kmkat and her kneedles

If this is Sunday, it must time for another parade.

This was our group in the last parade. Lady in light blue shirt is
Kelly Westlund, running for Congress from our district.

Gonna drive in the Lucky Days parade this afternoon. Got a big bowl of candy to throw to the kids along the route. I tell myself all through every parade, "Don't drive over a kid. Don't drive over a kid. Don't drive over a kid." It's a good rule. 

* * * * *

Mutterings.

1. Joke :: practical.
2. Away :: game.
3. Reaction :: time.
4. High :: times.
5. Movie :: times.
6. Decide :: later.
7. Afternoon :: delight.
8. Contrarian :: Smokey.
9. Understand :: grok.
10. Zone :: no parking.

* * * * *

I continue to knit on the fingerless glove project. Four pairs mostly done, and cast on for a fifth pair last night. Only one pair is completely done; the others all need thumbs, one pair needs its hems sewn down, and most need their ends woven in.  I am saving all that finishing for some night when I am watching TV. 

In other TV-related news, we just joined the rest of the US and* got a flat TV. I think it is 46", maybe 42", plenty big for our cozy living room. Younger Son set it up for us on Saturday morning. It took me roughly 30 seconds to get used to having a bigger screen. The viewing experience changes a little -- I find I am more aware of the rest of the picture, not just the main action/actor. Our old TV, a 32" digital CRT model, will go to live in Elder Son's house. 

 

* I have found it a little disconcerting to see huge flat-screen TVs in the living rooms of pretty much every house that leaves its curtains open. Why does everyone else -- even people whom I know are on a severely limited income -- have a fancy-schmancy TV and we don't? Well, because we were waiting for the prices to come down to cheap. And they did. 

 

 

Summer knitting, cont., aka FO Friday.

Before I went into the hospital I decided I needed to take along some comfort knitting. My other projects were all at a stage where they required thought and/or concentration -- not suitable for hospital knitting under the infuence of painkillers. I scrounged in the stash and decided to make a scarf for the Red Scarf Project.

Ta-da!

I was using up odd balls of yarn left over from previous projects. Ravelry-ed here. But that edging was a challenge. It came about because I was not satisfied with how the ends were woven in... and there were a LOT of ends. A black edging would cover them and also enhance the stained glass effect.

First, I did an attached i-cord. Somehow I had it in my head that attached i-cord covers the edge. Nope, it just sits on one side on top of the edge. No go, rip.

Plan B was to was to pick up stitches all along the long edge, work enough rows of stockinette so it would wrap around the edge, then do a sewn bind-off, somehow attaching the black stockinette to the other side of the scarf. I got to the sewn bind-off part and realized that the "somehow attach to the other side" part was not as simple as I had envisioned. After a frustrating attempt, rip.

Plan C was to pick up stitches all along the long edge, work 2-3 rows of stockinette, do the same thing on the reverse, then attach them to each other with a 3-needle bind-off, thus enclosing the edge in the two strips of stockinette. Repeat on other long edge. I knit the first bit, then started picking up stitches on the reverse.  I don't remember now exactly why I didn't like that, but it was something about how the second batch of picked-up stitches, the ones on the reverse side, didn't look neat enough. Rip.

Plan D was the one I should have tried right away (of course), working a row of single crochet along each long edge. There is a reason that is the commonest edging -- It.Just.Works. Still took me three or four tries, with lots of ripping, to get the tension right. Maybe a G crochet hook would have been better than an F, who knows.

Anyway, it is done and I am pleased with it. So pleased, in fact, that I may make another one to use up other odd balls of yarn. Not sure if I have enough reds left, but I do have lots of blues...

I made a couple other scarves for the RSP but never got around to sending them. Let's take a look, shall we?

 

Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca (sport weight)
Needle: It was so long ago I don't actually remember. Probably a US#5 or 6.
Pattern: Broken rib. 

 

Yarn: Louet Gems Topaz worsted weight, 100% superwash merino, color 80-2584 burgundy. This yarn is some of the leftovers from my kimono sweater. I used some in the many-reds scarf, above, too.
Needle: US#7
Pattern: Fast Forward by Natalie Servant. I adore her patterns. This is the only one I have made so far, but I have several others waiting in my Ravelry library. There are a lot of Art Deco influences in her design, and that appeals to me.

As soon as I block the many-reds scarf these will be ready to box up and send. Yay, me!

Squared out.

I thought the deadline for the Newtown squares was March 1 so I finished up with them this week. Turns out the deadline is March 31, but I'm squared out after a dozen.

 

As you might be able to guess, the last three squares above are rather less pride-inducing than the rest. From the first of the close-ups:

• Diamond Brocade stitch from Barbara Walker vol.1  (or maybe vol. 2, I'm too lazy to go look it up). 
• Mitered squares with a centered double decrease (sl2tog knitwise, k1, pass slipped stitches over).
• Basketweave stitch.
• Stitch pattern from Yarn Harlot's One-Row Scarf. Problem was NOT the stitch pattern; problem was that I didn't cast on enough stitches and the square is barely big enough.
• Garter stitch, complete with errors (I seem to be incapable of working garter stitch without screwing up; although I used to be able to drop back and fix a goof, when I tried that on this square it looked terrible -- worse than the error), and a mitered square worked in seed stitch. It looks terrible -- apparently seed stitch and miters do not play well together.

All worked on a US#6 using Valley Yarns superwash DK (100% superwash merino; soft and totally machine washable and dryable). ±40, depending on stitch used.

More random.

Elizabeth asked in the comments yesterday whether our heating system couldn't be tweaked to get the maximum heat out of the available water flow. Yes, indeed, the guy who installed it has made at least a dozen trips here to do exactly that. I fear it is as good as it can be. Not perfect, but livable (for us, anyway -- we are adaptable). We will withhold part of the final payment in recompense for the shortfall.

In the meantime, conditions seem to have improved. Still very cold outside, but no wind -- thus, less heat loss through walls and windows.

Based on the anemic flow in the shower the past couple mornings, I have refrained from attempting to wash my hair, fearing that the flow might dwindle to nothing whilst my head was encased in suds. Likewise, I have postponed doing laundry. Forecast is for a warming trend tomorrow through the weekend. I see cleaner days ahead :)

* * * * *

This is the cutest thing EVAH! Got this email from Younger Son this morning:

Subject: Percy is at doggie day care today

With how cold it's been, he hasn't been getting long walks or trips to the dog park lately. Because of this, we dropped him off at doggy day care this morning.

You can watch the live webcam of him here, just scroll down to the "Uptown" pen. They only have one location, in Seward, but three big pens there. He's got his red hoodie on, so you'll know him when you see him.

I'll have that window open on my computer all day... 

* * * * *

My pile of squares for Knitters for Newtown grows apace.

Go ahead, knit a few yourself. Requirements and mailing address are at the link. Deadline is March 31.

 

OTN.

My own, longer fingerless gloves. First one done except for thumb and weaving in ends, the other about one-third done.

Progress interrupted because these (scroll down past the donation information).

Aqua square at right left done in brocade stitch from Barbara Walker's first book, red square at left right done in garter stitch. I have plenty of this superwash DK wool left from my sweater; this is an excellent use for it.

From the organizer:

And it's going to take knitters (and us) a while to make all of these. By the time we're done, the donations will have stopped, the media attention will have died down, and the families will be left to deal with the quiet of their homes. People who have lost a loved one often find that the hard work of grieving comes months after the actual death occurs -- long after people have stopped receiving cards in the mail and meals on their doorstep, they're still left with the weight of loss.  And they often start feeling forgotten.

We do not forget. 

Summer knitting.

Note: I found this post in my draft folder, waiting for a picture of the socks. Finally took one.

At the beginning of the summer I came upon a pattern that begged to be made in profusion and sold for benefit of the local humane society, on whose board I sit.

Doggie poo bag dispensers.

Pattern here. Great fun to make and a good use of leftover sock yarn. I made 29, gave one to Matthew and Alex for Ser Percival The Energetic, and we sold...one at the county fair booth. I have hopes for better results at the September dog walk, an annual fund-raiser for the shelter.

Last winter I made myself a Noro hat that I like so well I made a scarf to match. My old Noro scarf was dark, which was fine with my old red coat but too dull with my current dark brown one. This scarf is a bit livelier.

 

The hat and scarf are gone now. A few days ago I got an email asking for something for a silent auction fundraiser for a local candidate whom I support. Not much time to knit right now, so the hat and scarf set went to a good cause. Now I'm wondering if I should recreate them or if I should move on to another scarf and hat for which I have half the yarn I need.

I made a pair of socks.

Please ignore the funny-looking ears on the toes.

Yarn: Online Supersocke Nepal found on eBay.
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Socks.
Needles: Addi US#0 (feet) and US#1 (legs). 

And earlier this month I made baby hats for The Purple Project (or whatever it is called).

1. Valley Yarns Superwash DK in lilac;
2. ditto;
3. ditto with a stripe of Knit Picks Andean Silk; 
4. Lamb's Pride worsted in clematis; 
5. Knit Picks Andean Silk (discontinued) in hyacinth;
6. Knit Picks Swish DK in clematis heather (color discontinued);
7. ditto.

Still have two different socks OTN, frogged the cowl and need to cast on a different (easier) one for Alex. And that is what I have been knitting. (I wrote this on September 3. Alex picked out an easier pattern and it is nearly done. Photos soon.)

Monday mutterings. And knitting,

1. Call :: back
2. Instinct :: basic
3. Toffee :: caramel
4. Cleaner :: software*
5. Gut :: level
6. Leveled :: destroyed
7. Discover :: TV
8. Together :: again
9. Attack :: plane
10. String :: theory

* I used to have a little Windoze widget called The Cleaner that would clean the << and extra carriage returns from emails I wanted to quote.

* * * * *

I have four project OTN right now. Guess what I did yesterday?

Cast on a baby hat for here. Hats are the comfort knitting of comfort knitting.

I had my 15 minutes seconds of fame.

Some of you have seen this already, either on TV or Facebook or soxanne's blog or Ravelry, but hey, watch it again! Make me feel famous good!

 

 

Ellen and I were interviewed on Wednesday for this piece, which aired on the Thursday 5 o'clock news on WCCO, channel 4 in the Twin Cities. Ellen is an awesome person whom I am proud to have met and even prouder to have helped.

As of yesterday her efforts had secured hats for all 100 heads in the Senate and a large portion of the House -- 42% of Congress in total. I certainly hope those Congresspeople take the sentiment to heart. Thanks to all the knitters who have jumped on this cause!

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!

Warm heads, not hot heads.

As I mentioned before, I jumped into this project with both feet and all my needles. I knit one hat and plan to knit one more by next weekend. But I had several other hats hanging around in the "to be donated" basket, and what better use could they have?

I have worn several of them on occasion, but after a good soak in Eucalan -- which none of them had had before -- they are good as new. (There is one more hiding on the shelf below.)

There is still time for any of you to whip out a hat and let twinsetellen know to whom you plan to send it. As of today she has people signed up to send hats to 20% of Congress! That's a lot of hats and a lot of knitters!

Yesterday I drafted the letter that will accompany the hats I will send. It was cut and pasted together from Ellen's and Alison's examples.

February 22, 2011

Congress[wo]man The Honorable* Xxxxx Xxxxxxx
Yada yada

Dear Congress[wo]man Senator / Representative* Xxxxxxxx:

I knit this hat for you; I live in xxx in Wisconsin District 7. Many of your colleagues will also be receiving hats from knitters of all political stripes and from all around the nation. We wanted to show you that we appreciate the work you do for those of us whom you serve in the House.

I knitted it as part of a campaign among knitters for Warm Hats, Not Hot Heads (more information at http://twinset.us/?page_id=3736). We are from many political backgrounds. We want those who engage in angry and even vicious public rhetoric to stop speaking for us in those ways. We want civility in Congress. We are choosing to give hours of our time silently to be able to give you a visible, tangible, heartfelt symbol of our desire for respecting and honoring one another within our government – and to thank you for doing your best.

Why a hat? Knit hats meet a simple need for warmth. They are an every day comfort. Everyone can use a good hat. Civil political discourse also meets a simple need – the need for our government to have the best information and insights from many viewpoints. It would be an everyday comfort to me and to many other Americans if the airwaves were free of hate-filled rhetoric, and it would help lead to good government. As I am sure you will agree, everyone can use good government.

Each stitch is individual. Each stitch depends on every other stitch within that hat being present for it to be able to do its job where it is of creating comfort and warmth. I wish you the best in your work and thank you for your service to us all.

Warm regards,

 

Kathryn Xxxxxxx

P.S. If you are not able to use this hat yourself, please donate it to a worthy charity. There are many that help the homeless and underserved, and I would like to know that the hat is keeping someone warm.

* The Google showed me the proper way to address such a letter.

 * * * * *

It is melting here this weekend.

Do you know how hard it is to photograph a melting drop in the air? This is the best I got out of over 20 shots. I even investigated the "Continuous" mode on my new camera. It worked just like it was supposed to, but I still failed to capture the desired shot. You will have to settle for a drop almost ready to come off.

Hannibal was not impressed, either.

It's cold. And other items of marginal interest.

The temperature in Minneapolis was, I think, around zero or colder every morning of this, my first week back at work. Thanks, weather gods, for giving me such a memorable welcome.

Note: photo above is Lucy at the lake house, not in Minneapolis. The only difference is that the snow in Minneapolis is dirtier and piled higher.

Just to give you an idea of what sub-zero temperatures are like:

• The inside of one's nose frosts up when one inhales;
• When I get home after work I tend not to get really warm again until I am in bed under a couple comforters (the radiator in the bedroom has been turned off for a couple years and now the handle doesn't turn; I may need to employ Large Tools);
• The digital read-out on my car radio changes v-e-r-y slowly, if at all, when I change radio stations;
• On Thursday morning, the coldest one so far, the driver's window, which I had put down so I could see the outside rear-view mirror, would not go back up. I had to pull up on the button with one hand and pull the window itself with the other. I did NOT want to get onto the freeway with an open window.

Last night I came back home to Wisconsin; temperature on the only outdoor thermometer I saw was -3˚ F. For various reasons I had a lot of trouble warming up once I got home. Three comforters, two pairs of sweats including a hoodie with the hood UP, wool knee socks, a dog, and two cats... and I finally got warm. It was the second set of sweats and the hood that did it.

Today I am still in the sweats and wool socks and perfectly comfortable.

Look what the wind has done to the snow that piles up on the railing outside my office:

That black silhouette is En Esch glaring at me. Why are you messing around with that little box? Why are you not petting me?

* * * * *

I came upon  this video in praise of Minneapolis over at twentytwowords.com. #2 Son says he knows a couple people in the video -- the bicyclist and his girlfriend, of course.

* * * * *

In knitting news, by request I made a headband for #2's GF. She picked out the pattern on Ravelry but asked that it be wider. I recommended Malabrigo worsted for purely selfish reasons -- I had never knit with it -- and she picked out a gorgeous teal color (called "Aguas" at the link). My efforts at widening the pattern were for naught. Take it away, Bubbles!

(Bubbles's head is significantly smaller than Alex's; when the headband is stretched a bit more, as it would be on Alex's head, the seed stitch edging lies down flat. So I tried again, this time with a wider cable and a different edge treatment. Perfect -- 3-1/2 inches wide, just like she asked for! 

 

The cable is one from Barbara Walker. The edge is (on the right side) sl1, p1, k1, p1, k1, (cable panel) k1, p1, k2.

After I finish the cabled section I will pull out the provisional cast on and knit both ends at the same time, tapering them to a point. A button loop at the end of one, a button on the other. I'll give both headbands to her; if she doesn't want the narrower one I'll reclaim the yarn and dream about what to make from it and the rest of the skein.

* * * *

I finished the first hat for Warm Heads, Not Hot Heads last weekend. It can be worn with the brim flipped up or down, depending on the head size of the wearer.

 

Grrr.

On Sunday I went to a most-of-the-day potluck and knitting retreat at a lovely B&B not far away, sponsored by the LYS owner who hosts the knitting group that I attend monthly. The purported reason was for all of us knitters to finish our Christmas knitting. The real reason was to hang out and eat and, oh yeah, knit.

(No photos because I was struck by the dreaded camnesia.)

I had a hat and mittens set OTN for a local children's giveaway and planned to finish them that day. Did I? No. I knit and tinked, and tinked and knit, and knit and tinked some more. First I couldn't count, then my planned modification of the hat pattern turned out to be awesomely impossible rather than simply awesome. I arrived home many hours later having accomplished...

.

::wait for it::

.

::it's coming::

.

::almost::

.

four (4!) rounds on the hat. And nothing on the mittens.

Grrr.

But today we were out and about for lunch and some errands, and I finished the hat in the car. It is still awesome, just not quite as awesome as I had originally planned. As soon as I post this I'll go do the last thumb on the mittens.

Photos tomorrow.

FO Friday.

Time to catch you up on my knitting. First, a couple hats:

 

(left, my last hat for the homeless)
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, Thyme, and some anonymous camel-colored wool worsted. Total 56 grams, 123 yards.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#6.
Pattern: Generic, worked on 96 st.

(right, for Matthew's new-ish girlfriend Alex)
Yarn: Knit Picks Andean Silk, color Allspice, all but about a yard of 3 skeins (~288 yards).
Needles: Knit Picks Options w/ Zephyr tips, US#8.
Pattern: 16-Cable Hat. The pattern gives two sizes, one for head circumference 16 - 19", and one for 18 - 22". Alex's head is 23", so I cast on 182 st to allow for one more 26-st cable repeat. My head is also 23", so I was able to try on the hat as I knit to check the sizing.

Alex had been describing the kind of hat she wanted to Matthew about a month ago on a day when Smokey happened to be present. He immediately piped up to say that he knew someone who would be delighted to knit her a hat. What he later told me she had described sounded to me like a chullo, so I found a few examples in Ravelry and sent her links. She looked at them but, in her own words, got sidetracked to the 16 Cable Hat. So 16 cables is what I knit (although my upsizing resulted in rather more than 16 cables).

Note: this is a very flattering hat. I may make one for myself. Never thought I would want a beret-ish or slouch-ish hat, but I like this one a lot.

This hat has a lot more stitches than a typical hat. But I loved the yarn so much that it was no hardship to knit the equivalent of two hats. Andean Silk is 55% fine alpaca / 23% merino / 22% silk, and knitting it is like petting a very soft kitteh.

Next on my knitting agenda is a pair of Dimorphous Mittens for myself. Right now I am swatching to determine what size needle I need to make my yarn for the inner mitten match the pattern gauge.

 Inner mitten:                                Outer mitten, striped:
   

The yarn for the inner mitten is Frog Tree Pediboo, a very soft but tightly plied 80% merino / 20% bamboo light fingering weight that will feel lovely on my hands. The yarn for the outer mitt is two colorways of Noro Yuzen, a discontinued 56% wool / 34% silk / 10% mohair DK weight that I will stripe like a Noro striped scarf.

The weather forecast for the immediate future is cold with a side of frigid, so I need to knit like the wind on these.

Knit, knit, knit.

I have been churning out the small projects.

A pair of socks for myself.

Yarn: Trekking (XXL) in Clown Barf color 156. Toes and half of one heel reinforced with yellow Lang reinforcing thread, other heel reinforced with blue. My anal self is appalled.
Needles: US#0 (foot) and US#1 (leg).
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Socks, which is my current go-to sock pattern. I tried a little calf shaping on this pair: about one inch above the last short row of the heel I increased one stitch in the middle of the back, then increased again in that same place about every 3/4 inch until I had increased a total of four stitches. (The leg is 3x1 ribbing, so four stitches made everything work out.) The leg seems slightly more comfortable than the not-increased legs on previous socks, not that they were ever uncomfortable, but I suspect this pair may stay up better. Time will tell.

Two scarves (shown unblocked and blocking) for the Red Scarf Project.

(left/bottom) Yarn: 3 skeins of Berrocco Blackstone Tweed (65% wool/25% mohair/10% angora), which is a single ply, lovely soft yarn (in spite of being tweed).
Pattern: La Harlot's One-Row Handspun Scarf, worked on 36 stitches.
Size: 63" x 8-1/2".
Needles: US#7 Addi Turbo.

(right/top) Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted, <1 skein each of scarlet and red.
Pattern: Simple stripes from the book, Knit One Below by Elise Duvekot; worked on 19 stitches. I quite love this vertical stripe look, and it knits up very quickly. If you look carefully at the third photo you can see where I reversed the colors halfway through the scarf. This is the technique the author used in the sweater on the cover of the book, but I had enough trouble keeping the two yarn colors in the right place without switching them out every 4 or 6 rows. Once was enough, just for fun.
Size: 63" x 6-1/2".
Needles: US #6 Addi Turbo.

And then there were some hats.

(1) Yarn: (MC) Knit Picks Andean Silk, color Wallaby, 40 gr (.8 skein); (CC) Louet Gems Worsted left over from my kimono sweater, color Burgundy. What the picture does not show you is how soft the Andean Silk is -- knitting it was like working with soft kitteh fur. I kept stopping to pet it whilst knitting.
Pattern: Generic but originally derived from this one, worked on 96 st.
Size: M.
Needles: US#6 Addi Turbo.

(2) Yarn: (MC)Colorado Yarns Durango in the inventively named "1"; about .8 skein (90 yds); (CC) Plymouth Boku, in the also-inventively named "6"; also about .8 skein (80 yds).
Pattern: same as above, worked on 96 st.
Size: XL.
Needles: US#7 Addi Turbo for ribbing, US#8 Knit Picks Option circ with Zephyr tips for the body of the hat.

(3) Yarn: Paton's Soy Wool Stripes, Natural Earth, slightly less than one skein.
Pattern: Clamber, v. 1.0, worked on 96 st, 4 cable crossings before the decreases.
Size: S/M
Needles: US#7 Addi Turbo. (I think, might have been 6s.)

(4) Yarn: Paton's Soy Wool Stripes, Natural Earth, slightly more than one skein.
Pattern: Clamber, v. 1.0, worked on 96 st, 5 cable cr4ossings before the decreases.
Size: L
Needles: Knit Picks Options, Zephyr tips, US#8s. (I think, might have been 7s.)

The first three hats are destined for a couple hats for the homeless projects, one in Seattle and one in Minneapolis. #s 1 & 3 were originally intended for Shanti's ship hats, but after they were done I reread the requirements and found that they should have been knit from washable wool. Oh, well, the ship's crews' loss is the homeless's gain.

The fourth will be my winter hat, I think. I bought both colors of Soy Wool Stripes late last winter when I picked up a new winter coat on sale; the jacket is dark brown nylon and the hat should go well with it, as do my older Noro striped scarf and Plymouth Boku fingerless gloves (the contrasting stripes in hat #2 are the leftovers from those gloves).

Edited to add: Don't be too impressed with my output. This is 2-1/2 months of knitting. Instead, be appalled at how little I talk about knitting on this purportedly knitting blog.

Home again, home again, jig jig.

We took a mini-vacation last week, five days at Temperance River State Park on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

It is always a good thing to bring all one's knitting tools along on vacation...

...because one never knows when a delightful yarn shop -- or two! -- may appear on the horizon*.

 

Before we left I had read Erika's post about her Red Scarf. I had already decided that I was not going to participate in the Red Scarf Project this year (forgive me, Norma!) because I had declared 2010 to be The Year Of Knitting For Me.

But that post kept lurking in the back of my mind.

First, I ventured into That Little Red House, a lovely yarn shop in Grand Marais that does not have a website and of which I tragically did not take a photo. The owner was friendly and chatty and I found the perfect yarn for a red scarf.

 

The yarn is a 2-ply blend of wool, superkid mohair, and angora -- lovely cottony soft. How handy that I had brought along my nostepinne and all my needles! I immediately cast on for the scarf, using La Harlot's One-Row Scarf pattern (I knit two scarves and several afghan squares from that pattern last year, so it is pretty well embedded in my brain).

Tra la la, a day or two later we found another yarn shop! This is the one whose sign is pictured above and is in Tofte, right across Hwy. 61 (yes, that Hwy. 61) from Blue Fin Bay resort. Guess what, that shop had some very nice red yarn**, too!

 

Now I have two red scarves OTN and my conscience is a happy camper.

I finished the pair of socks that was in progress when we left and wore them. That means they are currently in the laundry pile so I'm not gonna model them for you right now. As soon as that pair was done I cast on for another pair from a skein of Trekking I bought last year.

 

See that hole in the ground beyond my foot? That is a chipmunk burrow, and the chipmunks kept me constant company while I knit by the lake. Mostly they scurried about and scolded me for being in their territory. Eventually I had the clever idea of keeping a bag of trail mix handy and tossing them the occasional raisin. That kept them quiet.

* It may have helped that I did some serious googling for yarn shops in the area before we left. I even took screen shots of the Google maps showing the location of each one and loaded them onto my iPod. Always prepared, that's my motto!

** In case you cannot read the labels, this red yarn is Lamb's Pride Nature Spun worsted, and a more delightful and affordable 100% wool worsted I have never encountered. How come none of you told me about it? Keeping it all for yourself, eh? Well, now I know about it and it will be every knitter for herself. This yarn is soft and fluffy and knits wonderfully and was $6.95 (or $7.95, don't remember) for >200 yards. The skein on the right is a true bright red, the one on the left dark red. We all know how difficult it is to photograph anything red.

Coffee, conference, and knitting.

I attended a one-day conference last week for the ten or so communities in the state that received Energy Independence grants from the state of Wisconsin this year. Polk County -- specifically, the renewable energy committee of which I am a member -- won one of the grants. The conference was predictably interesting (and offered lengthy opportunities for knitting -- more on that later).

Even better, though, was the fact that the conference was being held in the home town of one of everyone's favorite knitters, Vicki knitorious! We met on the day of the conference, and she took me to her daughter's coffee shop for breakfast.

kc&t is a cute and friendly and comfy storefront in the downtown area,
filled with photographs and paintings by talented members of the owner's family.
(That's Vicki's hand at left.)

We sat in cozy chairs and drank coffee and ate bagels and cream cheese and knitted until it was time for me to scurry to the conference. Thanks, Vicki! It is always so good to get together with a fellow knitblogger.

The conference was held in a nature center. This is just a small fraction of the furred and hoofed and winged and finny stuffed critters who surrounded us in the conference room.

Does anyone else find it ironic for a nature center to be filled with taxidermied animals
that were clearly bagged by a big game hunter? Distinctly odd, imho.*

I chatted with this man, the city manager of a smallish city, before the conference started.

Should I have told him to keep an eye on that fellow attendee over his shoulder?

Is it just me, or is that buffalo give this guy the evil eye?

Bob, our UW-Extension community development agent and Tim, our county planner:

They were checking out the river next to the nature center.
It was really rockin' and rollin' -- lots of recent rain thereabouts. 

It was a five-hour drive from our government center to our motel. What to do to fill the time?

Guess.

This is for a benefit and silent auction next month. I cast on as we were leaving the government center parking lot Tuesday afternoon, and the scarf was 51" long by the time I got home Wednesday evening. Go, me!

* Vicki told me later that she thought all the critters were donated by by a big game hunter who lived in town at one time -- he lived right on the main drag and had big display windows toward the street to show them off. Probably better that they are where they are now.

The vacation, part 3: the knitting.

Did I knit while we were on vacation? Why, yes! Yes, I did. Thanks for asking.

You may remember I planned to knit a Noro striped sweater during the month we were gone.

Didn't happen. Never even took that particular knitting bag out of its cubby in the van. Starting that sweater was contingent upon finishing the multicolor striped raglan that I had been working on since February. When we left home, that (top-down) sweater had a yoke, both sleeves, and three or four inches of the body. I kept slogging plugging
knitting on it all during our trip. Here it is today, rather rumpled from having been stuffed into a traveling knitting bag for the month of June and most of July.

It's nearly done, isn't it? Maybe getting it out of its bag and seeing how close I am will inspire me...

I had started a pair of socks as my carry-along knitting before we left, but I was not enjoying them. The Knit Picks Felici sock yarn, while lovely soft and in nice colors, was also loosely plied and therefore splitty. There was progress made on the socks, but it was s-l-o-w.

They are now [finally!] finished, however.

Somehow, even though I knit them on the same number of stitches (60) and the same size needle (US#0) as always, they don't fit well. See how the end of the toes sticks out from the end of my foot? That is because it is too narrow. Such nonsense is probably the result of my not liking the yarn; disgust made me knit tighter.

So.

If I didn't knit the Noro sweater, and I didn't finish the socks, and I worked on but didn't finish the raglan, what DID I knit?

Baby hats for the PIH hospital in Rwanda! At the last minute I threw my baby hat knitting bag (it's where I keep all the yarn that is good for baby hats) into the van. Good thing I did; otherwise I might have had to finish the sweater and socks. As Dale-Harriet once said, Baby hats are like potato chips. You can't do just one.

My soon-to-be-fifth-grade neighbor helped me do the photo shoot.

She was so cute.

Then I showed her my iTouch and the knitting was forgotten.

 

Let's examine those hats in detail, shall we? They are being modeled by my trusty ostrich egg sitting in its base of brass and wart hog tusks. (How fitting for hats that will travel to Africa!)

This first five were all done on a US#3 circ from one skein of Socks That Rock heavyweight, colorway Gay Pride. The striping and pooling are different because the hats are worked on different numbers of stitches, from 56 to 68. Babies come in different sizes, so I figured their heads do, too.

 

I had a few yards of the STR leftover so I combined it with some green Valley Superwash DK for the hat at the left, once again on a US#3 circ.

I decided before I started the hats that I would not put a cuff on any of the wool ones, hoping to stretch this skein of STR to seven or eight hats. Didn't work. .

.

.
.

.

This next group were all knit from Knit Picks Shine Sport in River (blue) and Cherry (red, discontinued) on a US#3 circ.

 

The second photo shows the slanting jog that results from a new-to-me way of changing colors. (The jog looks a lot better in the socks in the link than in my hat; I don't think there is ANY way to make jogless two-row stripes.) The fourth and fifth photos are of a hat I made to experiment with the knit-one-below stitch (more on that in another post).

Next, three hats from Knit Picks Shine Worsted, knitted on a US#5.

Yup, I was using up the last of that particular yarn in the last hat. How can you tell?

The last few.

The first is more KP Shine Sport, this time in Willow and with some one-row stripes of a fuzzy novelty yarn. I got from lisa. The second is Cleckheaton 8-ply County Check superwash wool  worsted (discontinued) left over from knitting mittens a couple years ago. Third is KP Comfy in Honeydew, combined with KP Shine worsted in the fourth. That last hat is my favorite of them all.

And that is what I knit on my summer vacation.

Wyoming!

 We are here.The knitting has commenced.

 

Yarn: Valley Superwash DK (100% superwash merino). Navy, plus stripes (from the top) in maroon (no longer available), teal, biscuit, grass, wild rose, forest, misty lilac, and navy.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#5 (3.75mm) circ.
Size: L
Pattern: Pattern? I don' need no steekin' pattern! Cast on 102 st in navy; join. Purl 6 rounds. Knit 4 rounds. Change to lilac; purl 6 rounds. Knit 4 rounds navy. Purl 6 rounds forest. Continue in color pattern as established, end purl 6 rounds maroon. Knit 1 round navy. Decrease for top in usual manner.

That is a chemo hat for a local Relay for Life later this month. The hats will be judged on originality, craftsmanship, overall appeal, etc. Winner(s) will get gift basket(s) from the LYS that is sponsoring the contest. All hats will go into a silent auction, proceeds to the Relay.

I started this hat in April. Why it took me until June 9th to finish it is a total mystery, but it may be related to my inability to count. I will drop the hat into the mail today and hope that it makes it to Wisconsin by the deadline on the 12th.

* * * * *

Others may vacation with/for the wine, women, and song. I do it with/for the wine, books, and yarn.

 

* * * * *

Observe, the majestic moose:

Frankly, this moose is more mangy than majestic. His coat is scraggly because he is shedding his winter coat, his ribs are showing because the grass is just greening up, and he is (I think) a yearling so is gangly and awkward. But he will be majestic...someday.

Enough with the majestic potential. Now for the cute.

Hey, you lookin' at me?

Never mind. I've got another idea...

 

Mama!

More random.

Censorship: it's as American as, well, censorship.

From boingboing.net:

"A music-industry speaker at an American Chamber of Commerce event in Stockholm waxed enthusiastic about child porn, because it serves as the perfect excuse for network censorship, and once you've got a child-porn filter, you can censor anything:

'Child pornography is great,' the speaker at the podium declared enthusiastically. 'It is great because politicians understand child pornography. By playing that card, we can get them to act, and start blocking sites. And once they have done that, we can get them to start blocking file sharing sites.'

The venue was a seminar organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm on May 27, 2007, under the title 'Sweden -- A Safe Haven for Pirates?'. The speaker was Johan Schlüter from the Danish Anti-Piracy Group, a lobby organization for the music and film industry associations, like IFPI and others...

'One day we will have a giant filter that we develop in close cooperation with IFPI* and MPA. We continuously monitor the child porn on the net, to show the politicians that filtering works. Child porn is an issue they understand,' Johan Schlüter said with a grin, his whole being radiating pride and enthusiasm from the podium."

IFPI's strategy on porn.

* IFPI = International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. From their website:

"IFPI represents the recording industry worldwide, with a membership comprising some 1400 record companies in 66 countries and affiliated industry associations in 45 countries. IFPI's mission is to promote the value of recorded music, safeguard the rights of record producers and expand the commercial uses of recorded music in all markets where its members operate."

* * * * *

I just finished reading this book. It was absolutely fascinating -- I read until 2 a.m. two nights in a row because I was so enthralled.

Markopolos was a quant -- a numbers guy in the securities industry -- who figured out after five minutes analysis (5 minutes!) in 1999 that Bernard Madoff was a fraud, either doing a type of trading that is illegal or, more likely, running a Ponzi scheme. Markpolos's boss at the investment firm where he worked wanted him to reverse engineer Madoff's trading strategy so they could duplicate it. They were losing clients to Madoff and wanted to be able to compete with him. 

From Amazon/Publisher's Weekly:

"Markopolos, the whistleblower who filed five unheeded complaints against Ponzi king Bernie Madoff over nine years, has produced an astonishing true-life whodunit set amidst the personalities, plots, and international intrigue of Wall Street. Having collected damning information on money manager Madoff -- the respected co-founder of NASDAQ who ran the largest financial scam in history -- since 1999, Markopolos's work as a chartered financial analyst and certified fraud examiner, aided by an industry journalist and two colleagues from his days as a derivatives portfolio manager, lays bare the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a tragically inept regulating agency that 'didn't give a rat's ass about protecting investors,' and seemed to consider Madoff 'just another guy cutting some corners.' Realizing he had not one but two powerful opponents -- 'Madoff and this non-functioning agency' -- Markopolos refused to give up, despite fearing for his life and his family; accordingly, he transmits his team's determination and fascination in contagious detail. The hows and whys of Madoff's eventual arrest, Markopolos's subsequent appearances before Congress, and the carnival of press coverage makes a satisfying conclusion to this strange epic; Markopolos also includes complete documentation of his formal submissions to the SEC, plus his recommendations for much-needed reform at the agency."

Part of my fascination with this story stems from my professional history. I was an auditor for three years and by sheer chance ended up specializing in the securities industry. After that I spent seven years at a regional financial services firm. This was back in the 1980s and things have changed since then, but enough has remained the same that I recognized the industry I was acquainted with. Plus, after I had finished the book, I realized that a number of my tax clients probably had invested for years in one of the funds that had >$1 billion *invested* with Madoff; the head of that fund committed suicide two weeks after Madoff was arrested.

If you have any interest in the world of finance and/or fraud and/or government regulation -- or you just like a good thriller -- you should read this book.

* * * * *

This video brought back memories. Back in about 1987, when #1 Son was 2-1/2, he loved Labyrinth. He must have watched it 50 or 100 times. Srsly.

He would put on a pair of tall black dress winter boots with 1" heels that I had then (the boots were knee-high on me; on him they came up to his crotch) and carry some kind of stick to be a scepter/wand, just like The Goblin King. He would stand in front of the TV and [attempt to] sing along with "the baby song", all the while wiggling his butt and dancing back and forth in an imitation of TGK. I especially liked it when he would yell "Quiet!" at the goblins, right along with David Bowie.

Smokey sent this YouTube video to #1. We are waiting to hear if he remembers anything of those days.

* * * * *

Speaking of sons, #2 Son is, even as I type, hosting the No-Hater Rolling Dance Super Bike Mega Party 2010.0. Perhaps you remember the N-HRDSBMP2K9? Apparently that one was such a success that he is repeating it.

As you can see in the photos in the linked post, one Saturday night in last October he and about 20 others rode their bikes together through light rain and partied and danced (under bridges, where it was dry) until the wee hours. This time? As of some time last week there were already 248 people signed up to attend.

He got a parade permit from the City of Minneapolis, just in case.

* * * * *

On the knitting front, my multicolored striped top-down raglan now has a yoke, two sleeves, and a few -- say, 3 -- inches of body. I will definitely have it ready to wear by next winter. I hope to be able to wear it if necessary when we go camping near Glacier National Park in June.

Currently, I also have the second sock of two different pairs OTN and am having great fun making log cabin felted potholders for the Friends of the Polk County Libraries to sell this summer. I also have committed to at least one hat for a Relay for Life in fund raiser in June. Progress on all projects is being documented photographically. Stay tuned.

It's time for... New Year's resolutions!

I solemnly resolve that in 2010 I will:

1. Stop smoking. Check. Did that in 1974.
2. Stop drinking to excess. Check. Happily, that has never been a problem for me. My father was an alcoholic*. Nuff said.
3. Stop driving 20 mph over the speed limit. Check. I have slowed down considerably over the past five years or so, pretty much never speed any more.

As you can tell, I really have this resolution thing down. ;^)

    4.  Use up stash.
    5.  Knit at least one sweater for myself.

Okay, those last two are gonna be a challenge, if for no other reason than that they contradict each other. At least two-thirds of my stash -- measured in yardage, not skeins -- was purchased on sale with no particular project in mind, but with the vague intention that it would be good for Dulaan and other such community knitting**. The Dulaan Project ended a couple-three years ago, pretty much right after I stocked up on 100% wool worsted weight. Edited to add: I gave Maggie brown grocery bag of yarn before they left last night, to take to her textiles teacher; the textiles classes always need yarn. Score!

When I counted up what I had knit in 2009, the total was 73± items, of which about 20 were for myself, all of the actual FOs small things like socks or a hat or scarf. Enough, already, I said; time to indulge myself in some hand-knit sweaters. 

I started this kimono sweater in late 2007.

 

At left, above, I had finished the front and back, joined them at the shoulders, and was preparing to pick up 275 st for the front/neck band. At right, how it looked when that was done. All it lacks are sleeves. As soon as Andrew's medical mittens are done, this is what I will be working on.

As cold as it is right now, I really, really, really wish this were done. It will be lovely warm.

I started this one in the summer of 2008.

Most of it has been knit at least twice, for various reasons. A month or so ago I finally faced up to the fact that this bamboo yarn will almost certainly never work in this pattern. I haven't frogged it yet, but I will. I'm thinking that the drapey bamboo might work in a summer cardigan with some contrasting bits. That would be a garment that I could use. I have done some searching in Ravelry to see what others have made from the yarn. But in the meantime, into the frog pond it goes.

This blue-gray DK wool has been in the stash for at least a couple years, since I bought it from Juno in her destash.

 

A few weeks ago I was thinking hard about what I could do with it, given that I had only about two-thirds as much yarn as I would need for a sweater for myself. Then I found this pattern in Ravelry and it all came together -- a top-down raglan pullover with contrasting stripes. The contrasting yarns are Valley Yarns merino from Webs; I might add another color or two just to make the whole project more fun and also to have absolutely, positively enough yarn for the sweater to be long enough. Standard length sweaters make me look even more, er, ample than I am :( Plus, no matter how wide they are, they always look a bit too short.

This last yarn, at right, is intended for a cardigan I have been plotting for, oh, about four years. I'm not gonna say more about it because that could easily jinx the project, plus those kimono sleeves and the striped raglan pullover will keep me busy for a good long while.

    6.  One more resolution: no purchase of yarn unless to complement existing stash for a specific project. Sock yarn counts.

And those are my resolutions for 2010 knitting. Wish me luck!

*  Over the years it has been eye-opening to me, to say the least, how many people respond to this revelation with the fact that they have a father/uncle/brother who was/is also a problem drinker. Remind me again why liquor is legal and marijuana is not?

** My problem is two-fold: it's hard to say no to any appeal for knitted [fill in the blank], plus the items appealed for are almost always small -- hats, scarves, mittens. Small = immediate gratification, one of my weaknesses.