kmkat and her kneedles

Knitting! (5)

While I was knitting that Montego Bay silk scarf I found myself experiencing an almost visceral urge to knit socks. Fingering weight yarn! Tiny needles! I wantwantwant! However, I mananged to keep that feeling in check until the scarf was f-i-n-a-l-l-y finished.

Definition of a scarf: a knitted object four to twelve inches wide and only as long as the knitter can maintain sanity.

Ta da!

Yarn: Lang fingering weight 80/20 wool/nylon. Most of a skein of Oxford gray (83.0003) and about half a skein of ruby red, plus about one-and-a-half spools of the gray nylon reinforcing thread that came tucked into the center of the gray skein. The heels and toes are the red fingering weight yarn with the gray reinforcing thread; the feet are the gray yarn; and the legs are both the gray and the red yarn.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#0 circ (foot and first four rows of the stripe pattern); an anonymous bamboo US#1.5 circ that I bought in a lot on eBay (legs).
Pattern: Toe up using Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock Pattern until the round before the stripes start; then a modification of the sock pattern in Knit One Below by Elise Duvekot. Her socks were knit top-down; I prefer toe-up. Details of my mods are on my Rav page.

The gauge of the knit-one-below stitch is significantly bigger than stockinette. I did some judicious decreases (trial and error, three times) to get the ankle big enought to be easy to put on but not so big as to sag, plus I used a larger needle on the leg as I always do. If you look carefully you can also see the errors in the initial rows of the pattern. I wanted to plan my stitches so that I didn't have to do the knit-one-below into a stitch that had been a decrease in the previous round and apparently that was a bit more than my brain could stand. (Note to self: If I had used pencil and paper to plot it out it would have been a lot easier.) But once I had knit two or three rows of the pattern stitch I balked at ripping it out to fix it.

You may wonder at my choice of colors that are, to put it charitably, less than exciting. Well, I have a pair of socks purchased many years ago that are light gray with red toes and heels and a stripe/ribbed pattern on the legs. For some unknown reason I have always loved them. Now they are wearing out and I wanted to replace them. When I dug into my stash of solid sock yarn I had only one skein of light gray and I didn't think that would be enough. Wrong again.

 

WIP Wednesday Thursday.

Not the only thing on the needles by any means, nor necessarily the most interesting, but the one that I had a photo of. If there is interest I will write up the pattern (but only for those of us with size 8.5 narrowish feet).

FO, socks.

I finished two pairs of socks.

Yarn: ONline Supersocke 100 Nepal, the enchantingly named color 63, most of one 100-gram skein; toes and heels reinforced with red Lang reinforcing thread. I saw this yarn on eBay and had to have it.
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock, worked on 60 stitches. I consciously tried not to knit too tightly but overdid it a bit -- these socks are a bit roomy.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#0 for the foot and ankle, US#1.5 for the leg. 

I started these socks the night before I started back to work in February and didn't finish them until after tax season was well over. Hard to do anything except eat, sleep, and work during tax season.

Yarn: Premier Yarns Serenity Sockweight (50/25/25 merino/bamboo/nylon), aquamarine, most of 2 50-gram skeins. This yarn is supersoft because of the merino/bamboo.
Pattern: same as above, worked on 64 stitches instead of my usual 60 because this yarn is thinner than most sockweight. That may have been unnecessary/overkill because the socks are slightly roomy.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#0 for the foot and ankle, US#1.5 for the leg.

I started these on the subway from JFK to our hotel last month; finished the first and cast on the second on the plane home; finished the second a week or two later.

My sock wardrobe swells... 

If you can't knit big, knit small.

Many small projects are flying off the needles these days.

First was that headband for #2 Son's GF that turned out to be too narrow. I did some calculations, figured out a different edging, and decided that a cable worked in a panel of 14 stitches should be just about right. Paging through my Barbara Walker books, I came upon the perfect cable.

A closer look:

It fastens in the back with a button, a la Calorimetry.

I was inordinately clever with the button loop, if I do say so myself. As described in the post linked above, I had done a provisional cast on and worked until the length seemed right to begin the last bit, where the cable panel ends and the whole thing narrows down. I pulled out the provisional cast on and picked up those stitches (on the same circ, so for awhile I had both ends of the headband on the needle). I worked the narrowed end, improvising how to do it neatly and took a few notes so I could replicate it at the other end. When that was done, I tried it on my head and determined that it needed to be a bit longer. (My head is exactly the same sIze as GF. Isn't that special handy?) Another 20 minutes of knitting and the length was right. I followed my notes and decreased down to six stitches.

Next comes the inordinately clever part.

I put three of the stitches on a holder and made the button loop by working about an inch of i-cord on the other three stitches. Then I flattened the i-cord and kitchenered those three stitches to the first three stitches, thereby closing the loop. It turned out perfectly. Cat hairs added for verisimilitude; everything I knit includes animal hairs.

This is an awfully lot of blather about what is really a very small project, but since I designed it myself (and it turned out) I'm feeling rather proud.

* * * * *

Next up was the second hat for Warm Hats, Not Hot Heads. It is 2x2 rib, almost identical to the first one except that it is deep slate blue instead of brown. No photo, just use your imagination. I finished it Friday night. Given the fireworks in Madison this past week, I think WHNHH is a very timely endeavor.

* * * * *

After finishing the hat I knit on a sock for awhile. The Sunday a couple weeks ago before I went back to work I sort of panicked about how much the job would cut into my knitting time. Ack, less knitting time! What to do?

Clearly, the solution was to cast on for more projects: the headband, above; the hat just mentioned, the sock, and another little experiment that may or may not ever see the light of day.

Here is the sock in its present state of UFO-ness.

The sharp-eyed among you may notice that, while the toe of the sock has been reinforced with red reinforcing yarn, the half-done heel... has not.

Oops.

I was working on this Friday night at Knit Night at the Yarnery in St. Paul, a delightful place to be and to which I was introduced a couple years ago by my friend soxanne. (We met at a Yarn Harlot event when her friend canceled because of bad weather and I ended up sitting next to her. We chatted and discovered that we both had blogs, and the rest, as they say, is history.) This is only the second time I have been able to attend Knit Night, but my work schedule this tax season -- which I have lain out in exquisite detail -- may permit me to attend at least one more time. I say, Yippee!

Anyway, I was knitting away on the sock whilst chatting and was congratulating myself on how well my short rows were working... and totally forgot about the reinforcing thread. I hope my short rows work as well the second time around...

* * * * *

Last night I cast on for the second pair of felted slippers for my friend Colleen. It is a really fast pattern. I did the entire first slipper last evening, and I was in bed by 11:00.

Please excuse the shadow, bad photographer.

I should be able to finish the second one tonight, no problem. I'll see her on Wednesday morning; getting them felted and dried by then should be easy.

* * * * *

The latest thing I cast on is this, which will be Citron when it grows up.

It will be a gift to our assistant librarian (sssh, if you read this, don't tell her -- she has no idea she will be getting it). The yarn is a skein of Misti Alpaca fingering weight I bought a couple years ago on our anniversary trip to the North Shore. Souvenir yarn, ya know? It took me several weeks of hard thought before I could give it up for this scarf. The color is absolutely perfect for her (she has red hair and wears a lot of browns), but I had previously decided that the yarn was going to be the bright color in this scarf for me, with charcoal for the contrast color. I had seen it (I think) on sophanne's blog and loved it. Really, though, it is better for the gift; I am not entirely sure I could wear a wool/alpaca scarf indoors without sweating to death. Plus, I have wanted to knit Citron ever since I first saw it. And I'm not the only one -- there are 6,102 projects in Ravelry!

Relax, I'm much better better now.

Whew. If you want to be really appalled, read Marianne's comment on that last post:

"jeeze louise, I hope you're feeling better! Bobby had an episode similar, ended up in ER with a kinked intestine, one of the interns dubbed him Tasmanian Devil (he sounded just like him, the cartoon character) he spent a couple of nights in hospital getting morphine shots to relax and unkink (which it did), he wasn't complaining :^)"

So, moving on...

Do you read The Bloggess? Cuz today's post is frickin' hilarious. And the comments on pretty much every one of her posts are as funny as the post itself. My favorite comment on the linked post:

* * * * *

Hey, ya wanna see some knitting? Cuz I got some. I finally finished these socks while we were on last week's mini-vac.

Oh, you want to see the ENTIRE pair of socks? Well, all righty, then.

Yarn: Berrocco Vintage (50% acrylic/40% merino/10% nylon worsted weight) in 5182 Black Currant (red), 5187 Dungaree (faded denim blue)(no longer available at Webs), 5177 Douglas Fir (green), and 5192 Chana Dal (gold). I bought one skein of each from Webs plus one of 5185 Tide Pool (bright teal) with the idea to make several pairs of multi-colored socks until I used up the yarn. I was also curious about how an acrylic blend would wear and feel in socks. The first pair I made from this yarn demonstrated that it is not warm as the equivalent weight of wool (Duh) nor does it breathe quite as well (Duhx2), but it is still acceptable (Whew.).
Needles: US#2 from the toe to the ankle, then increasing one needle size every inch or so until I was using US#4.
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up sock. I love this pattern.

Yes, there were a LOT of ends to weave in. Wanna see a few?

No, it was not the excessive number of ends that kept these OTN for six months. I ran out of the red and waited to order another skein until the next time I placed an order with Webs. But, silly me, I didn't double-check the color name and number and ordered Black Cherry instead of Black Currant. Black Cherry turned out to be a perfectly nice color and one that I will use eventually, but it was much darker than Black Currant and would not work in the socks. So I had to wait until the next Webs order.

This pair of socks, just like the first pair, were inspired by Kristin Nicholas's socks in Kristin Knits. I am enchanted by her colorful-ness. Such fun. I am also enchanted by the notion that knitting can be about playfulness and not just tastefulness and usefulness.

1.2 Socks.

It occurred to me that perhaps I should remind everyone that I DO still knit. Currently OTN:

 

Notice the distinct lack of suntan, plus the remnants of that itchy rash on my legs. Ewww. Back in June when Smokey was doing the daily wet wraps of my arms, I was not as diligent on my shins. Working on that now.

Remember the multi-color striped top-down raglan? I tried it on after posting its progress earlier this month, and guess what? It was very nearly long enough -- only about two inches short! Finding out how close I was to finishing gave me some impetus to resume knitting. We are going camping again next week -- North Shore of Lake Superior this time -- and I hope to finish it once and for all then. Stay tuned...

Sock projects,

I dug through my sock yarn stash to decide on sock projects to bring along on vacation.

(Photo taken after I had already plucked The Chosen Yarns.)

The first choice is some Mountain Colors Bearfoot, colorway Juniper, that I won in Lisa's snow melt contest last year. This yarn cried out to be knit concurrently with the Noro striped sweater for which you saw the yarn yesterday. Don't you agree that a pair of socks from this lovely stuff would be the perfect accessory for that sweater? Yes, I thought you would.

I wound it into a ball on Saturday, but decided I should swatch and throw the it into the laundry just to be sure it would stand up to my rather careless care of socks. (I don't refuse to hand wash socks.) If it proves to require more tender care than I can provide I'll save it for a lacy scarf, and instead bring along this, purchased here, which would also be great with that sweater and which I swatched and washed last year:

Both of those yarns are dark and thus suitable for daylight knitting. When the light is dim, say, in the car after dark when I am using my headlamp, these aging eyes prefer that I work with light-colored yarn.

Behold:

 

That is Opal Starken Zarkus, colorway 2006, bought somewhere in the past year. This yarn marks my efforts to purchase sock yarns that will produce socks whose colors blend in my wardrobe rather than scream COLOR! FUN! I love Opal yarn for socks; it feels like no nonsense, like it will last forever.

Just in case the Opal socks knit up so quickly that I need a second light-colored sock project, here we have Trekking XXL, colorway "Clown Barf" 156, purchased here and which color marks my inconsistent approach to the color theory mentioned above. Trekking has much the same feel to me as Opal. "This is sock yarn."

New socks!

These have been my carry-along knitting for a couple weeks. They went fast.

Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Sport
Pattern: Wendy's Toe-Up Sock and Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind-off
Needles: US#1.5 (2.5mm) for the foot and first ~2" of the leg; US#2 (2.75mm) for the rest of the leg. Worked on 52 st.

Sport weight yarn = a quick pair of socks :)

* * * * *

Last Wednesday I attended an all-day workshop for newly elected and repeat county supervisors. The board chairman drove, a new supervisor called shotgun, and I claimed the back seat.

Why, oh why, do people schedule workshops to start at 8:15 a.m. when they know that participants may have a 2-hour drive to get there? Especially when the workshop is scheduled to end at 3:30? I brought a pillow and blankie so I could sack out in my back seat for the first part of the drive.

When I woke up I cast on for another pair of socks. This -- except for about 1/4" -- is what I got done on the drive there, during the day, and on the drive home.

 

You can get a good view of the surgery scar from the broken ankle, plus the discolored skin that seems to be another result of that mishap. And then there is the rash eczema (right above the stitch marker) that appeared after the cast came off. It seems that I was allergic to the titanium plate and screws that were used to secure the break while it healed. Because I waited too long to have them removed, the bone had grown around the long screw and it had to stay in. I will have this spot of itchiness... forever. I have had eczema since I was a child (although it abated when I hit adulthood) so I am used to the inconvenience.

Ahem. Back to the socks.

The toes and heels are some Lana Grossa Meillenweit Mega Boot Stretch I had left over from a pair of double-stranded socks, reinforced here with some Lang woolly nylon yarn/thread. The main yarn is KnitPicks Felici Sport. KnitPicks may label it sport, but it is so thin and loosely spun (and soft; 75% merino/25% nylon) that I am treating it like fingering weight. The foot is on a US#0/2.0mm needle, the leg will be on a US#1/2.25mm needle. Knitting the yarn tightly should compensate for the looseness and softness, I hope.

Socks.

Another blogger, not a knitblogger although I think she does knit occasionally, linked to Sock Dreams. I saved a bunch of pictures of their socks for future sock inspiration.

 

That last pair in the larger screen shot look remarkably like my multicolored striped raglan sweater. Hmmmmm...

One last screen shot for a certain knitblogger who likes cats and purple and is dressed almost always in black...

Random Friday.

I found myself thinking in bullet points on Thursday afternoon, which led me to this post. Of course, once I started typing, the individual bullet points got longer. As #1 Son says of himself, I can't even say hello in 25 words.

* * * * *

Remember this delightful carved wooden shawl pin that I am using to close my kimono sweater?

 

As I was putting the pin into place yesterday, I suddenly realized that the corkscrew-shaped end would enable me to screw in the pin, thusly:

 

...which means the pin Stays.In.Place. That was a bit of a problem the first few times I wore the sweater.

Damn, I'm good...

* * * * *

(Oops. I seem to have forgotten the other bullet points. Hmmm...)

* * * * *

(Oh, yeah.)

* * * * *

Smokey and I are going to enjoy a free night at the local casino hotel on Thursday night, which is TONIGHT as I type this but will be LAST NIGHT as you read it. Got that? Not that it matters.

I have three four small knitting projects that I will bring to work on tonight/last night while The Bear is happily dropping his quarters into the slots.

1. Second pair of colorful socks.                                   B. Chemo hat.
 

iii. Second cuff.                                                              IV. Medical mittens. (IV = medical, get it?)
 

1. Coming along nicely. These are my fall-back knitting right now; completely mindless and satisfying. ETA: just tried on the first foot -- it fits perfectly! Unlike the first pair of colorful socks, both of which turned out to be about 1/2" too long despite my careful plotting.

B. By request for an internet friend for her friend who is going through cancer treatment for the third time but the first time with chemo. Friend, very dignified, is more worried about losing her hair than the cancer. Chemo hat to the rescue!

iii. You haven't seen these. I have a 10-year-old fleece gray and white pullover that I love, but the cheap white knit acrylic cuffs are falling apart. These replacements will give the pullover a new lease on life.

IV. Yeah, these were supposed to be for Christmas for #1 Son. But when he told me he no longer has time to go running and hence has no particular need for them, I sort of lost interest. Then I got to a slightly more difficult part of the pattern and had screwed it up and was going to have to tink back a couple rows and needed to reprint the pattern but my toner cartridge was empty and I didn't have another and beside the dog ate my homework and the cat threw up on it. New toner cartridge now installed, pattern reprinted, and it's time to finish these suckers. Plus they are occupying my #0 and #1 circs, which I might need again someday.

I predict that numbers B. and iii. will be done by the time I come home tomorrow/today, the socks will have grown a bit, and the mittens will still languish.

Digression: I tweaked the color in the photos to correct the yarn color. Notice how different the color of the chair pad is in the different photos. Also: the blue in the socks and the mittens is NOT the semi-fluorescent blue it appears to be in the photos. I Could Not Make The Blue Behave.

* * * * *

If you are unable to shower, say, if you are camping in a place without showers or are running very very late for an appointment, acne pads -- the ones with salicylic acid -- work pretty well to swab out the stinky bits. We keep the generic ones from Wal Mart on hand; they have 7% sal acid, which is pretty strong.

You're welcome ;^)

* * * * *

I had another run-in with Da Yeep last Friday. Smokey had used it the day before to plow three driveways, charging around in 4WD. When I drove -- very carefully -- to the next little town and back, the brace holding up the plow lost its hold-it-together thingie (technical term) and the plow dropped to the road surface. If I had tried to drive it like that I would have broken the plow. Smokey was in Minneapolis, his cell phone was off, and his other phone (internet phone) was not set up to ring in the room where he was sleeping after his double shift. I did get hold of Lennie The Wonder Mechanic, who sent one of his guys with a wrecker to lift the plow blade and chain it up so I could get the vehicle home.

Smokey drives Da Yeep with reckless abandon, even as far as to Minneapolis and back, and never has a problem. I drive it five miles and end up stranded or some such. I'm cursed, I tell ya...

* * * * *

Have you seen these socks, just added to the latest issue of knitty.com? I was completely smitten at first sight. Even though I generally prefer mindless knitting, these might just be worth the effort. As soon as I finish the second pair of colorful socks and free up the #0 and #1 needles from the medical mittens, I plan to make these. Stay tuned. There are sure to be some, er, colorful metaphors flying around.

What? Another FO?

It's a pair of socks, though, so don't get too excited.

Not impressed? How about this shot:

 

I was inspired by the colorful socks in Kristin Nicholas's Kristin Knits, of which I tragically have no photo. Suffice to say, hers were far more colorful than mine, but I would have had little use for socks in lime and fuschia and canary yellow. The colors above are more my style.

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille...

 

 

 

The single row of gold yarn at the cuff kinda got lost when I put them on, darn.

Yarn: Berrocco Vintage (50% acrylic/40% merino/10% nylon worsted weight) in 5182 Black Currant (red), 5185 Tide Pool (teal), 5177 Douglas Fir (green), and 5192 Chana Dal (gold). I bought one skein of each from Webs plus one of 5187 Dungaree (worn denim blue) with the idea to make several pairs of multi-colored socks until I used up the yarn. I was also curious about how an acrylic blend would wear and feel in socks. Today I found that it is not warm as the equivalent weight of wool (Duh.) nor does it breathe quite as well (2xDuh.), but it is still acceptable (Whew.).
Needles: US#2 from the toe to the ankle, then increasing one needle size every inch or so until I was using US#4; cast off with US#5.
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up sock. I love this pattern. For the next sock, though, I am going to make the heel deeper to lessen the stretching over the top of the instep. That has not been a problem with the previous socks I made from this pattern, but the combination of worsted weight yarn and small needles in this pair seems to require it.

All in all, socks that are quick to knit and fun to wear. Stay tuned for the next pair, already OTN...

Jumpers. Knitting.

"Pringle of Scotland has commissioned artist David Shrigley to create a humorous short animated film about life behind-the-scenes at Pringle to celebrate the brands return to Milan Fashion Week.

"The animation, showcased during Pringle of Scotland's menswear show in Milan on 18th January, depicts the making of jumpers and cardigans over the past 195 year history of the Scottish brand."

Found via modeknit's tweet yesterday.

* * * * *

Yes, there is knitting going on here at Chez Kat™.

 

No, it is not ready for prime time yet.

Resolution(s), updated.

I have thought about the sweaters for myself and refined my resolutions a bit. I'll state it here for the record.

I, kmkat, being of [mostly] sound mind and body, do hereby declare that intend to knit three sweaters for myself in 2010, namely:

1. Finish the kimono sweater
2. Knit the multicolor striped top-down raglan
3. Knit Baby Cables and Big Ones Too, hereinafter known as Baby Cables Etc.; I bought Elsabeth Lavold Silky Wool for that one a year ago.

Shall we take bets on this? I'm not even sure how I would bet. It all hinges on my ability to 1, stay focused, and B, Just.Say.No. For the record, I have already come upon a potential project-for-others, gotten excited about it, and almost jumped in. Then I remembered my resolution and Just.Said.No (to myself).

Oh, and by the way, do you want to guess what is currently on the needles?

 

Yeah, a sock. At least it is a sock for me.

Pink.

Have I ever mentioned that my least favorite color is pink?

And that my least favorite shade of pink is hot pink?

Here's my latest FO.

 

Hot pink is, however, the favorite color of Maggie, #2 Son's gf. And these are for her. Because I am willing to sacrifice my eyeballs (and sanity) in the cause of love.

Yarn: Sock That Rock heavyweight, colorway Hot Flash.
Needles: Addi Turbo, US#3 (foot and ankle) and US#4 (leg).
Pattern: Wendy's generic toe-up pattern, with a cable thrown onto the sides of the leg just because I am really, really into cables right now. Worked on 42 st except for second leg, which was worked on 44 st b/c the first leg was a little tight. I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off, which works a treat. It will now be my go-to bind off for things that need to stretch. If you haven't used it yet, I highly recommend it.

Wendy's pattern linked above has become my go-to, toe-up sock pattern. I really like that I don't have to fiddle with casting on at the tip of the toe. It uses a provisional cast-on of half the total stitches on the top of the toe, then uses short rows to form the toe. Tidy and easy, perfect. My next goal is to learn to do a slip-stitch gusseted heel on toe-up socks. I know there are patterns out there, just haven't done the requisite research yet. If any of you know of one that is easily adaptable to any gauge and/or size, sing out in the comments.

Note: there seem to be a plethora (there's that word again!) of hot pink socks being thrown up on people's blogs lately. Cookie (not that that is a surprise; that grrl loves her some pink), Cookie again (these for Our Joan), Carole (hers are mittens, but still very, very pink), Diane. I guess hot pink is The Thing this month.

Eye candy Friday: the random edition.

Soxanne posted photos of some of her family's Christmas ornaments a few days ago, and I am cheerfully and shamelessly stealing her idea. Feel free to do so yourself -- I'd love to see what y'all hang on your tree. Tell the associated stories, too (voyeur here).

* * * * *

Thursday morning, 7:55 a.m. (yeah, the clock still thinks it is summer):

 

My morning adventure; let me tell you it.

Our cars are a bit scrambled. Smokey is driving my car to work every night this week because #2 son has his car because #2's car in in our pole barn awaiting installation of a part. Thursday morning I needed to go to a 9 a.m. meeting; Smokey said I should use Da Yeep (remember Da Yeep*?), just remember to shift it out of 4WD low range -- he had been plowing the driveway -- before I took it on the road. No problem, mon.

I knew that it would probably take me a few extra minutes to get to the meeting (15 minutes away) so I began bundling up 45 minutes early. Plenty of time.

Da Yeep has an annoying habit of draining the battery when it is parked more than a few hours. Smokey has tried unsuccessfully to find the cause and eventually put a switch on the battery to disconnect it when we park Da Yeep. In order to turn the switch on I needed to open the hood. No problem, I have dealt with this switch any number of times.

Oops. I have never attempted to open the hood when the snowplow is on the front of Da Vehicle. I was not strong enough to lift the hood at all when standing in front of the plow. When standing at the side I could -- just barely -- pull the hood latch behind the grill, and I could -- just barely -- lift the corner of the hood closest to me, but that twisted the hood enough to wedge the opposite corner. Grrr. 

After several attempts I decided that if I wedged something under the closer edge after I unlatched it, I could then walk around to the other side and finish lifting the hood. The handle of a screwdriver did the trick. Go, me!

Now I am standing at the other front corner of Da Yeep holding up the hood with one hand and thinking, Oh great, I suppose the prop rod to hold it up is on the other side and I can't reach it.

But lo and behold, it was within reach! Yay!

I turned on the switch and pulled out the prop rod to drop the hood. Except that I couldn't pull out the prop rod. I had pushed it too far into the hole in the underside of the hood, thinking that I was being extra safe; visions of the hood dropping and taking off my arm had danced through my head, and I had congratulated myself on my Safety First! attitude.

I tugged and wiggled and cursed at that rod, but it wouldn't come loose. Back into the house (again) and up the stairs (again) for a hammer. Whacked that prop rod a good one and it came loose. ::fist pump::

Da Yeep started, albeit reluctantly, and I started up the driveway.

Oh, wait, gotta take it out of 4WD low range before I drive it at speed.

Shift lever Will.Not.Budge. I tried it in park, with my foot on the brake, with the engine on and with it off. Every combination of above. I may have whacked it with the hammer. Once again, I was not strong enough. Da Yeep is one butch vehicle.

So I drove to the meeting on the shoulder of the highway, max speed of 20 mph, with my four-way emergency flashers on. And was 25 minutes late for the meeting,

But I did get there in time to give a little moral support to a friend who was making a pitch to the county board personnel committee to allow employees to donate to the United Way through payroll deduction, which was my goal. Yay!

I was pretty amazed at my perseverance. When a car doesn't work, I tend to try one or two things and give up. Maybe I am [finally] growing up...

* * * * *

Before it got so ungodly cold, I was having fun wearing these shoes with handknit socks.

 

Now I wear anything and everything that seems warm, and plastic shoes ain't it. Next spring...

*  If you google "da yeep" I am the first hit. I'm famous!.

And the knitting continues.

No more discernible progress on the medical mittens.

#2 son and his girlfriend are here this weekend, which reduces the amount of quiet time considerably. And I shall need quiet time with no distractions to perform those mighty cables and snakes and DNA helix. I did knit a round of stockinette on one mitten using the new Addi 2.25mm needle that arrived in the mail on Saturday. The needle that I had in that size had abominable joins, ones that would would have driven me stark raving mad had I attempted to use them for both entire mittens. They practically drove my bonkers on the one round I did with that needle.

Instead of working on the mittens, I made some more baby hats for Rwanda. As Dale-Harriet says, They're like potato chips. You can't knit just one.

Recognize that multicolored wool boucle, lisa? It is going to a good use.

Also in Saturday's mail was a skein of Socks That Rock heavyweight to make another pair of socks for Maggie (#2's girlfriend). She picked out the yarn when they were here last weekend.

 

She likes pink, the brighter, the better. Oh, really, Kat? A pair of socks in this heavy weight, 42 st worked on a US#3 needle, knits up really fast. I took this photo at about 3 pm; it is now 5:24 and I am past the heel. Keep that in mind if you have in mind to knit a pair of socks for someone for Christmas. 

When they were here last weekend they did 99% of the work to put up the Christmas tree.

 

I put on the star. See how nicely it stands up? Not.

 

Matthew also put together the wire shelves you see at the right.

A couple months ago I got the urge to have lots of plants this winter. Usually I get that urge in January, when it is a total and complete crap shoot as to whether I can get the plants home from the store without killing them. Plant shopping in September works much, much better.

Here are some better views.

 

 

The thing that got me inspired this year, I think, was that Smokey brought me an orchid for our anniversary. It is the plant at the right side of the top shelf.

Here's how it looked for two months, until the blossoms faded.

 

The challenge will be to see if I can bring it back into bloom some day.

Eye candy Friday: the MLIA version.

When I got dressed yesterday morning, I realized all my hand-knit socks were dirty. Later, I decided I could wash one load of laundry that was just hand-knit socks. When I hung them on the rack to finish drying I felt I had achieved a hand-knit sock milestone. MLIA.

Mememememe.

Still cleaning out my drafts folder. Originally written May 8, 2009.

True: I was doing this meme just because I like it, without having been tagged, when took a little break and clicked over to Jen's blog only to discover she had done it, too, and tagged me. Clearly, this was meant to be...

* * * * *
What are your current obsessions?
Knitting. Blogs. Blogs about knitting.

Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
My Merrell clogs. Every day. (Must buy another pair. These are starting to stink.)

What's for dinner?
Dinner? That is hours away. Well, okay, spaghetti with Italian sausage and sauce from a jar, just because that was what was going to be for last night's dinner until we decided to go out instead.

What's your greatest fear at the moment?
That the economy will tube so badly that Smokey and I will have to retire to subsidized housing, eat mac'n'cheese for the rest of our lives, and never, ever get to travel ever again.

What are you listening to?
My iTunes playlist, "Singalong Rock." Right now CSN&Y are singing Woodstock; the last few songs were Don't Look Back by Boston, Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly, Hot Rod Lincoln by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, Rag Doll by Aerosmith*, and Blue Sky by the Allman Brothers.

If you were a goddess what would you be?
But I am a goddess...

What are your favorite holiday spots?
Right here in my house on the lake is my favorite. If I have to go somewhere, it would be the Florida Keys. Or maybe Tahiti.

What are you reading right now?
The Waters of Babylon by Nelson DeMille. Hey, I may be a goddess but sometimes I read total crap just like everyone else. Oh, and The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns can Change to Sustainable Practices. That one is NOT crap.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Heh. I realized about a year ago that my guilty pleasure (and those are exactly the words I used) is George Thorogood and the Destroyers. Smokey and I are going to see them in concert in August at the Grand Casino in Hinkley, MN.

Who or what makes you laugh?
Smokey, Matthew, our dogs, our cats, people in general, lolcats. I like to laugh.

What is your favorite spring thing to do?
Inhale. Look for wildflowers blooming in the woods. Listen to the spring peepers.

What is the best thing you ate or drank lately?
The fresh pasta with vegies, including ramps, at Common Roots restaurant at 26th and Lyndale in Minneapolis last week. Although the chocolate chip muffin I just ate was pretty darned good, too.

When was the last time you were tipsy?
That night last week when I had two glasses of wine (instead of my usual one) at bedtime.

What is your favourite ever film?
The Big Lebowski. That one has been amusing me for at least ten years. Dude.

What is the biggest lesson you've learned from your children?
How much fun they are and how much I enjoy their company. I didn't expect that.

What song can't you get out of your head?
My head is totally empty. No songs in there at all.

What book do you know you should read but refuse to?
Love in the Time of Cholera and Gravity's Rainbow. I have tried numerous times with both, haven't gotten past about page 20 in either one yet.

What is your favourite color?
Red. Blue. Jewel tones.

Where's the best place to get decent Indian food within 10 miles of Northbrook, IL? (in case you can't tell, this is the question Jen added).
I have no idea. Sorry, Jen.

What do you like to think about while you are waiting to fall asleep?
Duh. Knitting.

* * * * *

Later today I will head for Minneapolis for the annual 2-day tax conference, aka 2-day knitting retreat with CPE credit. I should be able to knock out a couple-three hats for the homeless.

Kittehs. Shoes. Kitteh.

I'm cleaning out my drafts folder. Just in case I decide to move elsewhere...

 

Left, Mocha, the kitteh who owned one of our former renters, in her Hallowe'en finery; right, 6/14/09 lolcats.

Separated at birth? You decide...

* * * * *

Wouldn't these look great worn with a pair of socks knit from some self-patterning yarn?

Also available in black and pink.

* * * * *

One more lolcats. I need to preface it with some facts. I have a surgical scar, actually two, at the base of my spine where a polinidal cyst was removed (twice). Also, since I am such a cat lover, my husband has teased me for years that those scars are where my own feline tail was removed. So when I saw this today I immediately sent a screen shot to Smokey, saying, "I want mine back!"

What did you knit on vacation, Kat™?

Did I knit much on vacation? Did I knit much on vacation? I knit so much that by the end I sometimes found myself riding in the car and not knitting! Apparently I had gotten my fill, not that that condition lasted very long. I resumed knitting as soon as I got home.

Let's recap, shall we? As planned, I took along:

1. The kimono sweater, which I planned to finish. Status: not finished, but not for lack of knitting. When we left I had knitted the first 6" of the two fronts. While we were gone I finished both fronts, attached them to the back with a 3-needle bind-off, picked up 270 st -- from the bottom right front up around the neck and down the left front -- and knitted 3" of garter stitch for the neckband. And I have woven in all the ends so far. That is where the sweater stands now. I didn't accomplish my entire goal, but I am much further than I was; it is still realistic to expect to wear it this winter.

This back:                                                added a couple fronts and a neckband:
                  

2. The corn socks, in hopes of having a completed pair sometime during the trip. Status: done, worn, washed, worn, washed, and ready for another wearing.

These:                                                       became these:
              

I need to seek out another shirt or two in golden tones so I have something beside one t-shirt to wear these with.

3. The Cascade 220 stash-breaker Faroese shawl, to be able to change up my knitting when I finished the kimono sweater. Status: the shawl looks remarkably similar to the picture taken before we left. I knit only another couple stripes because I was so intent on the kimono sweater.

This:                                                           grew very slightly, into this:
                

4. Sock yarn to start another pair of socks. I returned to my original plan and brought this blue Pagewood Farms Denali sock yarn instead of the brand-new BFL I won from Tammy right before we left. I really need some more blue socks; I have plenty of red ones because I love red, not that I won't love to knit this into socks and wear them.

This:                                                            instead of this:
                    

Blue sock #1 is now nearly done, just another inch or so on the leg to go.

4. In addition, I brought two balls of Karabella Margrite (80% extra-fine merino, 20% cashmere) to make a chemo cap for Smokey's co-worker.

107 yards of this:                                          was transformed into this:
                    

The color in the first photo is accurate. The cap is lovely soft and was delivered to her this week.

As you can see, I totally pwned that 4-row lace pattern this time. Yay, me!

5. I finished the narrow Clapotis.

Three balls of this:                                   had grown into this before we left.
                            

It subsequently grew into this:            which shall be worn sort of like this:
                    

The jacket is actually a dull olive, a bit darker than the green in the scarf, not the gray it appears to be in the photo. The colors work quite well together.

6. I threw 2 balls of Cascade Fixation in a mottled denim colorway into my knitting bags, too, just in case I felt like knitting another pair of warm weather socks when I finished the corn ones. Didn't happen. The yarn still looks like this:

6.  I did not bring along the half-done child's sweater for A4A. Reality smacked me upside the head. Given the projects above, I knew there was no way I was going to get to this one.

All in all, I am pleased with my progress. Wish it could have been more, but don't we always wish that?