The Knitting Doctor

Rescued Off The Back Burner

This WIP update is brought to you by the True Blood Faery sweater. This one has been on the back burner since before Christmas, and I was starting to have a few doubts about it. I’ve gotten the bottom cable done, and am about 4 inches or so into the body of the lower part of the sweater. The whole thing is knit in one piece up to the armholes, then split at that point. So now it’s this big unwieldy mess, and I’m in a morass of stockinette until I hit the lovely cables of the bodice part.

This Faery almost bit the dust this week. I’m sure it was that huge expanse of stocking stitch that got to me, but I started squinting sideways at it sitting over there innocently in its bag, having second thoughts about it. It looks so…huge. The other thing that’s been bugging me is the sleeves. The designer did the initial pattern in smaller sizes, then due to popular demand, sized it up to include 3 larger sizes. That version still isn’t complete, since she hasn’t added the instructions for upsizing the sleeves. I’m pretty sure I can figure that out by using one of the smaller pattern sizes and adding stockinette stitches to make up the difference, but still. It annoys me. So I’ve been putting off getting back at it. Two days ago, on my way home from work, I just figured, OK, I’ll get it out tonight, make a decision. Rip or not, but just do it.

I got home, dragged it out, and got out a coat that fits me that’s roughly the same length and shape, and compared.

It’s a little hard to tell from the photo, but I think it will be perfect.

Back to stocking stitch. I’ll think about those sleeves later.

Spinning With Friends

I had a wonderful time last weekend, though I’m just getting around to posting about it. Dorothy (Missouri Star) and her husband Bill came to visit us over the weekend. They live just a few hours from here, though we rarely get to see one another, for one reason or another. Now that she’s retired, and I have a more sane work schedule, I hope that situation changes!

Dorothy and I both used to say that we would never take up spinning. Ha! I fell hard last summer, and it was only a few months later that she was asking questions about spindles and wheels. When she joined the Beginning Spinners group on Ravelry, I knew that it was all over. She bought a spindle, then got a wheel last month. She brought her wheel with her, a nice Ashford Traveller, and some pretty hostess gift Romney fiber from a neighbor’s sheep, named Rainbow! We did a little spinning, a lot of chatting, eating, and generally having fun. John & Bill hit it off, and managed to find things to do that didn’t involve spinning or talking about spinning. They brought their Corgi, Maggie, along with them, and after a bit of jousting amongst the dogs to figure out who the biggest alpha bitch was, everybody got along just fine.

Dorothy is a natural as a spinner. Go look at what she’s been spinning on her blog (but come back!). After just a few weeks, she’s spinning nearly laceweight, very evenly.

I managed to finish spinning a whole pile of Cormo (that insulation yellow stuff from several posts back, though it hasn’t been washed up yet, so it’s not ready for a photo op). I did start a new spinning project while Dorothy was here.

The fiber is from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks, in the color Forest. I bought 2 ounces of this color in a merino-bombyx silk blend, and another 2 ounces in the same color in merino-tencel. I have the silk blend all spun, and I’m about half way through the tencel, then plan to ply them together. We’ll see how that works out. I did do a little couple yard sample, and I think I’ll like it. Here’s where I bought the fiber. The colors really are that rich.

Last but not least, here’s one of my spinning helpers. Lewey tends to sit right under my feet while I’m spinning, and Will is just pretty sure this is where he belongs.

And this is probably why he’s so friendly lately. When the weather’s better, he’s outside a lot, but he’s not a big fan of rain.

Come to think of it, I’m getting a bit tired of that rain myself!

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If you haven’t done so already, go here and read Stephanie’s post about Haiti. She’s said it much better than I can. If Doctors Without Borders isn’t your favorite charity, pick another one, but dig deep and give. If we can all afford to have computers and yarn and fiber toys, we can certainly sacrifice a bit of cash to those affected by this horrifying disaster.

Another WIP

This is just a quick post from my office desk in the few minutes I have left before the afternoon patients start to arrive. I have another new WIP to show you that I’ve been working on awhile, but neglected to post.

Want a little closer look?

Mittens! How exciting! The most exciting thing about them is that it’s my own yarn, that I spun myself! Yee-hah! The photos don’t really do justice to the sparkly goodness that this fiber is. Click the photos to get a little better look. The fiber is a merino/silk blend with some Firestar added to the batts for sparkle. It comes from Anna at Corgi Hill Farms, and it’s just delicious. This is one of my earlier spinning efforts, so it’s a bit uneven, but it turned out to be roughly all the same gauge, so it works for me. The pattern is a combination of one of Ann Budd’s mitten patterns from her book The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, and my own jerry-rigging. I used her numbers to get the thing started, then just adjusted on the fly. I’ll post general directions as to my modifications when I get the things done.

I’ll post more later, but I just had to get this up here. I pulled them out to knit a bit after lunch and thought, why, I’ll show the blog world what I’m up to!

How Did It Know??

Just a photo:

This was one of those “captcha” things you enter for comment verification. Sometimes I just try to make words in my head out of them, but this one made me laugh out loud. Yes, I’m easily amused.

Happy New Year!

A day late, but better late than never. At least I have an excuse. Over the weekend, that would be last weekend, I developed something I’m calling Ebola virus. I got both flu vaccines earlier in the fall/winter, but the symptoms are quite flu-like, and I’ve now had it for 7 days. I took two days off work last week, then fortunately have the 3 day New Year’s weekend off, so hopefully I’ll mostly be recovered by Monday when I have to go back to work. I actually went in to the office on Wednesday, but the nurses quarantined me, then sent me home as soon as they could get the patients rescheduled. So, Happy Fracking New Year! I’m having so much fun so far! I have a relentless cough, a squeaking voice, and today I got to add Imodium to the lineup of pills I’m taking for this! What fun!

We did sort of celebrate the New Year, though I was out cold long before midnight. If there were any fireworks on the lake this year, I missed them. We had clam chowder and champagne for NYE dinner, then blackeyed peas yesterday for supper for good luck. Today I’m thinking tea and toast, since my tummy is a little iffy.

Now, on to New Year’s knitting resolutions. They’re pretty much the same as last year. I want to knit more of everything, knit more of my stash, learn to be a better spinner (a new resolution this year!). First up is to go through all the WIPs and UFOs and clean house. It will be finish or frog around here.

Here’s the first UFO/WIP. It’s now officially a WIP again. This is the Froot Loops Morning Glory stole, which according to the blog and Ravelry, I started in May of last year. Who knows why it got sent to the UFO pile, since the pattern is a lot of fun, and the yarn is delightful. Here’s the non-Rav link for those of you still in the dark ages. The yarn is Brooks Farm Harmony, which has been discontinued. It’s a mohair, wool, and silk blend that is very lustrous and just a little bit on the fuzzy side.

The stole is knit in two pieces, then grafted down the center. I’ve finished the edging and the mesh border on the first piece, and am in the first repeat of the main part of the stole.

I’m off to find more cough syrup. Stay tuned next time for the next WIP/UFO!

Peony Socks!

Whew! I finally finished something.

Project Details:

Started: April 30th, 2009 (hey, at least it was in the same calendar year!)

Finished: December 26th, 2009

Yarn: Zoe Shalimar Sock, color Peonies, purchased from Kris at Sonny & Shear

Needles: Signature dpns, size 2.25mm

For: Me

What I learned: Knitting plain socks is still endlessly amusing. And I love wearing plain socks in every color of the rainbow.

This yarn is quite nice. It’s superwash merino, and I added a bit of pink Wooly Nylon when I knitted the heels and toes, to give it a little more durability. I tend to just wear through my socks at the bottom of the heels, though it’s better if I wear them with real shoes, and not Birkenstocks. For some reason, the open clogs rub more on the sock. If you want to try the Wooly Nylon, here’s where I got mine, though you can find it in fabric shops as well. I have it in a bunch of colors, though it’s fine enough that even if it doesn’t match perfectly, it just disappears. I just try to get in the same general color family and intensity.

I hope everyone’s holiday was lovely. We are still having ours, with the last set of family arriving today for dinner and gift exchanging. Santa will probably be glad, he’s had a busy week. I had the honor of working for the four-day Christmas weekend, and have to go in today as well, but then I have a couple of days off, and I do get the New Year’s weekend off as well. Just as a public service announcement, remember to go buy your black eyed peas for the annual New Year’s Day BEP cook-off. I wouldn’t want you to get caught short without them!

The Tour of the Christmas Tree

Everybody else is doing it, so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and show photos of some of the ornaments on our tree. Our ornaments are best described as “eclectic”, with no apparent theme. We’ve collected them over the years, and a few are from our respective childhoods. Here are some of our favorites:

And last, but not least:

Have a very merry and blessed Christmas, everyone!

Knitted Christmas Gifts

Just a quick post. The past few weeks have gotten away from me a bit. Work is going well, but Christmas is one of those holidays that gets me tied in knots. I love the peace, joy, and blessings part, not so much the shopping, frenzied decorating, and gift exchanging parts. My general response is to bury my head in the snow and hope that the Christmas elves will do it all for me. We had our big annual solstice party for close friends this past weekend, and we still haven’t gotten all the wine glasses washed and put away. I have the last of the Christmas gift shopping to deal with today, then I’m home free.

As far as knitted gifts, here’s my take on it.

I’m done with my Christmas knitting, because I don’t do Christmas knitting. So there, bah humbug!

Hopefully there will be a “real” post, with real knitting even, later this week. If I don’t get to it, have a blessed and safe holiday!

Spinning

I don’t have any impressive knitting photos to show today, so you get spinning photos instead. My True Blood Faery sweater is coming along, though slowly. I’ve finished the bottom hem cable, and am almost done with the stocking stitch hem. Then I get to pick up another gazillion stitches on the opposite edge of the cable, and knitting up the body will proceed. Just imagine what it looks like, OK?

I’ve been spinning quite a bit lately, and have several projects going. The wheel project is a whack of golden yellow Cormo that I bought on Etsy. I have one bobbin full as of yesterday.

This stuff is really fun to spin. It’s definitely different than what I’ve been working with, which is what makes spinning so much fun. Every fiber is different, and I’m having a blast learning different techniques to get the result I want. This will be approximately fingering weight once it’s plied. It’s dreamy-soft. Click on those pictures to embiggen.

Then there are the spindles. I have three nice spindles, as well as the “student” boat anchor that I started with. That will be a sturdy spindle for plying heavier yarns, I suspect, but I really like my other spindles, and have a project going on each. Here’s what’s spinning on the Cascade Spindle Company St. Helens:

This is Ashland Bay merino/silk blend (70/30), purchased from Paradise Fibers, in the color Lilac. You can get yours here. They have lots of pretty colors available. This is spinning up into a silvery grey-lilac fiber, and will probably be a light fingering or heavy lace when I’m done with it, but we’ll see.

I managed to get the spindle filled this morning to the point where it was getting a little weird and wobbly, so figured it was time to wind off. I’ve been dithering around, trying to figure out the best way to deal with this, and with the help of Fleegle and Ravelry, came up with this method. She posted these boxes on her blog a few weeks ago, and I went online and bought one for each spindle. These are quite clever spinning gadgets, even though they are made for the purpose of shower caddies. They are just the right size to corral a spindle and fiber, with a neat carrying handle. And when it comes time to wind off, it works as a Lazy Kate.

If you had two spindles full, you could just ply directly from this either onto a third spindle, or a wheel. I’ve tried winding directly into a ball, but the mess in the middle was a bit spectacular. Thus, the suggestion I found on one of the forums on Ravelry to use a tennis ball as the center. I just bought a pack of new tennis balls*, and wound from the spindle directly onto that. Once I have two tennis balls worth, I can ply it into yarn. Clever, eh? I got mine from Amazon, though it looks like the spinners have bought them out. If you google Zia boxes, you’ll get other online vendors. These are the small size.

Fleegle slides her cops off the spindle onto straws, then does her plying from those. I like having the singles wound firmly into a plying ball, as it tensions the fiber nicely so I don’t get so many of those squiggly corkscrews in my finished yarn. I suppose as I get better at plying, her method might be faster.

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Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers for the four murdered police officers from Lakewood. It’s been sort of a difficult week around here for the community, but the outpouring of support for the families involved, and for the police department, has been amazing. There is a formal memorial service at the Tacoma Dome next week, though I doubt we’ll even try to get there. Most of the available spots are going to be reserved for regional law enforcement folks to come pay their respects, which is as it should be. Keep them all in your thoughts; they have an incredibly difficult job.

I’m off to enjoy the sunny, if cold, day.

*John, being ever frugal, suggested that we have plenty of tennis balls around here already, and did I really need to buy new ones? I reminded him that our tennis balls are dog toys, and slathered in dog spit. Thanks, I’ll splurge on new ones, dear.

Unnerving

I had a cheerful post-Thanksgiving post all planned for today, but as of this morning, I’m sort of out of the mood for cheerful. Four local police officers were gunned down as they sat in a local coffee shop, just a few miles from our house, prior to starting their morning shift. The lunatic who shot them is still at large, and police helicopters are circling over our house. I’m generally not easily spooked, and awfully lax about locking doors and such, but you can bet we’ve checked everything twice and battened down the hatches. Hopefully they’ll catch the guy soon, and we can all sleep easier, but I cannot imagine what the officers’ families are going through tonight. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Work is going well, even though I haven’t posted in a while. Eventually I’ll be in a rotation where I’ll work about two thirds in the hospital and the rest in the office, but for now I’m in the office still, learning the computer system. It’s going well, and I’ve been thoroughly welcomed and oriented nearly to death, which is a good thing. I’m not seeing that many patients daily yet, since they really want me up to speed with the computer system first, so I’ve had plenty of time to get to know how things work. This next week will be my last full week in the office, then I go to the hospital for most of the December shifts, with an unexpected week off before Christmas. Of course, I have to work Christmas, but that works for me. Somebody has to do it, and I got Thanksgiving and New Years off to compensate. I go into the regular shift rotation after the next round of holidays. So it’s all good. And spinning and knitting are proceeding. When I feel that cheerful mood again, I’ll post photos.

Have a good week, and hug your loved ones tonight. Be careful out there.

More Cables….

Or, Why The Major Is Way Ahead Of Me:

I do have an excuse, of sorts. I had a little malfunction involving some exciting episodes of NCIS (Mark Harmon, anybody?? He’s quite distracting!), along with an apparent ability to follow a cable chart as written. I’m currently at 16 of 20 repeats of that pattern, and somewhere back at about repeat 12, I goofed. There are these nice center cross cables, and I noticed that I’d forgotten to cross one of them about 12 rows back. After some judicious use of swear words, I bit the bullet and ripped back to fix it. Somewhere along in repeat 13, I took a look again, and noticed that not only had I crossed the cable like I was supposed to, I’d apparently made up for the earlier lapse by crossing it twice.

I did consider just leaving it, but my better knitting angels took over, and out it came again. That time I ended up tinking back a little further than I’d intended, since I had some trouble tinking the cables without screwing them up. Honestly, there wasn’t even any whiskey involved in all this.

I’m now making forward progress, at least for the moment. The Major has finished the bottom cable, and has picked up all those stitches along one edge for the hem. I’m hoping to get that far this weekend, which I have OFF from my new job! Have a good one, all of you!

Lunch Time…

…at my new office:

Update

Catchy title, eh? What can I say, at least I’m posting.

First up, work. I started the new job this past week, and I couldn’t be happier. (Happy, Happy, Happy, that’s the new motto around here.) I think it will be a good match all the way around. Of course, so far it hasn’t been particular grueling. The first day was “on-boarding”, or assimilation* as we call it around the Knitting Doctor household. I learned all sorts of stuff essential to the new practice group, and got a nice gift basket at the end of the day.

Notice the wine. I think they’ve heard about me.

The next two days were computer training. The new practice is all computerized, so I had to get up to speed quickly with their electronic medical record. Fortunately I’m a nerd and can play on the computer for days without getting bored, so that’s been easy so far. Thursday and Friday was more orientation in the local office where I’ll actually be practicing, and I got a warm welcome from the nursing staff that was quite encouraging. I actually saw a few patients, and that went well. Next week is more of the same. I’ll spend the first few weeks seeing just a few patients a day in the office, so I can get comfortable with the computer stuff, then I go into the regular rotation of both office and hospital work. I’ll be at the same hospital that I’ve been at for the last nine years, so that shouldn’t be too much of an adjustment. I’ll keep you all up to date!

On the knitting front, I’m not posting any photos. I’m working on those Peony socks, but slowly. This past week hasn’t been particularly busy, but I have been distracted by the job change. I’ve also done a few more repeats on the Faery cable, but it really doesn’t look any different than the last time, just a little longer.

Shopping update: I went to the office supply store today to get a few things for my new office desk, and found these.

I don’t have the receipt in front of me, but they were under $10 for the stack. They are about 3 or 4 inches across at most, and lock shut, so you can put little knitting gadgets in them. I’m sure they were intended for paper clips or something.

Finally, the spinning update. I haven’t burned the wheel and spindles in the back yard in frustration, though there was a bit of alpaca a couple of weeks ago that made the thought cross my mind. Then I made this. It’s still wet from the finishing process, so looks a bit bedraggled, but I think it turned out OK.

It’s about a worsted weight, and the fiber is Barrister Lane Fiber Rococo, I can’t find the band at the moment, but John has dubbed this Squashed Frog. I got it from Kris at Sonny & Shear. Click on that to make it bigger. I’m getting better at this, really.

Last but not least is a purchase I made in Ireland that I forgot to show you. Click on this one too.

Seamus the wheel got his own sheep. Doesn’t every spinning wheel need a good-luck sheep?

I’m off to rescue the sweet potatoes from the oven.

*”We are Borg, resistance is futile You will be assimilated.”

8 Repeats!

Before I get to the knitting, let me show you one of the things I cooked this week. I love fall for cooking, all the turnips and beets, and pumpkins! They’re not just for jack-o-lanterns anymore! I’ve had a couple of small sugar pumpkins in the pantry, waiting for the right moment (get the pie pumpkins, not the field pumpkins grown for gigantic size). We made pumpkin curry with it. Here’s the details and photos. This isn’t a recipe as such, but if you know how to put together a stew, you can figure this one out.

First, whack up the pumpkin, the hardest part. I generally get it cut up into big sections, then about two-inch squares, then cut the rind off. It’s pretty hard to peel the thing whole. I keep the pieces rather large, since they tend to melt into the curry when fully cooked.

Once you get that part done, you’re home free. Slice some onions and garlic, and saute, then add your curry blend.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I buy curry spices whole and grind them. I’ve made my own blends before, but now I just buy them locally here. They’ll ship, too. This particular blend was the Sri Lankan curry blend. I don’t think we’ve ever tried this before, and it was very good. Here’s everything cut up and ready to go. This process makes all the world of difference in a dish with lots of parts. If you get everything chopped before you start cooking, it’s a piece of cake. Mise en place, the French call it.

After I added the spices, I tossed in some chicken stock, a bit of white wine, part of a can of chopped tomatoes, 2 cans of garbanzo beans (rinsed), and the pumpkin, then cooked it till the pumpkin was done. This really doesn’t take long, and if it’s overcooked it turns to mush, so watch it. At the end, I threw in a bunch of baby spinach we had lingering around. Oh, I also added one chopped hot pepper in at the same time as the garlic, it was a yellow pepper that looked like a serrano and had some heat. And salt to taste.

Serve over rice, and dinner is ready.

On the knitting front, I have 8 repeats of that True Blood Faery band done. I thought I had royally screwed up my gauge, but it turns out I was wrong. The bottom cable chart is 40 rows, and the pattern calls for knitting 20 repeats of chart A. I finished what I thought were 4 repeats, meaning 160 rows, measured, and was horrified to find that the piece was twice as long as it was supposed to be. After I calmed down, I searched Ravelry, read the pattern (now there’s a novel thought), and discovered that each chart repeat is two pattern repeats. It measures out perfectly. Whew.

True Blood

No, not the books or the TV show of the same name. I’m talking about the newest WIP, that Red Faery sweater. I have started the thing, and here’s where I am. Click to super-size it so you can see the beauty of the cable!

I’ve been calling this color “lipstick red”, but in reality, it’s blood red. So, True Blood Red Faery it will be. The color on my monitor is pretty danged close to the real thing.

The construction of this sweater is different than anything I’ve knit before. It’s a hooded long cardigan, with a bottom cable that is knit from side to side; i.e. center front around in a long strip. You then pick up a gazillion stitches along one long edge, knit some, then hem it, then pick up another gazillion stitches along the other edge, and knit upwards for the body of the sweater. Ingenious! That photo up there is two repeats of the bottom cable. Only 18 more!

If you’re on Ravelry, here are the project pages. Note that there are two separate pattern pages for different size ranges, just in case any of you want to join us in the KAL.

And don’t forget to go vote if you haven’t already. John and I always vote by absentee ballot so we have time to carefully read through the voter pamphlet, and the saved newspaper clippings. Do your civic duty!