jiki knits

and so it is christmas...

2011-12-04T12:58:00.001-08:00

i am living in a girls house. no i haven't been sent there because of the bad things i do, but because my life has changed. my sweet friend and i relocated to my sisters house which is about 1.5 hours from where we used to live. the big guy is still there, staying with friends who offered a room so he could continue the life he is making for himself. and the person who used to be my husband lives on the coast across country from here.

so we are experiencing new perspectives. i am relearning things that somehow got lost in the shuffle. and i am trying to be at peace.

knitting helps. it keeps me focused and quiet; creating something lovely for someone, maybe even me.

and though i know everything happens for a reason and it will all work out in the end, this transition makes me feel blurry and unfocused.

and so i keep knitting. i have most of my knitting items here; i think there is a box of knitting books in storage which i could probably locate if needed, but for the most part, i have what i need to continue creating things. and i have the love and support of my children and friends. that is quite a gift at christmas. may your holidays be as full.

somewhere beyond the sea...

2011-09-18T10:29:00.001-07:00

i love yarn overs. they're cute, they're decorative and they are easy to do. they were in the first item i knitted. i think they add a little something to a project. and they are the first step to lace knitting.

i have always been drawn to knitting lace, heaven knows why since i can't read charts. but ever since i started knitting i have been entranced by lace patterns. a hint of lace is what draws me to a pattern. i have books on lace and have downloaded gobs of lace patterns. i look at them longingly, aching to cast on, until i break out into a cold sweat when reading a pattern that is all charts. sigh.

a few years ago while participating in my first swap, i was introduced to the pattern "blossom". this is a easy lace pattern shawl. it was designed for hand maiden sea silk yarn which is a beautiful yarn made of silk and a sea weed derivative. it is beautiful, believe me. my swap buddy gave me a hank of the yarn and suggested the pattern. i was mesmerized. the yarn was so amazingly blue and shimmery. and the pattern! it was nothing but double yarn overs! i was in heaven.

but i didn't cast on.

i can't remember how it happened, it must have been because i was working at the LYS and the yarn was on sale, but i decided to make my mother the blossom shawl out of elsbeth lavolds silky wool. this is a tweedy looking wool, but very soft when knit up. and when it is washed, it is quite lovely.

the shawl took me quite a while. i couldn't figure out how to keep track of where i was in the seven row repeat. and i couldn't find my rhythm in the various double yarn over and k2tog patterns so was continually having to rip my knitting; i also had a challenging time reading my knitting so when i made a mistake i couldn't figure out where i made it, i just knew a mistake had been made because the pattern ended incorrectly. somewhere in the fifth repeat of the pattern i got to a place where everything was correct, i knew where i was and i put the project aside.

fast forward two-ish years. i decide it is time to clean up some unfinished projects so out comes blossom. i figure out where i am, glance at the pattern and off i go. amazing what a few more years of knitting experience teaches you. not only did i find my rhythm in the various double yarn over patterns, but i could also read my knitting and correct my mistakes. amazing! i was so thankful. so i finish the shawl and gift it to my mother; who loved it! the color and fit were perfect for her! she couldn't wait to wear it to church!

(commercial break for some yarn deets: yarn: elsebeth lavold silky wool; color: #24, claret (discontinued); yardage: 192 yds per skein; close to 3 skeins used.)

finishing my moms blossom meant i could now start mine. eagerly i cast on the sea silk. quickly i discover how slippery silk is. wow! i was instantly thankful i had made blossom out of a heftier yarn first because this yarn was so slippery on the needle. stitches regularly slip under the markers or under other stitches so i have to pay attention to which stitch is where and are they all accounted for.

but can i tell you how beautiful this yarn is. it is like running water. the picture doesn't do it justice since it does not catch the light or the oh so slight variegations in the yarn. it is so lovely. and it shimmers. the picture is one repeat over half-way done. i am at the stage where i think i will have gobs of yarn left over and then the pattern explodes into bigness and sucks up all the yarn. pretty soon it will barely fit the 26" circulars it is on. at that point i will need to be very careful not to make mistakes. knitting back over hundreds of stitches to correct a mistake is not my idea of a good time! but on the other hand, i can't wait. it is closer to being finished then not being finished, which makes me more anxious to finish it which makes me more prone to make a mistake. sigh. i'll keep you posted.

a whiter shade of...

2011-08-24T23:24:00.000-07:00

i have this thing about weird greens.

i am not really drawn to the color green much, but it seems to be drawn to me. and it can't be a regular green, it has to be a weird shade of green. it seems that i can wear weird greens, they look good on me. which is an odd and good thing since weird greens are usually the last thing to sell on a sale/clearance rack. whether it be for clothes or yarn.

i have always wanted to knit the paris loop which calls for bulky yarn. and while the lys was having its "last month in existence sale", i thought i would check out the bulky yarn shelf. and what was on it but this...

yup, weird green yarn. gobs of it. thankfully it was a yarn i have always wanted to work with, classic elites sprout, a 100% organic cotton yarn. i usually find cotton yarns a bit rough but this one is soft and cuddly so i was glad to have the opportunity to work with it.

so i cast on. and even though the pattern said it fits every body, i decided to add 20 stitches. just in case.

bad idea. this pattern turns out big, very big. so big that when i first tried it on, it slipped off my shoulders and landed on the floor big. it would have been big even if i hadn't added the 20 stitches, so with the 20 stitches it was even bigger than big.

so i went down to the local joannes fabric and got some cord. i wove the cord in and out of the 2nd row of knitting so i could tighten up the poncho as needed and ta-da! it fits!

i am so glad. because i love the way it turned out. the pattern is so easy it is like a knitting vacation. and i loved working with the yarn. it felt good going through my fingers and it knit up really well. the poncho felt soft and comforting in my lap as it became bigger with my continued knitting.

my original concerns in knitting with a cotton yarn is that it would not be soft and it would not have enough give. both unfounded. the yarn is very soft and has lots of give. as well as being pretty warm. i thought cotton would be a nice, light wrap for summer, but because of the yarns bulky-ness it is heavy and and keeps me warm, even with our cool evening windiness.

i find myself wearing it all the time. yup, i'll have an order of weird green please. thanks!

btw: this last picture does not reflect the actual color of this garment. the middle picture is a much better representation of the actual color. just so you know!

trying to make the grass grow greener

2011-08-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

i like plants. i think they add something to a home.

for a long time i had a whole window sill of african violets. there wasn't a good windowsill for them in the new house. they gave it a good try, but the sun won out in the end.

late last summer, we got a puppy who chewed and dug out all of the house plants i had thriving in a corner of the dining room. thankfulluy i was able to salvage one of the christmas cactus'.

she then started on the outside succulents and begonias. i wasn't happy. but, like babies, puppies have no clue. especially this one. so i continued to water and fertilize those poor stumps of plants, hoping they would come back.

the winter storms took care of winter watering. and i started watering and fertilizing after the rains finally stopped. yesterday i went onto the patio and walked out to these.

i love begonias. they are funny little plants that never give up. they are so glad for some attention and care, they just bloom their happiness.

and thankfully they survive being chewed by a puppy.

now if i could do something about the roses....

the beat goes on...

2011-08-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

the last month the lys was open for business they had a sale. it started with merchandise being 30% off; then 40% off and finally 50% off. and though the end of the sale meant the end of the lys, the sale, and the lys, was pretty fun while it lasted.

i had gone into the store a few times during that last month. most of the time, just to sit, knit and chat while i still had the chance. but these visits always turned into scouting for yarn opportunities. and since the yarn was on sale, i would sometimes pick up a ball of this, a skein of that, knowing that my big purchase(s) were yet to be decided. finally, on the last week the lys was open, i purchased big.

sock yarn was my first choice but it was also the first to go, which meant i needed to get creative on what type of yarn i was willing to make socks out of. to this end, i bought panda cotton and bunny hop.

my sweet friend came to shop with me and fell in love with the "leaf lace sock" sample the owner had knitted up. only one sock was knitted which meant if my sweet friend wanted a pair to wear, i would need to knit the second sock. so the pattern was purchased as well as the panda cotton yarn it was knitted in.

i have a total jones for frog tree yarn. i also have a shawl jones. coincidentally the lys had quite the selection of frog tree. they also had a sample of "the scallop shawl" which just happened to be knit up in a frog tree sportweight colorway that was on the shelf. so to indulge both jones', i purchased the pattern and the yarn. the purple frog tree was purchased during one of the scouting visits. it was the last ball in that colorway and just to lovely to pass up!

the last yarn i purchased that day was some classic elite sprout. i love shawls and poncho type garments and had always wanted to knit stefanie japel's paris loop which calls for bulky yarn. which sprout happens to be. so there you have it.

this purchase was well within the "budget" i had set for myself. which meant i had money left over. how lucky was that? it also meant i could go back to the lys to make some last minute purchases. so two days before the lys would close forever i found myself back at the store. i decided on two skeins of raspberry/lavender frog tree which complimented the dark purple frog tree purchased earlier with hopes of pairing both in knitting some fingerless gloves. i also planned on checking if clara parkes book of yarn was available since it has a pattern for fingerless gloves i find myself consistently drawn to. much to my surprise, one copy was available. and at 50% off! score!

so with this final purchase, along with many hugs and thank yous, i said goodbye to the lys and its owners one final time. i miss them all terribly but am thankful for the time we shared together.

the end of an era...

2011-07-04T22:59:00.000-07:00

the LYS closed this week.

it is the end of an era. after six years of having an LYS within walking or biking distance from my home, i now have to drive to another city for my knitting needs. this makes me sound like a whiner, i know, but my local LYS was part of my knitting community. it may not be easy to replace.

the LYS was my supplier, my teacher, my part time work place and my refuge. i learned from the owner(s) and from my fellow knitters. having a knitting community was fun. it was also my safety net. i knew if i needed an explanation or found myself in a mess of trouble, someone at the LYS would guide me out of it. and i would learn something along the way.

my LYS community supported and challenged me. they oohed and ahhed over items i made and suggested things i would never think of making, but then would, and successfully, too! they kept me abreast of the newest patterns, the coolest yarns and the juiciest local news.

how can that be replaced?

i will miss my LYS, but more than that, i will miss the camaraderie of fellow knitters and the combined knowledge they are so willing to share.

best of luck in your future endeavors, LYS owners. you will be greatly missed.

in the still of the night...

2010-01-25T23:06:00.001-08:00

i should not be allowed to make knitting decisions between midnight and 6am. though they are usually technically sound, they keep me awake way to late.

this morning's decision was frogging the hat from hell, yes the r2d2 hat. the big guys christmas present. the one that was supposed to take two-ish days to knit.

i thought of taking pictures of how the hat looked...which was cute, a bit pinched due to the strands on the inside being a bit tight, they were neat, but tight. i also thought of taking pictures of the piles of tangled, frogged blue and gray yarn, but it was very late, or early depending on your perspective, so i will leave it to your imagination on how tangled and twisted the yarn looked; sort of a combination of that weird octopus creature that pulled frodo out of moria and davy jones' beard, only in blue and gray.

sigh. so i am starting over. this time instead of strand knitting i will knit stripes and embellish once the hat is done. don't worry, i will keep you posted...

and a happy new year to you!...

2010-01-01T17:17:00.000-08:00

a few weeks before christmas, the big guy requested an r2d2 beanie. he even provided a picture.

no problem; i looked it up on ravelry; got a copy of the pattern and bought the yarn. still no problem. hats are relatively simple and i figured this would not be a difficult knit. until i really analyzed the pattern.

the pattern calls for knitting the hat in stripes and then going over the incidentals with a duplicate stitch. or, following the chart and eliminating some of the duplicate stitching. i assumed the duplicate stitching is like embroidery, which didn't thrill me since i felt it would weigh down the knit. this left working off or reading the chart, which i don't do. so since i don't work off or read charts, i decided to transcribe the chart to written form.

what was i thinking?!

i have spent the majority of this afternoon transcribing this pattern to a form i could follow. there was a short time i thought poking my eye with a sharp stick would be easier.

but it is done. now for a head clearing walk before i actually start knitting. i will keep you posted.

can i have a little more...

2009-12-29T16:06:00.000-08:00

this is a picture of my sweet friend's scarf. i have been working on this for quite awhile, one could say since before christmas of '08. want to know why?....because 299 stitches need to be picked up on each long side of the scarf. yes, 299 stitches, or a multiple of 4 + 3.

i have gotten to a point in my knitting life where i finally feel pretty confident in picking up stitches and having them look nice, but 299, or a multiple of 4+3, is a bit much for me. in fact, on the long side that is finished, i picked up quite a few less than 299, though it was a multiple of 4 + 3. i made up for it on the unfinished side where i picked up 319, also a multiple of 4 + 3.

and see that little tail of yarn in the center? the one that looks like the end a ball of yarn? it is. and i don't have another ball. no, i don't. the pattern called for two balls of the light pink and one ball of the dark pink so that is what i purchased. since i followed the directions i trusted i would have enough yarn to finish the pattern. and i continued to trust up to the time i realized i barely had enough yarn to finish row 4 of the 6 row pattern that would finish this scarf and i would have to do something else for the last two rows. can i hear you say, "grrrrr". yeah, that's it.

running out of yarn would not be such a big thing if the yarn hadn't been purchased in new york city over two and a half years ago. my hopes of finding that same color yarn dipped even farther when i looked on the blue sky alpaca website and found the color listed in the discontinued colors. i almost panicked. so i took a deep breath, clicked the "where to find our yarns" button and started dialing. the neighborhood LYS does not carry blue sky yarns so i called a couple of not so local LYS' who will be getting back to me. i then decided to try a yarn store a bridge away. i had only been there once but remembered feeling their yarn sort of took over the store. the was yarn everywhere, in all different weights and colorways. so i called. not only did the woman who answered the phone know what color i was looking for, she said they had one ball in stock and if they didn't, she thought she had one at home, but since she was with a customer, she would need to call me back. which she did, within minutes. they have the colorway, may not be the same dye lot, but for two rows, i am not going to be very choosy. i would just like to finish the scarf.

so tomorrow i am off to berkeley for one ball of yarn. and the adventure continues...

right now, i am just grateful.

16 tons...

2009-12-16T00:48:00.000-08:00

so i am not the fastest knitter. in fact i consider myself to be one of the slowest knitters on the planet. but this evening i even impressed myself.

the LYS in the town north of mine has a 30% off sale every 3rd thursday of the month. novembers yarn sale was bulky/chunky yarn. though i have enough stash to build a mountain, i thought it may not be a bad idea to have some bulky/chunky yarn for last minute gifts. so i drove up and checked out the sale. i ended up buying three skeins/hanks/balls of yarn, one brown sheep burly spun in ruby red; one rowan cocoon in a lovely grey and one misty alpaca chunky in a hot pink. i figured three gifts for around $30 was not bad.

i had originally purchased the burly spun to knit a unisex scarf for a work holiday party. then realized the holiday party was in three days which was pushing it for knitting a scarf, at least for me. onto ravelry i went to see what kind of projects were knitted out of burly spun. considering how bulky the yarn is, i was surprised at the variety of patterns available. after finding a few i liked, i narrowed it down to one that caught my eye, not only because of the name, "speedy cable cowl pattern" but because of the pattern. it had cables and for some reason, this yarn screamed cables to me. knitters who knit this pattern said it took them all of two hours. so i figured it would take me all of two evenings.

but no. once i cast on and got going, it took me all of two hours, perhaps a smidge more. i couldn't believe it! really. i mean the pattern is all of 18 rows so it shouldn't be such a shock, but i was still pretty surprised i was actually able to finish it in one sitting.

and it turned out ok, i like the way it looks. plus it fits over my head so hopefully it will fit over other peoples heads. this was my first experience with bulky/super bulky wool and it was great to be able to make something lovely in such a short amount of time. and i didn't use the whole ball; i still have enough to make another present if needed.

so on the whole, i am pretty impressed.

these are a few of my...

2009-11-24T22:50:00.000-08:00

i love being a member of the ravelry swap on a budget group. i have been a member for awhile now and it has been a great experience. i have gotten some great yarn and have cyber met some wonderful knitters from around the world via this swap.

my last swap buddy was beckyzoole from st. louis who sent me this lovely package...

which included the fall 09 issue of vogue knitting which has some great hat patterns; some lovely milk chocolate bars, a pound of st. louis' finest coffee, which was quite tasty, pocketbook slippers and the most glorious malabrigo sock yarn ever.

the first thing i did after opening the package was put on the slippers. when i first saw them, i was pretty skeptical about their ability to fit me, but lo and behold, they did! which was absolute magic to me. they are warm and comfy and have the cutest cow buttons on them.

then i made a pot of coffee and sat down with the chocolate and magazine...and then more chocolate and more coffee and then...

proceeded to drool over the malabrigo sock yarn. it is truly lovely; and it has a very high squish factor. the name of the colorway is impressionists sky, which i thought was pretty appropriate. if i didn't already have a pair of socks for me on the needles i would have started a pair with this right away it is that delicious.

on the flip side, i love putting together a box for the person i am supposed to spoil. i read their blog, if they have one, to find out more about what they knit and knit with or maybe what they would like to try so i can incorporate something of that nature in their box. part of the swap is making something for your person. since i sew faster than i knit, i sew them something. and since i have a serious bag jones, i usually sew a project bag of some sort. during the last swap i made this tote out of the vinyl picnic tablecloths are made of. i got the pattern from the purl soho yarn store blog. the person i made it for had young kids and since it was summer and the possibility for water play is high during the summer i thought the tote could double as a damp clothes/towel carrier. apparently the daughter of the recipient loved it and wanted it for herself. hopefully the bag is being used or helpful in one way or the other!

hello, hello...

2009-11-05T20:55:00.000-08:00

so it's been awhile. life seems to be rushing by and all of a sudden it has been months since i have said hello.

so hello. i have missed you all and it is nice to be here. life has been full and there has been lots of creating, knitting wise, sewing wise, musical make-up wise, but those stories will come out in time.

in the meantime, i will share these...

socks for my sweet friend knit out of sknitches syncopation sock yarn; colorway, seriously.

yes, it is true, the two of us are addicted to the tv show grey's anatomy. because of this i joined ravelry's grey's anatomy knitters group, which led to me finding this yarn. sknitches had done this colorway, which quickly sold out. lucky for the group, sknitches was generously willing to dye another colorway batch, twice. this gave me the opportunity to buy a hank for myself. and when my sweet friend was disappointed because i had one and she didn't, i was able to buy another hank. whew!

so here they are... pattern, super simple short socks by meghann holcomb, found on ravelry. pattern was quick and dirty, but not real fond of the heel. the yarn came from sknitches. wonderful, wonderful, wonderful yarn. lovely to knit with and it wears well. sknitches has amazing colorways so check them out.

that is it for the moment. until next time, take care.

yeah, i got to gamble...

2009-06-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

i love swaps. truly, i do. they are the closest i get to gambling. really. i toss my name in, not knowing where it will land or what i may get. i just trust the yarn gods that it will all come out ok. and it always does. i mean, how can you go wrong? make a new friend and have them buy you yarn! the ultimate relationship!

this spring i once again participated with the ravelry, swap on a budget group, this time as part of the international swap and it was real fun. i "met" some wonderful knitters from around the world, hong kong, italy, germany, india, norway and various parts of the u.s. which was so fun! i even found myself posting on our group board on a regular basis which is unheard of for me! but it was that type of group.

and the coolest thing was i was got yarn from a different country! since i wasn't home when the post person came by to deliver the package i had to wait until i could pick it up the next day. by then i knew it was from india so as soon as i got it, i ripped it open and inside i found all of this...

jaishree hails from india and crochet's the most amazing doilies as well as being a knitter. she crocheted the doilies pictured here. i happen to have this thing about doilies. i love them. it is a thing from my childhood, doilies were everywhere in our house and both of my grandmothers houses, so to get some handmade ones is a bit of heaven! she also sent this lovely necklace and earring set which look quite nice on. the silver yarn is shiny and cord sized but not cord stiff. i am thinking of doing a dressy cowl or shawl/wrap thing, something shiny around the neck or head. the blue yarn is an acrylic which will be great for something baby and the multicolored yarn is truly amazing. the picture does not do it justice but it is rainbow colored and breathtaking in fingering weight cotton, which is probably great for crocheting doilies except i don't crochet. the owner of the LYS suggested a lace shawl, since it is quite a large hank of yarn, which works because i love shawls.

next up is this great bag. again, the picture does not do this justice. it is so lovely, if i weren't such a tote hag it could be used as a lovely handbag, but i am using it as a sock project bag since it can fit a huge ball of yarn as well as having a zippered pocket for measuring tapes, crochet hooks and the like. it is currently being used as the project bag for my sweet friend's socks and it is perfect. pictured with it are three balls of burgundy wool, also fingering weight. i am thinking these will make great fingerless gloves, nice color that would hold a pattern well. but i am still deciding.

then jaishree did something daring and included an article of clothing. it is this very simple, beautifully embroidered shirt. and it fits! it is a bit sheer, which i usually avoid, but with a pretty cami or tank top underneath i am willing to give it a try. especially during summer. it is such a delight to receive a piece of traditional clothing. jaishree explained these shirts are made in the province of india she lives in. and i thought it very brave for her to include it, i think both of us were thankful it fit!

and if all the above were not enough, also included was this heart scarf in the same blue of the yarn pictured above which will come in handy in the winter when i do my long walks and crave a warm neck as well as a copy of the lace ribbon scarf pattern.

whew! quite the haul! so though i am not a traditional "gambler", when it comes to yarn, i'm so in!

(please forgive the lack of breath inbetween pics and words. for some reason the formatting is not cooperating.)

the great information...

2009-06-06T00:42:00.000-07:00

in my haste to post about the big guys birthday, i neglected to post the specifics on his birthday socks. so in case you were wondering, let me tell you about them:...

the yarn....lorna's laces - shepherd sock in carmel (a colorway of a few years ago).

the pattern...lonnies sport's socks by rebecca mercier, available for free via ravelry (search patterns for sport or short socks) or at her website, whimsical knitting designs.

the purely subjective opinion....i really like this yarn. i have knit a couple of pairs of socks with this yarn and i love working with it. easy to knit with; the yarn feels great while knitting; looks great even after being frogged or unknit multiple times (important point!); feels great to wear and it wears well. i have laundered the cute husbands pair of socks (same yarn, different colorway), stuck them in the dryer for a moment or two then hung them until they were completely dry and they look great each time. my only dismay about the yarn is i do have a hard time finding it in any of the local LYS' around me so i purchase it online. this yarn was purchased at purl soho in nyc a couple years back.

i equally like this pattern. it is easy to follow, easy to memorize, fun to knit and the finished product looks great. though it can't be seen in the pictures, it is a slip stitch pattern that gives the sock some nice texture and a pleasing visual. it is a good "guy" pattern, though it could work equally well for girls. i was able to adapt it to knitting on two circulars with no problem. on the whole, it is a great pattern and i would use it again. which may not be for awhile since this designer has other interesting to me sock patterns which i would like to try.

so there you have it. if you are looking for a nice sock pattern for a male friend, take a look at this one and definitely take a look at this yarn. in the meantime, the big guy will wear his socks, hopefully in good health!

it was 20 years ago today...

2009-05-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

it is cinco de mayo today. the neighborhood mexican restaurants are doing a brisk business and the bored local police are waiting in the wings.

and though i am mexican, this day has a different meaning for me, it is the big guys birthday. and today he is turning 20. a young man no longer in his teens. one who is striving to discover who he is and where he fits into this mosaic of life.

the evening was pretty low key. he wanted pizza for supper and had decided on a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake and raspberry sorbet for desert. not to bad.

and i would like to think his present from me wasn't to bad either. i realized last week i was very close to finally finishing his sporty socks and was excited at the thought he could have them by the weekend. then realized they could be a birthday gift. and so, after months of being on the needle, they are done. and he likes them and thinks they are comfortable! whew!

and though the small bundle that came into the world 20 years ago has grown to big to hold in my arms, he still has the ability to awe me. it has been and continues to be an amazing journey, one which i am honored to be a part of.

procrastination

2009-04-13T19:09:00.001-07:00

i haven't been knitting very much lately. it is not because i am bored with knitting, or tired of what i am knitting. no, it is because of these...

yes, t, i can hear you groan from here. my sweet friend (who fits into the demographic these were written for) loooved these books and wanted me to read them. i, who am not into vampires at all, hemmed and hawed and took a looong time reading brisingr. the moment i was done, i was handed the first book. after slogging through all the sop in book one, i found myself interested in knowing what would happen in book two, then more interested in what would happen in book three and finally by book four i was totally lost, like don't expect me to fix supper because i am reading lost. by the end, i was glad i read them. my sweet friend and i will have lots to discuss and reference. and i got out of making a few suppers. reading is good for you!

happy bobmas!

2009-04-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

thank you ravelry for two years of inspiration, information, inclusion and fun. don't know what i would do without you.

happy bobmas everyone! maybe next year we will actually get yarn as presents!

quickly go the years...

2009-03-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

earlier this month my sweet friend celebrated her 17th birthday. the only present she requested was going to see wicked with her best friend and me. though she had seen it on broadway a few years ago when she went to visit the cousins, she wanted me to see it and she wanted to see it with me. and though i hemmed and hawed about the price of the tickets, it was well worth it. she is 17. these moments are slipping through my fingers like sand. and i can't afford to miss them.

finally

2009-03-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

the last few weeks have been chaotic. why? because of this...

yes, it is spring musical time again. and once again i am doing makeup. which is really a lot of fun. see the young man with the fake-ish looking facial hair on the far right? i made that beard and moustache so that we could put it on, then take it off, then put it on, then take it off, then put it on and he takes it off onstage. that may not sound bad, but when he is in the midst of changing costumes and i have to get a wig on him as well as the fake facial hair, time is very short! oi! but i wouldn't miss it. my sweet friend gets to play a ditz with a red wig and dance in every number. this is a really big production with lots of singing, dancing and set changes. but it is a great group of high schoolers to be involved with. they are so kind and respectful to each other that it is an honor to be part of it all.

and lest you think there is no knitting...ta da! a few finished items.

first off, after months of knitting (yes i do envy those who can finish a pair of socks over a weekend!) the first finished pair of socks for soldiers socks. these were knit out of knit picks essential sock yarn in buckskin. ok yarn. dont' think i will use it again. it is 13 inches of k2p2 ribbing with 12 inches of knitted feet (counting the toes), but they are done and shipped out to the young man from work who is currently in afghanistan. and to tell you the truth, i miss knitting them. they were the perfect go anywhere, able to be social in any type of setting knit. i mean, how can you go wrong with 13 inches of k2p2 or 12 inches of plain knitting. i am in the midst of swatching the second pair which i hope to knit two at a time a la 2-at-a-time socks. we'll see,

the next finished item is tudora out of kilcarra yarn that i won from cheryl. i was a bit concerned about this yarn, thought it would be a bit un-soft on the neck. that was until i started to work with it. let me tell you, this yarn is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. i loved working with it. the pattern comes to life with this yarn. the cables pop right out. it is quite lovely. and the pattern is delightful. i was concerned i would fumble it up. but no, i just followed the directions and it came together quite nicely. amazing how that works! except for the buttonhole. i am truly lacking when it comes to knitting buttonholes. thankfully the button covers the buttonhole, so all is good. and my neck is fashionably warm!

now on to the next project. yay!

take a chance...

2009-02-19T21:07:00.000-08:00

cheryl over at a simple yarn is having a great contest.

write a caption for the pictures on her blog and you can win some beautiful kilcarra yarn and a felted coaster. this was the yarn used to make her wonderful tudora pattern. and though i have yet to blog about it, i can tell you this yarn is stunning, absolutely stunning and the pattern is a delight to knit.

so scoot on over and check it out. good luck!

i've just seen a...

2009-02-14T23:21:00.000-08:00

my sweet friend and i seem to be have been bitten by a baking bug. not sure exactly how or why, but we are just going with it for the moment. she is baking cupcakes and cakes and i am baking...anything. and though i am not one to celebrate today, i felt a strong pull to bake these...

and these...
and even these...

which inevitably led to this...

it was a lot of fun though. had not baked like this in many years. next time i won't make a double batch. one batch is quite sufficient. and d & t, i do not know how you get along without your kitchen aid. seriously.

because of the baking bug, i have not had as much time to work on this...

the beginnings of the lace ribbon scarf out of malabrigo silk blend. the pattern has been in my ravelry queue for awhile so when the LYS announced it was doing a KAL of this pattern and suggested the silk blend as a yarn substitute, i was in. i have been lusting to use this yarn for something but did not know what, so here was the perfect excuse!

since using a weightier yarn then the pattern calls for, the suggestion was to use size 8 needles and drop a repeat. but i didn't have size 8 needles that were suitable, then couldn't find size 8's that were suitable. so after a bit of knashing, grumbling and finally swatching (!), i decided to use size 7 circulars with the number of stitches called for. the pattern came alive on them. and can i tell you how much i love this yarn. love this yarn. it is heaven to use and looks beautiful. since it is hand dyed, the variation of color is subtle but adds a bit of sparkle. i had never understood the fascination with manos until i used this yarn. and now i may just be hooked!

but i am not sure when i will get around to knitting on it again since tomorrow i am planning on making home made tortillas and pesole. that bug!

catch up take 2

2009-02-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

i joined the swap on a budget group on ravelry. i love swaps. they are fun, i meet different people, i get to put together a package and i get a package. all in all, it is pretty fun.

the last swap was this past december and though my package was late, it was well worth the wait because in it was...

...a hank of mango moon tye dyed viscose, two home made knitting utensil bags, gobs of home made stitch markers in two sizes, a coffee cup holder, a dishcloth and a home made needle holder, which i really appreciated and put to immediate use. these wonderful treats were sent to me by absolute treasure from georgia.

the yarn is really pretty. both the cute husband and my sweet friend commented on how lovely it was, which says alot. not sure what i will make out of it though. it is 150 yards and i would like to make some thing that will reflect the beautiful colors. so i will have to do some sleuthing for the proper pattern.

thanks absolute treasure for a great soab package.

catching up...

2009-01-31T23:53:00.000-08:00

so i have been sick the last couple of weeks. and though i do have some knitting to report on, i don't quite have the where withal to write, take pictures, download pictures, etc. so instead here are some things i have been meaning to share for awhile...

like this wonderful bag i won from worsted knitt who had a contest sometime this past summer.

not only does worsted knitt knit, design patterns, blog, moderate the ravelry dafur group but she also has this wonderful online shop, and this bag is one of the items available. it is quite sweet and big enough to hold a shawl. which is what i am using it for.

the shawl in question is the bird's nest shawl which i have been longing to make since i first started knitting. i have had the yarn for the past year, which is knit picks alpaca cloud in heathered moss. but i am being needle challenged. the pattern calls for a size 5 needle for the borders and size 6 needle for the body of the shawl. except when i swatch, i find those size needles a bit loopy/holey/loose for my taste. i find a size 4 needle more to my liking. but i debate whether to use a size 4 for the whole shawl or just for the borders and a size 5 for the body. decisions, decisions! even looking it up on ravelry didn't help since the needle sizes there were all over the map.

the next challenge with the size 4 needle is casting on. there are 346 stitches to cast on while holding the yarn double (it's knit sideways). i can do that with a size 5 or 6 needle but for some reason find it challenging on a size 4. sigh.

and so the yarn and pattern sit in this sweet little bag, patiently waiting for me to work through my various challenges. i look forward to carrying the shawl of my dreams in this sweet little bag and bragging about winning it and talking up worsted knitts shop. but, until then, stop by worsted knitts online shop and look around. your bag may not cause you so much drama!

rhythm of the night

2009-01-06T19:38:00.000-08:00

i like the new house. it has a lot of pluses. more pluses then negatives. but one of its negatives is a pretty big negative. for some reason the internet is down more than it is up. and, for me, that is a big negative. mainly because i am an internet junkie. i use it for everything: paying bills, making appointments, coordinating meetings, recipes, reference, reading, learning, connecting and of course, shopping. and so, since i am an internet junkie, i really don’t like that our internet is down most of the time.

though there is an upside. i am getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. i stay up late so i can be on the computer uninterrupted. but since the internet is down, i have no reason to dawdle, so i read a book and go sleep. which isn’t a bad thing.

but the most important thing i have re-discovered without internet is my knitting rhythm. after a frantic fall, on new years evening my knitting rhythm finally clicked into place...make supper, clean the kitchen, do a general pick-up and knit while watching a dvd with my sweet friend. it was a pretty perfect evening. she is finishing up a scarf, i need to knit on my sfs sock 30 min a day and then i knit on my other projects. not a bad rhythm. it suits me just fine. except now i am staying up way to late...knitting!

project info: socks for soldiers out of knit picks essential in buckskin;

knit grrl stripey scarf out of a trendsetter tonalita in raspberry shortcake.

oh tannenbaum, take 2

2008-12-29T00:52:00.000-08:00

the continuing saga of the twice as tall as me christmas tree. with the purchase of a new ladder, it became this...

and it was lovely on christmas morning.

let's get physical

2008-12-29T00:37:00.000-08:00

for some reason i am suffering from a case of the grumps. things were fine before christmas; had a delightful christmas day; had fun with the fam; christmas dinner turned out great (food theme was moroccan) but have had some pretty grumpy moments since then.

so when i woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, decided what i needed was a walk. so i crossed the street to open land and just walked. and walked and walked, until i came to a t in the path which overlooked this...

and i realized i am a pretty lucky girl. next time i get the grumps, i will take a brisk walk in the fresh air. hope your holidays are happy!

...i walk the line

2008-12-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

i am beginning to find my rhythm in the new house. though there are still boxes to be unpacked and there is the daily question of "...have you seen", "...did you check the box in the ...", i am to the point where i can unpack a bit and leave time for knitting, or walking or sewing, or baking.

so when i felt the call to walk on saturday morning, i decided to explore the path across the street that leads to the open space on the hill. and from the hill i could see this...

so i kept walking and walked through these,

walked down this,

looped about and saw this from the another hill. and for you east bay-er's, yes that is mt. diablo in the distance.

not a bad walk for the new neighborhood.

on the knitting front, i have finished one of two socks for soldiers. i am 1.5 inches into 13 inches of 2x2 rib for sock two. i am totally cheating on the xmas knitting. the plan is to finish up my sweet friends ruffle scarf (translation, i have to pick up a total of 594 stitches! yuck!) and to finish up the big guy's second sock. hopefully the plan will work and both of these will be under the tree on christmas morning.

and then there is the new year's resolution to learn to knit 2 socks at a time on a circular needle so it doesn't take me so bloody long to knit socks for soldiers!#! already have the book on the christmas list.

oh tannenbaum

2008-12-13T11:40:00.000-08:00

the last couple of weekends have been filled with this...

the madrigal dinner theatre the choir classes at my sweet friends h.s. put on every december. if i wasn't at a performance, helping at a performance or cooking for a performance, i was sewing costumes for the performance.

and from the weekends of this...

came this...

which was one of 10 that were part of the madrigal decorations. the music booster board decided to off set the cost of the trees (which have been donated in the past) by having families "sponsor" the trees. the new house has cathedral ceilings so we decided to sponsor a tree. so here it is. the catch is, our 6ft ladder seems to be MIA. both the cute husband and i were sure we saw it at the new house but now cannot locate it.

i will keep you posted on how decorating the tree goes!

here comes the sun

2008-11-23T01:13:00.000-08:00

though the move is over, the actually settling in is taking some time. and though lots of purging was done before the move, it wasn't quite enough. all items that were on the fence before moving, are now in the give away, recycling or trash pile.

but my knitting books are unpacked and in their bookcase. and after much searching and various unsuccessful starts, i finally found a baby hat pattern in said knitting books that i actually want to knit. trick is, it is for a co-worker leaving for maternity leave this week. oi! i better get started!

but first a view of a sunrise i made tea to a few mornings ago. made my day!

somewhere over the rainbow

2008-11-15T14:25:00.000-08:00

the move is done. and the rug fits perfectly in the master bath! yay!

look out...old macky is back

2008-10-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

so, i am not a costume gal. at all. so when hints were dropped during a directors meeting that costumes needed to be worn on halloween, i nearly choked on my dentures and i don't even have dentures.

then i remembered a costume i made for the big guy when he was in 1st or 2nd grade. and everything went swimmingly from there.

happy halloween, all saint's day and dia de las muertas. may all the spirits you meet be peaceful.

breathe...just breathe

2008-10-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

so this is what i have been doing for the last month or so:

first it was the costume sweatshop where nine, count them, nine ranger jackets were made in one afternoon, as well as modifying some of the female gowns. then it was makeup. i am head makeup putter on-er so, with the director, i figure out which characters need what kind of makeup; then i experiment on some of the cast, get the directors feedback and finalize the "look" and what it entails; then we have a training day with the cast, show them what their makeup will look like, explain what it entails and have them run through putting it on themselves; then there are the musical run throughs and dress rehearsals where the makeup gets tweaked because it looks different under the lights and filters; then there are two weekends of performances. all of this around a 40hr + job.

i am a bit beat.

but instead of being able to rest, we get to pack because we are moving. yes moving. in 12 days.

the last few years have been a financial challenge for us and not having all of the expenses of owning a house will hopefully help us regroup. and so we are renters once again. of a house that is 400+ square feet smaller than our current one. which doesn't sound like much but it is. except for the fact it allows us to pare down, simplify, or, in essence, purge ourselves of 15 years worth of "collecting".

the important thing is the new house meets our stringent criteria of being within walking distance of my sweet friend's high school and allowing us to have the bbfd (big black furry dog). all of which i am grateful for, it makes the transition easier.

and so we weed through our various collections and we pack.

but i long to knit. and so i do. something mindless like the socks for soldiers. which fits the criteria of being lots of mindless knitting. thank heavens.

i have finished a couple of things though. the sweet little puffin hat for rachel and ryan's baby boy. made out of crystal palace puffin which is a delight to knit with. and will be very soft for a baby.

and i finished the bath mat designed by vyvyan at fishbone designs. i really like the way it came out. the picture doesn't really do it justice. honest. one of my goals this year was to do some color work. and though this is not really color work, i am color inept so i was a bit concerned how the colors would work together since the majority of this yarn was in my sugar n' cream stash. but it works. and i can't wait to use it in the master bathroom of the new house. oh boy!

oh thank you! thank you!

2008-10-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

so the very sweet and generous worsted knitt nominated me for an "i love your blog" award. wow! i am truly honored. thank you! it is really quite fun!

and the best part is i now get to nominate 4 of my favorite blogs for this award. ohboy! ohboy! once you have been nominated for this award you need to:

Post the award on your blog.
Add a link to the person who gave you the award.
Nominate at least 4 other bloggers and add their links.

cool huh? so my nominations are: a simple yarn; tea and cakes; wish i were baking and fishbone designs. thank you all for always being such an inspiration for me. it is a joy!

rtfm

2008-09-26T19:24:00.001-07:00

i finished the big guy's first sock. it came out really well. love the pattern, easy to knit, nice to look at. the sock fits him and he thinks it is comfortable. couldn't ask for much more.

so i was pretty excited to finish it. i knitted down to the needed number of stitches to bind off; kitchenered them up with a book for guidance instead of the usual knitting help dot com video (finally getting the hang of kitchener) and excitedly looked at the finished object as it popped off the needles. that is when i noticed something was amiss. how could it be? the toe seam was vertical to the sock. what!?! took another look, and my first assessment was right, the seam is vertical to the sock instead of horizontal. OI!

now i knit my socks on two circulars. and thanks to cat bordhi's great instructions, i can adapt any dpn pattern to a two circular pattern, no problem. whenever i came to a place that stumped me, out came the book for reference. but i knew what to do for toes so did not consult the book before i finished. which is why the toe seam ended up as it did. this is because each circular needle holds half of the instep stitches and half of the sole stitches. but as cat brodhi instructs in the book, all of the instep stitches need to be put on one needle and all of the sole stitches need to be put on the other needle. that way, the toe seam ends up being horizontal and not vertical. which i would have known had i read all the instructions in the book .

sigh. glad i discovered this now before more socks were needlessly maimed. and double glad that the big guy is a bit quirky so has no problem with the toe seam of his sock going vertical instead of horizontal. it hurts me to even think of it. sigh.

going around in circles

2008-09-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

i did not get bit by the spring cleaning bug this past spring. usually i do the annual airing out the house after winter, but not this year. i am making up for it now though. i can not walk into a room in our house without cleaning, weeding out and rearranging things. my family, who does not understand my obsession with a clean house, is nervous. they never know what will greet them when they open a cupboard. oh well.

i also have been reading. granted i am re-reading the hp series, but i am mid-way into book six and cannot put it down. i know what happens. i mean, seriously. but i am gripped none the less and find myself reading a few pages in between chores.

and my sweet friend's fall musical is weeks away from opening. since i am head of makeup, there are workshops to conduct and rehearsals to attend; not to mention the costume sewing.

all of these things i truly enjoy doing. the downside is i have little time for knitting. coupled with the fact i am knitting mostly socks. i love knitting socks but not when it is the only thing i am knitting. so when i came across this rug designed by vyvyan at fishbone designs i went through my sugar 'n cream stash and cast on. but i long for a new shawl but don't want to cast on until i have finished a project, but there are so many other things going on and not enough time to knit and holiday knitting to start. and on and on and on...

if i were a dog trying to lay down, this going around in circles would be fine, but as a knitter it is not fun. sigh. at lease socks are portable!

cue madam dufarge

2008-09-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

there is a young man at work, who, at the age of 23 will be starting his second tour of duty in afghanistan at the beginning of the year. this past spring, one of my nephews decided to enlist in the air force after graduating from high school instead of going to college. a former co-worker just informed me her 20 year old son just finished boot camp for the air force. and though i know all of these young men have consciously chosen this path, during wartime it gives me pause for concern.

how can i respect their choice when my view of what their options are is so very different? i knit socks of course. and knit into them all of my good wishes for their continued safety and good health.

while exploring “groups” in ravelry, i came across the group “socks for soldiers”. and though this is a ravelry support group of a much larger yahoo group, it inspired me to look into what it took to knit socks for soldiers. i discovered there is a regulation sock pattern to be knit out of regulation sock yarn out of various regulation sock yarn colors depending on what branch of the military is being knitted for. and you have to join the yahoo group in order to have access to these regulation items. so i joined the group and downloaded all of the various regulation items needed. thankfully knit picks is a big supporter of “socks for soldiers" so provides regulation sock yarn in the various regulation sock yarn colors. yay!

and though i am not really patriotic nor a supporter of the u.s. military machine, i felt the need to support these young men who are putting their lives on the line. and so i sit and knit socks. including them and their counterparts on my sock knitting list is the least i can do.

addendum 1:

the legion of honor sits on a section of lands end, which is a spit of land that overlooks the west side of the golden gate bridge and the pacific ocean. the views from lands end are truly glorious. after visiting the museum, i took a stroll along the eucalyptus lined parking lot just to see what the view would be at the end. little did i know, though d & t may have known, that one can walk from the legion of honor to the cliff house. the cliff house is at the end of geary street, perched on a rocky bluff, overlooking the pacific with waves crashing thunderously on the rocks below. it is really rather beautiful. and the views during this easy stroll were truly spectacular.

between the cliff house and the legion of honor is the uss san francisco memorial. this battleship survived pearl harbor, guadalcanal and some of the fiercest pacific sea battles of world war II. the memorial itself is actual sections of the bombed out bridge after the battle at guadalcanal. it sits on a bluff overlooking the pacific ocean toward the pacific rim it once fought in, surrounded by whispering trees. i sat in this injured bridge and knitted quite a few rows on the sock for the young man from work, hoping that the surviving spirit of this battleship would include itself in this sock and help this young man survive any challenge he may encounter.

addendum 1a:

that friday was a busy day. i went to the museum, did various shopping, then picked up my sweet friend and did various shopping with her. at the end of the day, while juggling various bags filled with various stuff, the bag containing the regulation sock and sock yarn disappeared. i did not notice it until saturday evening when i went to knit some on the sock. i searched all saturday night for it, sure that i had brought it in with the various other bags; i went through our garbage can with a flashlight, just to make sure it wasn't thrown out with one of the various other bags; on sunday, i retraced our steps, checking with the lost and founds of the various stores we had been to (you know you visit a store to much when the ladies at sephora know you and your knitting bags!). nothing. it seemed to be no where. late sunday afternoon, moments before i reached true despair, my cute husband found the knitting bag! it had been stuck under one of his heavy book bags he had placed on the love seat (which i had searched more than once) which had pushed the sock bag in between the cushion and the side. whew. my shining knight. and so the knitting continues.

may i introduce...

2008-08-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

i took a couple of days off work this week. one day i just putzed about the house; on the second day, after dropping my sweet friend off at school, i drove into the city to catch the women impressionist exhibit at the palace of the legion of honor. a true delight!

the exhibit is of four painters, berthe morisot, marie bracquemond, eva gonzales and mary cassatt, which is the painter that drew me there. since i arrived as the exhibit opened, i was able to see all the pictures up close and personal. they were amazing. i have long been a fan of mary cassatt but i found myself equally drawn to the paintings of eva gonzales whose paintings were alive, vivid and quite passionate. truly stunning work. each artist had the ability to stop me in my tracks by at least two or three of their paintings.

on the way out, i stopped by the exhibit gift shop and purchased a pack of postcards that included copies of some of the exhibit paintings in hopes of framing a few. also picked up the last copy of one of my favorite mary cassatt prints. on the way home i made a quick stop at cheap pete's frame shop and was able to turn the favorite print into this. i show it here with a hank of sockpixie bambino sock yarn in the mary cassatt colorway. couldn't ask for much more.

feel the force, luke

2008-08-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

i love knitting socks. this past spring i joined the ravelry socks of summer 08 group. and though i will never be able to finish socks as quickly as some can (how can knitters finish a pair in two days!?), i am having a great time knitting them and being inspired by socks others knit.

when i was taught to pick up stitches, the sock guru who taught me suggested not worrying about picking up the exact number of stitches suggested; she always said if more stitches were picked up then more gusset decreases would need to be done, no big deal; the main objective was not to have gaps along the heel or at the gusset. so when picking up stitches, i am always aware of how many stitches need to be picked up, but I am not locked into that number. i tend to pick up the stitches “by feel” of what is needed.

when I picked up the stitches for my cute husband’s second sock, I discovered I picked up more stitches on the first side then I did on the second. hmmm, interesting; did not think much of it, just kept knitting. after picking up stitches for the pair of sport socks I am knitting the big guy, i counted my stitches and realized I had picked up 10 more stitches on the right side then I did on the left. wow! sort of a big difference. though the second side did not look so bad, my scrupulous eye was able to spot maybe the smallest gap or two, but still nothing to frog over.

but it did make me aware that it would be a good idea to pay a wee bit more attention to the number of stitches i am picking up; that I may actually need to mix a little more logic to the “by feel” way of picking up stitches to make sure the sides were even.

sigh. where is yoda when you need him?

btw, discovered a couple of little gaps at the gusset where a stitch or two would have done wonders. rats.

and in case you are interested: pattern: lonnie's sport socks by rebecca mercier, found on ravelry; yarn: lorna's laces, shepherd striping sock, in caramel or harvest, not sure, from purl, nyc

what a delight

2008-08-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

so i joined the ravelry "swap on a budget" group where the spending limit was $20. it is always such fun to put together a package to send some one, but it is real fun to get a package. on my doorstep on saturday was this box:

and inside this box was all of this...

who knew so much stuff could fit into a converse shoe box! there was a scarf; a hank of this great kraemer sterling silk and silver yarn that is screaming to become a stole or shawl; a citrus candle, a bottle of wool of the lamb wool shampoo; a cow figurine and udderly smooth hand lotion (yes i love cows!) and two packets of button chocolates, milk and dark! absolutely lovely! i was very excited and grateful. many, many thanks to my secret spoiler. you are the best!

a phoenix

2008-08-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

instead of closing forever, the LYS was sold. it was closed for a little while and had it's grand reopening today. so i moseyed on down, took a turn or two around the store, admired all the new yarns then plopped myself down on one of the comfy chairs and knitted the afternoon away. i finished the second lace capelet (finally!); worked a bit on the big guy's sock and chatted with fellow knitters who also came to sit on the comfy sofas and chairs. i chatted with old friends and made new ones. including an up and coming knitting designer and a math teacher from the local high school who knew the big guy as both a student and t.a.; and who will have my sweet friend as a student in her class later this week! small world. it is so very nice to have a local LYS. yay!

wheeeeeee!

2008-08-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

i am not a gamer person so this was listed on my birthday list as a whim. truly. but it was taken seriously by everyone else, especially the big guy and my sweet friend. and so here it is, for all to enjoy. i have to say, it is a lot of fun to play with. for all of us. wheeeee!

though i know this is a game and is not to be mistaken for the real thing, there is a reason i should not be involved in team sports. seriously.

a breath

2008-08-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

so this is the first day in about 3 weeks our internet has been up consistently. it has been an eye opening experiment. i may even blog about it but it will be after catching up on my blog reading and after the long line of posts i have in the wings. see you around.

it really is amazing

2008-07-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

i started blogging on a lark. i was a knitter who spent a good deal of time on the computer looking for new ideas, patterns, inspiration and instruction. i stumbled on a knitting blog, realized there were an amazing amount of them and discovered a whole new knitting world. little did i know when i started my blog what an amazing door i was opening to a whole cyber space community, both knitting and non-knitting, and the array of amazing people i would cyber meet.

since cyber space readers are world wide, there are few opportunities to meet a blogging buddy. but an opportunity presented itself a few weeks ago when david and tanita from wish i were baking came to visit their former stomping grounds. they were gracious enough to make time in their busy visiting schedule to meet for supper. for a minute or two, due to my crazy work schedule of late, it looked like we would miss each other, but everything ended up working out and we were able to spend a lovely time, meeting and visiting over mexican food. a delightful time was had by all and we plan to meet again on their next visit.

who knew when i started this babbling that i would meet and be inspired by some amazing people. i didn't have a clue. but i am very grateful.

p.s. the book in the picture is tanita's first book, a la carte, which had been released the day before our meeting. she generously gave my sweet friend a signed copy of the book. my sweet friend gobbled (pun intended) the whole book in one day, really liked it and would recommend it as a book to read. i think it was the line, "jazz choir is almost as good as making a souffle" that hooked her. plus we plan on making some of the recipes from the book together. what could be better!

opinions wanted

2008-06-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

i came across a sweater i bought off the sale rack from target many years ago and would like to take it apart for its yarn. it is made of silk and cashmere. i would like to salvage the yarn and knit something non-sweatery out of it, it is way to soft to hold a shape, believe me or else i would not have put the sweater in a to-be-given away pile. plus the fact that i bought it a size or so to big so it just flops about when worn.

so this is where the opinions come in...how do i take apart a sweater in order to salvage the yarn? no clue, don't have time to research it right now, i am already dawdling big time.

so stew about it and let me know. thanks.

second sock syndrome

2008-06-22T23:46:00.000-07:00

i am not sure if this happens to you, but it happens to the fam and me. we go to a friends house that is miles away, say for thanksgiving supper. it takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get there. we spend all day visiting and eating, etc., and climb back in the car for the long drive home. but the drive home seems to zip by and in seemingly no time at all, we are home. it may have taken the same amount of time but it just feels like time zips by.

that is how i feel about knitting socks. today i finished the cute husbands socks. the first sock took F-O-R-E-V-E-R, the second one took seemingly seconds. seconds! the first one was started last october, i think, with hopes of finishing the pair for his birthday at the end of november. this obviously didn't happen. the second one was started about 6 weeks ago. yes i realize i am one of the slowest knitters ever, but this second sock did take a much shorter time. and, to my defense, i did finish a lot of other projects while i was knitting on these. really.

i signed up for the summer of socks 2008 where prizes are being awarded every two weeks for those who finish a pair of socks within the two week parameters. i don't think i will ever be able to enter their contests, because i am such a slow knitter, but i will have a great time trying! next up on the sock knitting needles is a pair of sports socks for the big guy and a pair of leg warmers (mac and me yoga socks) for my sweet friend.

in the meantime, here are the specifics of the socks!
yarn: lorna's laces shepard sock in chocolate, 2 1/4 hank
pattern: broken garter rib from sensational knitted socks, size big!

needles: two circulars, size 2

model: the feet of my cute husband

photographer: me

sunny saturday

2008-06-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

today was wwkip day. at one point in time i had high hopes of doing one last hurrah at the LYS for wwkip day. but life has been so crazy and time consuming, it never really came to pass.

instead my sweet friend and i cleaned house for 2.5 hours, give or take, then took off for the beach. not an ocean beach where it is windy, cold and fogged in, but a beach on tomales bay where it is sunny and warm. where we could sit on our cool new beach chairs and soak up plenty of sun and the sound of families playing together. where my sweet friend was able to start reading t's just released book and where i was able to knit on my cute husband's sock to my heart's content.

i love sunny saturday's.

sorry, still no computer; still no pictures. soon, i hope!

5, 6 pick up...

2008-06-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

second sock knitting was humming along quite well, and then i came to the picking up stitches part. this place in a sock always makes me pause, hesitate, question my ability. i gave it a try and failed. the stitches looked stretched and abused. i couldn't quite find my rhythm. i blamed it on the terrible lighting making it a challenge to work the dark brown parts of the yarn. so i ripped the stitches out and put the sock away, deciding it was best to pick up stitches during the day. which i did, the very next day. with no problem. figured out the stumbling blocks, found my rhythm and on went the stitches. now if i could just finish the sock by father's day...

sorry, no pictures. our computer is still out of commission.

ohhhh, backup! right!

2008-05-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

our hard drive died. we took it to the shop to see if it could be resuscitated and if any data could be retrieved from it, but no. it has died and taken everything that was on it to hard drive heaven. and of course, there is no recent backup. sigh. there were years of pictures on that hard drive. family vacations, celebrations, performances. sigh. oh well, time to make new memories. and back them up.

a splash of...

2008-05-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

i had an "ahh" knitting moment the other day. it wasn't because i had learned a new stitch or corrected a delicate mistake. it was because i realized i can now look at a knitting pattern, see it in a different yarn as well as take note of whatever modifications i would need to do to make it comfortable for me to wear. doesn't necessarily mean i will knit it, but at least i have a better understanding of the overall pattern and how it will fit together instead of being intimidated by it and assuming "i am not ready to knit that yet"!

thankfully i came to this conclusion before i purchased interweave knits summer 08 edition. i have purchased this magazine pretty religiously ever since coming back to knitting. it inspires me and, up until recently, was known to intimidate me. i leafed through the issue oohhing and aahhing. there were so many items i heard calling my name! which was a bit of a surprise because quite a few of these items were full of c-o-l-o-r!

i am not talking about the solid, bright or unusual color. i am talking multicolors in one row color. i am talking about patterns and color. i am talking about how do i keep all those yarns untangled color. this is something that usually makes me break out in hives and whisper the "i am not ready..." mantra.

but not this time. this time was more, "could i tone those colors down? could i substitute colors?" though i have to admit one pattern i love has a steek in it which is enough to make the hair on the back of my neck rise.

but i think i could work past that, literally. doesn't mean i am going to knit it up immediately, it just means i am willing to give it a go and see how it all turns out. will keep you posted.

knit of course

2008-05-11T11:00:00.001-07:00

so what does one do when in between check-in's while chaperoning the daughter's h.s. choir trip to santa cruz and the santa cruz beach boardwalk? why, knit of course.

amazing

2008-04-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

so this is my 100th post.

it is amazing to me that i have been babbling about knitting and various other things for 100 posts. and that there are people who read these babblings, for which i am forever grateful. i have been inspired, challenged, encouraged and well fed by some amazing cyber friends.

i always thought i would have a celebratory contest for my 100th post but the planning of it is just beyond me at the moment. perhaps by the time i am done babbling on this post, something fun and quirky will arise.

but until then, i think i will babble about what started this blog in the first place, sticks and string...

so i was very sick a few weeks ago. like fevers of over 102 and lying in bed doing nothing for 5 days straight. i was so sick, it hurt my head to knit. and at the time i was in the middle of knitting a garter stitch potholder that will be felted, which is knitting at its easiest. as soon as i could pick up needles again, i finished it. it is knit out of some blue paton's merino and a green cascade 220 i had in my stash. of course i did not want to knit 3 potholders out of the same colors so i purchased another skein of cascade 220 in an deep aqua blue that would complement my two stash yarns. (yes, the yarns in the picture are the same, the color is different because of the lighting, booklyn tweed i am not.) this project got derailed for a bit when my cp size 10 straights began to split at the tip. very annoying. i had already done the sandpaper and wax paper thing to no avail. plus, the needles are a bit short for the amount of yarn that needs to be on them. i thought brittany needles would be the perfect solution. of course the LYS has every size but 10 and none of the other yarn stores in the area carry brittany's. grrr. after much hemming, hawing and gnashing of teeth, i traded the cp needles in for another non-splitting, longer pair of cp's and i am off and knitting once again.

once the potholder was done, i went straight to the cute husband's socks and finished the first one, finally. this is out of lorna lace's shepard sock chocolate stripe colorway. can i tell you how much i love this yarn. i love this yarn. i love the feel of it, the way it stripes, how easy it is to work with, even in a darkened theatre. i cast on the second sock immediately and knit on it whenever i can.

the next item to be finished was the lace capelet out of ry cashsoft baby dk, colorway 502, sweet. it turned out pretty well. when i asked my sweet friend to try it on for size, she did not want to take it off because it was warm and soft. which i took as a good sign. i immediately frogged the boring ruffle scarf also being knit out of cashsoft colorway 517, donkey, to start the second lace capelet. these are for two very dear friends who i usually give the same type of present to. i found the pattern on ravelry and it is quite easy. my personal challenge with it was keeping the correct number of stitches consistent. for some reason, whenever i did the yarn over rows i would either lose a stitch or add a stitch. it was maddening. i frogged the finished capelet down to practically the beginning to correct this, just to have it happen again! i finally decided it was one stitch. it really wasn't going to make that big of difference. and, of course, it all turned out ok in the end.

still on the needles is my sweet friends short ruffle scarf. as you can see, i have picked up the stitches on the short end and added the ruffle, but the long ends has 297 stitches to be picked up which is a daunting task to me. plus, i was expecting the ruffle to be more ruffle-y. since i will also be making this scarf for me, i may experiment with repeating the ruffle pattern. and if i have enough yarn in which to do so. but i need the needles so i better get on with finishing this one.

there are babies. i had never made anything baby so i decided to do hats. the first one was for baby alison, a beautiful and amiable baby at work (i work at the local ymca where there are plenty of staff babies around). much to my sweet friend's chagrin, i decided to knit up the sprout hat pattern by leigh spencer which i found on mag knits. it called for mission falls cotton, which i had never worked with before. i really liked it. i chose colorways 206-peony and 404-indigo. the yarn was easy to work with and lovely when knit up; it complemented the moss stitch well. unfortunately i did not get a picture of the hat before i gave it to baby alison, so here are all the ingredients, you will need to imagine what it looked like. fyi, peony was the dominant color, indigo the accent; picture it in your mind.......ok next.

the second baby hat was for rachael and ryan's baby. they live in the city (s.f.) where the coldest part of the year is coming up, summer, so hat's for a baby are totally appropriate. while doing an east bay yarn store crawl, i mentioned baby hats to the person behind the counter at k2tog. she suggested crystal palace puffin, a bulky polyester fleece ribbon yarn. one ball makes a hat, and she provided the pattern. what more could i ask for? the colorway is dotty circus. and though i was a bit skeptical about the polyester once i started to knit it i was quite pleased. this yarn is so soft and will be so nice for a baby head. and it looks really sweet knit up. can't wait to finish it and give to baby callum.

in the way of yarn, this past januray cheryl had a comment contest on her blog. by lucky circumstance i won a couple of skeins of yarn from it. some beautiful crimson kilcarra in which to make a tudora; and some homespun yarn from craftspun. the original thought was to try my hand at dyeing and dye the homespun, which i would have then shared on the blog. but i am now leaning towards keeping it undyed. it is really lovely but i am not sure what to make. and to be the non-metric american, how long is 250 grams? so i shall see.

and though i have been trying to knit from my stash, temptation is strong, so very strong. so i confess i have been collecting sock yarns. i figure they are relatively inexpensive and one skein equals a pair of socks so it is not like going overboard...is it?

the first sock yarn purchase was via the grey's anatomy knitters group on ravelry. sk nitches had a "seriously" colorway. if you are a watcher of grey's anatomy you know the various ways this word gets used. the colorway had sold out but sknitches was willing to dye a special batch for group members if they pre-ordered and pre-paid. score! had to have one! and i love it! seriously. i am hoping to score another one for my sweet friend. she would like legwarmers. we will see what happens.

the second sock yarn purchase was from sockpixie. this woman owned a lovely little yarn store in petaluma, the town above mine. if my LYS was not within walking distance of my home, i would have become a regular in her shop. she offered wonderful classes and beautiful yarns. then her husband was transferred to boston so her yarn store closed. she kept in touch through her blog which morphed into sockpixie, which offered sock patterns, and eventually sock yarn. she and her daughter dye a different colorway selection in various types of sock yarns each week so when the yarn is gone it's gone. this colorway came from the week she was inspired by famous women and named her sock yarn colorways after them. this specific colorway is colette, a writer i met in college, became enamoured with and have read over and over again. so, of course, had to have it; love it; can't wait to knit it up.

whew! i think that is the latest. and i am sorry to say, something quirky is still beyond my reach. perhaps at blog number 150! so stay tuned. many thanks to all of you who amaze and inspire me. it's a lot of fun.

(it is a bit sad that life is so busy this post took three weeks to put together! yeesh!)

a gap is forming

2008-04-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

my local LYS is closing.

i met some great knitters there; i learned a lot from those knitters; i was inspired and challenged by those knitters; i took classes from them; i had the opportunity to teach beginning knitting and introduce new knitters to the satisfaction of making and sharing something beautiful.

the owner is trying to sell the business but i am not sure if there will be any takers. which is sad because i think the community can certainly hold a knitting store.

but the saddest thing is i feel like a comfortable old friend is going away. i will miss all of the talk with the girls, the sharing, the ooohhhing and aaahhhing, the catching up with friends. all within walking distance of home.

so it goes. everyone will move on to other things. but i will always be grateful for the time i had there.

it started with this

2008-02-24T10:01:00.000-08:00

i was pretty excited about going to my first stitches west this past weekend. i had enrolled in one of the hour long classes being offered which gave me a free ticket into the market floor, a yarn haven.

the tuesday evening before the big weekend i was going through various groups on ravelry to see if i could carpool with fellow attendees. in one of the groups there was mention of a special "stitch and ride" version of the capital corridor, an amtrack train which travels from sacramento to san jose (where stitches west is held).

a few clicks of the mouse later, i found the site, discussed with my cute husband the financial and logistical advantages of taking the train and decided to buy a ticket. due to the late purchase, the site said i would need to pick up my ticket from the ticket booth the morning of departure.

but on thursday there was a DHL package by the front door and it contained this...

and the excitement factor increased 10 fold. the cute husband could hardly contain me in the car on the way to the train station.

the train was about 25 minutes late, but once inside all riders received one of these:

holy moly! and all the free coffee you could drink. what could be better on a drizzly saturday morning?!

the train arrived about 11ish; the description had said the convention center was a 10 or 15 min walk away so i thought walking wouldn't be a bad option, but the shuttle buses were waiting with open doors so in i hopped and was at my first stitches west stop, the ravelry booth, within moments.

ravelry did a passport book to introduce members to ravelry supporters and businesses. it was a great way to meet some fellow ravelers and support their various yarn endeavors. it was also a great way to make sure every aisle was explored. there was some amazing yarn being offered. my personal favorites the buffalo and musk ox yarns. so soft and beautiful, so incredibly expensive.

it was suggested i have a plan of who or what i wanted to see. so i put a list together of things i needed; vendors i wanted to see, etc. so between the "plan" and the passport, i pretty much saw every booth on the floor. webs had two huge booths which were always packed. since i didn't have a specific project in mind, i didn't visit them. i was drawn to the smaller, single person type yarn vendors.

i was also drawn to sock yarns. one of the sock yarn vendors i wanted to see was blue moon yarns, which also happened to be in the ravelry passport. the colorway i was truly lusting after was rock star. there had been one skein left when i was in my lookie-lou phase. by the time i went back to do my purchasing, it was gone. fortunately that set back wasn't a deterrent. i just purchased this colorway instead. it is called peaseblossom and it is 360 yards of lightweight 100% superwash merino. rah. can't wait to knit it up.

the second sock yarn i was drawn to were those by lisa souza. this is her elektra colorway which is 560 yards of 100% superfine superwash merino. i am thinking this would make the cute husband a nice pair of socks.

the last big sock purchase was from the bins of a vendor from so cal, the yarn lady. the bins in front of this booth had bags of yarn for 70% off. with the first look-see i found yarns i wasn't interested in; a second look-see unearthed bags of 8 balls of fortissima colori socka color sock yarn all in the same color way. a third look-see unearthed this, a bag of 8 balls of fortissima in 4 different colorways, meaning a pair of socks per colorway. all i could think of was presents! at 70% off! there were very few bargains but this was definitely one of them. i was very pleased.

the only non sock yarn purchase were these two, from terilyn needleart, two sisters who like knitting lace shawls. the first time i passed by this yarn it screamed "shawl!". the second time i passed by, i just stopped and shopped. all of their colorways are lovely but these two really captured me. these are the heather yarns, the light one is colorway 5680, periwinkle and the dark one is 5751, midnight. each hank has 560 yards! i love the midnight colorway but it will be very dark to knit with. i will need very good lighting, especially with lace. but so it goes!

all in all, my first stitches west was a great adventure and i look forward to next year!

holding strong

2008-02-17T22:44:00.000-08:00

i made it through another sunday update without purchasing sock yarn from sockpixie. i am so proud. especially since her colors were inspired by the provence region of france, i thought for sure i would get hooked. and i did, but the colorway was sold out by the time i logged in. whew. on to stitches west next saturday!

and speaking of socks, i am wanting to knit some ankle length socks for the big guy and am in need of a pattern. i am sure there is one out there, i just can't remember where i saw it. if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. have a good week everyone.

i got to choose

2008-02-14T23:44:00.000-08:00

my cute husband and kids are involved with the ymca youth & government program. after 5 months of practicing state government their big weekend of taking over the state capital building is always around valentines day; this year it just happened that valentines day and the first day of y&g were the same. they are going to take over the state capital for five days and i get to stay home to do whatever i want. not a bad trade off.

for valentines day supper i decided i wanted pink food. really i just wanted salmon. the fam isn't fond of me making salmon because of the "fishy" smell. but they are not here and the dog doesn't mind if the house smells of salmon. i had this idea i wanted to have pasta with the salmon. then i decided to mix the salmon with the pasta.

so on the way home from work i stopped at the local market, got salmon, lemons, thyme, chives, italian flat leaf parsley and asparagas. i put water on for pasta and asparagas; made a poaching broth of water, lemon slices, parsley, shallots and garlic; poached the salmon; drained the pasta; sauted garlic and shallots in the pan with some olive oil and lemon juice; added the pasta; sprinkled it with minced chives and parsley; added the salmon and asparagas, which, in the meantime had been sliced into thirds; mixed them all together until everything was warm and served it with a sprinkle of some lovely, fresh parmesean cheese in one of my favorite bowls.

it was perfect. it was just what i wanted. and, there are leftovers. not to bad for being alone on valentines day! hope yours was wonderful, too!

how time flies!

2008-02-10T15:21:00.000-08:00

wow, time is flying by! it is already february and i am still futzing about with christmas presents.

i realized the garter stitch ruffle scarf out of rowan cashsoft was b-o-r-i-n-g! and if i was bored knitting it, the recipient would more than likely be bored wearing it. plus, in order to match the vision of this scarf in my mind's eye, the scarf needed to be a bit thinner and have more ruffle. the plan was to make two of these type of scarves which would give me an opportunity to fiddle with the pattern. but i was so bored with the scarf and the knitting of it, i decided it would look better in a verigated, fun yarn instead of a solid color yarn. plus i found this great lace capelet pattern on ravelry and wanted to see how it would look in the second cashsoft colorway.

and it looks pretty good. i really like how it is coming out. apart from the fact i got about 20 rows from the end and realized i had dropped a few stitches about 5 inches down and had missed a couple of yarn overs which are essential to the pattern so i had to frog it practically to the beginning. thankfully it is a real quick knit so i wasn't to concerned. and once i get it off the needles, i think it will stretch to fit nicely. i haven't frogged the boring ruffle scarf yet because i want to see how the capelet turns out. when i get closer to the end of the capelet, i will frog and straighten the scarf yarn.

i also started blossom out of elsebeths lavold silky wool, colorway #56. this is for my mom. since i purchased the yarn moments before christmas, the thought was to have it done by valentine's day. ha! so it is currently languishing on my needles. plus, i am being a little to cautious about the repeats, which i have to figure out on my own, instead of having the pattern tell me exactly what to do. aughhh! once i figure it out i am sure everything will be fine and i will chuckle at my doubt. but until then...

i have also been knitting my cute husbands sock. i am on the foot. and though this has taken me quite a while to knit i feel like i have learned alot about sock knitting or about how i knit socks. so i bring it with me everywhere just in case i get a moment to knit a few rows.

the last challenge i have is to not buy any new yarn. ha! stitches west is coming in a couple of weeks and i am trying to save all my pennies for their marketplace, which i hear is overwhelming, but then i look at sockpixie's new sock colorways and i am so very tempted. it is so hard to keep the finger from clicking "add to basket"! maybe i'll just frog the scarf.

maybe next year

2008-01-07T18:36:00.000-08:00

a funny thing happened this past holiday season. the moment christmas was over, everyone told me what they would like me to knit for them. my cute husband wanted a hat; the big guy wanted a scarf and my sweet friend wanted leg warmers. i smiled, nodded my head and thought, where were these suggestions in november?

and instead of telling them better luck next year, i dove into my stash. and then i looked for patterns.

i found my cute husband's hat pattern on ravelry by cheryl niamath of fetching's fame. in honor of the movie, the life aquatic with steven zassou, and jacques cousteau, she designed the zassou hat. this was to be knitted from a worsted weight yarn. but since i was knitting from my stash and had GOBS of misti alpaca suri silk in hematite, colorway 404, i used two strands of this along with a strand of frog tree sportweight alpaca in teal, color 64. the hat is a snap and came out pretty well. the only challenge was in a moment of confusion i cast on 122 stitches instead of the 112 the pattern called for so the decreases were a little wonky. since the hat it a 1x1 rib, i did not notice the mistake until i realized my decreases were a little off. but it all worked out and he loves it, brags about it and wears it.

for the big guy's scarf i thought i would knit him the purl scarf from last minute knitted gifts. it is a mixture of three weights of yarn, knitter's choice in a 1x1 rib. so once again working with the misti alpaca and leftover frog tree, i added cascade yarns baby alpaca chunky, in turquoise colorway #560, to match the feather in his fedora, and off i went. except the 1x1 rib did not do justice to the yarns, so i adapted the pattern from the misti alpaca ruffle scarf. i added a repeat and fringed the end instead of ruffled the end. and it came out well and he likes it much more than i thought he would and actually wears it.

my sweet friend's legwarmers on the other hand are going to take some time. since she is a dancer, she wants them up to the knee or above and with a band that goes around the foot, a la mac and me's yoga socks. berroco just released a sock book featuring their new sock yarns which had a pattern much like this, but i am not sure i feel like spending $17 for a book of 9 sock patterns. so i will keep searching. she knitted a pair of legwarmers as a christmas present for her best friend out of ggh aspen. it was a quick and dirty knit so i may try and adapt that somehow.

in the meantime, here is a picture of my second jo sharp urban beanie out of her silkroad ultra. this past fall i decided i really did want a hat that matched the surgery shawl/poncho i knit last winter. what a geek. i do love it though. it keeps my head nice and toasty, cozy warm.

maybe next year they will actually answer when i ask them if they would like anything knitted for christmas. there is always hope!

and by the by, i made my sweet friend crepes as a thank you for being the semi-willing hat model.

may your days be merry and bright

2008-01-01T23:45:00.000-08:00

yes, i know it is a line from a christmas song but i saw my hand writing it when signing a card and heard my voice saying it when wishing someone well. what was i to do?

and so on this first day of this new year, i wish the very best for you and yours. may all your days be merry and bright.

tidings of comfort and joy

2007-12-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

best wishes to you all. may you have a happy and peaceful holiday season.

just a little steam

2007-12-24T21:52:00.000-08:00

when i was pregnant with my sweet friend, my cute husband invited some brits over for christmas supper. they were working on a special project at his company and staying in a hotel with no where special to go on christmas day. to make them feel even more at home, the ch decided to get a traditional "pudding" recipe for christmas desert. so he contacted a friend in australia who faxed over a copy of a steamed pudding recipe she used. having never made a steamed pudding, i was a bit anxious. this first one was steamed in a bundt pan with a tin foil cover. but everyone loved and raved about it and i have been making christmas pudding every year since. so when zorra sent out an invite for sugar high friday to post about pudding, i was in!

since the posting deadline was christmas eve i needed to find an occasion to make one before christmas. i took a chance on the staff holiday potluck. which turned out to be the perfect occasion. i knew the pudding was a success when folks took slices home with them.

this is a dried fruit pudding. the recipe calls for 1 cup of dates; 1 cup of raisins and 4 cups of mixed dried fruit. for the first few years i experimented with various dried fruits but have settled on a cup each of golden raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots and dried pineapple. mixed with butter, sugar, eggs, and self rising and regular flour. steam for about 4-4.5 hours. because of time, for the potluck i steamed the pudding for about 3 hours the night before, then steamed it for another 1-1.5 hours the day of the potluck. it turned out so well, i thought i would do it for our christmas day pudding. hopefully it will turn out just as nice.

so here is my pudding. the first picture is fresh out of the pudding mold before the staff potluck; the second is after the staff potluck. it is always fun to make pudding and i welcomed the chance. thanks, zorra. once again, this was real fun.

monday randomness

2007-12-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

first off, a picture of a package i received from purl(dot)com. i don't know why this wrapping tickled me so, but i thought it the sweetest way to send a package of yarn. and why buy yarn from across country you may wonder. the yarn was for my sweet friend's ruffled scarf and cute husband's socks. i had purchased yarn for these projects at purl soho during the nyc spring excursion trip. but i had a brain burp when buying the pink yarn so was short a hank, and felt i needed one more hank of sock yarn for my cute husband's socks. so i decided to continue the theme of the yarn coming from purl soho. plus i could shop online at midnight. what more could you ask?

the second is the challah i made for hanukkah presents for some work mates. i was thumbing through baking with julia for bread baking day #4 recipes and came across the challah recipe. since braided breads are a favorite of mine, i couldn't pass up the opportunity to bake braided bread and give gifts at the same time. so here they are, fresh out of the oven. the egg glaze baked brown right away so i had to cover the loaves with tinfoil for the last half of baking time. i also used black sesame seeds since i could not find where the regular golden ones had been creatively stored by the kitchen helpers. so though the sesame seeds may look like they were burnt, they weren't. and regardless of any of the above, the breads were much liked and enjoyed. my office mate served hers the next night at hanukkah supper when her grown daughters and their significant others flew into town for hanukkah. she was barely able to save me a slice so i could taste it because it was eaten all up. and that is what gift baking is all about!

all the time

2007-12-04T00:05:00.000-08:00

though my latest blogs have been filled with baking, i am knitting. i mean, christmas is coming up, of course i am knitting! though i tried to start early on all projects, and i have even completed some of i still feel waaaaay behind the eight ball.

with that being said, here is what i am working on...

two ruffled scarves out of ry cashsoft in the donkey and foxglove colorway. it is a pattern that i am sort of adapting to what i would like it to be, long with ruffles. i also chose to just knit simple garter stitch for the scarf, but with a much larger needle than called for. which makes the ruffle and scarf drape well. so far so good. having it be simple garter stitch makes it very simple, quick and mindless for me.

misti alpaca ruffle scarf in the ember melange colorway. technically i have not started on this yet but it is such a simple scarf if i just devote a couple of days to it, it will be done.

non-stop knitting of nubbins for ta-ta's dishcloths by vyvan neel at knitting in a happy camper. i am making these out of every sugar 'n cream colorway i have. they are quick, cute, quirky and fun.

mac and me's shorty ruffle scarf. i got the pattern and yarn for both my sweet friend and myself from purl soho in nyc last spring. another garter stitch quick knit with picked up stitches to knit a lacy ruffle along the four edges with a different colorway. i am trying to finish my sweet friends for christmas. mine i will do after the holiday knitting.

blossom shawl from mag knits for mom out of elsebeth lavolds silky wool in claret. can't wait to start this, the yarn is really yummy!

and as soon as i can get WIP's and camera in one place at the same time, there will be pictures! until then, take a look at tudora on knitty.com designed by fellow blogger cheryl. it is really quite beautiful. congrats cheryl.

it's to cold to rise

2007-12-01T21:19:00.000-08:00

in honor of bread baking day #4, i offer this post.

bread baking day #4 was hosted by baking history. many thanks, this was real fun. the assignment was to bake a bread with spice and post about it by 1 dec.

since it is baking in december and the beginning of various holiday celebrations, my first thought was to bake gingerbread. the silver palate cookbook has my favorite gingerbread recipe. very quick, simple and wonderfully good. i bake this for my sweet friend and i quite a bit during the holidays. since i am always striving to trim the fat, i used cholesterol free liquid eggs and substituted half of the oil with applesauce. and since i do have an incurable sweet tooth, i used all of the lemon glaze recipe for pouring over the hot gingerbread! i am not sure if it was the lack of fat or that it was freezing cold in our house or that i poured the complete amount of glaze that made it harden instead of soaking into the bread. it is probably a mixture of all of those things, though it did not affect our enjoyment of it. there is barely enough of the loaf left for tomorrows breakfast tea!

and since gingerbread is a quick bread instead of a yeast bread, i also chose to bake swedish cardamom braid from bernard clayton's new complete book of breads, the revised and expanded version. this is a very rich bread with both butter and eggs. again, i used the liquid eggs and put in 1/2 cup of flax seed meal for a bit of the butter. i also substituted currents for raisins. and since our house is drafty and cold, this dough had a bit of uneven rising. once i turned on the oven and let it rise on the open oven door, it did much better. i brushed the braid with an egg white glaze before baking and baked it on a stoneware cookie sheet which browned the outside of it nicely. while slicing i was a bit worried when the crust seemed a bit hard. once past the crust, the bread inside is so crumbly the browned crust kept the bread from falling apart. the bread is a little rich for me, though the cardamom offsets the butter well. but i love braiding bread and the look of braided loaves, so it was nice to do that again.

but i love baking bread and it is always great to see what others bake, so thanks for hosting bread baking day #4, baking history. it was great to be a part of it.

thank you all

2007-11-22T23:56:00.000-08:00

we were supposed to go to some dear friends house for thanksgiving supper with 40+ of their closest friends and a tour of their vineyard. but last night i discovered nothing i ate stayed with me and i couldn't seem to get warm. and though this morning i was up and ready to go, i really didn't feel much better, so my sweet friend and i slept the afternoon away.

coming from a family of non-meat eaters, we had pasta with homemade marinara sauce and steamed cauliflower for supper along with peppermint ice cream and low fat pumpkin custard for desert. my cute husband and i then watched casino royale, with the guitar strumming son and room cleaning daughter wandering in and out.

it was a wonderful day. though the boys were a bit bored, we all cracked jokes, watched tv, took care of each other, ribbed and teased each other and generally had fun.

it is a lot to be thankful for and i am very grateful. so thank you for stopping by to visit. may you be well.

so close

2007-11-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

i have been working on the flying v scarf out of exquisite little knits since last christmas season. it was a last minute knit for the department christmas gathering. and i have to admit, for the most part it has been at the bottom of the knitting pile. but i recently dug it out and have been taking it with me everywhere so i could knit it whenever i got the chance with the hope of finishing it before this christmas season.

i was so close to finishing it that i started to get worried. worried? yes, because the more i knit, the wider the scarf got. i thought my tension had changed; i thought i had loosened it dramatically. until i had the thought of counting my stitches. the last 15 rows of the scarf pattern depend on having a certain number of stitches. so i counted the stitches. and found instead of the 32 stitches i was supposed to have i had 46 stitches. this is why the scarf was wider. my tension was fine.

so i frogged...and frogged...and frogged until i reached the needed 32 stitches which resulted in the scarf looking like this:

it seems i forgot to do the middle SKP stitch on a regular basis. which meant i had an extra stitch on a regular basis. which, in turn made the scarf wider on a regular basis.

so i will start from here and knit it all again, in hopes that i can finish it sometime soon and be comforted by the fact that at least there will be fewer stitches to knit!

a nearly perfect weekend

2007-11-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

so i have been alone this weekend. the big guy is at school and my cute husband and sweet friend are at a ymca conference for three days. i had the whole weekend to myself.

and i nearly did all the things i wanted to. i got some material to make more knitting project bags; i picked out new lip colors; i bought a waffle iron; i stopped by the LYS for the first time in weeks; i made myself turkey meatloaf; i knitted; i slept in; i made buckwheat waffles; i cleaned the house a bit and did a bit of laundry; i took a long walk; took pictures of my stash for ravelry and baked bread. and believe it or not, the list of things i did not get to is longer than those i did. but that's ok. i did whatever i wanted to and did not feel pressure to do more.

and i got to bake one of my favorite breads, pioneer bread. it was a baking staple when i was single. the recipe calls for cornmeal but i would substitute millet. since there wasn't millet flour, i would buy millet in bulk and grind it up in a spare coffee grinder in order to bake with it. maybe it was the name, maybe it was the fact i had to grind up the millet to make the flour, but the bread always reminded me of something ma ingalls would do. so i always appreciated baking day.

but this time i got to use the new bread pan. which is cool, but may be to small! who knew my bread loaves were hefty size?! so the bottom of the loaf did not brown like the rest of the bread(s). the recipe also has eggs in it which makes the bread very soft. the first few slices were quite wiggly. it may have been because it was hot out of the oven! but it is very good. and it made a mean turkey meatloaf sandwich!

i had to do it...

2007-11-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

my first knitting book was cheryl oberle's, folk shawls. this book offered 25 shawl patterns gathered from around the world. shawls being of various difficulty knit from an array of yarns. the one that caught my eye for a first knitting project was the garter stitch prairie shawl. it was simple, something i would use and ma ingalls would think it practical. the pattern was as the name implies, garter stitch with a yarn over border. at the time, the most challenging stitch for me was the KFB.

but it was the book and the project that started me knitting. i would look through all the beautiful shawls, struggling with deciphering the various stitch patterns, keeping a list of which shawls to knit some day. though i still want to knit half of the book, my ideal was the bird’s nest shawl from the himalayas. this is a 80”x20” shawl with a relatively (now) easy lace pattern. the pattern calls for the shawl to be knit out of pure cashmere…yarn held double while knitted. lust as i may, buying 2,267 yards of pure cashmere is not in my budget.

a few weeks ago i received an email from knit picks announcing a yarn sale. and though i had secretly vowed not to buy any more yarn until the beginning of the year, i thought i would just look. but there it was...as i was perusing the alpaca cloud, one of the suggested patterns for this yarn was the bird's nest shawl. i audibly gasped. for a fraction of the price, yarn for a bird's nest shawl could be mine. and, because of the secret vow, i thought about it for a couple of days before actually purchasing it.

the yarn came a couple of days ago. i chose the moss heather color. and it is really lovely. both my cute husband and sweet friend said, oh, yarn came for you today...as if you need more. but i don't care what they think. i can knit a bird's nest shawl.

the holes change shapes

2007-11-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

today is dia de los muertos, or day of the dead. 14 years ago, while vacationing with my sister, my cute husband called to tell us our father had died. the bottom fell out. pop and my sister were very close so for her not to be with him when he died was awful for her. but we got through it. my boss back then, who had lost quite a few family members in a short period of time, told me that sometimes the black holes would be very small and i could maneuver around them and sometimes the black holes would swallow me up. and i feel that way to this day.

and so on this dia de los muertos, i light a candle for my pop in hope that he sees its light and knows that i miss him.

yay! another one!

2007-11-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

i have been concentrating on knitting the pashmina cowl from last minute knitted gifts for the last few weeks. it is a rather simple knit, garter stitch in the round for 12.5 inches. it has been traveling with me everywhere i go in a little pouch so i can knit a few rows whenever i get the chance.

i kept thinking i had a way to go but, while at work the other day, i pulled it out to do a quick ruler measure just to see how long it was. lo and behold it measured 12+ inches. when at home that night i remeasured it. it was 13 inches long, a half inch longer than it was supposed to be, which was fine by me since i had no plans to unknit it. so i finished it up and voila! ce fini!

of course, i did not make it out of pashmina, i used ry cashsoft dk in the donkey colorway, #517, and it is really soft. this yarn is 10% cashmere along with merino wool and some microfibre. i started it on the plane to nyc in april and it is so soft it melted into a tangled mess in it's pouch. i spent close to a half hour trying to untangle it. our hotel room looked like a spider web gone awry. i ended up having to cut the yarn and roll it into smaller balls. i think it took about a ball and a half to make the cowl.

but it is finished just in time. the mornings are getting cooler and i love having something warm around my neck. the cowl can be worn at its full 12.5 length or folded in half. though i like to wear it unfolded, i discovered it folds into odd shapes when worn like that. if i fold it in half, it holds its shape better. probably because the yarn is so soft it needs some heft. and did i tell you it is warm, soft and snuggly?

if i were to make this again, i would make it about an inch shorter than it calls for. and though i would like it to be smidge tighter around the neck, if it were, it would not fit over the head. but i like it. and so does my neck.

it was a dark and spooky night...

2007-10-31T20:33:00.001-07:00

and it is. the wind is blowing; the fog is creeping in; there is a hint of mist in the air; but it is not stopping anyone from getting dressed in their current fantasy and walking the streets! it is always fun to see. my sweet friend was delighted she was able to wear a pink tu-tu and angel wings to school today. and that's what it is all about!

hope you are having fun! happy halloween.

when birnam wood comes to dunsinane

2007-10-28T01:28:00.000-07:00

my sweet friend has been performing in her high school musical the past two weekends. they are performing into the woods, a wonderful but very subtle and smart musical. as refreshment co-chair and makeup help, i have also been to all of the performances as well as the dress rehearsals and there are still things about the play that surprise me. that sondheim is layered!

but i digress. as refreshment co-chair, my main concern is, "are there enough treats to sell?" to that end, i knew we were a little light on treats tonight so offered these: the cupcake version of into the woods. though the design made perfect sense to me, i found myself explaining the squiggly line was the outline of a tree with green sprinkles for the leaves and multi-colored flakes for the trunk. sigh. though the cupcakes may not have been understood, at least they sold out!

in honor of orange

2007-10-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

finally some FO's. i was beginning to think i was in a circle of hell where there was only endless knitting, no finished projects.

the dish cloth is in honor of halloween. out of sugar 'n cream orange on size 7 crystal palace needles. there is a jack o' lantern image that is difficult to see in this picture. coupled with the fact that it is not as cute as i expected. but it will still be a fine dish cloth.

the scarf is a christmas present for a friend who loves orange. this is the misti alpaca chunky, ribs and ruffles scarf in the copper melange colorway. the pattern is free on their site and is a one hank project. i used size 15 needles instead of the 17 called for. the pattern seemed more defined with the 15's. and can i tell you how much i love this yarn. it is so soft and cuddly. delightful to work with. though it may not show, the colorway is a bit heathered so there are various tones to it. and, if one were to devote some serious knitting time, this scarf could be made over a weekend, if not a day. my original thought was to make this up for a couple of friends as christmas presents. then i thought i should really knit from my stash; but now that the scarf is done, i am once again drawn towards using this yarn. time will tell.

on the bread baking front, last sunday's bread was once again courtesy of the tassajara bread book, but i added one of my favorite flours, buckwheat. only a cup of it and the white whole wheat, for fear my sweet friend wouldn't eat it (and she won't) but i love it. didn't have poppy seeds for the top (thought i did), maybe next time.

plus i just received the new bread pan and package of yeast i ordered from king arthur flour. the pan is chicago metallic and supposed to be professional weight like real bakers use. so i will see how it does this sunday and keep you posted.

trick or treat

2007-10-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

both the big guy and my sweet friend were/are involved in their high school music program. the big guy was friends/acquaintances with most of these folks for five or six years, some all of his school life; they went to australia, new orleans and new york together as well as rehearsing for seven musicals together (the big guy opted out of the eighth). the kids all know one another, the parents all know one another and the kids and parents all know one anther's kids and parents.

so this evening, one of the moms had us over to make halloween treat boxes to send to our college kids. there were about 18 moms representing 25+ former music kids now in college. each mom was to bring enough of something to put in each kids box, along with a card for their college kid that everyone would sign. i knew it was going to be fun, because this group is fun, but i didn't realize how sweet it would be.

the dining room table was overflowing with treats to stuff into boxes while the living room coffee and end tables were full of card signing mom's. everyone made sure they signed all the cards, even the really former students we may not have known. everyone made sure they caught up with one another and shared stories of how our kids were doing their first few months of college. everyone made sure we checked in with each other to see how we were doing without our kid! it was a truly delightful evening.

i have always believed it takes a village to raise a child, and i am so very grateful for this one.

i got it today!

2007-10-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

i would like to take a walk and i have to make three more headdresses for the spirits in my sweet friends musical that opens this weekend, but i just got my invite to ravelry and i am having such a hard time staying away! i need some tea!

i need another bread pan...

2007-10-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

little did i know that tuesday was world bread day. the sole pupose being to bake some bread. so i offer my simple little post:

sunday bread came from one of my all time favorite bread books, the tassajara bread book. though these loaves were courtesy of the revised and updated version, the original tassajara bread book introduced me to the vast world of bread baking beyond betty crocker. it introduced me to my first sponge and sourdough; it helped me continue my experimentation with various grain(s); and it taught me how to braid six strands of bread dough. i am forever grateful to this simple bread book.

and my sweet friend is grateful i am making white bread. though the majority of the bread is white flour, i have always put a couple of cups of king arthur's white whole wheat into my bread, just to give it a bit of heft and to make myself feel the kids were getting a bit of whole wheat without all the "but i hate whole wheat bread" discussions. i do risk a "MOM!" by putting sesame seeds on top though.

and lest you think this is turning into a food blog, i have been knitting. but i seem to have so many WIP's nothing is getting finished. coupled with the fact that since doing the vvs swap, the number of blogs i read has expanded! i spent this afternoon doing a bit of reading until i came across the breast cancer awareness month dishcloth pattern by vyvyan from knitting in a happy camper. it made me run to my sugar 'n cream stash to make sure i had enough yarn to knit this "reminder" for as many of my women friends as i could. it is a bit quirky and i truly don't mean to offend, but click on over to see if you would like to "remind" someone you know to stay healthy. take care.

pure simplicity...

2007-10-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

many, many years ago, when i still lived with my parents, i baked...a lot. every sunday i would bake a pie. the house favorite was lemon meringue since my father and uncle henry, who lived next door, loved lemon meringue pie.

i also baked bread. which was difficult since this was the era when baking bread was considered buying those pre-packaged bread loaves in the freezer section and the only cookbooks available were those all encompassing cookbooks like settlement or better homes and gardens, etc. until, one christmas, a dear friend gave this book to me. it changed my life. there were actual bread recipes in it, multi grained ones! i was very thankful and excited.

though i was into rye and pumpernickel and oats, the fam could only tolerate white or whole wheat. so, as you can see, the honey whole wheat bread got made A LOT. it was simple, it was good and it made two loaves at a time.

i took the book to college with me and proceeded to make weekly bread for my various roommates. it survived my introduction to the tassajara bread book (first edition, where all the recipes made four loaves of bread at a time; way to much to eat in a week). but it had a difficult time surviving my seduction by sourdough, biga or sponge based breads. and when the kids came along, the big guy was only willing to eat sourdough type breads, so that is what i baked.

but today, while wandering thorough the local hardware store, i came across these.

which reminded me of how a friend of mine used something similar to sprinkle flour onto her work surface while making pizza dough, which got me thinking about making bread; which got me thinking about how i couldn't make bread because i would only get half way through a sourdough, biga or sponge recipe today.

until i remembered the honey whole wheat recipe. my sweet friend eats whole wheat bread with her turkey sandwiches (though she wasn't fond of the sesame seeds). my cute husband will eat any home made bread, and i need something for lunch. plus i got to use the new "salt" shaker that is filled with flour to sprinkle my work surface with. quite the lovely evening.

recognizing right from wrong

2007-10-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

i have been knitting the leg of my cute husband's sock for quite some time now. so i was pretty excited when i took the measurement that told me it was time for the heel turn.

off i knit, feeling comfortable with the measurement and having no problems with the pattern, when, eleven rows into it, i realized, the purl side of the heel turn was on the knit side of the sock! and vice versa. isn't it supposed to be knit side of the heel turn on knit side of the sock...and vice versa? yes, i believe so. so what the heck happened? am i sure about this? let me look at this again. check it again!

and so i did. and i was pretty sure my assumption was correct, but not exactly sure where i went wrong.

so i started to unknit. and unknit. and unknit. i won't even discuss the transition on my cp circular needles and how i am feeling about them right now. let's suffice it to say these may be the only socks these needles will ever knit!

after much yarn tussling, i got back to where the heel turn started and read the instructions again...co 88 stitches - ok; work in k2p2 rib - did that; knit leg to length desired - did that; starting with ws row, TURN work before first row - did that...didn't i? i mean, i uhhh, used a different needle. but...let's re look at the... ummmm, ..... OH! that's what the directions meant! no! no, in fact i didn't, i didn't turn the work. oh nuts! ok, so let me turn the work and give it another try.

and off i knit, take two. and this time it all works. the knit side of the heel turn is on the knit side of the sock...and vice versa. and it looks soooo much nicer. and my camera isn't embarrassed to take the picture. and i am thankful i caught this mistake on row 11 and not row 44!

by the skin of my chinny chin chin

2007-09-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

so the good ladies over at the bag lady and the pro are having a dishcloth contest. being a recently converted dishcloth knitter i thought i would give it a whirl so here goes...

1. the dishcloth:

2. i used bryspun straight needles, size 8, knitting english style.

6. though it was hard for me to see the pattern with the colorway i chose, and it did not seem to match the cloth posted, when finished it was fine. and not only did i like it but my sweet friend thought it was really nice too.

it reminds me of stacked blocks that mirror each other so my naming suggestion is the mirrored blocks cloth.

thanks, ladies. this was fun!

yes, it is geeky

2007-09-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

so we took big guy to college today. some dear friends lent us their humongous suv which fit all of his belongings being taken plus the family of four. though i am not an suv lover, i appreciated being able to fit everything into their one car instead of us having to drive our two cars.

the big guy's room isn't bad. and his roommate seems like a really nice guy. the boys were able to configure all of their room furniture and their belongings into an acceptable to them floor plan. the roommate brought a refrigerator and the big guy brought a rice cooker and gobs of rice, each being excited about what the other brought. plus they like the same bands and music. so hopefully it will all work. i mean, how can you miss when school is nestled on the side of a mountain among redwoods trees, yet overlooks the ocean? not a bad setting. and things seem off to a positive start.

but it is already quieter around the house. i don't think it will really sink in until mid-week when i realize we are not being two ships passing in the night, but he truly doesn't live here anymore. it's a challenge to let go. but a joy to see him take wing. all a mother can do is offer some pac man cloths. and i am such a geek, they are in the school colors.

it's been a bit

2007-09-17T23:54:00.000-07:00

if someone had told me 24 years ago that i would be married to a wonderful man, have two amazing children, two cars, a mortgage and a big, smelly dog i would have laughed, gob smacked by the thought of being in such a relationship.

but here i sit, a lot older, wiser and thicker around the middle, but amazed at the adventure the last 24 years have given me.

and though it caught me by surprise, i wouldn't trade any of it for the world!

so i went a bit overboard

2007-09-14T19:18:00.000-07:00

this is what i have collected since the beginning of the month.

both joann's fabrics and michael's crafts had sales on sugar and cream and i just couldn't help myself. some of these were $1 a ball. how could i pass that up?! the "twist" pattern balls are for christmas gifts. i am trying to arc a connection between a washcloth/bath basket and a 1 skein chunky misti alpaca scarf. but haven't quite gotten them connected yet.

the darker solids were for a christmas gift for the big guy. about a year ago knitty.com had this great set of back to school washcloths that had 6 cloths/days of study and 1 cloth/day of party. i thought this would be a great thing for the big guy since he is off to college in 8 days (yes, part of me is in denial and part of me is sobbing). but that was before tea and cakes posted the pac man washcloth. how cool is that?! so i have some decisions to make. but by the size of this loot, i could make them all...for everybody!

i just got back!

2007-09-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

from toronto! boy was it nice!

came home friday evening to find i had received my vvs package from secret swap buddy, andrea! what a treat. the first thing i spied was the box of maple leaf maple sugar candies which are my absolute favorite. and which i can only find during the holidays! then there is the sweet little canadian moose and toronto postcards. and then two absolutely beautiful hanks of canadian yarn!

one is a hank of fleece artist, basic merino sock yarn in this beautiful bluepurplebrown and everything in between colorway; really nice. this is the first sock yarn for me and i am very excited. plus it came from nova scotia!

the second is a lace weight, hand dyed hank of hand maiden sea silk yarn. this is a 70% silk and 30% seacell which is from sea weed (my sweet friend refused to touch it after that; lucky for me!). and it is this amazing colorway! i can't wait to use it! i am already hunting for shawl, shawlette patterns.

the pictures really don't do these two beautiful hanks of yarn justice.

thanks for a great trip to toronto, andrea! hope to see you soon!

i bit...

2007-09-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

i am #30,332 with 18,844 ahead of me. i guess time will tell.

some quick pics

2007-09-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

my cute husband was unable to get some pics of the sorcerer's stone cloth, though rumor has it our monk friend really liked it.

but the computer is cooperating enough for some pictures of oceane. i wore it to last night's gathering and discovered it to be very long. and not as wide as i had hoped. but since it is long, i can wrap it around creatively which sort of takes care of both of the above mentioned challenges. and it got ooohed and ahhhed over by female and male alike! what more could a knitter ask for!

whoosh...and it's the weekend

2007-09-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

it has been quite the heat wave in the bay area this past week. i am not fond of the heat. i get sort of cranky. this heat wave has sort of worn out it's welcome. i am thinking of lighting some candles and having fog calling ceremonies on the back patio.

but it is good for sitting by the fan or going to the air conditioned LYS to knit.

so after finishing the sari ribbon scarf, i started knitting my first dish cloth. i knitted insanknitty's sorcerer's stone cloth for my monk friend who is quite the harry potter aficionado. i knit it out of some solid blue sugar and cream i had in the stash box. unfortunately i did not take a picture of it before it needed to be delivered, but it came out pretty well. if my cute husband remembers to take pictures and if our continually crashing computer cooperates, i will post a pic.

but i now understand the fascination with knitting dish cloths, they are instant gratification. they are like the breath mints of knitting. need a fresher perspective on your WIP's? knit a dish cloth! they are so quick, it is almost like they are not taking time from the WIP's that are clamoring to be completed. the sister's over at the bag lady and the pro are having a dish cloth contest (scroll down) which i am willing to cast on for. plus joann's fabrics is having a sale on sugar and cream this weekend which gives ample opportunity for re-stashing!

the big reason i am willing to start a new dishcloth is because oceane is finished! wahoo! a sunday supper invite gave me the impetus to finish it since between the invite and the heat wave an evening gathering would be the perfect occasion to wear it.

i used rowan's linen print which the pattern called for, but i used size 17's needles instead of the 19's the pattern recommended. i also used 7 balls of linen print instead of the 5 the pattern specified. it wasn't quite long enough at 5 balls but would have been if i were also using it as a head and hip wrap like the pattern suggests. but since i will only be using it as a shoulder wrap, i added some length. the size 17's made it a little less "airy" which i wanted but also proved to be helpful since the last 16 rows of the pattern proved elusive to me and were unknit as much as they were knit. on the whole, the pattern is easy, fast and fun. and it looks great when it is done. i just got stuck on the last 16 rows!

and, i sent out my vvs package! i am real excited. it will get there a couple of days late; tying up the loose ends took more time than i anticipated, but hopefully my recipient will like it.

so it has been a busy week as well as being hot. hope it is cool where you are!
(since our computer is being challenged, there are no pics. will post some soonest.)

why?

2007-08-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

over the summer i have been reading a variety of blogs and i just have one question....

why ravelry?

open for comments. thanks.

it was just an afternoon

2007-08-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

i squeaked into the LYS yesterday afternoon with hopes of sitting and knitting. a handful of the usuals were there, so after a quick turn around the store to make sure i wasn't missing any thing new, i settled in to knit. and knit i did. i had taken my sari ribbon scarf with hopes of getting closer to the finish. after staying late with socializing, i knew i was close to finishing but still had a way to go.

i finished my errands to the market and trader joe's; landed at home for making supper, coordinating teenage activities and make peach preserves. in that order. now i haven't made preserves in quite a while. i just happened to come across two bags of close to overripe peaches that someone didn't know what to do with and all i could think of was preserves.

in the hierarchy of preserves, peach is up there because they need to be blanched for their skins to peel off with minimal loss of fruit. so there i was up to my ankles in boiling pots and peach juice. after a few hours of chopping, stirring and steaming, these were produced...

...and they taste great. there is nothing like fresh, warm preserves on toast. my cute husband immediately got a spoon and started to eat the bit that could not fill a jar (there is a sentimental story about that which i won't bore you with now).

after cleaning the sticky utensils, pots and counters, i felt like sitting and knitting. so i picked up the sari scarf just to see how far i would get. and lo and behold, this happened...

i really like it. the ribbon needs to relax, so before going to bed i hung it over a hanger just to let it drape.

one of the challenges of working with ribbon yarn is that it twists and turns on itself so rarely lays flat. this was difficult for me with this yarn because the sparkles would get lost and it just looked better if knitted with the ribbon as flat as possible. another challenge was weaving in the ends because the tapestry needle kept poking through the ribbon. i had to make sure the needle followed the stitch not poke through the ribbon itself.

but i love the yarn. if i were to use it again, i think i would make an oversize kerchief type wrap. i think it may get more use. but that is a future project.

one would assume there would be movement...

2007-08-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

...but no, not really.

i am still in the slumps with the knitting. i picked up a few unfinished projects over the last few days and have ended up frogging what i knitted. never a good sign. i did manage to knit a few rows on the sari ribbon scarf but not quite enough to finish it. sigh.

i have been sewing up more project bags though; gifts for friends.

so hopefully i will have pictures of FO's soon. but in the meantime, breakfast and tea may help.

salved by the chocolate

2007-08-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

my sweet friend came home from so cal today. since it was on the way, decided to take a tour of the scharffen berger chocolate factory in berkeley, something i have been meaning to do for awhile.

the factory itself is rather small and would be easily missed when driving down the street. but their chocolate is very big. their dark chocolate is very dark. even their milk chocolate is ok, though i find it pales in comparison to the dark chocolate, excuse the pun.

i took the 11:30 tour which means i had time for a good breakfast. a wise thing considering once the tour starts, chocolate tasting abounds. and once the tour was through i stopped by their cafe for a bowl of hot cocoa and, just for the heck of it, a chocolate scone. it made the knitting so much easier!

it must be mid summer

2007-08-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

so i am in the midst of a knitting slump.

my sweet friend and i went away for an extended weekend last weekend and i haven't got my rhythm back yet. it did not help that work was absolutely slammed from the moment i walked in monday morning to the moment i left friday night.

also my sweet friend isn't home. she is visiting auntie pam down in so cal. and going to the beach every day. ahhhhh, to be a teenager on southern california beaches. that is the life. but i've been there and done that; wouldn't want to go back, but wouldn't say no to a beach house either. can you imagine, knitting on the porch of an ocean view beach house with morning coffee? i can smell the sea. or maybe it's the dog. oh well.

i am still in the midst of reading gobs of vvs blogs. you knitters out there are amazing! i am feeling like slow poke knitter! coupled with the fact that i have picked up my knitting once this week. oceane is so close to being done i can feel the bind off, as is the sari ribbon scarf. but do i dedicate time to finish them up. no. yesh. oh well. someday soon.

in the meantime head over to cass's shut up i'm counting blog. she is celebrating her 222 post by giving US presents! amazing.

sunday musings

2007-07-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

so here are the books i have gathered over the last week or so. with only one of them read cover to cover!

i am spending way to much time reading various v v s blogs and not knitting. i have therefore missed my personal deadlines for finishing the drop knit scarf and oceane. we are going away for a few days and i wanted them both done by then. since they aren't, decided i may as well pack them because, heaven knows, there is so much to knit and so little time.

ok, ok, ok

2007-07-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

so, i reassessed the small blue bag last seen on my sweet friend's head.

i modified the corded closing so there are pull cords from either side of the bag, which makes opening and closing of the bag a bit easier. modifications were done in time for a ferry trip to the city for a meeting; i decided to do a test run with it. i filled the bag with my cute husband's socks, which are being knit on two circulars, a small pair of scissors along with some stitch markers. not only did it all fit, but the bag worked out really well!

the only thing was the bag got lost in my big tote. so i decided it needed a snap tab that would connect it to the tote handle. that way i could snap the tab around the handle of the my tote bag and always have my knitting available and easy to get to. which prompted me to put snap tabs on all of the bags i had made, so now they look like this:

as you can see, there is a big blue bag that matches my small blue bag. i found i had inadvertently cut out more material than i needed for the small blue bag. not wanting it to go to waste, i made a dark pink bag, only bigger and with cording modifications. instead of running the cord from the inside, i put contrast casing on the outside and thread the cord through it. the big blue bag is the perfect size to carry long single point needles without them peeking out the top, which is what i was wanting.

but the most exciting project made this week was these:
needle cases. the straight point case is just that. it was supposed to have two pockets on the inside, one on the bottom for knitting needles and one on the top for crochet hooks. it also was to have fusible batting. i left off both the fusible batting and the top pocket. if i make this again, i would shorten it by about 1.5-2inches.

the case i truly love is the circular needle case. it holds my circulars snugly, including my new size 7 natura's, and though i had a difficult time envisioning the way it was put together, it was rather easy to make. the material selection for the pattern was a little odd. it calls for 2 contrasting colors and a remnant. the remnant is for the front and back (dark blue); contrasting colors are for the inside. i found what i really needed was 3 contrasting colors. 1 for the outside, 1 for the inside and 1 for the pockets. luckily i sort of figured it out, but didn't really think through the pockets so had to use some muslin i had lying around. if i were to make the case again, i would choose material and colors differently. cases and bags are a butterick. if you would like the pattern numbers, let me know.

in knitting news, i once again goofed up the eggplant stole. i spent a couple of sessions trying to get it back into knitting shape instead of unknitting it. and i think i may be there. wish me luck!

ahhh, a sale

2007-07-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

when i arrived at the yarn sale, not only had i missed meeting davimack, but it looked like a cyclone of knitters had whooshed through, looking through every box, bag and ball for something they may have the slightest interest in and once satisfied that all possibilities were explored, whooshed out again. needless to say, the staff was a bit worn out.

the up side being, i had the place, and staff, to myself. so i walked a few rounds, finding various this's and that's, stashing them in a bag to be decided upon later. the initial round was mandalay raw silk in a cafe au lait color that gave way to a cream color to make a shell; louisa harding kashmir dk in a pastel blue; stone blue debbie bliss cotton cashmere for a top of some sort with musings of what to do with gobs of bright magenta or bright blue bamboo because the bright yellow bamboo was not a color option but knitting with bamboo was an enticing thought.

the second round found some jo sharp aran cotton in a blue similar to the db. not enough of this to do anything substantial with so found some in white with thoughts of making something striped. started to seriously consider if i would make anything to wear out of the lk pastel blue kashmir dk; considered making a baby blanket out of it along with the pink and yellow pastels that were available. quickly followed by the thought of why would i knit anything cashmere for baby spit up? noticed the boxes of pick up sticks felted flower brooch kits.

on the third round, considered a bag of ggh cotton ribbon for a shawl; found louisa harding sari ribbon in the gorgeous orange colorway; gave up the jo sharp because i am not really a stripe gal; said goodbye to the lh kashmir dk; ruled out the bamboo and found a bag of muench sir galli yarm, 100% silk in a brown white tweed and dark cream color. solicited the opinion of the 2 staff and 2 buyers about which color would be best for me; got 2 set of answers so walked another round.

by the end of this round i was done. decided no on the lh sari ribbon; looked longingly at the jo sharp aran cotton one last time; and decided the dark cream color raw silk was totally boring on my skin so went for the brown and white tweed; still had the db cotton cashmere, grabbed a box of pick up sticks flower brooch kits (whose packaging tickled the fancy of my sweet friend).

as i was waiting to check out i overheard staff talk about how much knitters had spent on yarn. i had a slight twinge of missed knitting opportunities. but i am pretty content with my choices. i got some lovely yarns. hopefully there will be another yarn sale before davimack leaves the country.

two hits and a miss

2007-07-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

sorry, couldn't resist. the allstar baseball game was played in san francisco last night and the whole city seems to be gripped by the frenzy of it all.

but it is true. two out of three project bags turned out well. the third one just fizzled.

the two that worked out are just square lined bags; the light pink bag has 12, count them, 12 buttonholes that gather the bag in an interesting way. the darker pink bag was supposed to be all frilly and beaded. i chose to leave the frills and beads off. which threw the casing off because one of the frills was supposed to be along the top of the bag, which helped create the casing. since there was no frills, i had to do something different with the casing. but it all worked itself out and i like both bags. next time i will try making the dark pink one a little taller so straight needles will fit without poking out the top.

the miss was the circle bag. it also had extra curricular frills etc. which i left off. which then prompted some modifications which didn't work out. so i thought i would modify the modifications just to discover the bag wasn't big enough to hold a knitting project. which ended my interest in the bag. my sweet friend modeled it as a hat with no better success.

sew until next time.

dear vvs secret pal...

2007-07-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

thanks for the great card! it sure was sweet.

i sent you an email but am not sure if it got through as the return email address was a bit uncertain.

any way, thanks! hope you are doing well and having fun knitting!

take care

all in a sunday afternoon

2007-07-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

so this is what occupied most of my sunday afternoon.

it may look like a heap of odds and ends, but this heap represents 3 project bags, 2 pairs of pants, 1 circular and 1 straight needle holder.

i am not fond of cutting out patterns so tend to cut everything out at once. will keep you posted on their progression.

nestled among the various pattern pieces are two balls of sugar and cream. it must be selective reading, but my first encounter with this yarn was via my stitch n' bitch desk calendar where it was a yarn of the week. i had never even heard of it. as i continue to explore knitting blog world where knitted dishcloths seem to have a life of their own, this yarn is mentioned a lot. so when i saw it at joann's fabrics i thought, why not! let's see what all the hub bub is about. doubled with tea and cakes sharing a really sweet dish cloth pattern which looked extremely enticing in a different colorway of this very yarn. thought i would give it a whirl.

in other knitting news: oceane is going well. i like the way the smaller needle size is making it look. and though i am a slow knitter, this is knitting up very quickly.

even though i do not need another project, i couldn't resist. i was really just meaning to make the hank into a ball, but the yarn was so pretty and i bought new brittany needles in just the size i needed for it so...i cast on and it practically started knitting itself! so, yes, the sari ribbon yarn is in the midst of becoming a drop stitch scarf. and i really like it.

happy 4th

2007-07-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

for those of us in the states, it could be a day of sitting in the hot sun during the town parade; visiting with friends over a bar-b-que; eating way to much apple pie and home made ice cream and for me, knitting all the while.

or it could be a nice quite, sit at home day, doing whatever takes our fancy. either way, it is nice to have a breathing day in the middle of the week. happy 4th of july!

open to suggestions

2007-07-01T23:25:00.000-07:00

so i have been knitting with circulars a lot lately. most of my circulars are crystal palace and though i love c.p. needles, the transition from the plastic strand to the needle is driving me crazy. with all of my various circular needle projects, the yarn is consistently getting stuck there and i have to cajole it onto the needle.

i have found clover needles to be to blunt; lantern moon to be to expensive; i am not fond of the steel addi turbos but do have a couple of pairs of their natura needles, which is their bamboo needle line. the trick being,very few stores carry them.

so i am open to suggestions. what are your favorite needles, circular or otherwise? i would love to know.

and now we have...

2007-06-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

last weekend was a productive knitting weekend.

i finished my sweet friend's skirt...and panicked. the length was correct but the width seemed way off. then i put the elastic in and lo and behold, it all came together! and it fit her! and she thought it was cute, in the tone that said, "this is much cuter than i anticipated and i would even consider wearing it!", not the tone that said, "never in a million years."

the skirt is a mac and me pattern with the suggested knitting yarn being blue sky alpaca organic cotton in white. in an effort to support my LYS i substituted cascade's cotton yarn, sierra, in pink. in the meantime i have been exposed to blue sky alpaca's organic cotton and told my sweet friend if she ever wants another skirt, it will be knit out of this. but the sierra was a reasonable substitute.

when i first read the pattern it said the elastic could be woven into every other stitch after the skirt was finished or knitted in. i chose the former, which was fine. the trick being, elastic is white, the skirt is pink, so the elastic shows. and there was no way i could get it into every other stitch without feeling like i was wrecking the skirt. so i am thankful the style is longer tops, so they cover the elastic.

i also fixed the feathery lace stole. i have finally memorized the pattern and have been knitting two rows at a time whenever i can as a mini meditation because, though i have memorized the pattern, i still really have to concentrate on the stitch. yesh! i find if i don't concentrate on it completely, i mess up. which is what i did last thursday. i knitted 4 rows and discovered what looked like YO's in places where there should be no YO's. the thought of correcting the real YO's and SKP's for 4 rows was daunting to me, but i took it slowly, approached it with gobs of patience and humor, and, luckily, made it right again. whew! and now i am off and knitting, but with no distractions of any kind, no talking, no movies/tv, no ipod. just me, saying the memorized stitch, over and over again.

but the real fun of course was being able to start a new project. the goal was to use the much anticipated louisa harding sari ribbon. i have only 122 yds of the sari ribbon so whatever i made had to be relatively small. so i googled "ribbon yarn patterns" and found a simple drop stitch scarf pattern that i think will do nicely that is within the needed yardage requirements. except that i needed size 10.5 circulars; or size 13 circulars; or size 15 circulars. none of which i have. and it was 9:30pm on sunday night. and i HAD to start a new project right then. so after much shifting of stash, i settled on a french girl shawl pattern, oceane. i am knitting it in the suggested rowan linen print yarn, only in the smoky colorway instead of the blush. and knitting on size 17's instead of 19's because that is what i had.

so, i have gobs of knitting to do. yay.

truly, it was for research purposes only

2007-06-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

i had a meeting in the city which ended early and found myself with a some free time. so what to do? go to the nearest LYS of course.

artfibers can be found up a creaky stairwell in the heart of the san francisco financial district. their yarns are a mix of various natural fibers with their own unique colorways. artfibers strives to be eco friendly by selling their yarn on recycle able/returnable cones but also has recycle able/returnable ball cores available for smaller purchases. the only place to get their yarn is at their store or on the internet. so i thought this the perfect place to scout out some unique s.f. yarn for my yet to be named virtual vacation swap buddy. and boy was it fun.

the store is relatively small but packed full of truly beautiful yarn. most of the yarn is swatched which made it helpful to see how it looked, felt, draped, etc. knitted up, along with a nearby index card with content of the yarn, gauge and sometimes a pattern suggestion. a couple of services i thought helpful was a computer system that can adapt any pattern to the size you need, instantaneously! as well as a corner that has samples of their yarn available for knitters to knit and experiment with.

so after wandering around touching everything, i spotted this really lovely, quite simple scarf that was knit out of this beautiful, shimmery silk, mohair and wool yarn. one skein would knit the really lovely, quite simple scarf. a great idea for my vvs buddy. or not....? hmmmm...am i sure? what to do? got it! experiment with the yarn myself. just to make sure. i mean, i wouldn't want to send a dud yarn. so i did the only responsible thing, i bought the yarn which came with the pattern for the really lovely, quite simple scarf with the intent of making sure it would be an appropriate yarn to share with my vvs buddy.

so i will see how the yarn does. make sure it's ok. and if it proves to be unsuitable for my yet to be named vvs buddy, i can always regift the scarf!