Someone dared me to post pictures, so here they are, Laurie.

Yes, that’s glop on my eyebrows, too. Here’s what it looks like done:

Yes I know, I forgot to smile. And yes, it’s redder than it used to be. If I choose to believe that this is the color I was born with, so be it. My husband hasn’t quite decided if he wants to be married to a redhead or not.

And last but not least, my favorite Bush-bashing photo of the week. What can I say, he’s so easy to poke sticks at.

Huck’s Hooded Sweater

The model is not yet born, so here is Sweetpea as the stand-in:


Project Details:

Pattern: Daisy, by the Yarn Harlot, pattern at Knitty.com

Yarn: Butterfly 10 mercerized cotton, in the color Hydepark, from handknitting.com.

Started: late August 2005, finished September 8, 2005.

For: John’s newest grandson, Henry, AKA Huck, not yet born, but we’re waiting patiently.
Gauge/Needles: 20 stitches to 4 inches, on 5mm needles. This yarn would look a little better knit at closer to a sport weight gauge. It’s a little floppy at worsted weight.

What I learned from this project:

This pattern has front bands that are knitted right along with the sweater body. The first three stitches of the front edge are knitted in seed stitch, creating the bands as you go. This has always sounded like a good idea to me, and I’ve wondered why more patterns don’t do this. Here are the reasons: First, they don’t lay quite as neatly as bands that have been picked up and knitted after the body is done. Second, in some pattern stitches, the gauge would be a bit different for the band pattern and the body pattern. You might need to use a smaller needle for the bands unless you wanted them to flare out. For a three-stitch seed stitch band, on a baby sweater, this all doesn’t really matter.

I also learned to look at my buttonholes when I space them. These came out unevenly spaced, but I didn’t notice until I sewed the buttons on. They are staying the way they are.

Yarn Notes:
I really liked this yarn. The colors are rich and vibrant. I washed this in the sink in cool water with a bit of Kookaburra Wool Wash*, and then tossed it in the dryer till it was nearly dry. A few  hours pinned to the blocking board, followed by a session with the Rowenta steamer flattened the bands into submission.

*This is my favorite hand washing solution. It is great for wool and all hand-washable fibers, and has tea tree oil so it smells great. If you don’t like the smell of tea tree, don’t use this, as it is pretty pronounced.

Green Giant Sweater

The baby sweater is finished. The baby is not. John’s daughter is still pregnant, two weeks overdue now. They had a false alarm the other night and spent the night in the hospital, but then got sent home. Since I don’t have a real baby to be the model, here’s my stand-in:

It doesn’t fit Sweetpea very well, but it was the best I could do. Here’s another picture sans bear.

Project Details:
Pattern: Daisy, by the Yarn Harlot, pattern at Knitty.com
Yarn: Butterfly 10 mercerized cotton, in the color Hydepark, from handknitting.com.
Started: late August 2005, finished September 8, 2005.
For: John’s newest grandson, Henry, AKA Huck, not yet born, but we’re waiting patiently.
Gauge/Needles: 20 stiches to 4 inches, on 5mm needles. This yarn would look better knit at closer to a sport weight gauge. It’s a little floppy at worsted weight.

This is a cool pattern. It’s easy, fast, and I love this yarn. It’s a little splitty, and if you have to rip back the yarn plies come apart, making it even more splitty, but the colors are vibrant, and the stitches came out unbelievably even. Yes, I know that those freaking buttons aren’t spaced evenly. I swear, that is the way the pattern is written. I’m calling it a design feature and leaving it at that. What I really love about this sweater is that the button bands are knitted together with the sweater. I probably would have to think a bit before I did this with an adult sweater, because they don’t lay as flat as bands that are picked up and knitted on after the body is done. For a baby sweater though, it’s a great way to do this. That is of course, unless you space the buttonholes unevenly and don’t notice it for some bizarre reason until the buttons are on. If they were picked-up button bands, I probably would feel obligated to take them off and re-do them.

Complete project details here.

I’m also working on Rogue again now that the weather is a bit cooler. To get you up to speed, I’m done with the body, and just have the sleeves left to do. I got mesmerized by that cable pattern again last night and stayed up until 3 AM knitting. No, I don’t have to work today. I popped in the second Lord of the Rings video last night, which was loud enough to keep me awake, and just happily stitched on into the wee hours.

Here’s a close-up:

That rolled-up mess at the bottom is the hem. It’s a knitted-on twisted stockinette hem that you turn up and stitch into place when it’s all done. I dislike the way it looks now, but I suspect that it will eventually submit to the Knitting Doctor Rowenta Steamer Torture, and lay flat if it knows what’s good for it.

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I’m not finding much that’s amusing this past week, but this cartoon made me laugh:

Have a good weekend!