Knitting Underway

Where I've Been; Where I'm Going

2009-11-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.

- Elizabeth Bowen

And I meant to post sometime in July . . . So where have I been?

Working, of course. Loving having my husband home. And doing a little creating here and there.

Knitting

Debbie Bliss' Alphabet Blanket, which was vastly entertaining and far less painful than I had feared.

The Heirloom Baby Aran from an old IK - they weren't kidding about the "heirloom" part - this one took forever.

A little stashbusting in garter stitch.

And I didn't just stop there:
Lots of little sweaters, hats, and even a pair of booties.

Sewing

Blankets, complete with (fairly) straight seams and not-too-bad-for-a-total-beginner machine applique.
Flannel burp clothes (and getting this adorable doctor one from a friend).

Noticing a theme here? Because here's the big project:

Growing a Baby

A baby boy due January 29th! He's already the world's most adorable baby/soccer star, and we couldn't be more excited. And distracted. And terrified. And exhilarated.

So it's probably no surprise that all my crafting energies have turned to wee small things. And the rest of my time is spent researching car seats, cribs, and the like. Blogging is just not in the picture for me anymore, although I'm enjoying keeping up with all your blogs in my feed reader. I've loved sharing our knitting and our lives over the past few years, so thanks for that, and thanks for your good wishes as we move on into this next wonderful phase of our lives.

A baby will make love stronger,

days shorter, nights longer,

bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier,

the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.

- Proverbial

Nope, Not Dead Yet

2009-07-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

For most folks, no news is good news;
for the press, good news is no news.
-Gloria Berger

I logged into my blog email account tonight for the first time in about 2 months, only to find out that a number of people think that there must be something dramatically bad for me to drop off the face of the (blogging) world.

All evidence to the contrary. Life has been so good, and full, that blogging has just taken a (distant) back seat. I'll have a longer post later this week, but in the meantime, here are the recent highlights:

1. My husband returned home from Iraq, safe, sound, and thrilled to be back.
2. Weekend trip to Catalina.
3. My orders changed.
4. Realized that grocery shopping is much more involved when there's a husband around.
5. Had houseguests 3/5 weekends.
6. Graduated from residency.
7. Started my new job as an attending in the Internal Medicine clinic at the hospital, which is good, but busy.
8. Gave my husband his second anniversary cotton sweater.
9. Studying for my boards.
10. Knitting, some.

I have a longer post planned for later this week, but I wanted to let folks know that life is good. I may not be returning to blogging in any serious way, but we'll wait 'til things calm down a little to determine that.

To Buy or Not to Buy . . .

2009-04-02T11:21:00.000-07:00

I generally avoid temptation unless I can avoid it.

-Mae West

Yes, I did disappear to be completely engulfed in the Internal Medicine wards for 2 weeks. Why do you ask? The good news is legion, however.

1. I am done being the duty ward resident. Done. Wow!
2. No more tire blow-outs.
3. Flowers are blooming everywhere.
4. I am immune to typhoid. Again. It never fails that every time I open my medical record, I am somehow due for one more vaccine. Love those shots!

Also in the good news category filed under "knitting" is a great deal of progress on several sweaters, and some upcoming sleeve surgery on my almost-done Fair Isle Yoke Sweater. Photos to follow, now that my busy Radiology schedule will allow me to take some daytime shots.

So, now I'm torn. Deeply torn. Wrestling with my inner angels and devils as well as any number of other miscellaneous demons. You all know that I have a bit of yarn at home. As of April 1, we're at approximately 504 skeins comprising 87,500+ yards of yarn. This is a significant reduction from prior, and the goal is still to get the stash a bit smaller, say to the 60,000 yd range.

But (there's always a but . . .) it's the Webs tent sale. On sale at very very good prices are Cascade 220, Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton as I recently used to very good effect in the cotton anniversary sweater, and Berocco Peruvia.

Let's ponder.

On the one hand . . . I have a queue full of projects for which I already have the yarn.
On the other hand . . . That same queue has many projects requiring yarns I do not have, that are on sale.
On the one hand . . . I'd like the stash to fit into a smaller space.
On the other hand . . . Yarn is squishy.
On the one hand . . . I could knit for a year without spending any more money.
On the other hand . . . I can get these yarns at close to 1/2 price, and I'll use them eventually.
On the one hand . . . These are great yarns.
On the other hand . . . Yup, definitely great yarns at a great price.
On the one hand . . . They'll probably go on sale again at some point.
On the other hand . . . That's never when I feel the urge to start the project.
On the one hand . . . I really do need a grey sweater. Cassidy, maybe? And the husband is thinking he wants a burgundy sweater, or maybe charcoal gray, and one in cotton, and one in wool . . . gosh he's demanding!
On the other hand . . . I've forgotten which hand is which . . .

Pluses and Minuses

2009-03-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

Never awake me when you have good news to announce,
because with good news nothing presses;
but when you have bad news, arouse me immediately,
for then there is not an instant to be lost.
-Napoleon Bonaparte

Sometimes I love being an adult. Sometimes not. There are pluses and minuses. And I'm a bad-news first kind of gal.

Minus: A tire blowout on the I-5 on my way to work.
Plus: I didn't die, cause a 5-car pile up, or get held up at gunpoint while getting my Starbucks . . . or any of the rumors my friends spread after I called them to cover my ward team while I waited for the tow truck.
Minus: Tires are expensive.
Plus: They really had my interns believing that I threw coffee in the face of an armed Starbucks-robber.

Minus: A crazy-busy week at work.
Plus: Being a doctor. Only three more months of residency.
Minus: Which means new orders (see below).
Plus: I saw a patient in clinic this week whom I've been following for just about 2 years, since the end of my intern year. I called a consultant for her, and as she left she commented on how wonderful it has been to watch me "grow up" and become such a confident physician.

Minus: Getting orders to a Marine unit.
Plus: Co-location with my husband. All those 96-hour weekends the Marines like to take.
Minus: Wearing camouflage.
Plus: I joined the Navy so that I'll have something to talk about when I'm 80 (you know, since I've spent my 20s talking about knitting). The Marines always give you something to talk about!

Plus: Being married. Definitely the biggest plus to being all grown-up. It's no secret that I adore my husband. And he sends me flowers. To match my camouflage.

Blue and Pink

2009-03-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

Observe the space between your thoughts, then observe your observer.

-Hamilton Boudreaux

Today's a two-fer, to make up for the posting I didn't do last week . . .

I find baby sweaters to be a crucial part of stash busting - perfect for all those 2 and 3 skein lots left over from other projects, or otherwise hanging out in the stash. And then you have the perfect gift ready for any baby-giving occasion.

Ribbed Baby Jacket
Pattern: from Debbie Bliss, available many places
Yarn: Lionbrand Cotton Ease in the old put up, approx 2 skeins
Needles: US 8
Notes: Unusual construction, but not difficult. My gauge was off so I used the numbers from the 2nd smallest size and the measurements from the 2nd largest.
Best Thing About This Project: I just love that ribbing.

Premiere Sweater
Pattern: from a free Classic Elite newsletter bouncing around
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Victorian Pink, approx 1.75 skeins
Needles: US 6
Notes: I accidentally forgot to increase needle sizes after the seed stitch on the sleeves. It looks fine.
Best Thing About This Project: A perfect paring of yarn and pattern.

I'm in for a long night of board review classes tonight. Which means quality knitting time! I'm almost to the good part of a Fair Isle Yoke Cardigan (i.e. the fair isle yoke part) after getting inspired by Jessica's here. Stockinette stitch here I come!

The Staff of Life

2009-03-11T08:45:00.000-07:00

Imagine if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the usual way. \

This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody thinks of complaining.

-Jeff Raskin

Friendly reminder: Have you backed up your computer lately?

It's moved to the top of my to-do list after a bit of an operating system scare this weekend. Fortunately, the kind folks at the Apple Genius Bar were able to fix the software glitch (and for free!), but it did remind me of how much stuff only exists on one computer. . . . Not the least of which are many photos of knitted goods and my trusty yarn-stash spreadsheet.

At any rate, with my computer down for the count for a few days, you'd think I'd actually get some knitting done. And I did, but the photos still need to be uploaded.

While we wait, I want to refer you again to my new favorite cookbook. Complete with blog. Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. It's amazing. Tasty. Great crust, nice soft insides. Good tasting. Easy. And really everything bread should be, but super speedy. Making this bread requires flour, water, yeast, and salt. It takes less time (and energy) than driving to the grocery store. And it tastes better.

Plus, the smell of baking bread really goes nicely with some knitting. Which is coming soon.

Why I Knit Socks

2009-03-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

It's no use going to the goat's house to look for wool.
-Irish Proverb

This is my sister, about 3 minutes after I gave her a new pair of socks. Specially requested to be like the last pair - that is, "too soft to be wool." (Thanks Judy!)

These are in Fiesta Baby Boom - a delightful squishy sock yarn that is definitely "too soft to be wool" and meet the demanding requirements of my sister that they be perfect for reading legal treatises in a drafty apartment.

And that, my friends, is why I knit socks. Keeping feet warm and comfy from Somewhere, Iraq to Philadelphia to San Diego.

Bondegard

2009-03-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

Being born in a duck yard does not matter,
if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.
-Hans Christian Anderson

Apparently, I like complicated things. Systems with a lot of rules, nuances, exceptions, and many, many layers. After twenty-something odd years, I finally learned this about myself from my husband; he noticed it almost immediately. While it probably explains a lot of life, from my chosen profession to my yarn spreadsheet to the long list of sales, coupon match-ups, and recipes I take to the grocery store, it also probably explains why I knit a baby sweater with fifteen colors.

You read that correctly - fifteen, one-five. Granted, many of those colors only required a few ounces of yarn, but it does take up a considerable amount of space in the stash. Regardless, whether it is because it is complicated or because it is just so dang cute, this may be my favorite baby sweater yet.

Bondegard
Pattern: from Dale of Norway's Soft Treasures for Little Ones (apparently OOP, but snatch up a copy if you can)
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull - why mess with their color sense? in the 15 colors as called for in the pattern
Needles: US 0 and 2
Notes: No changes to the pattern. I made the 24 month size - if I'm going to do all that work, I want the baby to get a lot of wear out of it!
Best Thing About This Project: After all that knitting, I'd hate to say the buttons. But look at the buttons!

I'm counting this sweater for NaKniSweMoDo (knit 12 sweaters in 12 months, in a mishmash of Latin and blog-speak). Technically, it's not an adult sweater. It is, however 28 inches around, knit on US2 needles, and contains 15 colors. It took probably two- or three-times as much knitting as my next NaKniSweMoDo sweater, Acer, which is also finished and will appear this week. And it involved steeks. Plus, it's just so cute!

Eye Candy Anyday

2009-03-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

Be like a duck. Calm on the surface,
but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
-Michael CaineJust because I'm not in the ICU all the time doesn't mean I'm not at work. Enjoy another teaser for the Bondegard sweater!

In Like a Lion, or a Lamb

2009-03-02T19:56:00.001-08:00

When you realize how perfect everything is
you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.
-Buddha

Sometimes it's great to live in Southern California. I know my mom is happy about her snow day today, but she did just get plane tickets to come see me. Probably for weekends like this. This weekend I had a brief respite from a crazy call schedule and actually got 2 whole days off. In a row. Imagine that! I spent the last day of February roller-blading around Mission Bay Park, which is pretty much straight out of a movie set. Wind in my hair, music in my iPod. Kites. Laughing children. Lots of palm trees.

I then spent the first day of March finishing my husband's cotton anniversary sweater and watching the end of Veronica Mars, Season 1 with my deployment buddy. (Teen girl noir, filmed in San Diego, what's not to love?) That was after a rather distressing attempt to buy cute sundresses for the coming home that's coming up. I know it's a recession and all, but by the time I haven't seen my husband for seven months, I'm really not wearing gray or black. I spend far too much time daydreaming about making the cover of Life magazine!

Regardless, March promises to be a good month. Out of the ICU onto the less-punishing call schedule of the wards, flowers blooming everywhere, and - not least of all - the end of the deployment is in sight. I don't mean soon, exactly, but at least in sight. (It's also classified, so you'll probably hear about it next when you see us looking really cute and happy on the cover of life magazine. Right after the Obamas get a Portugese Water Dog like my parents' dog.)

I did a great deal of knitting this weekend, and I have a whole bunch of stockinette stitch hanging out, courtesy of the ICU. I've also been a bit lax in my blogging habit, so I'm going to get back on an even-day blogging schedule. Consider today a bit of a catch up, and a sneak peak:

Seaming of the anniversary sweater:The beginnings of Laila's Stockings in a delightful blue and gold:
Finally done with Bondegard, featuring the world's most adorable buttons: Stay tuned for a veritable parade of FOs and WIPs.

All Those Smiles

2009-02-18T20:20:00.001-08:00

Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.
-Thich Nhat Hahn

It feels like I'm blogging more than I am. What happens is that every other time I go to work, I stay overnight for 30 hours. So what is really two days, feels like one. I finally had a somewhat-less-than-completely-crazy call night last night, which means that this afternoon post-call I was able to do useful things. Like go to the gym, read a delightfully trashy novel, and wind yarn.

I really do have a big NaKniSweMoDo post half-written to fill you in on all the sweaters I'm making. So many that I ran out of baskets to hold my Works-In-Progress and discovered that one of my many, many tote bags is actually perfect, and even color-coordinated.

But as I ramble, I know you all want to know who got lucky and won the yarn. Since my Peace Fleece good fortune was random, I went to the random number generator at random.org. Good fortune knows no boundaries.

The winner of the Briggs and Little was Cheryl:

Cheryl said...: Something that made me smile and laugh was the Valentine's card that I got from someone who I work with.It's the little day to day kindnesses and shared experiences along the way that mean the most to building friendships. And laughter, which I did when I first read the envelope.It did not have my name on it, it said, PUT THE KNITTING NEEDLES DOWN!!!!! Now, this is a friendship I hope will last a long time. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL.

And the winner of the Peace Fleece is KC.

KC said...

African violets made me smile.
My boyfriend loves African violets so I got him one last year for Valentines Day. Over the summer I rooted several cuttings so we now have them all over the house. This year for Valentines Day he took me to a garden center and we got three more so we can fill our house with color and little symbols of love. I smile every time I see one.

Aren't they lovely stories? Thanks to everyone for sharing their happy thoughts last week.

The winners should email me at knittingunderway AT gmail DOT com so we can work out minor details like mailing addresses, and Peace Fleece selections.

Smile, and Pass It On

2009-02-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

If you only have one smile in you, give it to the people you love.

Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street

and start grinning 'Good morning' at total strangers.
-Maya Angelou

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my new sweater. I keep meaning to post in more detail about my grand plans for NaKniSweMoDo, with sweaters #2 and possibly #3 nearing completion, and #4 just started (and having bought yarn for #5 and #6, of course), but I'm spending all my days and 1/3 of my nights in the ICU. Which can be surprisingly good for sweater knitting as I wait and watch. But I digress. I'm loving my new sweater, and the fact that this week it's been a delightfully cool 50s and rainy.

I mentioned in my last post that I thought making two sweaters in the same brilliant peacock blue (as gorgeous as it is) at the same time was overkill. So I cast about for a new yarn for Acer, and settled on Peace Fleece. It's the original, called-for yarn. It's reportedly soft and wooly. And I like the company - no one loves peace more than those of us in the military.

It came quickly, within a week or so. And it was as perfectly, delightfully, soft and wooly as I had hoped. I went with pink, for variety.

Inside was a delightful surprise:

You probably can't read that, but apparently my order was selected during their Tuesday staff meeting as the "Smile" order - it was sent free of charge. I say again, free. No charge for the yarn. No charge for shipping. Completely free.

I was amazed. Astounded. Tickled pink, if you excuse the pun.

So tickled pink, in fact, that I feel compelled to pass on this smile. . . . and, er, try to do some stash compensating at the same time. Ironically, a company like Peace Fleece that I feel good about patronizing, sent me my money back. So, let's try to send them more, shall we?

Comment on this post, and tell us something that made you smile today. The random-number generator and I will send you the sweater-quantity of Peace Fleece in the color of your choice. That way I can support a company I like, and not add to the stash.

In order to even out the stash a bit, and to add to the fun, here are five skeins - karmically, the same number as my Peace Fleece - of Briggs and Little 4-ply in a gorgeous charcoal gray that I bought on the way to PEI on a memorable yarn-shopping vacation a few years ago. The stash is getting upset that this lovely yarn sits unused in San Diego, so I will happily send it to yours full of the good memories of times when I lived in places where wooliness was so desirable.

Contest closes at midnight PDT on Sunday February 15, 2009. If your stash is as crushingly-huge as mine and you want no more yarn, feel free to mention that in your comment, but tell us something happy anyway.

One Down

2009-02-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love;
the running across fields into your lover's arms
can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip.
-Jonathan Carroll

Since my regular photographer is off serving our country, making the world safe for democracy, and getting himself rather beat up for the sake of wearing a different color belt (boys will be boys), I had to take my own finished object photos. (Do note the quotation above; taking my own photos here is akin to tripping.)

I tried . . . In spite of my bad hair day . . . Outdoors, indoors . . . Left, right, center . . . And then I called it good enough for a photo montage.Hopefully you can get a vague idea of just how great this sweater is.

Cable Down Raglan
Pattern: Stephanie Japel from Interweave Knits, best of, among others
Yarn: mystery wool bought off eBay circa 2001 - I believe this might be my oldest stash yarn!
Needles: US 7
Notes: Great pattern, fun to knit top down. No mods - just kept trying it on!
Best Thing About This Project: It's a toss-up between finally putting this albatross of the stash has been put to good use, and finally buying a scale to measure my yarn.

In fact, I was so happy with this, my first finished sweater of NaKniSweMoDo, that I immediately cast about on the interwebs for my next projects. I fell in love with Acer after seeing Margene's version and Sarah's version on the same day. So I bought some Beaverslide. Always wanted to try that. Then I saw that Fiddlesticks Knitting (some of my favorite Canadians) was having a special offer to celebrate the Blooming Cardigan on the cover of IK. Of course I had to celebrate with them. But then they arrived, and I immediately saw the problem: Am I predictable, or what? These colors are just a little too close. So I bought some Peace Fleece. And that's a story for another day . . . Stay tuned for a big give-away this week!

It's About Time

2009-01-28T20:25:00.000-08:00

If you're walking down the right path
and you're willing to keep walking,
eventually you'll make progress.
-Barack Obama

I started 2009 in a flurry of good intentions, cast-on projects, and grand proclamations to knit, knit, knit. Twelve sweaters. 100 balls of yarn. Massive stash reduction.

So it's about time that I finished my first project of the month:
This is probably the worst possible photo of a gorgeous pair of socks - the Artichoke Socks in a gorgeous semi-solid Koigu. Stunning. And the first two balls of yarn knit in 2009. . . only 98 to go!

I find myself in the midst of a great many large projects, including a husband sweater in cotton. The Cable Down Raglan is rapidly nearing completion. Which will be the first sweater of NaKniSweMoDo, but only a single ball of yarn. So it goes . . .
In other promising news, my bread-baking life has been revolutionized thanks to a Christmas gift of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Try it - it's amazing! And for all it's speediness, it's probably not the reason my productivity has been down, right?

Hope

2009-01-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
-Albert Einstein

I know my blogging has been sporadic lately. I've been more than busy at work; I've been . . . immersed. Occupied. Mentally engaged. And I've been thinking a lot about hope.

The best and worst parts of medicine tend to be the same. I am up close and personal with people and their families when they are ill. Much of the time, I deal with chronic illnesses, with managing things that will play out over one, five, twenty years. In the hospital, I admit young patients whose illness is a brief detour in their normal life, or older patients who seem to spend more time in the hospital than outside of it. It gets routine; until it doesn't.

Last week was, for my patient and his wife, the absolute worst week of their entire lives. A healthy and vigorous man in the prime of (retired) life, and some minor symptoms, minor blood work abnormalities, and then every day the news was worse. Ultrasound, CT scan, MRI, biopsy, PET scan, and three emergency procedures scattered throughout, and a healthy man learned that he has months to live. The medical folks out there know that none of this is particularly unusual, per se. What was unusual was how they approached it. What was unusual was the hope.
Hope must be the only word for it, I realized days later when I couldn't stop thinking about this patient. From that first moment when I told him that we needed to run more tests because it might be cancer to that last day when we told him that the cancer was uncurable, he looked me straight in the eye and thanked me. He was kind to the doctors, the nurses, and the cleaning staff. He was gracious in the midst of excruciating pain. When he went home to get his affairs in order, he cried, hugged me, and thanked me for being upfront with him. And all throughout, he asked all the hard questions, weighed all the options, and held hands with his wife. None of the options were good ones, and yet he radiates hope.

Hope is not what we have when times are good and the going is easy; hope is what we have in the face of unsurmountable odds, when life is hard, and when none of the options seem ideal. Hope is based firmly in reality, in knowing just how bad things may be and yet still believing that there is a best.

On Inauguration Day in these challenging days, I keep thinking about my patient and his sustaining, irrepressible hope. In the midst of my rounds today, I walked past many TVs and heard snippets of the calm and steady voice of our new president as he addressed the nation. I rounded on an elderly woman who doesn't know where she is, or why, but when we asked her what today was she cheered "Yay Obama." Because Hope can permeate any hardship. My patients - and that one patient in particular - are teaching me that Hope has so many more faces than I ever thought possible.

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
-President Obama's Inaugural Address

What Do Your Sweaters Say?

2009-01-15T19:27:00.000-08:00

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.
-John Henry Newman

I'm in. NaKniSweMoDo (National Knit a Sweater Month Dodecathalon) here I come!

I do well with goals, after all . . . and I've been planning all week. Between my actual day (and night) job, that is. It's been busy - more on that later. But before I dig deep and put all my big January goals and plans out there on the forefront, let me show you why I'm so inspired.

You may recall the saga of the Second Anniversary Sweater. I finally got my colors and cast on. But then it sat there . And sat there. And sat there. I just wasn't inspired. It was hard on my hands, a non-intuitive cable pattern, and too bulky. It didn't say anything approaching "Happy Anniversary."

So then I cast around and reconsidered. And I realized that my previous objections to the Anniversary Sweater were not insurmountable. I know how to add a sleeve cap. I have a measuring tape (it needs to be longer). And I do, in fact, have the perfect yarn in my stash.
Isn't this a perfect fabric? (The color is more of a darker, true navy.) Doesn't it make your heart sing? Doesn't it say "I love you so much I knit an entire ribbed/cabled sweater in cotton on size 6 needles?"

Too bad I had to order another 5 balls of off-white yarn for the contrasting stripe . . .

Indecision

2009-01-11T19:05:00.000-08:00

The more alternatives, the more difficult the choice.
- Abbe D'Allaniva

I had big plans to make 2009 a year of knitting by whim - whatever, whenever, just meandering my way through the stash. You know, rather than imposing rules on myself. Knitting is a hobby, after all. But it's not going as well as I would have hoped. I did finish one of the Artichoke Socks, and I'm happy to report that it went quite well. But when does Koigu go wrong? And then I spent almost all of a day off trying to decide what to knit next. I pulled out all sorts of yarn, and made the sort of crafty mess that one can when one's husband is away. I contemplated this Lopi. Two shades of pink, bought for a steal a number of years ago. Felted clogs? Or should I buy 12 more skeins of yarn to make Veronik Avery's Ski Jacket? If I were just trying to reduce the stash, and if I paid close attention to the state of my three-year-old felted clogs, the choice would be clear. But my lack of direction is enormously distressing to me. I need . . . something.

NaKniSweMoDo? It's seriously calling my name, although I might consider that my Dale baby sweater (2 yr old size) has more stitches than many adult sweaters and might count. I'm still pondering . . .

In the meantime, to help me ponder, I dug deep in the stash and pulled out a random worsted weight wool that I bought on Ebay back when I was in college and didn't know any better. It's a nice lavender color, and I think there's about one pound? But I really can't remember much. So, perhaps 1000 yards? If it is that, it should be enough for the Cable-Down Raglan. Just in case, I cast on. Although I'm not usually a fan of the top-down one-piece raglan, in this case it's working. My gauge is a little looser than the pattern, but knitting a size down it fits well at the sleeve division. And now I'm going to go knit as fast as I can to see if I run out of yarn. I'm not the only one who does this, am I?

The Truth Comes Out

2009-01-05T12:36:00.000-08:00

Life is like eating artichokes,
you have to go through so much to get so little.
- Thomas A. Dorgan

I hate twisted stitches. There. I said it. So sue me.

I had all sorts of good intentions for my one scheduled/planned knitting of 2009 - the Personal Sock of the Month Club. And then I pulled out the bag with this lovely jeweled green Koigu that I had earmarked for the Snicket pattern. Which is a lot of twisted stitches on a purl background.

After forcing the interns and anyone else who happened to be on call last night to look, we all agreed that the right side of the project was not nearly so attractive as the wrong side. So I set about on my Ravelry queue looking for a stockinette based sock pattern.

Maybe it's the green, but I just had to start the Artichoke Socks. And they got twice as far in half the time. No twisted stitches here!

A Sneak Peek

2009-01-02T14:57:00.000-08:00

Listen to the musn'ts child,
Listen to the don'ts
Listen to the shouldn'ts
The impossible, the won'ts
Listen to the never haves
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child
Anything can be.
-Shel Silverstein

Since I keep talking about them so much (and since I'm on call today), I thought I'd pop in with just a little sneak peek of my latest Dale sweater:Bondegard from Baby Knits from Dale of Norway. I still have to add the duplicate stitch for the eyes and the beaks. And, of course, block. But, really, how cute is that?

A Whole New Year

2009-01-01T15:54:00.000-08:00

I drink to the days that are.
-William Morris

I did it! Here's The State of the Stash:

December 31, 2008
Skeins: 499.75
Yards: 86,124

If we recall, my goal was to get under 500 skeins, and under 100,000 yards. I squeaked by, barely. But I also bought quite a bit of yarn this year, including the many skeins for two adult and one baby Dale sweater, and, uh other various yarns. Including these:Enter A Time Warp Phenomenon. Because if that was my stash at 23:59:59 on December 31, 2008, how is this my stash on January 1, 2009 at 24:00:01?

January 1, 2009
Skeins: 515.75
Yards: 92,269

That mass of lovely sock yarn I bought on a great Ravelry destash sale. 17 skeins of lovely yarn for about $100. You would have, too. So I used a little creative accounting and a stuck it in the stash on a time warp phenomenon.

So now that we've faced up to it all . . . where are we going this year?

Knit 100 skeins
Reduce the stash by 1/3 (30,756 yds)

The 100 skeins are easy. I knit much more than that this past year. And I did reduce my stash - barely. Because I kept buying more yarn, although mostly for specific projects. The Dales need what they need.

The 30,000+ yds? A little more difficult. Because this is net negative 30,000 yds in spite of any purchases for, you know, Dale sweaters. But I don't have to knit down all of this, because destashing will count. This will get me much closer to my imagined, presumed, sort of what I think is my "happy stash place." I'm guessing I'd like to have about 50,000 yds on hand. I want the ability to start pretty much any project I want at 2am, but the ability also to go and buy yarn for any reason at any time.

How does that sound? Would it sound even better if I told you that I already ordered the stockings from Judy's Colors? The Christmas spirit and all.

Goodbye, Hello

2008-12-31T12:08:00.000-08:00

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors,
and let each new year find you a better man.
-Benjamin Franklin

One might think that with the last twelve hours of 2008 at my disposal, I would have some deep and profound thoughts. I don't have many. The past year has been a good one personally, professionally, and certainly knitterly.
I tried to count the finished projects of 2008 for a year-end wrap up, but I lost track after 100. The year in my mind seems full of snapshots, so I'll share some of my favorites.

As my sister says, it's not every year you get to marry your husband all over again.There's nothing cuter than a baby in handknits.I discovered just how much I love stranded colorwork knitting, no matter how little it suits my current climate. I also discovered what a grateful recipient my husband is.I made two adult Dale sweaters this year (yes, I know you're still waiting for good photos of my Park City), and in the process discovered that this is my favorite thing to knit. Expect to see much more in 2009.

I have plans for the coming year, not so much resolutions. As I tell my patients, there's a difference between a goal and a plan. A goal is "Exercise more." A plan is "Lay out my gym clothes at night, set the alarm for 5:00, and go to the gym for 45 minutes before work." Plans have a way of making goals come true. And as 2009 is the year I will knit whatever I want to knit, when I want to knit it, expect a bit of a cast-on frenzy coming up.

After all, it's already 2009 in Iraq.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson

All Around the World

2008-12-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on Earth, good will to men!
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Christmas in Iraq, photos from my husband.

It's Christmastime

2008-12-18T11:37:00.000-08:00

From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another
The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other.
-Emily Matthews

There's nothing like handmade for Christmas. I have all sorts of handknits winging themselves across the country - even the world! - but they're secret. Well, except for Kate D's. She opened her presents before Christmas. Go ahead and start the public shaming. So, since I can't show you any of the lovely things I've been making (shhhh!), let's all enjoy the table runner my mother-in-law made.

It's perfect for our dining room table. It has a lovely pieced top with Christmas fabrics, and check out the quilting.

Do you think she put hearts in the corners on purpose? I'm guessing so.

Now I need to pack. My flight for home leaves tomorrow night, and the weather report is calling for a high of about 43 degrees for the entire time I'll be there. So, which hats, scarves, mittens, gloves, and sweaters to take? Gosh, my life is hard!

My So-Called Something

2008-12-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

Whenever I think of the past, it brings back so many memories.
-Stephen Wright

And I was doing so well. With blogging. With stash reduction. And then I saw this post on Ravelry offering a phenomenal deal on sock yarn. Let's consider that my Christmas present to myself, shall we?

Believe it or not, I was actually (sort of kind of maybe in another universe) running low on sock yarn. Or at least it seemed that way since I copied Rebecca and bagged up all my yarn for Personal Sock Club 2009. Out of sight, out of mind.

So, blogging. I kept telling myself I had so much to blog about and then that seemed daunting, so I put it off. So we'll just pop in for fun here.

This was the project of the month from November. Or was it October? I finished it just in time for the 3 year anniversary of buying the yarn just for this project. I bought it at Churchhouse Yarns on Bainbridge Island on a delightfully chilly and blustery and rainy day in the Pacific Northwest when I was visiting the incomparable Kate D. Ah, memories.

My So-Called Scarf
Pattern: free, online
Yarn: Manos del Uraguay
Needles: US 9
Notes: No changes. Great pattern.
Best Thing About This Project: The memories, of course. And how it matches my winter coat. That I'll get to wear in Pennsylvania next week.

Is it just me or have scarves gotten fun lately? I've spent most of today captivated by a Noro Striped Scarf (but in Paton's Soy Wool Stripes), and I just started Besotted for my handknit-appreciating husband. He is always telling me to buy more yarn, after all. Right, honey? Right? Right? Hello? Are you there? You like me to buy yarn, right?

Things I Love

2008-12-06T11:39:00.000-08:00

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.
-Abraham Lincoln

Things I'm loving today:

My snazzy new haircut - no more buns!
Pedicures. Being able to wear flipflops to my pedicure in San Diego.
My sister calling me to inform me that she ONLY has four pairs of handknit socks.
Her favorite socks, by the way, are the Merino Lace socks made of Judy's hand-dyed sock yarn. The yarn gets a rousing endorsement for being "too soft to be wool." God bless Merino!
These Dale patterns I picked up at Velona Needleworks a few weeks ago. The middle two - St. Anton and Baby Trondheim - are the hard-to-find ones.
Christmas movies on TV. Back to the knitting!

Full Disclosure

2008-12-02T17:39:00.000-08:00

Colors, like features, follow the change of the emotions.
-Pablo Picasso

I'm glad there's so much general support for a year of just casting on whatever. In fact, there's so much support that I really felt free to start a whole month early. It's like those 13 month calendars.

Apparently I was really feeling the lack of stranded colorwork. Meet Bondegard, a ridiculous (and ridiculously cute) Dale baby sweater that involves 14 colors of yarn. (They're labeled as 15, but the pullover doesn't need color 14. If you look closely, you can see that I had to take my sharpie and label each with it's color number and the chart symbol. And we all wonder why my stash is growing . . .
Since Bondegard is a bit of a lengthy project, I went for some more immediate gratification. In fact, it's surprisingly fast - almost instant! Here are the Snowflake Socks from the Fall 2007 Interweave in KnitPicks Telemark. They're so delightful I had to pull them on before even taking the dpns out of the toe!

Good thing I'm moving along here. The yarn for the Tree Bark Pullover has arrived off back order. I'd sort of forgotten that I'd ordered not one but two options for the contrast color. For those of you not following in excruciating detail, see the linked post here. I decided to continue with the Tree Bark Pullover in Mission Falls 1824 cotton. My main color is Indigo (#404), and my options for the contrast color are Chicory (#401) and Sky (#403). Both are light blues. The Chicory is more of a slate and the Sky is more, well, sky-like. Both are pleasing with the Indigo. Any thoughts? I'm withholding judgment (and thus, casting on, since the cast on row is in the contrast color) until I can see and compare them in sunlight.

Planning Ahead

2008-11-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
-Benjamin Disraeli

It's the last day of NaBloPoMo, and I think we can safely say it's been a success. I've posted every day even if I did sort of forget my third blogiversary. Regardless, it's been fun to get back into the rhythm. And to start thinking ahead to what I want my knitting to do and be in 2009.

So fun, that I almost got sucked into the idea of NaKniSweMoDo. Almost. The idea of knitting 12 sweaters in as many months appeals to me. It's complicated, and my husband assures me that the more complicated something is, the more I like it.

But then I stopped and pondered. And realized that I have like two or three more Dales I want to make, including the adorable baby Dale I'm starting today.

So then I made my plans: I'm going to knit whatever I want in 2009, whenever I want to. So there. And in celebration, I'm about to have a little cast on party. Right now.

I'm also going to be reducing the stash quite a bit. Right now I'm at 501 skeins and 96,417 yards, with 26 balls of Mission Falls 1824 cotton in the mail (another 2,200+ yards). Assuming I buy no new yarn in 2008, that'll keep me well under my goal of <100,000 yards on December 31st. The goal of <500 skeins will be a little closer, but I think it's do-able based on the projects on the needles and in the wings for December.

Of the remaining stash, more than 20,000 yards is laceweight. Will have to ponder that. But this past year of attempting (and pretty much succeeding) to reduce the stash has made me decide that my ideal stash size is probably around 50,000 yards. Enough to cast on whatever I want whenever I want, but also to buy tweedy yarn for the new IK whenever I want. That would be about 50% less than I currently have, which would be a little extreme for a single year of stash reduction. So I'm thinking that my goal for Dec 31st 2009 will be to have reduced the stash by 1/3 compared to Dec 31st 2008.

Oh, and because I still can't resist a joint complicated goal, I'll be doing the Knit 100 Balls of Yarn in 2009 with the Ravelry Stash Knit Down 2009 group!

OK, off to cast on . . .

Good Friends

2008-11-29T10:46:00.000-08:00

A friend is the only person you will let into the house
when you are Turning Out Drawers.
-Pam Brown

Good friends help you dye yarn (way easier than I thought! The hardest part was finding an old pot at the Salvation Army!)
put together bookcasesand throw pizza dough in the air.Crust recipe available here.

Oh, yeah, and there was lots and lots of knitting. There'll be lots of FO posts in the coming weeks.

Lounging About

2008-11-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

Once a guy starts to wear silk pajamas, it's hard to get up early.
-Eddie Arcaro

I'm doing my part to shore up the economy today by lounging about in my new pajamas and shopping online.

Which leads me to all sorts of happy thoughts on my new pajamas, so let's talk about my very first sewn garment.
T's First Pajamas
Pattern: Simplicity "It's so easy" pattern 2731 for Misses' Pajamas (1st one here)
Fabric: a flannel snowflake print I bought at Joanne's last year on a sale. Anyone know why it says "not intended for children's sleepwear" on the selvage edge?
Notes: I followed the pattern exactly, as best as I could . . . which isn't saying much.
Best Thing About This Project: The lounging, of course!

It's not perfect - somehow I ended up with this accidental pleat sewn into the hem. Since I made them comfortably long, you can't really tell when they're on. I am proud of the buttonholes and the drawstring: JayJay encouraged me to make them by hand, since I'd forgotten the manual to my sewing machine and I couldn't figure out how to use the buttonhole feature without it. I think they came out pretty well.

Now I guess I'd better go stop lounging, and move onto a stressful afternoon of meeting the girls for a matinee!

Thankful

2008-11-27T10:19:00.000-08:00

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that

the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
-John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I've been learning a lot about gratitude this year.

I've spent a lot of time working, and learning that my worst day being a doctor is better than the best day being sick. I'm grateful for that.

My husband deployed (and he ran a turkey trot this morning), and any day I talk to him is better than any day I don't. While we haven't been married very long, I think we're learning a thankfulness that will last a good long time. That we're grateful for any chance to talk; that nice real conversation is better than a quick "hello," but that a hello is better than nothing. That my mother is right, and there is an art of the greeting card. That there really is only one person who completes me. That we are strong people, and we're doing just fine. But we're stronger together. I'm thankful that we're learning this now.
Being thankful means taking nothing for granted, and enjoying the roses my husband sent. Being thankful means I need to go peel all those apples for the pie . . . and looking forward to having a Thanksgiving chicken for the first time in my life. Because I'm so very thankful for the friends I'll be sharing it with, and they just don't like turkey. I'm thankful that at least they like cranberry sauce!

Happy Thanksgiving!

That Other Needle

2008-11-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.
How he got into my pajamas, I'll never know.
-Groucho Marx

Knitting? What knitting? I've been muddling my way through this:
Sewing patterns are a bit daunting if you're not used to them. It's a really good thing JayJay held my hand through the beginning when I got to see her last weekend. Otherwise I'm pretty sure I never would have gotten off the ground.

On a related note, did you know that you can actually use up a whole spool of thread?I'd actually never really considered such a thing. As I pondered when I saw that the price sticker said "Clover $1.29." That's a store that's been out of business for at least a dozen years, and I suspect that I stole it from my mom when I went to college some ten years ago. (Sorry, Mom!)

Here's a sneak preview of my first-ever sewn garment: The pajama pants are almost done, full details to follow.

Tweed, Glorious Tweed

2008-11-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

Ask where's the North? At York 'tis on the Tweed; in Scotland at the Orcades;

and there, At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.

-Alexander Pope

I can't think of enough good things to say about the new Interweave Knits. The cover sweater alone is enough, and then the whole section on tweedy goodness. . . . It's too much.

And it's more than just the patterns. Beyond just liking a sweater or a pattern or a yarn or a color, there's another consideration when a project catches our eye. It's the fantasy aspect. What would my life be like if I, too, wore delightful tweedy bobble cardigans with belts? An idyllic countryside, or maybe a chic urban woman who bothered to wear something other than hooded sweatshirts on her way to work?

I want to live the life that the Blooming Cardigan conjurs up in my mind. (I think it's the belt, or the buttons on the top RIGHT collar, discontinuous from the rest of the buttons. Or something.) And I want to hang out there, wherever that is, with my sister, who would adore the Ropes and Picots Cardigan. We were raised in a cardigan-loving family of women who are always cold and go nowhere without a little cardigan, "just in case." And the shoulder detail on the Ropes and Picots! The whole thing also makes me wonder why I have never made something with a picot hem for my sister, who is so clearly - now that I see this cardigan - a picot sort of person. (You can tell from the photo here of her wearing Rowena. Clearly a picot person, isn't she?) Back to the new IK, it will come as no suprise to any of you that the Holly and Poinsetta Mittens strike my fancy, since they a) are mittens and b) are colorwork and c) are the least practical thing for the San Diego climate. To be a good enabler, I should point out that there is a kit available here for the mittens for a reasonable $55. That I think $55 is a reasonable amount to spend on mittens reminds me I should go donate money to the food bank given the overwhelming number of news articles such as this.

There is, however, a temporary solution to my stream-of-consciousness fantasy life. Tweed socks.

Warm and Tweedy Goodness
Pattern: William Street Socks, available free on the Interweave Knits site
Yarn: Regia Tweed, 6-fadig (sportweight)
Needles: US 2
Notes: I actually knit this toe-up with a short-row heel, which I rarely do. I liked the directionality of the cables and didn't want to mess with figuring out how to reverse it. Also, this pattern calls for what seems to be a crazy number of stitches, but the cables really pull in. The only mod I made was to do the ribbing for the entire back leg, rather than stockinette and then ribbing at the top.
Best Thing About This Project: They'll absolutely match the Blooming Cardigan. Too bad they're not for me.

Another Way to Keep Warm

2008-11-24T09:47:00.000-08:00

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered.

But I was not pleased to read the description in a catalgoue:

no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

It was a whole 47 degrees this morning when I got in my car to head to work. For San Diego, that's definite sweater weather. Maybe even mittens, although for the whole 10 minute drive I tend to just put the seat heaters on and "tough it out." And actually, I tend to wear hooded sweatshirts more than sweaters when I'm dragging myself off in the pre-dawn hours. A morning person, I am not. Just ask my mom.

Speaking of my mom, she's a grand appreciator of handknits. You may recall that when I saw her earlier this month, she tried to steal my brand-new cowl. Since there's no good reason we can't both have one, I made another one:

(The color is truer in the original post - darker than here.) That's the Luxe Neckwarmer from Knit 2 Together, for those of you too lazy to follow the link.

Those cowls were fun. And if not entirely stashbusters, due to not requiring super-much yarn, they did provide a potential outlet for heretofore unusused lovely skeins.

Hence, the next cowl:

Nova's Birthday Cowl
Pattern: Birthday Cowl, free pattern here
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair
Needles: US 8
Notes: Great easy pattern. Very similar to the one in the Odessa hat.
Best Thing About This Project: The way the yarn blooms.

The only challenge with this cowl is going to be finding someone who can wear this color so close to their face. It's a gorgeous coral which I used to great effect as an accent here and here, but alone it's quite bright.

So then I took a look at the rest of my Mountain Mohair leftovers (because I'm learning that leftovers - often in massive quantities are what happens when you do stranded knitting), conveniently sitting in a basket waiting their turn. And another cowl was born.

Almost Lichen Cowl
Pattern: inspired by the Lichen Cowl from Lollyknits
Yarn: more Mountain Mohair leftovers
Needles: US 8
Notes: I modified this to make it narrower - the original can be wrapped twice around the neck, but I wanted a more straightforward cowl. I think I used 90 sts or thereabouts.
Best Thing About This Project: Soft fuzzy yarn, delightful colors - and "my" colors, and the perfect thing to keep a little chill at bay, indoors or out. Because any day you can wear handknits is better than any day you can't.

Under The Wire

2008-11-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
-William Shakespeare

Well, I've had a pretty all-around crafty weekend . . . which explains why I'm blogging just before bed at 9:30 on Sunday evening. (I get up early.)

I knit. I sewed. I'm working on pajama pants - my first-ever sewn garment. It's going well, although even this simple pattern is more involved than I would have guessed. And it's a really good thing JayJay was there to hold my hand and show me which way was up in the pattern and lend me fabric scissors. Wow - they're sharp!

Anyway, then I knit some more and even cooked for friends. Like I said, crafty. But of course I have no photos as of yet.

So instead of a second photo-less post in two days, I'll share some photos I've been meaning to post since August. I believe I mentioned that my dear friend Kate D. (cheer her on for NaNoWriMo here) got married. You know she's a good friend when she invites you to stay at her parents' house for the wedding so that you won't be lonely because your husband couldn't come. As a bonus, I got to sleep in the presence of delightful craftiness.

Let's all admire the wonderful hand-embroidered pillowcases that Kate's grandmother made. They adorn the "extra" bed pillows on the guest bed, on top of a lovely handmade scrap quilt. But then, what to do with the other pillowcases, since there were more than could be displayed at the same time? In a stroke of pure genius, Kate's mom made them into valances. Aren't they perfect up there? What a great idea!

At A Loss

2008-11-22T08:11:00.000-08:00

Blue flower, red thorns! Blue flower, red thorns! Blue flower, red thorns! Oh, this would be so much easier if I wasn't color-blind!
-Donkey in Shrek

There are no stranded colorwork projects on my needles right now. I don't know how to handle it. I'm beginning to think that this is really my favorite kind of knitting, although as soon as I say that I feel the urge to knit some cables. Regardless, I do think that stranded knitting is an important part of my balanced knitting diet.

So, what to knit next (in the colorwork way)? For the moment, I'm limiting myself to projects I can make from my stash.

Bondegard (Rav link)
Three Tams (Knitty pattern here), to match the mittens here
Northern Lights mittens (Rav link)
any other hats or mittens from my Ravelry queue for the knitters out there
any special requests from my non-knitting friends and family out there

Or should I just hold out until December 1st, when I'll be starting my Snowflake Socks (IK link) in a burgundy and cream?

Today I'll be holding off on casting on as I join JayJay for other crafty pursuits (like sewing! and playing with the baby!). Keep your fingers crossed for sewing in a straight line!

All Done!

2008-11-21T09:01:00.001-08:00

Be happy. It's one way of being wise.
-Sidonie Gabrielle

Wahoo! I love it. This is definitely the best thing I've ever made. And it fits perfectly. It's now drying on the drying rack, so expect a full on post with modeled photos next week.

Something From Nothing

2008-11-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.

-Oscar Wilde

I talk about my stash occasionally on this blog (note to self: take some pictures). Today, let's talk about the non-stash. I know we all have one. I'm talking about the partial balls of yarn that even the most OCD of us don't list on our stash spreadsheets. In my case, I separate out the sock leftovers from the regular ones. And while the sock leftovers are quickly overflowing their basket, the regular leftovers fill an entire wicker laundry basket by themselves. Sure, they don't count in my yardage, but they sure do take up space.

Steathily, in the last few months, I took some promising skeins and matched them with some promising projects in my Ravelry queue. And there you have it - something from nothing.

Halley's Comet Hat
Pattern: by Marnie McLean, free online
Yarn: Cotton-Ease in red (not quite as orange as it appears on the screen), about 1/2 skein
Needles: US8
Notes: Speedy pattern. Looks a lot better on.
Best Thing About This Project: Something from nothing.

Huckleberry Ascot
Pattern: from Interweave Knits, Holiday 2007
Yarn: (I think . . .) Lionbrand Wool-ease Sportweight in blue, about 1/2 skein
Needles: US 6
Notes: Great fun pattern, very clear, and intuitive once you get into it.
Best Thing About This Project: Something from nothing.

And, last but not least (and please ignore the photo issues - I just learned that you can edit photos in iPhoto and while it made the colors much more true, I can't fix what I did with the border. . .), a kerchief.

Apres-Ski Kerchief
Pattern: from Handknit Holidays
Yarn: Knit Picks Decadence (now discontinued, which is too bad, because it was a great yarn for quick Christmas gifts!)
Needles: US 9
Notes: Technically the reverse stockinette stitch is the right side, but it actually looks good both ways.
Best Thing About This Project: Something from nothing.

Something from nothing doesn't just apply to knitting. Last week I stocked my freezer with homemade chicken stock.
The bones from a full chicken, and peelings from all my veggies that had been hanging out in the freezer waiting for this day. Gosh I feel industrious!

Wednesday is for Works-in-Progress

2008-11-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple
in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
-Alice Walker

All this resurrecting old FOs, and posting daily for more than half a month, and shamefully little attention has been paid to what is actually on the needles.

How about a preview of the next FOs?

First up, finishing up the Socktoberfest startitis:

Little Child's French Sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks, in a delightful purple Rowan Botany. This is a lovely sproingy yarn deep from the recesses of the stash, and it's looking good. I'm done the first sock, and a few repeats down the cuff of the second.

Next, My So-Called Scarf.
This was October's Yarn of the Month, but I've only just started paying attention to it. This exact yarn for this exact project has been stash marinating since December 2005 when I was visiting a friend in Seattle. We took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island, and there it was. About time, and isn't it lovely?Unfortunately, lace work-in-progress photos are less lovely. This is the North Sea Shawl from Folk Shawls, which has been in my mental queue since I first started knitting. That was one of the few knitting books the local library had when I started knitting, and I used to dream about the projects. No time like the present, using some lovely fingering weight alpaca in navy blue that my brother brought me from Peru. It's an easy repetitive pattern for now, and I'm enjoying it. I had been holding steady with those projects and the Dale, until this weekend. A one (or two, or three, or . . .) project knitter I am not. So I started Debbie Bliss' Seed Stitch and Cables baby sweater out of some blue Cotton Ease.
Is it just me, or does Debbie Bliss have the largest children? This is the 18 month size, and it looks like it would easily fit my 10 yo niece.

And, while it didn't make the photo shoot, I also cast on for the Aran Watch Cap from Charlene Schurch's Hat's On! book in a burdgundy Paton's Classic Merino. I need to be prepared for the annual family Christmas pollyanna, and picking names on Thanksgiving doesn't leave a lot of time for knitters.

The good news is that I expect to finish all of these except the shawl (but I will finish the Dale!) by the end of the month. . . which should help offset the stash aquisition for the Second Anniversary Sweater. Is it wrong to be happy that my yarn is backordered and hopefully won't come until December? Or is that just the kind of fuzzy accounting that got the whole economy in trouble?

Selbu-what?

2008-11-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work,
or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best,
or a pleasant mixture of them all.
-J.R. Tolkein

The Dale comes along! The body is done, with sleeve steeks sewn. The left sleeve is sewn in, and the right sleeve is finishing, drying, waiting to be sewn in. Picking up stitches for my crewneck collar tonight.

So, while I slog along towards the finished line (yes, knitting a collar onto an entire finished sweater is slogging . . .), let's enjoy some other Scandinavian colorwork that never got it's day on the blog. The long-time readers among you will remember how much I enjoyed going to Scandinavia.

Ah, Selbuvotter gloves. Another true love. After making 3 or 4 small and fiddly pieces for the teddy bear, I gave up on that idea and reconsidered what to do with these gorgeous skeins of natural alpaca.

So I made this pair on the left, for me. Annemor #11 (Ravelry link). And I couldn't stop. So I made Annemor #12, on the left, below (Ravelry link). And I still couldn't stop. (And the yarn just kept on going . . .) Plus, Annemor #12 never made it to the Christmas basket before my husband grabbed them off my needles and claimed them for himself. So, along came Annemor #17, on the right below (Ravelry link). And that one made it to the Christmas basket.
What's the Plural of Selbuvotter?
Patterns: as above, from Selbuvotter by Terri Shea, my favorite book of 2008
Yarn: lovely alpaca, blogged here
Needles: US 2
Notes: The patterns are almost European in the way they don't spell out everything. But the charts are clear, and they were easy to knit. What I learned between the first and second pairs was to line up the sides of the fingers.
Best Thing About This Project: The husband liking them so much he stole a pair. Now we can coordinate. Can't you just see the Christmas card? Complimentary Dale sweaters, complimentary Selbuvotter gloves. . .

I'm just tiding myself over until I can get to Norway. Although earlier today I was struck with an overwhelming desire to go to New Zealand. The source was a map of the global incidence of esophageal cancer, but I'll take my inspiration where I can get it!

Seasonal

2008-11-17T18:48:00.001-08:00

A boy doesn't have to go to war to be a hero;
he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around.
-Edgar Watson Howe

Yesterday some friends and I went up into the mountains to escape the unseasonal 80 degree weather and smoke (from wildfires not that close to here).
It was all kinds of seasonal up there, and in the photo essay you can even see the corner of the Nantucket Jacket. It might be a cotton sweater, but any day wearing handknits is better than a day not wearing handknits.
The best part, though, is the pie. And the apple dumplings. And maybe that I got to finish half of the last sleeve of Park City on the drive. No, it was probably the pie . . .

Gathered

2008-11-16T13:49:00.000-08:00

Great is the road I climb,
but the garland offered by an easier route is not worth the gathering.
-Propertius

OK, OK crewneck it is. The response is overwhelming, and I think we're all agreed that it would be a problem to interrupt the lovely snowflake. The good news is that now I think it'll be done by the end of the week. In the meantime, since I'm past the halfway point of NaBloPoMo, let's review a sweater I finished back during The Great Blogging Drought of 2008.

Gathered Pullover
Pattern: from Interweave Knits, Winter 2007
Yarn: Garnstudio Silke-Tweed, about 6 skeins
Needles: US 7
Notes: Great easy pattern in the round, no mods.
Best Thing About This Project: A great San Diego sweater.
There you see a sneak photo by my dad when we were in Santa Fe (James - that's a golden doodle - let's get one!), but you can see that it's in action. Unlike the Dale, this is the perfect weight sweater for most of the year in San Diego. Initially I was a little skeptical, but seeing Loribird's here made me realize it was the perfect project for this yarn, which is some of the oldest in my stash. I got it from the sale bin of a small shop in Rhode Island on a rainy day my senior year of college. Eek! Anyway, now it's finally come to fruition, and getting a lot of wear. In fact, I wore it out last night.

Read the Directions

2008-11-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.
-Anne Sullivan

I'm glad we're all so in love with my Dale sweater. I am, too. In fact, after being a good Marine wife and making Christmas decorations for the squadron this morning, I decided this afternoon was a nice sunny time to sew the steeks. Plus, I'm trying to ignore the fact that it's 84 degrees outside in November.

So, there I was successfully sewing in the arm steeks. No problems there. And then I went to re-read the instructions for the neck placket. I quickly noticed that I'd bought the wrong size zipper, but since I still need the shock cord for the bottom, that's ok. And then I read and re-read the instructions for what felt like the umpteeth time, trying to figure out the neckband/placket instructions. Those of you familiar with the . . . brevity . . . of Dale patterns know what I mean. And then I realized - she said, with a sinking feeling - that I had neglected a rather important section of the instructions relating to a certain "Pattern IV" that was supposed to hold the place of my placket and make it all nice and tidy. Hmmmm . . . too late for that part now that the sleeve steeks are sewn.

Are you following any of that? Recycling yesterday's photo for clarity, there are supposed to be vertical lines of black with 5 white stitches in between running from the top of the center star (the divet in the middle) to the neck band. The white stitches are the cutting stitches and the zipper goes in between (with some facing added that I still haven't quite figured out). Obviously, I forgot to cast off the 3 neck stitches at that point, which I had realized earlier, but figured I would just reinforce them afterwards. It's this Pattern IV of vertical lines that is missing. I was just cruising along on the pattern, enjoying myself too much to look at the directions.

As an aside, I also realized that the downside of being small and making the XS (which is a healthy 41" in Dale-land), is that I had to cut off some of the fun patterning on the sides - those two side snowflakes are just not there. Le sigh.

So, anyway, what should I do? Any knitters experienced in Norwegian sweaters, feel free to chime in. And everyone, feel free to weigh in on the aesthetics question:

1. Should I put a placket zipper in in spite of the missing vertical lines? Or just add the neckband and have a crewneck? (photos with zipper here, similar sweaters without zipper here and here)
Pro: I had always planned to.
Con: I'm actually completely in love with the way it looks now, with the center star being so prominent and I think it's not as dominant with the zipper.
Pro: I like plackets, zippers, etc. for versatility, and being able to unzip if it I get too warm.
Con: Too warm? It's already stranded Heilo. It's warmer than my parka.
Con: It's easier to make a crewneck.
Pro: After spending a gazillion hours knitting it, what's a few more for the zipper?
Con: It will likely look better as a crewneck given the Pattern IV issues.
2. And while we're asking questions and all, which should I make next?

Lake Louise? Notre Dame? Or have you seen the slightly more modern (and lighter weight, if I used Daletta) Liberec, brand new for the Norwegian 2009 Ski Team?

If it does have a placket, I'm definitely reading the directions all the way through many many many times . . .

3. And, for the existential among us, will knitting all these sweaters convince either my husband or the US Navy or both to move somewhere I can wear them?

Eye Candy Friday

2008-11-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

Joy is not in things, it is in us.
-Richard Wagner

One sleeve to go!

The Things We Inherit

2008-11-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

Think what a better world this would be if we, the whole world,
had cookies and milk every afternoon around three o'clock
and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.
-Robert Fulghum

Your regularly scheduled knitting post has been hijacked by the fact that tonight I'm working downtown at the free clinic for the homeless, and I kind of forget until now. So instead I'll share two other acheivements from my day off on Tuesday.

1. I baked biscotti. It was fun, and actually sort of easier than regular cookies. You bake them in a log and then cut the log into strips after it's baked to bake them again. I thought that sounded cumbersome, but it's actually easier than dropping or shaping individual cookies. Plus, I think they'll survive their trip to the either side of the world.

2. The biscotti are yummy, but this is the recipe I've got to share: Macademia Butter Cookies with Dried Cranberries. You'll notice that there's no dairy butter, the butter comes from pureeing the macademia nuts. It was an amazing nutty flavor, and good texture. Good thing I hid a whole jar of macademias when my father-in-law brought them back from Hawaii!

Macademia Butter Cookies with Dried Cranberries

⅔ cup macadamia nuts

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375°. Place nuts in a food processor; process until smooth (about 2 minutes), scraping sides of bowl once. Combine macadamia butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and ground nutmeg, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until combined (mixture will be very thick). Stir in chopped cranberries. Chill 10 minutes. Divide chilled dough into 30 equal portions; roll each portion into a ball. Place 1 tablespoon granulated sugar in a small bowl. Lightly press each ball into sugar; place each ball, sugar side up, on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Gently press the top of each cookie with a fork. Dip the fork in water; gently press the top of each cookie again to form a crisscross pattern. Place 15 cookies on each of 2 baking sheets. Bake cookies, 1 baking sheet at a time, at 375° for 9 minutes or until golden. Remove cookies from pan; cool on a wire rack. Repeat procedure with remaining cookies.

It's even a Cooking Light recipe, so it's not too bad for you.

As I was packaging these up to send in a care package, I remembered a conversation I had with my mom the day before my husband deployed. We were in the throes of packing everything he needed for 7 months, and my mom started to tell me something I should do . . . I interrupted her because I knew exactly what she was going to say - that I should put little notes in his pockets, in between the pages of his books, and pretty much anywhere so that he would find them as he unpacked, or wore that set of camis, or what have you. The best part? I had already done that.

These are the things we inherit. And I'm all for passing on this awesome cookie recipe.

A Weekend in Pictures

2008-11-12T16:16:00.000-08:00

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
-St. Augustine

As you know, last weekend I went here

(Santa Fe, New Mexico), to see these folks(my parents), and these folks(flitgirl's parents), and drink good coffeeand show off a new finished object.(Ignore that I really need a hair cut. Thanks.) I guess you know that a finished object is successful when it gets stolen within a day of being cast off. In a fit of excitement last week, I decided that November's yarn of the month was destined to be a cowl. It was delightful - this cushy handspun merino singles that I bought in the Union Square Greenmarket about 3 or 4 years ago. And feather-and-fan. And speedy. I'm so in love. (And so is my mom, wearing it above.)

Greenmarket Cowl
Pattern: Luxe Neck Warmer from Knit 2 Together (Ravelry link)
Yarn: handspun merino from the Union Square Greenmarket
Needles: US 10 (it's like knitting a hat, without needing dpns for the top!)
Notes: No changes.
Best Thing About This Project: I've already made another one of these (if my mom liked it that much, she's definitely getting one for Christmas), and started Nova's Birthday Cowl in some other yarn. This is the best bandwagon I've been on in a while!

Thank a Veteran

2008-11-11T06:24:00.000-08:00

This nation will remain the land of the free
only so long as it is the home of the brave.
-Elmer Davis

Even casual readers of this blog will have noticed that my husband is presently deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. And that I myself wear the uniform. You might expect that I would have a lot of thoughts on this Veteran's Day. Heck, I might expect that, too.

My first thought is that I'm happy to be off from work, because it afforded a rare opportunity to video chat with my husband. The eleven-hour time difference can be challenging, and I've gotten used to some late-night phone calls. My next thought is that I'm awfully lucky to be able to see my husband in real-time, even if he's a little blurry. (And for those of you who know him - check out what the Marines did to his hair!) Although I, too, am a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, I presently find myself feeling more and more like a Marine wife. As much as I don't love being here while my husband is in a combat zone, I can only imagine how much worse it was when letters took months and packages arrived not at all. When deployment orders said "for the duration" and there were no scheduled replacements. Instead, I get a reasonable expectation (although not a guarantee) of seeing my husband in another 6 or so months, and lots of photos.

This would be the iconic shot, and a reminder of another thought of mine. As you know, we just had a landmark election, and while my liberal soul is personally filled with hope, that hope actually has little to do with my military affiliations. It has to do with the promise of America.

As I see it, America has given two great gifts to the world. As the longest-continuous democracy, we have had a continuous expansion of the franchise. After 221 years of expanding the vote, nearly every adult is now eligible to cast a ballot, and over 60% of us did last week.

The second great gift is civilian control of the military, rather than military control of the civilians. Ponder that the greatest military strength in the world will turn on a dime should the democratically-elected leaders order it so. This was unprecedented in the Second Continental Congress, and it remains rare today. With great strength comes great responsibility.
Lastly, remember that each of these flak vests belongs to someone who is far from home. Remember that it is an all-volunteer force. Remember how lucky we are that they are willing to wear these vests over somewhere, over anywhere, so that we don't have to wear them here.

Fun in the Cold - Hat Edition

2008-11-10T16:36:00.000-08:00

After the scarves and the mittens, you didn't expect the hats to get neglected, did you? Never fear!

First, the oldies-but-goodies category: These are all made of Lion Brand Homespun, a standard chain store yarn which still holds a sweet spot in my heart for the many many many (20? 30? who can count that high?) garter stitch scarves I made from it when I first started knitting. Before we branched out in yarns, we branched out in knitting and started making hats. These garter stitch hats are some of the most attractive-to-wear hats I own, actually. A bit berret-ish, if you will. And that rainbow hat was made for me by my college roommate, Shoshana (who, by the way, started a cooking blog here and is the happy recipient of all the baby wear for the world's cutest baby).

But I digress - more hats: Actually, related to that digression, the brown cabled hat it made from quivut (oh la la!) that Shosh brought back from her honeymoon in Alaska. Good friends bring you yarn from their honeymoon!

Also featured above are the swatch cap for Am Kamin (which I wore, with it's sweater, last weekend), the gorgeous Stained Glass Hat, and, partially hidden, the hat whose name I forget (last featured here, during the memorable Knitting Olympics). If only I had more than one head and could wear more than one at a time . . .

And, last but not least, the one manly hat of the collection: Gosh I love having a husband who likes traditional knitting designs!

Coming tomorrow, more traditional knitting - lots of progress on my Dale sweater.

Manly Manly Mitts

2008-11-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm
and our intelligence aglow.
-Helen Keller

I got to wear mittens from the lovely pile o' mittens (the purple Manos ones, if you must know, to match my fleece) this weekend. Santa Fe was lovely, and mountain cold at night, down into the teens. It was glorious and bracing.

To celebrate, and because I have the usual billion things to do after returning from a trip, today I present a new and exciting pair of mittens. One for the Christmas basket.

Manly Mittens
Pattern: from Knitty
Yarn: Cascade 220 in brown and natural (what else?)
Needles: US4
Notes: Great pattern, no changes.
Best Thing About This Project: Not to brag, but the colorwork on these is so even that you can't even tell there are two yarns being used. I think it's the pattern and the short repeats :)

These were a great project, and relatively fast, even for large and manly hands. After all the Selbuvotter (yes, photos coming soon), I'd forgotten how speedy a repetitive pattern in worsted weight can be! Now I'm really inspired to try out those Herringbone mittens everyone was making last year . . .

Fun in the Cold - Mitten Edition

2008-11-08T16:35:00.000-08:00

When there's snow on the ground, I like to pretend I'm walking on clouds.
-Takayuki Ikkaku

Aren't these beautiful? And who thinks it's weird that I've now made as many mittens and gloves since I've moved to San Diego as I did when I lived in Providence?

To your left, starting at 12 o'clock: Tweedy Diamond Mittens from Knitter's Best Shawls and Scarves, thrummed mittens from Prince Edward Island, Selbuvotter gloves, my first ever gloves (blue), Bird in Hand mittens, Lopi mittens (mostly hidden), and Green Mountain Spinnery stripes and Manos cables in the middle.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I ignored the manly hand warming knits - those hands are twice as big as mine! You may recall the mittens from last year. It's nice to have a husband who likes traditional knits.

And the gloves. You will see in these photos two pairs of gloves from the Selbuvotter book. And there's even one more. They are so delightful and lovely that they deserve their own post. Note to self. At least it's reminding me about some of the posts I still need to write.

Fun in the Cold - Scarf Edition

2008-11-07T16:33:00.000-08:00

One kind word can warm three winter months.
-Japanese Proverb

As I mentioned, I'm away from the interwebs this weekend, hopefully enjoying slightly chillier weather than is usual in San Diego. As I tried to pack, I was stuck with all sorts of difficult decisions about what to take. Which sweaters? Hats? Scarves? Mittens? And . . . it's only a 4 day trip.

So let's admire the rubbermaid-of-winter. It lives under the bed.

The scarves are difficult to see all piled up, but you do notice my Yardley's of London lavendar soap. Keeps everything smelling nice, and keeps the moths away.

While going through, I realize a blogging omission from a few months ago. My lovely sister-in-law made me a scarf for my birthday. The full details are on her blog here. It's a lovely lace pattern in cotton, perfect for most of the weather in San Diego.

In the meantime, which of the scarves to choose? Gosh, life is tough!

Remembering Nantucket

2008-11-06T07:58:00.000-08:00

Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.
-Kevin Arnold

I love weekend trips. The posts for the next few days will be auto-posting (thank you, Blogger) while I'm enjoying a weekend trip to Santa Fe where I'll be meeting up with my parents and the flitgirl's delightful parents. I'm very much looking forward to a little time away, the company of those I love, and - last but not least - sweater weather! Temperature projects are in the 30s to 50s.

Which means this project is actually not coming, being knit in cotton as it is, but I'll be busting out some of the wool from the trunk. Nevertheless, I've been feeling all kinds of nostalgic (homesick?) lately, and this sweater calls to mind a blustery winter weekend in 2004 or 2005.

Nantucket Jacket
Pattern: from Interweave Knits, the Kniting Daily special, and one issue some time ago . . .
Yarn: Cotton-Ease in Candy Blue. This is my second sweater in this yarn (first here), and I still have more. The stash, it is a mighty thing.
Needles: US6 - had to go down to get gauge
Notes: A lovely pattern, well written, no errors I could find. The only change I made was to lengthen the sleeves to full length. And don't neglect the crochet edging. I only crochet once a year, but it made the sweater.
The Best Thing About This Sweater: Aren't these the perfect pewter anchor buttons? This is a great New England sort of sweater.

Most people visit Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket in the summer. Lovely beaches, lobster rolls, a nice sailing wind. And I've been to the Vineyard in the summer, once. Every other time I've gone has been chilly - a delightful fall with perfect changing leaves, a cold and gray winter weekend with the flitgirl. And then there was that January trip to Nantucket. A very good friend for very good talking. Stew and beer in an old pub with a roaring fire. A historic bed and breakfast, also with a roaring fire. Wearing all of my favorite handknits, and discovering how much my friend also loved handknit socks. A perfect weekend. Until the blizzard closed the ferry, and - rather than getting stranded - we got some of the last seats on the high-speed ferry across a choppy choppy choppy sound. And a long drive down the Cape in near-blizzard conditions. A 3-hour return trip turned into 7 or 8. And, in retrospect, did I actually learn anything useful that next day in medical school? To this day I regret not just staying and getting snowed in to that wintery world standing still under a blanket of snow.

Wow!

2008-11-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed
is more important than any one thing.
-Abraham Lincoln

Oh yeah, that too :) But getting back to the knitting, I count this year's Socktoberfest as a complete success.

I finished one pair of socks that was on the needles at the beginning of the month, started and finished two more pairs, finished a single sock, and even got the cuff done on a 5th pair. Clear as mud? Here are the photos of the finished ones:

Garter Rib Socks in Koigu
Nine-to-Five Socks in Paton's KroyOld Navy Socks in Socks that Rock

Great patterns, great yarns, and, of course, all from the stash!

Vote Today

2008-11-04T00:04:00.000-08:00

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.
-Abraham Lincoln

The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.
-Albert Einstein

Need a reason to vote today? I've got one:
My husband in Kuwait, on his way to Iraq some 35 days ago. Not that I'm counting.

We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long
that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting
how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights.
-Felix Frankfurter

Baby Hat Trick, Plus One

2008-11-03T16:03:00.000-08:00

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
-George Bernard Shaw

Yesterday we saw the lovely results of stash put to good use warming heads. Well, apparently good things come in threes, and then some.

The Most Adorable Baby Cap Ever
Pattern: Sweet Baby Cap (free pattern here)
Yarn: cotton sock yarn scraps
Needles: US 2
Notes: Great easy pattern, although an awful lot of stitches for a baby hat.
Best Thing About This Project: I liked it so much, I made another one in self-striping sock scraps!

In other exciting news, it's incredible how much I like my job sometimes. And I'm not just saying that because one of my patients brought me homemade Rocky Road fudge today. (Although that was a bonus.) Clinic is just fun. Not to mention that life is just so much better when you get to sleep on a regular basis. Expect some great progress shots of my Dale coming soon.

Hat Trick

2008-11-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third.
-Marge Piercy

Guess what I've been doing today? Wrapping Christmas presents! Before you think I'm crazy early, let me remind you that I have a December 1st mailing deadline to get to a certain someone in Iraq. And I like to be early. And don't you think he needs an Advent package, too? That should go out next week, most likely.

And once I got started . . . So let's look at a few of the presents for folks who don't really read the blog.
Tell me, since I seem not to be able to judge, are these suitable for men, or are they very feminine?

Welt Cap x2
Pattern: Welt Cap from the Green Mountain Spinnery Pattern Book
Yarn: Mountain Mohair remnants from their remnant bin, and leftover from earlier projects
Needles: US7 circs
Notes: I'm totally in love with this hat pattern. Easy. Way more entertaining than it should be. And great for leftovers.
Best Thing About This Project: Busting the stash.

Odessa
Pattern: Odessa by Grumperina
Yarn: KnitPicks Ambrosia, sadly discontinued, a DK-weight blend of lovely softness
Needles: US5
Notes: I decided to try bead knitting for the first time, and it was fun! Great pattern.
Best Thing About This Project: The perfect use for this yarn!

More stash-busting projects coming this week!

Hi-Ho November!

2008-11-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more;
Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours.
-Swedish Proverb

Gosh I'm happy it's November! Let's think about the good things:

1. No one died last night at work. Yeah, that's always a good thing.
2. It was my last call for a while. I get to sleep at home every night for the next 24 days.
3. Except when I'm going to Santa Fe next week to experience the following - cold weather, sweaters, hats, mittens even?, visiting my parents, and some very good friends.
4. Rachel had her twins - how cute!
5. I'm halfway done my Christmas shopping.
6. Now if only I was halfway done my Christmas knitting . . .
7. It's NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. Get ready!

And, to start November off right, here's the very last knitting of October:I finished these socks at 11:30pm last night while waiting for a patient to get transferred up from the ER. I was unable, however, to kitchener the 16 sts and weave in 2 ends. So, it's either the last knit of October or the first of November.

What's the difference? The stash. The stash has recently suffered some major setbacks in that it is bigger than before. The 350 yards of Koigu in those socks take the revised stash total from 100,039 yards to a much nicer 99,689 yards. Remember how good it felt to get under 100,000 yards? I'm hoping to stay there.

So, executive decision made - since, through no fault of my own, the weaving in waited until today - these will be the last knit of November.

And so we start with 99,909 yards of yarn in 510.25 balls. Not counting partial oddballs. . . And about to order the yarn for the manly sweater. That executive decision will be coming tomorrow.

Harrumph!

2008-10-30T16:05:00.001-07:00

When women are depressed, they eat or go shopping.
Men invade another country. It's a whole different way of thinking.
-Elayne Boosler

Knitting for men is hard!

I'm having a bit of a dilemma. I believe I mentioned that my second anniversary is exactly 250 days away. And we all know that the second anniversary is one of the knitter's anniversaries - cotton. (This is not a secret, if you're worried that the sandstorms have calmed down and my husband's internet might actually be working, by the way.) Well, I've been trying to prepare. And this is the scene:Pure chaos. I had ordered the yarn for the Tree Bark Pullover, which no one seems to have ever made. I've loved this sweater ever since the magazine came in 2002. But we (the husband-recipient and I) thought maybe some nice neutrals.See the problem? That brownish musk color is a non-starter, so just look at the other two. Apparently color cards from 2001 aren't entirely accurate since my color #104 looks exactly like the color #103 on the card - the strange green-ish undertone to the khaki. Ugh. Not a good color. Time to explore Ram Wools' return policy . . . Although the ivory and musk were from Webs and I think will be repurposed as baby yarns.

So now I'm left reconsidering everything about this project. The pattern. Definitely the yarn. OK, let's think. Yup, you too.

What do we need? A sweater. In cotton (the 2nd anniversary thing, plus he might actually get to wear it while we're still living in San Diego).

What else? Well, he does seem to have somewhat more adventurous (but still classic) taste in clothing than the husbands of my knitting group friends. Note - he bought no fewer than FIVE Hawaiian shirts in Hawaii. And he really likes heavily patterned designs. I tried to talk him into a Cobblestone once, but he thought that was too boring. "What was the point of knitting it if you could buy something like it?" He even bought a traditional Aran sweater in the British Isles, way before meeting me.

Option 1: Stick with the husband-approved Tree Bark sweater, but in the original colors as pictured in the link above.
Pro: Who needs neutrals when it looks so nice in blue and green?
Con: The last sweater I made him was green.

Option 2: Go with second-choice Anniversary Sweater from Knitty, in a yarn to be determined. Rowan All-Seasons Cotton perhaps.
Pro: Easy pattern to memorize, even if it is a lot of cables.
Con: What yarn? And no one on Ravelry seems very happy with their finished project - a big red flag.

Option 3: Perhaps the most daunting option - a cabled Aran. When asked to point out patterns he liked, the sweater-loving husband loved Kristin Nicholas (good taste, right?) and her book Knitting the New Classics. While "new" is a misnomer, most of the (cable) patterns transcend the early nineties.
Some contenders (Rav links): Banjo Pullover (I have a Jo Sharp DK cotton in a bright Navy that would work), Evergreen Aran, Aran Family Cardigan (and there's a matching women's cardigan!)
Yarn Matches: most of these are made in a cotton-wool blend, so Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, or Rowan Wool Cotton or All-Seasons Cotton, perhaps
Pros: lots of lovely cables
Cons: lots of lovely cables

Wow - long post. Please give me any input on this most difficult of decisions. In the meantime, start getting excited. Tomorrow is my last CCU call of the month AND I'm doing NaBloPoMo again. Welcome to November!

Say It Isn't So!

2008-10-26T18:07:00.000-07:00

Many things - such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly -
are done worst when we try hardest to do them.
-C.S. Lewis

I'm tired. Too tired even to knit. I know, crazy, right? A month of call every third night is finally catching up with me. But I do have a teaser of good things to come . . . And now, back to my previously scheduled presentation writing. Yup, that presentation that I sort of forgot about, until now. Oops. The good news? It's almost November, and my schedule's about to get much better. One more week . . .

Falling Off the Wagon

2008-10-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs;
it's jolted by every pebble in the road.
-Henry Ward Beecher

. . . The stash wagon, that is.
And so it begins. (Yup, there's more on the way.) The problem with developing a passion for colorwork is that it requires so many colors. Might seem obvious, but I just ordered the yarn for the Bondegard pullover, a baby sweater that requires 15 colors of Dale Baby Ull. Yes, that's right - One-five. And it requires 2 balls of a few of those. So you know that most of them only need about 30 yards of that color, but it's absolutely integral to the design.

Why did I order them now, you might ask? There were a lot of changes to the baby ull color line in the last year, and some of the colors were discontinued. I snapped them up while I could.

And that's not all . . . a sweater's worth of yarn for my husband's second anniversary sweater is coming. Let's just say I qualified for the Webs 25% discount . . .

The stash is there for knitting, right?

A Taste of Fall

2008-10-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

Life is partly what we make it,
and partly what is made by the friends we choose.
-Tennessee Williams

I guess you know you had a fun night when you wake up to a sink full of empty wine glasses. I had some friends over for dinner last night for some yummy new recipes, good conversation, and even a little knitting. One friend just pulled back into port after a joint exercise in Canada (turns out they have a bar and a velvet Elvis portrait in the officers' mess on Canadian ships!), and the other friend is my deployment buddy. My husband and her fiance are hanging out in the same coffee shop in Iraq, so we're getting a lot of pedicures and watching Veronica Mars. Living up the girl fun while the guys are away.

Since my knitting was limited to simple stockinette socks last night (Did I mention we enjoyed a lot of wine?), I'll share with you my new favorite autumn dessert. This was amazing - like pumpkin pie and apple crisp all at once.

Pumpkin-Apple Streusel Cake
from Bon Appetit, October 2001 (wow - that's been in the "to-try" file for a long time!)

Apples
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cups diced peeled cored Granny Smith apples (about 4 large)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cake
11/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (firmly packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs

Vanilla ice cream

For apples:
Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples; sauté until apples begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add sugar and cinnamon and sauté until golden brown, about 3 minutes longer. Cool.

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch-diameter springform pan. Combine flour, brown sugar, butter, and salt in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until mixture resembles coarse meal. Set aside 2/3 cup of mixture for topping. Beat pumpkin, sour cream, 2 tablespoons sugar, spice, and baking soda into remaining flour mixture, beating just until smooth. Beat in eggs. Transfer batter to pan. Scatter apples evenly over top. Sprinkle reserved topping over apples.

Bake cake until topping is golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 20 minutes. Run knife around pan sides to loosen cake. Release pan sides from cake. Transfer cake to platter. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.) Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream.

Enjoy!

Funny Feet

2008-10-14T22:24:00.000-07:00

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.
-William Cullen Bryant

I warned you that a summer of much knitting and little blogging would leave a large pile of knits to go through. For me, the hardest part is going to be remembering what I have or have not taken photos of. The second hardest part is that they are competing with all my current projects.

In honor of Socktoberfest I picked four pairs of socks that I'm going to make, and just cast on for the Williams Street Socks from Knitting Daily last night. Even toe up, like the pattern is written (which is true dedication on my part, since I do not love toe-up socks).

Since, as you might expect of someone who had one sock in progress and then cast on for three more, that equals three single socks, 3 partial cuffs, and a single toe, I'll go back and show you some of my summer socks.

First, the not-quite-so-boring work pair:

Uniform Socks
Pattern: basic rib
Yarn: Wildfoote in black, and unknown remnants in blue (Sisik?) and yellow (pretty sure this is Regia)
Needles: US 1
Notes: As you note, the contrast heel starts halfway down the heel, so as not to poke out of shoes. The toes are a happy accident due to being worried about running out of the blue.
Best Thing About This Project: Definitely my new favorite work socks.

More Fraternal Twins
Pattern: Standard Stockinette
Yarn: won from Beth in a blog contest a while back
Needles: US 2 Lantern Moon sock sticks (which are so going on my Christmas list)
Notes: There are 3 colors here - two solids and a varigated. I had planned to do the stashbuster spirals, but the colors were too close in value and the pattern was invisible. So I embraced simplicity and went with fraternal twins.
Best Thing About This Project: I love using my special yarns.

Sunday Best

2008-10-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

Sir, Sunday morning, although occurring at regular and well forseen intervals, always seems to take this railway by surprise.
-William S. Gilbert

This post will consist of two parts. The first will be random observations about having my husband deployed. The second will consist of lots of knitting.

Observations about having my husband deployed

Random strangers can be very nice about helping you lift bookcases into the back of your car.
Why is it that I suddenly felt the compelling desire to go buy bookcases immediately after my husband left?
I've had them for 3 days and still not put them together.
The fraud prevention people from the credit card were going crazy.
If you or your spouse deploys, you might want to call them and let them know. Otherwise they will call hourly for 2 days straight.
Good to know that someone's paying attention.
A heated mattress pad was the best idea ever.
I don't eat half of what we when he's home; it's more like 1/3.
Guess I don't have to go grocery shopping again for a couple of weeks.
It's rather astounding how many cheesy romantic comedies and NCIS episodes the DVR can hold . . .
And, you can even send flowers from Iraq. Lucky me :)

Works-in-Progress (wahoo conference knitting!)

I took a big black bag with me to the conference, and alternated projects, roughly by lecture. Over 2 1/2 days, I knit

11 inches of sleeve for Park Citythe entire center part of the Swallowtail shawl (which is 1/2 the total, according to the handy-dandy shawl calculator here, which tells me that the border will be in a complementary color)
all but the toe of my second Socktoberfest pair of socks, Old Navy (yup, seemed appropriate)
And that's just what I took with me . . .

Good Things Come in Pairs

2008-10-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

Pair off in threes.

-Yogi Berra

I'm at a conference this weekend, which means a good amount of knitting time and a lot of mandatory fun. So we'll continue the review of summer fun and expect some well-along WIPs next week. I went through a baby knitting phase over the summer, completely sparked by this sweater. My college roommate's very adorable baby is a happy model of handknits (including at my wedding - I knew teaching her how to knit was a good idea!), and they're a cotton-only kind of family who also happen to like bright colors. Add in this cheerful sweater, and it was the perfect first birthday present.

But then I had a moral crisis. How could I give this sweater to the very deserving recipient of adorable handknit baby sweaters? I liked it too much. So I made another one, just by alternating the two blues.

Colorful Baby Set
Pattern: a kit from Lionbrand that I bought on clearance when the old put-up of Cotton-Ease was being discontinued
Yarn: the Cotton Ease in the kit - 5 colors (yes, I bought a lot of it when it went on clearance)
Needles: US 7
Notes: I knit it in the round up to the armholes, and knit the sleeves in the round for ease of finishing. Still a lot of ends to weave in.
Best Thing About This Project: I'm waiting for the true finished object photo - modeled. It won't be long.

We haven't even scratched the surface of my blogging backlog . . . And the knitting continues.

Building Barns

2008-10-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

It will not always be summer; build barns.

-Hesiod

Sometimes, the amount of yarn I have is terrifying. Sometimes, it's delightful. Lately I've been doing a bit of stash-diving, including knitting great projects with odd balls so odd (and small and partial) they weren't even on the stash spreadsheet. (They were, however, taking up space.) Before we get into all those "somethings for nothing," here are two adorable sweaters from sometime back in the summer.
Stripey Baby Sweaters
Pattern: Super-Natural Stripes by fPea (available free here)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, conveniently found in the stash in complementary colors
Needles: US 6
Notes: Easy, fun, and super cute.
Best Thing About This Project: It'd be hard to separate these sweaters. Any twin boys out there?

This was a great project. So great, I almost contemplated making more (yup, I still have some Cotton Fleece out there), but two just about held my interest.

A Winner!

2008-10-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

Better an ounce of luck than a pound of gold.
-Yiddish Proverb

Wahoo, I'm a winner!
After lusting after box bags for the past several years, I finally got one. And without having to test out my rusty sewing skills. I won a blog contest over at bySarah, with my fabulous Jersey Summer Peach Salsa (recipe on Sarah's blog here).So I love my box bag, the sock yarn, the tea and biscotti, and the stitch markers - all in coordinating colors - but what makes this so perfect is that Sarah is actually my blog twin. We knit the same projects. Lately we've been cooking. And I get a Rhode Island fix by reading her blog. Good times all around.

In honor of Socktoberfest, here's my first of four intended pairs of socks to celebrate. I've been in the mood to knit simple things lately (the Dale is just hanging out in its basket), and these Garter Rib Socks are fitting the bill. I've decided that Koigu is it's own reward, even in a delightfully simple pattern.And, one more thing, speaking of cooking - check out the pumpkin bread: Pumpkin bread may also be its own reward, but it's even better in heart-shaped pans bound for Iraq. And he wondered why I put them on the wedding registry . . .

Summer Scarves

2008-10-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

The best thing one can do when it's raining is let it rain.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Yesterday was my day off and I had all kinds of good intentions to round up the WIPs and dangle them out for the world to see. (True confessions: I had a bout of startitis when my husband deployed. It's a common stress reaction, I find.) But I was stymied by . . . the weather! Clouds. Cool breezes. Threatening rain even. So exciting I'm almost beside myself. I even baked pumpkin bread in honor of the occasion (try the recipe here - it's like a very yummy pumpkin spice bread). So it was too overcast to photograph the new goodies - mittens and Socktoberfest socks and knitting with beads and oh-my-so-much-knitting-fun.

Let's revisit some summer knits then, in honor of the fact that it might actually even rain today in San Diego:

My yarn of the month for (gulp!) June was this hank of laceweight from Morehouse Merino farms. It had been gifted to me by a friend, and marinating in the stash since either my last year of college or first year of med school (circa 2001-2003). It's a lovely single ply in bright, hand-dyed colors, and finally I got to use it.

Merino Ribbon Scarf
Pattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty, Spring 2008
Yarn: Morehouse Merino laceweight, 1 hank, Santa Fe colorway
Needles: US 6 or 7, I forget
Notes: Great, easily memorized pattern. I'm not in love with the color flashing across the scarf, but I did enjoy knitting it.
Best Thing About This Project: Memories of a sunny summer in Providence, all brought back while knitting it.

I cannot at all recall when I finished this second summer scarf. I do know that I was working on it during the trip to Pennsylvania for my wedding in April, so it's been a while. It was a great portable project, as well, with just enough interest.

Lacy Kerchief
Pattern: Lacy Kerchief from Interweave Knits, Summer 2005 (a great issue)
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, old put up, colorway Candy Blue
Needles: US 8
Notes: I didn't make this quite as long as called for in the pattern, and it's still very very long. With the garter stitch, though, it's very scrunchy and looks great wrapped.
Best Thing About This Project: I love this color.

Now I'm heading out to see if I can catch some rain. Wouldn't that be fun?

Works in Progress

2008-10-02T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth
until the hour of separation.
-Khalil Gibran

Thanks for all the good thoughts you've sent to us - me on the homefront and my husband on deployment. I definitely plan on knitting to keep me busy while he's gone, and getting used to it is a bit of a work in progress.

As the long time readers remember, last year when he was away I knit him the Dale of Norway Salt Lake City sweater, and a bonus welcome home present of the River Forest Gansey (same post). Is that why you're all wondering what I'll knit him this year? Well, our second anniversary is coming up next summer (probably right after he gets home), and the second anniversary is COTTON. So, a sweater of course. I gave him a few pattern options and we decided on the Tree Bark Pullover from an old IK (Rav link here). I'll be making it in Mission Falls 1824 cotton like it calls for - I think it's a good match, but in more subtle colors - ivory and sand. Should be classy.

I will, of course, have to order the yarn for this project. Which is worth it. Especially because I've been making really good progress on the stash. I'm now down to 469.5 skeins and 95,560 yards, with lots of stuff on the needles. Now that I'm under 100,000 yards, I have to start thinking about how big my stash should be at a comfortable size. I know I'm not there yet, but it's getting close.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll catch up on all those FOs that have eaten up the stash, but for today I'll start with a photo of my favorite work-in-progress:I get a Dale of Norway sweater, too. This is my Park City (Rav link), which is from the same year as Salt Lake City. As a bonus, my sweater is way faster than the sweater for my 6' tall husband - it's flying along!

I'm Blue

2008-09-30T16:14:00.001-07:00

Blue, navy blue, I'm as blue as I can be
'Cause my steady boy said "Ship ahoy"
And joined the Nay-ee-ay-vee.
-Diane Renay (song)

Leave it to the Marines to leave for deployment two hours before dawn. Dark, early, and still he promised me he'd smile. Doesn't he look ready?
Rather than focus on the leaving, there's always a silver lining, right? Right. For one, finally a modeled shot of the Bed and Breakfast Pullover. It's chilly that time of morning. And, for another, how to pass the rest of a strange and surreal day? Winding yarn for all the knitting I'll be doing. There's Koigu, Manos, Silke-Tweed, Socks That Rock, and Cascade 220 in that pile. Nothing like some really nice yarn to cheer up a gal.

Now just sit back, relax, and we'll catch up on several months of knitting.

The Face of the Earth

2008-09-12T15:23:00.000-07:00

I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.
-Abraham Lincoln

They say it takes 30 days to create a habit. Is that how long it takes to get out of a habit? Perhaps.

I have not quite fallen off the face of the earth, but I've been busy.What? You weren't distracted by an archived Hawaii photo? Sheesh!

In no particular order:

My husband is getting ready for an all-expenses-paid business trip to the cradle of civilization. That would be, uh, Iraq. I hear it's lovely this time of year. And he's leaving pretty soon.
There's a lot of pre-deployment paperwork.
I'm knitting too fast to take blog photos. Seriously. Burning through the projects.
The stash is down to about 97,000 yards.
I'm rotating at a civilian hospice this month. Picking out my own clothes every morning is a challenge. Matching is hard.
I've been cooking.
And baking peanut butter cookies as a pre-business-trip treat.
And I finally started running again. No amount of time on the elliptical machine can kick my you-know-what like a little running.
There's a large pile of to-be-blogged handknits sitting on my dresser.
I'd say I'll take photos this weekend, but I won't.
We're going to Palm Springs for a little getaway.
Maybe next week. If not, then certainly I'll be back in full form when my husband's away.

Dishcloths Galore

2008-08-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe;

when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets.

-Robert Ingersall

The Second Annual Dish Rag Tag is about to begin. Remember last year? The pain, the heartbreak, the troubles with the US Postal Service? Well, it's a whole new year. And I am ready.
Never fear, these aren't early entries for the Dish Rag Tag, these are just my two new favorite patterns, both free patterns from Abigail. Aren't they lovely in the varigated yarn?

There's no such thing as working ahead in this Dish Rag Tag - that would be cheating - but I have been refreshing my dish rag knitting skills. Last year I won the enviable title of Dish Rag Queen for admitting that I had some 30+ dishrags in their bin under the sink. As a prize, I got the world's most enormous ball of dishcloth cotton. Well, way back in June when my posting was sparse and my working was the stressful and time consuming Night Float, I took that ball to work, set it next to my computer, and knit the occasional row between phone calls, notes, and waiting for lab results.

So, just how many dish rags can you knit with a pound of dishcloth cotton?

Eight. Plus two Mason-Dixon baby bibs not pictured here, for variety in all that garter stitching.

Then, I turned my eyes to the rest of my cotton stash, and, feeling all Mason-Dixon-y, I made a log cabin out Mission Falls 1824 cotton scraps (last seen here as Christmas gifts).
I love using every last bit of leftovers, don't you? So I took the leftovers from the contrast color on my basketweave dishcloths, and made the cutest wash cloth ever.

Jen's already gotten this is the mail - hopefully it'll be a nice compliment to all that pink she's been knitting!

There were more, but perhaps we'll keep them a surprise until later in the exciting August dish rag races?

Seasonally Inappropriate

2008-08-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was

is so that we can tell them about our own weekend.

-Chuck Palahniuk

It may be wildly out of season, even for San Diego with its chilly nights, but better late than never. I finished my Bed and Breakfast pullover quite a few months ago, and even got a few chances to wear it before it got warmer.

What can I say? I love this sweater. This is everything I've ever wanted in cabled pullover. Thanks to the Year of Projects, I have it.

Bed and Breakfast Pullover
Pattern: IK Winter 2003
Yarn: Cascade 220 in French Blue and a dark brown for the contrast
Needles: US 7 Brittany Birch straights - the most delightful combination of yarn and needles!
Notes: I do think there was a slight error in the chart and that the cables should start closed and then open on the bottom (makes sense if you see the chart), but I didn't realize that until too late. It's not a crisis. Overall, a very fun, well-written, wearable pattern.
Best Thing About This Project: This is basically my dream sweater. Expect to see modeled shots pop up as the nights cool off and it comes out to play.

This project was one of many helping me knock down the stash. I'll update the sidebars soon, but as of August 1st I'm down to about 480-some balls of yarn and 103,000-some yards of yarn. Getting under 100,000 is rapidly approaching!

Random Monday

2008-08-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship,

communion or company than a good marriage.

-Martin Luther

Happy August! (My birthday month, for those of you tracking these things.)

Because Random Wednesday is more random on a Monday, and I'm still recovering from a little jaunt up to Washington State this weekend.

I got to spend the first weekend of August on a very exciting trip to see the incomparable Kate D. marry the love of her life. Gosh, I love weddings! Go on, congratulate her. She doesn't leave for her honeymoon until Wednesday.

While I was there, I also had the great privilege to sleep under a fabulous handmade quilt and admire some beautiful embroidered pillow cases. And I took pictures. I'll share once I upload them.

Speaking of travel, have you ever flown Virgin America? It's a new airline with only a few airports so far, but it's a life changing experience. Leather seats and electrical outlets - in coach. Friendly quick service. Your own personal TV/entertainment system. And competively priced tickets. I've never been airline brand loyal, but flying all the domestic carriers these days is so depressing, that I was positively delighted to find this airline. They're expanding - look for them. It's like flying internationally, only shorter. And still in the US.

What else? I got a cool and completely unexpected package in the mail the other day. A friend of the family back in Pennsylvania was doing some closet cleaning and found a whole bunch of knitting books, so she packaged them up and sent them to me. There are some real gems here - Knitting for Him, the Nicky Epstein series, and an Erica Knight book, as well as some basics. What a great surprise!

And, since I got lots of knitting done on the plane in my nice comfy leather seat, I'm ready for the new August projects. The big one is my Dale sweater - Park City. This will complement my husband's Salt Lake City, as they're from the same Olympics. I'm making the off-white version, and I wanted a slightly brighter CC2 in blue, but I worry that the one I ordered might be a little too bright. Any thoughts from the photo to the right? Never fear. My sister-in-law is in town and she was the recipient of my last Dale sweater. I'm sure she can help. In the meantime, go leave her some blog comments.

Mittens and Gloves, Oh My!

2008-07-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged
to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela

Earthquake? What earthquake? Seriously - I had to be told that we had one. Granted, I was on call in the ICU yesterday and we had a code going on at the same time. I was a little occupied. . . Regardless, there's been a goodly bit of knitting.

I promised a parade of FOs, and here I am to deliver. For good measure, and to prove that I'm not resting on any laurels that may or may not exist, I'll throw in a UFO at the bottom for good measure.

Back in mitten month, I raided my entire stash for suitable mitten yarns and cast on for this pair. Then my colorwork frenzy was completely taken over by Salt Lake City and these fell by the wayside. I'm happy to finally add them to the Christmas pile.

Kalev's Mittens
Pattern: (rav link) from Nancy Bush's Knitting in Estonia
Yarn: KnitPicks Gloss, less than one skein each color
Needles: US 1
Notes: My two-color braid could be much much neater.
Best Thing About This Project: Finishing me got my mitten mojo back.

Remember the alpaca I was wanting to use? I had started the teddy bear from the Holiday IK, but it was a fiddly sort of project and I quickly lost interest. Until I finished those mittens. So I turned back to my alpaca, and my trusty Selbuvotter and started a special pair of . . . gloves. Aren't they lovely? And not nearly so fiddly as I feared.

The only problem is that these won't touch the quantity of alpaca that I have . . . Guess I'll have to make more pairs!

And . . . She's Back

2008-07-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

Happiness consists of living each day as if it were
the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation.
-Proverbial

So, where have I been?

Hawaii

Working

(use your imagination)

Baking
And Knitting
All that knitting leads to lots of FOs. Expect a veritable parade to celebrate my return.

Independence

2008-07-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending
too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
-Thomas Jefferson

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first
come to pass in the heart of America.
-Dwight David Eisenhower

In the spirit of Independence Day, I'll share some photos (distant flag included) of a lovely beach spot across the country on my favorite Jersey shore.

My folks and many friends are there this weekend. In fact, this time last year we were there getting married on that very beach. I (almost) wish I could join them. Almost, because tomorrow my lovely husband and I are off for our honeymoon/first anniversary/vacation to a beach far off in the pacific. A little place called Hawaii.

I have my knitting for the plane, my beach reading, and a hat to keep my hair contained in the convertible. We'll see how much knitting gets done, but that's not quite the point.

Plus, I've been making great progress on my stash reduction - check out the sidebar!

See you in a week!

Time Machine Tuesday: My Most Used Project

2008-06-24T04:37:00.000-07:00

If you can organize your kitchen, you can organize your life.
-Louis Parrish

Welcome back to this installment of Time Machine Tuesday! Here I'm going to share one of my oldest and best projects. I say best because it's my most used project. Not a single pair of socks, everyday sweater, or even dishcloth is used as often as this kitchen rug that I made on a whim a while back.

Mitered Square Rug, circa 2003
Pattern: from IK a few summers back
Yarn: kitchen cotton in various solid shades, used double
Needles: US 10s?
Mods: Just changed the colors to use stash.
Best Thing About This Project: The nubbly texture under my feet while washing dishes. Even better? My husband usually does the dishes.
The Test of Time: Definitely. It's getting a nice faded, vintage-y feel from getting washed frequently.

Bagging It

2008-06-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in.

-Will Rogers

Way back in a month called April, the Loose Knit Group (Ravelry link) made bags the gift-knitting theme of the month. Bags? I thought incredulously? Yes, bags. I was originally not at all interested. Until I persued that other greatest invention of mankind, my Ravelry queue. Where I found at least 6 or 7 bag patterns awaiting my attention. Oh, I admit it wasn't an earth-shattering revelation, but it did provide some nice easy distraction knitting while working on several larger projects, such as a wedding. Not to mention the handy amounts of yarn called for, which were a stash-busting boon in at least one case.

First I started with the market bag concept. The Saturday Market Bag is the classic and was a natural starting point, but I found Elisa's Nest Tote to be much nicer looking, and probably more practical as well.

Elisa's Nest Note
Pattern: free, from the PurlBee
Yarn: a single 100g skein of King Tut Egyptian Cotton with very little leftover
Needles: US 9
Notes: Love the attached i-cord handles. Also, don't modify these to do them in the round. The side seams really help stablize them and make the stretching more reasonable.
Best Thing About This Project: Both of these are likely to make it as gifts, since brining your own bag is hip these days, but the mercernized cotton is so much nicer. Definitely recommend it.

The Saturday Market Bag
Pattern: from Magknits, prior to that demise. Anyone know if it's available elsewhere?
Yarn: some *bright* yellow kitchen cotton, 2 50g balls
Needles: US 10 - much smaller than the pattern called for, and probably still too big
Notes: I made the bag and the straps significantly shorter than called for in the pattern, and it still stretches quite a bit
Best Thing About This Project: It's farmer's market and grocery store ready.

Since the bag thing was going so much better than expected, I then progressed on to actual purses. This is where, I confess, most of my bias against knit bags had been. Just a style thing. But I found a Ravelry link to a Paton's pattern, conveniently misread the pattern so that I thought it took only 1 100g ball of Paton's Classic Merino (it takes 2), and cast on from stash.

Paton's Cabled Bag
Pattern: free, Ravelry link here
Yarn: Classic Merino in leaf green - 2 skeins. Which I noticed right around when the first one ran out. I can't tell a different in the dyelot. Yarn is used doubled throughout
Needles: US 10 1/2
Notes: No changes, although I find the doubled-yarn fabric stiff enough that I didn't line it.
Best Thing About This Project: Have you ever seen a rectangle look this cute?

And, speaking of bags, I found these in a closet-cleaning expedition. You may or may not remember the fun of The Amazing Lace, Summer 2006, that knitalong co-hosted by myself and the incomparable Rachel, but if you'd like a small project bag (good for socks), email me. I've found myself with many, and I'm happy to spread the wealth.

On the Cooking Front

2008-06-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

If people take the trouble to cook, you should take the trouble to eat.

-Robert Morley

Apparently I'm on a once-a-week blogging schedule. Well, it is summer after all. I did take some photos for all of you this weekend, but uploading them to the computer was the rate-limiting step. At any rate, I have lofty goals for blogging at least twice this week.

I mentioned a few posts ago that I've been doing a bit of cooking recently, taking advantage of the fact that my husband will eat almost anything. And he does dishes. And we bought a grill.

Revisiting cooking meant revisiting my cookbook collection and recipes. I've been carrying around a 3-ring binder of various recipes since my college days, but found it too unwieldy. My everyday favorites were right next to recipes that I was clearly never going to make. So I regrouped, googled a bit, and found Tastebook.

Check it out:

A cookbook of my favorite tried-and-true recipes, only the good ones, professionally printed. With photos. And, since most of my recipes are from magazines or cookbooks, a little googling usually pulled up all the text, ready to copy and paste. And, you can add to it later.

I'm in love.

So, in the interest of spreading the joy, here are a few of my new favorite recipes:

Sausage and Pepper Calzones from Cooking Light
Honey Cake with Carmelized Pears from Martha Stewart
Chipotle Pork Tacos with Pineapple Salsa from Cooking Light

and here are a few of my new favorite cooking blogs, for more inspiration:

Enjoy! Be warned, but I get my act together, the FO parade will be miles long.

Weekend Roundup

2008-06-08T17:42:00.001-07:00

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anyone at anytime.

-Maya Angelou

It's probably no coincidence that as soon as I started working nights (you try sleeping in San Diego in the middle of the day!), I got knocked down by a nasty summer cold. The kind of cold that fogs your brain and makes you think it's a good idea to stare at the wall and do nothing. In other words, the kind that makes me feel very much not like me. This means that sewing up last month's cardigan, starting my Nantucket Jacket, and really anything else that takes brain power is off limits. Good thing that June is Kitchen Accessories Month at A Loose Knit Group! I just happen to have an enormous ball of Sugar and Cream gifted to me some time ago, and a few of Abigail's dishcloth patterns in hand.

Two down, working on the third. Just how many do you think I can get from this huge ball?

On a related note, apparently the dishcloth bug is out there. Check out my sister-in-law's first cables - nice, huh? It looks like we'll be meeting up in Phoenix in a couple weeks, so I think we'll limit the knitting to cotton. Phoenix in June is hardly wool sweater weather.

There has been just a little bit of other knitting. Flitgirl and Toasty Joe came to town and cheered me up in the middle of that cold-of-which-we-shall-not-speak. If you've ever read Toasty's blog, you won't be surprised to hear that we went to the Padres-Mets game. A perfect opportunity for some knitting. My yarn of the month for June is some Morehouse Merino laceweight that a friend gave me quite some time ago - I think early in med school, but it mmight even have been college. Regardless, it's stash-marinated long enough and now it's happy to become the Lace Ribbons Scarf from the Spring (or was it Summer?) Knitty.

Now, if only my voice would come back . . .

Egads!

2008-05-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
-Proverbial

Time flies when you're . . . having fun, working lots, knitting quite a bit, enjoying long summer San Diego days, and, oh, did I mention how much better it is to have my husband home? Much better.

I do have lots to blog about - a finished Bed and Breakfast, finished Lacy Kerchief scarf, finished socks, finished baby sweaters x2, and all sorts of in progress stuff. I've had a good amount of knitting time, but the camera battery isn't charged, the long days aren't quite long enough for sunlit shots . . . or maybe they're long enough so that I'm out and about and doing other things, and then I've gotten distracted. You see, I've been cooking a lot, like dinner on a pretty much nightly basis. It's so much more fun cooking for 2! And did you know there are all these cooking blogs out there . . .

So, the good news is that I'll be working nights starting June 1st. That means maybe I can take some daylit photos? But in the meantime, I've discovered that the bonus of leaving a post at the top for 10 days is that I get a lot of comments - Thanks!

A Summer in Silk

2008-05-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

One swallow does not make a summer.
-Aristotle

I've long been an admirer of knitzalot's extensive collection of summer knits (love this Josephine!). After all, she lives in San Diego just like me. It's been 90 degrees here lately. It's a nice long sunny summer. But I've been intently sticking to my wool (and I just finished the Bed and Breakfast pullover - photos coming soon). But then I had some silk that I've been carting around for years and states, and it was the perfect amount for a nice summer top.

Let's all pause and ponder how perfect Ravelry is in this situation. I had my yarn, my yardage, my weight, and I found the perfect pattern.

Surplice Bodice Top
Pattern: From Knitting Lingerie Style - a much more versatile book than I had previously given it credit
Yarn: Anny Blatt Kanpur, a 100% silk DK weight that I got for the steal of the century at $2/ball at a sale back in 2001; 4.5 skeins, approx 600 yards
Needles: US 6 and US 5
Notes: Great pattern. I need a camisole for underneath that doesn't have as much contrast, though.
Best Thing About This Project: A night out on the town is coming.

Now, what should I do with the last 1.5 skeins? Because while I've used most of the yarn, I haven't used all of it . . .

Fun On the Side

2008-05-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

If it's not fun, you're not doing it right.
-Proverbial

I've been knitting and knitting and knitting. All the big projects like we talked about. But everyone needs to have a little fun on the side, right? Conveniently enough, the May Loose Knit Group project is baby knits. And I was jonesing for some baby knits. And some stash busting. And I had a couple skeins each of a couple coordinating colors of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. A great baby yarn. And then I found this pattern. And then I cast on.But that's not all the fun around here. I got my May Day sock swap! Check out the gorgeous socks and great package I got! Coffee and a mug, two kinds of sock yarn, nice lotions and creams, jelly beans, and Nikki Epstein's Knitted Flowers book - which is super creative and cool. Go check out my swap partner's blog, too!

Sensing A Theme Here

2008-05-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow never comes.
-Proverbial

For most of the last week I was planning on blogging "tomorrow," but somehow each and every day is a today. It's been a busy week working, getting back into cooking (it's so much more fun to cook for two of us!), and actually doing some knitting.

In fact, it was during a nice post-work relaxing night of knitting that I noticed there was a bit of a theme in my knitting. Don't we all love Interweave? These are the magazines for the Bed and Breakfast Pullover, the Lacy Kerchief Scarf, and my new project. Yes, I finally decided what to do with my alpaca. Thank to all the suggestions and reassurance, I went with the teddy bear. How cute is this? It's going to be so adorable, so fuzzy, and, well, just so classic. I am realizing however, that I will have quite a lot of yarn leftover. I'm leaning towards mittens. We shall see.

I also figured out what my May project was going to be. It's a good stash project from some Reynolds Saucy that I bought at the Webs tent sale with Rachel right before I moved to California. Now, I realize that the wisdom of buying lots of yarn right before moving cross-country can be questioned, and two years later I'm still trying to work my through most or all of it, but the stash does become it's own justification when I can just decide to cast on and I have a good yarn handy. That I got on supersale. But I digress. I'm making the oh-so-romantically-named "Long-Sleeved Cotton Jacket" from Sarah Dallas' Vintage Knits. I've had my eye on this for quite some time, and now is the time.

Speaking of stash, I finally updated my sidebar to reflect the progress I've been making on stash reduction. While it does come in handy to have yarn around, I'd like to have a little less yarn around so I'd feel a little freer buying yarn for specific projects. At any rate, in spite of some recent yarn gifts (May Day Swap photos coming soon!), I'm still far in the negative from my starting stash. By the end of May, I should be under 110,000 yards!

Spring Socks

2008-05-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

The enemy of good is better.

-Proverbial

I'm still pondering what to do with the alpaca, and I really appreciate all your suggestions. For some reason the teddy bear idea is rising to the forefront as appropriate for the mood of the moment, but then I'm still torn about whether to just go with the mood, or hold out for something that is theoretically more perfect. Then again, see the quote above.

So, as I ponder, I have been knitting some socks for spring.

The March Yarn of the Month was a skein of Socks that Rock that made a lovely cushy sock.

Spring Socks
Pattern: Mad Color Weaves, available free on Ravelry downloads, the coolest one-stop shopping ever
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight in, er, a pretty spring color
Needles: US 2, after experimentation to find a ratio that didn't pool
Notes: Great pattern. Cushy yarn. It was a little frustrating to find a needle size and cast-on number that didn't pool, though.
Best Thing About This Project: Wearing them at night, after my flipflops!

And, I knit a pair for the May Day Swap. Here's a teaser photo.

May Day Socks
Pattern: Charade, also a free Ravelry download
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock
Needles: US 1
Notes: Great pattern, great yarn
Best Thing About This Project: The modeled shot is here.

And, last but not least:

Thuja
Pattern: from Knitty
Yarn: KnitPicks Memories for a purple-loving friend
Needles: US 2 - love my new KnitPicks dpns!
Notes: Great fun pattern. No issues, no changes
Best Thing About This Project: The perfect gift for one of the readers in our wedding.

Decisions, Decisions

2008-04-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

It is our choices that show what we truly are,
far more than our abilities.
-J.K. Rowling

As you know, 2008 is my personal Year of Yarn. It's the year I'm knitting the yarn that is too precious to knit, the gifts, the special yarns, the ones that - for whatever reason - I never get to. (And the April yarn was so delightful that the project is finished - photos coming soon!)

Looking ahead, I'm a bit flummoxed with the yarn I have set aside for May. (Actually, I had it set aside for March, but then I couldn't decide what to do, so I changed it all around.)

This is a fingering-to-sportweight alpaca in 2 natural colors - a nice off-white and a rich brown. I believe there is about 4 (or is it 8?) oz of each, so approximately 600-800 yards total? I've had it for a while now, maybe 4 or 5 years, and I met the alpacas on the farm from which they came. I got it as a relatively young knitter and wanted to make something special out of it, but now I can't commit to a project. I'm hoping you can help.

Here are some broad categories I've been thinking of so far. One of the limitations is that I'd like to use them together in a single project if I can.

Shawl - Shetland Triangle, or some other Evelyn Clark creation? Lovely, but I'm not feeling the lace vibe right now
Tank/Camisole - this was my original thought, but I'm not sure I have enough yarn, and I don't know how to combine the colors.
Two-color baby knit - This would have to be another saved for my future children.
Other two-color stuff - hats, mittens - pretty sure this wouldn't put much of a dent in it, although I have been on a stranded colorwork kick lately.
Capelet - not sure how much I would wear it, but I could see making something like Ann Budd's Grand Plan capelet (top down - good for unknown quanities of yarn), in the lace version, with the collar and lace panel and button bands one color and the yoke another color.
Toy - the teddy bear from the IK Holiday edition caught my eye. But is this a "good enough" use for this yarn?
Other thoughts?

Any brilliant ideas? Otherwise, I'm just going to keep moving around my project list. My original plan for May involved a project that's no longer a good candidate for its yarn, so we're readjusting anyway.

Let's Talk About Books

2008-04-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

A book is a gift you can open again and again.

-Garrison Keillor

It's Monday. A whole new week. I'm feeling all sorts of motivated this morning. Maybe you are, too? Many readers and knitters and many more readers are knitters, and after sharing my new favorite things with the lady at the post office, I thought I'd share with you.

Book Swapping/Trading/Mooching

I've gotten hooked on a few websites that let you trade your books for other books for only the cost of postage. The general concept is the same - list books (any books) that you want to get rid of, and people will request them. You mail them the book (media mail = $1.47) and get a point. Then you use that point to get any other book in the entire system from anyone else. Each site has its own small vagaries, but they all work about the same way. Now that I've gotten my postal lady hooked (she wondered why I sent so much media mail, and she's a big reader, too), I thought I'd be remiss in keeping this all from you.

Bookmooch - This is my favorite site, the most transparent and easy to use, and it gives you the most control over what's going on

PaperBackSwap - This is probably the biggest site, but I find it a little hard to navigate, and it's never really clear how many copies of a book are around. That being said, lots of available books.

WhatsOnMyBookshelf - This is the smallest of the sites. The good part about that is that your copy of a book is more likely to be the only one available, and thus more likely to get mooched. I just found this site about a month ago, and the first weekend I listed my books I got 6 takers.

For me, these take the place of the capricious staff at the local paperback bookstore (plus I never found one in San Diego). Instead of turning in three books to get one, I get 1 for 1. Even books that don't seem that desirable get mooched eventually. I take the approach of listing the same inventory at all three sites, and then deleting a book when it gets mooched on one site. (Hence the reason for the three sites - three times as many chances to get rid of books I don't want and get books I do.)

The best part? People want the weirdest books! And I get new ones for free.

And, if anyone is so inspired as to want to participate in a paperback book chain letter sort of thing (total comittment to you = 1 book), let me know. I need some volunteers.

Moving Along

2008-04-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue.

Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way

they really are or people might think we're stupid.

-Jules Pfeiffer

Somewhere in the midst of all the craziness, there is some plain ol' knitting being done. Shocking, I know. And apparently, it's all blue.

You may or may not recall the Bed and Breakfast Pullover. This is my March project, which isn't standing a particularly good chance of being finished in April either, but that's OK because my April project is done. At any rate, the B&B is clicking along. It has a perfectly delightful cable pattern - unusual, interesting, and really not at all particulalrly difficult. The boring ribbed sleeves were done in an early moment of opportunism, so now I have a couple more inches of the back and then the front. Not bad, if I get to work.

My other brilliant blue project also saw some progress, although of a different sort. A while back when I was in a lace kind of mood I started the Fiddlesticks' Long Paisley Shawl in some KnitPicks Shadow. I like the yarn, and I like the pattern. I definitely made a mistake and went down too many needle sizes, so the garter stitch fabric was too bouncy. But really, it had to go. I knew I wasn't going to finish it this decade, so it was better to frog now and open up the possibilities for both the yarn, the pattern, and my time.

Frogging can be progress, too. What kind of progress have you all been making? Show us en route to the FO parade!

A Sleeve Conundrum

2008-04-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms

from the statues that are in all the other museums.

-Stephen Wright

Some of you with long memories may remember a distant time last month when I was on the cusp of finishing not one, but two Dale of Norway sweaters. I put up a bad dimly lit photo of a blocking sweater, mentioned in passing that the sleeves were too long, and that seemed to be the end of that.

Well, it wasn't really. I thought long and hard about my options for fixing this sweater:

1. Cut and rip and graft in any manner of ways to make the sleeves shorter.
2. Find someone with longer arms.

I went with option #2. It was obvious, really. I love the sweater. It's a cute, versatile kind of pullover that I'd been meaning to make for a while. And it was a great fun knit. But the gray kind of washed me out, I wanted to start a new project rather than rip and graft a lace pattern, and - this is the part that really made up my mind - I could think of a perfect recipient.

Meet my sister-in-law. She's very nice, a new knitter, an even newer blogger (you can check that out here and leave encouraging comments - remember your first blogging days? But please ignore the worst-ever photo of me in the world. Thank you.), and - best yet - she's a couple of inches taller than me. With the required longer arms (see below for confirmation). Plus, it just looks better on her than it did on me.

Gerbera
Pattern: From Dale of Norway Book 121 (now OOP)
Yarn: Dale of Norway Sisik (now discontinued)
Needles: US 5 and 6
Notes: I blocked the body before deciding how long it should be (important in a lace project) and neglected to do the same with the sleeves.
Best Thing About This Project: Getting to give it in person. And check out that wingspan!

Wedding Knitting

2008-04-20T18:12:00.001-07:00

Hear the mellow wedding bells Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
-Edgar Allen Poe

Gosh, it sure is nice to have this husband of mine home. We're still basking in the wedding glow (mostly by organizing our new matching dishes!), so I'll continue the theme with the wedding knitting we I did.

The Manos Four Seasons ThrowBecause my mom was always worried that I'd elope and not have a "real" wedding. And then we did (sort of) elope, and my parents still threw us a big wedding. Because nothing beats walking down the aisle with your dad. Especially when he's wearing your handknit socks.Manos Four Seasons Throw
Pattern: shamelessly borrowed from Disentangled (her version here)
Yarn: Manos in 12 colors
Needles: US 9 Brittany Birch straights
Notes: I did 10 of the 12 offered patterns because 2 others were just too annoying. Otherwise I love it.
Best Thing About This Pattern: Keeping my mom warm while my dad turns down the thermostat.

I knit a few other things for the wedding, many of which you've seen before. These Selbuvotter mittens were for one of our readers, a good friend who has been asking me for mittens for years and years.

For my lovely bridesmaids, I made various cotton facecloths as part of a tote bag of goodies. This is, of course, part of the deep, dark plan to turn them all into knitters with their now-perfect knitting bags. (My sister giving her toast. ETA: She ended with a part of Pablo Neruda's Ode to My Socks, my favorite poem. How appropriate!)

Of course, I took photos of none of them, so you can just imagine. If you have plans of doing the same, I heartily recommend Yvonne's Double Flower Cloth for maximum effect.

Don't they look happy with their gifts? And, tired of the 3-inch heels my sister picked out!
I'll close with some gratuitous shots. First, the baby did wear my sweater vest. And, just a lovely gratuitous shot. When else can I wear a veil? It was fun.

Eye Candy Friday, Time Machine Tuesday, Er, Something

2008-04-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.

- William Ross Wallace

Thank you for all your wonderful comments on the wedding photos. There will be more to come as I get them. In the meantime, here's my Time Machine Tuesday/Eye Candy Friday post for the week.

You all surely remember the rash of baby knits last year in preparation for this little one. Well, his parents are the kind of people with good taste and good sense who believe in putting their child in handknits as often as possible, even if they're still a little big. Recall, the bear used to be as big as the baby!

Now he's growing into many of his gifts (great reason to make all kind of different sizes). And here's where I'll make a plug for this Debbie Bliss pattern Baby Hooded Jacket from Simply Baby. (Original post here.) According to the parents, it's a great go-anywhere throw-on-top-of-anything kind of sweater, it looks adorable too big, and will likely fit for a while because of its cape-like structure. They apparently get lots of compliments. From the knitter's perspective, it's a stockinette raglan cape with self-rolling edgings and a single button hole, and a big hood. Win-win.

I also have a photo of this self-same delightful baby wearing this handknit sweater vest to my wedding reception. Could have sworn I uploaded it . . . but you'll just have to wait. Life is busy. As my college roommate (the mother of this baby) said, "When I show up at your wedding with my baby, I guess that makes us grown-ups."

And Now, Photos

2008-04-16T07:04:00.003-07:00

Now join your hands. And with your hands your hearts.
-William Shakespeare

It was wonderful. Enjoy some wedding photos courtesy of our anniversary buddies, flitgirl and her husband Toasty Joe.Come back tomorrow for the wedding knitting, the baby clothes, and other delights.

The Sweaters You've All Been Waiting For

2008-04-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

When a wife has a good husband, it is easily seen in her face.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

. . . Betcha didn't know that there were two! This is a little secret only known to me and the ladies in my knitting group who saw me working on it. No tempting mentions on the blog of a "secret" project or tantalizing photos of heathered twisted stitches. Nope, not when the recipient has this blog as his first bookmarked page. I originally thought that the Dale was going to take me pretty much until next Christmas, so I thought I'd whip up a simpler sweater for the interim, like for a certain birthday coming in June. Turns out that I knit faster than I thought. Turns out I married a man who wants nothing to do with a plain stockinette sweater. As he put it - "If you're going to go to all that trouble to make it, why should it look like something you can buy?"

River Forest Gansey
Pattern: from Handknit Holidays
Yarn: Cascade 220 in Lichen Heather - about 8.5 skeins
Needles: US 7 for the body, US 5 for the edging
Notes: I measured against a sweater he had here, which worked pretty well. The sleeves are maybe a little long, but nothing dramatic. This was a fun, easy pattern. Love the all-over texture.
Best Thing About This Sweater: The utter surprise.

And now, the masterpiece that has really occupied my entire winter (one can easily imagine worse things, can't one?) . . .

Salt Lake City
Pattern: Dale of Norway Olympic Sweater for Salt Lake City (tragically out-of-print)
Yarn: Dale Heilo, almost all of 17 balls of the MC, 3 of the natural, and 2 each of the red and green
Needles: US 2, 3, 4
Notes: This may be the most knitting fun I've ever had.
Best Thing About This Project: "I never imagined I'd have a wife who could make this."'

That was so fun, I feel compelled to knit another. This time is mine. Park City in the natural colorway with a slightly brighter blue accent.

Well, the sweaters are packed to show off to the folks. We have a wedding to catch. See you next week.

Time Machine Tuesday: Wedding Edition

2008-04-08T07:04:00.000-07:00

Hail wedded love,
mysterious law,
true source
Of human offspring.
-John Milton

It's a week of wedding celebration around here, so I thought we could have an extra special edition of Time Machine Tuesday. The wedding knit of the century in action, so to speak. You recall the chuppah I made for my best friend's wedding last summer. Turns out it's seeing lots of action of the resting at the foot of the bed kind. She was kind enough to tell me that it gets carefully placed aside at night. Isn't it great to see it out and about? The first chuppah I made, which the blog has still never seen, was also used recently for the bris of that couple's first son. And rumor has it that that son, otherwise known as my favorite baby, has grown into some of his handknits and is wearing his favorite sweater vest to some of the festivities! Get ready for next Time Machine Tuesday!

April Flowers

2008-04-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers:
Of April, May, or June, and July flowers.
I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of bridal cakes.
-Robbert Herrick

I'm loving April for so many reasons. An interesting, less-stressful work month. Check. Lovely San Diego in the spring. Check. Going home to see all my family and friends for an awesome wedding celebration next week. Check. Oh, and my husband is coming home today. Big check.

So, before he gets here and you all ignore all my projects and clamor to see him in his new sweater, let's check out my new projects for April.

First up, a nice travel project for that cross-country trek next week: The Lacy Kerchief from an old IK in Cotton Ease Candy Blue. I'm shamelessly copying Lynda's version here, since it came out so well.

And then there's the long-neglected yarn. April's Yarn of the Month is Anny Blatt Kanpur, which may very well be my oldest yarn in the stash. I got 6 skeins in the Sakonnet Purls sale shed for $2 ball way back before I could ever even consider knitting with silk. But I knew it was a gorgeous yarn in a gorgeous color, and that someday I'd find a use. Thanks to Ravelry and the ability to search by yarns, similar yarns, yarn weights, other projects, and really on any kind of whim you want, I found the project.
The Surplice Bodice Camisole from Knitting Lingerie Style. It's a quick knit - the above was the result of the ABC Family The Cutting Edge marathon - thanks to Sarah I learned that there's now a Cutting Edge 3. Because the 2nd wasn't bad enough? And then they had the heroine of #2 say in #3 that she had gotten divorced? Way to ruin a romantic comedy . . .

But I digress. Two thoughts on the actual knitting. Knitting Lingerie Style is really intriguing. When it first came out I thought it was a little odd, but the more I look at it the more patterns I find to like. A gal in my knitting group is knitting the Waist Cincher Top and it looks great.

Also, turns out that I'm completely paranoid about running out of yarn. This is probably related to some inherited traits, such as how my grandfather had saved every empty margarine container for years, and my mom stockpiles cans of soup like the next famine is coming. But one of the things that had kept me from using my lovely silk for so long is a fear I was going to run out of yarn. And now it's clear that I have so much I'll have to find another project for the leftovers. Any one else have this problem? I'm pretty sure it explains all those lots of 2-3 balls of yarn in my stash.

And, since we've digressed so much, let's check out the other great thing about April:
Three cheers for the Wee Tiny Sock Swap!

A Man and His Hat

2008-04-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.

-Henry David Thoreau

Since we're all so excited about the impending return home of my favorite model of handknits (and do wish him a good drive cross-country, won't you), I thought today would be a lovely day to show off his new hat. Well, new as of February, anyway.

Norwegian Star Hat

Pattern: from Hats On!

Yarn: Cascade 220 in the green and Paton's Classic Merino in the natural. You will note that the colors are the inverse of the mittens here.

Needles: US 7 or 8, which turned out to be a little large

Notes: Love this book, love this pattern, don't love that somehow my knitting has loosened up over the years. This grew like crazy in the wash, so much so that I needed to do a little intentional fulling.
Best Thing About This Project: The photo below.

Guess What I Finished

2008-04-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

Oh, well, I guess this is just going to be one of those lifetimes.
-Stephen Wright

I just had to hijack (my own) Time Machine Tuesday to bring you this:
Look what I finished!

The best part? You can get some modeled shots next week. The model is coming home.

Loose Knitting

2008-03-31T19:24:00.000-07:00

I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a part of hell will break loose -

it'll be much harder to detect.

-George Carlin

I've been doing a much better job lately of knitting than I have of blogging, as I mentioned last time. In addition to flying along on my big projects, I've had a steady stream of small portable projects. (What? The Dale with 25 50-gram balls of wool is not so portable? Hmmm . . .) As part of my grand strategy to not get too distracted from those 25 balls of wool, I've been following along with the Loose Knit Group on Ravelry/Yahoo. Every month has a theme for gifts to make in (theoretical) preparation for the next holiday season. While I've made a few things for the gift basket, mostly I've just really enjoyed the theme aspect. Reorganizing my Ravelry queue, playing within the rules, well, you know me and themes . . . February was for hats. While I didn't go quite as crazy as January's mitten month, I did make a few. A suprise favorite was this easy ribbed hat. Fun, easy, and check out the nice way the ribs swirl into the decreases. This is just a lovely hat all around, and quite versatile for the gift basket.

1/4 Ribbed Hat
Pattern: Cashmere Ribbed Hat from FigKnits
Yarn: Mountain Colors Weavers Wool Quarters in an unknown color
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony circs, US7 - nice and smooth
Notes: A perfect pattern. No mods.
Best Thing About This Pattern: The perfect use for this yarn. Can I move into the Mountain Colors Studio?

March was for socks. I very well may finish my 3rd pair for the month today before the witching hour, but I only have photos of one. This not-terribly-exciting pair was born out of necessity after one cold early-March day when I had to - gasp! - wear store-bought black socks with my uniform. It was truely awful.

Another Pair of Uniform Socks
Pattern: 1x1 ribbed cuff, 3x1 ribbed body, with heel flap and regular toe
Yarn: Black Sheep Wildfoote in black and accents in Blood Red
Needles: US 1 dpns
Notes: A speedy knit. This yarn crocks like crazy though, so watch out.
Best Thing About This Project: That splash of color? Our little secret. Because these socks are 100% uniform-compliant.

Coming soon . . . The return of Time Machine Tuesday (anyone else have some classic knits to share?), more socks, another hat, and the Dale Salt Lake City steaming towards the finish line.

How To Work on Three Sweaters At Once

2008-03-28T07:02:00.000-07:00

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.

-Doug Larson

By (unintentionally) not blogging, of course. Between the every third night call schedule, and forging ahead with my knitting projects, this here blog has been a bit neglected. The upside is that now I have so much knitting to catch up on (and a better schedule come Monday), you'll be up to your ears in blogging!

The other best way to work on three sweaters at once? To finish one, of course: Gerbera, the sweater my husband calls my "Dale non-ski sweater" in a perplexed fashion, is done. The only downside? The difficulties of measuring gauge in a lace pattern mean that the sleeves are too long. You can see the pattern trajectory from here - what's the best way to shorten them? More on that later.

The other two sweaters are coming along - the Dale Ski Sweater - is almost done. Thanks to some sunlit time off today, I sewed the steeks. And then forged right ahead with the cutting, and the sewing of the sleeves, and the working on the neckband . . . Not much more!

And that third sweater, the Bed and Breakfast Pullover, has finally made it to it's rightful place as my go-to project at home. . . just in time start some new projects for April. I am loving making so many larger projects right now, in keeping with that grand plan for the year.

Bearfoot in Irony

2008-03-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top.

Then you will see how low it was.

-Dag Hammarskjold

Sometimes playing with camera settings is successful. Sometimes, it is not. Alas. My Bearfoot socks (finished some time ago, actually, as they were January's yarn) are much lovelier than they appear here.
Rib and Cable Socks Pattern: Rib and Cable Socks by Nancy Bush from an old IK
Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Glacier - I love this yarn!
Needles: US 1 dpns
Notes: No changes to the pattern. Nancy Bush always does something a little different with her heels and toes, and I like seeing how it comes out.
Best Thing About This Project: There are always so many wonderful things about handknit socks, aren't there?

Making Mountains

2008-03-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

Keep love in your heart.
A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.
-Oscar Wilde

Someone must really want his sweater . . . Gosh I'm one lucky gal! And, in a timely way, I have made quite a lot of progress on Salt Lake City. I'm winging my way up the color patterning on the yoke, and falling more and more in love. See the people holding hands? The Olympic flame? This is the center back. The rest is a series of snowflakes and mountains and fun geometric patterns. If only it wasn't 300+ stitches around . . . I guess that's why the flowers are here to encourage me!