Rufflicious

Here is Auden modeling Kira's Ruffles scarf, which I sent off in the mail today. I think it's cute – I don't love my choice of yarn, which made the scarf a little too thick and heavy. I hope it's long enough – I could have gone longer but I was so bored of knitting it! plus the heavy thing. And then I squashed it in the box with my nieces' other gifts, who knows what it will look like when it arrives!


Pattern: Ruffles scarf from Scarf Style.
Yarn: Scoubidu in stonewashed purple, 2.5 skeins
Needles: US6 straights.
Modifications: None

And here is my Anniversary sock for my mother, in progress. It is a very nice lace pattern, but it does something strange when I try it on and look at it stretched out - the lace skews to one side. I will have to take a close-up picture to show you. I am not changing it now, and I guess I'd better do the other one to match, but it looks odd to me.


These are clearly not going to be done for Hannukah, though I am knitting them faster than any sock I've knit before! I'm using my new Knitpicks DPNs, size 1.5 – I like that they are shorter than my other needles and the gauge seems good. My poor fingers are quite sore from their sharp points, though (good for the mini-cables) and I'm not sure how I'm feeling about their weight.

So that's all the knitting that's going on chez Hilary! I need to start something else mindless to take with me to Wizard of Oz rehearsals (Eli's a Munchkin) etc. Maybe I will make a teacher scarf after all ...

Two FO's

Count 'em, two!

First, my Dashing gloves in Malabrigo for Eli's temporary cello teacher, with which I am inordinately happy (the gloves, not the teacher. I am very happy with her too - hence the gloves - but I believe that is happiness of the ordinate sort:). I need to make more fingerless gloves. They're fast! They're funky! I am not quite clear on the usefulness, and they are very long, but I love them anyway. And I love the Malabrigo, the Malabrigo colorway (Paris Nights) and the way they feel ... I just hope they don't disappear into pills on the first wearing.

Pattern: Dashing, from Knitty

Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in Paris Nights

Needles: DPN US6

Modifications: I knit 20 rows instead of 24 after the third cable to shorten the wrists slightly. I also decreased five stitches before the castoff so they wouldn't flare, and I used the EZ sewn bind-off. (Is there ever a reason not to use that? I am quite addicted to it, and it matched my cable cast-on quite well.)

Second, the Diagonal Ridges scarf for Nada:

I still need to block it, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. It is a very pretty pattern (thanks Kathy!) and the wrong side looks just as good as the right:

Pattern: Diagonal Ridges scarf from Ann Norling, Six Lace Scarfs

Yarn: Times Remembered Prime Alpaca, sportweight, color Musk

Needles: Knitpicks Options US4

Modifications: Cast on 33 stitches. I used the EZ sewn bindoff for this, too.

Signs of Addiction

More yarn has appeared at my house and I am at a loss to explain just why. Last month I was virtuously selling off stash and then ... something happened. I think I was using up my Paypal balance and I got carried away. Just a little! Some serious enabling by the ISO group on Ravelry and the Destash blog. I really need to get off of those. And then there was the siren call of a sale at Sonny & Shear ...

It's all beautiful! There's Noro Silk Garden in pinks and purples, which I have a plan for, sort of:

Fleece Artist Merino Sock in Mermaid:


Claudia Hand Painted sock yarn in Plumilicious ...


Dream in Color Smooshy in Some Kind of Summer (I love this already!):


and Dream in Color Classy in Petal Shower, or Shower of Petals, which will make a lovely baby sweater, as soon as someone I know (someone? anyone?) has a baby girl.

Not too terrible ... except of course that there's a sale at a going-out-of-business LYS I really want to go to, and Shop Night at the Knitter's Guild meeting next month ... and it is not like I am exactly churning out the knitted items.

*sigh* I need a budget.

Tomorrow: FO's! I promise!

Bad Parenting

We interrupt this knitting blog to bring you a cautionary announcement: It turns out that allowing one's children to have one night of "eat all the Halloween candy you want" may not be such a great idea. Apparently parents are supposed to be smarter than their 5-year-olds about how much is enough/too much, and not let them end up awake half the night with a tummy ache and then send them kindergarten only to throw up on the table. (I say apparently, because although both said 5-year-old and her mother have stomach aches from too much candy, one of them – and it's not the 5-year-old – is still eating leftover candy.)

*sigh*

I could swear I read this eat-all-you-want-once idea in the paper. (And of course I believe everything I read in the paper!) I think it was a dentist who suggested it. Well, her teeth are fine.

And now she's itching and blotchy all over and I have a call in to the doctor. I feel like such a bad mommy!


Postscript: Well, it is looking less like the candy is to blame and more like she is just plain sick. So I guess I can feel less guilty.

Here is one possibility of how she GOT sick ... the world's most unhygienic Halloween game, astonishingly instigated by the teacher. It involves serial licking of a laminated construction paper jack-o-lantern, with only a wipe of a wet rag between children, at least one of whom had had a fever as recently as that morning. I was so astounded that I could do nothing but sputter "I'm really grossed out" and watch as my daughter went ahead and played. (I should have jumped in like a proper Type A mom and screamed "Go first Auden, go first!")


Well, who knows if there's any relation. But it was seriously gross.

On a more positive note, here is Auden's class all suited up for Halloween. It sure doesn't look like any of my elementary school classes! It warms my heart. I just hope all that diversity is rubbing off on her somewhere.

Back to knitting content next time, I promise!