Cowgirls and some FOs

Do you know what these pictures mean?


Why, it's a semi-surprise cowgirl birthday party for Melissa, of course.

Here's a picture of the birthday girl herself, contemplating the number of candles on her cake. Wait a minute -- aren't there a few missing?

It was a fun celebration of "all things Melissa", with great margaritas to boot. I discovered that I suck at Pictionary (or, at least, I suck at drawing chicken- and baseball-related clues).

Daughter#1 managed to get a halfway decent picture of Sister#1 and me at the shindig. I'm the one without the cowgirl hat -- unlike Melissa and Sister#1, I'm not even a small part cowgirl.

For a laugh, go check out the funny picture of Daughter#1 caught eating wasabi peas at the bar.

In knitting news, I finished those Franklin socks for Melissa's book. I really like the yarn. It's not splitty at all, and it holds up great to lots of ripping (ask me how I know).

Here's a picture of the chutney color. It looks very different when knit at 72 sts (on the left) than it does at 60 sts (on the right). I really dig the diagonal flashing the yarn does when knit at 60 sts around. Too bad that size doesn't fit my foot. :(

I have also finished a pair of Trekking socks for my dad's birthday. These are color 62, done on US1 needles. I'm getting a little tired of Trekking yarn -- these are my 7th pair, I think. Yet, for some reason I just started another pair of Trekking socks for Uncool Guy. He has recently put holes in two pairs of his handknit socks (these and these), so I need to whip out some more for him.

Here's another FO that I need to mail off to its recipient. It's a pair of handwarmers/fingerless mitts for Sister-in-Law#1. This pattern is from Interweave Knits Fall 2005, in the Yarn Spotlight section. The yarn is Peruvian Collection Sierra Aran, used with US8 needles.

This is the fourth pair of these I have knit (see the others here). It's about time I tried a different pattern, huh? Well, last year Sister-in-Law#1 saw the ones I made for Mother-in-Law#1 and decided to knit herself a pair. However, she did not finish them before she decided to give up knitting (SHOCKING -- yes, I know), so I told her I would finish them for her.

I have a lot of other finished objects to show, but right now I need to get away from this computer and ride my bike. I can feel my butt expanding as I sit here...

Sugar Rush

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. I'm running on very little sleep today, since I spent a lot of last night trying to install my new blogger template (more on that later).

Uncool Guy has continued his customary Valentine's Day generosity and has showered me with flowers (tulips) and candy. These are the most wonderful fruit jellies from the Harbor Candy Shop in Ogunquit, Maine. Man, are they good. Plum is currently my favorite, but that could change because they are all just so lovely. If you are ever in Ogunquit, be sure to stop in at this store -- it is a chocolate/candy lover's haven.

In knitting news, here is the completed bowl that I showed you the other day. It came out pretty well for my first felted item, I think. I had a little problem with the edge though. I kept stopping the washing machine every 5 minutes or so to check on the progress of the felting, and I didn't notice until it was too late that part of the edge had started to curl in. By the time I noticed it, the edge was already too firmly attached in some places to unfold it. So I tried to curl the rest of the edge all the way around and felted it some more. It sort of worked, but the edge came out lumpier than I would have liked.

I based this bowl on the mancala pattern at Knitty, but I doubled the yarn and used bigger needles. Here are the specs:

Pattern:

I followed the instructions for the Large Bowl in the Mancala pattern at Knitty

Yarn:

Manos del Uruguay [100% wool],
color: 38 (dark purple), which I got from Windsor Button last year

Needles:

US 15 (used with the yarn doubled)

Gauge:

who knows?

Finished Size:

3" high by 6" wide

Comments:

I felted the crap out of this bowl and it came out pretty thick and sturdy. Interestingly, the felted fabric seems to have a sort of "boucle" surface. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that this is a thick & thin yarn. I'm guessing that the thicker yarn sections turned into the boucle "bumps" when felted. Anyway, it's a cool effect.

I shaped the bowl by stretching it tightly over a glass bowl. The bowl had slight vertical ridges on the outside and a sharply defined bottom ridge. It's funny that I can kind of see the ridges in the dried bowl and I can definitely see an indent from the bottom ridge in the bottom of the bowl. So next time, I'll have to find a different bowl for the shaping and drying.

[Updated to add: It has been brought to my attention that the bowl in the mancala pattern has an attached i-cord edge. I did not make an i-cord edge on my bowl, because I, apparently, cannot follow directions. Anyhow, I bet if I had made the i-cord edge, it wouldn't have partially curled in like it did. I'll try that next time.]

Oh, and Daughter#1 made this little shrinky dink tiger for me the other day. Isn't he cute?

Some Catching Up To Do

Howdy! I'm back. My work should be over for a while so I should now have some more time to do things like reading blogs and posting to my own sadly neglected blog. I may not have posted much this summer, but I sure have been knitting. I've got a lot of FO pics to take and post about. Here are a few things to start us off.

First up, we have the Frost tank from Rowan 30. I made one of these last year for Daughter#2 (see pic in my gallery), but it was getting a little tight in the chest for her, so I decided to use up the rest of that yarn and make a bigger size. We passed the smaller one down to Niece#3 who seemed very pleased to receive it.

Daughter#2 and Niece#3 in their matching Frost Tanks.

Here they both are modeling their tanks which they wore to Tanglewood two weeks ago. We went to hear a violin concerto by Dvorak and Beethoven's 3rd symphony, but we got caught in the continuous POURING rain partway through the performance (we were sitting on the lawn). Luckily, we had raincoats and umbrellas ready, but still -- it was a drag. I got leg cramps from sitting all squished up under my umbrella, followed by a wet butt after getting up to stretch my legs and sitting back down again. Oh well, the music was great (particularly the violinist, Hilary Hahn) and we did get in a very nice picnic before the rain started.

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Next up, remember THESE annoying socks from early July?. The ones where my gauge was completely and totally off? Well, I ripped them back to the ankle and knit the whole sock on the 2.5mm needles (with LOTS of trying on along the way).

What did I learn from this experience? Well, let's hope I learned never to ASSUME that just because you are using the same damn yarn and the same damn needles that you will get the same damn gauge. [You know, it's stuff like that that just sucks all the fun out of knitting.] Anyhow, here they are finally, on Sister#1's feet. She seems to like them.

Trekking XXL, color 71, on 2.5mm ndls, with picot trim ankle.

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With regard to current projects, I am working on Meg Swansen's Super-Spiral Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I'm using some laceweight yarn I got this summer from handpaintedyarn.com. It's their Kettle Dyed Pure Wool Lace Yarn in the color Paris Night, which is sort of a purplish-grayish color.

This is a circular shawl that's worked from the center out. In this picture you can kind of see the center (bottom left) with the spirals moving out from there. I love how it's coming out so far. Sure, it's super monotonous knitting, but that's what I needed for the summer. Something I could just pick up and knit, and knit, and knit, and knit, and knit without thinking about it. And this shawl seems to be the perfect project for that.

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Oh, and I received by prize yarn the other day and it is WON-DER-FUL! That yarn in the upper right corner turned out to be Artyarns Ultramerino4 (as a couple of you guessed). Also, Melissa wanted to know the color nbr of the Lorna's Laces. It's #18, Watercolor. And, no, I'm not trading it. ;)

I have already almost finished a pair of socks with the Socks that Rock, and I am loving that yarn. I've also started some socks with the Knit Picks Simple Stripes. The yarn is a bit splitty, but I really like the colors. Hopefully, I'll have finished pics of those next time.

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Well, that's it for today. I'll leave you with some pictures my garden (which I should probably go water).

One final thought: Don't these flowers remind you of fried eggs?

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Oops, one more final thought: I signed up for Sock Wars. I'll be on vacation in Maine that first weekend so I'm betting I get killed before I kill, but it should be fun anyway.

Crap!

So, the plan was to secretly knit a pair of socks for Sister#1 for her birthday (which is at the end of July). I recently knit a pair of socks for Niece#1 which fit Sister#1 perfectly. I had another ball of that same yarn (Trekking XXL) and I took detailed notes about what I did to make those socks, so I figured this would be easy peasy -- I could use the same pattern and quickly whip out another pair. [Queue the music of impending doom.]

So that's what I did. I used the same type of yarn (just blue instead of purple), the same needles, the same number of stitches, the same number of rows, the same everything. [OK, I did a different thing at the cuff, but that's not significant.]

And here's what happened:

Craptastic socks that won't even fit over a ten-year old's heel.

Say it with me, "AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!" Somehow I managed to knit the whole damn sock without noticing that it was extremely narrow. I was just knitting merrily away, so happy in my thoughts of how wonderful it was to be able to knit a sock without having to try the damn thing on all the time to check the fit. Sigh. Granted, most of the foot of this sock was knit in the dark in the car, in the movie theater, or while trying to catch up on some blog reading, but still. I really should have noticed. [Shoulda, woulda, coulda...]

I checked my gauge and it's 1/2 stitch (on the 2.5mm ndls) to 3/4 stitch (on the 2.0mm ndls) tighter on these blue Trekking socks than on the purple Trekking socks. According to my calculations, that should give a difference in circumference of about a half inch. Hmmm, that doesn't sound like a big enough difference to explain the amazing narrowness of these socks. Maybe I knit the foot on those purple socks with more stitches than I wrote down -- possible, but unlikely. Next time I see Niece#1 I'll have to examine those purple socks -- I'm really mystified.

At first I thought it might be that this color of yarn is thinner. But I just did a wraps-per-inch comparison and that does not appear to be it. I guess it's just me. I must have been 0.75 spi less stressed a month ago. Hmmm. Maybe that could be a new way to measure my stress level -- by knitting a gauge swatch with this sock yarn on US 0's. Kind of like a mood ring for knitters.

Persnickety's Handy Gauge Swatch Mood Indicator:

• 8-9 spi = super mellow (aka, too many cocktails),
• 9-9.5 spi = calm, relaxed (a rarely experienced state of mind),
• 9.5-10 spi = slightly on edge (my normal mood),
• 10-10.5 spi = overscheduled and stressed out,
• 10.5-11 spi = watch out, she's gonna blow!

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In happier news, we had a birthday party for Daughters #1 & #2 today. This was their "friend" birthday party, not to be confused with their "relative" birthday party, or even the celebration that happened on the actual day of their birthday. [It's been a week-long celebration basically.]

Anyway, Daughter#2 helped me make this Piggy Cake for the event (they have a thing for pigs lately). Not the best workmanship, but kind of cute.

Piggy Cake

A Busy June

As you may have noticed, this blog has been rather quiet lately. June is one of the busiest months for me. All four of the people in this household have birthdays within the 30-day period from June 3 - July 3, plus there have been multitudinous other events to prepare for such as:

• Father's Day,



• a ballet recital,

Can you tell that Daughter#1 has had a growth spurt recently?



• a piano & voice recital,

Daughter#2 playing something from the Magic Flute

Daughter#2 singing The Rainbow Connection

Daughter#1 playing . . . ummmm (bad Mommy can't remember)

Daughter#1 singing The Candy Man (note the candy-themed outfit, with candy necklaces adorning her various body parts -- her idea)



• two graduation parties,

Half-brother#1 (I only have 1 of these, but I figured he should get a number just like everyone else) swinging at a giant smiley face piñata at Niece#1's party.



• many, many softball games,

Daughter#1 pitching

Daughter#1 at bat

Daughter#2 hitting the ball

Daughter#2 ready to run home



• a mini-vacation (more on that in another post),



• plus all the usual crapola (trying to finish up homeschool lessons, trying to find time for work, etc).

Anyway, I've been busy. But I have gotten some knitting done. I've got a pile of completed projects to blog about. (OK, it's a small pile, but I feel good about it.) Here is the first on the list -- the Graduation Socks.

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Pattern:

No pattern, just basic stockinette socks

Yarn:

Zitron Trekking XXL [75% wool, 25% nylon],
color: 109 (variegated purple)

Needles:

ankles done on 2.5mm, heel & foot done on 2.0mm, top of foot done on 2.25mm & 2.0mm. (Yeah, I like to make good use of my needle collection.)

Gauge:

8.5 - 9.5 sts/inch

Comments:

I made these socks as a graduation present for Niece #1, aka Oh, Jane. She has tiny little muchkin feet so I had to rip back a little to make them smaller at her graduation party, which just happened to be on Knit in Public Day. I guess that sort of counts as knitting in public. There were certainly several people there who were amazed by the whole sock-knitting process.

Oooh, the pretty purpleness -- as modeled by Sister#1, who, like her offspring, also has petite munchkin feet with dainty little ankles.
(Who, me? Jealous?)

House of Two Restaurants

Lunchtime has gotten a little more exciting here lately. The girls have been taking turns playing "restaurant". It was Daughter#2's idea. She started by writing out a menu and having us wait in the hallway to be seated.

[Click on the menu to view a complete list of the Lily Pad's offerings.]

Daughter#2 seated my party (which consisted of Daughter#1 and me) at a nicely set table with a view of the garden. She took our orders quite courteously and efficiently. She prepared all of the food herself (I was ordered to remain seated at the table -- and I was not about to complain). Our food was quite good, except for one small oversight. My peanut butter and banana sandwich had accidentally been made sans banana, so I had to send it back. The waitress took this in stride and quickly remedied the situation, explaining that she had been distracted by trying to make soup at the same time.

The pencil behind the ear was a nice touch.

My dining companion and I both agreed that our lunch was excellent and the service was outstanding. We promised our waitress that we would return again soon, especially after getting our bill and seeing how affordable The Lily Pad is.

What a bargain!

Of course, the next day Daughter#1 wanted to give waitressing a try, so she created her own restaurant.

[Click on the picture to view the menu offerings at Moo Bear's Restaurant.]

It was another enjoyable lunch. Now if I can just get them to do the dishes...

Socks, Summer Cottages, and a Day to Rant

Howdy, I'm back from Rhode Island and ready to blog. First of all, let me just say that the yarn store in Newport was kind of a disappointment. Rachel, be glad you didn't put down that Corona. You didn't miss anything. No exciting yarns, no interesting supplies, and a musty smell. Bah, barely worth the walk down Thames Street. I did buy two balls of something or other that was on sale, but it's not worthy of a picture. Well, at least my fellow travellers were glad that I didn't make them wait long.

We had a great time in Newport -- there was much eating, drinking, shopping, knitting, and general relaxing. Didn't take many pictures, just this one:

Requisite tourist photo of dork standing in front of giant mansion.
[Uncool Guy gamely agreed to be said 'dork'.]

That's The Breakers, the 70-room summer "cottage" built by the Vanderbilts. Too bad they don't let you take pics inside, some of the rooms were quite resplendent.

I got some knitting done on the trip, but it was mostly swatching really. I am between projects and I'm having a hard time deciding what to make next. I started a couple projects. More on those next time.

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Before I forget, I need to talk about the upcoming Yarn Rant Day that Anne of knitspot is organizing. It's designed to be a day on which knitters around the world send emails to yarn companies that make poor quality yarn. Join us on June 1st, and write an email (or two or three) complaining about excessive knots in yarn (can you say "Noro"?), strange twigs and burrs in yarn (ummm, Noro again), yarns that pill excessively, colors that fade dramatically on first washing, or whatever other major yarn-related annoyances you have encountered.

The idea is to let the yarn companies know that we're mad as heck and we won't buy bad yarn anymore. Anne is hoping that the yarn manufacturers will pay more attention if a whole bunch of complaint emails are delivered on the same day. Ahhhh, we can dream, right? Download Anne's PDF flyer to read more about it.

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Speaking of Anne, I have finally finished the socks I was making from the handspun yarn she sent me. I was originally thinking of making socks with a lacy pattern or maybe some cables, but then I decided that I would rather just knit a plain stockinette pair. The color transitions are the focus of this yarn, and I didn't want to obscure that with a 'busy' pattern. So I went with boring old stockinette, but I don't think they came out boring at all. I love them.

Pattern:

Plain stockinette socks, with an eye-of-partridge heel, and my shaped toes.

Yarn:

Wool yarn that was spun and dyed by Anne of knitspot

Needles:

Addi 2.5mm

Gauge:

8.5 sts/inch

Comments:

I love the colors of this yarn and the way it blends from one shade to the next. There did not seem to be any real color repeat here, so it's a good thing I like nonmatching socks. ;-)

Left Sock

Right Sock

I knit these socks top-down, and things were a little tense for me as I was finishing up the second sock. See if you can guess why by looking at the photo below.

I was totally running on fumes at the end of these socks. I had less than 3yds of yarn left -- a little too close for comfort. I guess I can now appreciate the need for toe-up socks in certain circumstances.

The fluffy-haired one in the back

It's been a busy week here. Now that softball season has begun, I have been spending many hours freezing my butt off watching my daughters' games. It's a perfect opportunity to get a lot of knitting done, but the games are in the evening and it's been very chilly lately. It's no fun knitting when your fingers are numb. Anyway, they are both doing great and Daughter#1 is even pitching this year, so it's fun to watch. I just hope it warms up soon.

I tried to finish those damned Jaywalkers, and was almost done with both when I tried them on and noticed that the arch area of the foot is baggy. Uggh! Now I'm trying to decide whether to rip both socks back to the gusset and accelerate the decrease rate, or to just say "screw it" and finish them off and be done with it. I am leaning toward the "screw it" option, but these are for Sister#1 and I'd hate to give her a 'faulty' pair of socks. So they are back in time-out again.

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In happier news, I did manage to finish something recently. I knit two beaded bracelets. Behold:

I made these from a kit that I got from Patternworks a couple of years ago. They don't appear to offer it anymore, but it looks similar to this one, just with different types of beads. I discovered this kit (which I had forgotten I had) when I was reorganizing my stash a while ago. Look at all this stuff I'm finding -- I should organize my stash more often, huh?

Anyway, the two bracelets are knit in such a way that the beads are offset on each side, so the bracelets twist by themselves. You can wear them separately as two bracelets, or you can wrap them around each other and wear them as one thick bracelet. I think I prefer them worn separately -- they have more character that way.

If you look closely you can see that the beads in each bracelet are different: one has matte cube beads on the outside of the twist and shiny seed beads on the inside, the other has shiny cube beads on the outside and matte seed beads on the inside.

Matte cube beads on outside, shiny seed beads on inside

Shiny cube beads on outside, matte seed beads on inside

Pattern:

Twin Twisters Beaded Bracelet Kit

Needles:

#0000 DPNs

Beads:

4mm cube beads and size 8 seed beads, in both matte and shiny irridescent finishes

Thread:

25 yds New Metallics (2-ply metallic polyester thread), made by On the Surface, used doubled

Comments:

Although these needles are tiny and the thread is slippery I still enjoyed knitting these bracelets. They were very quick to make and not difficult. I would just recommend that you work in very good lighting too avoid going blind when trying to pick up a dropped stitch.
I might make some more of these, but I think I would use a different clasp -- this one is just a little too visible.

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Oh, and, as you know from my last post, I went to see the Yarn Harlot speak at WEBS last Friday. She was GREAT -- very funny (of course) and very down-to-earth. It was definitely worth the two-hour trip to see her.

I checked her site and I'm in her pictures. Here they are. I'm the one with the fluffy hair and the bright green sweater in the far back. I was sitting next to Melissa, but you can't see her in this picture -- she's too petite. ;)