Lorette

Back From Vacation!

The blog vacation, that is. I hope everyone is having a great holiday! Christmas was busy around here, but fun-filled. John and I decided this year not to buy gifts for each other. Instead, we’re keeping lists of little things we’ve always wanted to do together, like more walks in the woods, and more movie dates. The plan will be to choose things off the lists throughout the year instead of buying junk that we don’t really need.

We had two big holiday parties at our house. One was our annual Winter Solstice party with neighborhood friends. We had a dozen fine people around our table for a huge prime rib dinner, with plenty of wine and laughs.

Here’s how I plan and execute a huge meal for a dozen people:

Riley loving the whipped cream:

The table set for dinner:

And the aftermath:

The second event was with family, and we had another dozen for that set of meals. We did prime rib again for Christmas dinner, since it was such a hit the first time around. We have enough meat leftover to make one heck of a stew, which will be tonight. Nothing like using prime rib in stew instead of tough stew meat!

For some reason we did not get one single decent photo with all the kids and grandkids in it. A good time was had by all, though.

On the knitting front, I’m still working on the same projects. No photos, since I’m too lazy to take new pictures. True Blue, John’s sweater, is getting bigger, and I’m almost at the underarms on the first half. The Peacock Shawl is slowly growing. The dog mittens are about halfway up the dog legs on the back of the first mittens, and Wicked Witch socks are proceeding.

I’m working on some New Year’s resolutions, and will hopefully have those in my next post! Have a happy and safe New Year’s holiday!

Ten On Tuesday

I know, I know. To my knowledge, I’ve never done one of these TOT things. By the time I get around to doing them, it would be Ten on Thursday, which I suppose would work. I couldn’t resist an opportunity to list my ten favorite Christmas songs, though.

We have a subscription to Rhapsody, which allows us to listen to all the music we want for a flat monthly fee. Believe me, this is cheaper by far than when I was into buying albums. And this way, they have to put the albums away, not me. My holiday playlist currently has over 3500 songs on it. How to choose just ten?

1. Gesu Bambino, my current favorite version is by Ying Huang, who has just a heavenly voice.

2. Sleigh Ride, the Mitch Miller version, from the album Holiday Sing Along With Mitch. Corny, but very singable.

3. Jing A Ling Jing A Long, by the Andrews Sisters, on the album Sing & Swing. Very catchy tune, as only the sisters can do it. Ha ha! Ho ho!

4. In Dulci Jubilo, by just about anybody who sings it.

5. Blue Christmas, only the Elvis version. Anybody else is just an imposter.

6. Merry Christmas From The Family, by Robert Earl Keen. The version on his “Live” album is the best.

7. The Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah, the Mormon Tabernacle version is my favorite.

8. Santa Baby, by Eartha Kitt. Again, anybody else singing this is just not doing it right.

9. Away In A Manger, currently I’m listening to a version by Richard Proulx and the Cathedral Singers.

10. O Holy Night, by the Irish Tenors. Or Il Divo. I’ll take either one. Now that I think about it, pretty much anything by Il Divo would do. They could just stand there and I’d be happy. 🙂

No links, you’re on your own finding these!

Better Get Out Those Sunglasses!

Or,

Project Update

Since I have one less thing on the needles by finishing those Arctic Monkeys, I started two new things. The first is a pair of plain socks. Here’s where you will need the sunglasses. This yarn is so bright, you don’t need a pattern stitch.

This is Tempted Good Grrl sock yarn, in the color Wicked Witch. Even that photo doesn’t do this stuff justice. I think it glows in the dark. I got mine here, and there’s still some left. This will just be a plain sock, that same old pattern.

By the way, I did have another sock on the needles back in September, that orange Trekking stuff. This was in a burst of excitement over knitting something besides plain socks. I got so sick of the pattern that I ripped them out, in a fit of pique. I’ll re-do the yarn eventually as a plain sock, but this skein just called to me when I opened the yarn box to find a new sock.

Next up is the second new project, Dog Mittens!

These are just the cutest things I’ve ever seen. They will be for my sweet dog-walking hubby. The pattern is by Jorid Linvik, and the Ravelry link is here. Here is her pattern shop. Of course, while I was shopping, I bought the Cat Mittens and the Talullah’s Heart Mittens too. The yarn is Rauma Finullgarn, purchased from Nordic Fiber Arts. It figures, I get excited by patterned mittens and have absolutely no yarn in those fourteen boxes that would work. That’s why the Stash Knit-Down counter moved.

Just as a warning, these are a little on the small side. As written, the pattern would probably fit a small woman’s hand. I’m going up a needle size, and they will be snug on him, but should still fit. (Did I just say that out loud?) I also put a little longer cuff on them. If you want to make these in a larger size, you could go up to a bit heavier yarn.

I have gotten a little done on True Blue, though I haven’t even looked at anything else since I got that mitten yarn. Here’s a photo. I’m not saying anything about whether it’s going to fit or not. At this point, I’m thinking that it would be easier to find a new man that the sweater would fit.*

The Peacock Shawl is still in the rotation, it’s just taken a back seat for awhile. Maybe I’ll show you a photo next time.

*Just kidding, dear. You know I wouldn’t trade you in!

Arctic Circle Monkeys!

I’m not far enough into Version 4 of the True Blue sweater to tell for sure if the size is good this time, but I’m happy to report that the Beaverslide yarn is holding up well to all that ripping and reknitting. And I’ve decided to think of the whole thing as my economy knitting plan. I’m really getting my money’s worth out of that yarn.

And I’ve finished something else!

New Socks! How Exciting!

Project Details:

Yarn: Three Irish Girls, Beckon Super Merino, from the Sock Yarnista Sock Club. The color is Arctic Circle, with plain black for toes, heels and cuffs.

Pattern: Monkey Socks, from Knitty, by Cookie A.

Needles: Celtic Swan Forge sterling silver needles, size 1.

For: Me

Started: September 4, 2008

Finished: December 1, 2008

Modifications: I changed the heel flap to a standard slip stitch flap, and the contrasting heel/toe/cuff option, otherwise, it’s as written.

What I learned: I can too knit something besides plain socks. The pattern was fun to knit, though I still love that plain sock. And I love the Sock Yarnista. Her yarn is just fabulous. Go buy some!

Crap, Crap, Crappity Crap

Or,

It’s A Good Thing I Took It Off The Needles To Measure

Or, Fourth Time’s A Charm?

That’s Big Grey in the background, the sweater that fits John like he wants this one to fit. That’s True Blue in the foreground, off the needles. That would be the third attempt at getting this thing up and running. I can’t explain this, except the gauge that I’m knitting the real thing is just a tiny bit tighter than my swatch. Even counting for the very tiny bit that my swatch grew when I washed it, this is not going to work. I also had problems with the increase row from the ribbing to the body. I was to increase 13 stitches, and given the instructions in the pattern, I did that row twice before I figured out that the instructions were wrong. It required pins to mark where those increases should go, and a little math-head to get it past the ribbing.

Somebody asked in the comments to my last post about the tape measure. Here it is:

I don’t remember exactly where I got this one, but I have a couple of these in different patterns. You can get them here.

And here’s a photo of Lucy to distract you from the destruction in progress. Lucy hardly ever comes downstairs any more, as she is a coward and likes her master suite upstairs just fine. She perched herself on a chair in the kitchen next to me yesterday.

Go ahead, tell her how pretty she is. I think she was saying, “Dude, that sweater is going to be too small for Dad.”

And here we go again.

It would be easier to go buy him a freaking sweater, but not nearly as entertaining.

Recalculating

If any of you have a Garmin Nuvi GPS unit, you will immediately know what I am talking about with that title. “Jill” is the woman who is the voice of Garmin on these units, and if you make a mistake or don’t follow her instructions, man, she really gets on your case. Jill says “recalculating” with a really bitchy attitude that makes it sound like you just gave her a dog turd to eat. John says it’s like having two wives in the car telling him how to drive.

I’ve had to do a bit of recalculating of my own with the new sweater. I’ve named it True Blue, as it is indeed pretty blue, and it’s for my true blue husband. I’ve ripped this sucker out and restarted three times now.

I didn’t take a photo of the first version. I wanted to use the pattern for the Father/Son sweater that I used for John’s Big Grey sweater, but completely ignored that fact that the Beaverslide worsted is a lighter weight yarn than the Peace Fleece that I used for that one. I actually did knit a swatch, then squinted sideways and decided that if I just knitted the size one size larger than the previous grey version, that all would be well. Denial is a lovely thing. I got almost two inches of twisted rib done on the back piece before reality hit. Way too small, out it came.

Recalculating.

I then dithered about it for a week, and finally decided to fire up the old PC laptop and make a pattern using Sweater Wizard. It’s the only software package that I use that has no good alternative in a Mac format (yet! she’s designing it as we speak!), and I’m not about to pay for and install Windoze on this Mac just to run one program. Out came the pattern, and I cast on again. This time I got about an inch done of the ribbing before I realized my newest mistake.

Most sweater patterns have the sizes listed as the actual finished measurements. That is, if you want your finished sweater to measure 24 inches across the chest, or 48 inches around, you would pick the size that said “48”. That’s the size I made for John with the Father/Son sweater before. SW does it differently. It has you enter your actual chest measurement, along with other info, including the weight of your fabric and desired ease, and it calculates away.

Do you see where this is going? I forgot this, entered 48 inches in the little box that asked for chest measurement. I had embarked on a sweater that would ultimately be 52 inches around, not quite the look he wants.

Out it came, again.

Recalculating.

Back to the drawing board, now with a new, resized pattern. I’m sure by this time tomorrow I’ll have found something else that I’ve screwed up.

A Good Cause

First, thanks for all the lovely comments on my Not Cobblestone. I still haven’t blocked it, but I have worn it a few times. The way the weather’s been, it might not get washed and blocked till spring.

Kris from Sonny & Shear, and the Knitting Wannabe, is having a blog contest for a very good cause. I know that the economy is horrible, and that many of you don’t have a lot of spare change around. However, whatever you can afford to give will help immensely in helping one family out in their time of need. I’ll let Kris tell you the story, go check out her blog post. And don’t forget to look at the awesome prize that she and Dana are offering as a reward!

I just got done with another seven day stretch of work, and I’m still groggy and in my jammies. I didn’t get much writing done last week, so this week will be all about NaNoWriMo catch up. I’m off to make up more scenes!

Not Cobblestone

Notice anything new in that photo, besides a new blue knitting project?

It’s a finished Not Exactly A Cobblestone Sweater!

I finished it over the weekend, though I haven’t gotten a chance to wash and block it properly. It’s very cozy, and I figured I’d get a post in before I go back to my work week starting tomorrow.

Project Details

Yarn: Classic Elite Skye Tweed, in the color Tapestry. This yarn is now discontinued, and very difficult to find for sale. It’s a little more deep red wine colored than in that photo.

Pattern: Jared Flood’s Cobblestone, from Interweave Knits Fall 2007. Sort of. The bottom up to the armpits is a Cobblestone, the rest is pure Elizabeth Zimmermann (see modification section).

Started: February 2008

Finished: November 6, 2008

For: Me

Needles: Knit Picks Options Circulars, size 7.

Modifications: I did the body as written up to where you attach the sleeves. I really didn’t want all that garter stitch on the top half, and I was pretty certain that the circular garter yoke would not be even remotely flattering on me. So I used the instructions for a raglan sweater from EZ’s Knitting Workshop for the top half and the sleeves. I made the sleeves narrower than the original pattern instructions, as the pattern as written for a man has fairly wide, baggy sleeves.

What I learned: See above. I’m gradually learning as I knit to analyze patterns as to whether they will be even slightly flattering, and to adjust things as I go if they’re not. This one fits well, and I predict will be worn often. This is the first time I’ve knit a sweater in the round like this, other than for a baby. It’s an interesting way to construct sweaters, but makes for a very unwieldy project once you get the sleeves attached.

The yarn is a bit weird, which might be why it was discontinued. The color is lovely, and it actually feels great once you wash it, but it has an odd stringy feel while you are knitting, like yarn that is treated for machine knitting.

Verdict: A successful sweater!

And what is up with that blue yarn, you ask? That is from a pile of very lovely Beaverslide wool/mohair blend, in the color Lake Josephine. It looks like a solid blue in that photo and on their website, but actually has very subtle tweedy bits in it. This will be a sweater for my sweetheart. After some dithering around, he decided on blue, and I narrowed down all the blue yarns from their website and let him choose. After another period of dithering, he’s decided that he wants it to look just like the Father/Son Pullover I made him previously out of grey Peace Fleece. Fortunately I’m completely happy knitting exactly the same sweater for him twice. What you see in that photo above is the beginning of a swatch, and I hope to start the actual knitting in a day or two.

In NaNoWriMo news, I’m up to 10,699 words, which puts me a little behind, but not far. So far I’ve killed off two drunk twin brothers, and started a world war. Not bad for only two chapters!

Some Actual Knitting Content

I know, I know. I bet you thought I forgot that this is a knitting blog. You can always tell when bloggers are behind on their knitting; they start posting the results of internet quizzes.

I have been working steadily on that Not-Quite-A-Cobblestone sweater, though. I finally have finished the neck shaping and am nearly done with the collar.

Here’s the sweater with the collar nearly finished.

Here’s what I ended up doing for the top half of this. This sweater started out as Jared Flood’s Cobblestone sweater, and I knit it as written up to where you attach the sleeves at the armholes. The top half is a simple raglan style, using Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop instructions. I decided to just follow her instructions for the neck shaping without questioning her wisdom, and it worked out perfectly. The collar is more plain garter stitch. I can’t begin to tell you how much I despise knitting collars in the round on stubby little 16″ circulars. I tried double points, but it was even more awkward. Fortunately, a collar is only a few rows. Now it’s on to the cast off.

I’m using June Hiatt’s instructions for a Half Hitch sewn cast off, which works well for a collar, where you don’t want the bind off to be too tight. EZ describes this in the Knitting Workshop, but she does it in the other direction, from left to right, in the opposite direction of the knitting. I tried that, and it seemed much more awkward than June’s way. Basically, you take your needle and yarn through the second stitch on the left needle as if to knit, snug it up, then through the first needle as if to purl, tighten and drop the first stitch off the needle. It matches a long tail cast on nearly perfectly.

I’m off to forage for lunch, then more novel writing. I’m only at a pitiful 6110 words, which is half what I should have at this point. I work much better with a deadline, though, and when I get closer to the end of November, I can predict a few 8000 word writing days. I have a couple of really annoying drunken twin brothers that I plan to kill off in the next chapter. That’s always fun, and good for a thousand words.

The Mutts Are Winning

Go vote. Yes, I know the election is over. This is a different one. Go give your opinion as to what dog the Obamas should take with them to the White House in January.

Riley is voting for the Mutt category. Lewey is really disappointed that his breed is not even in the running.

Also, I forgot to show a photo of our Halloween pumpkin this year. John’s kids brought this when they came to visit the week before the election.

Well, There You Go

You Should Be a Doctor

You are practical, sharp, and very intuitive.
Optimistic and energetic, you are a problem solver who doesn't get discouraged easily.
You are also quite compassionate and caring. You make people feel hopeful.
You're highly adaptable and capable. You do well with almost any curve ball life throws at you.

You do best when you:

– Are always learning new subjects
– Use your knowledge to solve problems

You would also be a good therapist or detective.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

I'm off to write. I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year, and I'm only 2215 words into the thing. At least this time I have a plot.

The Great Stash Knit-Down

I have a new item over there on the sidebar. Now that the economy is in the toilet, I’m very excited that I have boxes and boxes of stash to knit from. My sister-in-law Ena is visiting, as I mentioned in my last post. After she got settled in to our guest room, she came upstairs laughing. First she had to move a bunch of stash boxes around in the closet so she could have room to hang up clothes. Then she noticed Lewey talking to something he imagined was under the bed, so she got down to look. Yup, more yarn. I didn’t take her upstairs to see the 2 huge boxes of sock yarn, and the huge box of lace yarn in my office.

Anyway, I’m not committing to not buying any more yarn. You all know me better than that, and that plan has never gone well. I am simply committing to publicly keeping track of all the forward (or backward!) movement in my stash yardage. If I use a skein of yarn, the yards get added. If I buy a skein of yarn, the yards get subtracted from the total. Let’s hope it stays out of the minus numbers. I’m starting out with adding all the yarn I’ve used so far for the not-Cobblestone sweater. After this I’ll update it as each ball of yarn is used/added. My blog, my rules.

Ena is also a beginning knitter. She is knitting dishcloths as practice, and brought her knitting with her. Here is her first fine effort, and a photo of her knitting. Will you all please welcome the newest member of our fold, and encourage her on her progress?

She finished the first dishcloth in less than two evenings, so I’m pretty sure she’s hooked. I actually heard her say “just let me finish one more row” a couple of times. We went to the LYS today so she could stock up on her very own needles and more yarn (and stitch markers, tapestry needles, etc!).

Last but not least, here’s my hippie car, just to let you know who I’m voting for this fall.**

We vote by absentee ballot every year, and finished our voting this morning over coffee.

Whoever you are planning on voting for this year, get out there and get it done!

**Yes, I have a license plate, I’m blocking it out for safety reasons!

And The Fun Begins…

…As EZ says in her book, Knitting Workshop. As you all may recall, I’m knitting a not-Cobblestone sweater, and have been for months now. I did the body as written up to the underarms, then tossed out the pattern. For the rest of it I’m using EZ’s directions in the above-mentioned book, though I plan on modifying the neck shaping when I get there, using Jacqueline Fee’s Sweater Workshop. I finally finished the body and sleeves.

I now have the whole thing knitted together, with about 2 inches done on the yoke.

I’m enjoying the challenge of knitting a sweater in the round, but I’m not sure I’d do this often. The whole thing is pretty unwieldy once it’s knitted together, and makes it entirely a non-portable project at this point. The only advantage that I can see is not having to sew things together at the end, but I really don’t mind sewing knitting together. (Don’t send me all your sewing to do for you!)

John’s sister Ena is here visiting for the week, and we’ve been cooking up a storm. Here’s part of last night’s dinner. We had fresh steelhead salmon from the market, grilled, along with braised kale and risotto. The risotto was made using fresh chanterelle mushrooms we found at the farmers market, and was delicious. Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos of the whole meal on the plate, but here’s the in-progress shots of the risotto:

Yes, it was yummy. I’m off to enjoy the sunshine!

Not Dead Yet!

Well, that wasn’t really an intentional month-long blog break. I’ve had some ugly-icky stuff going on at work over the past several weeks that I really couldn’t blog about (still can’t), for confidentiality reasons, but just really didn’t feel like blogging about anyway. Most of the posts would have been:

Nothing new at work that I can talk about.
Nothing new in my personal life, because work sucks and also sucks out my life-blood.
No new knitting.
Haven’t taken a photo of anything in weeks.
The End.

Ok, things are better, work doesn’t suck anymore, and I actually knit a row or two yesterday. When I got an email today from a reader asking if I was OK, I figured I better post something to let you all know that I’m not dead. I’ve finally had some good news at work, and after all, I have a secure job that pays well, not any small thing in the current economy. I’ve also had a birthday in the past two weeks, relatively obscured by the work-suckyness, but a birthday none-the-less. I’ve had champagne in the past week, and got some lovely birthday flowers and cards, as well as a set of quite perfect Bose noise-cancelling headphones from my sweetiepie. And chocolate. Let’s not forget the non-suckyness of chocolate.

Knitting? Look at the last few posts, I’ve not made much progress. The Not-Quite-A-Cobblestone is half a sleeve and a yoke short of a full sweater. My Arctic Circle Monkey socks are one sock short of a pair. I haven’t knit a single stitch on that Peacock shawl, and the orange Morse code socks are in time-out. I’ve decided that I can only deal mentally with 1 pair of socks at a time.

And let’s not forget, while we’re talking about good things, that I’m writing a blog post while my husband is down cooking me dinner. I’m off to join him for a post-work glass of wine. I’ll be back soon, hopefully with a knitting update!

Project Roundup, Part 3

I just realized that I’ve been talking about my latest lace project for the past couple of weeks and have never posted a photo. I’ve updated my Ravelry project page as I’ve gone along, but never here. That’s what comes of trying to keep up with both, and doing a half-assed job of it at that.

The lace on the needles is the Peacock Feathers Shawl, a Fiddlesticks Knitting pattern by Dorothy Siemens. (Ravelry link here.) The yarn I’m using is Blue Heron Egyptian Mercerized Cotton, in the color Bluegrass. I bought the yarn from Kris at Sonny & Shear, and as soon as I got it I knew it needed to be a Peacock.

And here’s what it looks like now, at row 95 of the pattern.

I can’t say enough good things about this pattern. It does require a bit of attention, as the stitch counts change on a few of the rows, and the repeat markers shift back and forth frequently. However, the whole thing is clearly charted, and the pattern notes are quite explicit. Though the charts look quite complicated, they really aren’t. It’s one of those patterns that you just want to keep knitting, as it’s not just the same old thing on every row.

I also love this yarn. I’ve never used mercerized cotton for lace work, so we’ll see how it blocks, but the shine is just spectacular, and it takes color marvelously. It also looks like Jello. Here’s proof. John had a little procedure this week that required a clear liquid diet for 36 hours, and we made him some blue and yellow Jello. When the dishes were partly emptied, we just tossed them in together.

Proof that I’m easily amused.

And speaking of John, here’s a photo of several of my housemates out on the deck yesterday, enjoying an early fall nap.

Have a good weekend, everybody!