Or,
New Knitting Project
Sheesh. I’m trying this from the WP app to see if this works better on the ipad. Let’s try a photo, shall we?
Those are my new socks. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces, color is the January color of the month, A River Runs Through It. It came in the mail, my husband saw that blue, and said, “mine”. So these will be socks for John.
That’s all I have. I’m just trying to find a better way to blog on the road.
And that pretty much says it, right? I only have crummy phone photos for you, and not many of those. Yes, I brought the “real” camera, and yes, I’ve taken lots of “real” photos. I just forgot to bring that little extra piece that lets me upload photos from the camera to the iPad. So you get a few phone photos instead.
We’re on the Big Island, which I’ve never been to before. I think it might be my favorite of all the islands. We’re staying “upcountry” on the hillside overlooking Kailua-Kona, with a terrific view of the bay, well out of the traffic of the main town. The cottage that we’re in is part of a small coffee farm, and we have noisy chickens and tweety birds instead of city sounds. We don’t have air conditioning, but it’s been quite pleasant without it. We have wall to wall sliding glass doors along the ocean side, and it’s been nice enough to sleep with the doors open at night, and it’s been cool enough that we’ve needed blankets. And wool socks at night.
Here are a few photos.
Yes, I found a yarn shop. I only bought one thing. The shop had a surprisingly large inventory, with a great selection, but my vacation yarn buying goal is to try to buy stuff I can’t get at home. Here’s what I found.
It’s from local alpacas, hand spun, natural colored. There are 400 yards of it, I might try dyeing it with some of my natural dye stuff that I have at home.
Being upcountry in the tropics, you might guess that there is a bit of wild life here. Our hosts warned us about mongoose, and the rare wild boar that wanders in. Last night’s fauna was a gecko that we found in one of the kitchen cabinets.
Last but not least, a Finished Project! This was one of my January goals.
I’m not going to do a whole Project Details thing with these. The yarn is Frolicking Feet, from Done Roving. The color is Pot o’ Gold. I used size 0 Pony Pearl double points.
I’ve already started another pair but that’s for a different post. Blogging from the road on an iPad sounds lovely, but the WordPress dashboard interface with the iPad browser is less than ideal. That’s it for today, we’re off on another adventure!
I could just stop there, right? Be careful what you wish for, is all I have to say. The past few weeks at work have been a bit busy, to say the least. The hospitals are not just full, we have hallways lined with sick people in extra beds sans rooms. It’s been pretty demoralizing and exhausting for everybody; last week I saw veteran nurses in tears. At any rate, I finished my work week Thursday night, ready for a three day weekend, and had the thought “It would just be nice to have a few extra days off.”
Ha. Friday morning I woke up with the crud which just got worse as the weekend went on. I finally broke down and went to our Urgent Care Sunday morning, and came away with the last two packages of anti-flu medicine, one for me to treat influenza*, and one for John to keep him from getting it. The pharmacy was also out of prescription cough syrup, which should tell you something. Our hospital was near to running out of influenza test kits last week, so we’re down to diagnosing it the old fashioned way, by history and exam. What a concept.
Anyway, this “got” me those two extra days off I was wishing for. I haven’t done much except sleep and wander around in a drug induced stupor. I’m hoping to be up to speed to go back to work tomorrow.
Enough whining. I have gotten some knitting done this weekend, though I’ve stuck to plain stocking stitch for the most part, since my brain isn’t working very well. Here are my January goals for your reference:
And here’s where I am.
That’s the Green Jeans sweater (AKA Corduroy). I’ve reached the split for the bodice part, and have started the upper back. This is actually pretty mindless knitting, with just a bit of garter striping for interest.
And those of course are the socks. One done, one almost half done.
I’m not sure I’ll hit either of those goals by the end of the month, but we’ll see. I’d be closer to getting there if I hadn’t gotten distracted by that shiny shiny platinum yarn from the last post.
I’m off to take more drugs.
*And yes, I did get a flu shot. I hate to think what this would be like if I hadn’t.
I am officially bored with everything I’m knitting. I actually like all my projects, but they’ve all been in progress for so long that they are starting to grow mold. There is only one thing to do in that circumstance: cast on something new!
I rummaged around in the yarn bins and found some lovely light fingering weight shiny stuff that I bought when we were in Europe this past fall. It was a simple matter to find a pattern that would work. I had both in the stash, and voilà, I even had the right size needles!
The yarn is Lana Grossa Lace Lux. It’s more of a light fingering than lace weight, and I have 930 meters of it. The color name is Platinum 10, though it looks more like cremini mushrooms to me. Very shiny cremini mushrooms, to be sure. It’s a wool/viscose blend. I got this somewhere on our trip through Amsterdam to Budapest, though didn’t write down where we were at the time.
The pattern is Miriam Felton’s Seraphim, so this is officially my Platinum Seraphim. Just to keep track, I’m using my Holz & Stein ebony needles, size 3.5mm. I uploaded the pattern to my iPad, tweeked it in KnitCompanion, and sat down to knit and watch those Seahawks lose today.
How about you all? What’s new on your needles?
FINALLY! This one is done done done. Excuse me if I must post a gazillion photos, I’m so freaking happy this is finished.
I’ve never made a tassel before! I used a piece of cardboard to wind the yarn around, using these instructions.
I used the sweater yarn to crochet a tight single chain for the button loops, then just tied them into the button band from the back side.
Alrighty then. Now that that one is done, here are my New Years resolutions, such as they are:
That’s pretty much it.
Here are the January goals:
In the cooking category, here are the photos of our New Years BEPs (black eyed peas). You didn’t think we’d forget them, did you?
Onward!
OK, did anybody else think of Andy Williams or the Lettermen when they read the title of this post? Terrific, now I’m not going to get that sappy song out of my head.
Anyway, this post is not about Andy Williams or the Lettermen. It’s about being Almost There with a finished project.
Yes, I have been knitting this blasted thing for eons. It’s Almost Done, though. The knitting is All Done, and it’s currently in the tub getting a soak. Then it’s the buttons, and the little button loops, which I have no idea how to do, but I suppose I’ll just wing it, like I do most things. And a tassel. I’m pretty sure the hood needs a tassel. Then it will be Really Done.
Buttons! I keep forgetting about the buttons, which is pretty much why I made this sweater. Here they are, again.
True Blood Faery Buttons!
We’re Almost Ready for Christmas around here. We’re having our big annual Solstice Dinner on Saturday, so I’ve got a lot of cooking to do. Of course there will be photos, so stay tuned.
Here are a couple of photos from our tree decorating this year.
Why yes, we do open a bottle of champagne for the tree decorating!
And now, just for your listening pleasure:
I sort of missed most of the past month, didn’t I. Oh well. I’ve been sick, then busy, then more busy. And I haven’t even knit all that much. That crazy bug that I picked up on our cruise has really hung in there, and more or less knocked me on my butt. It turned out to not be whooping cough, according to the test; didn’t get much better with a round of antibiotics, and has turned me into a total slug for the past few weeks. I’m still coughing though it’s finally getting better. All that whining is my latest excuse for not blogging.
I did start doing NaNoWriMo in a fit of insanity. I got to about 7000 words before I decided I really wasn’t having any fun, and wrote another 2000 or so words before I REALLY decided that, no, in fact I am not having fun with it this year, and abandoned ship.
Enough of the pity party. Here’s some fun stuff. My latest socks.
Click on that to get a better photo of the wild and crazy that is Lewey.
Getting that model to cooperate was no easy task. He was not one bit interested in helping me blog, he just wanted to eat the yarn. I didn’t take the time to shoot any more photos since the mutt smelled a little funky when I got close enough to tell. He just had a bath too, so I’m sure he thought it was necessary to roll in something at the dog park. Lovely.
I’ll forgive you if you’ve forgotten what yarn that is. It’s Frolicking Feet, from Done Roving (I got mine here), color is Pot o’ Gold. Do me a favor and go buy her out so I’m not tempted to buy more of this.
Here’s more fun. I needed some new shoes, and found these.
Closer…
Click on that one, too.
Knitted shoes! How cool! They have these on Amazon, here they are. Danskos are not cheap, but they are seriously some of the most comfortable shoes you can buy if you are on your feet all day. Take a clue from hospital nurses, Dansko clogs are what many of them wear. You will note that I’m wearing mine with hand knit socks, too.
I’m off to knit. I get to work the weekend, so I want to stockpile some stitches today.
We are back in Amsterdam, and will fly home tomorrow. It took 14 days to get down the river to Budapest, and a little under two hours to fly back here! Here are a few more photos. Even I’m getting tired of them…
The town of Melk, where there is a magnificent Abbey and a very cute little main market area.
Then we came to Vienna. Neither of us has been there before, but it is a city I could easily return to for a week’s vacation. Here are a few highlights:
That’s the town incinerator. You might wonder why I would find that fascinating. It was designed by a man named Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser. Those of you who are knitters know that the sock yarn company, Opal, used several of his designs as inspiration for one of their sets of sock yarn. I knitted a pair myself, and might just have bought some more on this trip.
ABC in Vienna:
That’s the Hotel Sacher. We had to stop and eat a Sacher Torte. Yum!
I’ll bet you’d like to see a close up. Here you go…
That was in a bakery window. It’s a baked replica of the imperial crown! They wouldn’t let me try that one on, either.
We also saw the summer residence for Maria Theresa and the rest of the Hapsburg gang.
I suppose they needed a big house, since she had sixteen children. Only eleven survived to grow up, but still, that’s a lot of bedrooms.
That’s a photo taken in Bratislava. I missed that stop, since I finally caught the respiratory bug that swept through the cruise boat for the whole two weeks. I still feel like I have ebola or something equally as dire.
Next up is Budapest, but I’m saving that one for its own post. Both John and I agreed that it was our favorite place on the trip. We were on the boat overnight there, and then stayed on another day and a half, and could have stayed another several days at least. I’ll show photos later when I get them sorted.
Last but not least, new socks in the making:
The yarn is Frolicking Feet sock yarn, by Done Roving, color Pot O’ Gold. I got mine here. There might be some left in the shop, though I tried to remedy that. This might be my new favorite sock yarn. The colors are splendidly intense, and the yardage is amazing. It might even be better than Wollmeise (shhhhh…don’t tell anyone).
We head home in the morning. I’m off to dinner; we’re staying in the same B&B in Amsterdam where we were on the first leg of the trip, and our hosts kindly offered to make us supper tonight. Since Petra is a chef and does cooking classes, we weren’t about to turn that down!
I could just stop right there and post the title. It’s been a busy month, between the Hawaii trip, and friends in town, and work. I think I’ve knit one or two rows on that Evenstar lace thing, and one or two rows on my poor neglected sock. I might have even done a few rows on that Faery Ring hood thing. But really, they look about the same, so I’m not dragging them all out and taking pictures of them just so you can snicker at what a lame knitter I am.
I did get an iPad, though, which has consumed countless hours of time playing around with it. I found the KnitCompanion app, which was worth the price of the device itself. It has the ability to import patterns and then lets you cut them up into manageable pieces, and import charts with row markers, highlighters, etc. You can even mark rows with lifelines, and add your own text or audio notes to sections. It is not a cheap app, but most definitely worth it, especially if you knit lace. The support from the software designers on Ravelry is tremendous. Here’s a photo.
Now if I would just spend more time knitting and less time playing goofy games.
That’s pretty much it for knitting news. I knew you’d be thrilled.
Oh wait, I forgot one BIG thing. I won the first ever Knitter’s Chick contest over at Kim’s, and won runner up for Knitter’s Hunk. I nominated Maggie Smith for “chick”, and she won quite handily. I nominated Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, anyone??) for Hunk, and he was narrowly defeated by Liam Neeson. I won some cool prizes, but I’m too lazy to get up and take one more photo.
Last but not exactly least, we’re off on vacation again.
This time it’s just for us. We’re leaving in the morning to fly to Europe. We spend a few days in Amsterdam, where our friends from Manchester are meeting us. Humphrey and John have every moment plotted, including dinner reservations for all four nights that we’re in Amsterdam. They have a detailed itinerary sketched out, so all I have to do is grab the camera and my neglected sock and head out. Then John and I get on the Ama Dolce river boat for a two week cruise of the Rhine, the Main, and the Danube, ending up in Budapest. Any recommendations on yarn shops along the way would be welcomed.
As usual, the house and the yarn stash are well guarded by our two vicious attack dogs, our house sitter, and Lucy, who hangs out in the stash closet just to make sure none of you sneak in. Here she is.
I’m sure there will be wi-fi along the way, so I’ll try to keep you posted!
Yes, I’ve actually finished something. More on that later. It will probably be the ONLY thing I finish for the Ravellenic Games, though. It got a bit nutty at work the past two weeks, with two partners out unexpectedly, so mostly I’ve just worked. But there are a lot of good parts to that. I get paid to work extra, which means I get a little less of the stink eye when the Yarn Truck UPS Man comes to the door.
OK, ok. I’ll show you the shopping first. I need more yarn like I need bedbugs.
I showed you the lace stuff a few posts ago. What came this week is Peace Fleece. I couldn’t help it, a bunch of their colors were on sale. They still are, if you are in need of stash enhancement.
Who knows what that will be. The color is Violet Vyehchyeerom (Russian for “evening” per the PF site). There is enough for a nice winter sweater. My other PF sweater is getting a bit beat up, since I wear it a lot.
Now on to the finish line. The Lacy Baktus is done done done.
It’s hard to tell much from that. It was a big foggy this morning when I took the photo, so it’s an inside photo with flash, and I’m too lazy to photoshop it. I’ll try to get an outside modeling shot later.
Project Details:
Yarn: My own handspun! The fiber is a 50/50 merino-bombyx blend, color name Aubergine. Here was the original fiber, from Anna at Corgi Hill Farm, to give you a better idea of the color.
Pattern: Lacy Baktus
Needles: 4 1/2 mm plastic straights, from my huge collection of plastic straight needles. I love them to pieces. Here’s a photo. I also have a set of the Knit picks Harmony 14 inch straights.
Started: July 27 2012
Finished: August 9 2012
For: Me!
What I learned: Knitting with my own handspun is an extra big kick!
What’s next around here? I have one more Ravellenic project, a tea cosy, that is just not going to get finished by tomorrow evening. I have a bunch of WIPS that need some serious work. Most importantly, we’re headed to Hawaii tomorrow! We try to plan a summer week-long vacation with John’s kids and grandkids every other year, and this year we have 3 condo units on Oahu for plenty of knitting and reading time. I’m taking sock knitting, and that Evenstar Shawl, and that’s it. We’ll have internet access there, so I’ll try to show photos.
Knit on! I’m off on Baycation*, as one of the grandsons calls it!
* Just as a reminder, the stash is very well guarded by a bunch of attack dogs minded by our house sitter, so don’t even THINK about it!
Just a quick public service announcement here.
Kim is starting the 5th Knitters’ Hunk contest over at hand eye crafts. Nominations are still open, but close soon. Go over and comment on this post with your three choices. She’s also holding a Babe contest, so you can nominate three women as well.
Go! Nominate! She always comes up with terrific photos of the contestants, so it’s worth watching just for the eye candy.
I’ll be back soon with a “real” post, maybe even with a finished project.
First up…I hope you all noticed the change of scenery around here. I liked the old theme I was using, but it hasn’t been updated for awhile, and the old version was a bit twitchy with the newer version of WordPress. So I found one that let me insert my own photo in the header. That’s a picture of our lake at sunset a few nights ago. Here’s the original.
Next up is the pre-Olympic event of Stash Enhancement. I know, I know. I need more yarn like I need termites. So?
That is from the Verdant Gryphon, Eidos sock yarn in Medusa, Jade Emperor, and Wen Chang. Though I’m sure they would make lovely socks, my plan is to make a Color Affection shawl with them.
That is Mithril lace weight yarn, from the same shop. It will be a spectacular shawl someday. The color is Alice In The Rabbit’s House, and it is a true Tardis blue. I have my eye on perhaps this shawl. We’ll see. I have a few other lace things to get off the needles before I start something new. Note that the “yarn backdrop” was mildly curious for the first photo, and then she promptly went back to sleep. Ho hum. Just more yarn.
Last but not least, my beloved drug dealer’s scale bit the dust this week. It just died with no warning. Off to Amazon I went, and the replacement came by that famous brown truck earlier today.
I got a 500 g weight to use to calibrate it. Clever! This one is actually better than the old one. The LED thingee swings out so you can see it better, and it weighs up to 1 kg.
I needed this ASAP so I could weigh my Ravellenics yarn. I’m knitting a Lacy Baktus, which starts with a few stitches, increases until the yarn is half gone, then decreases back down. The last time I did this I didn’t weigh the yarn first, and ended up with this:
I ended up ripping about 300 rows back. Not this time.
For the record, the skein weighs 116 grams. Somebody remind me to start decreasing at the halfway mark.
I recorded a tiny bit of progress on this:
Right after I posted about six weeks ago that I could finish this by late September if I “just knit one row a day”, I put it away and didn’t touch it again. I seriously doubt that I will get it done by that due date, but I am working on it slowly. It requires a pretty high level of concentration, and preferably in the absence of vodka or whisky.
Finally, a photo of the lake I took this morning.
The daisies are going to town! It’s hard to be in a crabby mood when I have such cheerful daisies staring at me.
The Tour de Fleece is nearly over, and the Ravelympi Ravellenic Games are about to begin! I have been doing a bit of spinning for the Tour. Here you go.
The first three photos are closer to the correct color, but I couldn’t resist the last one. This one was “properly” started and finished during the tour. Even better, I have plans to knit it up into something for the Games. I think it will be a Lacy Baktus. The fiber is a merino/bombyx silk blend from Corgi Hill Farms.
Next up is silk, pure silk, from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The color is Ghillie Dhu, and it is almost but not quite white, with a tiny cast of pale green. I won’t finish this by the end of the Tour, but will get about half way through it (I have 8 oz total). If you’re looking for this on the website, it’s the bombyx silk roving. It is purely divine to spin. If I win the lottery, I’m buying a pound of this in every color she dyes.
I have no idea what this will be eventually. I’m thinking a shawl. I haven’t quite decided, but I might leave it as a single instead of plying it.
Click on that if you dare, but try to keep from drooling on your keyboard.
If the sun keeps shining today, I might try to photograph that outside to get a better color estimate. It was pretty grey and icky yesterday when I took photos, and I’m too lazy to photoshop it to get the right color.
Then there are spindles! Primarily I’m working on a very old project. This is also from Anna at Corgi Hill Farms, when she was still doing batts. This one is merino, silk, and firestar for sparkle, color named True Blood.
That’s what I’ve gotten done so far. Here’s what I have left.
Yes, I know. I probably won’t finish that by Saturday either.
I have been knitting a bit, if nothing else just to give my spinning muscles a rest. Drop spindling a million yards a day can be hard on the hands. Here’s a blast from the past, just one of many things I’m working on.
Finally, for the Games! I do have some projects lined up. My major project will be in the category of WIP wrestling, since there is no way I’m starting another big project just for Ravellenics. I am going to work on, and try to finish the True Blood Faery Ring sweater. I “just” have part of the hood and the never ending button band to go and it’s done done done. I think I can actually get the hood done, the button band might require mass quantities of whisky to accomplish. It goes up and down both fronts, of course, but also around the hood, all in one continuous band. Here’s a reminder of where I am.
That’s the hood, so far.
I do plan on starting two things for the Games. One is the Lacy Baktus mentioned above. The other will be a Tea Cosy, since my team is Team Sherlocked, and I needed to knit something at least vaguely British-inspired. Here’s the pattern:
It’s the Crown Tea Cosy, and here’s my yarn, from the stash, no less.
I just need to get my butt out and buy sequins or beads for the thing. Those two projects are small enough that I might actually have some hope of finishing.
It’s time to get my butt in gear and get something accomplished today. There is apparently an airshow at McChord this weekend, which is ten blocks and across the freeway from where we live. They are out in full force today, practicing, and as usual, the turn around zone is right over my house. It’s a good thing that I wasn’t counting on peace and quiet!
There you have it. I posted my June goals earlier on in the month. I must say, they were rather ambitious, given that I finished exactly seven projects in the past year and a bit. Why don’t you people tell me when I write something as stupid as “I’m going to finish a sweater, a pair of socks, and part of another sweater. Oh, and a million rows of a complicated lace shawl that requires my total concentration and cannot be worked on if anyone is speaking within a hundred miles of my location.”
Ahem. On top of my lofty goals, work was a bit busy. And I tried to cut my left index finger off right after I said I was going to knit a row a day on that shawl. It was a relatively tiny cut, but it was right on the tip of my finger where the knitting needle hits it with every single stitch. So I couldn’t knit anything for about a week or it would start bleeding again, and since then it is healing OK, but hurts every time I poke it, which is with every single stitch.
No, there was no alcohol involved. I was trying to slice bread. Serrated bread knife meets finger, part eleventy billion. My family appears to be known for this talent, so much so that my husband’s first instinct was not to grab a towel or a bandaid, or even to see if he needed to call 911. No, he grabbed his camera so he could post a photo of the carnage on Facebook for my loved ones to laugh at. I’m not linking to that. Imagine my hand, some bread, and quite a lot of blood.
But I did finish a sock. Here you go.
Of course I still have one sock to go, but at least I’ve started it.
I was a bit worried as I finished the first sock that I will run out of yarn, since the yardage is a bit short on this stuff*. After I finished, I hauled out the trusty drug-dealer scale to check.
Finished sock weighs 45.9 grams (including a bit of heel and toe reinforcing yarn).
I have 54.2 grams left, so I should be good.
I’m also baking bread again. Last week’s bread was a white-wheat-rye blend. Here’s what’s in the bread machine today.
Here are the approximate proportions of what’s in it.
2 cups regular bread flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup mixed “harvest grains“, softened in about 1/2 cup hot water
2 TBL canola oil
2 TBL molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 TBL wheat gluten
1 TBL yeast
I get my bread making ingredients at the King Arthur store online. I linked to the harvest grain blend, but the rest of what you need can be found there as well.
I’ll bake that in the oven on a stone instead of in the machine, I like the texture better that way. I’ll try to remember to show you a photo later when it’s out!
*The yarn is Unique Sheep Tinsel Toes sock yarn. It’s 367 yards, which for someone with a foot that is close to size 11, can be a little light. Can I tell you how much I love them though? When I went to find a link to this, I discovered that they now make their sock yarns in “Big Foot” sizes. You can buy a skein and a half if you have Sasquatch size feet!
Now that summer is almost here, I really want to knit lace! Fortunately I have a couple of lace projects on the needles. I just wish the weather would feel more like summer. It hit a high in the mid-50’s today, and rained much of the week. Oh well, I can hope, can’t I?
Here’s the big lace thing in progress.
That is my Evenstar shawl, started over two years ago. I think it’s high time it’s finished, don’t you?
Here’s where I am. This is a round shawl, with endless rows then a knitted on border. I have 56 rows to go, then the border, which is a 20 row repeat done 28 times. There are 560 stitches on the needles. This may take me a while.
We’re leaving town on September 24th for a big adventure that I’ll tell you about later. I want to take this with me, finished and blocked. That gives me 108 days to finish. If I do “only” a row a day, I’ll still have 49 days to do the border.**
59 rows + 28 border repeats; 108 days. Let’s keep track, shall we? I put it in the sidebar over there on the right. And please, don’t calculate how many stitches that is. I might have to break out the bourbon.
In other news, our fabulous peonies finally bloomed. Peonies might be my favorite flower, and we planted several the summer before last. They didn’t do anything exciting last year except grow leaves, but they are going to town with flowers this summer.
This is where being able to add fragrance to a blog post would be helpful.
Last but not least, next week is the 125th anniversary of the founding of my home town. There is a big celebration planned that coincides with the annual alumni banquet (that absolutely every alumnus that lives in the vicinity attends every year!) I can’t make this one, though it’s scary to recall that I was at the centennial celebration 25 years ago. I think I even still have the t-shirt! In solidarity with all of my fellow alumni, I rummaged around in my jewelry drawer and found my class ring.
That ring was designed in 1930, and hasn’t changed since. Of course the Edgeley tribe mostly doesn’t need the ring to identify each other, since the town is so small. If we run into each other somewhere, it’s a good chance we’ll be recognized.
So who is with me on the lace bandwagon? If you are, let me know in the comments and tell me what you are knitting/finishing!
**Updated with the right numbers. Apparently I can’t add or subtract, not a good sign.