New Year Sweaters

The daffodils are up and going crazy and I still haven't posted photos of the New Years sweaters. Ok, ok, so I haven't even finished one of the sweaters and another one I forgot to photograph. So instead of the ensemble here is just a taste and then we can move on to enjoying the spring rain.
Look at me.

No.


Look at me

No

Look at me

No
Look at me...There you are


Show me your sweater.

No.
Show me your sweater

No

Show me your sweater

No
Show me your sweater

oakay



Photography is all about outlasting the models.



Sam knit in Cotton Fleece. This is modified. I knit the 12 month size but made it extra long since the kid is 2.5 years old.

I'm finally done with this green and it's out of my stash. I bought a crazy amount of this yarn from mill seconds site. In my stash spread sheet I even mentioned I must of had a plan when I bought that many balls but I couldn't think of it. And the yarn was just so very bright green, not as seen in the photo, a common occurrence when shopping online.

I overdyed about half of the yarn when I hosted a guild workshop at my place. I still had enough for a sweater for me in a color I didn't really want to wear. Finally, I knit up this extra cute sweater and sent the last 3 balls of it to my Valentine Secret Pal. It feels so good to have it gone from my stash.

Pattern from my head. A top down raglan with rolled hems a-la-J Crew. The yarn is a mystery 100% cotton. It's the very first yarn I bought to knit myself sweater.

As a brand new knitter I was still in shock at yarn prices so I bought $30 worth and hoped it was enough but thought it probably wasn't. At that point I knew enough about gauge that I could make up my own hat patterns and knit socks but I wasn't sure about matching a written pattern.

I swatched a little and then put the whole thing away. As the years went by I think I lost a ball of it and had lost all of the labels too. I had no idea of the yardage. No way was I going to try knitting a sweater for me out of it but it's too much yarn for baby sweater. It languished for 9 years looking for a good medium sized project. It's finally out of the stash and one of the cutest sweaters ever.

The M is a bit of leftover cotton from a friend. I put off the embroidery for about 6 months since the color wasn't what I wanted but all I had. It turned out looking great and just right.

First Day of Spring

Crazy blizzard on the first day of spring is over.
I finished my Darkside Cowl. It's knit out of hand spun yarn and it is fabulous. I have enough yarn left over for another cowl and, I hope, a hat.
Fiber was Ashland Bay Merino that I spun 2 ply to aran weight. The pattern is easy and well written.


I also finished my Tuja socks. They took 10 days to knit but it felt like only a few hours. I love everything about them. I did center the heel so the ribbing would flow nicely down the foot. I used two balls of Rhythm. I have small feet and that's all the yarn I had left.

Front Load Washers Are Bad At Felting, My Ass

I read over and over again about how front load washers suck at felting. What a pile of shit.
If that was true how did my Pixie Wing socks turn from this

Into this!
They were only 14 months old.
Now this is a pair of socks pulled from the same machine of death and they look almost as good as they day I knit them 9 1/2 years ago. Yes, my first pair of socks. Quality yarn is so worth it. I love you Regia. You aren't even thinning on the bottom and I wore you once a week for the first 5 years. That's before I built up a drawer full of hand knit socks and had the ability to pull you out just once a month.

I took a learn to knit class because I wanted to knit socks. It was a 6 session mitten knitting class. While the other students knitted a pair or even two of mittens I plowed through the mittens, a few hats, and then these socks before it was over.

The pattern is the formula in Nancy Bush's book and my instructor had me buy reinforcing thread to knit in at the heel and toes. The socks are a little pilly, especially after today's washing, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had another 9 years in them.

Want, Want, Want,

Quinoa With Toasted Almonds & Dried Cranberries This is so good and so easy to make, although it sounds complicated. It involves soaking the Quinoa for 12 min and then toasting it in a little oil until browned. I swear half of them popped like tiny tiny popcorn. Once lightly browned it's cooked like rice although this recipe used broth instead of water. Add dried cranberries, orange zest, and slivered almonds and it's done. It's so good. I would never had picked this up on my own. It was a Christmas present where everything was all measured out for me. If I can find a place to buy quinoa I'll make this again and again.

Last Saturday was another cooking day although a shorter one since I had other things I had to get done. Another 3 recipes and another 30 meals in the freezer. Lion's head and Mountain Stew used up the rest of the cabbage. Spicy Indian Cauliflower Saute used all the fresh and half of the frozen cauliflower. I'll cook again this Saturday. If it's another huge cooking day I'll finish up the recipes I bought for or if I only cook another 3 recipes it will spill over to at least another Saturday maybe two. But with the using of the last of the fresh vegetables this weekend I can take my time with the other recipes since they use canned and frozen ingredients. Then it will be a relief to not have to think about food again for a good long while. My math says another 6 weeks. I'll have to see if that works out. It sort of depends how long the cream for my coffee lasts.

Another LYS is closing and that is a sad sad thing. It also means that local yarn is on sale. Then a favorite online store is having a sale right now too. I want to buy yarn so very very badly and right now I can not and that makes me want to buy even more. So instead of buying yarn I cast on new projects. It sort of takes the edge off.

Thuja made me feel better for 24 hours. It's knit in Jojoland Rhythm.

Then I cast on Which Way Do We Go baby sweater which has held my attention for the week. Yarn is Brownsheep Kaleidoscope.

I suspect that I'll be casting on one or more new things this weekend. Maybe not all of the projects will get finished but I can always frog them and get the yarn back so if it keeps me on track to knit half of my stash then it's all good.

Cooking Day

I haven't been grocery shopping in 5 almost 6 weeks so I made up my list and went after work last night. That means today was a cooking day. A very productive and very very tiring day.

I made:

Cream of Pea Soup

Spicy African Stew and ho-boy did it turn out spicy. That was one spicy jalapeno.

Black-eyed Peas with Tomatoes and Herbs over rice, this is my favorite of the day.

Savory Pumpkin Stew, this one I didn't measure the mustard and I put in too much. I countered by adding honey. Good, but it would be better to go easy on the mustard next time.

Cream of Spinach, my favorite of the day.

Harvest Stew, where they get calling this a stew I don't know. I had to add 4 cups of broth to get it thin enough to be a sauce over rice which is what I did. This is my favorite of the day.

Roasted a turkey, not for meals but to cook with next weekend.

Quinoa With Toasted Almonds & Dried Cranberries, my favorite of the day and good enough to take photos of. I'm too tired to get the photos off of the camera but I'll post about it when I do.

I now have 67 meals in the freezer and I still have the ingredients to make 10 more recipes. When I'll cook them I don't know. I have to work tomorrow. I didn't think that part out so well.

Not bad for $131.71.

Ten Dollar a Day Habit

Cabled Rangoli Hat, what a great pattern. Look at the cool flower drawn out in cables.

It's knit out of an even greater yarn, Rowan Pure Wool Dk. There is a reason I don't knit with Rowan. I love it too much. This yarn is so smooshy, so springy, and it's plies don't split. It's a nice plain wool that is so much better than other plain wool yarns. It flows through the hands and clings to the points of the needles just right. The spring and rebound and memory of this yarn it's hard to believe it's spun out of wool and not the softest of elastic. Cables look chiseled with no blurring of the edges and plain stockinette is so pretty.

I love it so much I knit the first ball worth of this hat in a short afternoon and part of the second ball that evening. I could easily knit just this yarn I just can't support a $10 a day habit. I did stretch the knitting of second ball out over the next 3 days.

Tams and other floppy hats are supposed to be blocked over a plate. I wanted this hat to be bigger than the pattern as written and I succeeded. This hat dwarfs my dinner plate.

I had 2 balls of Pure Wool DK in my stash and this hat was a race to the finish. Would the yarn run out before the knitting ? I was sweating it but I ended up with a nice little ball left over. In making my linkity-links I noticed that this yarn is superwash so I think I'll hunt down some more colors to use with my leftovers for a baby sweater.Joey pleads with me to let him retire from the floppy hat molding. He doesn't like it one bit. I do, and I finally have a winter hat that looks good with my winter coat.

As Big As Feathers

Snow started falling from the sky. I have never seen such huge flakes. They are as big as goose down feathers. Bigger.
Snow this big must be played in, ran through, with lots of jumping and twirling. It must.
See the huge flakes?
They melt instantly in warm hands
but stick for a moment on the hood of the car.

A blast from the past. I finished this little number up right before Iron Knitter and only now have photos.

Joey in a hood and hat combination. He looks cozy. The yarn is Lush and I love it. It's so soft with lots of drape and the angora halo is so cuddly and warm. It mats and felts lightly with just a little handling which holds the angora in so no real shedding. The cowl pattern is Cabled Feather Cowl and the hat is For Joana I modified both for fit since Lush has no relationship to the yarn in either pattern. I have a good bit left from my 3rd ball and will be knitting that up soon. It's too pretty not too.

Wipe Out

Iron Knitter moved onto round 3 without me. While I'm sad not to be sill be competing it is nice to knit on whatever I want at night. The complicated lace pattern was my downfall.
It's 37 stitches wide and 36 rows tall. Because I couldn't memorize it and I had to watch each stitch on the pattern grid. 10 rows a night was all I wanted to handle after getting home from work all bleary and tired.

They remind me of the Zonki socks I just finished. A nice pattern but one that I want to stretch out over a year instead of cramming into a week or two. Of course the pattern for Iron Knitter round 3 is a cute little stranded knitting pattern. Stranded knitting patterns just fly off my needles.

My Knit Picks order came with 2 new sets of size 0 needles and some nice Stroll Tweed sock yarn. I do love tweed yarn.

Loving VD

My secret pal sent me a very nice valentine box. The VD swap this year is extra nice.

Even Sumi-e rushes to see what is inside. We all love a good SP box.Some Lime & Violet superwash/bamboo yarn. The way I know about Lime & Violet is that my favorite pod cast Stash and Burn gush, just gush, about them and their pod cast. As soon as I make it through the Stash and Burn archives I'm headed over there for a listen. The yarn is fantastic, a pretty spring time blend of peach, pink, and white. I can't wait to knit it into socks. And getting some Lime & Violet yarn makes me feel like I'm touching celebrity.

Along with that there was 3 balls of Knit Picks Andean Silk which was just right to knit the slouchy hat pattern that my SP had sent me earlier in the week. It's possible that I cast on before the box was empty.

And tucked into the corner of that photo is a nice big bag of coffee beans. I pulled out my grinder and brewed a fresh and fantastic cup. But that's not all.Two fancy chocolate bars so big and so rich that even now, almost 3 days later, they aren't all gone.
A blank book for my knitting notes. Note the yarn spelling out the word stitches.
Pretty nail files for my knitting bags. Nothing worse than when a rough nail starts getting caught in yarn. The yarn just isn't the same after a snag. They are also handy for filing the cord of circular needles after a cat chews on them. Someone is very lucky he wasn't turned into a pair of fur mittens.
And if all that wasn't enough, clear at the bottom of the box is a book on Shetland Lace.
What a great book with so many nice projects. Thank you Christina what a fantastic, thoughtful, incredibly generous gift.Remember the slouchy hat that I may have cast on while opening the chocolate? Here it is. Summer Rose knit in Andean Silk the color is Barn Red. It took every bit of 2 balls. Since I had the 3rd ball left I used the cables from that pattern to knit a matching cowl.The only thing harder than getting a cat to pose in a cowl for a photo shoot is to tell him the light isn't good and we have to do it over in a new location.A close up of how the silk glows in the cables and the alpaca makes it the warmest winter set ever. Thank you Christina!

Tardis and Tardy Knitting

KCPT sometimes plays Dr Who on Saturday nights. It starts sometime between 10:15 and 10:45 depending on how long the classic movie runs. I make a point of looking for it and have caught is about 10 times. Of those 10 times I've seen maybe 5 episodes, one of them 3 times. Tonight is true to form and a rerun that I've seen. That's how I feel knitting my sock, another rerun. That, and I could use a time machine about now.

Out of Gas

I try not to complain and I think too much has been seeping out lately, but I will say that I am completely drained from work everyday when I get home. I think I cover that well in public but I just am. I tried casting on again last night and it just didn't work out. I've finished my chores for the day and will try again. Or I'll go to bed. Or, and this is the most likely, I'll sit on the couch and stare at the ceiling thinking about casting on or going to bed.

The snow this morning looked like magic. Big furry flakes covered the ground in just seconds and made great big heaps on my car between the time I first walked Joey and left for work, about 45 min. Then I had to drive to work in white out conditions. That wasn't so fun and involved my sliding onto the shoulder as I made the turn onto the ramp off of an overpass. Nothing very scary but a nice reminder of how very light my car is.

And that's a reminder of something that was very scary. Last Friday it snowed all day too. On the way home from work, in not quite the white out conditions of this morning, a car on my right applied their brakes and instead of stopping started to slide right into me. I gently applied my breaks and while I didn't slide I didn't slow down either. I made a quick and controlled merge to the left but without being able to look. The traffic was rather heavy so at that point I just knew that this was the beginning of a 40 car pile up. Thankfully, miraculously, in this very heavy traffic there happened to be plenty of room for my car right that second. Once I was safely over the traffic surged in around me again and once again I was boxed in. But when it mattered I wasn't.

It wasn't for another 8 miles that the traffic thinned enough that people started to slow down to a crawl. I'm still not sure why the heaver the traffic on bad roads the faster it flows. I suppose it's because the sane people are swept along with the crazies.

Proof that there was some sun between the snow storms.

Day 2

Last night I knit my first picot cuff ever. It turned out very well, if I do say so myself. And instead of sewing it together at the end or making the provisional cast on and ripping it out to K2tog the two edges together I did the EZ method of picking up stitches from the cast on and knitting them with the live stitches. It's slow but I love it. I love how the joining is completely invisible.
However, the sock is turning out huge. I have gauge too. And it's not just a little loose but huge. I was easily able to pull it on up past my knee. I know that it should tighten as more length is knit but I'm not going to risk it. We are able to tweak the pattern for fit. I'm tweaking out 12 stitches from the cast on number. Yes, that's a lot but I think it's necessary.

So it's all pulled out and I'm casting on again tomorrow.

Oh, and don't say anything, ok? I have a hard time calling 12 stitches tweaking.

Round 2

Today at noon the new Iron Knitter pattern was released. I'm just getting to start it now because of work. I love the look of the new pattern, such delicate lace. No more time to chat must get to knitting.

Retail Therapy?

Another pair of socks started and finished in 2010. This is, what? my 3rd project? I like the instant gratification of small projects. Pattern is from my head and the yarn is another blast from the past, Jawoll Cotton. Why is it so hard to find jawoll these days? I love how each ball has a spool of reinforcing thread in the center for the heels and toes.

I held the yarn double so I could have a nice thick sock while still getting the fantastic wash ability that I think is lacking in thicker superwash yarn. I cast on 40 stitches to make a very narrow woman's sock. I could wear it but 44 stitches would be better for me.

I now have a little sock knitting crisis. I rolled over one of my Knit Pick sock needles at work (I do get a very nice office chair) and broke it. I now only have 3 left out of the 10? 12? of the two packs I started with. I'm making do by using a bamboo needle in a size larger. I just might have to make an order today, it's like I'm being forced to, right? Right?

If Everone Had to Work Customer Service...

...the world would be a nicer place.

I just finished my second week of my temp job doing customer service. I get to spend my days in a loud room trying to hear what a person is saying on the phone. The whole day I live with low levels of terror that I'm going to enter some information wrong because I can't hear it, this, of course, does nothing for my speed or my accuracy.

I've pretty much given up on my not saying anything wrong. NiceDude, sorry, it turns out your account is not ok but I didn't see the tiny red type down in the very bottom of the screen until you hung up and I can't call you back. I hope your son isn't pulled over. I was trying to help.


But during the down times I can knit.

Between being sassed, yelled at, strait out lied too, hung up on, and feeling bad about making mistakes with the nice people I've done this
Three work days of knitting is one sock and a cuff, pattern from my head, yarn is schoeller stall Fortissima Colori a blast from the past Mexiko Color.

The worst thing, this is not even close to the worse job I've had. That would either be selling shoes or the summer I spent scrubbing bathrooms while dodging the maintenance men trying to grab a feel in the mop closest. I won't decide which of those two jobs was the worst since thinking about them and comparing them isn’t good for my self-esteem.

Here, look at some yarn

Random stash photo but it sort of makes it all better, doesn't it.