Mittens, finally

I've been working on a pair of mittens for almost a month now, and I'm still not done!  I need to finish one thumb yet, and I decided to pull out the decreases on the first one and redo them.

I'm also thinking of making a felted lining for them...maybe with some silk hankies?  My plan was to put on a rubber glove, wrap my hand in silk, get it wet and add soap, put a layer of plastic wrap over that, and roll it back and forth until it felts.  Will that work?  If it does, I'll let you know.

I also got a new book from my aunt - the Ohio Knitting Mills book - and I think I may even have the yarn to make one or two of the sweaters.  I just need to finish up the ones I already have on the needles!

We took our kitty to the vet last week for her shots and a checkup.  That rabies vaccine is a killer - she had a bad reaction to it.  She's okay now, but for 12 hours or so, I was very upset and scared.

She's so snuggly...she'll lie down with me at night, and wake me up with little trills in the morning.  I love her a lot.  DP says he feels a bit like a stay at home dad, since he's with her all day (working from home).

Warped and ready

We warped the loom last night - as I was having DP hold the warp ends, he said ,"Oh wait, I remember this!"  It's been a long time since I've had him help me with a warp :)  I started weaving with some sock yarn, but I might have to switch it up...it feels a bit too feeble.

I also bought this little number to make a cowl or mittens with for my brother.  The item will depend on how much time I have, and if I have a skein of white worsted lying around somewhere.  I'm thinking of fingerless gloves for my other brother, and I have no idea what to do for my brother in Texas.  What do you get a mathematics professor in a land of hot weather?

I wanted to make socks for DP, but that takes a month at least, and I just don't have the time to finish.  With being sick, I'm not on my A-game, and I haven't been actively crafting much.  Our electric snowblower is our corporate gift this year.  DP's wrist and ankle injuries and my back mean that we're no longer able to shovel with impunity.  Sigh.

Maybe I'll start those socks so I can show him I'm giving it the old college try...

I also need to sew up a few stockings for my sister and niece to decorate for the twins.  DP's handwriting is so beautiful that I have him write the names in pencil and embroider over them.  My handwriting shows I should have been a doctor :)

What do I have?

Some kind of something - super sore throat every morning.  Who knows!

My mil loved the owl cowl, so I feel good about that.  She also gave me the warping pegs and other heddle block for the loom, so now I have two sets of heddle blocks and the ability to wind a warp without running it around chairs :)  I really want to try a few scarves, really I do!

I also am almost done with a pair of slippers I made using Noro Silk Garden that I've had in stash forever.  Scratchy on the hands, but okay on the feet, and I hope the mohair will make it wear well.

Back to football!

Sock yarn cowl?

Would STR heavyweight make a good cowl, or would it not be soft enough?  I have that skein of meet brown, joe, and I have a cowl pattern, but I'm just not sure that it will feel warm since it's so tightly spun.

I also am not sure that it's really a worsted weight - it seems mighty thin.

Inching along

I'm 14 inches into the cowl, which needs to be about 25 to 27 inches.  I take frequent breaks because seed is so boring for me.

As a reward, I might make something fun next...maybe a pair of slippers, or another pair of socks, or one of those cowls from the Knitspot club.  I have some Tosh Vintage that I want to use, so maybe if I make the smallest version in a bigger yarn it will be okay. 

The first pattern is buttoned, but I may try to engineer it to be seamed.  I'm always afraid of buttons by my hair.

I also would like to get my cowl pattern up, but I don't know where I put the picture of the cowl that I took!  I've been using it every day at the bus stop, and it actually works.  Unfortunately, I'm allergic to the yarn, but right now I don't have anything else to go in its place.  I love the color, so maybe that's why I'm still wearing it :)

My mom is coming over today to stay with us through Friday - it will be easier than trying to transport a bunch of food to our house on Wednesday.  However, this means that the whole week will be a houseguest week, and next week we'll have DP's family over, so that will be another houseguest week as well.  Eek!

It came!

DP's Kindle Fire came today! I was a bit bummed because it didn't come with the special gift message, but oh well. He likes it well enough, especially for what he's planning to use it for, but it does have some issues. If you put documents in the cloud, you can't access them. Only things you bought from Amazon are accessible. Lame!

I got to play with it when he took a nap...it's pretty neat. Ravelry looks great, and the colors are amazing. Since we have Prime, I watched a bit of Soylet Green (for free). Awesome.

I'm working on that seed stitch cowl for DP's mom, but it's going slow. I love what seed stitch looks like, I just don't like stitching it :)

I dowloaded the latest Fall in Full Color patter from Knitspot, and it's great. It's actually two patterns, cowls, and they look perfect for gift giving or self making. I'm debating whether or not to join the club for next season - Bare Naked, I think it is. The club with the yarn is just way too expensive unless I don't buy any other yarn for the year, but I'm not sure if it's worth buying without the yarn. We'll see.

Scarf-ish

So, based on a pattern I saw and then couldn't find again, I'm making a scarf. But not just any scarf; you make a colorwork cuff, and at the end of the cuff, you start knitting back and forth flat. Keep knitting until the yarn runs out, and then wrap it around your neck and tuck the end of the scarf into the tube to keep it in place! I'm very excited to see how this thing works.

Where do the days go?

Just a few days later, and things have been crazy.  Emergency dental surgery for DP, errands, visiting the pumpkin patch with my three nieces...somehow the time just zooms.

Now that fall is truly here, I'm planning out my gifts.  After coming back from MO, I have a "new to me" loom (one I gave my MIL years ago that she no longer can use), so I may try the old placemat/table runner/hand towel thing again.  Maybe a scarf or three :)  I have to buy heddle blocks for it though, since she lost them somewhere along the way.

I'm trying another baby sweater (the last one was given up in despair over splitty yarn), and my sister is lacking in hats for my baby nieces.  Hats for babies are relatively quick, so I hope to get them done this weekend, or in the next few days.

I'm really feeling down right now; I'm not sure if it's the weather or age or what, but every day is worse than the last.  I'm doing a lot of work, and getting back into devotionals too, but I'm not sure what's up.

Sleevy

I decided to dig out the yarn I'd gotten to make DP a sweater all those years ago, and found that the sleeve I'd made was missing! I tore apart the entire fiber closet, and was on the point of giving up, when I discovered it at the top of the closet behind the drum carder.

So, at least I have all the yarn :) Now I'm not sure if DP will actually wear it, because his skin has become even more sensitive over the years.

I finished the featherweight! It's blocking right now. I ended up with a lot of yarn left over, so I could have actually made the sleeves full length rather than bracelet length, but it's cool. DP suggested that I wait to give it to my sister until after the twins are a bit older...but if I wait, I may end up with it myself :)

Now I have to decide what to make: a sweater for DP, a sweater for my best friend's upcoming baby, a sweater for my mom, or a sweater for me. I have all of these on the brain, along with spinning and Christmas/Hanukkah bazaar presents. Eeep.

I got the Mabon shipment from the wheel of the seasons club I joined - an ounce of dyed silk caps in sort of a rainbow-ish colorway, leaning towards autumn. I was thinking of knitting up some wristwarmers for myself or DP from the unspun caps, since my cap spinning is not the best, and I want to actually make something and not just think about it.

I also dug through the sock yarn bin, looking for the next sock installment. I'm thinking of some plain stockinette in muddy autumn rainbow STR. DP loves plain stockinette socks. Or maybe stockinette with a traveling eyelet - he loved those socks to death. I should really finish my darning before making any more socks, but I don't know if I can! Maybe I should take the darning to my sister's house...?

I bought Circle & Bloom's fertility series yesterday (you can guess why), so I'm going to start today. It can't hurt, and I think it might help. I'll report back. At least I had a 20% off coupon.

Tsk, tsk

Another long dry spell - I blame the holiday season :)

I actually released another of my shawl patterns, the Lady of Rohan. It took me a long time to write up the pattern, and I think there may still be mistakes, but I wanted to get it out there. I also want to release my this and that mitts, but I need to reknit a sample, since I don't have the originals anymore.

I finished the little cardigan for my niece, and she even wore it! Of course, it was way too big, but hopefully it will fit when it's cooler outside.

I'm currently working on a featherweight cardigan for my sister. It's basically just a top down raglan in laceweight on large needles, but I'm very excited about it. Maybe I'll even finish it!

I'm not allowing myself to buy the other cardigan pattern until I finish this one. Since I'm extremely excited about the other cardi, I hope this will give me the push I need.

I'm still trying to felt the thumbs for the mittens I started making last year. For some reason, they just won't felt, even though they're made of the same yarn as the mittens. I'll keep trying.

For the water-along in the Folklore & Fairytales group, I think I'm going to try to spin up the "ultramarine" that I bought from Cupcake Fiber. The person I asked about the batts was right. This stuff is amazing. Best batts I've ever spun, excepting my own (those last ones I made).

I'm pretty excited for fall, even with the extra workload, because I feel like I'll get deeper into knitting and spinning.

I've also decided that I really, really need some relaxing skirts. Since I can't seem to make one worth beans, I'm going to have to get someone to make one for me. I ordered one from a person on Etsy...we'll see what happens. I'm just more comfortable in a skirt than pants - I'm even wearing a skirt right now, and it's Saturday afternoon :) I tried to buy a skirt from Zappos, but I didn't read the explanation correctly or something, and it was sheer with a little mid thigh slip. Eep! Not the kind of thing I can feel relaxed in.

I finally finished working my way through the Val Lewton collection, and I was severely un-impressed. The best one was Cat People, which is saying something. Bedlam was supremely irritating, as was Ghost Ship. The thing I didn't like was the "happy ending"...if you could call it that. Conflicts were built up, but either were not resolved at all (just forgotten about) or were resolved in a really lame deus ex machina way (see the end of Bedlam). Sigh. I did see an extremely great movie with Edward G. and Boris Karloff, 5 Star Final, about a newspaper digging up dirt on a woman acquitted of murder twenty years before. I'd never heard of it until DP mentioned it, but I loved it. Pre-code, so a lot of snappy dialog, strong women, and just plain craziness. Edward G. was at his best, I thought.

Watching movies like that with DP reminds me of when we were dating, and we'd go down to the local video store to pick out an obscure movie or two every weekend. It's hard to believe that we'll be married for 11 years in October.

I just recently had a birthday, and for a present DP brought me to the liquor store and said I could pick out a case of wines that I wanted, so I wouldn't feel bad if I drank a bottle without him. He loves Valpolicella, and so do I, but I thought I'd branch out a bit. I even bought a Burgundy, which I haven't had since before I was married. My friend Alan, my sister, and I had some amazing wine and crackers one night when he was off duty and in town. I haven't seen him in years now...I think he has three or four kids at this point.

I'm off to try to get another couple of inches in on the featherweight!

Italian Chain?

I'm trying out a new-to-me ribbing: Italian chain ribbing. It looks great in the stitch dictionary picture, but we'll see how it looks actually knit up.

I'm about a quarter through the latest Song of Ice and Fire book, and I'm both happy and sad. Happy that I have it left to read, sad that I'll probably have to wait five years for the next book! It's kind of like Auel's Earth's Children series. If you come to it late, you have a backlog to read, and it makes the waiting less painful.

I think that it's chipmunks that have been eating my tomatoes - I overheard someone on the bus talking about chipmunks eating their tomatoes, and the signs point to the same MO. I'm not sure what to do about it...I don't really want to kill them, but I want to be able to eat at least some of the things I'm growing! I think those fiends must also be eating my green beans.

I have to ply up the three singles I spun for the Camelot-along, and then I'll have all my Gawain and the Greene Knight yarn ready. Instead of making up my own pattern, I may just make another Eva shawl. It's plain, but I wear it all the time.

Kummel, anyone?

I had a delicious drink last night - 1oz Kummel, 1oz vodka, topped up with tonic in a rocks glass. Marvelous!

The rug has been duly fulled and dried; now I need to dye it and put a binding on the edges. Sigh.

Chucked out the baby vest; it just wasn't working and wasn't any fun. What to do?

Got a present from Jake - Game of Thrones! I'm so excited to read it, you have no idea :)

I also got my period today, and am ultra depressed. Like I always say, I'm not going to kill myself, but I really want to.

Sigh.

Spin great yarn with this one weird tip

I was reading the back of Respect the Spindle, and thought of that ad. Really, the best way to get better at spinning is - wait for it - to practice! I know that when I was spindling more often, I was able to whip up a two ply sock yarn like no one's business. Now that I've been using my wheel more, it's a lot harder.

I have the single ply, the two ply, and two of the three plies for the three ply done. I need to buckle down and spin up the last 3/4 ounce, but it may have to wait until tomorrow. (I'm almost done with the plain part of my shawl, and I want to get to the edging.) I'm excited to see how the three ply turns out - it's been a while since I've done a three-bobbin three ply, as opposed to navajo ply. I hope the effect of round-flat-round shows up when I knit the three yarns. I may have a motif for at least the neck of the shawl. I found an eyelet pattern that kind of looks like a double bladed axehead, but the decreases don't emphasize the eyelets. I think if I move the decreases to the outside of the pattern, it will look more axehead-ish.

Sadly, my allergies are in full force and I have to keep stopping spinning or knitting every few minutes to sneeze or blow my nose. Because of where I am in my cycle, I can't take allergy medicine right now, so I'm just miserable. Blech!

Nel Sole

I got my wine, and we drank it yesterday with a homemade pizza, crostini and a movie from the 60's starring Al Bano. The wine is Al Bano's Platone, 2002. Delicious, and goes really well with food. It has a kind of woody flavor: woody, but not oaky, if that makes any sense. Velvety smooth, with an unidentifiable fruit flavor. We think it's tart cherry, as opposed to sweet cherry. A great purchase. I only wish I could get it in town!

Currently, I have one shawl, one sock, and two sleeves on the needles. I'm also darning a pair of DP's socks, but I just have to finish the toe and I'm done. The sock is the second of my diamond waistcoat socks, which I would like to just finish already, and the sleeves are to Uinen, my Sprossling cardigan. I've just stalled out on those two projects, so the shawl is a nice change of pace. It's Cladonia, by Kirsten Kapur.

Really, I did!

Sorry 'bout the radio silence! I did finish the Tour de Fleece, spinning every day - even if only a little bit. That's a big thing for me, so I'm very proud of myself for it.

I've been pretty busy at work these past couple of weeks, and I don't really want to do anything when I get home. This is making my progress on the swap shawl a bit slow, though at least I've figured out the ratio of the knitted edging to rows. This will make it go a lot faster once I've finished the body of the stole.

Barb from Foxfire Fibers sent me another four oz of the cormo blend, so I'll have enough to make the entire thing one color. I think I'd prefer it to be body one color/edging one color, but my swap partner likes neutral things, so I don't want to give her something she'll hate. I really hope she likes this; I've put a lot of work into it, but that means nothing.

In other news, I'm getting a Kindle for my birthday. I know - I said I'd never get one, but when the price went down and I found that the books whose copyright had expired are available for free, I couldn't resist. This birthday will also be my "coming of age" birthday (if I was a hobbit), so I think I should do something quasi-special. Anything to make the day something to look forward to, rather than dread, is welcome.

Right now I'm in the process of making some egg-free ice cream (NY Times link) for my brother's doctorate party. If this works out, my sister and I will be making iced-creams left and right...I'm planning on a maple-bacon-praline one for the fall.

Has anyone had any experience with Lush? I'm trying to decide if I want to buy some of their stuff; reading the reviews is only marginally helpful. I'm really wanting to buy these little sauna tabs, though I bet I could make them myself.

A quest, or an obsession?

I love bread. I know, it's totally un-cool to like any bread that's not fancy schmancy, made with all whole organic grains, but I just love a good loaf of french bread. Unfortunately, I can't make a loaf of it to save my life. Truly, if I was kidnapped by French bakers and had to make a loaf as a ransom or be cast into the Seine, I'd end up at the bottom of the river.

So, I've been trying to get better. For the past week, I've been making a loaf of french-ish bread every other day, trying to figure out how to make it taste good. A couple loaves were so bad they went from stove to counter to garbage can in short order. I just can't let it go - I have to figure it out.

Yesterday I made the dough and put it in the fridge to age (?) overnight. I took it out this morning and went through the 3 1/2 hour rising process, then baked it at 400 for about 35 minutes. It was better, but still not great. I just can't seem to get an open crumb, no matter how much or little I knead it, or what my hydration level is. Yargh!

In other news, I'm working on a cardigan for my niece - Hearts, by Tora Froseth. I'm about halfway through the yoke, and it seems like it'll be cute. The directions I have seem to have incorrect marker placement for the 4 year size, but I think I'm making it work.

Onwards!

Swatching and Sweaterizing

D'you remember that sweater I was working on for the longest time, a version of Rowan's Juno? Well, I finally chucked the idea. I had finished the body and tried it on and realized I just didn't like a ribbed cardigan. I decided to throw caution to the winds and create my own top down raglan cardigan. I'm an inch past the waist and very happy with it. My hope is to be inspired by Juno and make cabled cuffs and maybe a cabled collar.

I'm also working on a project for a Lord of the Rings swap. It's made up of some of my handspun and some Rowan Tapestry...main issue is that I have to finish spinning the yarn up :) I'm half done, and I'm hoping to get some swatching in tonight. The handspun is a delightful blend from Foxfire Fibers of cormo, alpaca and silk. Swoon.

Besides all of my usual excuses, I haven't posted in the last two weeks because of the death of one of my friends last Tuesday. I worked with him for eleven years and saw him five days a week. He had a long life, and went fast, but I'm still kind of numb. He fought in the resistance in Poland in WWII, after escaping from the Lakhva ghetto. He made it into the Soviet army, and moved to the US after the war. I had my problems with him, but he was a good man.

A bit of this and that

I decided yesterday to crochet some fingerless mitts for DP. I was knitting him some out of the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Mineshaft, and no matter what gauge I used, he didn't like the fabric. I used this pattern, which I can't recommend enough. The only change I made was to use foundation sc for the foundation chain stitches. I love how they turned out, and I may use this as the go-to mitts pattern:



I whipped up a batch of soft pretzels for supper yesterday - so delicious.

We're going to have Easter at our house this year. My niece's birthday is April 15 and my sister doesn't want to have two different celebrations, so we're going to have a birthday cake for Easter dessert and everyone over to our house. I called my mom to tell her it was on, and she said, "What should I bring?" I asked her what she wanted to have - turkey or ham - and she said ham. So I said, "then bring a ham." :) She thought it was hilarious, AND she'll bring the ham. Sweet.

I finally got Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn - I bought it and two other books with an AMEX gift card and have been waiting for them to come since December 31. I've been looking forward to this book because of the multitude of handpainted yarns in my stash; I'd like to use their colors to an advantage. I was a bit surprised that there were no entrelac socks in the book because entrelac is a sure-fire way to avoid pooling. The patterns are divided into nearly solids, muted multis and wild multis, with patterns geared towards each type. Some are extremely crazy and labor intensive, like Spread Spectrum (ravelry link), a sideways intarsia. Some use standard techniques in a different way, like the Chevvy socks (ravelry link), which used short rows at the beginning of the sock to set up a deep chevron. I'm planning to make my next pair of socks a pattern from this book, and right now Color Collision is at the front of the running. I want to start out in the shallow end of the pool.

Overall, I'm glad I got the book, but I'm also glad that I basically got it for free, thanks to the gift card.

In lieu of something new

I give you my last two shawls:



and



The first one is the Lace Garland from Shawls and Scarves. It took me a year to knit, mainly because I stopped knitting on it for 8 months! I love it, and I loved blocking it--so magical. It lives with my mother in law. Here's a closeup of the lace:



The second is the Ethereal Fichu from Heartstrings Fiber Arts. I used one skein of Schaefer Anne in an unlabeled colorway. It was an extremely quick knit. It lives with my sister in law--if her cat hasn't destroyed it yet. Here's a (slightly blurry) closeup:



I have too many shawls to decide from as my next project. The only thing I won't be able to do is use any of the Kid Silk Haze that I bought, since I'm so allergic to it. I'm trying to decide between the bee shawl or stole, the garter and lace from Shawls and Scarves slightly modified, a silk scarf from Victorian Lace Today, or just going it alone and making up a triangular pattern. I want something I can finish in a month or two, so that I have time to work on my Children of Hurin Shawl, but I need something light enough to work on when it's still warm outside (which is the reason I'm NOT working on the CoH shawl right now.) Argh...decisions.

I got my STR August shipment on Friday, and I don't know how I feel about it. The colors remind me of Mr. Freeze freezie pops, and the pattern for the cuff is vine lace (which I had a bellyfull of with the Lace Slip from KLS). I'm thinking of modifying the pattern to fit one of the new Cat Bordhi ones, but I'm not sure.

I'm also working on the Impossibly Cute Baby Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I'm using Cotton Flamme from Crystal Palace yarns. It's a really nice slubby cotton, and I'm enjoying working with it. I hope this little kimono works out.

American Psycho

That was the theme of Friday at work. I spent all morning getting yelled at by a co-worker who was trying to frame another employee for theft, then I had a visit from my local psychotic. A year and a half ago, I had a person come into the shop at my work (I'm going to call my place of employment BI from now on). He thought he was Jesus, and he wanted to "baptise me". It was VERY scary, but I heard from the police that he was committed to the local psych ward. Well, he obviously got out, because he came back to my shop on Friday. I didn't recognize him at first, but he seemed familiar. Then he came back in to say one more thing, and I KNEW it was him. He left, and I locked the door so he couldn't get back in, but it was extremely frightening.

After I got home on Friday, I had to sleep because the events of the day had given me a migraine. When I woke up, I got to thinking. The employee that was yelling at me is an older guy, veteran of WWII from Poland. He can't do his job anymore, but BI won't let him go because of his age. I hired someone else to "help" him, and he systematically tried to frame her for all manner of things and generally make her look bad. Then she left, and I hired a new helper. Everything was fine until a month or so ago, when he started doing the same thing. I can't tell if it's dementia or a guerrilla war, but I can't handle it anymore. But what I started thinking on Friday was that maybe he's trying to get me to quit or be fired. Maybe he blames me for taking his job away from him. We're starting a big fund-raising campaign at work, and it would be a bad time for me to quit. But if this continues, I might have to leave. It's horrible to never know what is going to set him off.

On the crafting front, I decided that I'm going to make the silk slip from KLS for the KAL. I'm going to use Handmaiden silk-cashmere from my stash:


Now I just need to get to the material store and buy the silk for the slip part. I think I have enough interfacing for the knitted bits. I'm excited for this project!

I still haven't finished the sockies...for some reason, I feel like it's a slog. However, my next STR kit is in the mail so I better finish them before it comes. I wish more people would post spoilers for the kit, since I can't quite tell what the pattern is like from the pics that I've seen ;)

I also ordered some things from the Loopy Ewe, and I may integrate them into KLS patterns rather than socks. I'm on a reds/purples buying kick, and I'm feeling the need to actively make things and not just buy the materials to make them with.