July 20, 2011
July 10, 2011
A shawl for all seasons, or at least, locations
I'm still finishing my second Orange Pekoe sock from the Cookie A club June shipment, but the problem is, I have to actually pay attention when I'm knitting it. The chart is super simple and very intuitive, like all Cookie socks, but I still have to think while knitting. D'oh. Not so good for work, or poolside.
To solve that problem, I cast on a simple but gorgeous shawl, Different Lines. It's all garter stitch with some simple short row shaping- perfect for tossing into my bag and taking anywhere.
Like Pirate's Cove.
Or a Rapids soccer game.
I'm working it in Colinette Jitterbug, all from the stash...
I may have to go one stripe shorter as Jitterbug is a slightly shorter skein- only time will tell.
June 15, 2011
June 06, 2011
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No-- It's a Flying Sock!
I think I mentioned something in the last few posts about a trip to Pittsburgh. I tried to make those applique Ts, and take some cool photos. I also, of course, packed some knitting.
(Did I mention I've become totally obsessed with the Retro Camera app on my phone?)
I have no idea what is taking me so long with these socks. The pattern is probably the simplest Cookie A I have ever made- Boysenberry YO from the April 2011 sock club shipment. It's a 4 row repeat, where 3 of the rows are the same... And yet, here I am, about 3 weeks later, not done! Well, ONE sock is done.
The other is just past the heel turn and gusset. I need a long meeting, or something, where I can just plow through- that's how I finished the first one.
Meanwhile, this yarn is loads of fun- it's the shiny new, not yet available Solemate by Lorna's Laces. The color is stunning, and it's knitting up well. The drape is more like a cotton than I expected, but with more forgiveness... If I could just get around to finishing the 2nd sock, I could wear them and test out the temperature regulation claims.
And I really need to get my butt in gear to finish, because look what arrived in today's mail:
The June Cookie A shipment! Patterns due to be emailed out on the 8th...can't wait to see what's up next! I've never tried this particluar yarn before, but even still in skein form it feels like it will have a wonderful drape. Yum.
May 16, 2011
Cowltastic Cavity
Today I dealt with one of my biggest fears.
I had a cavity filled at the dentist.
May not sound like such a big deal to you, but it was for me. Until this year, I've had perfect teeth. No fillings, braces, poking, prodding, or anything. Just some sealant back in high school. But earlier this year the dentist found 2 itty bitty cavities. I've always been terrified of the dentist, but after Annie's disastrous birth and my post-natal struggles with PTSD, any medical procedure (no matter how minor) sends me into a tailspin. Allowing someone to stick a giant needle into my gums, then a drill into my teeth, well, not so good. I made it through with a combination of willpower, nitrous, and Tina Fey's Bossypants on my iPod...
Then I went home and took to my bed, where I finished this knit:
It's the Honey Cowl by madelinetosh, a free download. I shook things up a bit by swapping out the Tosh DK for some Tosh Merino Light that I bought in DC last summer. The tosh was in the most amazing colorway- a shimmer magenta/fuschia/purple- called Lepidoptera. Seriously one of the most amazing shades of yarn I have ever seen. BUT- and it's a big but (heh)- the 2 skeins varied more dramatically than almost any I have ever bought.
See what I mean? Oops! But- again with the buts!- I handled this challenge cleverly. To get gauge for the pattern, I held 2 strands together for the entire knit. Shear genius. Gave me the right thickness AND blended the colors of the 2 skeins! Whee! I am totally thrilled with the outcome of this knit. However (not but this time?), it did feel like it lasted a lot longer than 2 weeks. It was excellent TV knitting, in that it required NO thought after the first repeat. (Also a good whiplash knit, as I didn't have to look down at the knit while I was working on it.) Tedious, but stunning in the end.
Dontcha think?
May 08, 2011
A New Knit for Mother's Day
First, let me say Happy Mother's Day to anyone out there who has played an important role in a kid's life, mother or other... I know firsthand how difficult this motherhood gig is, and my hat is off to all of us!
And now on to the knitting. Many moons ago (February), I cast on the fabulous and lovely Coquille shawl from Knitty First Fall 2010. It's one of those fabulous knits that uses a simple trick to dramatic effect- in this case, knitting the shawl from side to side and using short rows to create nifty ruffles. It was a time consuming knit- and a bit dull after a while- but the perfect knit to take along to say, an Avs game.
(Even if, after I for the first time ever publicly professed my love of a team and a sport, they went on to break my heart with a mind bogglingly terrible season...The game pictured above? I think we were down by 5 in the first 10 minutes.)
Simple pattern aside, this knit was not so fun. Why? My fisrt ball of Schoppel-Woole Zauberball was just fine. But the second ball? Pure misery. The color striations were completely different (bad Sam, check your dye lots). Not their fault. Their fault? The thick/thin transitions of this ball were ludicrous. In more than one place, the "thin" section of the yarn simply disintegrated, leaving me with multiple ugly fixes throughout the last few inches of the shawl. And the thick sections were chunky and ugly. I have used this yarn in one other project and not had an issue, and the first ball was fine, so I am giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming I ended up with the yarn equivalent of a lemon...
Each and every time my mother happened to see this shawl on my needles, she raved about the colors. As I became angrier and angrier at the yarn, a perfect solution materialized. Give mom the shawl! I couldn't forgive it, and she totally loved it. Everyone ends up happy, right?
It was going to be a mother's day surprise, but a few weeks back, while it was blocking on the dining room table, Annie made a big point of showing it to my mom and letting her know it was for her. D'oh. After it dried, I hid it away and brought it out today- where she had either forgotten, or put on a good show. Or, maybe she never really liked it and she had hoped it WOULDN'T show up on mother's day? Hope not! Because that's all she got from me (though my lovely husband did take us all out to brunch, but that's another story. We survived...)
What do you think?
April 18, 2011
Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun!
Last week SUCKED.
I won't be elaborating, this isn't the place, but let's just say I've been in a bit of a funk since last Wednesday.
What better to perk me up than knitting two tiny hats that look like animals?
Remember the quilt I made for my new cousin Celia? I decided that she and her older brother needed bunny hats for Easter. Naturally. What else would you make for a newborn and a toddler of mixed faith? But I'm hoping bunnies can mean spring as much as they mean easter- and let's face it, they are part of the secular easter and not so much the church one...
The photo is lousy as I finished the hats at 10pm last night and dashed them off to the post office before the tax day rush...and in so doing nearly forgot to photograph them at all! Hopefully I will get some adorable photos of the hats being worn, and I will share those.
April 05, 2011
When Life Gives You Whiplash, Make Socks
It turns out that when you have whiplash, you should take it fairly easy. Who knew? I thought that I was taking it easy enough, but I ended up back at urgent care a week after the accident with unmanagable pain. After x-rays (did you know that they x-ray the first cervical vertebrae through your mouth? Say ahhh...), I got a very stern lecture from the trauma doctor, and I was sent home to bed, with orders to do as little as possible and to take the big strong painkillers. So I did.
But man, that gets boring, fast. Which led to me casting on the 2nd pattern from the first Cookie A club packet (rav link). I very carefully never asked the doctor about knitting, so, to the best of my knowledge, it was totally fine for me to be doing that during my bedrest ;-) During the 4 days in bed, I finished the first sock.
This may be my favorite sock, ever. The allover ribbing makes for a perfect fit, and the pattern was easy without being boring- the instep decreases are worked in a fabulously unique way. The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight, in the True Blood colorway. STR tends to run a bit heavier than comparable sock yarns, and I think it worked well for this pattern.
After 4 days of nothing, I returned to the real world slowly and cautiously. The trauma doctor had given me a soft collar, and I have to say, it was a godsend. I'm fairly po'd at the original doctor for not giving me one the night of the accident and also not being clear about what I should and should not do. Thankfully, I am done with the collar now, and also, with the second sock!
I mirrored the cables on the second sock. Tiny touch, but a nice one.
I'm off the major painkillers now, and rather than stabby awful pain, I'm just really really sore. I am back to work, and today made it for an entire day, the first time in 2.5 weeks! I start PT on Friday...wish me luck!
March 21, 2011
One Batch of Cookies, Done!
I can't believe it took me over a month to finish one pair of socks, but, it did... And the only thing that finally actually got them done? Being stuck in bed for the last few days with a minor case of whiplash.
Yeah, my big St. Patrick's Day party was taking myself to urgent care after we got rear-ended on the way home from dinner. Whee. The van is fine, the kids are fine, but I'm not totally fine. Apparently even a small, slow accident can result in whiplash IF your head snaps forward and backward just the right (wrong?) way...
Vicodin, ice, and 5 pillows piled perfectly are helping, as are my mom, husband, neighbors and friends (who took the kids off of our hands for a bit.) Meanwhile, I did a bit of knitting and finally finished these.
Pardon the lousy photos, but holding the camera up hurts. Wah, whine. The pattern is called Ripple Leaf and is one of the 2 from the 1st Cookie A sock club shipment. You probably can't tell from these bad photos, but the right and left socks are mirror images- very fun. The leaf pattern wraps sideways around the top of each foot, and it is lovely.
I finished 2 more blocks for my crochet afghan, but the idea of getting them out and taking a photo or two is too much, so you'll have to trust me. Sadly, due to the whiplash I ended up having to skip March's class. I have the pattern, but, I'm not sure I get it just from words. So I may have to stop by Fancy Tiger to get Cat to give me a quick lesson.
And as for sewing? I think it will be a while before Iget to any of it. Which is a total shame- the 5 quilts Deb finished for me were waiting on my doorstep when we got home after the accident. They look AMAZING, but lord only knows when I will bind them now...
March 16, 2011
Wordless Wednesday: New Mexican Stash
Heavenly Hand Dye, The Yarn Shop, Taos
Brambles Bo Peep's not just for socks, The Yarn Shop, Taos
La Lana Wool, Taos
Sock Yarn, Tutto, Santa Fe
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