kmkat and her kneedles

2009: That was the year that was.

January.

Well, there was this (bad).

And there was this (good) (from left, Wendy, me, Chris, and Susan).

On the knitting front:


 

February.

Good intentions.

 

Snow and cold.

Knitting:

March.

Winter melted away.

Knitting.

April.

Spring arrived in earnest.

Yarnover.

End of tax season.

Taste of St. Croix.
 

Knitting resumed after tax season.

 

May.

I scored big at Macy's sale racks, I helped Norm go away, I celebrated Mother's Day in an eco-friendly way, the bears and the ticks came out of hibernation, I picked up trash, I enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend, I bid farewell to our local librarian, and Hannibal discovered the joys of catnip.

Knitting was primarily of a stealth nature, but did include scientific swatching and the F'ing of a couple of O's that had been OTN for nearly, and over a year, respectively. (I am rather proud of that sentence -- and its punctuation -- awkward though it may be.)

 

June

June was for knitting and vacation and celebrating that brief magical time that is summer in the north woods.

 

 

Lots of knitting.

 

 

July.

July was for more vacation -- the rest of the one in Wyoming and another on the North Shore.

And summer.
 

And injuries.
 

And knitting.

 

August.

It was a very good month. I turned 60, had a contest, and laughed. We went to a concert.
 

I learned the difference between eagles and turkey vultures, and I had surgery to remove some extra/unneeded bits and pieces and repair that torn cartilage in my knee.
 

Knitknitknit.

 

September.

In September I had lots of cats on the blog, it was my turn to give the prayer at the beginning of the monthly county board meeting, the county budget process blew up, and the most gloriously gorgeous month of the year was here.

 

The knitting, she continued.

 

October.

I became a biker by proxy,

more new-to-me music found its way into my iTunes, and we celebrated 35 years together

by not-camping on Lake Superior.

The kneedles continued to fly.
 
 

November.

The van that took us on some wonderful vacations met up with an unfortunate bear on the road and was replaced by an older but bigger and more customized van.

Cold weather arrived, and once more I cooked and baked.

 

Mostly, though, I knitted.




Apparently I can crank out hats like other knitters crank out... sweaters

December.

I continued to be thankful (there is a lot to be thankful for).

With the help of Matthew and Maggie, I decorated for Christmas. This decorating thing is never a given.

I showed you my ornaments, y'all showed me yours.

 

We ate well.
 

A bit more knitting* for others.

I pretty much finished my Christmas knitting. (Shhh, the Calorimetry is a surprise.)


The medical mittens are still OTN -- stay tuned.

*For someone who doesn't like pink, I sure knit a lot of it lately...

A wee bit of knitting.

A second chemo cap for my sister-in-law. It went into the mailbox earlier this week.

Yarn: Rowan Calmer, a bit less than one skein.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#6.
Pattern: Cast on 90 st, do a picot knitted-in .75" hem, work even for 5.75", decrease 6 st evenly every other round for a while, then decrease 6 st evenly around every round until there are 6 st left. Break yarn and draw through remaining st.

Cuffs for #1 son's mittens:

These are Cascade Heritage sock yarn, color 5604, 1x1 rib on US#0, 76 st.

I got the charts and instructions for the caduceus today from Colleen, the designer, plus photos of the actual thing.

It.Is.Teh.Awesome.

It occurred to me that I could tell #1 son I am knitting his mittens but not tell him about the caduceus and DNA designs. So I did and got hand measurements from him. Oh, the relief! His hand circumference is 8", exactly what I guessed after measuring my own hand at 7" around. This means that the mittens I am knitting should fit perfectly; I am planning on 1" of positive ease at the knuckles, mittens needing to have a bit of air space for insulation. The cuffs are just the tiniest bit too big for my 7" wrists, so should be perfect for his 8" ones.

The reason I knit both cuffs is because I reached the end of the first cuff at about 10 pm one night earlier this week. I didn't want to quit knitting but I knew it would be pure folly to start a new-to-me and potentially complicated design that late in the day. I knit one round of stockinette on the first mitten, using a US#1 needles and thereby freeing up the US#0 for the second cuff. I reached the end of the second cuff at about that same time of day later in the week, once again knowing enough not to start the design when my brain was not sharp.

Instead, I cast on for a baby hat for Rwanda.

 

The teal -- which is more saturated in real life -- is Knit Picks Main Line in Harbor. Main Line may be discontinued; I don't see it on their website any more. It is worsted weight, 75/25 cotton/merino blend. Of course it is discontinued -- after knitting with it for a bit I decided it was perfect for a February Lady sweater. Damn. The colorful yarn is a bonus that knitnzu threw into the package when I won her contest last spring. It is perfect for this project, having exactly the same color of deep teal as the main color.

And now it is time to attack the mittens for realz. Do I do the DNA helix or the caduceus first? Decisions, decisions...

Hatz.

I am getting a little bored with knitting hats, although I keep thinking of other design ideas that will use up oddball skeins. So I am probably not done yet.

Here is the latest crop.

 

The black one:
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, a little over half a skein (~114 yds.).
Needles: Addi Turbo US#5 (I think; might have been #6).
Pattern: Clamber (V.1.0) by Laura Wilson-Martos, worked on 108 st.

The red one:
Yarn: Colorado Durango (worsted weight; 50%wool/47% acrylic/3% rayon), a little more than one skein (~120 yds.).
Needles: Addi Turbo US#5 (I think).
Pattern: Pattern? I don' need no stinkin' pattern (for a 2x2 rib)!

The navy blue one:
Yarn: Bernat Lana (worsted weight; label says 100% merino, but it felt like ordinary wool to me), about half a skein (~110 yds.); stripes are ~20 yds. of some Noro Silk Garden left over from scarves I did a couple years ago.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#5
Pattern: (see above)

One more hat, this one intended for #1 son for Christmas:

 

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock DK Moody Blues, about half a skein (~170 yds)
Needles: Addi Turbo US#2
Pattern: Clamber (see above), worked on 132 st. I hope it is big enough for his large noggin; it fits me, but his head might be a skooshi bit larger. I didn't weave in the end, and I have the second half of the skein if I need to make it a bit longer. )Andrew never reads the blog unless I specifically tell him to, so it should be safe to reveal this hat here)

I also intended to knit him some sockweight mittens; he requested a pair to keep his hands warm when he runs. I wanted to put this caduceus design on the back, using cables for the staff and snakes and other fancywork stitches for the wings, but designing turned out to be harder than I thought. It might be doable if I were experienced in lace knitting because then I would know how to conjure up the wings with slanting lines of increases and decreases. I know I could knit it if someone else wrote the pattern for me -- anybody interested? I pay in yarn :-)

Nesting behavior.

It must be the cooler weather that portends winter. I have been moved to nesting behavior. Knitting, of course, but also cooking! even baking!

Twice I baked a double batch of pumpkin bread using the Joy of Cooking recipe (2 good-sized loaves each time) and threw in a bag of chocolate chips each time. One of the first loaves went into a CARE package for #1 son, and I ate the other loaf almost entirely by myself. It was sinfully good. One of the second loaves went to #2 son to take back home with him after last weekend, and the other went into the freezer in preparation for having the boys here at Christmas.

On Thursday I made beef stew from this new cookbook I got a few days ago:

 

Mise en place:

 

Browning half the chunks of chuck roast:

 

There was red wine and chicken broth and carrots and onions and potatoes and bay leaves and thyme and garlic involved, too, but I didn't take photos of everything.

Just know that my house smelled really, really good.

There was freshly baked whole wheat bread, too, from this:

 

This is my third bread baker over about 20 years. The first one made a 1-pound loaf. Great bread, but the loaves were too danged small and therefore had an unsatisfactory crust-to-bread ratio, imnsho. Plus, a loaf was gone after one meal. The second bread baker made a 1.5-pound cylindrical loaf. Much better ratio, plus it had an exhaust fan that cooled the baker when the bread was done so I didn't have to be right! there! to take out the bread when it was done.

When that one died after a long and fruitful life, I bought this Zojirushi, which had been very favorably reviewed somewhere. It makes a 2-pound loaf, which was perfect, especially when the boys were home. Its main flaw is that it seems to knead the bread too much, so much that the bread is has a perfectly smooth texture and not enough tooth, if you know what I mean. I use bread flour and w.w. bread flour, not all-purpose flour, so that is not the problem. Perhaps I need to experiment some more. Fresh-from-the-*oven* bread is soooo good...

Another food thing I recently discovered is the wonderfulness that is oven-roasted root vegetables. Oh, sure, they have been around for years and everyone and their cousin has raved about them, but I just discovered them about a month ago. That first time I had some carrots that had been in the crisper drawer for so long they had started to grow new roots; some semi-soft potatoes that were in roughly the same condition, and some (relatively fresh) onions. I peeled and chunked and tossed them all with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic, minced fresh rosemary, and a pinch of cayenne. Although we ate them with a marvelous tenderloin from the grill (tenderloin is my favorite!), the vegetables were the star of the meal.

Since that first time I have experimented a bit with other vegies. Found that neither brussels sprouts nor leeks lend themselves to this preparation, or at least not in combination with root vegies. Rutabaga and turnip were my latest experiment, in combination with potatoes and onions (tragically, there were no carrots in the house that day); they received positive votes from both Smokey and I. (Smokey, when I told him what was in the vegetable melange, said that he had never understood why people grew or ate rutabagas because he had never eaten any that deserved a repeat performance; he changed his mind after the first bite.)

* * * * *

More proof of nesting behavior: another Hat for the Homeless.

 

Yarn: Tahki Lana (old version): 100% merino; 2/3 of the skein, or 86 yards. I got this from lisa as a bonus when I won her contest awhile back. While gray might not be a choice I would make for myself, it was perfect for this project. The yarn is lovely to knit.
Needles: Knit Picks Options circ, US#10.
Pattern: Made it up: mistake rib worked on 60 st. Work 6” even. Decrease by P2tog every other rib, every other row, until ~30 st remain. K2tog around every row until ~6 st remain. Break yarn, thread through remaining st.

* * * * *

Okay, I see in the Feedjit in my sidebar that I have a reader in Durand, Wisconsin, which is 69 miles (111 km) from where I live. Fess up, please! Who are you, and why do I not know this already? Oh, and when can we have coffee and knit together? ;^)

The Os, they are F'ed.

That would be Finished, you vulgarians!

Three more wine bottle cozies for Saturday's sale:

Yarn: All Knit Picks Wool of the Andes except the deep red at the left; that is some Panda Wool Bale from Smiley's Yarn
Needles: US#8 KP Options circs
Pattern: here.
Mods: I finally figured out the easiest way to make the tie -- a crochet chain made of three strands of yarn, then felted. Felted I-cord works great but takes 30 minutes to make; the thick chain takes about a minute and a half.

Two identical and reversible Red Scarves:

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK, 3 skeins each (100% superwash merino; 50 gr/123 yd per skein)
Needles: US#6 KP Options circs
Pattern: La Harlot's One-Row [Handspun] Scarf.
Mods: None. I love this pattern stitch, as you can see.

Thankful Thursday the first.

Carole proposed the idea of Thankful Thursdays, which she picked up from Kate -- isn't this a great idea?

Three things I am thankful for:

1. My health, although far from perfect, is certainly good enough to be thankful for. Hey, any day spent above ground (and not in a wheelchair) is a good one!
2. Smokey Bear, my life's companion and all-around good guy.
3. Our boys, who I am proud to say have turned out to be well-adjusted -- albeit crazy, in a good way -- and happy and productive citizens, plus they are just plain fun to have around.

I wrote the above, then read Kate's post, where she said the same thing in almost the same words. I really am thankful for those three things, but I pride myself on being An Original. Hence, I immediately began thinking of other things to be thankful for.

1. I am thankful for our high-speed internet, recently upgraded (for free!) by the local telecom. Now I can watch stupid YouTube videos right away instead of waiting for them to load first.
2. I am thankful for the beauty of the fall colors, although they are akin to getting the lollipop and sticker right before the excruciating medical procedure that lasts for six months and involves snow shovels, tow ropes, and jumper cables.
3. I am thankful for Hannibal's and En Esch's excellent table manners. Unlike every other cat we have been owned by in the past 35 years, they do not bolt their food and immediately vomit it up. It's the little things, guys.

* * * *

I forgot a few things in my "Current Knitting" post a few days ago. There were those two squares for Carrie's blanket

 

and some more squares for Lucia's blanket(s) for supportive housing:

Square #1 is some unknown sock yarn held double, knit into a 6" square on US #6 needles using a stitch pattern from one of the Barbara Walker treasuries. Square #2 is another 6" square knit in 8 tints/shades of blue yarn from an afghan kit I bought at an estate sale years ago, knit on an unknown size needle -- maybe a US #4? -- and using a Barbara Walker slipped stitch pattern. It was shown in the BW book using two colors; I used all eight to produce the plaid. It was a PITA to knit, but Carrie says that square in the afghan is little Eddie's favorite, so it was totally worth it.

The three squares in photo #3 are all Knit Picks Wool of the Andes knit on a US #7 in La Harlot's One-Row Handspun Scarf stitch pattern. Lucia told me she had a thing about reversible stitch patterns, so I made sure to use one so her head wouldn't explode :-)

* * * * *

The Friends of the Polk County Libraries have a table at a craft fair on Saturday, and I have been busily knitting some more wine bottle cozies. Here are two lying on the washer so I don't forget to felt them when I do the laundry today.

 

Here's the third and final one in progress.

 

I have also made a whack of tissue cozies, but I gave most of them to Colleen, the library director, to sew up, so I don't have a photo. I'll get on on Saturday -- they turned out cute¹⁰, if I do say so myself. Here are three I sewed up myself.

Sunday chuckles and knitting and more chuckles.

Smokey was lying in bed while I got dressed this morning. He asked, "Well, what's new today? Did anyone break in overnight and clean and organize our house?"

"Nah," I replied. "Probably because we forgot to leave the door open. Or forgot to light the beacon. You know, the grail-shaped beacon* on the roof."

We started the day with a laugh.

Which was a good thing because about an hour later I broke the garage door.

* * * * *

Email from Andrew: "Hey mom, mom, guess what I'm learning about."

I email back: "No idea. Give me a hint."

Andrew: "I was watching a lecture I missed for musculoskeletal pathophysiology (that means bone and muscle disease class). I attached my notes for it, and you should have a look, both of you. The lecture is on seronegative spondyloarthropathies, a disease category that's a lot more familiar to you than it sounds."

(It turns out that psoriatic arthritis is one of those diseases; Smokey suffers from it, although I generally tell people rheumatoid arthritis because the effects are very similar and people have heard of it.)

Anyway.

From Andrew's notes: "...Or also gold salt is a remittive therapy. Q: Why? A: We don’t know why, but macrophages eat the gold, so maybe the gold messes up the macrophages somehow and yeah, kittens."

I love my boy man-child.

* * * * *

Now the knitting.

I really like to make hats. So simple, don't need a pattern, great way to try out color ideas, portable, yada yada; all of which is also true for socks except that I can finish a hat in an evening of concentrated knitting. Try to do THAT with a sock.

So I was delighted to read about the Handknit Hats for the Homeless at the Simpson Shelter. Once again, thanks for helping me re-find it.

Last year I made this hat just because. I knew eventually it would find a good home.

Yarn: Bernat Lana (100% merino, although it doesn't feel as soft as other merino) worsted weight
Pattern: Seaman's Cap (Ravelry link; this is my go-to hat pattern) done on 96 st.
Needles: US#7 (I think) circ, Magic Loop.

Last weekend I knitted up a couple balls of super bulky yarn leftover from who-knows-when.

 

Yarn:Lion® Wool-Ease Thick and Quick
Pattern: Improvised, based on Cathy-Cate's Casbah Toe Sock. One hat worked on 60 st, one on 56. The latter worked better for the decreases.
Needles: US#10 circ, Magic Loop.

Last night I started and very nearly finished another hat, this time in worsted weight again.

Yarn: Colorado Yarns Durango (50% wool, 47% acrylic, 3% rayon) in a brown tweed.
Needles: US#6 circ, Magic Loop.
Pattern: Improvised. Cast on 96 st, join. K1, p1 for 5.5 - 6". Decrease same as Seaman's Cap, above.

I finished the first Red Scarf. (Color is off in these pictures; it is more of an intense dark red and less dull brown IRL.)

 

I love that it is so easy and mindless. And reversible.

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK, Garnet; 3 skeins (150 gr, ~300+ yds).
Needles: US#6.
Pattern: Yarn Harlot's One-Row Handspun Scarf (Rav link).

Red Scarf #2 is nearly 1/3 done. Yay for mindless knitting!

* * * * *

One A couple last chuckle chuckles, this one these from MyLifeisAverage.com:

Today I was walking into the grocery store when I saw a small boy in a trench coat that was clearly too big for him. Suddenly a tall man in a ski mask sprinted around the corner, bowed to the little boy, and said "Master, things are not going as planned. We'll need another one." He then handed the kid a potato. I've never had so many questions. MLIA

Last night, I was knitting at a bar. A guy came up to me and said, "I've never seen a hot chick knitting before." I mustered up the deepest man-voice I could and said "Me, neither." He left very quickly. MLIA.

* Monty Python & the Holy Grail reference; we also used to have a cat named Zoot, named for one of the eight score young blondes and brunettes who lived in Castle Anthrax, the castle topped with the aforementioned beacon. Yeah, MP nerds here.

Knitting. Kittehs.

I have been seized by a bout of finish-itis, probably because I start back to work next Monday. I'm trying to tidy up loose ends here at home, and having at least five projects OTN was bothering me.

First, I decided to use up the rest of the superwash merino I bought for the co-worker's baby hat. Result: a head start on next year's preemie hat project.

The white one is extremely small. It would fit a tennis ball perfectly. Really, it would be best if it were never, ever needed. But it will be, and it will be ready.

A couple months ago I started a second pair of extra warm socks and got most of the leg done on the first one before my interest skedaddled on to something else. Last night I did the heel and gusset.*

Here it is posing with one of the socks from the first pair. Although you may not be able to tell from the photo, the one on the right is darker and more green.

Both pairs use one strand of Online Supersocke 100  from the Highland Color group (left) plus one strand of some other sock yarn. The one on the left pairs color #840 with a strand of MegaBoot stretch in an oatmeal color. The one in progress on the right pairs #838 with a strand of Socks That Rock in Falcon's Eye (right). The STR makes that right sock nice and soft. The Online yarn is sturdy, tightly twisted, and should hold up well, thereby compensating for the softness of the 100% merino in the STR.

These will keep my tootsies nice and warm next winter. The first pair did great in that department this winter. These are the kind of socks sometimes referred to as boot socks, extra thick and cushy. An added bonus of double-stranding the yarn is that it goes approximately twice as far, which means I can make at least one more pair using the Online yarn with something else.

* * * * *

Today's kitteh photo. Hannibal is upstairs looking out the window. A strange black cat is outside the window downstairs.

 

Hannibal, you missed your visitor!

* Edited to add: I wrote this post on Tuesday morning. Finished the sock later that day and cast on for the second. Finishfinishfinish...

2008: the year in pictures.

January. Apparently this month was all about Maggie and Matthew.

 

 

February. Hazel from the Shetland Islands, winner of the World's Fastest Knitter contest at Mall of America's Knit- and Crochet-Out:

Deb and I at Amy's knitblogger party; Matthew after blowing snow:

  

Romaine, bleu cheese, pecans, and pears.

March. Franklin at Yellow Dog Knitting in Eau Claire:

 

April. The best photo of Andrew I have ever taken, the one that caused Knitters Of A Certain Age to go all hot and bothered and offer to adopt him:

May. This one was an easy choice. My great-nephew (but I didn't take the photo):

 

although there were a couple others that made me smile:

 

 

June. More Matthew and Maggie.

and a colorful visitor to the feeder:

July.

 

August.

 

 and:

 

September. The good:

the bad:

 

and the "so ugly it's cute".

October. Once again, the good (x2):

 

the humorous bad:

 

and the ugly.

 

November. lots of knitting, not so much with the great photos.

 

December.

 

 

 

 

Randomness: painfully convoluted sentences, John Mayer, ponderous thoughts, and even a little knitting.

To make amends for my little rant yesterday -- oh, and btw, thanks for all the bah-humbuggery appreciation y'all sent me, did my little heart good to know that humor still rules the world (I wish! It could do a better job than certain White (And Other-Colored) Men are doing at present, but that is a rant for another day) -- and did you see that Wendy commented (be still my heart, a celebrity comment! wOOt! (and did you read when Norma (yay! Norma!) blogged that "wOOt" is Webster's Word of the Year, except that they spelled it wrong, all the Kool Kids know it's spelled "w00t," not "wOOt") Thanks, Wendy!) -- I'm putting up this little YouTube number:*

Highlights to watch for:

• The sweet knit hat -- intarsia? stranded? -- worn by one of the graffiti artists. Yeah, I later realized it is really a ski mask, but still, it is an objet d'knit, and we all loves us some objets d'knit, doncha know?
• The awesomely perfect circles! drawn freehand! by that same artist;
• The skyline of NYC looking like something is missing, and we all know what that is, and it saddens us.

That album -- or "alblum," as my dear MIL used to pronounce it, and so did my husband, who argued with me for an amazingly long time that "alblum" was a perfectly valid alternative to "album" and whom I only convinced otherwise when I dragged him, alblumming all the way, to the dictionary -- came to live in my iTunes a week or two ago and I have been listening to it and smearing the music and lyrics all over myself, it is so good.

[ascends soapbox] As much as I love that song, I keep disagreeing with the underlying sentiment, that his generation is waiting on the world to change. The counter-culturalists of the 1960s and 1970s didn't wait. They stormed the bastions of convention helter-skelter and willy-nilly and Nelly-bar-the-door, and nowadays many of those counter-cultural values are mainstream, although sadly not so much universally practiced as universally proclaimed: ecological awareness, recycling, organic food production, planet-friendly practices, multiculturalism, tolerance, diversity, social justice. One cannot simply wait for the world to change into something that better suits one; one must be the change one wishes to see™. [/descends from soapbox]

On the other hand, the sentiments in "Belief" seem to me to express a profound truth that the world would do well to grasp:

But, hey, I'm not all about the lyrics. Listening to his pre-song comments in this video of "I'm Gonna Find Another You" I realized that, Doh, of course I like that song, it's... blues.

* * * * *

Now, as promised, a little knitting.

My first preemie hat for Jeanne:

Go on, knit her a couple. Quick, easy, stash-busters. You know you want to. Deadline is January 15.

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease (50% cotton/50% acrylic); Lake, Lime, and Berry.
Needles: US#6
Pattern: Basic hat from Ann Budd's A Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, preemie size.

I was a bit unhappy with the size and shape it turned out to be, thinking that it was too wide for its depth, but an emergency e-mail to Jeanne and I was tactfully informed that 1, babies come in all sizes and shapes (well, within limits), and b, even preemie babies grow and often continue to need little hats. Babies grow? Who knew?

The uneven stitches smoothed out nicely after a quick run through the washer and dryer with the other laundry.

Yesterday's knitting scene:

In the interests of full disclosure, I must tell you that the New York Public Library mug does not contain coffee, nor even Sleepy Rabbit tea, as it did yesterday. Nope, that is Worcestershire sauce-tinted tap water, concocted to re-create the scene more accurately. Do I have mad food stylist skillz or what?

To remove the taste of the forgoing awfulness, please fondle the virtual cuddliness of the knitting:

#2 son asked me to knit him a pair of socks. Listen! Hear that? Hell freezes over.

He has steadfastly refused any and all of my offers to for him. He's a fashionista in his own way, that boy, and his self-image brooks no mother-produced garments. Oh, except for that Dulaan-destined hat he swiped from me last winter. And that glow-in-the-dark scarf I so laboriously knitted him last year at his request and which he wore about twice. Grrrrr.

But I am A Knitting Mother -- ya know, the ones who want to wrap the world in hand knits? So I immediately agreed to make him a pair of socks.

No wool, he said, Wool is itchy.

Okay, no problem, I said, and showed him a recently-received color card of Knit Picks Shine Worsted (60% Pima cotton/40% Modal®). He picked out the terra cotta and cream shown above. One reason I was able to agree so readily was that I had discovered the extreme speediness with which worsted weight yarn knits up into socks. Wham! Bam! Socks!

He sent me a link to these socks to show how he wanted his to look.

Don't guys have silly-looking legs? Why do they pose like that, so their legs look even sillier than necessary? Why do I care?

* Diagram that (so-called) sentence!

Addicted.

I have become addicted to the striped Noro scarf, as you can clearly see above. The one at the left has been seen here before; it is for the Red Scarf Project and was actually knit from Plymouth Boku. The other two are the real thing, both knit from Noro Silk Garden and both intended as Christmas presents. I also have 4 more skeins of Boku lying lightly in my stash, intended for a scarf similar to the first one but with a bit more red, and intended for myself [insert selfish giggle].

I cannot describe in words how much fun it is to make these scarves, to watch the different colors come out of the ball and onto the needle, to see what color falls next to another, to see how they contrast and complement each other. It is sheer magic. I have decided that Noro SG is okay with me. Irregularities in the yarn are were previously annoying are now charming; now it is reminiscent of handspun rather than incompetence. In fact, when I was working on the rightmost scarf above in the car on the yarn crawl a couple weeks ago, every one of the Fiber Guild spinners asked me independently if the yarn were handspun. I just wish the [significantly cheaper] Boku came in as many color variations as the Noro.

QuasiPseudoNeoNoro:

Multicolored Noro scarf:
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, most of 2 skeins each of colors 204 and 249, bought on eBay.
Needles: Knit Picks Options US#7.
Pattern: Cast on 39 st. 1x1 ribbing. Slip 1 purlwise wyif at beginning of each row. Edited to add: Work 2 rows from one color, then 2 rows from the second color. Repeat until scarf is long enough or you run out of yarn.

Natural/brown/gray Noro scarf:
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, most of 2 skeins each of colors 267 and 269.

* * * * *

Big changes happening here:

I'm going back to work at the accounting firm for a few weeks to help in the pre-October 15th mini-busy season. (October 15th is the date that individual returns that were extended last April are due, plus the last date that 2003 amended returns can be filed.) So I will be back in Minneapolis, hanging out with my orange cat Tabby, and coming back here to the lake on weekends. It's all good: I like the work, I like the people, and the extra paycheck means Smokey can let up a little at his job and be able to work on the projects he wants to finish up before winter.

Matthew got a callback for an internship at a video post production company in Minneapolis. I was able to help him get his foot in the door because my cousin runs the company, but they use interns regularly, plus he has spent time there before and they know his work. He will probably work there for most of the next year.

I don't remember if I have talked about his plans before. He graduated from high school last spring. He wants to go into graphic design and advertising, and his educational plan is to attend the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. But although he is very bright, he is not a scholar, and he didn't want to move directly from high school to college -- he wanted a year off from the pressure of assignments and homework. So this internship/job is exactly what he wanted and needed. He will live in the basement of our Minneapolis house.

We both start Monday morning. We are all smiling. Life is good.

Dancing on the deck.

Behold.

I started these in May and finished the knitting a couple months ago. It was way too hot to wear them, though, so they sat for weeks and weeks, waiting to have their ends woven in. Now it is cold enough to wear them. Thankfully.

This was my first project from Koigu. Now I knew what all the fuss was about. Squishy squooshy yum.

I like how the colors made tidy stripes on the feet. On the legs the stripes are more swimmy, if you know what I mean. Not entirely circling the leg but instead spiraling one way for a bit, then reversing on themselves and flowing the other way for awhile.

But how best to model them? Hmmmmm...

First.

Second. My legs are not long enough to capture both feet at the same time, sorry.

Third. Boy, that was piss-poor. These things get a lot harder with age.

Fourth. Ah, that's easier. Whew.

Fifth. You call that fifth? This is fifth:

Don't quit your day job, kat :)

A little light knitting.

Eight facecloths for Rabbitch's project. The two light-colored hearts (vertical garter ridges) are a pattern from Ann and the blue/multi one (horizontal ridges) is my own design. Yeah, hers is better :)

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... knitting!

My contributions to Norma's Red Scarf Project. From the left:

QuasiPseudoNeoNoro (say it, it's fun!)
Yarn: Plymouth Boku (95% wool, 5% nylon; 99 yds/skein), 2 skeins each of colors 6 and 11. This yarn is clearly a copy of Noro Silk Garden, minus the VM and some of the silk; it is also about $6/skein vs. $8/skein for the Noro :) It made a good substitute in my mind. The scarf is lightweight but squishy and warm. I was afraid it might be too scratchy to be comfortable, but it isn't. I wet-blocked it using Eucalan in the soak water which probably helped.
Pattern: Just like the Noro scarf. 1x1 ribbing, slip the first stitch of each row purlwise, alternate skeins every 2 rows. Knitting this was positively addictive; I wanted to know how the colors would play out. I kept thinking I would need to break the yarn and take out lengths that didn't contrast enough, but that proved not to be necessary. Even when the colors of the two skeins were very close, the subtle differences still created discernible stripes.
Needles: KnitPicks Options, US#7.

Chocolate-covered Cherries
Yarn: A hodgepodge. The purpley red is the leftover alpaca from the scarf on the right, plus another skein of KnitPicks Andean Silk in the Sangria colorway (which turned out to be exactly the same shade as the leftover alpaca, but solid with a slight silky gleam instead of woolly and a bit heathery). The brown is 85 yards of Skacel Adagio (70% baby llama, 30% silk; 110ys/50gr per skein). The ivory is Rowan Kid Classic (70% lambswool/26% kid mohair/4% nylon), color 828; I still have most of the 153yd/50gr skein left. This scarf is meltingly soft.
Pattern: Garter stitch, knit lengthwise. Cast on 270 st, leaving a tail of the approximate length that you want the fringe to be. Break yarn, ditto. Knit every row, leaving the fringe-length tail at beginning and end of every row. Change colors as it suits you. Bind-off with Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn cast off. I made the brown stripes 3 rows wide so as to have a garter ridge on each side and to eliminate any possibility of the scarf having a wrong or right side. The white stripes are just one row. The purpley-red ones are at least three rows. The scarf isn't quite finished; I need to neaten up the ends and trim the fringe. Mañana.
Needles: KnitPicks Options, US#7.

Ribbed and Striped Alpaca
Yarn: Filatura Lanarota Puno (100% alpaca, 100 yds/50gr), colorway 1526, most of three balls. I bought this yarn last year at Smiley's Yarns internet sale ($2.99/skein), intending it for the RSP, but a proper scarf really would have required another ball; I didn't figure that out soon enough. So the yarn sat -- and sat -- until I bought some other yarn for the stripes: KnitPicks Andean Silk (55% superfine alpaca, 23% silk, 22% merino wool; 96yds/50gr per skein), one ball each of Navy and Hyacinth, plus a bit from a second ball of Hyacinth. This scarf is also sinfully cuddly.
Pattern: Standard scarf, 2x2 rib; slip the first stitch of each row purlwise. Narrower stripes are 4 rows each; wider ones are... wider.
Needles: KnitPicks Options, US#7.

The Orphan Foundation folks say they want unisex scarves so I tried to make these as non-gender-specific as possible. I may have succeeded a bit too well -- the one on the left is definitely masculine. I'm pretty sure the OFA folks will have no problem with that.

Now to gather some other goodies to go into the packages with them. Starbucks cards and chocolate, natch. The hodgepodge scarf reminds me of chocolate-covered cherries, but those are difficult to find in local stores. I shall persevere, though. Matching the chocolate to the scarf is key.

County fair.

I went to the county fair today.

The weather was perfect.

My shift starts at 10. Better hurry. Hmmm. Looks like I need to reset the date.

Not many people here yet.

Our booth was in the Horticulture Building. Of course. Where else?

Outside the building was an impromptu Lost & Found.

Our booth was between AA and a lady selling Tupperware.

Prices are dropping.

I took enough pictures to keep this blog going all week. Y'all are gonna get to see everything I saw. You excited yet? I am.

I do knit. Really.

Yes, folks, I have been knitting.

I have been making stuff to sell at the Friends of the Polk County Libraries booth at the county fair, which starts on Thursday. The Friends are raising money to buy an LCD projector to be shared by the ten municipal libraries.

These are facecloths, $5 each. Any that don't sell, plus any more that I make between now and September, will go to Rabbitch's project (scroll down to the July 8 entry to read about it). Many thanks to Ann for the heart pattern -- isn't it sweet? I wish I had time to knit a bunch more of these. I know they would sell.

Remember all this?

   

I got at least one ball of every color that *my* Wal*Mart doesn't sell. That's a lot, people.

I made some warshcloths*. $5 each.

 

I made some bibs. $8 each. Actually, these are less work than the warshcloths, but I figured people would pay more for a cute bib than a cute warshcloth.

Many thanks to Ann 'n' Kay for giving me their blessing to make a nonprofit *profit* using their patterns.

We are selling other stuff, too.

Felted mittens, $10, and kits, $7, to make more felted mittens.

Library t-shirts and aprons and baby onesies.

We planned to make many more of these purses -- Goodwill sweaters, felted, cut up, lined, with felted I-cord handles -- but they turned out to take more time than we expected. We have another sale in November; by then we will have more purses ($25 and up). These two are pretty plain. We got fancier as we went. Too bad the fancy ones only got cut out, not sewn. (Guess who was in charge of the sewing? Given the choice I would rather knit than sew, plus there is nowhere to plug in the machine in the car.)

Library tote bags. Aprons, long and short. All emblazoned with "Check it out @ your library." Notecards, too.

Of course we are selling books as well, but they are a LOT of work to pack up and transport and set up and pack up afterwards and bring back. Every year we take fewer of them.

 

Hooray for the fair! and hooray for knitters!

* Warshcloth knitters may notice that the slipped stitches on a couple of these are lined up in columns rather than offset as the pattern puts them. I had been making them that way for months before I noticed that my warshcloths were... different than everyone else's. Clearly pattern-reading is not my strongest suit.

Doo-laan, Doo-laan, Doo-laan!

(sung to the tune of "He's So Fine," with apologies to The Chiffons and to the spirit of Ronnie Mack, who wrote the song)

They're so fine (Doo-laan Doo-laan Doo-laan)
Wish they were mine (Doo-laan Doo-laan Doo-laan)
Those beautiful kids over there (Doo-laan Doo-laan Doo-laan)
The ones with the coal-black hair (Doo-laan Doo-laan Doo-laan)

My last two Dulaan sweaters are done. The random sweater:

and the sherbet one.

I knitted this one during tax season but didn't sew it together until Saturday. Isn't it just the cutest thing you ever saw? (No false modesty around here. No modesty of any kind, really.) The neck is not actually wonky; I just didn't smooth it out before the photo.

Here's what went into the box. Don't those sweaters look jolly in their chorus line pose?

I sent off the box of winter boots last month. I hope. I can't find it in the house, so I guess I already sent it.

Details, if you are interested:

Random sweater.

Yarn: Bernat Lana 100% merino worsted, two strands held together throughout. I had two skeins (198m/217yd; 100g/3.5oz each) of each color -- black, dark brown, camel, and white -- and used a bit over half.

Needles: KnitPicks Options US10.5

Pattern: Child's raglan from A Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd. I used the 34" pattern but it ended up to be 30". No, I didn't swatch. I described the stripe pattern ad nauseum  here.

Mods: I used a different double decrease for the raglans. Slip 2 tog knitwise; knit 1, pass 2 slipped stitches over. It makes a line of slipped stitches up the raglan and no visible decreases. It also camouflaged the color changes that occurred immediately after the slipped stitches. And I realized after 2-3" of yoke that, at my row gauge, the yoke was gonna be w-a-y too tall, so I decreased every round instead of every other. It seemed to work; the sweater looks more or less proportional.

Sherbet sweater.

Yarn: Tahki Yarns Dazzle, 100% wool, self-striping, bought on eBay last summer. I had five balls, each 100m/108yd/50gr, and I have about enough left to make a nice little cat toy.

Needles: Denise Interchangables US9; 4st/in. I DID swatch for this one. The yarn label said US10.5 needles, 3st/in, and I didn't think that looked right. I much prefer the fabric I got on the smaller needles.

Pattern: Child's drop shoulder sweater from A Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd, size 26", which looks to be about a size 4.

Mods: none. I spit-spliced the yarn to maintain the striping pattern, and I matched the stripes on the front and back, plus the sleeves match each other.

* * * * *
Shortly after the photo shoot the deck looked like this.

 

That is a jar of so-called sun tea on the table. Ah, what is so fine as a day in June?

Random Sunday

Yeah, I know, it's supposedly to be random Wednesday. I'm busy on Wednesday.

* * * * *
We got some snow.

Some of us like it.

* * * * *

Kat's tip of the day:

Crocs. Not so good on snow.

* * * * *
Remember yesterday's moose-y wine? This stuff is good, too.

* * * * *

Experience trumps science.

Whenever I feel the least tickle or sniffle or other symptom of an upper respiratory thing, I break out the vitamin C and take it every hour. [Goes to kitchen and swallows another 500 mg.] That has allowed me to avoid well over half of the colds that have attempted to take over my body in the past ten years or so. I am fully aware that double-blind testing has totally failed to validate the vitamin C vs. URI hypothesis.

I don't care. It works for me. The key for me is to take it immediately upon detecting the first symptom. Two hours later doesn't work. I keep a bottle of 100mg vitamin C tabs in my desk at work, in my purse, and at home.

I sure hope it staves off this thing that keeps threatening me. I've done the vitamin C thing three times since Thursday.

* * * * *

Lucy was very helpful today. She modeled the Dulaan sweater for me.

Lucy, stay!

Good dog, Lucy, stay.

Lucy, GOOD DOG!

Where did her tail go?

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool, color "Flower Garden," and KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, color "Mulled Wine"; 1 strand of each held together; ~500+ yards of each

Needles: Denise interchangables, US#10.5

Pattern: seamless yoke raglan from Ann Budd's Book of Handy Sweater Patterns; 32" circumference -- it looks like it would fit a typical American 5 - 8-year-old child

I LOVED knitting this sweater. Had I not taken out time to knit hats for for Rabbitch's homeless and Rachel's Soaring Eagles Project and a sock and a pair of clogs for Christmas and a scarf and a pair of fingerless mitts and a Calorimetry for myself, it would have been done in three weeks instead of three months. The Lion Brand wool is nothing special but I really like the feel of KP WotA. Knitting the two together made a very thick, warm sweater, perfect for Dulaan.

Until I got to the armholes I had intended to knit the raglan from Ann Budd's book, but when I was nearing that point on the sleeves I realized that the seamless yoke sweater pattern calls for a decreasing row every X inches vs. the raglan, which decreases every other row. Just in case the light bulb didn't go on for you when you read that sentence, let me explain the implications. Row gauge doesn't matter(!) in the seamless raglan. Is that good news or what?

Methinks I shall be knitting more of these seamless yoke raglans.

Cold

When the thermometer says this:

I am very glad I finished these

a few days ago. My hands are not often cold, but wearing these around the house has been like giving my hands a constant hug. Once again, thanks to Susan, my Knitting Coffee Swap buddy, for the beautiful and soft alpaca yarn. She gave me two 110 yard skeins; I used all but 10 yards of one. Now... what to make from the other skein? I'm not a hat person and the yarn is a tad too itchy for a scarf. Ideas?

Yarn: Araucania Atacama, 100% alpaca; ~ 90 yards.

Needles: Crystal Palace bamboo dpns, US#4. The yarn label said size 7s; personally, I think that would make anything of this yarn too loose.

Pattern: Fetching, from Knitty, with mods. Different yarn, different size needles, cast on 40 instead of 45 st, have 3 cables at the wrist and the same at the fingers instead of the three and one called for in the pattern, and cable every 4th row instead of every 5th. That last mod was a *design feature* because I forgot to count rows and had to guess.

I started wearing the right one as soon as I finished it -- better to look silly than have a cold hand, right? -- and was a little worried that the yarn might be too itchy for me. I have never been able to wear wool next to my skin. I wore it to bed that night; one of the times my hands get cold is in bed because I can't find a comfortable position if they are under the covers, and we keep our bedroom cool. My wrist itched a little at first, but by morning the wool didn't bother me at all. Yay -- there is hope!

The dogs wonder why I'm not feeding them/letting them out/filling their water dish.

"Blah blah blah outside blah blah treat blah blah blah."

I F'ed an O!

The scarf, she is fini! How do you like the colors?

I crack myself up.

The way the  blocks of color line up was a delightful surprise to me when I wrapped it 'round my neck.

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, 3/4+ of a 175m skein of each of #10 woad (faded denim when it's at home), #22 purple, and #28 turquoise, and ~1-1/4 skeins of #24 claret. 
Needles: KnitPicks Options US#6
Gauge: Whatever; this is a scarf, it doesn't matter
Pattern: my own. Cast on 60 st. Begin double knitting: K1, sl1wyif across, ending sl1wyif. Turn and do the same thing across. If you do it right, you end up with a tube closed at both ends. Each section is 28 rows. The first section has 13 rows of purple, 2 rows of red, 13 rows of purple. The second section has 12 rows faded denim, 4 rows red, 12 rows faded denim. Third has 11 rows turquoise, 6 rows red, 11 rows turquiose. And so on until the middle section has 5 rows turquoise 18 rows red, 5 rows turquoise; reverse the number sequence -- but continue the color sequence -- for the second half of the scarf until the last section is 13 rows faded denim, 2 rows red, 13 rows faded denim. I tried binding off as usual, but the bind-off row looked scrunched and didn't match the rest of the knitting. So I bound off by *K2tog twice, then slipping the first stitch over the second as in a normal bind-off* and repeating between the *s. That looked much better.

Coupla things:

• The blues are a little darker and more intense in real life. The darkest blue is actually deep purple. The red in the photos is accurate.
• Right up until I wrapped the scarf around my neck I was thinking I really should have used a Fibonacci stripe pattern. Now I'm satisfied with what I did.
• I'm in my pjs. That explains the boobage somewhere near my waist.
• Heather, the pjs are for you. I may not be knitting, but at least I'm wearing an objet d' knit.