A Windy Day ...

and some squirrels in our yard are looking for new homes!

Moving Right Along

Well, after working on every small project I could think of instead, I have finally started the Bridget cardigan. So far so good! I am still amazed by the very fact of cabling (and the fact that I can do it) though I think some of that will wear off by the time I get through two fronts and the back ... there are a lot of cables here. And no charts. Charts would help a lot. I may need to do something about that.

One early success: I was able to drop down four rows to add in a cable I'd left out (one of the little ones on the left -- you can see where it's kind of loose) instead of having to rip back. Baby steps! The Options needle points are killing my fingers with all the pushing through cables; I might switch to my Inox and see if they're pointy enough to do the job.

So that should keep me busy for a while. It's not traveling knitting, though. Nor is this, the semi-abandoned Anniversary Sock:


I tried it on again yesterday. Can anyone else see the skewing I'm talking about in the picture above? The diamonds are not symmetrical ... they pull to the right and kind of slant over into the cable on the right, while there's a neat straight division between them and the cable on the left. Did I do something wrong to cause this? Or is it just part of the design? It bothers me less than it did before. Anyway, I wasn't going to rip back because of that, but because I thought it was too short and the heel fit badly:


I love the eye-of-partridge heel but this one is a strange shape -- very short and wide, not a square at all. If I rip out past the heel will I ever re-knit the rest of the sock? and if I don't, will I ever re-knit the second sock??!! I think I should finish these socks; it's very nice yarn and they're very pretty. And they're for my mother, who so far has only one garter stitch scarf to show for her knitting daughter. I think I will make Kathy help decide when she comes here next week. (!!!!) All my knitting decisions rely heavily on Kathy. :)

And finally, I realized I never posted a picture of my Hannukah yarn. My sister-in-law Nancy gave me The Book of Yarn, which I love, and this beautiful sock yarn:


The colors, especially of the one on the right, are not ones I would have chosen myself, which I like, because I tend to buy the same colors over and over. Eli is already clamoring for socks from the "fire" yarn!

Purty Hat

There. My children are hatted and mittened for winter. If that doesn't make a knitting mommy proud. Also, who could ever be mad at a 9-year-old who loves his homemade knitwear so much he insists on wearing all of it – hat, mittens and Harry Potter scarf – for the five-minute trip to his friend's house this afternoon? (Well, I could, actually, but we shall not mention that here.) Of course, he then forgot to bring any of it home! but it has been retrieved and all is well.


Pattern: Norwegian Star Earflap Hat by Tiennie
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash
Needles: US 8 (and my wee US 6 short needles for the I-cord.)
Size: Adult
Modifications: I made a four-stitch I-cord.

What a lovely pattern! Very easy to follow, though you wouldn't know it from the umpteen false starts I made on this hat. I had many ideas, such as making it double-thick, and starting from the top down, and doing ribbing instead of earflaps ... but in the end Eli wanted earflaps, so he got them. It is a little big, but he has such a big head I was afraid the smaller size wouldn't be big enough. I want to block it and see if I can tame the rolling in front and back a little (Tiennie, if you read this, did you do this?) but he may not let go of it long enough for me to block it!

The kids and I are off to Maryland, but before I leave I have to post these pictures of our knitting family the other night; after a long day at the children's museum and swimming with friends (AND a pretend-Friendly's dinner at home), the next morning the children decided they wanted to knit! So they pulled out their knitting, which has sat untouched for months, and charged ahead. To my surprise, they both basically remembered what to do (I had taught them the Waldorf poem – "In through the window, out through the back, peek through the window and off pops Jack" – which seemed to help, and they are – for now – wrapping the yarn the way other people do, which seemed easier to learn than my way, though – *sniff* – less efficient!) They were both so darn cute about it all, and quite persistent. I did some cleaning up and salvaging of stitches now and then, but really they were both knitting! Auden even taught Eli how to do mushroom-knitting; I think he was impressed that she could do it so well. (I got him his own today so he can try left-handed.)


Auden helps her big brother.

Everyone knits.

Eli hard at work on his scarf.

And now, I'm off. Happy New Year everyone - see you in 2008!

Snow Day!

The huge blizzard we were supposed to get never came, but the kids ended up with the day off school anyway, which seemed only fair after all the hype. We did get more than a foot of snow over the weekend – we're moving up in the Great Snow Race, woo hoo! (Why does Buffalo get all the hype? They've got nuthin' on us. Of course, we've got nothing on Syracuse ...:) The kids spent half the day inside in their pajamas until I finally tossed them out into the snow.

Two happy children ...

and one VERY happy dog!

Some meager and belated updates ...

I finished (except for blocking) another "Scarf-as-a-Collar" for Auden's kindergarten teacher. It took less than a skein of Claudia's Handpainted sock yarn, with a bit left over, yay! (Adding in a second skein the last time I made it was a pain.) I hope it's long enough – the last one I made longer and then thought was too long; this one seems the bare minimum for length. Maybe blocking will help some.

And I'm mostly done with a pair of striped mittens for Eli, inspired by Loribird at From the Wool Room. Mine are in Cascade 220 superwash (I love the Heathers she used, but I have seen what my children do to their mittens!) also using the Ann Budd Book of Patterns from the library. (What a great book! I think I might need a copy of my own.) They're a very fast knit – I finished the first one in two afternoons of Munchkin-chaperoning – and quite adorable, I think. My only reservation is they're thin - I hadn't really thought about how much thickness the colorwork added to Auden's mittens.

And that's all at the moment, really. The Anniversary Socks are hibernating until I stop being too depressed to figure out what's wrong with them and how to fix it. I toyed with the idea of making another teacher gift by the end of the week but ... I don't think so. Wouldn't she really rather have a Target gift card anyway? I need to finish these mittens, make a hat, make myself a headband ('cause my ears are getting cold) and then get down to business on one of these many sweaters which I now own the yarn for. If they could just settle the television writer's strike, my knitting time would be all set. :)

In case I don't post again this month: Happy New Year everyone! and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. May your holidays be warm and safe.

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!

Happy Halloween!

After the Whacking

This is the beginning of my alpaca scarf, using the skein that I dunked in hot water/dunked in cold water/dunked in hot water/whacked against the wall:


It DOES look different from the swatch I made from the undunked and unwhacked alpaca (below), but it's not entirely a controlled test. (Different pattern, the second swatch is washed and blocked, etc.) However it seems less hairy, and I didn't ruin my yarn, so I'll take what I get. The idea is, I guess, to very slightly full the yarn so that the hairs don't stick out as much. I should have taken pictures, but I was too terrified of felting the whole skein to think about anything else! The whacking against the wall is very satisfying, for the record.

I like the top pattern -- it's Ann Norling's Diagonal Ridges -- better (just like Kathy said I would:) but I think mine is too narrow (only 5.5 inches -- the pattern calls for 6 and I think maybe I want a little more than that) so I'm going to start over. Pooey.

EDITED TO ADD: Never mind. I dug out the scarf in this pattern that Kathy made for Will and it is the same width and it looks fine. Onward!

Forgot to take a picture of the new, improved socks I started for my mom and today it's pouring. But I think I'm starting those over too. I missed a cable, and I want to try the new size needles I ordered from Knitpicks (the larger size 1s, which fall between the regular U.S. 1 and 2 sizes.) Last time I knit a sock on 1s it drove me insane, but I would like a slightly finer fabric.

That was my blog break, back to spring fall cleaning!

p.s.

I pulled out the box of scarves, gloves and hats this evening. Fun to see all the handknits in there. Not THAT many, not compared to many of you who are far more prolific than I am. But it still tickles me to have made any practical items at all.

One Done

Finally, I finished something! Even better, finally I finished this shawl, this endless endless shawl. As you can see from the picture, the edges need blocking (I hope that works -- can you block superwash and have it stay that way? Otherwise Aunt Fran is getting a seriously wiggly-edged shawl.)

This was a straightforward knit, but I got bored -- the pattern is either too busy or too abstract so that I couldn't see it forming as I knit, which made it less fun for me. But I like the way it looks, and it is a nice three-dimensional pattern, very warm and snuggly. It was good TV knitting.

Against doctor's orders, I stopped after 55". (Though if it hadn't been for the advice I got, I would have stopped 10" earlier than that, so I'm not completely unresponsive.:) My great-aunt is very small, so I didn't want it to overwhelm her. I may be wrong, though.

The Cascade 220 Superwash was very nice to work with, though a less solid-colored yarn might have helped with the boredom.

Pattern: Cozy, from Knitty
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, about 3.5 skeins
Needles: Knitpicks Options US 9
Modifications: Shortened it.

To Do (Maybe)

Inspired by Teal, I made a To Do List. I make these for myself all the time, but not so often for my knitting. But I realized I was crazy to be thinking about knitting Koigu socks for myself when I had so many other projects on deck. (I *never* knit holiday presents, but this year I wanted to, which gives me actual deadlines!)

And then I couldn't resist starting one of them ...

That's the beginning of a Ruffles scarf, from Scarf Style, for my 11-year-old niece. I'm using Trendsetter Scoubidu yarn, which is a nice squishy cotton blend. I really wanted something with Noro-ish stripes, but couldn't find anything soft or low maintenance enough. I know some people say knitting Ruffles drove them crazy, but I find it hugely addictive. It is GREAT TV knitting (and should be great carry-along knitting) -- the pattern is easy to memorize and it is so much fun to watch the spirals grow. It was especially good for keeping me calm as the Cubs went and eliminated themselves from the playoffs, losing their third game in a row tonight at HOME. Look how many spirals I got done!

So, here's the lineup, actual and potential:

In Progress:
Cozy, for Fran. Deadline: Hannukah? Status: Almost finished.
Jo Sharp Bridget cardigan for me. Deadline: None. Status: Swatched.
Ruffles scarf for Kira. Deadline: Hannukah Status: Started.

Planned:
Scarf, for Nada. Deadline: Hannukah Yarn: Alpaca Handspun Pattern: Undecided!!!
Something for Talia? Deadline: Hannukah
Socks for my Mom. Deadline: Hannukah *or* Feb. 8 (her birthday) Yarn: Regia Silk (ordered) Pattern: Undecided.
Scarf for Auden's teacher. Deadline: Late December. Yarn: Louisa Harding.
Kippah for Eli! Deadline: None.
(Socks for me ...)

That seems like enough for now ...

The Family That Winds Together ...

makes cake. :)

Even Will got into the act -- in fact he probably wound most of it, once he got into it -- but I forgot to get a picture.

I luuuuuurve my ball winder and swift. And winding yarn outside was the perfect knitting activity for another summerlike day (sorry Kathy!)

Now one of these days I need to actually knit something ...

Slow Start

That title could refer to this post, which has been sitting in limbo for some time, but I really mean my Jo Sharp Bridget sweater. I got this far:

(Notice this is not the yarn I bought for this sweater in my last post -- the DAY after I bought that, someone was destashing the EXACT yarn called for in the pattern on Knitter's Review ... and I couldn't resist. It's Silkroad Aran in Beach, which is less white in person than in pictures, but very beautiful. I have gotten as far as swatching. (The pattern calls for using US 8s but I got gauge on 7s, which is the first time I have ever had to go down a needle size, but perhaps I have suddenly become relaxed knitter. And person. HA!)

Anyway I haven't gotten my act together to actually START the sweater yet, and I've been distracted by constantly thinking I'm almost done with my Cozy shawl, and yet not being. And by trying to figure out which scarf pattern to knit for my brother-in-law for Hannukah ... right now it is a tie between A Scarf Askew and the Red Herring Scarf, but I would prefer something reversible. And by obsessing over all the things that are not perfect about my daughter's kindergarten experience, and and and ...


I would also like to start a sock, so that I have something to carry around with me. I went up to look at this Koigu to see if I wanted to sell it, and instead decided I like the colors, they are cheerful and amusing. But I have no idea what it will look like knitted up, and I don't know what pattern to use. These are the criteria:

1) It must not pool! and 2) I don't want something "fancy" like the Monkey Socks. I want something more like a "plain sock" but I think not entirely plain. Maybe just ribbing. Do you have any suggestions? I haven't knitted Koigu socks before, actually, so I don't know how it will behave.

The other thing that is distracting me, in a good way so far, is the Cubs! Apparently there is a Lorna's Laces colorway "Cubby Bear" but I can't find a picture of it to post in honor of the Cubs winning their division and heading to the playoffs. Go Cubs! I think we're due.

Fiber Festivities

What was I thinking not taking my camera with me to the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival? There was bright sunshine and perfect fall weather, alpacas and sheep all over the place, wheels and spindles, spinners, knitters, and of course, endless, overwhelming amounts of yarn. Also, this:

Can you tell what it is? It's not roving. It's naturally maple flavored and colored cotton candy, very yum. Lots of double-takes as people went around the fair eating what appeared to be bags of wool. The bag I brought home was very quickly very gone.

And yes, I bought yarn. *sigh*

After wandering around happily for several hours, I ended up spending all my money in one place, at Times Remembered, from Slate Hill, N.Y. (They don't seem to have a website, but I have their email ...) There were lots of alpaca vendors, but I thought Times Remembered had the best combination of soft and reasonably priced. I wish I had a picture of all the gorgeous colors! Chocolate and nutmeg and camel and musk ... I can't remember the others, but they were all beautiful.

I bought two skeins of sport weight musk without a particular plan (*guilt*)

and then I came back and bought four skeins of their worsted alpaca/wool blend for my Jo Sharp Bridget sweater:

and some sock yarn for, well, socks. (I wish I were a lace knitter because I think a lace shawl from the fingering weight alpaca would be stunning.)

The sock colors are a little richer than they look here, but there's a heathery purple merino, a gorgeous sand-colored alpaca (I couldn't resist!), and a natural white silk-merino blend to try again on socks for my mom.

Thank goodness the festival is just once a year!