That Mistake

I discovered the mistake on St. Brigid without having to rip more than one row. It turns out I reversed direction in the middle of a row, while knitting at a soccer game... Obviously the soccer must have been more interesting. So I am back on track. I need one more pattern repeat I think for the back to be done. I am making this a little bit shorter than the pattern states.

The weather changed this weekend thankfully. I even did a little bike-riding on one of my favorite bike paths: the Minuteman bike path in Lexington. Not only is it very scenic, but also Wild and Wooly is nearby. And I just so happened to find a gorgeous skein of lace yarn in turquoise to start the shawl. Or maybe I should make something more interesting.......mmmmmmmmmmmm.

The wayward travelers are home, exhausted with plenty of stories to tell.

Second Sock, Shawl anyone?

I am sick of the "spring" already. It doesn't help that my husband is in France for the week enjoying 80-85 degree sunshine while I am left here in the cold and drizzle making sure the sump pump still works and doing laundry in my snow boots.

I'm working on the second cable sock. J's gymnastic meet on Sunday left me 5 hours to get it started. Since I added a few stitches to the first sock, I had to use that one to figure out where I added them (naturally I didn't write anything down the first time). This sucky spring weather has me looking at pretty things to make for the summer... I am inspired by this and am thinking of ordering the yarn in the green/purple colorway. I'm not really a shawl kind of person, but maybe I will become one. Also, my great Aunt Dede is turning 100 years old in June. Maybe she deserves a pretty shawl.

Bella Bunny

Isn't she cute? I think this might be the first toy I've ever made.... which is amazing because I really have been knitting for more than 20 years. I had a lot of fun making her and the little top and skirt. I think there might be another one of these in my future.

Happy Easter

I need a camera phone I think. Once again no pictures today. Wednesday I promise!

I was working on the very cute Bella Bunny from And So to Bed for my daughter for Easter. It came out so cute. I changed the pattern to make it in the round so there would be less seaming. It was pretty easy, even sewing on the ears, arms and legs. The skirt took much longer than I expected, and so did the crochet edging, but I am glad I did it because it completed the outfit nicely (even though I finished at 1 am). It was not at all hard, just seemed to take a long time. The book has some really cute projects in it all in different yarn weights. The other Lucinda Guy book is really cute too. I like the edgings she uses and the color patterns. There is a great dinosaur sweater for a little boy that I can see making for my friend's son. I am not a huge fan of intarsia, but that sweater is something he would really love.

Still haven't seamed that cute sweater from Sublime Knits, but since the baby is soon to be here and probably will only wear it for a month I'm thinking I better get on it. Stay tuned...

Yarn choices

Sadly I have nothing to take pictures of. I made some good progress on St. Brigid, but found a mistake about 7 rows down and needed to drop down and try and fix it. Not good soccer-watching knitting. The cabled sock number one is done and I have not cast on yet for number two... because I started a tea cozy. My LYS is having a contest on the best tea cozy and entries are required by the 31st. Mine is for my little two cup tea pot that I use nightly. I always wished I had a cozy for it. I have cast on 3 times and ripped back twice. 3rd time's a charm I hope. It will be totally impractical because the tea will drip down the spout and stain it, but I didn't want one that I had to take off and put back on every time I poured a cup. I actually thought about knitting it up in a brown yarn, but a pink alpaca won over. I'll post a picture later.

The baby sweater pieces are blocking before I sew them up. Meantime I did some surfing last night and found someone who knit a beautiful sweater in some Sublime yarn (not the baby yarn) that has totally pilled and gotten fuzzy with very little wear. I hope that doesn't happen with the little hat I made, but I am going to run it through the wash a few times to see if it is worth using that yarn for a baby sweater. In the past I have used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for baby sweaters. I thought it was great because it was machine washable, but since all the sweaters I made were gifts, I never really saw how well they stood up to multiple washings until I made my son fingerless mitts with the same yarn. He wore them to school in the winter for several weeks and then I noticed them on his desk, ignored, looking shabby, pilly and old. I could not believe how horrible they looked. I used the sweater stone on them and it did revive them, but now I have re-considered my choice of wool for baby items. Maybe the microfiber in the cashmerino is what makes it so pilly? I don't know, but a mother of a baby has lots more to do than have to use a sweater stone on a baby sweater. Also, if one is going to spend the time to knit a sweater (especially an adult-sized sweater) with fairly expensive yarn, it had better hold up through several wearings/washings. I love knitting blogs.... I get so much useful information!

Sick Day

Yesterday was a total washout weather-wise, but I was home with J. who was sick with the stomach bug. I spent half the day with a headache probably from poor sleep during the night, but managed to do a few things later in the day. Here is the picture of "Sunday Best Cardigan" from The little Sublime hand knit book. I just love the bottom edge (and the fact that you don't have to do all the edging at the end by picking up 300 stitches).

I finished the two front pieces and the back, started a sleeve while watching Ballykissangel series 3 and realized I had decreased instead of increased (not once but twice). So sleeve one is still only about 2 inches. Obviously the dynamics between Fr. Peter and Assumpta who recently got married held my attention far more than the directions did.

I also made these:

It is a chocolate cupcake with brown sugar icing from the book Perfect Light Desserts which I received from my friends Brigid and Kate at Christmas. (They know me so well.) I am not usually much of a cake fan but these cupcakes are so moist and delicious. They are a perfect chocolate pick me up. They have 280 calories, so not exactly light when you eat two of them, but not so bad if you eat just one (a real challenge). The texture is dense but not heavy and the brown sugar icing is a perfect compliment to the rich chocolate taste.

March

I hate March. The month of mud. Because in New England you get these teaser days where everyone says "spring is here" but you know that is never true. It always turns back to winter several times before spring sticks. The crocuses pop up and it looks hopeful on that sunny day until you get this:

Winter storm warning in effect until 12 pm edt Saturday. flood watch in effect from 8 pm edt this evening through Saturday afternoon,

Tonight: snow and sleet this evening, then freezing rain and rain after midnight. Precipitation may be heavy at times. Snow and sleet accumulation of 4 to 8 inches. Brisk with lows in the upper 20s. Northeast winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.
Saturday: rain in the morning, then rain likely with a chance of freezing rain in the afternoon. Rain may be heavy at times in the morning. Brisk and cold with highs in the mid 30s. North winds 15 to 25 mph, becoming northwest 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.
Saturday Night: mostly cloudy with a chance of flurries. Lows in the lower 20s. Northwest winds around 15 mph.

There is no place for all that water to go when you live in house without gutters... except for the basement. Now why, you ask don't we put gutters up? Because this house is old and has a hip roof that is slate. In order to put gutters up and to not look ugly, someone would have to figure out how to attach them to these strutt thingys and it would probably have to be made of copper. Not an easy job = expensive. Maybe we should do it ourselves? Hahhahahahahahahahahah surely you jest.

In knitting news, I put aside St.B. for a new quick project. I was browsing AC Moore the other day and they had all their yarn on sale at 25% off. So I picked up some cotton blend yarn to make that little sweater from the Sublime baby book. I had read on someone's post that a particular brand of cotton blend yarn worked up great for baby items because it was washable and held up well despite multiple wearings/washings. I didn't find that yarn, but I found something similar I think. It is 51% cotton and 49%Acrylic. I like to use natural fibers, but with baby clothes washability is important, although not so important that I would use totally man-made fibers any more.

I don't know what posessed me to knit these in pieces like it says to. It makes more sense to knit a raglan in one piece I think. But I didn't do it that way, so seaming will be in my future. I hate seaming almost as much as March. Progress pictures later, as the camera is out of batteries again. (I know, I know, rechargeables!)

One foot of Saint Brigid

Saint Brigid is slowly progressing. I have a foot's worth and it is getting easier to knit, still checking the chart but not nearly as closely as before. I have even ventured to bring it out for knitting in public.
I also found the most adorable baby knits book from Sublime . I bought 2 skeins of yarn intending to do this sweater, but cast on for this hat instead. It was super easy to make. I adjusted the pattern a little to work in the round once the ear flaps were done.

It looks a little like the crown of the hat is too shallow, but I think it is just the angle of the picture. I also started a bootie, but I'm not crazy about the shape. I think I didn't pay close enough of attention to the rows as a I was knitting it, so I think I'll be frogging and redoing. Also, it seems like I should do a provisional cast on so that I can graft the edge together and it will more closely match the other side of the sole. More on that later.

Saint Brigid at One Week

This is all the progress I have on St. Brigid. It is slow going, but I love the feel of the yarn and am determined to get to the finish line even if it's a while from now. I am already on the 3rd ball of yarn which is a bit anxiety provoking. What if I get to the sleeves and I don't have enough after all this work? I started with 20 skeins and the yardage is similar to the pattern yarn. I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Here is a picture of my progress next to the pattern picture...


I don't plan on making mine quite as long as the pattern and I am omitting the fringe. While knitting last night, I watched my latest Netflix dvd: Ballykissangel. It's good motivation to watch while knitting an Irish jumper! I really wish it was still in production, it's a very well done series set in Ireland with a whole mass of great characters living in an idyllic Irish town. I used to catch it here and there on PBS on Friday nights (I think), but at the time my kids were much younger and I never got to watch it every week. So my Netflix queue has the whole series lined up. I love the quirkiness of the characters and the relationship between the priest and the athiest pub owner. It's great, I love Netflix.

End of vacation knitting progress

My most recent sock in progress. This is the cable sock that I have made several times before. For some reason they are taking me longer than the past ones have, but I am back to working on them as my small project. I have jury duty next week, so the second sock will come in handy. It has enough texture to hold my attention but somewhat too much to do while trying to to something else... like watching my daughter play soccer. Here is a closeup of the front cable:




I also started working on the frogged remains of the Jo Sharp wool formally seen as Inishmore... I have started St. Brigid. It is a beautiful cable sweater and I love the texture of this wool, it is so incredibly soft. The only thing is that I cannot work without the charts in front of me at all... well except for the reverse side. So although I made a bit of progress over the weekend on it, it will probably be a while before this sweater is done. I need to do a bit of stash busting though and this wool is begging to be knit up. I'm going to try very hard to work on it an hour every evening. It is also a lovely grey color which I know is not so exciting, but since I wear jeans almost exclusively outside of work, it goes with all I have. Also, hopefully it won't show the inevidable tea stains I get on everything.

Weekend in New York

It's been a while, but really there was knitting (and frogging) going on. We are back from NYC. It was a lot of fun and even more so because things just fell into place at the last minute and we were able to do most everything we wanted to do.

We started out on Saturday night meeting up with friends for dinner at this restaurant called "La Vela" on the upper west side and we found a parking space right in front of the restaurant. How often does that happen? Dinner was wonderful. I guess they are known for their gnocchi with 4 cheeses, but I don't care for gnocchi so it was mushroom ravioli for me... delicious. Next we went to Times' Square (and found parking on the street) for the play "Prelude to a Kiss" at the Roundabout Theatre. The play was really well done and everyone got a taste of what it is like having Nancy and Peter (Robyn Bartlett and James Rebhorn) as their parents.... since the lead actress's parents are almost EXACTLY my parents. They even looked like my parents. I wonder if the playwright knows them. It was uncanny.

Sunday we went to the Museum of Natural History... just fabulous dinosaurs and also a great butterfly exhibit. We then walked via Central Park to Dylans Candy Bar (to balance out the museum experience) and had dinner at Heartland Brewery where they make their own sodas... and the root beer is out of this world. The beer is pretty good too. We met up with our neighbors also who were in the city for the weekend as well.

We had planned on doing this great museum The Museum of the Moving Image on Monday but there was a water main break there and they were closed. It was extremely cold on Monday which meant we couldn't walk around, so that put a major damper on what we could do. So we decided to drive to Battery Park (again found free parking on the street) to see the Statue of Liberty since our friend Kate had never seen it. We opted not to take the boat over (although amazingly enough, people did and were out on the upper deck even in that -10 wind chill.) We took pictures and hopped back in the car. Drove by the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge and ate lunch at a little place called Pete's Tavern. Pete's has an interesting history in that it is the longest open restaurant and bar in NYC and lots of writers hung out there. O. Henry wrote "Gift of the Magi" there. The beer was good there also. Apparently they stayed open even during prohibition disguised as a flower shop. We found free parking again on the street (it was a holiday after all) and it would have been great to walk around because that Gramercy Park area is so nice, but the cold forced us back in the car.

So the weekend netted only $10 in parking fees, a reasonable and yet tasty dinner before a good play, a great museum, a fabulous candy store, great root beer, the Statue of Liberty and a historic place for lunch all with people we like to spend time with.

Oh and the knitting. You know I had 4 hours in the car on the way down, so I made some progress on the neglected cable socks. Got the heal turned, and am working on the foot. The yarn is a hand dyed and spun grey wool that I picked up at a fair. It is luxuriously soft. I hope it holds up well for socks. It sure has a nice feel to it when knitting. I have been doing alot of thinking about the next major project. The Cromarty can't happen with the yarn I had for the Inishmore because the yarn I have is a dk weight. So I think I may make the St. Brigid. I like that one except for the tassels. I also really like Inishmore except for the bottom ribbing. (I don't like any ribbing at all.) Maybe there will be some adapting going on. My other option is an Elizabeth Zimmermann yoke sweater. Which would be fairly quick. Guess which way I'm leaning....

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made a card for my husband... It is our 25th Valentine's Day together. I can't believe that is true since I feel like a 19 year old in my head.... the body is a whole other story. The bones creak and the muscles groan and that is just getting out of chair to a standing position if I have been sitting for any length of time longer than about 3 mintues. Youth is soooo wasted on the young! I decided to make some Valentine cookies with candy coated mini hershey kisses (which I have never seen before), but while the second batch was cooking we lost power due to the storm. Now this would not have been a problem in the old kitchen, because the oven and stove were gas. But with the new kitchen I bought myself a dual-fuel range which means it has gas burners and an electric oven. And I love it that way.... I love the convection option, 3 trays of cookies can cook evenly all at once. But hmmm, when the power goes out because of an ice storm, the oven doesn't work. So the first set of cookies came out fine, but the second set were only 4 minutes in the oven before the power went out. I decided to finish cooking them on the burners like pancakes. I think they came out alright. Some were burnt and I tossed them out, but the rest seem OK. I'll let you know if we all have food poisoning tomorrow.

We went to see the play "Doubt" this past weekend. It was one of the best plays I have ever seen, well written, well acted. I can see why it won both a Tony for best play and best actress. Cherry Jones was just amazing. It is hard to believe she didn't grow up Catholic.

On to knitting news:

My slippers are done.... however they are still too big. And by "big" I mean they are too wide, so they slip off my feet when I am walking. Dare I throw them in the washer again? Will they shrink too much in length and not enough in width. I don't know what to do. They are quite comfy though, and I will definitely be making another pair since DS would like a pair as well.

I also totally frogged the Inishmoore that I had started and found a mistake on that I could not easily fix. Since Wendy is doing Cromarty and I have always loved that pattern, I decided to use this yarn to make that one instead. I am not sure why I didn't do this to begin with instead of starting Inishmoore. I think I was intrigued with the Irish sweater look of Inishmoore. But it is done and I will be starting Cromarty shortly.

Knitting!

OK, so it has been awhile... I don't know why, just usual business. Well, I take that back, I did have a birthday and went to 2 plays and skiing all in the past 8 days!

The knitting has been totally occupied with my new obsession: Felted Clogs. I made a pair for myself that might just take the place of my most favorite slippers. This will be quite a bold statement if it happens, because those slippers have been my most favorite kind for the past 15 years. Here is a picture of the pre-felted:




and post-felted....




well they are still too big, so back in the wash they went and now they seem just perfect. They are drying out in my dining room.

Meantime, I have not made much progress on the Wine and Roses Mitts for Julia. The blue ones were a little big for her, so I though I'd just use smaller needles for hers.... except that I had a size 0 and bought another size 0 to do the 2 circular thing, but seem to have lost my original size 0. And even cleaning the house did not turn it up. So I will have to rob some sock in progress from its size 0 dpns and resume before the winter is over.

Pattens Merino felt clogs

The yarn I ordered arrived from Yarn Forward last week and I finally had time on Sunday to pick up the pattern.... unfortunately Fabric Place only had the children's version. But they were having a great 25% off sale on everything. So I picked up the children's version and the felted mittens pattern and some Cascade 220 to go with it. Meanwhile, on Monday I was driving by another yarn shop near me and found the adult version! I started with the children's version in size XL and have completed one and am 2/3 of the way from finishing the second. They are so easy and quick, I can't believe I haven't come across them before.

Cascade 220

So the color I am using above was really supposed to be for me, but I have plenty left to make another in the adult size. I will probably do the child's version again in the purple for my daughter and I have a feeling my son will want a pair too when I'm done.

Meanwhile I have pictures of the Wine and Roses Mitts from the winter Interweave Knits issue. I made them in Rowan 4 ply in blue and I added beads to the cuff where the yarnovers are. They came out beautiful I think. It was an easy pattern that held my attention well.

The knitting is done on the blue stripey socks and all that is left is sewing down the picot edge.... I hate sewing. So, naturally I've started something else. And it's the wine and roses mitts (see below). I have completed the edging and part of the cuff, adding some clear beads to the yarn overs on the cuff. I think it looks pretty great. It's the first time I've knit with beads and I think I have tapped into a whole other world of creativity. At this point I think I will definitely be making these mitts again in another colorway with maybe the blue beads.

Next up....

It's raining today, so I can't get any good photos. But I did get pretty far along on the blue stripey socks. I think they might be completed tonight. Next up are the Wine and Roses Mitts from Interweave Knits Winter 2006. I love the pattern and I have some beautiful blue merino wool for them. I also bought some beads to use in the cuff. It doesn't call for them, but I think it will be pretty to add some. I have never knitted with beads before, but I will use one of my Christmas gifts as a reference to help me out.

blog life

I am trying to figure out this blog life and to that end have added some more links to pictures on flickr. And well changed the background again. Maybe I will really be able to keep track of all my knitting projects, which are by no means well represented here just yet... heh, heh

I did something today that I don't usually do, but I just thought these on Yarn Harlot's blog were so great that I ordered the exact same yarn in the wedgewood and rosewood colorways along with the chestnut brown. Since I wear slippers every day in my house (except in the rare instance when it is too warm inside and I'm wearing flip flips or something), I think I could use a new pair of slippers. We'll see if they are as good as my usual slippers. I just need to find the pattern. The place that sells the yarn does not also sell the pattern, but I know I have seen that pattern at a shop near me, so I am going to try to save myself the shipping cost.

I made some more progress on the blue stripey socks while at Julia's gymnastic meet today and am now working on the heel. I'll post some pictures hopefully tomorrow.

Fingerless mitts and socks too.

The fingerless mittens are done.... I just didnt' get a picute of the completed thing. But here is a picture of them3/4 of the way there. The picture is terrible since I didn't get out in the sunlight but I'll describe them. They have 3 cables running up the front and 4x1 ribbing elsewhere. I made them out of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in Navy and just adapted a mitten pattern to be without thumb or fingertips. They were made for my son who is the type to cut holes in his sweatshirt sleeves to put his thumb through, but is way too cool for regular mittens. I would get a picture of the completed thing, but they are on their way to Maine for a ski trip with the recipient.

I also made some progress on the blue stripey socks. One is cast off. I still have a bit of sewing to do because I made a picot edge at the top that needs the hem sewn down. This was the second pair of socks I made using the toe up pattern and I have to say I liked it. The toe is ingenious and they are truly seamless if one chooses to cast off at the top instead of using a hem. I added a small cable down the leg for some variety.

Back burner projects:

Sorry no pictures of the current projects.... the camera is out of batteries. But here is an old picture of projects on the back burner:

This is the progress on the leaf socks from Interweave Knits. I love this pattern except for one thing: the ribbing technique at the top is too tight. I am afraid that it will not go over my heel. But look at the progress.....

I hate to rip it back and start all over. Must figure out another solution. Am I master of my own knitting? Should I cut off the cast on edge and restitch? Shall have to simmer that idea... other pressing projects are in the works.

Next up is the progress on Innishmore.... (in the background) which has stalled because I found a mistake and rather than rip back the 18 rows to properly fix it, I decided to be a master knitter (following EZ's advice) and just rip the section with the problem. But the problem has been ripped and reknitted unsuccessfully at least 3 times. New projects beckoned and enough said. Here it sits. I promise I will get back to it in February.