Hiatus

So it's been awhile. It's the usual excuses: busy, Christmas, busy, sick, busy and all of the sudden ooops, it's been almost two months.

But the biggest excuse:

http://www.ravelry.com

This is the only place you need to go if you are a knitter on the net. It will link you anywhere else. Just the most amazing website. It's still in beta and they're constantly adding new features.

The Poisonscarf Bible

This post is for theadnostic.

Your scarf will tend to curl lengthwise and you will need to know how to "block" it. It's easy but I want to give you thorough instructions

You can wet the thing and gently squeeze out the excess water. Lay the scarf out on a clean, carpeted floor (or on a clean sheet on the floor), coax it into shape and let dry completely.

Or, you can use the steam from your iron. Lay the scarf on the floor or ironing board and steam the snot out of it (DO NOT PRESS--Hold the iron about an inch above it). The wool is very subservient when steamed and will obey you (which will appeal to you I'm sure). Let cool/dry completely.

I recommend hand washing. If you're daring, use the gentle wash cycle and dry as above. It's Superwash wool so it should be able to handle a washing machine.

Enjoy!

Sow's Ears and Silk Purses

For years I have heard of people who poke through garage sales and thrift stores and find these wonderful treasures. I go through them, and I feel like I'm looking at junk. There are no finds, no steals, just a lot of dirty laundry and broken junk.

So a new Goodwill opened in town and we popped in just to look around. I finally found a gem!

I found a pair of children's Gortex Elefanten boots for $3.99! I had never heard of Elefanten, but I know Gortex and the treads had no wear. I could tell I had a boot that would survive two children and I knew I needed to get my 4yo a new set of boots anyway, so I got them.

I knew they were European and I asked a friend from my SnB if she was familiar with them and this was how I learned I had a treasure.

Who knew?

Face Book

Recently, I have been receiving a lot of mumblings from Facebook. A freind invited me, then another friend sent some request, then a few other people came out of the woodwork.

I have to say, I am confused by facebook. What is it exactly? The pages I visit seem to be disorganized blogs and/or photo galleries. There are various comments from other people and overall, it just doesn't seem organized.

I don't get it. It confuses me. So if you do happen to tag or poke me or whatever, don't be offended if I don't get back to you right away. The closest the cyberworld will get to being inside my life is right here.

Camera Status

The camera is fixed. And it was still under warranty.

I should explain why breakage of said camera was so annoying. Let's start with a list of things that have broken since May:

Digital Camera 1
8 month old washing machine-out of service for two months!
Laptop computer (okay, I dropped it)
Waffle iron
Crock pot
Toaster oven
Digital Camera 2
Light fixture
Car headlights
Garlic press
Comcast Modem

Just when I think I can take a little bit from the budget to make headway with a home project, I'm stuck replacing or fixing something. It does not seem to end. Granted, some items are small, but we didn't realize how much we liked our garlic press until it broke.

And, I can say that Comcast and BestBuy are on my happy customer service list. Sears Customer Service is so high on my poop list that I still won't go in their store and DH and I will never consider them for any future appliances.

At the rate we're going, this could be sooner than later.

Tiramisu

Before we married, my DH and I started the tradition of making eachother's Birthday cakes. I usually spend a month thinking about what I might want and reading cookbooks and finding a tricky recipe--half the fun is watching him bumble around the kitchen. My husband buys a box of cakemix and a tub of icing and begs me to make it with oil (instead of the applesauce I usually use) because that's what the box says. I did trick him one year because the box actually had the applesauce as an alternative recipe.

This year I chose tiramisu for my cake. In general, I'm not a huge cake fan. I like gingerbread but that was a disaster the year DH made it and I had to make a second one for myself. I usually choose cheesecake, or ice cream cake or some such concoction and this year I want tiramisu.

Bday is tomorrow so DH said he'll make it today. I laughed because liquor stores aren't open on Sunday. so I had to settle for Rum we had on hand and grocery store marsala.

With the heavy cream and marscapone I'm sure I'll have no problem, regardless of the substitutions.

Pirates of the CarriPoison

An old college roommate of mine found a scarf pattern on the Internet and asked if I would knit it for her. I sent her the link to Knit Picks and we're off.

The scarf is an illusion skull and crossbones design. From straight on it looks like a badly garter stitched scarf, but seen from certain angles, a blood red skull and crossbones jumps out.

My 4yo calls it the pirate scarf. The mom in me thinks of it as the poison scarf.

Anyway, I have a project with a deadline (albiet a loose one). Someone wants a scarf and it simply wouldn't do to get it in the heat of Summer.

Technology and other Scary Monsters

Last May we realized that our camera was dead. It was almost four years old and it wasn't entirely shocking that it was kaput. So we bought a new one. My husband spent more time researching cameras than he did when he made the decision to quit his job and move his family across the country (oops, did some bitterness slip in?) and decided on an Olympus. Whatever. we are not shutterbuggy people and the point was simply to have a camera on hand if our kids ever manage to be cute.

The stupid thing is broken. I think it happened when my 4yo dropped it about 2 feet. I didn't think a drop that small would affect it, but it is broken. The screen is black unless I give it a good shake and the pictures are blurry.

And this just makes me mad.

The Golden Fleece

I was at my alma mater's Homecoming game last week and was eyeing the mascot grazing on the field. It dawned on me that the mascot is a ram and that sheep produce fleece every year.

So the thought popped into my head--"What happens to that fleece?"

Wouldn't it be fun to take a fleece and work at it until it was a completed garment. Talk about unique.

So I have done some hunting online and have sent out some emails to see if there is anyway to get my hands on a fleece.

Just when I decided to give up spinning.

Vogue Knitting Holiday 2007

I was at my SnB last night and came home to a sort of clean house and both kiddos in bed. I sat with my DH and chatted about our days then got ready to jog on the treadmill.

DH: Oh, I thought you'd want to take a bath.
Me: *sigh* I'm about to work out, I'll take a shower later.
DH: I thought you'd want to lock yourself in the bathroom with your Vogue Knitting and some chocolate.
Me: Don't even joke about that! It's too early for the next one...I think.
DH: Oh. Well then I guess I'll eat the chocolate and take the bath. The knitting isn't my thing.

Neither are baths if we're tallying.

So I compromised. A true and legit compromise. I only ran two miles of my three mile workout. I read the mag afterword.

I'm a trifle disappointed. There is only one pattern that catches my eye and I don't know if it's because I want it or because I want to knit it. Knitters will understand. It's an Alice Starmore Fair Isle. I can KnitPick it for less than $50. It looks like the challange it is. But will I wear it?

Anyway, the other patterns are uninspiring to me. There's lots of intarsia, which I neither like the style nor the knitting. There's a whole section honoring a model and dressing her in plain looking patterns. The cover pattern is one of these.

I hope the Spring edition is better.

Lace Shawl I

This one started out as some yarn I got from my LYS. They hand-dye a 50/50 silk/merino and have several gorgeous colorways, but dye lots are hugely different. I got the yarn as a gift from a gift certificate a year ago and have been playing with it but nothing transpired until I started this pattern. Unfortunately, I knew about 3/4 of the way in I wold not have enough yarn. A friend was knitting a sweater with the same yarn, from the same dye lot and I traded her the left overs for my roving and started the border. When you start the border on a shawl like this you think "whew! almost there" and then you realized you have to knit about 40 stitches just to bind off one. I had about 600 stitches on the needles to bind off. The border took as long as the shawl.

Anyway, it ended up being a little less than five feet across, with extensive stretching and blocking. I would have liked it to be larger but there is no way I'm undoing my work. Other than that the shawl is perfect--it's pretty, it's soft and drapey, and has just enough weight to feel substantial.

I have another shawl on the needles. It is in a very fine, threadlike yarn and is on sixe 0 needles. I've one almost 100 rows and the thing would block to about the size of a handkerchief. And every row gets longer. It will be a three year project.

They're Small and Fast

I discovered I had a large quantity of worsted wool scraps and decided I could knit a couple small sweaters for my boys. They may even be done before the first snow! The brown one is completly original. I used the EZ percentage system and made the hybrid. The green sweater is inspired by a jacket from Dale of Norway. This one was EZ's raglan and then I steeked the front.

I love steeks. It is terrifying to cut your knitting. Yes you take scissors and slice right down into your work. But it makes the knitting so much faster knowing you don't have to purl stranded knitting.

I still need to weave in ends (really?) and block them both. I also think I will knit hems for the sleeves of the green one and I need to add a zipper but I think they're so cute! And I used up lots of my scraps. I did however order too many extra balls of brown and green.

Too bad the cat doesn't look good in brown.

Cursed Yarn

Most knitters have heard of it. Knit long enough and you will become intimate with it.

Cursed yarn.

I was reminded of cursed yarn recently at my SnB. A fairly new knitter had finished her project and had brought in a couple new skeins of yarn. She said her friend had discovered her new hobby and had given her this yarn so she could knit a scarf. These skeins had been purchased "a while ago."

That should have been our first clue.

One was a pom pom yarn. The strand was fine with a large slub every inch. The second yarn was a fat, tweedy bloucle. The intention being to knit both together. It looked promising.

Our knitter, as I said, is relatively new to the hobby. Novelty yarn is not the way for her to go yet. But we assured her we could get her into this. We gave her lots of advice and helped her as best we could. The store wound the two skeins into one chubby ball and the cast-on started. After fighting for five minutes to cast-on 10 stitches we pulled her needles and cast on for her. Then she was having problems pulling the slubby yarn through her needles. Another lady took the needles and tried to help by showing some tricks. After doing about four rows she handed the needles back.

This was when someone stood up and accidently tripped over the trailing yarn and pulled the thing completely off the needles. There was no realistic way to pick up these stitches (the yarn was just that weird) and the only option to start over.

Our new knitter put the yarn back in her bag and decided to go shopping instead. Smart. I'm guessing this yarn misbehaved for the original owner too. It just refuses to be anything and at least it was discovered now.

It was a turquoise color, should you happen to be at a thrift store or a garage sale. You have been warned.

Tension Issues

I have discovered a tension issue with my knitting and I can't figure it out.

The deal is: When I switch from knitting to purling, there is an excess amount of yarn used in the process. It is most noticable in k2p2 ribbing when all the leftmost stiches in each knit column are larger than the others. I'm finding it also shows up in my cables.

I hold my yarn in my right hand and I suspect this has something to do with my trouble.

For now, I am wrapping that first purl stitch tightly in the wrong direction and this helps, but it's annoying.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Aran Swatches

While in the middle of all my other projects--some with minor timelines--I have been swatching for DH's Aran sweater. I got a ball of KnitPicks Cotton/merino blend and it doesn't seem right. It creates a very thick and heavy fabric and the cotton simply doesn't have the "give" that I really want if I'm going to be knitting this.

The problem is the DH preferred the feel of the cotton to pure wool. I may consider and alpaca wool blend for the softness but I am concerned how warm alpaca can be. DH definately won't wear a sweater that will overheat him.

What to do, what to do?

Going to Run Some Arans

I have been thinking sometime about a sweater for my husband. I've been taking note of his wardrobe and shoving all manner of patterns under his nose. Of course it's quite infuriating to be told the reason he doen't like that pattern is because the model looks "embarrassed." But I don't want to spend time on a sweater and have him hate it.

Now, for some reason, he is quite proud of his irish heritage. He has a whole 16th of it in him (The 100% German rolls her eyes). Anyway, I stumbled on a website that knits clan arans and his family name happens to be on the list:

I could do this. He would never wear a 100% wool sweater but he would wear a wool cotton blend. I showed him this picture and he liked it. The only thing I'm concerned about is that he liked it because it looks like it "has muscles."

Yes honey, you too will have muscles just by wearing this. Just don't forget to workout with me.

Rumplestilskin Need Not Apply

I have made a decision.

I will no longer call myself a spinner. I made a five month go at it. I was preetty good too. I was spinning thread so fine I needed to four ply it to get worsted weight.

And I just don't enjoy it.

So rather than forcing myself to keep at it, I will use my spindle as decor, stash my fiber and move on with my knitting.

Finissimo!

This is what happens when you spend five years knitting a masterpeice:

The cat decides it's worthy of his attention.



This purse is a pattern from knitpicks using their bulky Wool of the Andes. It uses the pooling of the variegation to create the swirls of color.

This is a purse from Vogue knitting. It's felted with two plys of knitpicks Worsted Wool of the Andes (at 2 bucks a skein you can't go wrong). I'm lining it with some leftover fabric I have--A bright metallic red with gold embroidered roses and I love it. It's more a peice of art than a purse.

On the Needles-August 2007

The gray lace shawl
An adorable rose basket purse (pictures soon!)
A felted gray purse
The Summer game day sweater
The rowan cardigan
a randon stole in some yarn I got at LYS sale.
A cape from VK Fall 2007

Foodie notes from the South

I'm back from my trip to South Carolina and Georgia. We visited family and friends and had a great time.

Alas, our budget is tight and we only ate out a few times but let me share my two great discoveries:

Kudzu Bakery's Key Lime Pie-It's not gelatinous. It has a great chocolate and perhaps nut crust. It had little shavings of lime peel. It was heaven. It didn't have whipped cream or merangue and it didn't need them. I heard their peach pie is also wonderful.

The River Room's Shrimp and Grits-South Carolina on a plate. Yummy grits (how much cream and butter need to be added to grits to make them yummy?), yummy sausage and shrimp mixture smothering the grits. So many miles to jog to work this off! But worth every step.