Shhh, I'm Counting

Mini-Vacation

2008-08-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again when my thoughts turn to getting away before school starts. We always forget to take vacation earlier in the summer, then panic when we realize school is just around the corner.

This year, with my new job and all of the other insane things we have going on, we were only able to squeeze out a 4 day weekend. I do love a mini-vacation though, especially since it is much better than no vacation...

Anyway, this past weekend the hubby and I packed the girls into the car and headed north, to Seattle. each day we made a point of doing something special for each member of the family. This meant boat related things for hubby, the aquarium and many visits to the hotel pool for the girls and lots of visits to yarn shops for me

I seem to have forgotten to take pictures most of the weekend, which I think is probably a good thing. Means I was too busy having fun to think about it, right?

Among the many fun things we did was visit the Pike Street Market.

I loved seeing the sign from the back.

The girls, especially the oldest, love to eat anything that comes from the water. This is the girl who begs to try everything when we go to sushi and when given the choice of anything she wanted for her 5th birthday lunch chose lobster. Here she is ogling the crabs. She was not very happy about having to leave without one.

I ended up getting to four yarn shops over the weekend. The first was Little Knits, which is always great! Among the others, one was really not my taste, another way "just OK" although the owner was very nice and the final was Weaving Works, which was fantastic. I can see that it is going to become a regular stop anytime I am in Seattle. Yes,I did buy way too much yarn and no, I am not planning to show you any pictures right now. Maybe later.

By the way, I played Dish Rag Tag today. I'll tell you all about it next time...

I love a parade...don't you?

2008-08-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

I live in one of the best places in the world, at least for me. This past weekend was our annual neighborhood celebration, which for us is really just a big party with all of our friends. The city closes off a few blocks of the main road and allow vendors to set-up booths selling all sorts of yummy food and fun art. However, the best part of this celebration is the parade. Don't you just love a good parade?

In our parade, there were people dressed up like cupcakes, pirates, belly dancers, clowns and even patriots:

I can't tell you how unusual these guys looked. We are not in New England and I don't know if I have ever seen people dressed in outfits like that in a parade around here before.

These guys, however, have become a mainstay and are always very entertaining:

In addition to the stilt walkers and clowns, they also had a marching band that was lead by an electric base player. I don't usually think of the electric base as a marching band instrument, but apparently someone did.

The stilt walker was right ahead of this guy:

This is Oregon at it's finest. I always LOVE to see the old tractors.

Continuing in the "rural/urban" theme, below is a picture of the group called CLUCK, which stands for "Children's League of Urban Chicken Keepers".

In Portland every household is allowed to keep three small farm animals (i.e. chickens, ducks, goats, etc.). I still find that odd, but wonderful at the same time. It has become a very popular hobby to keep three chickens in your back yard.

It just so happens that the father in this particular family is an old college friend of my hubby. This name is a bit of a joke in that this group is not a formal club. It seems that a few years ago the kids wanted to walk in the parade, but did not have the requisite dog everyone else had. However, they do have their three chickens and thought they might enjoy the parade too. Now they are another mainstay we look forward to seeing every year.

Still not convinced I live in a special place? Well check this out:

It's a "float" entered into the parade by the neighborhood yarn shop. Sorry for the less than stellar picture. The vehicle had roving "buntings" along the hood, yarn hanging out the windows and knitted garments on top and on the back. Unfortunately they were not tossing out hanks of Koigu, but there's always next year...

Speaking of yarn...as I sat down to wait for the parade to start, I pulled out my knitting. At the same time, the woman next to me also pulled out her knitting, which was also socks. I love it when that happens.

I was knitting on these monsters, which I finished at the celebration:

Pattern: Basic cuff down sock, Yarn: Big Mexiko by Schoeller Stahl, with a little Cascade 220 superwash for heals and toes. Size: 14 mens!

WooHoo, another Christmas gift is done! Oh, and another pair is almost done...maybe tomorrow...

Socks and Shoes this time

2008-08-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

I am in the mood to use lots of pictures tonight. Sorry if that inconveniences anyone!

I finished another pair of socks. I know, what a surprise? I actually finished these late last week, but haven't really had the time to sit down and document them for posterity.

Patter: Generic Sock, but with 2x2 rib at the top and eye of partridge heel, Yarn: Yard Sale Special - it had a label that said "Lydia's" and "100% Wool" and consisted of 4 strands that were unplied.

So, knitting with the unplied yarn wasn't too bad. I did have to pay attention or I would occasionally miss a strand. Overall though, not bad. The colors definitely kept me motivated. These are some psychedelic socks!

I love the heel!

It's been a little while since I've shown my WIP's, and even longer since I've shown them on Wednesday, so let's have a look in the old knitting basket to see what's cooking...

These are going to be the biggest socks EVER. Not really, but they are a huge size 14 men's!! Notice the unopened ball of yarn with the completed sock for scale. Good thing I love my giant brother so much because even on larger yarn, these things are taking forever...

To contrast, my other WIP is a much more petite pair of socks:

Assuming these turn out well, they are supposed to be for my hubby's petite step-mom and her size 6 feet. Such a difference!

Both projects are perking along, although I am a little behind schedule to have another pair complete by the end of the week. Ah well, seems summer has finally caught up with us and rather than slowing down, like normal people, we seem to be speeding up. We have definitely been the model of a social family the last couple of weeks. I've said it before, but I feel very blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives who want to spend time with us, who am I to turn them down, right? Just doesn't leave much time for the knitting.

Onto the next subject...shoes were also promised in the title and I have some really cool new ones. Check these out:

Why yes, that is my fancy new psychedelic rainbow sock you can see THROUGH my new shoes!

Since before I even began knitting socks, I have been thinking about finding clear shoes to show off the hand-knit socks I would eventually make. I really wanted them to be comfy and big enough to accommodate the thickness of hand knits - not an easy task.

Imagine my excitement when I took the hubby shoe shopping at one of those "super-hip" mall stores and came across these! Not sure about you, but I am a child of the '80's who pretty much spent my teen years in my Converse sneakers. My senior year of high school I had a turquoise pair and a pink pair. Sometimes I even wore one of each, I was that cool...so, of course, these had to come home with me.

Hopefully they don't make my feet sweat too much because I am looking forward to wearing them a lot. Too bad my kids are still too small to be embarrassed by me!

Finished Socks and Dish Rag Tag

2008-08-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have a couple of minutes to post about my last pair of finished socks:

Pattern: Karen's Sugar-Free Socks from Gardiner Yarn Works, Yarn: Universal Yarn, Classic Worsted, Long Print, Colorway: Purple Allure

I love these socks! The pattern is quick, yet entertaining. And even though the yarn is mostly acrylic, is was not bad at all to knit with. Since these are a Christmas gift for someone who I think reads my blog on occasion, I won't go into great detail about why I chose this yarn, other than to say I think it will be pretty indestructible.

So, that is pair 6 for the summer, of which 4 are destined to be Christmas gifts. I am feeling very productive and ahead of schedule at the moment. We'll see if it lasts!

My other bit of knitting news for today is that I signed up for the next round of Dish Rag Tag. If you follow that link you will get to the blog the woman running the event. She has a blog post that explains all of the rules and a button on the side-bar that leads to a sign-up form.

If you haven't already, you should sign up. It looks like it is going to be a lot of fun! But hurry, sign-ups close August 8 or when there are 300 participants, whichever comes first.

Oops!

2008-08-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, as you may have guessed from the name of my blog, counting can sometimes be a challenge for me. This has proven true once again! When I went through the entries for my blog contest the other day, I miscounted or just plain messed up...either way the end result was that I missed the person who had really guessed closest for the number of projects I had completed last year. I have sent an apology to Bean but wanted to make a note here, just in case anyone else has noticed.

I have picked a special surprise something out of my stash that will be on its way tomorrow. So, there were three winners after all. Yeah! Maybe I was just being clever and had planned all along to give prizes to the two people who guessed closest...yeah, that's it! I actually have really enjoyed putting together the prizes, so you never know, there might be more contests at some point in the future...

Last time I mentioned that we were putting together a 5 year birthday party for a certain small person in our family. Well, the shindig was yesterday and I think it went well. The theme was "flowers", which was a lot of fun. We had little flower pots for the kids to paint and plant seeds in, a flower pinata and other flowery related goodies.

Unfortunately, I never got a chance to stop running around like a crazy person long enough to take pictures. The hubby and my mom took a few, but neither of them think about the blog when doing so, so there really aren't any that show the decorations or craft projects off very well.

One fun thing we did was set up little tables under our giant magnolia tree for the kids and hung paper lanterns from the branches. It created a really fun, special kid space. This picture gives a little bit of an idea of what things were like, although not as well as I would like:

Of course, climbing in the tree was a popular activity until the hubby put a stop to it. The tree is sturdy, but he wasn't sure it could withstand the weight of 20 kids jumping on it.

Yes, that's right, I said 20 kids. Why no, I am not a complete idiot, thanks for asking! Since A's birthday is in August, we rarely have a big turn out for her parties. As a matter of fact, last year we only has one family show up. So this year I thought, "What the heck, let's invite EVERYONE, that way, maybe 4 0r 5 families will make it." I was so surprised when family and family said they would be there. Then my mom said "People are staying home more this year because of the gas prices." Duh.

Good thing we have a big back yard and the weather was nice. Actually, it really didn't feel like there were that many kids there, except when they were all climbing on the poor tree. Oh, and when they were all trying to help A. open her gifts.

Aren't they cute! The little boy in the green shirt right in front of A. is her "special friend". The two of them were found in a corner having a chat about how much they had missed each other this summer. It was so sweet!

I have to say we are truly blessed to have found the community where we live and the preschool A. attended. Not only are the kids delightful, but their parents are really fun too! I am so glad many of them will be in Kindergarten with her next year.

At this point, I was going to write about my latest pair of finished socks, but I'm feeling like this is enough for today. So, perhaps some knitting content next time.

So how much can one obsessed woman knit in one year?

2008-07-31T22:10:00.000-07:00

Apparently a LOT! When I looked back over my little obsessive compulsive spreadsheet for the last year, I found that I had completed 79 projects. Did I mention I also work 60+ hours a week, have a family with small children and am president of my local knitting guild this year? Obsession is the only way to explain it!

The totals broke down as follows:

Hats: 18
Pairs of Socks: 16
Dishcloths: 13
Scarves: 7
Afghan Squares for the Great American Afghan: 6 (some might not consider these each a project, but the ones I knit are very complex and took several days each, so I'm counting them)
Lace Shawls: 3
Pairs of Fingerless Gloves: 2
Pairs of Mittens: 2
Christmas Stockings: 2
Children's Sweaters: 2
Lace Baby Blanket: 1
Pair of Baby Booties: 1
Small bag: 1
Pair of Felted Clogs: 1
Toy Owl: 1
Neckwarmer: 1
Helmet Liner for Marines: 1
Adult size vest: 1

Whew! What a year!

This means the winner who guessed closest to the number of projects was Ikkilala. She guessed 71 items, which was pretty close! Ikkilala, I have already sent you an email requesting your snail mail address. When I receive it, I will be sending you the following:

That's two skeins of Brown Sheep's Wildfoote in colorway Ragtime, along with a copy of the Brick Rib Socks pattern from Gardiner Yarn Works. Hope you like knitting socks as much as I do!

For the question of which item I knit the most of, Kitten with a Whiplash was the only person to correctly guess hats. So, Kitten, I will be sending you the following:

That is two skeins of Plymouth Suri Merino in a lovely rose color, along with the Frequency Hat Pattern from Gardiner Yarn Works. This should be enough yarn to knit 2 kids hats or one adult hat, if you hold the yarn doubled...at least that's my theory. Oh, and I've also sent you an email requesting your shipping info.

Thanks again to all who participated! It's been a wonderful year. I have really enjoyed this first year of blogging and look forward to many more!

Now, I'm off to work on a certain almost 5 year old's birthday party...If all goes well I should have some fun pictures to post this weekend.

Quickie

2008-07-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to say WOW and thanks for all of the great comments. How fun to have so many visitors!

I've really been enjoying your guesses for the contest. It's interesting to see what people think is doable in a year of knitting.

I also have decided on what I am going to give for prizes, but am going to wait to tell you about them until Thursday evening because they relate directly to the "What have I knit the most of this year" question.

Socks, yarn and a contest

2008-07-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

I guess I will go through my topics in the order suggested in the title. First, I finished another pair of socks this week:

Pattern: Eleanor, (sorry this is a Ravelry link. Not sure where else the pattern is available) Yarn: Woolarina BFL Wool, Colorway: Forest Turquoise

This was one of my favorite knitting projects ever. I love the yarn and the pattern. Together they are even better.

I bought the yarn at Twisted in Portland. However, when I looked it up on Ravelry, I couldn't find this particular yarn. So, I sent a message to Woolarina asking her if it was listed on Ravelry. She said no, it was something she was trying out and had decided not to go with. The only place you can (or could) get it was Twisted. Too bad because it is fantastic. The BFL makes the turquoise glow. The pictures do not do it justice.

For those keeping track, this is pair #5 for Summer of Socks. I have 3 more pairs on the needles, so hopefully one of them will end up finished some time soon.

On the topic of yarn, today I went to a yard sale advertised on the local Stitch and Bitch message board. It was in SE Portland and had only yarn and knitting/crochet magazines. You never know how these things will be, so I did not have high hopes. I was pleasantly surprised. The owner had LOTS of yarn and not one bit of acrylic, as far as I saw anyway. Most of her prices were pretty good too.

I bought a couple of things. First, some Tiny Toes from Interlacements. I think the colorway is "Crocus", at least that's what it looks like it says on the label.

Second, something labeled "Fluffo". Not sure what it is...actually it might have some acrylic now that I look at it closer. It doesn't matter because I am absolutely in love with the color! I plan to make a special Christmas gift with it, if I get enough time after SOS.

Finally, I bought this gorgeous sock yarn. The label says the brand is Lydia's and it is wool. The woman selling it said it was from Australia, I think. I could not find it on Ravelry or Google.

Isn't the color crazy? I love it! It consists of 4 strands of very thin yarn that are not plied together. Here's what it looks like wound into a ball.

I haven't been too excited about trying Yarnia yarn because I did not like the "unplied" idea. Well, I guess I'm giving it a try anyway. I'm telling you, the colors are the motivation. Here's what it looks like when it is the beginning of a sock. Did I mentioned I bought this today? I'm predicting these are going to be done fairly soon...

So, if you have read this far, you must be looking for the contest. When looking through my archives, I noticed that not only is my blogiversary coming up next week (July 30), but I am also very near my 100th post! I cannot believe it has been a year already. Amazing!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I would like to have a little contest. For those who don't know, I am a bit obsessive when it comes to tracking my stash and my finished objects. I only post part of my completed objects here on the blog or on my Ravelry page. However, I do track every single one in an excel spreadsheet...because I'm obsessive like that.

The contest is to guess how many knitting projects I have completed since starting this blog. I will give you a hint in that I seem to like to knit lots of little, quick things and a pair of socks counts as one project. I will plan to announce the total, with a breakdown by type, at the end of the day July 31. Add your guess as a comment on this post before then to be entered. The winner will be the person whose guess is closest. Oh, and I'm still thinking about the prize, so more on that later.

ETA: I decided to add a second contest. As I was looking over my spreadsheet of completed objects, I thought it would be fun to have you also guess which type of project I knit the most of. For example, you might guess I knit more adult sweaters this past year than anything else. By the way, you will be wrong if you guess that!

So, there are two ways to win which means there will be two prizes.

Good luck!

I'm a Lumberjack and I'm O.K....

2008-07-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not really a lumberjack, but we had some at our house this week. It all started with the other tree incident I recently blogged about. The morning after the other tree came down, I received a phone call at 7:00 from the "tree guy" we had tried to get hold of the day before. He was calling from our front yard and what he said was "I'm in your front yard. Yes, this blue spruce is really bad, we should take it out right away". Unfortunately, the blue spruce was not the tree we had called him about!

We knew it was bad because it was brown, ugly and swayed in a scary way whenever it was windy. Recently, it too had started to lean a bit, only this time it was toward the house! So, out it came, before the next wind storm could knock it down.
You can't see how big the tree is in this picture, but you can see the power lines. It was surrounded on all sides with power and phone lines. I'm not sure who thought it would be a good idea to plant a tree there!

Here's a nearly "after" shot. It was really interesting to watch the lumberjacks trim all the branches off first, then drop down the pieces of the trunk. They were really fast too!

I will admit that I always thought that tree was ugly and was not too sad to see it go. However, we had the "tree guy" look at another tree in the back yard that, I am sad to say, he confirmed needed to go too. It was a very old willow tree that was completely rotten in the middle. We were very lucky it had not fallen down, especially since it probably would have fallen on the neighbor's house. Again before:

And after:

I will admit, this one brought some tears to my eyes. I have to keep reminding myself that it had a nice long life and I would have been much sadder if it had smashed the neighbor...sigh. Of course, these were the only two trees that actually shaded our house. It looks so naked now.

On the plus side, we had three cute young lumberjacks running around the place for most of the day...

Socks, Socks and more Socks

2008-07-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I blogged last! I had all of these great plans for July and they are just not happening the way I wanted. Ah well, today is a new day, right?

So, I finished another pair of socks last week. I added them to the Summer of Socks group on Ravelry, but haven't gotten around to putting them up on the blog until now.

Pattern: Basic, cuff-down socks with short row heel Yarn: Regia Crazy Colors

Little V. has been asking me to knit myself a pair of socks to match hers, which I blogged about here. It seemed like a good time to oblige. Not much to say about these other than they were a pleasant enough knit and I liked watching the stripes change. With this yarn, the stripes never quite match, so it is always interesting to see how they turn out.

For anyone keeping track, these are pair number 4 for Summer of Socks. My goal is to knit one pair per week and so far I am on track.

Since I am well into 2 other pairs at the moment, I thought I would show their progress, just so you don't think I'm going to some magic hand-knit sock store and buying all of the finished pairs.

One down, one barely started. In this case, I did not start the striping in an intelligent (i.e. easily reproducible) way. Not sure what I was thinking, but I am now having a hard time motivating myself to get sock #2 going. The stripes are so regular, I HAVE to try to get them to match...sigh.

One down, the second well under way. These are one of my favorite sock projects to date and I am loving every minute of them.

More details on both pairs when I get them finished.

In other knitting news, I have been asked to knit a "yellow duck with blue feet and a blue bill" by a certain small animal lover around here. She actually purchased the yarn herself with her kitty sitting funds, so I feel obliged to comply. We'll see when I can bear to put the socks down...

A non-sock FO!

2008-07-15T10:48:00.001-07:00

So, remember a couple of posts back I said I actually had a finished object to talk about that wasn't socks? Well, here it is

Pattern: Gardiner Yarn Works, Kid's Stripey Raglan, Yarn: Bollicine Maxi by Cascade

You will note that this sweater is not stripey, as the pattern name would suggest. I decided that this yarn was busy enough without stripes.

I bought the yarn when I was in Los Angeles for the January TNNA and knit most of it on the show floor at the June TNNA. And no, I never miss my children when I am away, why do you ask?

I loved this pattern, by the way. It is a super easy, quick knit. It's even seamless, so the only "sewing" involves grafting a few stitches under the arms.

The yarn is great too. Very soft. It is a Merino/Acrylic blend, but I think the Acrylic is manageable in this one...not really "plasticy" at all. Of course, it's washable, which is a huge bonus!

And my little one loves it! It's been warm since I completed it, but she still asks regularly if it is cold enough to wear her "new pink sweater" yet. I didn't really think about how knitting it in June was going to be such a problem for her!

Oh and by the way, today is my baby sister's birthday. She recently discovered my blog through Ravelry...I had kept it a secret from the family until then. Now that she knows about it though, I might as well use it to wish her a happy birthday! I can't wait till this weekend sis, I have a ton of fun stuff planned for us!

Our weekend, so far

2008-07-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

I have decided not to post anything about knitting today, but instead to talk about what we've been up to the last couple of days.

Apparently, there are a bunch of Lavender Farms in the greater Portland area who have all gotten together and created the Oregon Lavender Association. This weekend, this new Association is hosting a Lavender Festival. I saw a poster for this somewhere around town and decided it would be great fun to drag the family out to it. I think I was right.

There is an Art Festival in Yamhill, which had an art show full of gorgeous paintings. There were also lots of interesting vendors, live music, yummy food and a killer play ground. The girls had a great time!

Additionally, twenty-one local lavender farms open their doors to the public, with smaller on site events. You can walk through the lavender fields, cut flowers to take home, make lavender themed crafts, listen to more music and buy plants.

This picture was taken at one of the two farms we managed to visit today.

Gorgeous, huh? It was really hot, but luckily there was plenty of shade at all of the places we went. Otherwise I might not have had such positive memories.

Here are the girls, enjoying the flowers. One thing I can say for this event, it smells fantastic wherever you go!
We love all of the little festivals and fairs that happen around rural Oregon every year and this one was no exception. I think we will likely plan to attend again next year.

The other thing keeping us occupied this weekend is Mo:

Sorry for the blurry picture. He doesn't hold still much, so this was the best I could do. And no, we didn't get a new kitty. Our old lady cats would never tolerate that, especially not a male kitten!

Mo is actually our neighbors newest family member. However, they are away for the weekend and actually asked A. is she would like to babysit for them. She calls it her "job" and is absolutely thrilled with the task. She's doing a great job too. She even reminded me this afternoon that she needed to clean Mo's litter box, which she did on her own. I asked her if she would be sad when the neighbors return on Monday. Her response was "No, because I'll always be able to remember this weekend and all of the fun I'm having". How did she get so grown up?

More socks

2008-07-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

Look at me, posting two days in a row! I finished another pair of socks this morning and thought I would just pop them up onto the blog.

Pattern: I thought I was knitting something original, but when I was finished I discovered I had knit Blueberry Waffles at a smaller gauge. Since I don't recall ever seeing the pattern before I finished them, I think it was particularly talented of me.

Yarn: Mystery yarn from the stash which had no tags. I bought it at the Guild's yarn swap last year from Chrissy. At the time, I assumed it was Interlacements because the color was similar to a skein I had seen. Really though, who knows what it is - not Chrissy because I asked her!

The first photo shows the color better. I actually really enjoyed knitting these, except that the yarn was a little scratchy. I guess I have become a bit spoiled, with all of the Socks that Rock I have been knitting with lately.

Oh, and yes Katrina, those are sock blockers. I finally gave in and bought some in my size, but only because I have found the short row heals a pain to block otherwise. They look soooo much better after having a turn drying on the blockers.

Next time I am going to write about another knitting project I completed recently that is not socks. I know, crazy huh? I do have two more pairs of socks on the needles now though, so never fear, there are more socks in the near future too.

Big Excitement

2008-07-08T20:56:00.000-07:00

So much has been going on at our house since the last time I blogged. Let's see, I spent nearly a week on the East Coast for work, which was so much better than the last time I had to go to the East Coast for work...with the old job. Travel time means extra knitting time and I do have another finished object to show for it, which is later in this post.

But, even more exciting than that is the big tree that is now lying across our back yard.

Today I learned that it is absolutely impossible to get a decent picture of an 80+ foot tree when it is sprawled across my lawn. Good thing we have a big yard!

Why is there a huge tree just lying about, you might ask? Well, it all started yesterday when the hubby came in from the backyard and said "Honey, I think one of the trees is leaning a bit". Master of the understatement, that one!

Let me just say that we have a lot of trees in our yard and most of them have one issue or another - some are planted too close together, others are growing at odd angles, one has some sort of bug infestation that makes it look really ugly, etc. However, before yesterday none were leaning quite like that.

Anyway, the hubby spent the morning today calling around trying to find a "tree guy" to come and take the tree down before it fell. None were available...who would have guessed. So, the hubby called our very talented and handy neighbor to see if he had any ideas about how to handle the situation. Next thing I know, the hubby comes into the house and says "Honey, I think you might want to come see this". Again, master of the understatement. When I walked outside, the tree was on the ground, just like that.

This picture shows the bottom of the tree, which hubby and the handy neighbor had denuded before the big chop down happened.

Turns out that the neighbor's chain saw was on the blink, so hubby got out his little hand saw and just started sawing. He says he sawed for just a minute when he heard a loud crack and the whole thing fell over. It was definitely time for that thing to go. Thankfully, somehow, they managed to miss all children and other trees, landing the thing in the only open spot big enough on the property! It did smash my very favorite rose bush, but I am told it should recover by next year. Overall, not too bad, all things considered. Now comes the fun job of cleaning it all up...

On the knitting front, I finished another pair of socks.

Pattern: Lava Flow Socks, Yarn Plymouth Happy Feet, Colorway 15

Nice simple pattern, perfect for travelling. They were my first short row heels and I think they came out well. I used Cat Bordhi's technique for hiding the wraps and can not recommend it enough!

The yarn was actually great too. I will be interested to see how it wears. The final fabric is very light and soft. It is very reasonably priced too, which certainly adds to the appeal.

It did pool very oddly on just one of the socks though...looks a little like a tie-dye. By the way, these are the first gift for Christmas 2008! I am so pleased with myself. I hope to get lots of Christmas gifts done this summer, but we'll see how it goes...

Mossay socks are finished

2008-06-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today I completed the first of what I hope are many pairs of socks, for "Summer of Socks".

Pattern: Thuja, Yarn: Socks that Rock Heavy Weight, Colorway: Mossay

Modifications: Added 4 stitches, so cast on 48 instead of 44, made cuffs only 3 1/2 inches tall, per the hubby's request. Apparently he really likes shorter socks...who knew? Certainly not me.

This was a great project on all fronts. The patterns is delightful, easy yet a little more interesting than plain stockinette. The yarn is pretty close to perfect. Green is not always my favorite color to work with, but I really love this green.

Ideally I am hoping to finish a pair of socks each week this summer, but will be really happy if I make it into the bi-weekly drawings. That means finishing and posting about a pair every two weeks.

Now, onto the next pair.

Summer of Socks

2008-06-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

What seems like months ago now, I signed up for the Summer of Socks. (This link takes you to a Ravelry page). This is a knit-along in which people knit socks and share pictures with each other. Participants were not allowed to cast on for qualifying socks before Midnight, June 21. This matters because there are prizes for things like "the most adult size pairs of socks completed" The knit-along goes through September 1.

I have no illusions about my ability to knit the most pairs of socks. I have a full time job, small children to raise and other obligations that will get in the way, I am sure. However, I thought it would be fun to play along.

In preparation for this event, I have been building the sock yarn stash a little but have made myself wait to cast on any new adult socks until the 21st. This weekend has been really busy though, so I didn't get a chance to cast on until about 10 PM last night!

This is how far I have gotten as of this afternoon. This pair is knit in Socks that Rock Heavy weight, so they are going fast.

I'll post more details when I get them done, hopefully later this week.

Some of you have seen me carrying around that sorry pair of sparkly stripped socks for months now. Sigh. They are still not done. Since I started them ages ago, they don't count for SOS, so I have decided to set them aside for now. I imagine I will finish them some time this summer...hopefully.

In the mean time, here is a little pair of socks I whipped up while at TNNA.

These are for A. They are knit with the left-overs from this pair of socks. So, Socks that Rock Medium weight in "Midsummer Night", basic sock pattern.

I know I have mentioned this before, but A. loves to have me take pictures of her in hand knit socks. She came up with these poses by herself. Silly girl.

Each of the girls have three pairs of hand knit socks now. They know the routine and start to scope out any socks I am knitting, expressing their preferences for the left-overs. For example, A. has said she does not think the green yarn I am using for the pair of "in-process" socks above is pretty, while V. has been petting it while I am knitting and saying how much she "realllly likes it". If there's enough left over, I guess we know who's getting it.

I actually have a small pile of FO's to show off on the blog. Even though I have been a lame blogger lately, I have not been quiet as lame in the knitting department...More over the next few days.

TNNA

2008-06-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have decided to take a few minutes to talk about TNNA. As you probably know, it was in Columbus in early June. We went from the rainy, gray weather of Portland to 90+ degree heat with very high humidity. I had been warned that Ohio in any month related to summer can be miserable. From a weather perspective, I would have to say my one experience to date confirms that. However the part of the city where the show is located is actually pretty nice and people were very pleasant.

Below are some pictures of the Gardiner Yarn Works booth. I apologize for the quality of the pictures. Our spot was kind of dark and I had to stand far away to get the entire booth in the picture.

You can see a few of the new designs more clearly in this one.

In this picture you may be able to make out the crochet items on the far left. Those are the designs of Mary Beth Temple, a friend of Chrissy's. She was giving TNNA exhibiting a whirl. Too bad the pictures are so bad or you could get a better view of her clever designs, including a pair of socks that have crocheted legs and knit feet.

The show itself went pretty well. I love trade shows, especially the chatting part. Unfortunately there wasn't as much foot traffic as I would have liked so I managed to get a lot of knitting done between visits. I guess that's not all bad.

As was the case last time though, the people were the most interesting part of the week for me. In addition to catching up with some folks I had met last time, I also met some fun new people. For example Anne Hanson from Knitspot fame. She is even more lovely in person than I would have guessed from her blog. Here she is with Cookie A, Janel Laidman and Chrissy.

Janel, by the way, has just self-published a fantastic new book called The Eclectic Sole. I was able to have a nice long look at it and I have to say it is one of the most beautiful sock books I have ever seen. I highly recommend it and actually am looking forward to getting my own copy some time soon!

Another person I really enjoyed meeting this year was Jessica from Rose-Kim Knits. I have a photo of her but it is not terribly flattering, so I'm going to skip it this time. I have been enjoying Jessica's blog on a daily basis for some time now and it was a pleasure to learn that she is just as delightful in person as she is in print.

The person whom I was most excited about meeting this year though was Julie, one of the Gardiner Yarn Works test knitters. She lives in Columbus and allowed us to ship some things to her, which she then delivered, in the heat, to the convention center. She really went above and beyond, which made things so much smoother for us! Additionally, she is just super nice and it was a pleasure to meet her. Hi Julie, if you're reading this I want to say thanks, again!

Well, as usual this has gotten way too long and I've barely started. So I'll just wrap this up by saying knitters are great and getting so many people together who care about knitting and knitting stuff can only be good, right?

Fun with the kids

2008-06-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

Well, this is still not my TNNA post. Perhaps I will get to that some day...

In the mean time I feel like writing about all of the fun I have been having with the kiddos lately. See, I quit my very stressful, completely unfulfilling job right before TNNA. I had a new job waiting in the wings and decided to take a break between and play with the girls and hubby for a few days.

First up was camping in the back yard. The girls have been pestering us to go camping for a couple of years now but I am not so big on sleeping out in the open near strangers with only a flimsy piece of cloth protecting me. Call me paranoid if you like, but I am very fond of the locks on my doors at night.

Anyway, while I was away from the family at TNNA, getting very good sleep and not stressing about how few hours I had left until I had to go back to work, I realized that we have a gorgeous, huge backyard in which to camp. Upon arrival back in Portland, I rustled the family off to the store and purchased a lovely tent, which we promptly put up in our back yard.

If you look closely at this picture, you will note that there are two rooms in the tent, each of which was claimed by a different preschooler. They tried to tell us we would have to find somewhere else to sleep. We worked it out though and all had a wonderful night's sleep. There really is nothing like sleeping outside...especially when you feel safe!

I see many more "camping trips" this summer, assuming the weather ever warms up. By the way, see the big fluffy white creature in the lower right corner. That is Bianca, one of our cats, checking out the tent. She did not choose to sleep outside with us, but did enjoy poking around the tent while it was up.

On the heels of what A. refers to as the "great camping adventure" we headed off to the Oregon Coast for some away time.

The pictures look familiar, don't they? Notice the wind whipped look? The sun was gorgeous the entire time we were there, but the wind was fierce and really cold. Oh well, it is the Oregon Coast after all. Wouldn't want it to be too nice, would we?

The girls had a wonderful time digging in the sand, visiting the aquarium, swimming in the hotel pool and sleeping "in the sky" as A called it. Our room as up a few stories and the girls loved being able to lie in bed and watch the gulls float past.

Monday I started the new job, which put a screeching halt to all of the fun - at least with the family. So far though, things are going well. I love my boss. I worked for her before so I knew that part was going to be good. She's in charge of the entire company this time though, so she is setting the pace and creating a wonderful environment. That's all I'm planning on saying about the new job for now, but I will say life is very good at the moment...

Update

2008-06-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it through May and now June is nearly half over. Jeesh. I find that the longer I go between postings, the harder it is to get motivated to post at all. I don't even know where to begin...

Everyone is happy and healthy. We survived all of the birthday parties, including an exciting one of our own. My little one turned three in May and wanted a "Hello Kitty" party. I can not tell you how much this pained me. While I myself am fairly enamored with that happy little white kitty, I have, until now, successfully avoided the "commercial" birthday party themes. I love to get creative with the themes and related games and crafts. V was very persistent though and would not be swayed, so Hello Kitty it was.

It was a challenge to come up with interesting, unisex games and party favors. I think it was not some of my best work, but below is the aftermath of "pin the bow on Hello Kitty".

I also made kitty ears out of felt and regular head bands for each of the kids. With some drawn on noses and whiskers, we quickly had a room full of "Hello Kitties". Unfortunately, none of the pictures turned out very well...However, I do have this picture of the lucky birthday girl in her special grammy made, appropriately themed dress clutching all of her sugary post party goodies.

While V received many wonderful gifts, I want to show you one special one...since this is a knitting blog and all. All of my knitting buddies know how much my little V loves her hand knit socks. She wears a pair every day they are clean and sometimes even when they are dirty if she can find them. So, Katrina decided she needed another pair and knit her these little cuties...

Aren't they adorable? She gave them to V on the sock blockers because "they are wool and will benefit from blocking after washing." Nice little extra present for mommy, I think! Thanks again Katrina!

I have so much more to say about so many things, including TNNA this past weekend, a gorgeous trip I took up the Columbia River Gorge, some beautiful yarn I bought, all of the knitting I have been doing, including three new patterns in the Gardiner Yarn Works pattern line, camping in the back yard and my new job!

Yes, that's right, a new job and the best part was that when I quit my old job, my boss actually asked me to write a detailed list of all of the reasons I was quiting. It was a fantasy come true...but ended up being harder than I expected.

Anyway, more on all of these things in time, if I get around to it before something else exciting happens. In the mean time, here are more flower pictures, which were taken nearly a month ago. The lilac blooms are long gone and the rhody's are fading fast, quickly being replaced with irises and roses. Nature waits for no one, no matter how behind they get on their blogging...

Busy May

2008-05-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

May has been insane around Chez Counting. Here's a short list of what's been going on, in addition to the aforementioned anniversary and Mother's Day:

Strep Throat
Impetigo - which is gross, by the way
Approximately 850 doctor, dentist and eye appointments. Luckily, nothing major, other than what I've mentioned
1 birthday party so far, 5 more before the month is over, including my baby's #3.
1 house guest so far, 2 more before the month is over
A major stash organization project - I am in love with all of my yarn again and just want to knit all the time.
Desperate knitting trying to finish up some samples for Gardiner Yarn Works before June TNNA. If I am successful, I should have a couple of new patterns in the line soon.
2 Gigs for the hubby's band
4 Knitting Guild "Events" (mostly meetings) - including the Shop Hop, which I will talk about a bit more below

Of course, all of this is in addition to the normal work, school, etc. schedule. Whew! Is it any wonder that not much knitting (that I can show) is happening around here?

So, I have plenty I could talk about, but will limit it for time sake today. First up, the Shop Hop...our Guild puts on this fun event every Spring in which we rent a nice luxury coach and take 55 eager knitters on a tour of some of the local yarn shops. I say "some" since we have so many in the Portland area we could never hit them all in one day. As it is, we usually go to 6 and are all exhausted by the end of the day.

For the last two years I have been on the Shop Hop committee, which has been very fun. I get to work with some wonderful ladies putting together an event that is always fun and very much appreciated by the folks who participate.

Below is a picture of the participants "Goody Bags" for the event. We are lucky enough to have Lantern Moon as a local company. For the last two years they have sold us lovely bags at a very reasonable price.

As you can see, the bags are stuffed with items donated by various vendors and local yarn shops. Included are things like wool wash samples, a couple of different yarn samples, tape measures, another tote bag, coupons, crochet hooks, yarn requirements guides, etc.

I apologize for the quality of the picture below, but I wanted to show how the event looks from inside of one of the smaller stores when there are 55 people, plus store staff. It is crazy, but so much fun!

I did do a little stash enhancement that day, but have already put it away and am not in the mood to pull it back out and take pictures. These new purchases, by the way, are what drove/inspired the stash organization project. Lots of new yarn always makes me want to organize all of it so I know where the new stuff is and how it fits with the old stuff.

I did finish one thing I can show you though - another pair of socks. For those keeping track, that is 10 pairs since I started knitting socks in February.

Pattern: Broad Ripple, Yarn: Cascade Fixation

My sister gave me this yarn from her stash and I was curious about it because of the elastic and because I had heard that it wears like iron. I have to admit I had a hard time getting started with it. I was pulling the yarn really tight, like other sock yarn, because I like the fabric pretty firm. This was killing my hands though so I loosened up a bit and was pleased with the results. The resulting fabric is nice and snug on my feet and is not nearly as bulky as I thought it would be, seeing as how I knit these on size 3 needles.

Love the pattern! I have worn these a few times and get lots of comments about the wavy tops. Non-knitters think they are very clever. Hah! I haven't told them how easy it was....

I think that's enough for today. Perhaps more another day...maybe even before the end of May, if I'm lucky!

Happy Anniversary

2008-05-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

I have been extra busy lately, which means I have lots of things to talk about. However, I am going to wait because I need to talk about my husband. You see. this week we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. I am one lucky girl!

I have decided to go outside of my normal policy of not showing my loved ones' faces on the blog to present you with a peak at the man I am proud to call my life partner. The picture below was taken just a couple of months before our wedding, when we were on a trip to New England. He looks so well rested! Obviously, this was before the girls arrived. And yes, for you who know him in person, he is blonde in this picture. He was actually blonde when I met him, but has reverted to his natural hair color in recent years.

Since we have been married five years, I thought I would list five reasons why I am so happy to be married to him. I could list hundreds, but thought five would be a good number for now.

One of the very first things that attracted me to my husband was his gentle nature. He is, to the core of his being, a kind and gentle person who really cares about others and the world around him. I strive to be more like him in this regard every day.
No matter what size, shape or disposition I am sporting, he loves me and accepts me for who I am. Seriously.
He is an excellent and very proud father. There is nothing sexier than a man who cleans up puke in the middle of the night or who gently deals with a screaming two year old in the grocery store.
He is very confident and comfortable with himself and who he is, even in our "non-traditional" family. There is a lot of pressure on men in our society relevant to roles and what it means to be a man. He knows he is being the best man he can be by taking care of our girls every day while I work. It's what's best for us and, therefore, he does it. Usually with no complaints.
If he goes to bed before I do, he always falls asleep on my side. Then, when I go to bed, he moves over so I have a nice warm spot. How cool is that?

Here's to many, many more anniversaries with my love!

So, where was I?

2008-04-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, I remember. I was just running out the door for a little trip. Well, I'm back.

I actually went to help my sister, who had a little operation. She is doing much better now, which is a huge relief. She made some comment about us getting older now and this being just the beginning of the health issues...sigh. Not me. Even though I am the oldest of my siblings, I am not anywhere near old enough to say this is the beginning of the end. It's all about your attitude, right?

In honor of our sister's surgery, and because he was long overdue, our baby brother came to town and brought his lovely new wife. He spent some time at the sister's house, then packed up and moved over to my house for a nice visit.

I didn't even mind missing the Yarn Harlot last night, at least not too much. It was their last night with us and since my brother's visits have been less often or reliable than the Yarn Harlot's, I wanted to spend the time with him.

By the way, his wife is wonderful! We all love her and hopefully didn't smother her too much with our adoration.

Have I mentioned that my brother is a chef? And that his wife is too? Just thinking about the gorgeous, delicious food I have eaten in the last week and half makes me smile. Unfortunately no food pictures. I didn't want to scare my new sister-in-law too badly with my oddities, at least not all of them at once!

Oh, and all of these flower pictures are from my yard. It has been a very wet, gloomy Spring around these parts, but things are still blooming. Hooray for that!

A little knitting has been happening too. I wanted to welcome the sister-in-law with something special, so I knit her a pair of socks.

Pattern: Sarah's Slip Stitch Sock, Yarn: Blue Moon Socks that Rock colorway Midsummer Night, Medium weight.

My sister-in-law is a beginning knitter, so I thought she would appreciate something hand-made. She did seem to and even put up with my request to pose for pictures in the new socks. See what I mean about not exposing her to my oddities all at once? I knew the sock pictures were more important that the food pictures.

Finally, for those of you who have made it through this entire post, here is a little yarn p*rn for your enjoyment:

This is a skein of hand spun Superwash Merino from a little company called Declan Knits. I bought it at a super tiny yarn shop in ZigZag Oregon called Cast One On. I had never noticed the shop before, but as I drove by I saw that they had a large sign that said "Yarn" on the side of the building. Since it was new to me, I had to stop in and see what they had. Was I ever glad I did! The owner was very sweet and is a dyer and spinner who seems to only sell through her little shop at the moment.

Yes, the color is at least that vibrant in person, actually I think a bit more. I absolutely love this yarn!! She had a pair of mittens made out of the same yarn and I think that may be what mine is going to become. For now though, it is going to stay next to me in my office and keep me company.

By the way, she wrapped the yarn in tissue, put it into a gorgeous little bag and even included a tape measure as a little perk. If you ever find yourself in ZigZag Oregon (and why wouldn't you), I highly recommend stopping into Cast One On and checking out the handspun.

That's it for now. I'll try not to stay away so long next time. Otherwise I just end up with these huge posts.

2008-04-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready to run out of town for a couple of days, so wanted to make a quick post before I go.

As promised, here are yet another pair of socks. These are for A. When I was knitting my "happy rainbow" socks, she kept asking me "Are those for me?" and later it was "When are you going to make my happy rainbow socks?'. How is a mother to refuse?

Stats: basically the same as for this pair of socks, only smaller.

I may have mentioned this before, but I think she may have a future as a sock model. All of these poses are all her. I love that she is little enough that not only does she not think it is weird that I take pictures of her feet, she actually likes to participate.

One more, just for fun. Of course, there were half a dozen more, but how many pictures of a plain pair of socks would anyone want to see?

I also finished this hat in the past week. It is destined to be a chemo cap which will be donated to a local charity.
Pattern: A combo of the "Robin's Egg Blue" hat and the "Cashmere Beanie" hat, Yarn" Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky

These are both fun, very easy patterns. I wanted to knit something a little different than the normal beanie I knit for charity. It looks super cute on, but I have decided to spare both my husband and the rest of the world from seeing pictures of him modeling it.

I'm now going to go back to my crazy trip prep. Be back in a few days.

Wednesday Update

2008-04-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

Seems I've only been able to make it to the old blog on Wednesdays lately. I like this Wednesday update theme I've got going on because I know I will write the blog at least once a week. Not that I ever run out of things to write about, but for some reason this is working for me for the moment, so I'm going to go with it for another week.

So, without further ado, here is the Hubby's vest - done!

Pattern: Vest from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, Yarn: Nashua Creative Focus, Worsted, Colorway: Evergreen

I actually finished it Saturday, but haven't had the five minutes required to write up a post about it. It did end up being quiet a slog, I think because I was just not fond of this yarn. It's really hairy and consists of a fairly loosely spun single. This meant I could not knit this without looking at every stitch. The minute I would look away I would put the needle through the yarn. For me, a big flat piece of dark colored stockinette that requires me to look at every stitch equals torture.

The attached i-cord around the neck and arm holes ended up going pretty quickly, after I finally settled on a plan. Getting to the plan only took four false starts and enough ripped out stitches to equal roughly both armholes.

However, the Mr. loves it. I think he has worn it every day since I finished it. You can't get any better endorsement than that!

By the way, there are only these two pictures because as soon as we stepped outside to take them it started to hail. Every time we tried to go out for pictures on Sunday, it would rain or hail, so we finally gave up. This will just have to do!

In addition to the vest, I also finished a hat and a pair of socks for A. this week. I'll take pictures of both projects and post them soon - hopefully before next Wednesday....

The only old WIP I have now is the Malabrigo Kiri. I'm afraid that one is going to sit around for awhile since I am just not that into it. Recently, a friend kindly pointed out this post to me...doesn't look much different does it? Ah well, I'll get to it when I'm in the mood.

I am now off to start another pair of socks, this time for my new sister-in-law. I'm going to meet her for the first time next week. Since she is a knitter I thought she might like to have something I knit for her. I know I love it when other people knit things for me!

WIP's and other Wednesday Goodies

2008-04-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

I think I like this "reporting on my WIP's" Wednesdays. It has motivated me to at least try to put some time in with them.

This week. I made some real progress on the vest. Sorry for the weird angle of the picture.

I finished seaming the vest and have started the edge. It turned out, even though I followed the pattern precisely and the pieces were blocked to just the right size, this was going to be pretty short for the Hubby. So, we agreed that I would add a rib at the bottom to lengthen the entire vest. I was glad I had started with a provisional cast on at the bottom, because it made the ribbing seamless.

Maybe I'll have this thing done by next week?

In addition to working on the vest and the little socks I wrote about last time, I also knit 2 small samples for the pattern line and wrote up the pattern for those samples. I feel so productive!

As we move closer to the June TNNA show, I anticipate fewer of my projects will be things I can blog about. I'm sure I'll find something to write about though. For example, this last week I received a gorgeous hand knit lace scarf from my friend Robert for my birthday.

I am not sure of the pattern, but the yarn is Blue Moon Socks that Rock. I think the colorway is Midsummer's Night. Isn't it gorgeous! I don't know how he knew that is one of my favorite Blue Moon colorways. I guess he does know me pretty well and I am pretty predictable, so no real mystery after all.

Thanks so much Robert! I am already enjoying wearing this one and look forward to using it a lot!

Another pair of Fred Flintstone socks

2008-03-31T16:24:00.000-07:00

I finished another pair of socks for V. late last week, but am just now getting a chance to post some pictures:

Pattern: Basic socks, with some slipped stitches thrown in to make it more interesting, Yarn: Blue Moon Socks that Rock, Heavyweight, Colorway: Fred Flintstone

These are made with the left-overs from these socks. I love it that the girls still have small enough feet that I can get a pair of socks for one of them out of the left-overs from an adult pair of socks.
I am happy to report that these are as popular as the first pair. I finished them on Friday and they are still on her feet now! I'm going to have to sneak them away when she is in the bath tonight and wash them.

Happy Birthday to me

2008-03-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Every year, on this day, my mothers brings me daffodils. She says they are my birthday flower and who am I to argue? Aren't they cheery?

I am a big fan of birthdays and think one should always take time to celebrate. It is, after all, the one day each year that really is all about you. In my case though, I think my mom deserves to celebrate too. I have always been told that I was born after 72 hours of un-medicated labor! I still have a hard time thinking about that, especially now that I have experienced labor and childbirth myself.

I think I was born before the "natural" childbirth revolution, at least the version that happened in more populated areas. I remember in the early '80's my mom would laugh a little when folks asked her if she had us via "natural" child birth. She would say "In the small town where I had the kids, that's all there was!"

I had a big post planned for my birthday, but I'm not feeling it. Don't get me wrong, I have had a wonderful day. Lots of good food and good company! Too wonderful actually to interrupt it and blog.

So, I am going to go back to enjoying the last bit of my birthday. I'm nearly finished with V's new socks, so there will be some cute sock pictures soon...

Wednesday Round-up

2008-03-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

I have so much to talk about today I'm having a hard time getting started. Let's see...first I guess I'll update on my WIP's, since it is Wednesday. Two weeks in a row...perhaps I am actually starting something...

Not many pictures today, but here's the latest:

Happy Socks - done, see last post
Vest for Hubby - I actually finished knitting the pieces and they are now blocking. As soon as they are dry, it will be on to seaming and then all 600 miles of that i-cord edging. We'll see if I make any progress before next week.
Malabrigo shawl - I finished 1 more repeat

With the completion of the socks and making real progress on the other WIP's, I went ahead and started, and completed, some other stuff.

First, I finished a sample of a hat for the pattern line. I like the way it turned out, so now I just have to take a first stab at putting the pattern together...and I am going to try making some other sizes.

Next I started another pair of socks for V. She wears the other pair I made her EVERY DAY if she sees them, whether they are dirty or clean. I have to hide them to get them into the laundry. I have nearly finished the first one and wanted to measure it against the first pair, but of course she has them on her feet and is at my mom's right now. Maybe tomorrow, if I can wrestle them off of her.

Finally, I made this washcloth:

Pattern: Jonathan Livingston Seagull Cloth, Yarn: Cabled Cotton from Elmore Pisgah

I received this yarn from a very nice woman at Elmore Pisgah, also known as Peaches and Creme. For the last couple of years they have been sponsors of the knitting guild's shop hop. In a recent conversation I had with the Peaches and Creme lady, she mentioned this cabled cotton and asked if I would like to try it. She sent this ball for me along with the items for our event.

I have to say I love this yarn! It has a lovely texture, nice drape, the colors is super saturated and it was great to knit with. I'm thinking about buying enough for a sundress for one of the girls...someday, when I have more time. You can buy it directly from their web site for a great price.

In other news, yesterday I had jury duty. I was sort of looking forward to it until I checked with the court house and learned that you can not take knitting needles into the Multnomah County Courthouse. How weird is that? I can knit all the way across the country on an airplane, but can not knit in a courthouse.

Since I was never selected to go to a court room, I got to sit for 8 hours in the jury room...not knitting! It was so weird. I did read almost all of 'The Friday Night Knitting Club" so at least I got to read about other people knitting. Sigh. It's just not the same...

Finally, I have debated with myself whether to get all "braggy" and talk about the wonderful gifts my knitter friends gave me last Saturday. I decided the gifts are just too good to keep to myself - even though I think the three ladies who gave them to me comprise 90% of my blog audience.

So, the deal is that tomorrow is my birthday and today is Katrina's. To celebrate, Katrina, Amanda, Chrissy and I went out for some good food and good knitting last Saturday. I also left with some really great gifts.

The first thing I opened was an adorable card from Chrissy with a lovely note that concluded with "This card entitles you to a skein of your choice from the Handmaiden Wall O' Temptation". Oh, if only more of the cards in my life had words like those written in them! I should explain that at the time we were at Dublin Bay, which is Handmaiden central. I finally, after much deliberation, chose this:
It's a skein of Cashlana (90% Wool, 10% Cashmere) in colorway '"Fruit Punch". That's some seriously soft yarn and it is going to make very luxurious socks!

Next was a skein of Amanda's own hand-spun yarn and some gorgeous stitch markers she made.

Can you believe she just started spinning a couple of months ago? She actually learned how to Navajo Ply so that she could keep the colors separate. I love it! This yarn is going to have to be something very special.

Finally, Katrina gave me a box with many wonderful things, including this:

It's called "Flat Feet" and is a piece of machine knit cloth that is hand painted. The idea is that you start at one end and unravel it as you re-knit it into socks. Very clever! I saw this at TNNA in January, but had not seen it in any stores yet. I can't wait to try it out and see how it re-knits up.

I am, I think, a very lucky woman to have such thoughtful and generous friends! Thanks again ladies.

Happy Feet

2008-03-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

I have very happy feet today for lots of reasons. First, it is officially spring and it actually feels like it today. I tried to take some nice pictures of all of the budding and blooming things in our yard on the actual first day of Spring, but it was so dark that my crummy little camera kept using the flash - outside, in the middle of the day! Those pictures were not worth posting...

Today though, it is beautiful, so I have included a picture of a magnolia bud.

I can say, without a doubt, our magnolia tree is the best feature of our yard. It is beautiful when in full bloom, which usually happens around the first week of April. Seeing this little bud today reminded me that it's coming soon!

Another reason I have happy feet today is they are going to take me downtown to a fun evening filled with knitting and good food with some of my favorite knitters in the world. Yeah!

Finally, the other reason I have happy feet today is that they are wearing my new "happy rainbow" socks.

Pattern: Same basic pattern, Yarn: Opal Feeling, Colorway: 1705

I love these socks. They made me smile every time I worked on them. They also garnered many comments and questions whenever I worked on them in public, from knitters and non-knitters alike.
The great thing about this yarn is how nice and perfect the stripes are. It made it very easy to make identical socks. Yeah for spring and spring socks!

WIP's Wednesday

2008-03-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

I have seen a lot of folks out in knit blogland showing their "works in progress" on Wednesdays. I thought "What the heck, why not?" So, in no particular order, here are the WIP's I am owning up to:

This is the Hubby's vest. The back is complete, as is the front up to the split for the v-neck. Once I finish the front, block the pieces and seam it, I then have to add about 600 miles of attached i-cord edging. Sigh. This will likely be on the WIP list for awhile.

This is the Malabrigo Kiri Shawl. I think it has languished mostly because I have found it pretty boring. However , when I pulled it our for the photo shoot, I was reminded again how wonderful the yarn is. I may need to get back to this soon.

Finally, these are my current socks-in-progress. Again with the plain pattern, but boy am I loving the "happy rainbow" yarn, as the kids call it. This yarn is a lot thinner than the other sock yarn I have used so far, but is making a very nice fabric. I took this picture yesterday and have since turned the heel on sock #2 and am almost finished with the gussets. These should be finished soon.

Also, I have a few design ideas rolling around in my head. If I can pull them together and, if Chrissy likes them, they may go into the Gardiner Yarn Works line for Fall.

Not too bad...oh yeah...I have a couple of dishcloths going too...that's really it though, I swear...

If I Ran the Zoo...

2008-03-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

...actually, most of the time I feel like I do! In this case though, I am talking about another of my special children's books, "If I Ran the Zoo" by Dr. Suess. I don't actually have much in my little collection in the way of Dr. Suess, so I was a bit surprised when this one jumped out at me the other day when I was scouring the shelves at one of my favorite little used book stores.

I certainly grew up with Dr. Suess and, I thought, had a good memory for his works. However, when I saw this one, I did not recall ever reading it before. It is, as with all Dr. Seuss books, absolutely delightful in it's whimsy.

It tells the story of what "young Gerald McGrew" would do if he ran the zoo, from turning out the normal animals to replacing them with all sorts of strange Suess inventions. I particularly liked the page when he decides to "...go down to the Wilds of Nantucket and capture a family of Lunks in a bucket..." I don't recall seeing any Lunks in Nantucket, but I'll have to look more closely next time!
On the down side, this book was published in 1950 and does reflect some of the cultural insensitivities of the time. It also has a very gung-ho attitude about going to the ends of the earth to capture the most rare and endangered creatures on the planet. I can't imagine we would see a new book published today that contained these ideas.
However, in my own little way, I have been enjoying it. Because of the old ideas and the fact that it is in pretty much pristine condition, I am not planning to share it with my girls any time soon.
What a shame, it will have to remain one of "mommy's special books" as the girls call them. Not bad for $1.

Fred Flintstone Socks

2008-03-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right, it's another pair of socks. Any non-sock knitters who may have looked in on my blog before are probably running for the hills. Not only am I knitting a zillion socks, but I also keep knitting plain old boring socks. In my defense though, the cool yarns I have been lucky enough to get to use have been keeping me very entertained. Also, work is kicking my butt, so stockinette in the round has been just about the right speed the last couple of weeks.

So. here are the latest socks - a pair of fun ones for the hubby:

Pattern: Same old, same old, Yarn: Blue Moon Socks that Rock, Heavyweight, Colorway: Fred Flintstone

The hubby asked for some really heavy socks since his feet are always cold. This was the heaviest sock yarn I had, so we went with it. He is very happy with the results. Actually, to be honest with you, he didn't really understand why I would ever want hand knit socks. He understood the colors were nice, but really didn't get why I would want to put all of that effort into something that would wear out. Then he tried the first one on and was hooked. His comment was "Why can't a store bought sock fit like this?" I said "it might have something to do with the fact that these were knit to fit your foot exactly!"

Trouble is, now I have created another monster who wants to make sure he has a place in line with everyone else for new socks. What a shame I am hating the sock knitting so much, huh?

By the way, this yarn also came from the Blue Moon stash sale last November. It was already wound and only had the "seconds" tag on the outside, which does not list the color. However, when I pulled the end out of the ball to start knitting, another tag had been stuffed inside that said this was the "Fred Flintstone" colorway. A quick search on Ravelry has confirmed it is accurate.

Here's one last shot. I think the hubby could have a career in sock modeling ahead of him, don't you?

I have another pair of socks already on the needles and am nearly done with the heal flap for the first one. It is another pair for me. I figure, if I follow the 1 pair for someone else, 1 pair for me plan I should have plenty of socks in short order. Not too many, because I don't think there is such a thing!

Yet more socks!

2008-03-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Lots of time on a plane, travelling across the country has turned into another pair of socks for me:

Pattern: Same old basic pattern, Yarn: Blue Moon Socks that Rock, Weight: Medium, Colorway: No idea

This yarn was some that I bought at the Blue Moon stash sale last Fall. I wrote a bit about the sale here. It is the one in the middle in the first yarn picture. It was the only one that didn't look like anything in their current line. I'm going to guess that it was something they tried out but never sold. In the skein and in the above picture, it looks very blue and yellow. In person though, there is a lot of green where the two colors met and bled together - something I think was probably not intended. Overall, the knit socks don't look exactly like I had hoped, but I'm still pretty happy with them.

This was my first time using STR and I thought the yarn was really nice to knit with, very sproingy and soft. I actually knit the entire first sock on my trip East and had to make myself wait to start the second one until I was on the plane, heading home.

It still went really fast and I ended up having to work on my husband's boring vest. I was smart (?) and didn't bring any other knitting. The vest saw quiet a bit of action while I was in my hotel and on the last part of the return home. It's still not even ready to be seamed up though. It sure is turning into a slog...

Anyway, long trip = happy socks for happy feet!

Excellent Mail!

2008-03-07T15:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it back late last night from the LONG work trip. When you have to travel all the way to the East Coast from Oregon, it takes forever. The trip was completely uneventful, travel-wise and even a bit productive, work-wise, so it could have been worse. I also ended up having quiet a lot of knitting time and did complete something, which I will show you next time.

The reason I am waiting to show my new FO is I received a wonderful package in the mail while I was gone - my "Defeat the Winter Doldrums" Dishcloth Swap package. Many thanks go out to Alicia for such a great package!

Here's a terrible picture of all of the loot:

She sent three skeins of dishcloth cotton in beautiful colors, some yummy extra dark chocolate in convenient individual sized packages and some really nice smelling "Wild Orchid" Bath gel. I am kind of particular about scents but Alicia was extra patient with me, soliciting ideas about what I might like. She did great - I love it!

Additionally, she sent these gorgeous stitch markers, which she made herself. Again, sorry for the terrible picture. It does not begin to capture how pretty they are. I am not much of a jewelry girl, but boy do I love to "dress-up"my knitting with pretty stitch markers!

Next, she made me this really cool dishcloth. It is knit with the "illusion knitting" technique and contains a hidden picture of a snowflake. Alicia has a better picture over on her blog if you want to check it out.

It is knit with Cotlin from Knitpicks. I had never seen this yarn before, but it feels nice and seems perfect for dish or washcloths.

Finally, she also made two Tribbles for me. I have been thinking about trying this pattern for some time, but now can try the finished product first.

Thank you so much Alicia. I love everything! Thanks for being such a great swap partner.

Another week has gone by...

2008-03-02T15:27:00.000-08:00

...and I don't have much to say. I found out Friday that I need to be away for work all this week. I just dread hearing that now. When I was younger, before the hubby and kids, I used to love to travel for work. I would get to stay in nice hotels, watch cable TV (we still don't have cable, can you beleive it?) and eat fancy food. I would meet interesting people and immerse myself in work.

Now, I just want to be home with my babies. Oh well, at least I anticipate I will have LOTS of knitting time on planes.

Speaking of knitting, I have a finished object to show you. It's a helmet liner, destined for a Marine serving in Iraq.

Pattern: Helmet liner pattern found here, Yarn: Cascade 220, colorway 1208

This was a pretty easy, fairly quick little project. Why did I knit this, you might ask? Well, my good friend Katrina has a cousin, her favorite cousin in fact, serving as a Marine in Iraq. She is planning to knit at least one too and asked if I wanted to join her.

Then, when I told my sister about this project, she reminded me that her best friend has two sons serving as Marines in Iraq right now too. Actually, one of them was the ring bearer in my sisters wedding, which makes me feel so old. She is my younger sister! Anyway, she was very interested in this project and has gotten her knitting group involved. They are planning to put together a bunch of liners and goodies to ship off to the young men they know in the Marines in Iraq. I think I will send my liner with them. I love the idea of helping out. It's such a small thing, but if it really makes a difference then I am happy to help.

I guess thats it for today. I'll be off-line for awhile, but hope to return with lots of finished objects to report on.

Little Socks Part 2

2008-02-24T18:14:00.000-08:00

I can not make something for one small child around here without making something comparable for the other. Thus we have another pair of small socks:

Pattern: Knit to Fit Ankle or Calf Socks by Nancy Lindberg, Yarn: Socka by Stahl Wolle, Colorway 6358

I've already written plenty about this pattern. The yarn, on the other hand, I have never used and I do not plan to ever use again. It is a cotton/wool/polyamide combo that my skin did not like. It actually wore a sore on my tension finger - not sure if it was an allergic reaction or just super rough. It also is really thin, but on the plus side, it actually made really nice fabric.

Luckily I only had one small skein of it in my stash and do not plan to buy it again.

By the way, I am not such a fast knitter that I started and finished these after the other little socks. I knit them pretty much at the same time.

I have a bunch of other stuff I have to knit now, so I may not get to make any more socks for a bit. At Knitting Guild last week one of the members mentioned that she has about 24 pairs of hand knit socks. I think that sounds like a good goal...when I get a chance...of course, the kids want more too, having already asked what's going to happen when these have to be washed!

Little Socks

2008-02-22T18:36:00.000-08:00

Finished: One adorable pair of striped socks fit for a 2 year old

Pattern: Knit to Fit Ankle or Calf Socks by Nancy Lindberg, Yarn: Regia Crazy Color, colorway 5260

This pattern is so flexible! You can make any size socks with any weight yarn. At this point, I don't need to consult it any longer, but I am using the basic construction for the socks I have been knitting. Yes, there are more in the works already!

Sorry, this picture is a little blurry - it is very hard to get a 2 year old to hold still for any picture, but especially one of their feet when they are wearing new socks.

The stripe repeats are very long on this yarn, with one sock taking slightly more than one repeat. I did not want to waste an entire sock worth of yarn just to get the socks to match exactly, so they are slightly different.

V. could not care less. She calls them her "Happy Socks" which, of course, makes me happy. When we took them off tonight for the bath she asked "Can I wear them again tomorrow, pleeeeease?" I guess she likes them!

Spring is Coming!

2008-02-21T13:24:00.001-08:00

The last couple of days the weather in Portland has been quiet nice. I know it's still terrible in much of the country and we could still be in for additional winter weather, but right now it is hard not to think about spring. I find this especially true when I see things like these beautiful little Snowdrops and Crocus!

Hope your day is filled with thoughts of spring!

The House of Sick

2008-02-18T22:38:00.000-08:00

Ever have one of those weeks that just disappears and when you look back on it, you can't remember much positive about it? This past week was sort of like that. Well, the title says it all. Our house has been afflicted with a nasty stomach virus, first one person, then the next, all in a nice, tidy order. Unfortunately the hubby and I overlapped a day - which was not a good day. Today was the first day we are all completely better. It was glorious in Portland today, with temps near 60, which was a nice bonus.

In the middle of all of the sick was Valentine's day. I had a nice little V-day post planned, but it will have to wait for next year because this year that was my sickest day. At one point, I stumbled down to the office and found these beauties on my desk. So sweet!

Then, later in the day the hubby brought me a present I had completely missed. You know I am sick if I miss a present wrapped in bright red paper with my name on it! In it, I found this big ole box of tea.
This is a particularly fragrant Jasmine tea I have been enjoying lately. I was almost out and my hubby noticed and thought to go to the huge Asian grocery store to pick some up for me. He says they only had these 100 packs, but I was very pleased. This is a much better gift for me than diamonds and he knows it. Love him!

Knitting has been a little slow. I knit a couple more blocks for the Great American Afghan for the shop, but as with all of them, the pictures don't look like anything - so no pictures. I did get to knit one of them several times because I could not seem to follow the most basic instructions. It's times like those that it's best just to put the needles down and walk away. Amazingly, after I had recovered from my illness, I was able to whip that particular block out in one evening. Sigh. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to post about some time this week...perhaps more socks?

First Socks

2008-02-10T16:22:00.000-08:00

As I had hoped, I finished my first pair of socks on Friday evening. It has taken until this afternoon to get a decent picture.

Pattern: Knit to Fit Ankle or Calf Socks by Nancy Lindberg, Yarn: Ashabee's Fiber Oasis 100% Superwash Merino, Colorway: Koi Pond

This was, as I have alluded to, a very pleasant knitting experience. The pattern is super basic and good for a first pair of socks. It's one that allows you to plug the info gathered in a gauge swatch, along with foot measurements, into a formula and come up with a custom sock plan. Worked like a charm. I do have to say I am not too excited about the toe. The pattern calls it a square toe and it's not particularly attractive. It is functional though, so I'm not going to complain too much.

The yarn was purchased on a recent trip to Twisted. I love their "Wall of Sock Yarn" and if anything was going to get me to knit socks, I suppose that was it. I feel obliged to tell any of you non-Portlanders reading this that Twisted always has a fantastic selection of sock yarn from Indie dyers and they ship, just in case you need some.

The yarn, by the way, is gorgeous and soft. It did not split, even though I used an Addi Lace Needle. I love the colorway, but want to clarify that I am not a Miami Dolphins fan, which is what I thought of as I worked my way through the first sock. Funny how yarn looks different when knit up, isn't it? I never made that association when I saw it on the skein. I do like the way it never pooled though. Really cool stuff.

I have been converted!

2008-02-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

How's that for a title? Amanda was correct in her comment on my last post, the long awaited and much anticipated new knitting project is ... my first socks. I started them on the 4th and have not put them down, unless it's been to sleep, eat, work at the "real" job, etc. So far, I have finished 1 sock...

...and have another well under way.

Yes, they are sort of short, but I have big feet and the skein of yarn I'm using only had something like 330 yards. I actually made them the same height as a pair of commercially made socks I like, so the height is good. More details to follow when they are done, which should be soon.

Actually, I'm hoping to finish these tonight - yes that would be 4 days for my first pair of socks! I hate to say it because I know Katrina is going to say "I told you so", but I think I may be truly hooked! It's a good thing I've been working on building the sock yarn stash for awhile since it looks like it might get used after all.

Oh, and yes, I am using "Magic Loop". Love that too...how did I knit anything round before it?

OK, need to get back to that sock....must knit more sock...yeah!

Hand and Neck Warmers

2008-02-04T15:31:00.000-08:00

As is often the case for me, these little projects started with a trip to a cute little yarn store in Sister's Oregon called "The Stitchin' Post" a few weeks ago. If you've ever been to Sisters, you know that nearly everything you describe there starts with "cute little" and ends with "expensive". I was pleasantly surprised to find this shop was not too bad. Although they do specialize is some higher end stuff, I found some great standard yarns and a couple of deals too.

The yarn I was most excited about though was a new one to me called Sulka by Mirasol. It is 60% Merino, 20% Alpaca and 20% Silk. As you can imagine it is sooooo soft! Unfortunately, it looks like it only comes in a bulky weight (55 yards per 50 grams), but it was surprisingly affordable. I bought 2 skeins in a soft cocoa color (colorway 206)

I knew I wanted to wear it next to my skin. I also knew I am unlikely to wear a hat and 2 skeins would not be enough for much of a scarf. I finally settled on some fingerless gloves.

Pattern: Fingerless Mitts from Weekend Knitting, Yarn: Sulka by Mirasol, Needles: size 8 straights

This was my first time using this pattern and boy was it quick and easy! I knit these with smaller needles to make the gauge nice and tight. I also made a size smaller than my hand measured because I wanted them to fit snuggly.

Mission accomplished on both. I have been wanting some fingerless gloves to wear during work and these are fitting the bill just fine.

Unfortunately, this pattern ended up taking just slightly more than 1 skein. I had slightly less than 1 skein left and I wanted to use every last bit of it. Ideally I wanted another something to wear next to my skin. A little neck warmer seemed like just the right thing.

I just made up the pattern:

Cast on 12 stitches, size 10 1/2 needles
Knit until I nearly ran out of yarn
Added a button hole near the end
Sewed on a button

This picture shows the color the best.

I love this little thing and have rarely had it off since finishing it. Obviously, I had to give it up for the photo shoot, but put it right back on as soon as I snapped those pictures.

I have started another new project. I'll post some progress photos soon. All I'm going to say about it today is that it is a new direction for me and a long time coming...

Swap Topic of the Week

2008-02-04T14:44:00.000-08:00

I have a lot to say today, but decided to narrow it down to this week's "Defeat the Winter Doldrums Swap" topic.

This week the topic was actually a request to see a picture of our dishcloth cotton stash and notions used to make dishcloths. I occasionally post pictures of yarn I acquire here on the blog, but can assure you that I would never "flash my entire stash". It's not that I am in denial about it because I actually keep a detailed excel spreadsheet listing everything I own. It's more that the effort it would take to show it all is more than I am interested in expending.

However, my dishcloth cotton stash is relatively small. I actually like keeping it this way - all on a little shelf in my office so I can just grab a ball and go whenever the mood for a little dishcloth knitting hits.

Lissa- you'll note that the yarn you gave me in the last swap is gone already. I think I mentioned before that my little girl loved it and asked me to use it for dishcloths for one of her teachers for Christmas. I was happy to oblige. It was nice to let her just "shop" the stash!

As for notions, the only thing I usually use for dishcloths are straight knitting needles, specifically these. I do love stitch markers and other notions in general, but dishcloths are so small I can usually remember what I'm doing without markers, although not always...

I have mentioned a time or two that I received them in the Fall swap and have pretty much had them in rotation since then. It is rare to see them all in the packet like this. I actually just finished something last night that was using the size 8's.

Yes, that is a mention of another finished object. Actually, I have a couple that I will plan to talk about tomorrow. I am the master of small, quick projects! Meanwhile, the vest and Kiri shawl languish...

Diamonds and Pearls Shawl

2008-02-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

Well, after some late night swearing and after having to call in the cavalry, the Diamonds and Pearls Shawl is finished.

Pattern: Diamond and Pearls Shawl from The Knitter's Book of Yarn, Yarn: Art Yarns, Silk Rhapsody, color 129

It definitely looks a little funny in that blocking shot. Oh well, I took this after it was dry. I need to remember to climb up on something and look at my lace from above when it is blocking. You get a much better view of any spots that need fiddling. Overall though, the little spots where it is off don't really show when it's in use.

So what happened, you ask? Well, the knitting went super fast for the main body of the shawl and was absolutely delightful. I had it all finished Wednesday, pretty early in the day and was ready to tackle the edging after the kids went to bed. One note of caution, there are errors in the pattern which I found and then confirmed on the errata page.

The edging/border though, as written in the pattern, was not so delightful. I loved the way it looked in the pictures and found it easy enough to do, if a bit fiddly. The problem was that it was completely in-elastic and had no give at all. Since the yarn is silk and the end product is relatively small, I was counting on the wonderful tendency silk has of growing when wet to make the shawl a bit bigger when blocked. The edging, as written in the pattern, would not have allowed my shawl to grow at all. I may have done it incorrectly, but I don't think so.

Of course, in one of my more brilliant moments, I decided to finish the edging on the entire shawl before deciding it wasn't going to work for me. Thus entered the late night swearing. Ever tried to rip out yarn that contains any mohair content? Let's just say it is NOT FUN. I insisted on ripping the entire border before going to bed. I'm like that - I do not like to put something down that is at an ugly place. Better to work through it and start with a fresh, clean slate the next time. Of course, this has caused me a lot of stress in my life, but that's a topic for another day.

Thursday I decide to dig out all of my stitch books and look for a new border. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of yarn left, so I knew I was going to have to go for something simple. Eventually I found the easy crochet alternative you see on the shawl, which looks very similar to the original knitted version. The one issue with this is that I am a horrible crocheter. I know, I could get better with practice, but I did not want my practice to be on my nice silk shawl. So, I called my mom.

Don't you just love my model, with his hairy face and neck? Have I mentioned that I have the best husband ever?

As I may have mentioned a time or two, my mom is pretty much good at everything domestic in nature. She is a fantastic crocheter so I called her up and asked if she would help. In the end, I made dinner for her and she whipped out the edge on the shawl in about an hour. It only took that long because she brought her bamboo hook at my suggestion and found it really slowed her down.

I had her make the loops on the edge a little bigger than the pattern called for because I wanted to get more mileage out of the yarn I had left, and I thought it would add just a touch more to the size. I am very happy with how it turned out and mom is too. When I started this project, I had no idea it was going to end up being a collaborative effort for mom and me, but because it was I will treasure the shawl even more!

New Projects, FO's and Some Art

2008-01-29T17:16:00.000-08:00

As you might have guessed from the title, there have been a few things going on around here. Lots of little stuff, but lots of little stuff makes up one decent sized blog post, I think.

So, to start with, I did go ahead and cast on for some new projects, finishing a couple this week. I still have the Kiri Shawl and Vest, in about the same place I left them last. Hopefully I will get to them soon, but not for now because there are other things going on. For example, a couple more dishcloths. These are in addition to the couple I mentioned last week, of which the pictures stank.

I rather like the round one. It is the Pinwheel dishcloth. The other is from the "Page a day" knitting calendar for this year, September 24. Don't tell me you don't look ahead and pick out things to make before the actual day on the calendar page? Anyway, it has a sun design knit into it, which of course you can not tell from this picture. Trust me though, it is nice and peppy on this dark, gray day.

The next finished object is a hat I started and completed in a couple of hours on Sunday.Pattern: Noro Kureyon One-Ball Wavy Gravy Hat, Yarn: Kraemer Mauch Chunky

When my mom saw the hats I recently made for the girls, she said "You know, I wouldn't be opposed to having one of those myself". Since my mom has never asked me to make her a thing, I felt the urge to make one right away. I did modify the pattern a bit though.

First, I was out of single skeins of Noro and wanted to use something from the stash. Second, Mom's head is a bit larger than average. This meant that while I can comfortably wear the hat I made for A., mom cannot. So, I decided to make her hat with a chunky weight yarn, but kept the number 0f cast-on stitches the same. I did only complete 6 repeats instead of 9, but otherwise, it's the same as all of the others. Purple is her favorite color too, so I think she will be pleased.

I also finished my last square for the "Great American Afghan". It definitely does not photograph well, so you'll just have to trust me when I say I think it looks pretty good. My final count on the afghan squares is 4. I learned something with each one and really enjoyed them. I can't remember if I mentioned that RaNaye has asked me to teach the classes for her shop on the squares I knit. I think that will be fun.

I have cast on for one other project which is still in the works. It is the "Diamonds and Pearls Shawl" from The Knitter's Book of Yarn. I picked up the book last week because I had been hearing rave reviews about it and I have to say, it is really great. The fiber info in the book is really interesting and the patterns are wonderful! I think I have earmarked about 15 that I want to make, which must be a new record for me!

As I was flipping through the book though, the Diamonds and Pearls Shawl really caught my attention. Then I saw that it was made with a single skein of Art Yarns' "Silk Rhapsody". I just happen to have 1 skein of said yarn that has been burning a hole in my stash. Here is a picture to remind you:

I bought it on my trip to Washington in November with Katrina and Robert.

This is how far I have gotten in just a couple of hours:

It is going to be a really fast knit. It doesn't hurt that it is an incredibly dreamy knitting experience. I don't usually favor yarns with mohair, but I LOVE this yarn! I think the final shawl is going to be pretty small, but it will make a very lovely scarf, so I am not concerned.

Finally, as a reward for reading this far, I am going to treat you to a lovely piece of art my 4 year old gave me today:

The description goes something like this: "That's a picture of you mommy, with a hat on so that the wind doesn't blow your hair off. That thing next to you is a bucket, full of raspberries. On the other side is a bush with raspberries. And the purple house is ours and the blue one is the neighbors." Don't you just love it! I'm looking forward to those sunny raspberry days!

Defeat the Winter Doldrums Topic of the Week

2008-01-28T13:55:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I recently decided to join the "Defeat the Winter Doldrums" Swap. As part of the swap, the hosts post a weekly discussion topic, which participants can choose to respond to on their blog. I usually have plenty to talk about on my blog, so don't find myself participating in these weekly topics too often. However, this week's was something I was considering writing about already, so I decided to go ahead and participate.

The topic is: "There are many people who ADORE receiving hand-knit or crochet items; but there are just as many who have no appreciation whatever of how much love, work, and time goes into a hand-made item. Share a story of a hand-made gift you gave to someone and how it worked out - good, bad, or ugly!"

I have two stories I have been thinking about sharing, each falling on a different end of the spectrum.

First, when I gave my sister the "Kimono Shawl" I knit her for Christmas, her reaction was better than I could have hoped it would be. She was so excited about it that she teased she was thinking about sleeping with it under her pillow but was afraid she would snag it. She really liked the silk! She then proudly took it to her knitting group the next week to show to all of her buddies and wore it to church the following day. She has been enjoying it and will happily tell anyone who will listen "My sister knit this for me!" The only hard part about this for me is that it makes me want to knit just for her, as well as my husband's friends who also love hand-knits.

On the other extreme, I have another family member who has done things like offer me scarves knit by another family member so I can "take them apart and use the yarn". I have refused, knowing the person who had just knit them for her put a lot of thought and time into their creation. She has also specifically asked me to knit her hats on a couple of occasions, that she has then later offered back to me for my kids because they "just don't work for her".

The worst though was when a friend knit her a gorgeous lace shawl and she asked me to "take it apart and make a smaller one". Again, I refused and explained that the person who had made it for her put a lot of time and effort into it. I also said that if she didn't like it she should find a good home for it, but she should not ask another knitter to destroy someone else's work.

I certainly do not advocate keeping something you don't like, even if it is lovingly handmade for you. However, don't involve me in it and certainly don't ask me to destroy it! Needless to say, I do not knit for this person any longer.

I feel funny writing about this as it sounds so negative. It has been an on-going issue though that bugs me every time it comes up! If I can't complain about it to my blog, who can I complain about it to, right? I'll just keep knitting for my sister and I'll be much happier.

Trouble with Trolls

2008-01-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

Since I still have nothing exciting to show on the knitting front, today I will share another of my favorite children's books with you. If you're here just for the knitting, you can skip this post.

A couple of posts ago I mentioned a book by Jan Brett called "The Hat". It is very well loved by my girls, as is her book "The Mitten". As with all of Jan Brett's books, they are well written with beautiful illustrations. Best of all, gorgeous knitted items feature prominently in both.

Recently I came across another of her books on one my trips to the Goodwill. This one is called "The Trouble with Trolls" and it might just be my favorite. I like it so much that I have decided to keep it with my "special" books for now. After all, how can you go wrong with a book that has both trolls and beautiful hand knit Scandinavian clothing?

You'll note that this is a "Scholastic" version. I'm fine with that since I collect these books purely for my own amusement and not as any sort of an investment. It doesn't hurt that I can usually find these soft bound versions for about $0.49! As I have said many times, I sure do love Goodwill. In Portland, it can be a real treasure trove. This story is about a girl who lives somewhere in an Alpine region. She ends up having her dog taken by a pack of trolls and then has to outsmart the trolls in order to retrieve her beloved pet.

She uses all of her gorgeous hand knit garments as bargaining chips for the return of her dog, then in the end tricks the trolls so that she gets back all of her garments and her dog. Really a fun little story, but the pictures are my favorite part of this book.
As with all of Jan Brett's books, there is so much going on in each page, not just in the main illustration, but in the illios around the edges too. They actually fill the reader in a bit on the trolls' story, showing their longing for a dog and the great amount of preparation they do so that the dog will be comfortable. It almost makes you sad for the trolls.

Unlike some of my other books, this one should be easily accessible. I highly recommend checking it out next time you're at the library or in the children's section of your local bookstore.

Life with a 2 1/2 year old

2008-01-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

My little V. is a wonderful, interesting and often very frustrating person. She is, after all, 2 1/2. In order to keep my sanity, I try to write down the particularly sweet and funny things she does and says. I wanted to note a few here, so they are recorded for posterity and I can look back on them when I need a little lift.

1. When I returned from my recent trip, not only did she insist on sleeping with me the first night, she actually slept on me. I think she wanted to make sure I didn't take off again while she was asleep!
2. She is a later sleeper than everyone else in the family. When she wakes up in the morning, she shouts as loudly as she can "I'm awake!". The expected response is for everyone else to come into her room and greet her. If we don't, we hear "I'm awake" with lots of emphasis repeated until we do.
3. She came running up to me the other day and said "Mommy, my bottom burped". I love that!

OK, back to the regularly scheduled knitting.

Current WIPs:

-Kiri Shawl - not much further along than the last picture - I am nearly done with the 5th repeat of chart 2. What a treat this project is, I love that Malabrigo!
-Basic vest for hubby- includes "acres of stockinette". The back is complete, front just started. This was my knitting for the many hours spent in the booth at TNNA.
-Great American Afghan Squares - I completed one this week, but forgot to take a picture before turning it into the shop. Not sure it would have photographed well anyway. Another is nearly complete. That should be the end of my contribution to this project. Hopefully I can get a picture of the final afghan when it is complete. I saw the original at TNNA and it was inspirational.
-Dishcloths - I knit 2 late last week, but the pictures did not turn out well - too dark. I will be knitting more soon for the dishcloth swap I am participating in.

So, not much interesting to look at here. As usual, I have 800 (or so) projects I want to start. However, I usually try to stick to a few until they are done. We'll see how long that lasts...

Toys

2008-01-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

Last night was the January knitting guild meeting, which is always one of the best of the year, I think. Each year the Program Chairs for our guild select a "theme of the year", then guild members knit items that relate to that theme in some way. At the January meeting we all present our theme items, them vote on whose we all liked the best.

The theme for 2007 was "Knitting in Toy Land". What a great theme! We had excellent participation from the guild members and a huge variety of toys. We had a unicorn, fairies, several dolls complete with wardrobes, a beaver, an alien with his space ship, a jellyfish and all manner of other critters. My fav was the gorgeous patchwork dragon one member made from scrap yarn. He was so colorful and soft!

My contribution was this sad little owl.

Pattern: Edmund the Owl, Yarn: Mystery brown wool from the stash and some scraps

My husband actually says he thinks this little guys looks scary. I kind of like him, but perhaps in a "only his mother could love him" kind of way. Anyway, I did not win, but had a great time participating.

On the theme of knitted toys, my sister has been on a felted hedgehog kick of late and made these little beauties for the girls for Christmas.

They are so soft and really cute. The girls love them. Of course, they have "The Hat" by Jan Brett, so all things "Hedgie" are in vogue around here. I have received a request to knit a "hat" for hedgie (a stranded sock for those not familiar with the book). We'll see if that happens any time soon... This is a really cute book, by the way, as are all of Jan Brett's books. Lots of beautiful knitted garments!

Getting back to the theme of the year, we found out that the theme for next year is something like "Colorful Knitting" or "Adding Color to your Knitting". Hmmm, you think I'll have time to whip out an Alice Starmore before next January? Just kidding...

"Defeat the Winter Doldrums" Dishcloth Swap Questionnaire

2008-01-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

I had such a good time with the "Fall Into Autumn" Dishcloth Swap that I decided to sign up for the Winter round. Below is my completed questionnaire:

1. Do you knit, crochet, or do both? Knit only

2. What types of needles do you enjoy using for making dishcloths? Usually size 7 straight needles. Actually, in the last round my partner sent me a really nice package containing three sets of straight needles (sizes 6, 7, 8). I think these have been in constant rotation since they arrived and are perfect for knitting dishcloths.

3. What types of cotton do you enjoy using for making dishcloths? Is there any that you've been wanting to try? I like Peaches and Creme the best.

4. What color(s) are your kitchen and bath decorated in (if any)? Kitchen: bright yellow and dark red, Bathroom #1: dark blue and white, Bathroom #2: lavender and white (not by choice, when we bought the house, we inherited a 40 year old lavender bathtub with it)

5. What are your favorite colors for yarns? Least favorite? I love dark, bright colors, especially jewel tones. My favorite colors are blues, purples and greens. I am less attracted t0 pastels and especially don't like peach.

6. Do you like Winter, or do you count the days until it ends? I do like Winter. I love to get out my warm clothes and snuggle in front of the fireplace. However, in Oregon it is usually pretty gray for most of the Winter, so I do get a little tired of it from time to time.

7. What's your favorite way to brighten your day when you're down in the dumps? With small children I find I have far fewer of those "down in the dumps" kind of days. If I start to feel that way I just spend some time with them and I always feel better. Their outlook is always so fresh that it gives me a new perspective.

8. What is your favorite treat to indulge in and when your down in the dumps? Dark chocolate, yummy baked goods.

9. Do you drink coffee? Tea? Cocoa? I do not drink coffee. I never acquired the taste. I do love tea though and drink it daily. I love all kinds of tea but seem to be on a green tea kick at the moment. I also indulge in cocoa on occasion.

10. If you could take a vacation starting tomorrow and go anywhere for one week and money were no object, where would you go and what would you do? Hmmm, this is a great question. What a great opportunity for a little afternoon day dreaming! I have a friend who just returned from Scandinavia, which sounds like a great place to visit- although perhaps not in Winter. If I'm leaving tomorrow, I think I'd rather go someplace warm, like Jamaica or Barbados.

11. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should be aware of? I am very allergic to tree nuts. Also, I do not like strong artificial scents - so scented candles, for example, are not a good choice for me.

TNNA

2008-01-15T18:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been away for awhile, haven't I? I have a good excuse though. I have been at TNNA with Chrissy. I never talked about it beforehand here on the blog. Hmmm, perhaps I'd better go back and start at the beginning.

My friend Chrissy has been marketing her independent pattern line called Gardiner Yarn Works for some time now. She has also been getting published in Interweave Knits quiet a bit and is starting to really get some good name recognition going. So, she decided the timing was right to purchase some booth space for TNNA and see how it would go.

She asked me to help and I said sure. I have enjoyed helping her a little bit with sales and thought it would be a great chance to get a peak inside of a TNNA show.

Since the show was in Long Beach I ended up deciding to head down a few days early to spend some time with friends of mine in Los Angeles. In total, I was away from home for 8 days, the longest since I became a mother! I love my children so much, but boy was it nice to get a break and be just a grown-up for a few days!

Anyway, back to TNNA. Here is a picture of Chrissy's booth. Unfortunately it's not a great picture, but you get the idea. She purchased a half booth, which was just the right size for this time. I think the plan is to get a full size booth next time.

Overall, it seems the show was pretty successful for her. We picked up some good clients and made lots of contacts. It would have been great if she had been an instant, huge success, but really she did pretty well for her first show and will, I think, do even better next time.

My impressions of TNNA are that it is huge, as I had expected. One thing that did surprise me was that there were about equal numbers of needle point and yarn related booths. I had no idea needle point was such a big deal. Some of the hand painted canvases were amazing!

It was also a real trip to see and meet so many people who are famous in the knitting world. Since Chrissy is getting to be somewhat well known and is on the board of the Association of Knitwear Designers, she knows a lot of these people and many would just stop by the booth the say "hi".

I have debated whether to drop a few names or not and think I will. Why not - it's my blog, right? I met Eunny Yang, Debbie Stoller, Margaret Fisher, Cookie A., Kim Werker, Clara Parks, Shannon Oakey, Susan and Jill Wolcott, Chris de Longpre of Knitting at Knoon, Cat Bordhi, Annie Modesitt and the lovely Casey and Jessica from Ravelry. I also met tons of "up and coming" folks who were delightful, some other folks who I'm sure are "famous" but whose names I did not recognize and many wonderful shop owners and buyers.

Actually, here is a picture from the dinner Chrissy and I had with Casey and Jessica from Ravelry. They were so nice, they even paid for dinner! Thanks again Jess and Casey! The other woman in the picture is another up and coming designer named Keri McIntyre. I just realized I don't think I have ever posted a picture of myself on my blog. For the one or two of you who don't know me in "real life", I am the one in the middle on the right. Boy I look goofy in that picture!

Overall, it was a fantastic trip. I hope to get to go again with Chrissy in June, but we'll see what the hubby says. It is nice to be home though.

Busy Bee

2008-01-03T19:20:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Holiday. I did, although it was particularly quiet this year. We went over to my sister's house, in the middle of Oregon, for a late Christmas visit. Lots of snow and good family fun. It's good to be home though!

Because of the snow, the drive was even longer than normal, which left me with lots of car knitting time. I love car knitting time! My husband gets car sick if he even thinks about reading in the car, but I can knit or read all day long. The best part is that I don't even have to feel guilty about not waiting on the kids hand and foot because they have to be strapped into their car seats and I can't really reach them from the front. Sigh. Yes, car knitting is lovely.

My car knitting this time was particularly productive. The first thing I finished was the hat I mentioned starting in my last post.

Pattern: Noro Kureyon One Ball Wavy Gravy Hat, Yarn: Noro Kureyon, colorway 153

This pattern is super easy and the size is very flexible. I knit this one in the suggested gauge and ended up with a hat that fits my 4 year old, but that also fits my big old head. As a matter of fact, I liked it so much, I knit another.

Pattern: Same, Yarn: Plymouth Boku, colorway 2

This yarn is a little thinner than the Kureyon, so I knit this one on size 7 needles instead of 8. As you can see, it fits my 2 year old really well, but again will stretch to fit my head, although it is a bit more of a beanie on me than the other one.

On the way back, I decided to give mittens a go. I found "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" at Goodwill while I was in Central Oregon, so ended up using its mitten pattern.

Pattern: Mittens from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, Yarn: Crystal Palace Fjord, colorway Circus

Overall, not too shabby. Last week I picked up this yarn because I loved the colors. It's also really soft and makes lovely mittens.

Again, I liked the results so much, I decided to do it again. These are the next size up for the next size up girl.

Pattern: Same as above, Yarn: Same as above but colorway Violets

Lest you think I am some super-human, super-fast knitter, here are some points to consider:

The hats require remarkably few cast on stitches.
The mittens are for very tiny hands.
I finished the mittens at home.
If I was looking at my knitting, I was not looking at the icy, snowy roads. Since I hate icy, snowy roads, looking at my knitting was encouraged.

Next I plan to sew a ribbon on the mittens that can be threaded through the girls' coat sleeves. If I don't I can just about bet that we would be down at least one mitten by the end of the week.

Did anyone else have mittens with a cord connecting them that ran through their coat sleeves? My grandmother always did this with the mittens she made for us when we were little. I remember it being really itchy though, so I thought ribbon might be a little nicer. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, as I mentioned above, we had late Christmas with my sister last weekend and I received a very exciting gift.

I had never heard of this book, but I have to say that it is fantastic! It contains a great history of all knitting from the Ara Islands, with some excellent pictures and patterns. My sister found this at the Goodwill too. Lucky me!

My husband has really been enjoying this one too. Unfortunately for me, rather than getting excited about the Ganseys, which is what I am thinking about making for him, he is more interested in the Fair Isle stuff. He actually said he wants me to knit this vest for him.

This picture doesn't really show the fact that this is 6 colors of really tiny yarn. Not too bad though, I suppose. I'll put it on the list...way down on the list, but on the list...

New Projects and Some Special Gifts

2007-12-28T22:43:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I have recently cast-on for a couple of new projects. While I have actually really enjoyed all of the Christmas and sample knitting I have been doing lately, it was very exciting to dig in my stash and pick out projects that I wanted to do just for fun.

Here are the projects I am currently spending the most time with:

This one is the "Wavy Gravy" Noro hat. It is a fun pattern and I think is going to produce a hat that will work on a variety of heads, even though this one is destined for A. Assuming she doesn't loose it, it should fit her for awhile.

The other project I started this week is Kiri. I have been waiting, not always very patiently, to get started on a project using the Malabrigo Lace Yarn I bought back in September.

After much deliberation, I decided this was the pattern I wanted to go with and haven't looked back. So far, it is going great. It has a little bit of an odd start, but I just followed the directions exactly as they are written and it seems to have worked out fine. Super simple, but not a boring pattern. Oh, and the yarn is like knitting with a little slice of heaven - so soft!

In other news, I have mentioned before on the blog how talented my mom is. Among the many things she is very good at are sewing, crocheting, baking, cake decorating, counted cross-stitch, painting and ceramics. Needless to say, with such a fantastic example, my siblings and I grew up understanding that amazing things can come from your own hands.

In addition to the PJ's I mentioned last time, my mom also usually makes at least one other gift for each of us for Christmas. Aren't we lucky? This year, she designed and sewed this lovely knitting needle carrier for me.

I love the fabric! It is very much my taste. While I don't have opportunity to carry around extra needles too often that aren't already in a project, when I do you can bet they will be safely wrapped in this beauty.
She made one for my sister too, but hers has a chicken theme. I am sorry to say I have no pictures of it.

Mom decided that A. was old enough for a "real" tea set this year. So she spent many hours cleaning, painting and doing whatever you do to ceramic items in order to produce the most gorgeous kids tea set I have ever seen.

This is, of course, a small sampling of the set. It is a full service for 4 and even includes a special table cloth and napkins. I think I may have to put in my order for a full size one!

I realized after I took this picture today that I didn't include anything for scale. I think it must be about 1/3 the size of an adult set.

I think this is going to be a popular item for a long time. Tea parties were already a daily activity around here, but since Christmas morning I don't think this set has been out of circulation. If you ever come over to our house to visit, don't be surprised if you are asked by the small folks if you would like to join them for a tea party.

Christmas Round-up

2007-12-27T16:27:00.000-08:00

Where to begin? Christmas was great. We were very busy, right up through Christmas evening, with tons of fun family activities. The day itself was wonderful. Below is a picture that kind of captures the day.

There is a little bit of everyone who celebrated Christmas with us in this picture, except Bianca, our other white cat. She was not interested until the food came out. That's my leg on the far right in the flowered PJ's and Chloe, the "grub" right in the middle, where she always is.

Notice the cute PJ's on V. My mom makes new pj's for everyone in the family for Christmas Eve. That includes all four of my family members, my sisters four family members and my brother and his wife! They are the one gift we open on Christmas Eve and are always warm, brightly colored flannel. I love that tradition.In other Christmas news, we had a very rare white Christmas. It started snowing some time mid-morning and snowed off and on all day. We ended up with about 3/4 inch at our house, which was enough to be exciting, but not so much that it made things dangerous. Actually, it was all gone by the evening. What a treat though. As I understand it, it has been nearly 20 years since it has snowed on Christmas in Portland and nearly 70 years since any snow has stuck to the ground on Christmas.

The funniest part at our house was that A. had said, just the day before "I can't wait for Christmas because I am going to build a snowman." I had tried to gently explain to her that, unlike all of her Christmas story books, it was very unlikely to snow at our house on Christmas. She felt justified in her optimism the next day. I just hope she doesn't expect a repeat performance next year!

In knitting news, production has continued, as it is wont to do. I whipped up a little hat for the hubby this week. I like to keep something simple on the needles at all times so I can keep my hands busy while waiting in lines, etc. Since he has lost many of the nicer hats I have knit for him, he has been seen wearing some of my earliest attempts lately. While I appreciate the devotion, I am embarrassed about the quality. So, another new hat, to go with the one I gave him for Christmas.

Patter: Simple 3x1 rib hat, knit over 92 stitches Yarn: Noro Kureyon, color 124

I received many compliments on this one while I was knitting it. I have noticed that nothing gets the attention of non-knitters quite like Noro.

I also finished my second Great American Afghan square for All About Yarn. This one has oak leaves and acorns on it. The picture pretty much sucks, but I felt the need to include it anyway. It was really fun to knit! By the way, I got the scoop on the class today. Looks like it will meet once a month, on the last Saturday of the month for the entire year. Call the shop if you are interested in price info or signing up.

Next up, I have started a hat for A., a hat for V. and a Kiri Shawl for my new sister-in-law. All are progressing nicely. Perhaps if there is any sunlight (at all!) this week, I will take some progress shots. I also want to try to take pictures of a couple of special Christmas gifts we received this year. But that will have to wait for another, less dark, day.

The end of Cookie Madness 2007

2007-12-19T14:14:00.000-08:00

Monday I finished "cookie baking madness 2007" and decided to take a picture of the finished mountain o' cookies, even though it was late and the picture is less than stellar.

This pile represents about 450 cookies, give or take a few. The plastic bins are in the freezer, waiting for our family to eat over the next couple of months. The rest are all being given out over the next few days to friends and family - mostly friends who are like family, actually.

I want to clarify that I do not view all of this cookie baking as a chore. It is one of my favorite parts of Christmas preparation every year and I love it. Too bad I can't figure out how to turn it into a full time job that would support the family!

The only other semi-interesting thing I have to share today is the first of my 2 "Great American Afghan" squares. As I mentioned in this post, All About Yarn is offering a class on this afghan next year and the owner has asked a few folks to help knit squares for the sample, me being one of them.

This one is a little hard to see in this photo - sorry. It is a cat and it actually looks much better in person. Once I finally got through all of the swatching and starting over, I enjoyed this quiet a lot and it only took 2 evenings. I am now making the one with Acorns and Oak Leaves - also very fun. I love just following the directions and having a picture show up in my knitting.

I'm thinking that knitting one of these afghans some time might be fun, but I do not see it in my immediate future.

OK, back to work with me.

Santa's Surprise Book

2007-12-15T21:20:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day of the annual cookie craziness at Chez Counting. Every year I end up making hundreds of cookies which my husband then proudly gives to everyone we know (e.g. the neighbors, his band mates, the folks at the local coffee shop, etc.) Luckily baking is one of my very favorite activities, so it seems to work out for both of us. Normally I bake about 6 dozen of at least 5 kinds of cookies, usually all in one marathon day. This year I am calling it quites for day one after only finishing 4 kinds. The kids "helped" today, which was really fun, but really slowed things down. More tomorrow, hopefully.

On the knitting front, I am just 9 rows from finishing the first of my two "Great American Afghan" squares. Jeesh, about time! I ended up making three 4 inch swatches, then knitting 1/3 of the square before realizing that all of that swatching didn't help at all and the thing was going to be waaaay to big. I find this ridiculous since the final square is only supposed to be 12"x12". Anyway, it looks like I have it right this time. Since I am using the same yarn for my other square, I am going to go on the assumption that I can use the same needles again. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

So, since my current knitting is not very exciting at the moment and it is too dark to take pictures of the cookies, how about some pictures of one of my children's books? There was a spot of sunlight today so I ran out and took pictures of one of the Christmas books in my collection.

In this little gem, Santa is sitting around thinking about what to put into people's stockings. He wants to do something new and exciting. Nice to know Santa gets bored too.

He decides that instead of the normal candy and goodies, he will make something new.

I love this picture. I feel like that so often, when a creative bug hits. I run and grab all of my stuff for whatever craft I want to work on and just go crazy - sort of like the cookie baking today...

In the end, the thing Santa made was the Santa's Surprise Book, which is conveniently sized to fit into a stocking. Such a cute little story and really great illustrations.

The Pink Shawl

2007-12-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Well, that little unscheduled absence was exciting. I know, everyone's life is busy. However, my work life has gone from 0 to 100 mph in the last week. Aren't things supposed to slow down toward the end of the year?

It has been so bad that knitting has even slowed down. I know, how weird, right? I have gotten as far as I can on the sample I am making for Chrissy. When I get more yarn, which I think will be over the weekend, I will finish it up. Can't show pictures at this time.

I also started one of my squares for the Great American Afghan I mentioned last time. However, even after 2 full 4 inch gauge swatches, it still was coming out too big. I got about 1/2 way before I decided it was too much and had to rip it. If I get lucky, I will start again on it tonight.

So, other things have been happening. The girls are loving their Advent stockings. One day they found a note that said they were going to make some special Christmas gifts. This is what they made:

Each has since been filled with a special picture of them taken sometime in the last 6 months. These are for grandparents, aunts and uncles.

In addition to these, A. has been talking about making a special gift for my sister's husband, who they call "Uncle Honey". Uncle Honey is quiet the outdoorsman, so A. decided he needed a pair of "vonoculars". She was very specific about how she would make them and told me "I need 2 toilet paper rolls, some glue and some paint".

I love them and I know he will too!

Finally, as a reward for reading this far, look what I found on the internet today:

This is the big, pink, lace shawl I knit in October. I wrote about the teeny, tiny yarn here. I knit it for Chrissy, but it was a commission for HipKnits in the UK. Kerrie is using it as a club pattern for this month and had the picture under the link on her blog. It is so nice to see it out there in the world!

OK, back to work with me.

Is it time to build an Arc yet?

2007-12-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

Boy, have we been having the crazy weather lately! Even though we have a bunch of trees on our property, we seem to have made it through these most recent storms in good shape. Whew! Our neighbors are not so lucky. They have about 1/2 a foot of water in their basement. This is particularly bad for them since they just remodeled it last summer. I think they too are grateful though, it could have been so much worse!

After days of dismal darkness the sun came out today! This is another one of those things I love about living in Oregon. Just when you think you can't take another day of dark, dank weather the sun peaks out for a couple of hours and reminds you that its all temporary.

I did run outside though and took advantage of the beautiful sunlight by taking pictures of a couple of newly finished objects. First, I completed the clogs for my mom's Christmas gift.

Pattern: Fiber Trends' Felt Clogs, Women's size large

Yarn: Cascade 220, not sure of the colorway. If I find the ball bands I will add it later, the eyelash is some old stash - no idea where it came from, but Mom will like it

I am currently leaning toward giving these to her completely unfelted, then helping her felt them later. Thanks for the comments on this Amanda and Yvonne!

Believe it or not, this concludes the 2007 Holiday knitting. Yeah! The list included:

4 hats
4 scarves
4 wash clothes
1 pair of fingerless gloves
1 pair of clogs
1 lace shawl

To be fair, I started back in August and just plugged these projects into my schedule here and there. None was too complicated and only the Shawl took any significant amount of time. I am happy with the results though and pleased that I have enjoyed the entire process!

The other thing I finished this week is a sample for my friend Chrissy. Normally I can't show things I knit for her, but this one is a pattern already in production. She just wanted a sample to take to shows, etc. So, I think it's OK to show it to you guys. I'm not going to get to give it to Chrissy until Thursday, so you get t0 see it before she does...unless she sees it here too.

Pattern: Passport Pouch from Gardiner Yarn Works
Yarn: Merlin by Louet, colorway Citrus Orange

Such a great little pattern! She outlines 2 different finishing techniques and let's the knitter choose the one they prefer. I decided to go with the attached I-cord and I think it really makes the finished edges look tidy.

When I uploaded the picture, I just noticed that the spot where the bag is lying is a bit wet. Oops! Oh well, everything is like that around here. Not much chance of finding a dry spot today!

Next up: Another sample, which I won't be able to show for awhile and some blocks for the Great American Afghan. All About Yarn is going to be offering a class on this project early next year and RaNaye asked me to contribute a couple of squares. Should be lots of fun and I will show you those as I finish them, assuming I can figure them out. I picked a couple I thought would be challenging, but fun.

Advent Calendar

2007-11-30T21:48:00.001-08:00

Growing up, my siblings and I always had those Advent calendars with the little windows. You know, the 24 little windows that you open one at time on each day of December until Christmas eve. I have fond memories of opening those little windows and seeing squirrels or mice with their little Christmas wreaths, etc.

My mom, bless her, makes sure every year our girls have the kind with a piece chocolate behind each window. I don't like these as well because they don't seem as magical to me somehow. I'm sure the girls would disagree - such little chocoholics we have!

Anyway, a couple of years ago I remembered seeing a really cool advent calendar idea on the blog "Little Birds". Stephanie, the artist behind that gorgeous blog, created a garland of little stockings, each numbered 1 through 24. The best part of her plan though, I thought, was to put little pieces of paper with fun family activities in many of the days. While sadly Stephanie no longer updates the Little Birds blog, she has left it up. Here is the link to her finished Advent Garland on flickr and a post soliciting ideas for "stuffing" the stockings. The comments are particularly great on this one.

I just love her finished advent garland and her idea to fill it with "experiences". So much, in fact, that two years later I finally made the time to put together my own version. It is not nearly as creative, beautiful or artistic as the original, but I do think the girls are going to love it.

Sorry for the terrible pictures. No matter what I did tonight, they looked awful.

For my garland I went with super low maintenance red felt, simple white number and no frills. I may gussy it up with some trims next year, or I may not. I kind of like the plane Jane look.

Eventually I would love to knit one, similar to the one Liz is knitting over at Crossroad Knits. There was just no way I was going to have the time this year. I think the girls are both old enough this year to really get into it and enjoy the process of finding out what fun thing we are going to do each day. I didn't want to wait until I had time to make the "perfect" set, so I feel this one is "perfect" for right now.

By the way, some of the fun things I plan to put into the stockings include the following - many gleaned from the Little Birds post mentioned above:

Get our Christmas Tree
Visit Santa
Bake Cookies
Make Christmas gifts for grandparents, aunt's, etc.
Go to lunch at their favorite restaurant
Make 'smores in the fireplace
Watch a holiday video
Make paper snowflakes and decorate with them
Paint our toenails
Go shopping for mommy with daddy, daddy with mommy, etc.
Have breakfast for dinner
Go to the Zoo
Go on a drive to look at Christmas lights
Read a special Christmas book

I also have some little treats to fill in on other days, like new coloring books, small toy animals, etc.

I am really excited about this project and hope it turns into a long family tradition!

FO's, WIP's and Other Excitement

2007-11-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

Well, with a title like that, you might be expecting more than you'll find in this little post. However, if I keep up this "posting once a week whether I need to or not" schedule, the posts are bound to continue to be a bit on the lengthy side.

Thanksgiving at Chez Counting was fab. Hubby says he think the food was the "best ever". Since he does not say that every year, I think he means it. Funny holiday though, isn't it? I cooked for 2 days straight and the meal was over in about 20 minutes. Good thing it's about more than just the food!

We had a great 4 day weekend. In addition to the holiday cooking and eating, we did a little holiday shopping, got some lights up on the house and surrounding shrubbery and took the annual Christmas card picture. All in all, a productive, yet restful weekend.

I also finished up two knitting projects this weekend. Project number one is a super simple little hat.

Pattern: My own basic hat recipe
Yarn: Elsbeth Lavold's Angora, colorways Oats and Driftwood

This one is another holiday gift for one of my husband's friends. Yes, I do knit a lot for his friends, but they are all such nice, appreciative bachelors who would do anything for us. I love being able to give them a little something that will keep them warm and remind them that we care about them.

This one particularly important to me personally this year. The intended recipient, we'll call him Dr. X (which is the actual nickname we use for him) lost a knitter this year who was very close to him. He loves to come over and hang out with me while I knit and tell me stories about this knitter, her projects and talents, etc. Recently he told me that she had knit him an Angora hat a couple of years ago that he ended up ruining in the dryer. He is now sick about it because she will never be able to knit him another. While I know this will never replace that lost hat, it will at least keep him warm and, hopefully, be a nice reminder.

Moving on, I finished another object that has been in the WIP pile for a couple of months now. It is another Snowdrop Scarf using my own pattern. Here I mentioned writing it for a Lace Class I taught back in October. This one is a shop sample for All About Yarn, which is selling the pattern. I love the colorway!

Pattern: Snow Drop Scarf by me
Yarn: JoJo Land Melody, Colorway 02

Finally, I realized recently that I seem to always post finished objects, but rarely "in-process" shots. It's like the completed items just pop out of thin air. So, since the weather was nice and I had the camera out, I decided to take a WIP shot too.

These are the Fiber Trends Felted Clogs in purple Cascade 220 I am knitting for my mother for Christmas. Note the pencil thrown in for size comparison. My mom does have pretty large feet, but these things are just enormous. I just have the outer sole and seaming left on this one, then the other clog to knit. I have found this to be a Super fun and interesting pattern. Nothing like working with double-stranded yarn and size 13 needles to make things move along.

Hopefully some time before Christmas I will have these finished, although I'm still not sure about the actual felting. Do you think it's rude to give an unfelted pair of clogs for Christmas? The issue is that I have a front loading washer, which is very difficult to felt with. My mom, on the other hand, has a top loader. Hmmm, I have a couple of other ideas for how to get them felted. We'll see what I come up with...

Knitting Adventures

2007-11-21T11:05:00.000-08:00

Settle in folks, today's post is going to be a long one! Last weekend I was lucky enough to get to travel up North with a couple of my friends for a wonderful, yarny weekend. I can't believe I am so late posting about it. Oh well, better late than never, right?

The mother of my good friend Robert (currently blogless) lives on Bainbridge Island and is always inviting my family and I to come visit. My friend Katrina and I were talking about our desire to check out Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge, as well as our desire to have a little break. Somehow that all morphed into one of the best road trips ever!

Robert's mom lives in a lovely house on a very wooded and rural piece of land on the island. This is what our view was like out of most of the windows.

We had great intentions of getting out and visiting lots of yarn shops, or at least I did, but this view, along with the solitude and quiet were mesmerizing. We ended up spending a lot of the weekend hanging around, looking at the trees and knitting. Glorious!

We did get out a bit though. Here are Robert and Katrina outside of Churchmouse.

It is a beautiful shop and the folks who work there are wonderful. For those of you in Portland, they sell a lot of the same products as Dublin Bay, but they also have needle point and tea supplies. I didn't end up buying any yarn there, but enjoyed the experience very much.

Here are Robert and Katrina on the ferry. We road it into Seattle on Saturday with the intention of doing a little yarn crawl. It was cold and windy!

At one point, we looked over toward the city and saw this beautiful rainbow.

It foretold of the wonderful yarny goodness that was to follow because the end was right over the area of the city where we went next, which included the warehouse of Little Knits. I actually love Little Knits and decided to call them before we left to see if they had an outlet store. They said they did but it is only open a couple of days a week, one of which happens to be Saturday. So, armed with the address on Saturday, we set off to try to find their shop. What we found was this:
This is Little Knits. It's hard to tell since there was no sign and it is in a completely residential neighborhood. After tentatively knocking at the door, we were greeted warmly by Sue, the owner of the company and welcomed into her warehouse. We spent the next 2 hours hanging out with her and shopping amongst her stock while she and her employee pulled orders. There are no posted prices, so if you want to know how much something is you have to ask and they will look it up for you on their web site. If you visit them, I recommend taking a good look at their site beforehand so you have an idea of which bargains you want to take advantage of.

While it is true that the stock is the same as their web site, it's also true that you can save on shipping if you shop in person. You can also check out all of their gorgeous yarn in person and see colorways not posted yet on the site, etc. To any knitter planning to be in Seattle on one of the days Little Knits is open to the public, I highly recommend a stop in. Just don't think it's going to be a quick one!

I did end up buying a bit of yarn there. For your viewing pleasure, I have added a few pictures:

Angora Polymide from Fly Designs. It has approx. 900 yards and is sooooo soft!

2 skeins of Lace Wing Sock from Fly Dyed in color Petrol. Each skein has 546 yards of very light fingering weight yarn. I plan to make lace with it, someday.

Silk Rhapsody from Art Yarns. I purchased a shop pattern at Churchmouse that called for Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. I loved this colorway and plan to substitute this yarn for the Debbie Bliss.

I did buy a little bit of other yarn, but this is all I'm planning to show you right now...

Finally, with all of our knitting time, we managed to only come up with one finished object between the three of us. Even though it isn't mine, I have to show you. These are some socks Robert has been working on for 2 years that he finished over the weekend! OK, so he also completed a nursing degree, started a new job and bought a house in that 2 years too. Still, I think he was very happy to be finished with these.

These are knee high socks he made for a friend of his out of a nylon ribbon yarn. They are really soft and the nylon is very stretchy. I thought it was a very interesting idea to knit socks out of nylon ribbon. One of the things I love about Robert is that he is not tied down by the "standard" way of doing things!

So, anyone still with me after all that? If so, hope you have a happy thanksgiving!

Dayflower Scarf

2007-11-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

The Dayflower Scarf is finished, including blocking. This is one of those rare occasions when the combination of yarn and pattern added up to a nearly perfect knitting experience for me.

Please excuse the dreary pictures. It is really dark and rainy here today, so I ended up having to take these inside. The second one captures the color a little better, but it's still a bit off.

Pattern: Dayflower Lace Scarf

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool, color 013

Size: 5 1/2" x 65"

I found this pattern interesting enough that I never got bored with it, but easy enough that I could work on it at the Knitting Guild meeting last night. I decided to block the edges straight, even though the pattern called for blocking it with a wavy edge. I also blocked it very firmly, which really highlighted the lace.

This was my first experience with the Silky Wool Yarn. I really liked it and mentioned to the Hubby at one point that I would love to make a sweater out of it. Interestingly, a woman at our Guild meeting last night was wearing a sweater she had made with this yarn in a different colorway that was gorgeous.

This is destined to be a Christmas gift for a non-knitter friend of mine. She is one of those people whose thermostat is always set to "high". I don't think I've ever seen her wear a coat, even in the snow! I have asked her several times if there is anything I can knit for her and she finally decided she might like a lace scarf she can use as an accessory, not necessarily for warmth. OK, I can do that! Hopefully she will like the results.

More Finished Holiday Gifts

2007-11-13T18:30:00.000-08:00

As my mother would say, "I've been on a tear lately". By that I mean that I am getting a lot done. WooHoo, love it when that happens!

Among today's finished objects is a hat for the hubby, to go with his set of "Dashing" from the last post.

Pattern: My own

Yarn: Paint Box from Knit One, Crochet Too, color 05

I didn't find a hat pattern I liked that went with the Dashing, so I went ahead and made one up myself. It has basically the same cables, but narrower. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, generally speaking.

I will say that I am not sure I liked the final set of decreases I did at the top. When the hat is on a real head, it is not pointy at the top, but rather stretches out smoothly. It does go from a very textured area to a fairly smooth one though. I probably should figure out a way to may it look more textured up there, but at this point I am not going to change it.

By the way, I've told the Hubby he is not allowed to look at my blog until after Christmas now. Not sure if he would have any idea how to find it anyway, but it's better safe than sorry. Luckily he likes to be surprised, so I know he won't peak.

Next on the completed gift pile are some dish clothes for A.'s teachers.

Patterns: Mulit = Waffle Stitch Cloth, Red = Knitted Round Dishcloth
Yarn: Basic Kitchen Cotton - the multi-colored was a Swap gift from my last Swap. Thanks Lissa!

Patterns: White = Gardiner Yarn Works Spa Set - "Hers", Multi = My own

Yarn: Also basic kitchen cotton

I let A. pick out the colors for each of her teachers, but have not told her what they're for. She has a really hard time keeping secrets right now, so it's better just not to tell her. I plan to package these up in sets of 2, with a bar of snazzy soap and call it a gift.

I've now started the Dayflower Lace Scarf for a friend. So far, so good. It's moving along at a good pace too. I'm still having a good time, so I'm going to keep going and see how much I get done before Thanksgiving.

FO, Blue Moon and Other Fun Stuff

2007-11-10T14:07:00.000-08:00

Well, after I posted nearly every day last week, not sure what happened this week. Sigh. I did start to write a post about my second knitting project, the one that really turned me into the rabidly addicted knitter that I am today. However, I didn't get very far with it and have decided to save it for another time.

This is because I have a lot of other things to talk about today, like a new finished object.

Pattern: Dashing

Yarn: Paint Box from Knit One Crochet Too, colorway 05

Christmas knitting is in full swing around here. These are for my hubby for Christmas. They are my first foray into the fingerless glove arena and I am very pleased with how they came out.

The colors are a little truer in this second picture, but still a bit washed out. I am also nearly finished with a matching hat. I think he is really going to like them, especially since he mentioned to me the other day that after Christmas he would like it if I could "whip him up a pair of those fingerless glove thingy's".

When I get the hat finished, next on the Christmas knitting list are wash clothes for A.'s teachers, some felted clogs for my mom and perhaps a pair of Dashing for my brother-in-law, if I am still enjoying the process. My goal is to not make myself crazy with Christmas knitting and so far, I am succeeding.

In other news, you may have heard that a little local company called Blue Moon Fiber Arts was having a "warehouse/mill ends" sale today. I am grateful every day I get to live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, but this was one of those days that was extra special. I went with Katrina and helped her shop for a list of folks. The amount of yarn we had between us was obscene! What a great sale! Of course, I forgot my camera, but at least have pictures of the spoils...

Socks that Rock, all Medium weight. I think these are, from left to right: "Lagoon", "Pink Granite", no idea, "Falcon's Eye" and Little Bunny Foo Foo". Of course, these are seconds and are not marked with the colorways, but this is what they look like to me. They are all gorgeous and were sold at considerable discount off of the normal price.

In this picture I have a skein of Socks that Rock in Heavy weight, a skein of something called "Icelandic", which is a bulky weight, super soft, wool and a skein of very light weight cotton yarn in the most gorgeous orange-peach color. No idea of the actual colorways.

Finally, in the this picture I have 2 skeins of a yarn called "Lochs" which is a "Wensleydale Wool" in colorway "Chapman Springs".

Today was a very fun day!

True Confessions

2007-11-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

I intended to post about this topic and the next one in October, but somehow October is already over. Wow, it went fast...

Anyway, I count October as the month of my "knitaversary". I know, that might seem silly to some folks, but knitting has become very important to me over the last 2 years and I like to mark the time when it first entered my life full force.

First though, I need to back up a little. I first learned the basics of knitting early in 2005. I was visiting my Aunt trying to get a little break. I was pretty far along in my pregnancy with V. and A. was wearing me out. I was hoping my Aunt and my mom could run interference with A. and let me have a rest. Out of the blue, really, my Aunt said "So, do you want to learn to knit?" I said "You know, I never really thought about it before, but yeah, sounds like fun". She taught me the basics and sent me on my way. Of course, I got home and promptly forgot everything she taught me. The needles and yarn went into a bag and I went on with the process of making and birthing a new human being.

Fast forward several months and I starting thinking about how much I had enjoyed that evening with my Aunt and the knitting. I dug out the yarn and needles, looked up knitting instructions on-line and proceeded to finished this scarf, my first finished object.

Pattern: Basic Garter Stitch Scarf

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick

Do not be fooled by the even stitches and straight edges. When I picked it up again, my "occasional perfectionist" came out and I decided I needed to do a perfect job. I ripped it out and started over several times, until I was happy with it. Sometimes I miss that perfectionist. She doesn't come to visit too often...

After I finally finished this little gem, I tucked it away and surprised my husband with it for Christmas.

This was the beginning. Next time I will show you the scarf that I knit in October 2005 and that I use to mark the "real" beginning of my knitting life. The scarf above was a warm up that helped me get the feel for the yarn and the possibility of knitting as a hobby.

On another note, I don't know what has gotten into me, but I feel like I have so much to say these days. I guess Ill ride the wave until I run out of blog topics...

ZeeBee #2

2007-11-02T10:23:00.001-07:00

I finished ZeeBee #2 (the Christmas gift) on Wednesday evening. Here it is in all of it's glory.

Pattern: ZeeBee

Yarn: Regia 4 Ply- Strato Color #5744

This hat only took 31 grams of yarn. You could easily make one out of that stray single skein of Koigu you have lying around - or is that just me with the stray Koigu?

I asked the Hubby why he liked this pattern so much, specifically for his friend. He pointed to the top and said "for the birds". It took me a moment to remember that his friend is a huge bird watcher and he meant that the birds would get to see the interesting part. Sometimes my husband's brain works in the most delightful ways!

Did you see the grafted seam? I have a hard time finding it myself.

I ended up doing a Google search for "grafting garter stitch" through which I found this link on Purlwise. The technique she outlines worked very well and you really can't see the seam on the right side . On the underside it has a little bit of a ridge which is not particularly visible, but which does feel different from the rest of the fabric.

Overall, I still love this project and will keep this one in the stash of "go to" patterns because it is so quick, versatile and relatively entertaining to knit.

Good Mail Day!

2007-11-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

Today I had a entire blog post prepared about ZeeBee number 2 and grafting garter stitch, but it is going to have to wait another day because today was a very good mail day.

First, on top of the mountain of mail that arrived was my "Fall Into Autumn Dishcloth Swap" package. It came all packaged up like this:

It included this great little project bag, 2 gorgeous, very well made dishcloths, 2 balls of Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn, some wonderful herbal soap, three sets of nice metal knitting needles and some pure maple sugar treats. What a great haul! Also included was a cute little Halloween card, however it was not signed so I have no idea who to thank! Thank you secret swap pal, whoever you are! **Edited to add that my Swap partner was Melissa C. Thanks Lissa, you did a great job!

Another fun thing in the mail today was the Winter Interweave Knits Magazine. It contains a beautiful sock pattern called Tilting Cable Socks written by my friend Chrissy that you can see here. This issue is particularly sweater heavy and at first glance not a lot stood out to me, other than Chrissy's socks. I could see myself possibly making the Celtic Tote or Gathered Pullover, but I'll have to look more closely when I have more time.

Finally, on the mail front, I received a package of invitations to Craft Warehouse's Annual Customer Appreciation Sale. It is taking place November 10 in Beaverton. You have to have an invitation to get in and it includes a 40% off coupon. Please let me know if you are in the Portland area and want one. I'd be happy to share.

Tomorrow will be all about the ZeeBee.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

It's all princesses all the time around here. Funny thing is, they've never seen a Disney movie, but somehow they know all of the princesses. I blame pre-school.

By the way, Grammy made these gorgeous costumes. She said the other day "I don't know why I never made anything like this for you guys when you were little?" I know why - it's the same reason I don't make them for the girls now. It's called exhaustion.

Hope you had a good one!

ZeeBee's All Around

2007-10-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

Today's post is going to be about the ZeeBee Beanie. Have you seen this one? I noticed it was published in 2004, yet I somehow missed it until recently. The ZeeBee trip started innocently enough. My husband is in a band with 2 of the nicest "old bachelors" I have ever met. They respect and appreciate my knitting obsession as a creative endeavor. More importantly, they support it with gift certificates to the LYS in my neighborhood. For this, they are rewarded with knitted items at the holidays. It's a win-win situation really.

A few months ago, I blogged about the scarf I have already finished for one of the band guys. The other guy is more of a hat sort of fellow. I was recently casting about for the perfect hat pattern for him and came across a ZeeBee knit out of sock yarn. My husband declared this the "perfect Doug hat" and so it shall be.

As I started digging into my custom generated hat pattern - really cool - I realized that this pattern called for a couple of knitting techniques I had never tried. So, I decided to make a practice ZeeBee first.

Pattern: ZeeBee Beanie

Yarn: Caron Felt It

Time to Knit: About 4 hours!

The new skills picked up with this knit include: crochet cast-on and short rows. Can you believe I never had an opportunity to learn short rows before. They are so fun!

Also, yes, I did change the cast on to a normal crochet cast-on. The way the pattern describes casting on seems like a lot of work to me. The crochet cast-on worked really well.

Overall, super easy little project that was lots of fun. The bonus is that because of the stretchy nature of garter stitch, this hat fits everyone in the family. It looks like V. has taken charge of it though, declaring it "Soooo soft mommy!"

Notice there are no pictures of the back of the hat. The one thing I still have to figure out is how to graft in garter stitch. I grafted this first one with normal Kitchener stitch and made a beautiful stockinette seem. Oh well, V. could care less. I did look around and found some interesting articles on the subject. Hopefully I can pull it off for the next one.

Here is ZeeBee #2, the real one. It's about 1/4 done in this picture. So far, so good. I think there may be more of these in my future.

An Old Finished Object

2007-10-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

Today was a big day here at chez counting. I finally bound off the pink sample I've been working on for over a month. What a great learning experience that one has been! I have mentioned the yarn weight before, but I don't think I've mentioned that it was cashmere. Gorgeous, incredibly soft and very fragile. Add to that the fact that it has a propensity to stick to itself and you can see why there was a steep learning curve. I told some folks last night though that I wouldn't trade the experience because now I feel like I can knit with anything. I'm sure something else will come along and kick my behind soon enough, but it's a fun feeling for the moment.

Because this project is a sample, I can't show you any pictures. However, I think it's OK for me to say that I think it is going to be beautiful when it is blocked and finished. I can't wait to see it and am hoping there will be pictures out on the web someday.

So, since I finished something today, I feel like showing a finished project. In place of the "pink thing" here is a test knit I did for Chrissy's Gardiner Yarn Works pattern line earlier this year. I've shown it to a few of you in person, but have never blogged about it.

Pattern: Feather Lace Shawl

Yarn: Sweet Socks from the Sweet Sheep, 1 Skein

Colorway: Wild Blueberries

This is a great little pattern. It's a good one for someone who understands the basics of lace and wants to try a triangle shawl. Chrissy designed it to see what she could make with 1 skein of Sea Silk. Her sample is absolutely beautiful and I highly recommend knitting it with the recommended yarn. At the time, I wanted to knit it with something I had in the stash and had been saving this yarn for lace. I really like how it turned out.

I have a few of these "pre-blog" finished objects that I'm thinking about dragging out when the blogging topics get low. Who doesn't love to see a finished object? Of course, I hope to be kicking the Christmas knitting into high gear around here as soon as I finish the other "knit for hire" project I'm working on. So, hopefully, there will be plenty of finished objects around in the near future.

Something to Distract You

2007-10-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

We finally have gorgeous fall weather today and, after a weekend of sickness around here, it could not have come at a more welcome time. I decided to take advantage of it today and take a bunch of pictures of things I plan to blog about over the next few weeks. This time of year, you never know when the dreary weather will come back, so it's important to soak up and take advantage of every gorgeous moment we get around here.

Knitting is continuing on the samples, so nothing new to show in the knitting front. Instead, I thought today we could take a look at one of the books in my collection of children's books.

The Daddy Book by Robert Stewart, Pictures by Don Madden

McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972

I found this little treasure at a yard sale two years ago. It is in pristine condition, I don't think it was ever opened. It is all about Daddies, as the title would suggest and is pretty progressive for 1972, with pictures like this showing fathers in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.

It shows Daddies in a variety of professions, including hair dresser, acrobat, poet and window cleaner, among many others. I noticed there were no "stay-at home daddies" though. Oh well, I suppose even now that would be unusual in a children's book.

The illustrations are great. Every other set is the two color black and orange. On the alternate pages, you find these brilliant, colorful illustrations of all sorts of dad related stuff.

I love this one of the dad playing horse with his kids. So cute!

Of course, this was published in 1972, so there are a few stereotypes, specifically around sex roles. I'm sure my girls would be confused by the idea that the jobs on these pages are "mommy" jobs, since daddy does most of them far more often at our house...

Overall though, this is a really fun book.

A Very Tiny Finished Object

2007-10-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

It feels like it has been awhile since I've checked in over here on the old blog. Ravelry is lots of fun, but has not been entirely responsible for my absence. Life is just busy.

On the knitting front, I'm still plugging away on the sample I'm knitting. I've actually been asked to knit another sample for All About Yarn. Even though it is also lace, it will be my "easy, taking around town knitting". So, all the knitting happening around here is for other folks...hmf. Interesting. I'm at the point where I am enjoying both though, so I think that makes it OK.

I did complete a very little project on Saturday. I started it in the early morning, when A. got up at 6:00 AM. Then worked on it during the second installment of the lace class I taught and finished it in the afternoon when the hubby and I ran around and did some errands. Details below.

By the way, am I the only one who has given up all driving when the hubby is in the car - so that I can knit? What a bonus! Since he can't read in the car and doesn't knit, he is always happy to oblige and takes on all of the family driving. I actually feel sort of cheated when I have to drive myself places now. I am so spoiled.

Pattern: Baby Hat from One Skein, size small

Yarn: Classic Elite's Lush, aprox. 20 grams

Time to knit: About 3 hours, maybe.

This project has been riding around in my knitting bag for months, so I decided to finally just work on it and it was done before I knew it. It seems either my husband or one of his band mates is always asking me to knit up baby gifts, so I thought I would just get a step ahead of them and have a gender neutral one waiting in the stash.

By the way, I love this yarn. It is so soft! I recommend at least touching it if you see it in your LYS.

So Cruel

2007-10-12T15:20:00.000-07:00

Today I finally received my Ravelry invite...in the middle of my work day. Sigh. I did sneak over and take a peak, actually a couple of times. I hope to get to spend some quality time with it some time this weekend. I can hardly wait!

I was really surprised to get my invite today. I hadn't checked the status in about a week and thought it was going to be sometime in November before I received mine. They must have really stepped things up.

My name is "Imcounting". Come find me if you are already on Ravelry.

Pickle Eyes

2007-10-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

Today as V. was studiously watching her father she said "Daddy, your eyes are the color of pickles. You have pickle eyes!"

Later, she ran into the living room shouting "Mommy, mommy, I looked in the mirror and I have pickle eyes too, just like daddy!"

I love 2.

Some Things I've learned this week

2007-10-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

I've learned that I/we can handle 4 little girls for 48 hours and not only not have any major issues, but actually have a really good time. I was reminded once again, as I have been so many times since becoming a parent, that sleep is overrated and I can function with remarkably little of it. I was also, blessedly, reminded of how sweet it is when you get it!

I've learned that if you do your prep work and have an open mind, teaching a knitting class is really fun. I think it went OK and I really enjoyed the time I spent with my 3 students on Saturday.

I've learned that my "Fall Into Autumn" swap partner, Rhonda, received her package and seems to really be pleased with it. I am so happy to hear it! What's even better is that we have had some great email conversations and, hopefully, will continue to do so. I feel so lucky to have been paired with her. Here's a picture of the dishcloths I knit for her. They are actually the Spa Cloth set from Gardiner Yarn Works. What fun and quick little knits they were!

Finally, I have learned once again that knitters can be some of the nicest folks around and I am so glad I found this hobby, or better yet "lifestyle", at this point in my life.

P.S. Still no resolution on the work stuff and while A. recovered from her other illness by Friday evening, she is sick with something else now. Oh well, 3 out of 5 isn't too bad...

Dots

2007-10-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to take a cue from one of my favorite bloggers and write up a dotted list of topics. It's about all my brain can handle. So, in no particular order, here are the things rolling around in my head today:

Tomorrow is the first day of the Lace Class I am teaching. I am mostly ready, but am still working on a hand-out with some additional resources. I am nervous about this, especially since I found out there is actually someone signed up for it that I don't know. When I thought it was just going to be my friends in the class, I had a more casual attitude. I am looking forward to it though.
In about 10 minutes, some friends are going to be dropping off their 2 sweet little girls, who will be spending the entire weekend with us. The parents need to take a business trip sans children. I am flattered they asked us, but nervous about having someone else's kids for the weekend. By the way, the girls are the same ages as ours and already spend a lot of time around here. The other dad is also a stay-at-home dad, so he and my hubby hang out together a lot.
A. woke up with a cold this morning. I have told the parents of the other kids, but since they all see each other every day anyway, they weren't too concerned. Don't you just hate it when your kids are sick though?
I sent off my package to my "Fall Into Autumn" swap partner yesterday. Let's hope she likes it. I'll post a picture of the finished dishcloths when she let's me know she has received the package.
Finally, work, which I never talk about on this blog, is particularly unsettled and weird right now. So much so that I am taking my lunch break to blog - which is against my own personal rules. Not sure if I will ever say more about it than that, but wanted to mention it because thoughts about work are more prevalent for me right now than normal and are distracting me from living my life the way I want to.

So, to summarize. today's posting seems to be about my neuroses. Good to note.

Fall Food

2007-10-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Over at the Fall Into Autumn Swap site they have been posting topic ideas each week that participants can use to spice up their blogs. None have captured my interest until this week. The topic is:

"Are there any recipes you especially enjoy having in the Fall? Any foods that are seasonal that you especially enjoy?"

My answer to this is a hardy "yes". I love to cook in the Fall and Winter, especially soup. I frequently make a big pot of soup that we have for lunches and/or dinners all week. One of my favorites is my own, very easy, Black Bean Soup. I have included the recipe here. Actually, it is so easy, it seems like a fib to call it a recipe...

Black Bean Soup

1 onion, chopped
fresh garlic to taste, minced
2 tsp olive oil
4 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 box of broth, chicken or vegetable, 32 oz.
Salt and pepper to taste

In large pot saute onion and garlic until soft. Add beans, broth, salt and pepper. Heat until warm through. Blend - I use a wand blender I just stick in the pot. Heat a bit more which helps it thicken a little.

That's it. I like to serve it with a little dollop of sour cream swirled in.

And because a post without a picture is no fun, here is the bowl of black bean soup I had for dinner tonight. It was yummy!

If anyone had told me 6 months ago I would be taking a picture of my dinner to post on the Internet, I would have told them they were crazy. Funny how life changes and this now seems normal...

Kimono Shawl

2007-09-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some less than stellar pictures of my interpretation of the Kimono Shawl. Before I go any further, I should just apologize now for the quality of all pictures that will appear on this blog between now and some time next Spring, say around May. This week the rainy season arrived here in the beautiful Northwest - an entire month early, but who's counting? Every time I watch the weather on the news it's all rain, as far as the eye can see... So, we now begin many, many months of dark, overcast days that result in photo's like these.

Pattern: Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle

Yarn: Berger Du Nord, Bella - 5 skeins

Needles: size 8

Finished Size (blocked): 22"x75"

This project has been a delight from the beginning. The yarn is so gorgeous and soft, the pattern easy but interesting and because the gauge was on the large side for lace, it flew right along. My modifications are explained in this post.

Don't you just love my model? He is so great about things like this!

As I mentioned in that previous post, this is to be a Christmas gift for my sister. She knits things all the time for me, but I have never knit anything for her. She is 6' tall, so I think the larger lace motif's will work well on her. I hope she likes it!

I am actually a little sad to finish this one. Lucky thing I have enough of this yarn left in the stash to make something for myself. Now, I'm off to work on the sample knitting and to think about which "simple" Christmas gift to cast on next - simple being relative and meaning a project I can work on with my kids in the room. Funny how that beautiful delicate lace yarn and little fingers don't work well together.

How did it get to be Friday already?

2007-09-28T14:30:00.001-07:00

Where did the week go? I can't believe its Friday already!!

This has been a great week, full of lots of knitterly fun. On Tuesday I had the pleasure of getting to hang out with some of my favorite knitters. For once, I was the obnoxious one with the camera. That's Chrissy, Katrina and Amanda knitting at Twisted.

We got together to celebrate Chrissy's birthday (which was back in August, so we're just a little behind on these things). We also celebrated Amanda's birthday, which is coming up soon. Good company, good knitting, good yarn and good food = a very lovely evening.

That knitting time, along with a lot of time waiting for my kids and on phone meetings this week, has allowed me to finish another knitting project. I hope to report on it soon - perhaps some time over the weekend. It's still on the blocking wires and, last I checked was still pretty wet. The picture below contains a clue as to what it is:

I have also recently completed a dishcloth or two for my "Fall into Autumn" exchange partner. However, since I accidentally let her know my identity I am not going to post pictures here of the final products until after she receives them in the mail. I am planning to wait a little longer before shipping them, so that FO report will have to wait.

That leaves exactly one project on the needles, but boy it is a doosey. I am doing a "knit for hire" project for a friend of mine that has been an excellent learning experience for me. I can't show you any pictures, but I can tell you that it takes a lot of concentration for me. The pattern is not very hard, but the yarn is really small. See the picture below to get an idea:

I know there are lots of you folks out there who knit with lace yarn all the time, but this is the finest gauge I have ever used. Now that I have figured out how to manage the tension and how to use lifelines, I am well on my way. Since I can't work on this in a social setting at this point because it requires too much concentration, I will likely cast on for another small, easy project soon. However, this thin pink yarn is going to be my companion for the near future. Wish me luck!

OFFF Goodies

2007-09-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are some of the lovelies that followed me home from Oregon Flock and Fiber this weekend. First up, some Ecological Wool from Cascade. I know I can get this anytime, but not at the price I paid for it - which was unbelievable. This has actually been on my list to pick up because I want to make a Hemlock Throw like the ones Susan has been making over at The Rainey Sisters Blog. She has basically taken a doily pattern and knit it with this eco wool and huge needles to make a throw. I love this idea and have now officially added it to my never ending "to knit" list.

Next are two skeins of gorgeous rayon yarn from Interlacements. Each skein has 1200 yards and is really soft! In the booth they had several projects that had each been made with just one skein, including a summer sweater, a long button up vest and a gorgeous shawl. The knitted fabric in all cases had a really lovely drape. I am leaning toward the shawl idea myself.

By the way, these are not both for me. My mom asked me to pick one up for my sister too so she can give it to her for Christmas. Now the question is "Which one do I want to keep?" Sigh. I bought the one on the left for myself originally, but then decided I liked the one on the right better, then changed my mind again. They are really similar, but enough different that I am having a hard time deciding. I may just let my mom pick the one she likes best for my sister and make it easy on myself.

This lovely pink skein is from Trish over at Tanglewood Fiber Creations. Any of you who were at the show and are saying "I didn't see a Tanglewood Booth" are correct. When I ran into Trish we started talking and she reminded me of something I had done for her that turned out to be a really great thing. Next thing I know, Trish is saying "You need some yarn, let me go get my basket and you can pick one". How cool is that? This pink is not necessarily a color I would normally pick, but I love it! It's sort of a thistle color that is a bit darker and richer than it looks in this picture. Thanks again Trish!

Finally, the last two I am going to share with you - because I assure you, these are not the last two that came home with me - are these gorgeous skeins of Mama-E's Cyber Fiber. Both of these came from Chrissy's shop and were payment for the work I did there on Saturday.

The one on top is called "Gardiner Yarn Works" and I have been lusting after it for months. Chrissy has been sold out on her site for a long time and I have been kicking myself for not getting some when it was in stock. When she announced she was not going to be selling sock kits anymore, I thought I might have missed my opportunity for good. So, imagine my delight when we started to unpack the yarn on Saturday and there was one lone skein mixed in with the rest of the yarn. Needless to say, it did not even make it onto the table, but went right back into the box! I am suspicious that Chrissy may have brought it knowing I would want it right away...I may have mentioned a few hundred times how much I loved it.

The other skein is called "Margene" and it was actually available for sale most of the day Saturday. From the beginning, it was also an only skein, with no brothers or sisters. As the day wore on, I would get up and visit it occasionally, patting it. I liked it too, right away, but I knew there was lots of other yarn at the Festival and other folks who might like it. I needed to make sure no one else needed it before it came home with me at the end of the day.

By the way, as of now, I still have only knit the one baby sock, yet I probably have sock yarn for at least 15 pairs of socks! I guess I am just preparing for the inevitable. I had so much fun making that baby sock, I know I am going to be hooked when I start knitting them. I need to be prepared, right?

Oregon Flock and Fiber

2007-09-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

I've been sitting here at my computer for 20 minutes trying to figure out where to start with this blog posting. OK, here goes - this past weekend I spent all day Saturday and part of Sunday at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby Oregon. I helped my friend Chrissy in her booth where we sold her patterns and a lot of sock yarn left over from when she was selling sock kits. Here is a picture of Chrissy in the booth just as we were finishing setting up on Saturday:

We had a really great time. Working in a booth, or just sitting in one, is the way to go if you can manage it. We had a place to leave our stuff when we needed to wander off and place to sit when there were no other seats to be had. Best of all though, everyone came to us - s0 there were lots of opportunities to chat with friends, make new ones and generally network.

I'm sure I won't remember everyone I saw or met, but here are a few of the folks I had the pleasure of interacting with this weekend: Cindy, Amanda, Judy, Trish, Chrispy and Yvonne. Additionally, I got to meet Patsy and Mims, the lovely ladies behind the new Oregon Live Knitting blog, as well as the woman who is the brains behind Moirae Knitting. Unfortunately I can't remember her name - I'm so sorry. It was great meeting you in person though and welcome to Oregon!

Really, the people made this a great weekend for me, as well as the fact that this was definitely a successful event for Chrissy. Yeah Chrissy!

Today however, I finally got a chance to wander into the animal barns and saw some very unusual things. Of course, there were lots of beautiful Alpacas, like this one, as well as sheep, goats and bunnies. All lovely and fluffy.

After visiting the little guy above, I went around a corner and saw this.

It is a young yak. There was an adult standing near it and I was surprised at how small they are - I think the adults looked smaller than a Shetland pony. Anyway, as if that wasn't enough of a surprise, I then practically ran into this:

Yes, that is a camel! How crazy is that? Apparently this one was only 7 months old and about 1/3 of the way grown. It was very friendly and quiet soft.

They kind of make this guy look normal. Tomorrow, if I get a chance, I will tell you about some of the yarny goodness that followed me home. I doubt I'll tell you about all of it because some secrets are better left between me and my bank account...the husband knows and didn't freak out. Yet another reason why I love him!

Super speedy drive-by post

2007-09-19T21:12:00.001-07:00

I don't have much to say today but didn't want the day to go by without thanking my dishcloth swap partner for the beautiful postcard. It brightened my day considerably! While I love my email, there is nothing like a little snail mail, especially when it has a gorgeous picture.

It actually caused a bit of a stir around here. My husband kept asking me "Who is that from again? Is that the one in X place you are sending stuff to?" I had to explain to him again that no, this was someone else entirely, that the person I am sending things to is not the person who is sending things to me. He seems baffled by the entire process, bless him. I'm sure he'll have it all figured out just in time for it to be over.

Life's a beach, when you're lucky

2007-09-17T21:25:00.001-07:00

After our separate "vacations" earlier in the week, Friday it was time for the big family get-away. The hubby and I packed everyone up and headed off to the Oregon Coast and had a really fantastic time. Even sleep wasn't as hard as it has been on past trips. Not sure how much of that was due to the girls being a little older and how much was due to the fact that we worked hard at wearing them out each day.

This picture is at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It is a really nice little aquarium that specializes in the wildlife found in and around the ocean in the Northwest. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Newport, Oregon. The jellyfish and shark exhibits are particularly memorable.

Here the girls are checking out the touch tank. There were sea stars, urchins, abalone and sea cucumbers, among other cool things. I'd never seen a sea cucumber in a touch tank before. They really do feel as squishy as you would imagine.

This is how the girls spent most of the weekend. I must have at least a dozen pictures of the tops of their heads taken while they dug in the sand. Think we need a sandbox?

The weather was amazing - sunny, warm and NO WIND. Anyone who has ever been to the Oregon Coast knows this is very rare indeed.

Here's another view of A. digging. The sunset was beautiful. We went out for a walk at sunset along the road and it was A.'s idea to walk back on the beach. I am so glad we did as it was my favorite part of the trip. One of those beautiful times I hope to always remember.

See that little dot? That's me, carrying V. and walking into the edge of the waves. What this picture doesn't capture is her little voice giggling and saying "Mommy - look, there's another wave, quick run into it". Sigh. It was so hard to go back to work today!

Recent Shopping Finds

2007-09-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

As promised yesterday, today's posting is going to be all about some of the great finds I made while on my "mini-vacation" earlier this week.

On Monday evening, as I was walking back from dinner, I just "happened" to walk by Knit-Purl. I really thought they would be closed, but it turns out they are open until 7 on Monday's. So, I popped in, with just a few minutes to spare, and wandered around in my typical yarn store haze. This is a particularly beautiful yarn store that is well organized by yarn weight, which is my favorite way for a yarn store to be organized.

They also happen to be the same business that produces the ShiBui yarn line. If I didn't already have quiet a bit of that in my stash from previous visits to the store, that would be a no-brainer acquisition. It is so beautiful! They also have a wall of Koigu. If you've never seen a wall of Koigu, just use your imagination and know that it is just a beautiful as you think.

I found something else though, tucked in a bottom shelf that I have been thinking about for quiet some time. Yes, that is Malabrigo Lace Weight in the color "Blue Surf". It looks just like the sky, with puffy white clouds and feels like a dream - so soft! I can not wait to make something special with it.

The next day I went to another wonderful Portland yarn shop called Dublin Bay. This is such a beautiful store that I always want to curl up on one of their couches and hang out for hours. I did not this time, but only because in order to do so I would have had to fight with a parking meter. I did, however, find the above book. This is one of those books reissued by Dover Publications. It was originally published in England in 1953.

It was less than $10 and is full of really interesting lace patterns. One of my favorites is above. Many of the patterns are for household items, like curtains, bedspreads and doilies. While I don't see myself knitting anything like that anytime soon, I could imagine adapting some of these patterns for shawls or other wearable items. Since it contained several stitches I had not seen anywhere else, I thought it was a worthwhile purchase.

Believe it or not, other than a couple of very small items, these were all of the "yarny" type items I bought. However, I did take a trip to one of the big Goodwill Stores in East Portland to look at books. At one point I had found a pretty nice pile of children's book and was feeling pretty happy about it, when I decided to thumb through the "Little Golden Books". When I was a kid, these were a central part of my library so I have a soft spot in my heart for them.

Well, my heart nearly skipped a beat when I flipped this one over:

This was, bar none, by very favorite book when I was small. I have lost track of my childhood copy and didn't realize how much I missed it until I found this one.
I can not tell you how many hours I spent looking at these pictures, imagining myself in each of them. So much color, so much adventure!
I grew up on a farm and did have a horse. I always loved looking at all of these other horses and knowing that my simple little farm horse was the same as all of these gorgeous horses, someone just needed to paint a good picture of her...:)

One more, just for fun. There is nothing like finding a very fond piece of your past. Best $.49 I've spent in a long time!

Mini-vacation update and a FO

2007-09-12T10:20:00.000-07:00

I have had quiet the adventure over the last day and a half!

As anyone who has ever had small children knows, vacation is not really a vacation when you take it with the kids. Ours never sleep well when away from their beds and routines and get cranky in the car, etc. So, my husband and I decided to each take a mini-vacation alone this year, then we will end the week with a long weekend as a family. Is that weird? My sister thinks it's weird, but I think it is healthy, at least for us.

My husband took last weekend and went out of town to visit some friends. Since they are friends I am not too excited to spend time with, it worked out great.

Then I took Monday night off and stayed in downtown Portland. I am very fortunate to have a friend who works for the Heathman Hotel, so he was able to get a super, incredible rate on a room. What a treat! The room was very nice, with a very comfortable bed. It's right in the middle of downtown, so I was able to spend lots of time walking around and engaging in some retail therapy. I estimate that I spent about 4 of my 24 hours downtown walking - a great thing to do if you're ever in Portland. Of course, I forgot my camera so no pictures.

After I checked out of my hotel I hung around various coffee shops and yarn stores in the greater Portland area. How luxurious to spend an afternoon going where I wanted and spending as much time as I wanted, with no agenda and no responsibilities!

Then I picked up my friend Katrina and we went out for a fantastic dinner. All in all, a really great mini-vacation! I feel rested and refreshed, like I've been away for a week. Funny how everything gets more concentrated and intense when you have kids. At least this time it worked in my favor!

I know, lots of words, no pictures. How's this:

Pattern: Blue Sky Alpacas Baby Hoodie, Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton

This is V. in her new sweater, finished by me while on my mini-vacation. The Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton yarn is SOOOO nice to work with. It is so soft. I loved this project. Between the stripes, which kept it from getting too boring, the great yarn and the small size, this one was a winner for me.

In that picture above it looks pretty big, but she just had her hands pulled in. I knit the largest size and I think it fits pretty well. She should be able to wear it all Winter, if we can manage to not shrink it in the dryer. One note to anyone who might knit this, I followed the pattern exactly, had correct gauge, etc. but felt like I was going to run out of the rust colored yarn if I tried to make the hood striped too. Also, the front, is a little short. I would probably add an inch or two to the length of the entire body if I were to knit this again.

This morning A. said "V looks like a gnome with her hood up". I have to say, I agree! So cute.

Just for fun, here is a bonus picture. This is the outfit A. picked out for herself for school today. That girls loves color!

The dress is one grandma made. The sweater I finished earlier this year for her, before I started this blog. I made it using Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns and Inspire from Wisdom Yarns. Inspire is a self patterning yarn, similar to many sock yarns, but in worsted weight. Lots of fun! I highly recommend the book too, by the way. With this book, you would never need to buy another sweater pattern, if you didn't want to.

This blogging in the middle of the day is really fun. So much easier than at the end of the day, after a full day of work and evening with the kids. This post has gone on way too long though. Tomorrow I will share some of the marvelous things I found while shopping yesterday.

First day of school

2007-09-10T11:20:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day of school for A. I've been seeing so many beautiful, heart felt blog entries about the first day of school from other mothers. Let's just say it was hard. She had a little trouble with the idea that we were "dropping her off", but she didn't cry. When her friend arrived though, she was fine.

Mommy's doing OK too.

I actually took the week off because I am way over-due for a vacation. After I check in with my little one to see how the first day went, I am taking off for some alone time. It will be a first, since V. was born 2 years ago. I'll let you know how it goes when I get back.

By the way, that backpack is mostly empty. It sure looks huge on my sweet small person...

New Clothes

2007-09-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

I am a truly blessed person with more than my fair share to be thankful for in my life. However, one of the things I am most thankful for is my mother. She has always been a great mother - very loving, very loyal, generous to a fault. It's been amazing to see her positive qualities magnified even more with my children.

My mom also is extremely talented in many ways, but especially in the arena of domestic arts. When I was a kid, she made all of our clothes, ran our small farm, canned and froze all of our food, baked bread every week, ran my 4-H group and made wedding cakes and custom clothes on the side for a little cash! I still don't know how she did it, although I can tell you keeping house was not one of her priorities. :)

So, combine this generous spirit with her love of all things domestic and crafty and you end up with an amazing "back to school" wardrobe for my 4 year old. Yes, that's right, she decided A. needed back to school clothes for her 3 day a week pre-school gig. Her justification "Well, it's important to A., so it's important to me and it made me happy." OK mom, thanks!

I only snapped pictures of my two favorite outfits. Above is A. wearing the dress my mom made with fabric she let A. pick out. It is really sweet!

I just love this one. You can sort of see from this picture that it has inset panels of the trim fabric. My niece, who is 12 now, used to also have a couple of grandma-made dresses like this one when she was small. She called them her "magic dresses" because when she twirled, the panels opened up and the dresses looked really different.

All together she made A. 5 dresses with coordinating "monkey bar shorts" - all thoughtfully designed with my little one's needs and desires in mind. Amazing.

In addition, she didn't want little V. to feel left out, so she made her a couple of things too. As with most 2 year olds, V. is not much into modeling. So, I snuck up on her while she was playing in the dirt in her favorite new elephant dress. So cute!

Can't wait to see what mom comes up with when the girls head off to full time school!

Quickie

2007-09-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's Wednesday already. How did that happen?

We had a great holiday weekend. One of my best friends from LA came up for a visit. While I rarely miss much about Los Angeles, his visit reminded me how much I miss some of the great people I met there.

Knitting is happening, but isn't very interesting to show. I'm plugging away on a sweater for my youngest daughter and have picked up the Kimono Wrap again. I'm racing to see if I can get either of them done before my next project comes in. I have agreed to do some "knitting for hire". I have never done this before so I'll be interested to see how it goes. The project I am taking on is probably going to take a lot of time and will not be something I can blog about.

Oh well, I can at least entertain you with pictures like this one:

Aren't they beautiful? Our raspberries did indeed start producing a profusion of fruit again. I'm not sure if this is normal, but I can tell you it did not happen the last 2 summers. This crop of berries are huge and delicious! This is what the girls and I are having for breakfast tomorrow. Mmmm!

"Fall Into Autumn" Swap Questionnaire

2007-09-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

1. Do you knit or crochet? How long have you been doing it?

I knit, haven’t tried my hand at crochet since I was about 10 years old. I have been knitting for about 2 years.

2. Have you made dischloths before? Do you use them yourself, give them as gifts, or both?

I actually have not made dishcloths before, but have been thinking about it and am looking forward to giving it a go. I do use them myself. My sister, who is also a knitter, has given me several nice ones.

3. What's your favorite cotton to make cloths from? What cotton would you like to try that you haven't before ?

I really like Peaches and Crème cotton, it’s really soft. I would be open to trying any cotton that was suitable for dishcloths.

4. If you knit, do you prefer circular or straight needles? For all, do you prefer wooden, metal, or plastic needles?

I am really flexible and I actually use both circular and straight needles, made of wood, metal and plastic. It just depends on what I’m making, what fiber I’m using and what’s not in use for another project.

5. What are your favorite colors? Any colors you don't like much?

Beyond a doubt, my favorite colors are blue, purple, green and red in jewel tones. Interestingly enough, I have not decorated any of my house with those colors though.

I am generally not a big fan of pastels, although there are occasional exceptions.

6. What do you like best about Autumn?

Do I have to pick one thing? Autumn is my favorite season. I love the crisp air, the leaves turning color, fresh apple cider, going to the pumpkin patch with my kids…

7. Pies: Pumpkin? Apple? Pecan? All of em? or No Thanks!

Pumpkin and apple. I am allergic to tree nuts, so pecan is not appealing to me.

8. When you were a kid, were you the one who couldn't wait to get started with school , or the one who overslept on the 1st day?

I could not wait for school to start. I still miss it.

9. Do you celebrate Halloween? (The real key here guys is especially knowing if you have an aversion to the holiday or little goodies/decorations associated with it, given the timeframe of the swap)

Love Halloween, although I am not much of a Halloween decorator.

10. If you had to choose just 3 edible 'goodies' to eat for a full year, what 3 would you choose?

Chocolate, Peanut butter (the one “nut” I can eat), fresh berries.

11. Do you have any pets? Kids? Husbands who seem like kids? ;)

Two daughters, ages 4 and 2, one husband who stays at home with them while I work. We also have 2 cats that are both white and “fluffy”. I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about the cats…weird.

12. If you were to describe a particular yarn that shares traits of your personality, what would it be and why?

I would probably say plain old wool because it is dependable, warm and is more flexible than might at first appear.

13. Do you use your cloths mostly for dishcloths, or as facecloths?

Both.

14. Favorite Fall Holiday: Halloween or Thanksgiving and why? (Feel free to share another fall memory if you do not celebrate either of these holidays)

I love them both.

Halloween is great because what other day of the year are you encouraged to be someone completely different? It’s also a lot more fun since I’ve had kids – they get so excited!

Thanksgiving has always been a big deal in my family. I started cooking the big meal and hosting dinner when I was in college. With rare exception, I still host dinner every year for at least a few extended family members and various friends. I love to cook and I love to spend time with people I care about, so it is one of my favorite days of the year.

15. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should know about?

As I’ve already mentioned, I am allergic to tree nuts. I also loathe beets with a passion I reserve for few things, but I suppose that might not be very useful for my swap partner... Otherwise, I can’t think of anything else to mention.

Finished Object - Lace Scarf

2007-09-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

It feels like it's been ages since I've finished anything. Thursday night I stayed up late and finally finished the lace scarf for the class I'll be teaching in October.

Snowdrop Lace Scarf, pattern my own. Yarn: JoJoLand Melody, color Y-20, not quiet 2 balls Finished size: 10"x70"

I am really pretty pleased with how this one came out. None of the pictures I took show the color very well. It looks so washed out. Oh well, this is all I could manage with the girls running around.

I ended up deciding to just knit the entire thing in one direction, rather than stopping at half way, knitting the second half from the beginning and then grafting them together. For me personally, it just doesn't matter. I will include instructions for that technique though when I write this up for my class.

By the way, did you notice the nice straight edge on the scarf? Well that is thanks to these beauties:

I'm not sure how clear the picture is, but those are "dressing wires" or "blocking wires". These are from Handworks Northwest, which is a local company. You can buy them direct from the company through the link above or from All About Yarn.

I had never used blocking wires before but decided to take the plunge since I seem to be knitting a lot of lace these days. Wow, what a difference they make! In the past, I would run a waste yarn along the edges of my knitted item, then tack it out in a straight line. I would then pull the knitted item into shape on the taught line and pin at various intervals when I had it where I wanted it.

With these blocking wires, I will admit it was a bit of a pain to thread the wet scarf onto the wires, but once that was done, it was so easy to get it stretched out and pinned. And, I have never had such straight lines before - seems like I would always end up with little "blips" here and there. So, I can say that this was an excellent purchase and I highly recommend them for anyone who is planning to do more than occasional lace knitting.

Lots of News

2007-08-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

A few exciting things have happened this week. I apologize in advance - lots of words, no pictures today.

First off, my sweet baby brother called yesterday to let us know he had gotten married! It wasn't a huge surprise, he had told us he and his girlfriend were going to get married this year, but last we talked they were still deciding when and where. I guess they talked about it and determined they didn't see any reason to wait any longer. He lives in Lake Tahoe, so I think that drive over to Reno is just too short.

At any rate, none of us have met his wife yet. They have been dating for about a year, but due to his schedule and some other obligations they have, they haven't been able to make it up for a visit. He says in October - I sure hope so! He did tell me that she knits too. Since she seems to make him very happy, what more could I ask for?

In other exciting news, Amanda and Katrina have started a knitalong for Cat Bordhi's new book "New Pathways for Sock Knitters" and have graciously agreed to allow me to tag along. You can get more info and sign up on the blog: New Pathways KnitAlong or you can join the group on Ravelry. Sadly, I do not have a Ravelry invite yet, but there is a link to the Raverly group on the Knitalong blog.

This really is a great book and is perfect for a knitalong since it has so many new and exciting sock architectures. As I've mentioned before, I am new to the sock knitting thing, but am excited to try out some of these ideas.

Finally, one of the reasons I started a blog was because I wanted to get more involved with the on-line knitting community, including doing things like knitalongs and swaps. Today I found the first swap I plan to participate in. It is the "Fall Into Autumn" exchange which looks pretty low stress on the knitting side (knit or crochet a dishcloth), with a little bit of shopping thrown in. Sounds about perfect for a first timer.

Registration for the "Fall Into Autumn" exchange will open on September 1st and close September 8th at Midnight, EDT. Now, if I can just remember to go sign up during that window, I'll be in good shape!

2007-08-27T16:16:00.000-07:00

Things are progressing quiet nicely on the lace sample for class and it is about half finished. As I mentioned before, I was having a hard time finding a pattern that met the criteria I wanted for an Introduction to Lace class. These criteria included:

Scarf size
Purl on backside
Garter stitch border
Simple design that had less than 12 rows per repeat
No knit 3 together, no nups, etc.
Had to have a design that allowed the knitter to place stitch markers for each repeat so they can count to make sure they haven't lost any stitches.
Needed to look interesting and like lace, so folks would want to knit it

Apparently this was a tall order. So, I whipped out the stitch dictionaries and came up with this:

I'm not sure if grabbing a stitch out of a stitch dictionary and adding a garter stitch border makes me a designer. I see all of the work Chrissy puts into her designs and I know this is nothing like that. On the other hand, I think this is going to work nicely to demonstrate the things I want to teach in the class, so that's good enough for me. If RaNaye wants to sell it, even better.

The yarn is JoJoland Melody in color Y-20. It has a very subtle color change between lavender and blue that doesn't show up very well in the photo. I wasn't too sure I liked it until I pinned it out to measure my progress last night. I look forward to completing this one and taking a picture outside, in natural light. The basement guest room just wasn't cutting it, even with extra lights!

On another topic, since a couple of you seemed interested in my Children's books, I thought I'd share another one. Still no scanner, so more not so great photos.

The Time to Sleep Book by Kathleen Allan Meyer, Illustrated by Rod Ruth in 1978 by Golden Press

I found this one at a garage sale this past weekend for a quarter. I think I may have had it when I was little because it looks really familiar. The front and back covers look the same, with the little sleeping girl and teddy.

Inside, the book has the sweetest pictures of sleeping animals and talks about how they sleep.

Isn't that sweet little chimpanzee adorable!

I just love this alligator, with it's legs hanging down. The entire book makes me sleepy whenever I look at it. The last page shows the little girl in a picture much like the cover and says "When it's time to go to sleep, I sleep like this". A. saw this in my office today and wanted to read it right away. That kid loves books as much as her mama.

What a Glorious Day!

2007-08-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

What a glorious day we had today! If my older daughter hadn't been sick and I hadn't had to work, it would have been pretty near perfect. * We've had a very strange summer here in Oregon this year, with many cooler than average days and even some rain recently, although nothing like the mid-West, thankfully. Today, it was the first really sunny one we've had in a bit, so I went outside and took some pictures of the roses.

*A. just has a little cold, by the way, so hopefully it will clear up soon. I noticed her little sister is starting to get a runny nose too. Yippee! I just love the way they make sure to share their germs, one of the few things I'm not too keen on them sharing.

Everything has come back to life with the recent rain. The roses are acting like it's June and the raspberries have sprouted a lot of new growth, with tons of new blossoms and even some new fruit already. I hope we get more berries because I love them. The raspberries and roses were both new treats for me when we bought this house three years ago. My mom had roses when I was very small, but I have never been able to just go out into my own yard and pick roses or berries whenever I wanted.

I have no idea what varieties we have and I know we don't take proper care of them, but they seem hardy and forgiving nonetheless. My mother-in-law actually gets really frustrated with my rose success because she spends tons of time and energy babying hers and never gets the profusion of blossoms we do. All I can say is whomever planted these before us must have picked really good plants.
This red one smells amazing!

This is the other thing I did this evening. While my husband gave the girls their bath, I ran down the road and picked some blackberries. Unbelievably, these are the first of the season for me. They also smell amazing! I see some blackberry cobbler in my very near future. Mmmm.

On the knitting front, I am still plugging away on my class sample. After much deliberation I decided none of the patterns RaNaye had in her shop were quiet what I was looking for. So, I designed a little scarf myself that I will use for the class. If all goes as planned, I will format it nicely and sell it through the shop for anyone who is interested - assuming she is as taken with the final product as I hope she will be. I'll try to get some sample shots up soon.

2007-08-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Knitting is progressing on the Kimono Shawl and I am a little over half way done. It doesn't really look much different from the last picture I showed though, only longer.

Unfortunately I have to put it aside for what I hope is a brief period while I work on something with a shorter deadline. RaNaye, the owner of All About Yarn in Tigard asked me to teach a lace knitting class. I am still a bit stunned by this idea. I have mixed feelings about it, mostly along the lines of "Why me" and "I haven't been knitting long enough to teach anyone anything". However, she assures me that I know plenty more than is necessary to teach an intro to lace class. So, after I took a few days to think about it, during which time I started writing an outline for the class, I agreed to give it a go. It will be a 2 day special project class and will be in October. Let me know if you're interested.

So, the project that is interrupting the gorgeous silk experience I have been enjoying is a little sample scarf for the class. I wanted to knit it up and have it in the shop so folks can see what they will be learning. I'll talk more about the sample and the class as details progress.

In the mean time, I said yesterday that I would share one of my non-knitting obsessions with you. It is books. I know, any of you who have been to my house are not in the least surprised by this. Some folks can use their yarn stash as extra insulation. My hubby and I could easily use our library of books. However, in this instance, I am talking specifically children's books with great illustrations.

Funny thing is, I don't necessarily have a type of illustration I am crazy about, per se, or a specific book vintage. I just like what I like. I find most of my treasures at Goodwill or yard sales and yes, I do share some of them with the girls.

Here is a good example of a book I love:

My Counting Book by Marybob Baker, Illustrated by J.P. Miller Published in 1964 by Merrigold Press

I just love this little book! The story is so sweet, about a Lion counting all of his friends.

Sorry for these low quality pictures. I don't have a scanner, but may need to invest in one.

I looked this one up on Amazon but they didn't have a picture of the cover. They did have some used copies available. You can't really beat $.49 from Goodwill though!

If I can figure out a better way to show off my books, I may add this as a regular feature on my blog. What do you think?

2007-08-20T20:59:00.000-07:00

So much fun has been happening around here that I don't know where to begin! I guess we'll go chronologically, then hopefully I won't miss anything important.

Last I wrote I was lamenting the lost weekend of craziness and was glad to be back at work. I don't think you will hear me say that very often. Anyway, Thursday started my recent spate of fun with the August meeting of the Tigard Knitting Guild. This month's guest was Trish Anderson who is the genius behind Tanglewood Fiber Creations. She gave a wonderfully interesting talk about fiber, yarn and her business. One fun fact I learned: One cashmere goat produces only 4 oz of fiber per year! No wonder cashmere is so expensive.

Then on Friday I was able to attend the book launch reception Blue Moon Fiber Arts hosted here in Portland for Cat Bordhi's latest book "New Pathways for Sock Knitters". While I may be a new sock knitter, I am aware of the genius that is Cat Bordhi and what an incredible opportunity this event was. Cat's talk was really interesting, the book is gorgeous and the desserts were delicious. Even better than all of that, I got to hang out with my buddies Katrina and Amanda, as well as her sweet baby, who was a complete doll as usual.

The knit bloggers were out in full force for this event and they seemed to all sit in the front row, including yours truly. Another highlight of the evening for me was meeting Judy of the "Magic Cast on Fame". I have been reading her blog for ages but have always been too shy to comment. It was wonderful to meet her and learn how very sweet she is in person. Thanks Cindy for the introduction!

So, what could make this event even better? Why Blue Moon Yarn, of course. I won the below skein for producing something "useful but unusual" from my knitting bag. That something was a little candy tin I use to store stitch markers, point protectors and other little gadgets. The colorway is called "County Clare", which I had never heard of. The picture doesn't really show the vibrancy of the mostly green skein. Very nice!

After all of that excitement, it seems like I should have settled in for a nice quiet weekend, but no, there was more fun to be had. On Saturday the little village we live in had its annual celebration. They close off the main street and have an excellent parade. I highly recommend it to anyone in the Portland area. Then they have a street fair with lots of food booths, little games for the kids and other fun things. I could write an entire post about that, but this is already going way too long so I'll save it for next year.

Then, on Sunday, the Husband and I decided we wanted to go out exploring. We do that sometimes, just pile the kids into the car and take off for the afternoon. Even though I've lived in Oregon all of my life, except for a couple of years I'll talk about another time, I never get tired of the beauty that is all around us here.

This time we decided to head up the Columbia Highway and see how far we could go before we needed to turn around. We ended up in Hood River, which is a really nice little town, if a bit trendy these days due to all of the wind surfing. Anyway, while the hubby checked out kayaks down the block, I popped into Knot Another Hat. What a great little yarn shop! As a bonus, Yvonne from Lavender Sheep was working behind the counter that day . I knew she lived in Hood River, but did not know she worked at the shop. I had met her at the Yarn Harlot event in June and recognized her right away. We had a fun chat. What an unexpected treat!

I could not let a trip to such a fine establishment go without a little purchase. I bought the below yarn, which is undyed silk noil in lace weight. These two skeins equal about 1350 yards of silk loveliness. As a bonus, it was really reasonably priced. I like the color it is without dye which the picture actually shows fairly accurately on my screen, kind of an oatmeal color.

Here is the product link on the Knot Another Hat site, in case you are interested and don't plan to go to Hood River any time soon. They have other undyed yarn, as well as some other really great things (like Yvonne's Lavender Sheep yarn).

The rest of the drive to Hood River and home was gorgeous. The girls and I sang lots of silly songs, looked at lots of boats and trains and generally had a fantastic time.

Sadly, you will note that I don't actually have any pictures of all of this crazy fun. I am still new to this blogging thing and can not seem to remember my camera for anything! I will try to be better. I'm sure my kids might appreciate some pictures of all of the fun things we do too!

Wow, it's late. If I can carve some time out tomorrow, I will share one of my little obsessions with you. Sadly, it is not knitting related, but it is fun, at least I think so.