One Small Stitch for Mankind

Because my buddies needed new hats.

2009-10-22T09:31:00.003-04:00

Since the last time I wrote, I've started far too many projects and knit on them and the ones that I already had in progress far too little. But when the weather turned earlier than expected, I found myself with no hats to keep the twins' still mostly hairless little heads warm. Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap to the rescue!

Pattern: Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap by Gro; 131 stitches cast on
Yarn, etc.: Koigu KPPPM; Addi Turbo circular needles (size 2.5mm and 3mm), and Knit Picks double pointed needles (size 3mm)
Mods: Added a couple of extra garter rows in beginning and completed 15 increase/decrease rows instead of the 11 rows the pattern called for; picked up 5 stitches on each side and knitted 10 inches of i-cord for ties

I just love this pattern. Each hat took me only about two days to knit, and really, could they be any cuter? Now to get back to that pile of UFOs...

Not much knitting, and some gardening.

2009-07-20T11:21:00.005-04:00

It's a little sad that I last updated the blog back in April, so here goes. I haven't been getting a lot of knitting done as of late, as the kids have been crawling for a month or so. Most of my days are spent entertaining them, breaking up fights, or chasing after them. By the end of the day when they're in bed, I am completely wiped out. Ergo, not much knitting to show. But I have been working on a few things, off and on. The first is Evelyn Clark's Forget Me Not shawl:

That's about as far along as I am on that. It's a gift for someone with a January birthday, so my goal is to finish it by Christmas or the birthday. It's a fairly easy pattern, so it just requires some time to sit down and devote to it.

The second is a February Lady Sweater for me:

I've just finished the "eyelet increase row" on that one, though I've opted to use a knit front and back increase instead of the eyelets to avoid the holes. In a few more rows, I will separate the sleeves from the body. So far, I love knitting this one.

I have been doing a fair amount of gardening this summer, and this is the first year that I've tried growing tomatoes. In the spring, I bought four heirloom tomato seedlings from Mildred's Daughters Urban Farm in Stanton Heights. Here are two of the plants:

That's Paul Robeson on the left and Pruden's Purple on the right. Dog for scale. Please ignore the terrible grass, we have a dog. Paul was the first plant to bear fruit:

Paul is a "black" variety with a "distinctive smoky flavor". It also seems to be a very prolific producer, with it's many clusters of fruit. I'm excited to see how much it yields in the end.

Pruden's has no actual fruit yet, but we've got lots of flowers that are quite pretty:

Pruden's is a "pink" "potato leaf" variety, and supposedly does quite well in our growing region. All of my plants are organically grown, using natural fertilizers including bone meal and fish emulsion. The dog has an unfortunate habit of trying to eat the dirt after I feed them.

I planted the other two seedlings - Jubilee and Green Zebra - in upside-down planters and am having less luck with those. I thought I would give it a try, but am now convinced that plants need to grow right-side-up! Here's Jubilee:

And Green Zebra:

The plants get morning and evening sun, so I thought they would do great. Jubilee has been a good grower, but has very few flowers on it, so I don't think I'll get much fruit. As you can see, Green Zebra's been kind of a dud so far. Next year, I'll be planting everything the way nature intended!

In addition to the tomatoes, I'm growing my usual herbs:

Front to back, that's French tarragon, rosemary, thyme, oregano and flat-leaf parsley. I've also got two large pots of basil that are living next to the tomatoes. Also next to the tomatoes are peppers:

That's Jupiter on the left and Lady Bell on the right. Here's to a summer of good eating!

380

2009-04-25T09:04:00.005-04:00

The number of lovely, gorgeous nupps on my latest FO:

Pattern: Baltic Blossoms Lace Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark [Raveled]
Yarn, etc.: Dream in Color Baby, colorway "Blue Lagoon"; Knit Picks circular needles (size 5US)
Mods: None

I am utterly, hopelessly in love with this shawl. Does it show? ;)

Hooray for tubes.

2009-03-02T10:30:00.000-05:00

Tubes seem to be just about the only thing that I am able to finish these days. Observe:

Pattern: Plain vanilla socks in a 4x2 rib pattern
Yarn, etc.: Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Silk Color, colorway 0188; Knit Picks double pointed needles (size 1US)

Pattern: Wicked (Worsted Weight Version) by Sarah & Rachel from Zephyr Style
Yarn, etc.: Cascade Yarns 220 Heathers, colorway "Irelande"; Knit Picks circular needles (size 7US)
Mods: No pocket; short sleeves; cast on 4 extra sts under arms and picked up 8 extra sts to enlarge sleeves; knit 2x2 ribbing for waistband instead of seed stitch; used paired increases and decreases for waist shaping

According to my Ravelry project page, I started this sweater in October 2007. Why it took me so long to knit such a simple sweater, I do not know, but I am very glad to have finished it. By the time I hit the waist, I was so over it. I think that a lot of that has to do with the fact that I now only really want to knit with Dream in Color yarns because I love them so much.

Therefore, I have decided to give in to the siren song of the February Lady Sweater, which I will, of course, knit in Classy. SJ, who knitted a gorgeous version of the FLS last summer, was kind enough to let me try hers on for size recently, and I hope to buy the yarn and start my own this week. Here's hoping that I'll be able to make some fast progress on it, even though it's not a tube.

As for Loppem? On the way to the frog pond, I'm afraid.

Cutest. Hat. Ever.

2008-12-14T20:43:00.003-05:00

Pattern: Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap by Gro
Yarn, etc.: Koigu KPPPM, colorway P201; Knit Picks circular needles (size 0US and 1US), and Knit Picks double pointed needles (size 1US)
Mods: Added a couple of extra garter rows in beginning and completed 13 increase/decrease rows instead of the 9 rows the pattern called for; picked up 5 stitches on each side and knitted 10 inches of i-cord for ties

Although I knitted a baby cap for each of the twins already, I've found that they don't really stay on their heads - particularly on Leia's head since she's a squirmer. I intended to pick up stitches on their hats and knit earflaps/chin straps to keep them on, and searched Ravelry for ideas on how to do that. During my search, I came across the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap by Gro on Ravelry, and just had to make it. This will definitely be one of my go-to patterns for baby gift knitting in the future. It was quick to knit, took less than one skein of Koigu and ohmygosh, have you seen how cute it is? Best of all, I think it is baby-approved:

Crazy? Me? Yes, thanks.

2008-11-18T19:01:00.004-05:00

As soon as I saw Norah Gaughan's Loppem, I had to have it. The bummer is that the pattern has a lot of errata, and definitely requires more concentration than I think I can actually muster at present, thanks to the twins. Also, some days, I don't even have the time to bathe. So, what's a girl to do?

I'm not sure what I am thinking, especially since I have many simple projects already on the needles that I haven't touched in months. It's taken me about two days to knit those 15 or so rows that you see there, sneaking in some knitting time between feedings, baths, diaper changes, screaming, etc. I want to wear this thing now, but I'll be lucky if I get it finished before next summer at the rate I'm going. Happily, the husband has agreed to stay at home with the twins tomorrow night so I can spend some quality time with Loppem and the Hurricane Knitters. Hurrah!

Wrapped in knitted love.

2008-11-02T19:45:00.005-05:00

These two wonderful blankets arrived by mail last week, courtesy of the wonderful Hurricane Knitters! From all of us, thank you Amy, Dana, Jenn, Melissa, Sarah and Yvonne. The blankets are beautiful and you guys are the best!

Finished knits, now with finished babies!

2008-10-20T00:24:00.003-04:00

We were overjoyed to welcome our twins, "Luke" and "Leia" (names changed to protect the innocent) on Saturday, October 11, 2008. Leia is the older of the two by one minute and weighed in at an impressive 7 pounds, 4 ounces. Her little brother weighed in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces. Things are crazy around our house as we adjust to being new parents, but the twins are absolutely delightful and we are enjoying every minute (except maybe the sleep deprivation). Blogging and blog reading will be a little spotty for a while, as will knitting unfortunately, but I think it's all worth it. :)

A couple of hats, and a scarf problem.

2008-10-07T18:07:00.004-04:00

So, the babies have decided to stay in and bake a little longer, much to my discomfort. Not wanting to start anything new or difficult, I turned to an old favorite - the one-skein hat pattern from Simply Noro:

Pattern: Hareton by Jane Ellison [Ravelry link]
Yarn, etc.: Noro Kureyon, colorway 134 (top photo) / Noro Silk Garden, colorway 201 (bottom photo); Addi Turbo needles, size US 8 / 5.0 mm
Mods: Cast on an additional four stitches for the Silk Garden hat, knit to seven inches instead of six and a half before starting crown shaping; no mods on Kureyon hat

I think that this must be at least the tenth or eleventh time that I've knit this pattern, and I always find it to be quick and satisfying knit. Also, for whatever reason, just watching the colors change as I knit with Noro never fails to amuse me.

After I finished the hats, I dug out an old UFO:

That's My So Called Scarf, in a particularly gorgeous colorway of Manos. After I took this photo, I ripped it. I just was not happy with how sloppy the edges were looking, so I restarted it, increasing the stitch count and slipping the first stitch of every row. Unfortunately, it still looks sloppy, with big, loose loops on the edges. I love this yarn, but the pattern is driving me crazy. Anyone out there have any ideas on how to neaten up the edges?

Okay, done with the lace for a bit.

2008-09-30T08:39:00.007-04:00

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark [Ravelry link]
Yarn, etc.: Alpaca with a Twist Fino, Silver Belle (0098); KnitPicks Options needles, size US 4 / 3.5 mm
Mods: None

Once I got past the main chart of this shawl, I loved knitting it. For some reason, even though it was the easiest chart in the pattern, it gave me all kinds of trouble and I ended up tinking back many, many times. This was my first time knitting nupps, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Following the advice of others on Ravelry, I kept those yarn overs nice and loose and used sharp needles, and had no problems at all. I'm looking forward to knitting Clark's Baltic Blossoms shawl someday, another one including lots of nupps.

Since I know I could have these babies any day now and I feel like I'm in a holding pattern, I'm going to keep things nice and simple for a while - simple hats and socks, lots of stockinette, practicing my spinning. Also, I still have Wicked on the needles and may actually get back to that soon. When I put it down last, I wanted to rip and rework the waist shaping:

Since I won't be able to try it on for a couple more months at least, perhaps I will put the body on some waste yarn for now and start on the sleeves. Here's hoping that I actually get my waist back at all after the twins are born!

Nupps!

2008-09-23T08:47:00.003-04:00

Though I had originally planned to do some extra repeats of the Swallowtail's main chart to enlarge the shawl, I decided instead to knit the pattern as written in the interest of finishing it sooner so I can give this as a Christmas gift. I figure that lace knitting while trying to take care of two newborns is probably not going to work. I see lots of plain stockinette in my future!

I've made it through the section that includes the nupps, and surprisingly, found that knitting them was much easier than I had expected. I kept my yarn overs very loose and used good pointy needles (Knit Picks Options) and had no problems. I love the way they look and can't wait to see them blocked!

I have two charts with a total of 27 rows to complete to finish the shawl, and while I wish the twins would hurry up and get here already, my fingers are crossed to finish the shawl before finishing the babies. Wish me luck!

February Sweater for him.

2008-09-16T09:07:00.004-04:00

Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles (February) by Elizabeth Zimmermann [Ravelry link]
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash Sport in Lichen (SWS18), purchased at Natural Stitches; buttons purchased at JoAnn Fabrics
Mods: Used kf&b to increase in yoke (k1, kf&b, repeat across) instead of EZ’s suggested m1 to avoid holes; worked yoke to just before the sleeves before switching to stockinette instead of gull lace pattern; worked six buttonholes; knit sleeves in the round instead of flat, after completing the body; worked decreases for sleeves similar to bottom of body (k5, k2tog around)
Recipient: Baby B

Now that the baby sweaters are finished, I think it's high time that I get back to the lace!

Cutest. Sweater. Ever.

2008-09-09T13:55:00.006-04:00

I probably say that all baby sweaters are the cutest sweaters ever, but I seriously mean it this time:

Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles (February) by Elizabeth Zimmermann [Ravelry link]
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash Sport in Cinnamon Twist (SWS197), purchased at Natural Stitches; buttons purchased at Yarns By Design
Mods: Used kf&b to increase in yoke (k1, kf&b, repeat across) instead of EZ’s suggested M1 to avoid holes; worked only two buttonholes; knit sleeves in the round instead of flat, after completing the body; worked decreases for sleeves similar to bottom of body (about every seven sts)
Recipient: Baby A

Despite my trepidation over attempting an EZ pattern for the first time, I enjoyed this one so much that I headed back to Natural Stitches yesterday to pick up some more yarn to make a second February Sweater for Baby B:

For this one, I'll continue the garter section a little further than the pattern calls for, then knit the remainder of the body and sleeves in stockinette rather than the gull lace pattern. I think I'll also work buttonholes for the entire length of the sweater.

I'll probably be continuing to neglect Swallowtail until this sweater is finished. We're not sure if the twins will make an early appearance or not, but I'd like to have the second sweater finished before they arrive, since I know that my knitting time will be drastically reduced when they do. It's hard to believe that I "officially" have less than two months left to go until my due date!

Not a shawl, but still lace.

2008-09-02T16:17:00.003-04:00

I'm taking a little break from Swallowtail in favor of another lace project:

That is, of course, Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Sweater on Two Needles, aka the February Sweater. I've always thought that this sweater was so cute and have always wanted to knit it, but was a little intimidated about trying an EZ "pattern", because I usually require a little more hand holding than she provides. Happily, I really haven't had any trouble with the instructions, and have even deviated from them a bit (I used kf&b for the yoke increases rather than her suggested m1 and am knitting the sleeves in the round instead of flat before the rest of the body). I'm really enjoying this knit, and am looking forward to seeing it on my little girl someday!

I've made a tiny bit of progress on the Swallowtail Shawl, and have now completed 11 repeats of the main chart, the last one using my new Knit Picks chart keeper. As promised, the chart keeper is wonderfully useful and I do love it. I only wish that it had a plastic pocket to slip the chart into, or maybe that the magnets provided were a little stronger, because they don't really hold a folded piece of paper on the keeper very well. No problem, though - the paper can be cut or I could always buy stronger magnets if I wanted to keep the pages with the charts on them intact. In any case, I am looking forward to getting lots more use out of the chart keeper once I resume work on the shawl and for future projects.

Fastest shawl ever? Not so much this time.

2008-08-26T09:20:00.003-04:00

I've made it through only ten repeats of the chart that makes up the main body of the Swallowtail Shawl:

Though the repeats in this chart are shorter than in the Shetland Triangle's main chart (and it's a very easy pattern), I am having a difficult time getting into the groove of this one, and I find myself making lots of mistakes that I have to tink back to fix. The pattern calls for 14 repeats of this chart before moving on to the next one, but I plan to complete five extra repeats for a total of 19 - as many Ravelers have done - for a larger shawl.

Per SJ's recommendation, I've ordered a chart keeper from KnitPicks, and when it arrives, it will hopefully help me keep my rows straight and save me from making so many mistakes. I'm looking forward to knitting those nupps with a sick fascination, so I can't wait to start on the next chart!

Might as well face it. I'm addicted to lace.

2008-08-18T11:22:00.004-04:00

Pattern: Shetland Triangle by Evelyn A. Clark [Ravelry link]
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Cloud Jungle colorway
Mods: Completed 10 repeats of the body chart; final blocked measurements: 55 x 28 inches

I'd like to send a huge shout out to Evelyn Clark for writing such a fabulous pattern. It was well written, easy to follow and enjoyable from start to finish. I know that I'll be making this one again in the future. In fact, I enjoyed this one so much that I did a little searching on Ravelry for Evelyn Clark's other shawl patterns, and into my queue went her Baltic Blossoms Lace Shawl Ravelry link], and her Swallowtail Shawl [Ravelry link]. Both of these shawl patterns include nupps (eeek!), and I'll be starting with the Swallowtail Shawl to try my hand at those for the very first time. I think that my lovely new Dream in Color laceweight will be perfect for the Baltic Blossoms shawl, but for the Swallowtail, I've chosen this gorgeous soft grey Alpaca with a Twist Fino from my stash:

I'm anxious to cast on, but have a list of chores that I need to complete before I can even think of starting, so I'm off to get those finished!

Fastest shawl ever.

2008-08-14T09:49:00.011-04:00

My Interweave book order finally arrived last Wednesday afternoon, just in time to take it with me to Hurricane Knitters and start on the Shetland Triangle. SJ and Yvonne had my back though - they each brought their copy of Wrap Style for me to borrow in case mine had still not arrived! This was my first time following charts, so SJ helped me out with those and the provisional cast on called for in the pattern. I knit several rows of the first chart that night, but once I was more comfortable with the pattern and the chart, I decided to rip and restart the shawl on Thursday so that my stitches would be more even and my provisional cast on would look better. I knit away on the shawl for the past week, and late last night, I finished:

Once I got into it, the pattern was so easy, and this just flew off the needles! Heck, SJ cast on for this (in her own handspun, no less) as her Ravelympics project on Friday and was finished in three days! As usual, knitting with the Dream in Color yarn (Smooshy, Cloud Jungle) was a dream. This is probably my favorite colorway yet and the colors remind me of one of my favorite stones - labradorite:

The shawl is currently in a Eucalan bath for a nice long soak, and blocked photos will be forthcoming. I can't wait to see how it blocks out!

While I was out yesterday afternoon at Whole Foods, I couldn't resist a trip to Natural Stitches, especially after remembering that Melissa mentioned that they had Dream in Color's new laceweight yarn, Baby, in stock. This is one gorgeous ball of Blue Lagoon, all 700 yards of it graciously and perfectly wound by Melissa (thanks again, Melissa!):

I swear that this yarn just takes my breath away. While I was at the shop, I also had to check out what roving they had in stock, and lo, discovered some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Wool Top, which I've admired online several times:

That's about five ounces of superwash Merino wool in their Watercolor colorway, and it's just soft and lovely and delicious. Now I just need to finish spinning that green roving that's been sitting, half spun, on the wheel for ages!

More wee things for the clothesline.

2008-08-05T16:05:00.007-04:00

Pattern: hats - Hareton by Jane Ellison (from Simply Noro) [Ravelry link]; socks - regular sock recipe with 40 stitches cast on
Yarn: hers - Koigu KPPPM (lost the ballband, so I'm not sure of the colorway); his - Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Fingering (Blue Terra Cotta)

The hats and socks coordinate with the sweaters nicely:

And, Yvonne, the hats fit the grapefruits:

I was hoping that by the time I finished the hats and socks, I could start on the Shetland Triangle, but my books have still not arrived from the Interweave Hurt Book Sale. They said to allow up to four weeks to receive the books, and my credit card was just charged on August 1, so it looks like I may be waiting another week at least, depending on how they're shipping the orders. Grr.

While I am waiting on the books, I will be keeping myself busy finishing up some singles that have been sitting on the wheel since January or February:

I haven't spun since then, and I hope I can remember how!

Actual finished objects.

2008-07-28T19:07:00.003-04:00

Pattern: Top Down Raglan Baby Sweater by Carole Barenys [Ravelry link]
Yarn: Dale of Norway Falk, color 4516 (pink) and 5813 (blue), buttons from Parker Button, South Side
Mods: knit button band in seed stitch instead of garter

Sadly, these did not really reignite my love for knitting, as I had originally hoped they would. It would seem that I am still in a knitting slump. That being said, I am continuing to persevere, and have started the first of two hats for the twins in some Koigu that's been lounging in the stash for as long as I can remember (actually, it was the very first Koigu that I ever bought, I think).

If the hats don't do the trick, I am hoping that some lace knitting might. I've long admired the Shetland Triangle pattern from Wrap Style, but after paging through the book several times in the past and finding nothing else of interest to me in it, couldn't justify its purchase just for that pattern. Enter the Interweave Hurt Book Sale. To my delight, I managed to snag a copy of Wrap Style for just $5.49. Assuming that the damage to the book isn't to the pages that contain the Shetland Triangle pattern (and assuming that the book ever gets to me because it seems they have the slowest shipping ever for the sale), I may actually be getting excited about knitting something again!

Experimentation

2008-06-20T21:16:00.006-04:00

Last week, I was watching the show Jamie at Home on the Food Network. The episode was "Peas and Broad Beans." Peas are my favorite vegetable, but I had never tried broad beans, or, as we know them here in the United States, fava beans. I mentioned this to my mother-in-law, who is wonderful and has been doing our grocery shopping for me while I've been house bound following my surgery. She dropped by today, and guess what she brought me?

Fava beans, along with some fresh mint and watercress from her garden! Based on some of the flavors that Jamie Oliver was combining on the show, I set to work on a dinner of pasta with fava beans, mint, watercress and parmesan. First, I shelled the beans, then I blanched them for three to four minutes to cook them and help to remove the tough skins surrounding the beans.

I tossed the pasta with a little bit of butter, some pasta water, salt and pepper and the fresh mint. I added the skinned beans and topped the whole thing with freshly grated parmesan and watercress. Yum!

Since this is a knitting blog, though, I guess I should actually show some knitting! The knitting on the first of the twins' sweaters is finished, but I'm going to wait until both are finished to soak and block them and sew the buttons on.

I had ordered some green yarn for the second sweater, since we weren't sure if the second baby was a girl or not. We had another ultrasound yesterday, and the technician (a different one than at our last ultrasound) also thinks that we have a boy and a girl! Of course, I couldn't resist ordering pink yarn for that second sweater, so I'll be starting on that one once it gets here. Hopefully the technicians are correct! :)

I'm back, babies!

2008-06-11T14:50:00.002-04:00

Whew! Now that was a long hiatus. Really, I haven't been knitting much at all over the past few months, so really, there's been nothing to blog about anyway. I have been busy, however:

I'm 20 weeks pregnant, with twins! I haven't been knitting much, because I was sleeping virtually all of the time that I wasn't working during my first trimester. I know it's scandalous, but in the time that I was awake, I didn't feel like knitting or spinning at all. After my first trimester ended, and I left my job, I was looking forward to getting back into it. Of course, life intervened. I spent last Monday, my very first day off, at the ER with horrible back and abdominal pain. By Thursday, I was admitted to the hospital and was having emergency surgery (thankfully, the babies are okay, as far as we know, and I am well on my way to a full recovery now). What an exciting week!

I did manage to start a small project, though. The first of two sweaters for the twins:

We're fairly sure that one twin is a boy and the other is a girl, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that! The pattern is Carole Barenys' Top Down Baby Sweater (Ravelry link), which hopefully is just the thing to ease me back in to my knitting addiction. The yarn is Falk by Dale of Norway, color 5813. Like so many other Ravelers, I am using seed stitch for the button bands instead of garter. It's slow going so far, but I hope that I'll get back into the swing of knitting soon, because I have lots to do with two on the way!

Adventures in spinning.

2008-01-20T17:01:00.000-05:00

After a few weeks with the wheel, I have two "completed" skeins of yarn (and I use that term loosely).

My first attempt, spun from Mauch Chunky roving and finished a couple of weeks ago, vaguely resembles yarn:

I've been working off and on (more off) on some Ashland Bay Colonial Wool roving since I finished the first yarn. I spun the last of that roving into singles today:

I had some trouble with my yarn tangling while I was plying on the Kromski's built-in kate, so Carol (feistywoman on Ravelry) suggested that I tie a bit of yarn around both of my bobbins at the whorl while they were on the kate, and it helped a lot:

I think that I'll still invest in a proper tensioned kate at some point, but this was a great quick and inexpensive substitute for now. Thanks, Carol!

After plying the singles and skeining, I was left with some pretty unbalanced yarn, so I soaked it, whacked it, and that seemed to help a lot:

The yarn is still not great, but it's definitely looking better. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to practice more! ;)

Even with all of this spinning, I have not forsaken commercial yarns. Let's just say I had a bit of a falling down this weekend:

Natural Stitches recently got in a shipment of Dream in Color Smooshy, and of course I had to go check it out in person. That yarn makes me feel all dizzy. In a good way.

How's that for a slice of fried gold?

2008-01-11T23:06:00.000-05:00

Ahhh. It's Friday night, I have a snoozing dog next to me, and best of all, I am blogging from bed. I've wanted a laptop for a very long time, and about a week ago, I went ahead and ordered one from Dell. I set up the wireless router tonight and now I am happily typing away as I watch Pride and Prejudice (in preparation for this!). I haven't had a chance to really sit down to set up and explore the computer yet, but I have found a use for the built-in webcam that I thought that I would never have a use for:

I can take pictures and video of myself knitting! From bed!

Hopefully now I can more easily steal a couple of moments here and there to keep up to date on all of those knitting blogs that I've recently fallen behind in reading. Yay!

I have been doing a very little bit of spinning as well:

My singles are getting better but are still pretty uneven. I have the wheel set up for double drive right now but if I can figure it out, I intend to set it up for Scotch tension tomorrow and give the whole thing another go.

Now, off to catch up on some blogs!

Let me sum up.

2007-12-31T10:22:00.001-05:00

Whew. It's been such a long time since I last posted, so let me sum up. I do have an actual finished object(s) to share:

Pattern: Fetching by by Cheryl Niamath
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, color 300008
Mods: worked regular bind off instead of picot

These mitts were a Christmas gift for Lori, and doesn't she look just fetching in them? Hurricane Knitters, you will be glad to know that, true to my obsessive-compulsive nature, I had to rip out the first finished mitt and restart them so that the hand opening was bound off more tightly.

Speaking of Christmas, Santa was very good to me this year. I got some new pieces of my favorite cookware, some fabulous new cookbooks, and lots of other beautiful things that are too numerous to list here. We were able to spend time with both sides of our family and had a wonderful, if not exhausting, day all around. I am so lucky!

Why else am I lucky? There's this:

That was wrapped around this(!):

Isn't she just lovely? Thankfully, since I've never spun before, the wheel included a video on how to set up your wheel, and how to start spinning. Note the confused look on my face as I give the wheel a whirl and watch the video:

Oh dear. I think I am going to need some more practice!

Happy birthday to me.

2007-12-10T15:23:00.000-05:00

After driving everyone around me crazy by talking about it for weeks, I went ahead and bought myself a birthday gift. Eeek! No word yet on when it will arrive, but hopefully I'll be spinning by Christmas (or at least trying to). :)

I can knit lace after all!

2007-11-25T13:50:00.000-05:00

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Pierce Lawrence of I'm Knitting as Fast as I Can

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Black Parade, one skein (29 grams left over)

Needles: Knit Picks Options circular needles, size 7

Mods: Knit 13 pattern repeats instead of 10 for a total of 243 sts before beginning border

I never thought I would be able to do it, but I've actually successfully completed a grown-up lace project. The designer is absolutely correct - this is the perfect beginning lace project. I made a couple of errors in the very beginning, and then at the very end (the errors were due to my own laziness in not paying attention, not due to the pattern, which is wonderfully written), but other than those minor stumbles, it was smooth sailing and an enjoyable knit! I'll definitely knit this one again.

In other fiber news, I paid a visit to Pittsburgh's newest yarn shop, Natural Stitches, on Friday. It's a marvelous store - huge and well organized. They have the largest selection of Malabrigo that I've ever seen in a shop, and they carry Dream in Color yarns, and what's not to love about that? I did a little shopping, of course, and brought home these goodies:

Two skeins of Dream in Color Classy (worsted) in "happy forest"

One skein of Malabrigo Lace Baby Merino in "bobby blue"

One skein of Trekking Hand Art in "tundra"

The Trekking has already been wound and cast on for a new pair of socks for Mark.

Wicked is also coming along, after I ripped and restarted the collar. The cables were looking a little wonky, so I re-knit the collar, this time loosely, and now the cables look better, but I am afraid that the collar will be too loose. I'm going to finish the raglan increases and try it on before I decide whether to rip and start again.

Spritzin' and teasin'.

2007-11-20T19:50:00.000-05:00

Mark and I traveled to Long Island for a good friend's wedding this past weekend, and I kept thinking of a movie or television line that had lodged itself in the recesses of my brain — spritzin' and teasin'. I can't for the life of me figure out where that is from, though, and it's killing me. A Google search didn't turn up anything, and if you can tell me what on earth that is from, you win my undying gratitude.

Anyway, on to the knitting, not that there's much to get on with. I started a new traveling sock as we waited for our flight from Pittsburgh to JFK:

As you can see, I didn't get too far. Damn your free television, jetBlue. I drove from JFK to Long Island, and once we got there, we were on the go the entire time since Mark was the best man at the wedding. We had a lot of time to kill on Sunday before our return flight, but I may have maybe had ~~a slight~~ the worst hangover of my life. Damn those three good post-reception martinis. In any case, it was a great time, even if Mark wouldn't let me make a slight detour to East Hampton to stalk the Barefoot Contessa.

The Forest Canopy Shawl is close to complete. I just need to work two more rows of the edging, then bind off. It's been a little neglected, but I hope to finish it tonight and block it in the next couple of days. Thanksgiving is at my house, and we have a couple of committments with friends who are coming in to town for the weekend, so cross your fingers for me to finish it!

Edited to add: My undying gratitude goes to Lori, who reminded me that, in fact, the phrase "spritzin' and teasin'" was repeated to me by her, having been said by her former roommate, who is hilarious and should obviously write for television or movies.

Neglecting the blog.

2007-11-06T22:41:00.000-05:00

Thanks to some hardcore (for us, anyway) DIY re-landscaping that has sucked away our lives for the past few weekends, I have very little knitting to show. But there is this:

I know what you may be thinking, but I wasn't skinning Muppets while I was away from the blog. This is a chemo cap for a friend of a friend of a friend, knit using this pattern in Plymouth Furlauro. I have now filled my quota for knitting with novelty yarns for, oh, the rest of my life. I love the concept of a "hair" chemo cap, but this stuff is seriously a nightmare to work with.

I've worked a row here and there on the FCS as time allows, and am on my 13th repeat of the pattern, which I think will be my last. I'll spare you yet another photo of the big black blob since it looks exactly like the last photo.

I also picked up Wicked tonight and worked a couple of rows. The cables are looking a little wonky to me at this point. Hopefully they will look a little better once there is a little extra length to this section.

Hope to see you Pittsburgh knitters tomorrow at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble for Hurricane Knitters at 7 p.m. My big black blob and I will save a seat for you.

On a parting note, I wanted to share an email that I received a couple of weeks ago from a local knitter named Chelsea, who is knitting for a great cause:

hey, my name is chelsea, and i'm working with a few other local knitters and crocheters to gather scarves for womansplace domestic violence shelter in mckeesport (http://womansplace.org). i know this is a busy time of year, especially craft wise, so not everyone has time to make a scarf to donate (although if you can make time in the next few weeks, we can always use more scarves of course!), but i am hoping that you'd possibly make a blog post, or even just link to our blog for the project, to continue spreading the word a bit. the holidays are coming up quickly, and we're hoping to still get a few more donations from anyone interested, in addition to the knitting we're still doing. this is just a last-minute kind of email to help involve anyone else in the community who might be interested.

if you do want to exchange blog links, or get involved, just email me to let me know that you've linked to us. the knit locally blog is here: http://knitlocally.blogspot.com. i'll be more than happy to link back to you if you want. info is on the blog in case you do want to make a donation of a handmade scarf or supplies, but even just spreading the word is a huge help.

thanks,
chelsea

Ravelry is dangerous.

2007-10-16T06:38:00.000-04:00

Somehow, Wicked has suddenly jumped into my queue. The yarn for it arrived over the weekend ...

... and I look forward to winding it tonight and casting on tonight or tomorrow. After all, I've got to have something that requires less attention than the Forest Canopy Shawl to take to Hurricane Knitters this week!

As far as the FCS goes, I have gotten a little better, and after some ~~humiliation~~* encouragement from Yvonne, I have taken to using only one lifeline after a pattern repeat (and taking the onld ones out) rather than lifelining after every repeat. It still looks like a big black blob:

Hope to see you all at Hurricane Knitters this Wednesday, 7-10 p.m. at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble!

* I should clarify: Yvonne's "humiliation" was more good-natured teasing than anything else :)

What to do now?

2007-10-07T21:52:00.000-04:00

I worked on Lady Eleanor for so long that I wasn't quite sure what to do when she was finished! Luckily, some friends of ours had a baby boy just a month ago, so I stitched these up to send to them:

I always forget how great baby socks are to knit. They are so quick (even for me!), and they are absolutely precious. This pair was knit up using my regular recipe with 40 sts cast on. The yarn is leftover Claudia's Hand Painted in the "walk in the woods" colorway.

With the socks finished, it was time to start in earnest on the Forest Canopy Shawl. I cast on and completed the set up rows last Wednesday with no problem, then made the mistake of taking it with me to last week's Hurricane Knitters. I was chatting away as I worked on the first pattern repeat and, of course, screwed up right away. Since I wasn't very far along, I ripped out the whole thing today and restarted:

I thought it wise to use lifelines as I knit this one. It's probably overkill to use them after every pattern repeat (as you can see here), but this is me we're talking about. So far, so good, although I needed silence to work on this today. I hope that, in time, I will actually be able to watch television while I knit this, but so far, it doesn't seem likely!

I can stop any time I want...

2007-09-30T15:00:00.000-04:00

Pattern: Lady Eleanor, by Kathleen Power Johnson (Scarf Style)
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, colorway 203, 12 full balls and a little bit of a 13th ball
Mods: Knit to a longer length than called for in the pattern (approx. 95 inches long), did not work crocheted edge, did not fringe

I love, love, love this stole. I just never got tired of the pattern, and I never got tired of the yarn or the colorway. I had originally intended to work the crocheted edge but leave off the fringe, but after I washed and dried it, I decided that it didn't need the crocheted edge either. I didn't stretch it to block it, just laid it flat, smoothed it out and left it to dry. The post-wash fabric has a wonderful drape and is so soft.

I finished Lady E in time to wear her yesterday, when Mark and I took a little road trip to one of our favorite local wineries to celebrate our anniversary (10/01):

Since we were so close, Mark suggested that we make a stop at Kathy Zimmerman's shop — Kathy's Kreations — in Ligonier. As an anniversary gift, he bought me a copy of The Opinionated Knitter, a skein of Colinette Jitterbug and some dpn point protectors that I'd been meaning to pick up. I'm a lucky girl!

Lesson learned.

2007-09-11T21:37:00.000-04:00

I'm calling these my "England socks" since they were started in May while sitting in London's King's Cross Station as Mark and I waited for a train to take us to York. I knit on them very little while we were actually in England, and when we got back, I put them down for a long time, only picking them up long enough to knit a couple of rows here and there. The yarn is Colinette's Jitterbug in the "toscana" colorway, and it amuses me to no end that this yarn that was manufactured in the UK and shipped to the US traveled back to the UK and then back to the US with me.

This is my regular plain vanilla sock pattern, but with a slightly longer leg that I would normally knit. Since I have relatively short feet, the yardage commonly found in most sock yarns is not usually an issue for me. But when I got to the toe of the second sock of this pair, it became clear that I might not have enough yarn to finish. In desperation, I weighed the completed sock and the sock-in-progress to see if I'd make it. I checked the shop I bought the yarn from for more (no dice) and finally resorted to cutting off all of my cast-on tails and grafting them to the working yarn to try to finish. Also no dice. I would say that I ended up just a few feet short of what I needed to finish, so instead of trying to locate more online, I just subbed some completely non-matching Claudia's leftovers that I had lying around. See the blue toe?

Oh well. They are still comfortable, and no one will be the wiser when my shoes are on. Next time, though, I will pay more attention to my yardage!

The Lady at 72 inches.

2007-09-03T21:41:00.000-04:00

She's about 72 inches long (stretched a bit but unblocked) and I'd say that I am about halfway through the tenth ball of yarn. I'm still not sure when I will stop. I just keep wrapping it around myself, and I figure that I will quit knitting when the length feels "right" (or when I run out of yarn, whichever comes first).

See yinz Hurricane Knitters this Wednesday (7 p.m.) at Barnes & Noble at the Waterworks!

Show and tell.

2007-08-27T18:37:00.000-04:00

Since I've made no real progress on Lady E as of late, today will be for show and tell. A few weeks back, Yarns By Design held a sale in honor of their first anniversary. Even though I needed to buy yarn like I need a hole in my head, I was there with bells on as soon as the shop opened and procured the following:

Four of thirteen balls of Noro Silk Garden in colorway 84

One skein of Alpaca With a Twist Fino in color 98

The Fino is a laceweight yarn, bought in a fit of optimism. Fresh off of my dubious success with the lace pattern of the Dream in Color Shrug, I was emboldened to try another lace project (and have you seen how pretty that Fino is?). It was only after the purchase and talking to some other knitters that I realized that I should probably crawl with some heavier weight yarn before running with a true laceweight one.

Since I surely did love that Dream in Color yarn and had been wanting to try their fingering weight version (Smooshy), I did a little digging on Flickr and found this lovely completed version of the Forest Canopy Shawl. I am armed with the pattern (which the designer swears is perfect for beginning lace knitters), and the yarn arrived today:

Dream in Color Smooshy, colorway "Black Parade"

Though I want to cast on for the shawl right now, I am not allowing myself to do it before I complete Lady E, or else I will never finish her. I guess I'd better get to it!

In other knitting news, my Jitterbug socks are coming along slowly as I sneak in a row here and there when I can get a seat on the bus:

I might have them finished by the time that it's cold enough to wear them!

Thar she grows.

2007-08-14T21:40:00.000-04:00

I'm still not getting anywhere fast, but I have made some progress on the lady:

We'll be at the third Wednesday meeting of the Hurricane Knitters tomorrow at Barnes & Noble at the Waterworks (7pm). Hope to see you (and 40 guy) there!

Pitiful progress.

2007-07-30T06:15:00.000-04:00

I last posted progress on Lady Eleanor back in April, before being distracted by home renovations, vacations, lovely shrugs, etc. A refresher:

I've knit on it a bit here and there over the past few months, but when I compared the new progress shot with the old, I realized just how little I'd actually gotten accomplished:

Huh. I guess I will buckle down and attempt to finish this thing so that I can wear it when autumn rolls around.

Lady E and I will be there for the first ever first Wednesday meeting of the Hurricane Knitters this week. If you're in the Pittsburgh area and would like to join us for knitting, crocheting, conversation and 40 guy spotting, we will be in the Waterworks Barnes & Noble cafe from 7-10 p.m. Hope to see some new faces there!

No knitting here.

2007-07-22T22:19:00.000-04:00

Instead of knitting, I made other stuff today.

I've had the itch to make myself another beaded necklace, so on Saturday, I made a trip to Crystal Bead Bazaar in Lawrenceville. I've always kind of wanted a turquoise necklace, but since turquoise can be pretty pricey, could never justify buying one. After seeing a couple of necklaces that I liked recently, I decided to take the plunge and make my own. The wonderful Pam at Crystal Bead Bazaar helped me to select some decent and reasonably-priced turquoise, some silk beading cord and a lovely sterling sliver box clasp, and even gave me a little refresher lesson on pearl knotting. After a couple of hours' work today, I had a finished necklace:

I am not the most even knotter, but I am still very happy with the necklace and know I'll enjoy wearing it for years to come. Thanks, Pam!

After watching my favorite Food Network program yesterday, I also decided to do a little baking today:

Two pounds of chocolate plus one pound of butter equals some very yummy brownies. My goodness, I just love that woman's recipes.

Before devouring the brownies for dessert, I made a chicken and caramelized onion pizza for dinner:

What a delicious day!

Voilà!

2007-07-15T19:55:00.000-04:00

Pattern: Dream in Color Shrug
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy, "deep sea flower" colorway, 2 skeins
Mods: My finished shrug was about 6 inches longer than the pattern called for (some of that length is probably due to the fact that I did not block it before seaming), so I seamed the arms about 3 inches further than the pattern called for, trying it on as I went.

I haven't actually finished anything in a long time (or been in the mood to knit), so it felt really good to complete this shrug. It was a very easy knit once I got more comfortable with the lace. Who knows, maybe a lace shawl is in my future, after all! The yarn is fantastic, and I am definitely planning to check out the fingering weight version for some socks.

Fresh off my finishing high, I picked up the traveling sock again and actually knit at lunch for the first time in a long time:

This Wednesday, the sock and I will travel to Barnes & Noble at the Waterworks (7-10 p.m.) for some quality knitting time with 40 guy. Jenn made us an excellent button so that we could all represent on our blogs:

Won't you join us?

Not quite good with the lace yet, but getting there.

2007-07-09T21:30:00.000-04:00

Thank you to Jenn and Carrie for suggesting the use of a lifeline while working the lace portion of the Dream in Color shrug. Brazenly (or stupidly), I did not bother to put in a lifeline as I braved the rest of the lace. Luckily for me, I did finally get the hang of it, and this is the first time I've ever been able to finish patterned lace knitting without some sort of major cock-up that necessitated my ripping out the entire thing and restarting seven or eight times.

I have about 1-2 inches of ribbing left to go on the second cuff, then I just need to seam the sleeves and pick up and knit the stitches around the body. Hopefully I have enough yarn to finish the job!

I'm not so good with the lace.

2007-07-01T21:34:00.000-04:00

I don't know what it is, but I am lace-impaired. I managed to finish two repeats of the pattern on the Dream in Color shrug, but boy, oh boy, it was slow going:

Many rows were tinked and re-knit to get to this point.

Only seven more repeats to go!

I know that I am late to the Flickr game, but I created an account to save some of my photographic experimentations. We took the Lensbaby out for a spin this Saturday. I am still learning how to use it, and it takes me dozens of shots to get just one keeper. I am looking forward to lots more practice time, and hopefully I will get better at using it than I've proven to be at lace knitting!

Infatuation.

2007-06-23T09:02:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that I don't have the time to work on the projects that I have already started, and that I have enough yarn to keep me busy for an indeterminate amount of time, I have become infatuated with a new pattern.

Earlier this week, I was cruising the blogosphere (something that I wish I had more time to do), and I came across Dani's completed Dream in Color shrug. I was posessed by an urgent need to have this shrug right now. I found Knitter's Palette, a shop online that carries the yarn, and ordered the pattern and the yarn in the "Deep Seaflower" colorway. I didn't realize until later that the Tulip Baby Sweater, possibly the cutest baby sweater pattern ever and now incredibly popular thanks to the Yarn Harlot, is knit with the same yarn called for in the shrug pattern, making the yarn slightly difficult to come by (Deep Seaflower, though gorgeous, was not my first choice). The yarn arrived a couple of days later (Knitter's Palette rocks the super-fast shipping), this morning I made yarn cake, and I am all ready to go:

I am looking forward to getting started, but my attention is being pulled away with another new toy that arrived this week. Here's one of my first successful shots with the new baby:

Thanks for all of your nice comments about our vacation photos! We took two cameras with us and came home with 4000-5000 shots. Below are just a few of my favorites.

The city of York as viewed from the top of the tower of Yorkminster

Lambs playing in a pasture next to Derwentwater in Keswick

Castlerigg stone circle

St. Ives

The inside of Canterbury Cathedral, looking up at the tower

Long time, no see.

2007-06-11T18:34:00.001-04:00

We are back from the UK, which makes me very sad indeed. Though I packed yarn enough for two pairs of socks, I hardly knit at all! I had every good intention of coming back with at least one finished sock, but by the end of our days on vacation, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep straight away, or after reading a bit. Though I did not knit much, I did manage to finish a couple of good books.

However, I did bring back photographic evidence that I did knit a little. Here I am knitting in the train station in York, England:

And on the train ride to Keswick, England:

Where they had lots of these:

And where I knit in a sheep pasture, with the sheep, along Derwentwater:

We had a fabulous time, though I must say that I am having a difficult time getting back into the swing of things here at home. I'm back at work, of course, and we're slowly getting the house back in order, and ready for summer. I am looking forward to getting back into the knitting swing of things next week when the Hurricane Knitters meet at Barnes & Noble!

What to pack?

2007-05-10T21:30:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't get any yarn shop recommendations, so I guess I will just have to find my own! A lot of the places that we will be going are small-ish towns, so I am not holding my breath to run across many, but I have already found one in York via Google. Again, I will be very close to Rowan Yarns, but without a car, I don't think I will make it there.

So...what to pack? It has to be small and portable (i.e., socks). I was all set to take my new and lovely Yarntini yarn with me, but I am still unsure of what pattern to use for either skein. Since I may be picking these up and putting them down a lot (or not at all), the pattern has to be super simple - basic socks it is. Fellow knitter Melissa mentioned that Knit One had lots of Koigu in stock, and that sounded like just the ticket.

I went to Knit One, and proceeded to locate the Koigu. Before I could get there, though, I spotted this and it was love at first sight:

That's Colinette Jitterbug in the Toscana colorway. A yarn from the UK - what could be more perfect?! Of course, I could not leave without some Koigu (they had a great selection), just in case the Jitterbug was a pool-y mess on me while on the road (and also because I cannot resist it).

This will be my last post before I go, so I will see you all in two or three weeks. I'll miss the third Wednesday knit night at Barnes and Noble - everyone say hi to 40 guy for me!

Before and after, and some traveling.

2007-04-29T22:00:00.000-04:00

Ding dong the floors are done. I am still dusting, but it is totally worth it. I didn't think to take before and after shots until we'd already started to move everything out of the room, but here was my living room before:

and after:

They are everything that I thought they would be and I just love them. Now I am just going to have to knit more socks to keep my feet warm on the floors!

Speaking of, I finished the birthday gift socks just in time to give them to my mom today:

That's me modeling — not my mom — right before I washed and dried them and wrapped them up. The Regia Bamboo washes very nicely, and gets even softer after the wash. I think she liked them!

Now that I have the floors (or, big spring thing #1) out of the way, I have begun to freak out about big spring thing #2 — vacation! Mark and I leave for the UK in just two weeks, and I am so not ready. Most of our travel arrangements are made, but I need to get everything in order and shop for some new traveling clothes since I've, er, grown out of my old stuff. The clothes are a tricky situation since we'll be away for two weeks and will be traveling to multiple towns. Our checked baggage limit is also fairly limited at 65 pounds (my suitcase alone weighs 15), which is probably a good thing considering we'll be schlepping those bags around a lot.

My Google Analytics tells me that I have, on occasion, a couple of readers from the UK, so I am now going to solicit some yarn shop recommendations. We will be staying and/or making day trips to the following towns: York, Masham, Durham, Stirling, Doune, Keswick, Penzance, Canterbury and Dover. Can anyone recommend any yarn shops in those places? We'll definitely try to make it to the Lakeland Sheep and Wool Centre if we can figure out how to get there without a car! Suggestions? Anyone?

Not feeling it.

2007-04-11T21:19:00.000-04:00

Have you ever, you know, not been feeling it? Your knitting, I mean.

Here's the situation. I've been trying to get a new pair of traveling socks going, but every time I start a pair, I'm just not feeling it. A couple of months ago, I started these:

with the Koigu that just insisted on pooling. I tried a different pattern than my normal plain sock pattern, and for a while, I was infatuated by that Jaywalker. Alas, by the time I got to the toe, the infatuation was lost, and so was my interest. I'll make the mate to that sock. Someday.

I yearned to go back to my plain socks, so I tried casting on with some yarn from the stash - a bright and cheery Trekking XXL. I didn't even get past the cuff ribbing before I lost interest.

Despite the fact that I have a good amount of sock yarn in the stash that I remain absolutely in love with, nothing was calling to me. I thought that maybe I needed to knit with some new and exciting yarn - squishy, woolly and lovely yarn, and bought this Claudia's that had been calling my name for some time.

Jenn and I once had a conversation about how we insist on buying variegated yarn, only to be disappointed with the pooling or diagonal striping (and yet we keep buying it). I'm not sure what I thought was going to happen with this yarn, but just look at those big, fat, spooling stripes. Sigh. I think this yarn maybe needs a different pattern.

I started feeling a little down on sock knitting. Would I ever knit another satisfying pair of socks? I tried the "buy new and exciting yarn" tactic again, and although there is some pooling/striping going on, this yarn has held my interest so far:

By the way, that's Regia bamboo sock yarn from Yarns By Design. I'm trying to have these finished to be a birthday gift before the end of April, so wish me luck!

To further complicate matters as far as knitting time goes, I'll be losing my weekend to prepare for some upcoming housework. We're having new wood floors installed next week, so with any luck, by the end of the month there will be a finished sock photo with me sliding across our new carpet-less floors à la Risky Business. Kidding.

And to close tonight, the obligatory Lady E progress shot:

I met the Harlot! Or...how I was struck dumb in the presence of knitterly greatness.

2007-03-31T11:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, the Yarn Harlot visited Pittsburgh. She wrote about our fair city on her blog, and said the nicest things.

I waited in anticipation all day for 5 o'clock to arrive, and when it did, I left work and promptly got stuck in the worst traffic. No worries, though. The lovely SJ and her fiance, J, had arrived early and had saved a seat for me. And what a seat - front row!

As we waited for the Harlot to speak, everyone in the audience compared projects, petted yarn, and had a good old time. I knitted on my new traveling sock:

Before long, she was introduced:

She talked about the muggles, and how knitters are underestimated. It was a great, and hilarious talk.

After her talk, there was a signing. SJ and I waited in line (with the ever-patient J), and chatted with Cheryl and Yvonne, who were right behind us. Finally, it was my turn. I wanted to tell Stephanie how much I loved her Bohus. I wanted to tell her how much her posts about renovating her bedroom made me laugh, and how I thought she was superwoman for doing it herself (we're having a new wood floor installed in April, and I laughed at her description of the dust, knowing what I was in for then). I wanted to tell her lots of things, but I was struck utterly dumb. I'm not sure what I said to her, but I am certain that it was neither coherent or intelligent.

Stephanie, if you ever read this, know that I think your knitting is amazing and inspirational, and that what you've been able to accomplish with your writing is phenomenal. Thank you for representing for knitters everywhere. And thanks for making me laugh every time I read your blog. You rock.

Edited 04/01/07 at 10:15pm: Here's proof that I may have said something funny (unless she was, um, humoring me). Thanks for the photo, SJ!

How cool is this?

2007-03-18T20:50:00.000-04:00

Several months ago, Mark requested another pair of socks. A pair of red socks. Because he has another pair of them that are holding up really well, and he likes the feel of the yarn, I tried first with some KnitPicks Sock Memories in the colorway Redwood Forest. That yarn just pooled like the dickins, and wasn't half as pretty in person as it was on the KnitPicks website, I thought. I poke in on Jessie's blog and her online shop, A Piece of Vermont, from time to time. I'd never placed an order before, but her colors are beautiful and the yardage in her skeins is amazing, so I looked there and found this lovely yarn, in a colorway Jessie calls Lipstick:

You can't really tell from the photo, but the yarn has some spots of lighter red/pink in it, so the husband vetoed it (more for me!).

A couple of weeks passed, and I looked at several different yarns that I liked. There was Koigu, but the yardage in two skeins just wouldn't be enough for his size 12 feet. Lorna's doesn't appear to make a true red. Ditto for Claudia's.

One day, when looking for other people who'd knitted Lady E in Silk Garden 203, I came across this amazing knitter and her blog. I spent probably an hour or more perusing her blog. Her knits are gorgeous, and everything she knits looks fabulous on her - she should be a knitwear model!

In the process of perusing, I noticed these socks, and I absolutely fell in love with the colorway, from Yarntini. So, I check out Yarntini's web site, and notice colorways called Three Rivers, Steel City, etc., and realize that this person must be in Pittsburgh! I emailed and asked about the colorways, and Jessie at Yarntini told me that she could do a special order for the yarn. I placed my order, and then a light goes off in my head. I asked her if she would custom-dye a man-approved red, and she did!

A color just for Mark! Well, not really just for Mark. Apparently Jessie was pleased with it and dyed a bunch of skeins, which appear to have sold like hotcakes at her Etsy shop. Thanks, Jessie - the husband loves it!!

Lady E is cruising along. We both hope to see you Pittsburgh knitters this Wednesday at the Waterworks Barnes and Noble for knitting night. We start around 7 - see you there!

Oh. My. Goodness.

2007-03-11T22:10:00.000-04:00

Can you believe these colors? I think that I spend as much time marvelling at the colors as I do knitting on the thing.

Wednesday night knitting reminder

2007-02-18T21:18:00.000-05:00

This is just a reminder that there is a knitting night this Wednesday, February 21 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble in Pittsburgh. If you're new and/or have any questions, feel free to email me at jennylrae(at)juno(dot)com. My slowly-growing Lady Eleanor and I hope to see you there!

Progress.

2007-02-13T21:32:00.000-05:00

I know that it might be a novel concept here at OSSFM, but I actually have some progress shots!

Um, I know that it doesn't really look like I have made any or much progress on Lady E, but I promise you that I have. I originally cast on for one more rectangle than the pattern called for, thinking I would make up the width that way for using a finer weight yarn. After I'd finished two tiers, I looked at it and, not only was it wiiiide, there seemed to be no chance that I would actually be able to finish the thing in my lifetime. So, I ripped and cast on for the recommended number of rectangles. I'm three and a half (a little further than the photo shows) tiers in, and it's looking like it will be plenty wide, at somewhere around 20 inches, not accounting for any extra width from blocking.

Also, there's this:

Now I understand why so many people have made multiple pairs of these. So easy and so satisfying!

Out of the pool.

2007-02-05T06:24:00.000-05:00

Since I just couldn't prevent those Koigu socks from pooling, Stella took the yarn away from me and gave it a try:

She asked, "What was your problem with this yarn? It didn't pool for me." Stupid, know-it-all dog. She just tried a different pattern, and lo and behold, the pooling has ceased. Smartypants. I'm not sure if I like the quasi-striping, but we'll see how it goes. When I told her that I could take it from here and tried to take the sock from her, she slapped her giant paw right over it:

Geez, talk about being posessive.

While she was at it, she also started Lady E for me:

It doesn't look like much yet, but hopefully it will make for a pretty photo soon. As soon as Stella gets to work, that is.

The yarn is out to get me.

2007-01-25T20:57:00.000-05:00

I started the Mark's new socks out of the new Knit Picks Sock Memories, and that sucker started pooling on me right away. I stupidly knit away for a while, thinking it would just take a couple more rows to variegate or at least stripe nicely, but no dice. The last time this happened, I started over with the other end of the ball, and it worked! Naturally, I thought it would work again, and naturally, I was wrong:

This yarn is a no-go. Perhaps it will be very happy someday as a baby garment, but alas, not as socks.

The good news for me is that I love the new Knit Picks DPNs. My only possible complaint is that they're pretty heavy, which makes it hard to juggle them until you get about an inch of knitting on them. The points are very sharp and they are slick, slick, slick - perfect for a tight knitter like me. I was so excited about them, that I decided to start on my mom's birthday socks. Her birthday's in May, but I suck, so I figured I'd get a headstart. I had some Koigu that I was trying to make up into a cable pattern before deciding that the beautiful yarn was just way too busy for cables:

I ripped and started over, planning to do a 1x1 cuff, switching to 3x1 ribbing for the leg. Don't you know that the damn thing started pooling on me?

I may be stupid, but, as you can see, I'm trying the starting from the other end of the ball trick again. It's too early to tell if it'll pool, but I am hoping that will be a no.

Now for some yarn that is not out to get me - at least, not yet:

That gorgeous pile (Silk Garden 203 - made possible by Mark through a generous gift certificate for Yarns By Design) is destined to be a Lady Eleanor. I never really had much inclination to try entrelac, until I saw SJ's gorgeous finished Lady E. SJ - I may need to solicit your assistance on this one!

Thanks to all of you for your nice comments on the last socks. Lis - you should totally join us next time! Are you reeeaally far? Brooke, I hope that Knitty tutorial helped out. And, Amanda, I was totally hanging from an I-beam a la Krazy Glue.

First 40 sighting of the new year.

2007-01-18T21:17:00.000-05:00

I worried that I was too obvious with my 40 snapping last night (people were staring), so, as cover, I quickly snapped a shot of the girls like I was taking photos of everything:

Obvious? Nah, not me.

But wait! I actually finished something! Behold:

Those are some plain vanilla socks, knit with Claudia's Hand Painted Yarn in the "Walk in the Woods" colorway. Regular sock recipe with 1.5 inches of 2x2 ribbing at the cuff and stockinette for the rest. I used Brittany birch DPNs for these. I love Brittanys, but at 5 inches, these were just an inch too short for knitting adult socks, in my knitting opinion (but they'll be great for baby socks). I think that Brittany only makes 5 and 7 inch needles, and I find 7s to be a bit too long. Oh well, the search for the perfect DPNs continues.

Speaking of, I am hoping that my new needles may be the ones. Mark has made a request for some red socks, so I ordered some Knit Picks Sock Memories in Redwood Forest. You know that you can't spend under $40 there (very smart, that free shipping limit), so I thought I would try their DPNs, which look promisingly like my beloved Addis, but with much sharper points:

I can't wait to try them out!

Finished stuff!

2006-12-19T22:30:00.000-05:00

Well, well. Actually, some knitting to show for a change. Here are the recent fruits of my labor:

Here's the first in the latest pair of traveling socks, knit in Claudia's Handpaint, Walk in the Woods colorway. Seriously, I should have known better than this. Every morning, Stella looks for a sock to run off with. Sometimes she just carries them around, and sometimes she chews them mercilessly. So it's no surprise that this happened next:

I know that some of you out there may have passed out or gasped, but I assure you that she was completely supervised during this photo shoot and no socks were harmed in the taking of these photos.

Then there's this:

This is the aforementioned boring knitting. It's a garter stitch scarf for my nephew, knit in Katia Nepal. I don't remember which colorway, and I am so sick of looking at this yarn that I honestly don't want to bother checking.

Then there's the current love of my knitting life:

This is the Manos, which is on its way to becoming My So-Called Scarf. I'm knitting it on straights for a change, so it's not portable, and I maybe only get to knit a couple rows every few days on it, but the yarn is so, so lucious.

I'll be bringing the scarf tomorrow night to Waterworks knitting (Barnes & Noble, 7 p.m.). I'm hoping to see lots of Pittsburgh knitters there. Maybe the bloggers can even explain to me what this "new" blogger nonsense is? See you there!

Momentarily coming out of the woodwork...

2006-12-05T22:37:00.000-05:00

So, I haven't had much time to blog lately, and in the time that I have had I just haven't felt like it. I am in a slump. A blogging slump.

I've been knitting a bit, but not as much as usual. My bus has been so crowded lately that I normally end up standing for the duration of the ride, leaving me unable to knit, and work's been crazy busy, so I haven't been knitting at lunchtime either, preferring to work through so I can actually get out of there on time. I'm afraid that no one suffers, save the traveling sock. I may have the first of the current pair done sometime before the end of 2007 at the rate I'm going.

At home, between lots of walks and obedience classes, I've been working on some painfully boring Christmas knitting, which is too boring even to photograph. I am sneaking in some progress on a project that I am hopelessly in love with though. It's all about the Manos, which I could not resist picking up at Kathy Zimmerman's on our latest trip to Ligonier. A sneak peek:

I hope that all of you out there in blogland are well. I miss reading your blogs and am looking forward to catching up on all of your knitting endeavors once the slump has passed!

Meet our other new best friend.

2006-11-07T06:45:00.000-05:00

No joke, Amanda, I read your comment right after we brought this lovely vaccuum home. Trust me, you weren't the first person to advise us to get a Dyson. We'd been wanting one for a long time (in fact, we'd registered for one for our wedding but didn't get it then), and we finally decided that we had an excuse to get one :)

Here are the details. Stella is a one-year old German shepherd/chow mix, according to the Western PA Humane Society, which is where we adopted her from. I personally think she is a little more "Heinz 57" (57 varieties) than that, though. She suffers from a little separation anxiety, but we're working on it. She's been just wonderful! Thank you all for your comments - we just love her!

Not much time to knit as of late, but I promise I'll actually have something knitting related in this space soon!

Welcome to the family.

2006-10-31T11:49:00.000-05:00

Meet Stella, the newest addition to our family. Sadly, this dog has a lot of fur and probably won't need handknits - not like that will stop me.

Scenes from Wednesday night knitting.

2006-10-18T22:34:00.000-04:00

Again, the quality is bad with the camera phone, but here are some photos from knitting tonight:

That's the new sock, but not the actual color, which is more blue, not purple. The yarn is Claudia's Handpaint, "Walk in the Woods" colorway. The needles are Brittany birches, which I am loving except for the shortness. I like short needles and all, but these are sort of ridiculous at 5 inches. Unfortunately, they do not make 6 inch needles like my beloved metal Inoxes, so I may spring for the 7s, and then complain here about them being too long.

According to Jenn, the pig-walker walked by before I arrived at B&N, but SJ and I got there in time to see our buddy, 40 guy:

firefly and Montana - thanks for stopping by and for the nice comments! Oh, and you, too, carrie and SJ! firefly - have a great time at Belhurst and enjoy the wineries and the weather! FYI, Finger Lakes Fibers is in Watkins Glen :)

Back to the grind.

2006-10-08T17:21:00.000-04:00

We're back from the Finger Lakes, and our trip was amazing. We had perfect weather, the wineries were great, we saw some gorgeous waterfalls, and our inn exceeded my wildest expectations. Mark was kind enough to take a photo of me modeling my new socks along the shore of Cayuga Lake:

So, Mark and I have been to the Finger Lakes several times, but I never knew that Interlaken, NY, in the heart of the Finger Lakes, was the home of Schaefer Yarn. We've probably driven past it a dozen times. As we were driving through one of the lake towns, I spotted a yarn shop called Finger Lakes Fibers. Mark was good enough to indulge me so that I could check it out:

The shop owner had labeled all of the local fiber and yarn as such, and I spotted the mass quantities of Schaefer Yarns with the local tags:

I had a nice chat with the owner about the yarns, and left with a pretty little skein of Anne that caught my eye as soon as we walked in:

Other than that, I am just tickled pink that it is finally autumn. I look forward to these few months all year long. Knitting-wise, the only thing that I have going at the moment is (another) Noro hat. I'm still plotting my next project, but the odds are currently in Anne's favor. Mark and I will be traveling again over the upcoming weekend—to a friend's wedding in New Haven, CT, so I am going to need to have some good car knitting on the needles for that long drive!

Knitting, 09/20/06

2006-09-25T06:36:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I am a little late with this, but time's been short lately. Met with SJ and Jenn at Barnes and Noble last Wednesday and had a great time, as always. Here's a photo of my sock and Jenn's sock relaxing with our sheep measuring tapes:

sorry for the phone-camera photo - it's all I had

40 guy did show up, sans 40! Don't know what was up with that. I got there late and SJ and Jenn said I'd missed the pig-walker too. I miss all the good stuff these days.

As you can probably see, the second Koigu sock is pretty close to completion. I should have it to wear when Mark and I go away to the Finger Lakes (NY) to celebrate our anniversary this weekend. Bring on the crisp fall weather!

Fetching

2006-09-17T21:54:00.000-04:00

Pattern: Fetching

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, Color 012, 1 skein

Mods: none

Haven't felt much like blogging lately, but still trying to catch up on my blog reading when possible, and, of course, I am knitting. I'll see you local knitters on Tuesday (Yarns By Design) and Wednesday (Barnes and Noble) this week. Looking forward to seeing/hearing what you are up to!

To the frog pond!

2006-09-07T22:32:00.000-04:00

The second Koigu traveling sock, approx. 1:30 p.m., Sept. 6:

Cuff finished. Still pooling. I mentioned my pooling woes to Lori, and she said that she didn't know what would help, except maybe for frogging and re-starting from the other end of the skein. A light went off. You know, it hadn't even occurred to me to try that, even though I was so displeased with the pooling. I had chalked it up to the Koigu being a handpaint, and that the two socks would be different, but still pretty and warm and comfy, blah blah blah. I was not fooling myself. The pooling was killing me. Subtle differences are good, but the radical difference between the socks, not so much. (Sorry, Rebekah!)

The second Koigu traveling sock, approx. 1:30 p.m., Sept. 7:

Much better! Lori, you're a genius!

So yes, I would prefer not to initiate conversation with 40 guy, and being overly practical and too slow a knitter to devote time and yarn to knitting a useless object, the 40 cosy is a no-go. Just the thought of it is hilarious, though, and will give me a smile every time I think of it!

An idea.

2006-08-31T20:41:00.000-04:00

Here's what is going on around these parts:

The husband is enjoying a new hat:

The second of the Koigu traveling socks is doing some sort of very weird pooling/striping thing:

So. Here's the idea. A local knitter has read my blog posts about 40 guy and has made a suggestion. She thinks I should knit him a 40 cosy. She has even suggested a pattern. But here's the thing. I think that 40 guy might be just a little crazy, and I am not sure that I would be comfortable presenting him with a gift, and thus, initiating conversation. After all, this is a person that deems it entirely acceptable (and presumably normal) to BYOB to the Barnes and Noble Cafe. Thoughts?

Halfsies

2006-08-23T22:10:00.000-04:00

That's one half of the pair of Koigu traveling socks, and one half of Fetching. Boy, I can't wait for autumn.

Seriously.

2006-08-16T22:48:00.000-04:00

Didn't I say last month that we are fun? Tonight was the Barnes & Noble knit night. What fun stuff was there this week? Well, there was a guy walking a pig:

and 40 guy was back! First, he set the 40 down at one table while he browsed the books:

Then he moved the 40 before going off to browse some more:

One of us (not me) was brave enough to peek in the top of the bag to learn what 40 guy's favorite brand was, and it would seem that he favors Hurricane. Clearly, a man of refined taste.

Also, we made a new friend. Marsha (sorry if I have the spelling wrong!), who is a knitter, joined us for some lovely conversation. We hope you'll join us again, Marsha, and bring your current shawl-in-progress for us to ooh and aah over.

See! We are FUN!!! Come join us next month, won't you?

Other than that, here's what I've got going on:

Clockwise, from top right: Cashmerino Aran that is on its way to being Fetching, a new Noro hat for Mark, and Koigu traveling sock #1. Thanks for all of your nice comments to my last post about Green Gable, you all are so sweet!

Ta da!

2006-08-10T06:00:00.000-04:00

the obligatory mirror shot

and trying to get one outside - not a great shot, but it does show the underarm and side shaping pretty well

Pattern: Green Gable, Zephyr Style, size small
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, Caribbean Sea, about two and a half skeins
Mods: One less repeat of the lace than the pattern called for. Spaced out the decreases five rows apart instead of two and used a k2tog, ssk decrease instead of just k2tog. Added two increase rounds at the waist, three inches later and five rows apart - used lifted increases, both right- and left-leaning. Added about three inches of additional length. Picked up five additional stitches under each arm, which eliminated the need to sew up the hole that's created if you follow the pattern instructions.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this, and it's definitely the most wearable garment I've made so far. I wore it to work on Tuesday, then to knit night at Yarns By Design. Lori was there, and since she doesn't have a blog of her own, I feel obliged to blog about her newest FO, the Kittyville hat from Stitch & Bitch:

She'd just finished it when I made her pose for this photo. Other than that, I've got only the Koigu socks going on right now, and I am nearly finished with the gusset of sock #1. I bought some yarn at YBD for Fetching. I think those will come in very handy in the fall, so I guess I'd better get started!

Look who's blocking...

2006-08-07T22:39:00.000-04:00

This has actually been finished and blocking since Saturday, but has proven to be a slow dry-er. Hopefully it'll be ready to go by tomorrow, when the weather will actually be reasonable enough to wear it! Photos of it on me to come...

Oh, and if anyone is in the Oakmont area on Tuesdays, do stop by the Yarns By Design knit night (6-8 every Tuesday). I had a perfectly lovely time there last week, and I am hoping to stop by tomorrow, though I likely won't be able to stay until 8.

Yarns By Design

2006-07-29T16:17:00.000-04:00

Okay, knitters. Here's the scoop on the area's newest yarn shop:

I visited Yarns By Design today, which was the day of their grand opening. Also, it was the day of the annual street sale in my quaint little town. (Yes, we do have a large number of squirrels here...) Yarns By Design is a little out-of-the-way being off the main street and out of the main shopping district, but that means it has a fairly large space and lots of free parking. It's in the Oakmont Station office complex (see the address in the image above). Here's what the outside looks like:

And the inside:

Hours:
Sunday and Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 10-6 (6-8: knit night)
Wednesday: 10-5
Thursday: 10-8
Friday: 10-5
Saturday: 10-3

Let's see. They had lots of basic yarns—Debbie Bliss and a good selection of Cascade yarns. They had lots of Noro, which made me very, very happy to see. There were yarns that I'd never seen or heard of (sorry, I of course don't remember what the names of those were). My only disappointment so far is that they didn't have much sock yarn. But, they are a growing shop, with lots more to come, so maybe that's in the future. There is a room in the shop that will be used for knit-togethers, and today it had a spinning wheel in it, so I am assuming that's where the classes will take place as well. There were gorgeous knitting bags, beautiful buttons and pretty pins that were sweater- and scarf-friendly. Of course, since I am an admitted Noro whore, that's what hooked me:

So sweet were the employees (I'm sorry I didn't get their names), that they threw in a measuring tape and a Eucalan sample. Here's a money shot:

In short, Yarns By Design looks to be a growing and wonderful shop. It definitely fills a need for a knitting shop in this area, and I can't wait to see what's coming down the line for them! I think I will be spending a lot of time there...

In other news, Green Gable is still coming along. I am finishing the waist-shaping now, and it should be smooth-sailing from here on out. The traveling socks are coming along. Jennifer (from the Beadazzled! 07/19/06 comments) - please do join us the next time you are in town! We get together every third Wednesday at the Waterworks. I'm off to take in more of our town's cool attractions. The new Woody Allen film is playing at our local theater and we're having dinner afterward at our local bistro. Great movies, dinner and yarn, all in one day? Viva la Oakmont!

Excitement!

2006-07-26T21:32:00.000-04:00

What am I so excited about?

1.) The safe and healthy arrival of the recipient of these:

Pattern: Infant socks by Judy Ellis
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Purple Iris
Mods: None to the pattern, but used a twisted German cast-on (my new favorite!)

2.) My excellent new traveling sock in Koigu KPPPM, color P155 (still like it better than the Lorna's):

Green Gable is still coming along. I've only been able to do one or two rounds per evening, so it's slowed down considerably. I think I can have it finished by late summer/early fall though, when it will be more comfortable to wear it.

3.) A new yarn shop. This is of particular note as it truly will be my local yarn shop - about a two-minute drive or less than a 10 minute walk from my house. The grand opening is this Saturday. Of course, you can expect a full report next week!

Beadazzled!

2006-07-19T23:06:00.000-04:00

So, my Green Gable modifications went surprisingly well. I inserted a lifeline just before the waist shaping, ripped back to it, then re-knit it with a ssk and k2tog combo instead of just k2tog (which looked weird and lumpy). I also spaced out the decreases a little further apart, and that helped as well. No progress shot, because it looks exactly like the one in the last post. Except the sides look better.

Infant sock #1 is now finished and I am on the gusset of sock #2. And still no baby. SJ mentioned that it might be that I have the Harlot's baby knitting ability. Hopefully the baby will come before I finish her socks, because we all know how slow of a knitter I am.

The monthly SnB was tonight at the Waterworks Barnes and Noble, and we are seeking new recruits. Our group has dwindled to three. But we are fun!! See how much fun we have?!?

Props go to the girls in the background of this photo for having the coolest beadazzled hat and short short shorts. Also, there are many rich and colorful characters that you get to see!! Like the guy that was talking on his cellphone SO LOUD, and this guy:

So, pretty please, won't you join us next month?!?

Progress update

2006-07-13T21:18:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to pop in with a Green Gable progress update:

After reading about some mods on the Green Gable Knitalong, I've decided to rip out 20 rows or so and re-do the waist shaping. Other than that, this is moving along pretty quickly (for me, at least). Also in the pipeline are some infant socks for Lori's sister, who is due to deliver atanyminutenow.

Off to catch up on some blog reading!

Loving it.

2006-07-04T14:26:00.000-04:00

Okay, so maybe not the most flattering photo, but I am really loving Green Gable so far. I just hope that the body fits as well as the top fits right now. Also, I am loving the Cotton Fleece again. I loathe cotton yarns, but this one has just enough precious wool to make it enjoyable, let alone bearable. Hopefully it doesn't stretch too much after washing, unless, of course, the body is too tight, then stretching would be good.

Here's what else I am up to:

Even though I do not normally wear a lot of jewellry, I lately have been coveting chunky, colorful beaded necklaces. I've seen some in the stores made with cheap glass and poor construction, yet selling for exorbitant prices. So I got myself to Crystal Bead Bazaar in Lawrenceville, where the owner and a shop assistant/instructor were very kind and very patient with all of my questions. What a great shop! About $35 later, I left the shop with a sterling silver clasp, some adventurine beads and some stringing materials. In about an hour or so, I had a completed necklace. Instant gratification!

I can't wait to make more chunky necklaces. Maybe an orange colored one to go with Green Gable? Hmmm...

It's Michael Chabon's fault that I am not getting more knitting accomplished.

2006-06-26T21:41:00.000-04:00

Because of this book:

I am enjoying it so much that all I want to do in my free time is to read it. And I don't have a whole lot of free time, so there's been a definite lack of knitting around these parts. However, as you can see in the photo above, I did manage to start Green Gable. I know that's not the yarn that I said I was going to make it in, but, well, I was just not feeling that red yarn, you know? I'm such a compulsive yarn buyer, that when Mark suggested that we run some errands in Monroeville over the weekend, I just had to go to Bonnie's and get some new yarn for Green, er, Blue Gable. I know my whole rationale for knitting GG was that I already had the yarn, but I'm not sure that red yarn is meant to be anything at this point! I think it's cursed! (I think I just like to buy new yarn.)

Moving on. Jenn, I figured out how to do the twisted German cast-on. It was like a light went on in my head, and all of a sudden, it made sense! Anyway, I am here to tell you that this is a fantastic cast-on. It looks much more finished than a regular long-tail cast-on, and I know that I will be using it in the future on many more knits.

Holly, I haven't forgotten about you - your package is on the way!

And the winner is...

2006-06-18T20:29:00.000-04:00

Hopefully some of you have been waiting with baited breath to find out who the winner of my first-ever blog contest is.

Here are the names in the bowl, ready to be drawn from:

My lovely assistant draws a slip of paper from the bowl:

And the winner is...

Holly (hollyboc), please email me at jennylrae(at)juno(dot)com with a mailing address to receive your prize! Seriously, thank you to all of you who commented, and to any of you who read the blog. It's nice to know that I am not just talking to myself (well, here, anyway).

Last weekend, Mark and I went to Middleburg and Leesburg, Virginia. While we were there, I persuaded him to check out a knitting shop in Middleburg called Hunt Country Yarns:

This was a small, yet jam-packed store that I enjoyed visiting. While I was there, I picked up some more Diakeito Diamusse Fine to add to the sock yarn stash:

and some absolutely luscious Manos del Uruguay for a hat sometime in the future:

Diakeito sock #1 is now finished, save for stitching up the toe. And Green Gable? That progress shot can be seen in the previous post. That's right, I haven't started it yet. Yet.

You say it's your birthday?

2006-06-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

As of today, One Small Stitch for Mankind is two years old!

Thank you to anyone out there who has been with me through my knitting misadventures! I'm certainly not all that interesting, but I spent a little time yesterday going through the old blog posts, and it's nice to see the progress I've made over time (my first socks, my first sweater!), and that's the reason that I started to blog in the first place - to have an outlet to chronicle my knitting. It's not much, but it's a lot to me! In honor of the blogiversary, I am having my first-ever contest. One comment of any that are posted to this entry between now and June 14 will be chosen at random to recieve a special knitting-related package from yours truly. It's my way of saying "thank you" to those of you who have managed to stay awake while reading my remedial and innane posts!

The yarn cakes featured above? That's three skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Candy Apple that I have had for quite some time now:

It's tried to be several things, but I've decided that its latest incarnation will be Green Gable. If the yarn requirements fit, knit it, right? Right. Wish me luck. I will need it to have the fortitude to finish another sweater.

In other news, Diakeito sock #1 is in the home stretch:

Hope all of the Pittsburgh bloggers have a grand time at World Wide Knit in Public Day this Saturday. I am pretty bummed that I won't be able to join you guys, as I will be in Virginia for the weekend. However, wherever we are that day, I will knit in public.

Blah.

2006-06-01T10:14:00.000-04:00

Blah is how I have been feeling for the past several days. I'm not getting a whole lot of knitting done as you can see:

I should say that the photo is a little old though - since it was taken, I have knitted the heel flap and turned the heel. I did have a little pick-me-up on Tuesday, though. Lori and SJ and I made a visit to Knit One:

I have to say that even after checking out the yarn stores in the big city, none of them compare to Knit One. That's an owner and a store where they just get it. They are so helpful, and so welcoming all the time, without any exception (by the way, hope your chicken was okay, Sandy). And now, they even have a frequent yarn buyer's card! After knitting, we tried to go for Indian, but discovered that the Indian place was now a Thai place, so we had that instead. Thanks again, girls, for a great evening.

At Knit One, I got a skein of Claudia's Handpainted fingering weight yarn in Ingrid's Blues:

Unfortunately, they only had one skein of this colorway, but I could not resist it. It'll just be a pair of baby socks or something. I also bought something that I have wanted for a very long time:

When I was a kid, I used to love to play with my mom's retractable measuring tape. I always thought it was so neat, but this one is even better because it's a sheep (obviously). Now, I don't have to worry about my tape unraveling onto the dirty floor of the bus as I am trying to measure my progress.

This last photo is for Jenn:

This is some Trekking XXL that I ordered from theknitter.com a month or so ago. That's color 108 on top and 110 on the bottom. Luckily, one of the things that I registered for when we got married was a baker's scale that measures in grams, which will make dividing the skeins pretty easy, I hope!

Due to a bunch of stuff going on at work and in general, I will probably be pretty scarce around these parts in the next several weeks, but I will update as I can. Hope that everyone is in better spirits than me and that all of your projects are going great!

I'm back.

2006-05-24T09:18:00.000-04:00

What a wonderful trip. The wedding was gorgeous, and we had such a good time walking around NYC and spending time with friends. I was excited to see the StoryCorps booth in the World Trade Center Path station:

Though it was sad to see the WTC site. I knew that the train would be pulling in there, but that still didn't stop my heart from skipping a beat when the train emerged into daylight in the footprints of the towers. This is the first time I've seen the site, and I have nothing profound to say that hasn't been said a million times before. Amid an incredible feeling of sadness, though, it was good to see that New York goes on. Train stations are rebuilt, and eventually, buildings will be too. However, I was sickened by the vendors around the site who were selling little albums with photos of the towers on fire.

Anyway, to the yarn. I didn't buy as much as I had expected to:

Left to right, that is Trekking XXL, Artyarns Ultramerino, and the Koigu. I also purchased a backup set of #1 DPNs and a couple of gifty items that will not be displayed here. Click here to see photos of my magical, mystical yarn tour. If the link doesn't work, email me [jennylrae(at)juno(dot)com] or leave a comment with your email address and I will send you an invite to view it.

I'll leave you with one other highlight of our visit to NYC. There is a bar on the Lower East Side called Schiller's Liquor Bar that we stopped in for pre-dinner drinks on Thursday. I was absolutely enamored by this place. The lighting and decor was incredible and I must have taken 3000 photos in there (some a little blurry, crooked, etc. - what can I say, we were there for drinks, after all). I'm pretty sure the bartender was getting a little annoyed with me. If you ever go there, be sure not to miss the bathroom (which, yes, I have photos of).

Sock progress.

2006-05-14T18:34:00.000-04:00

So here's the progress on my design-your-own cabled Koigu socks:

I am very pleased with how these are coming along so far, the Koigu is an absolute dream to knit with, though I wish there was a little more yardage in a skein. Oh well, how can you complain about perfection :)

As for the Daikeito socks, well, they've undergone a little renovation:

I knitted the entire cuff (7 inches) then realized that they looked like they were going to be uncomfortably tight. So, a ripping I went. No worries, though. I'll be toting the sock around NYC with me this week and am sure I will be able to sneak in some time here and there to knit on it. A couple of things on my/our agenda include: a trip to the MoMA, a visit to School Products, a stop at the Shake Shack, dinner at Sparks, and a tour of the Statue of Liberty. The wedding is in Avalon, NJ, so we'll be staying there on Friday evening through Sunday morning. If anyone knows of any yarn shops anywhere near any of those places, let me know!

By the way, the Waterworks Stitch & Bitch is Wednesday, and although I won't be there, I'm wishing you all happy knitting. Also, check out Jenn's new project, the Museum of Misguided Knitting. I'm thinking that my Tubey would fit in well over there. See you next week!

Not much knitting here, but lots of gardening.

2006-05-09T21:18:00.000-04:00

So, I haven't gotten a lot of knitting done this week. Instead, Mark and I assembled a new chair that we bought for our front porch:

We planted flowers in our back garden:

Potted our herbs & vegetable (basil, oregano, parsley and peppers), more potted flowers for the back (begonias) and some lovely geraniums for the front:

So, as you can see, I haven't gotten a lot of knitting done, but boy, would you look at those colors:

I couldn't find a pattern that I liked for the Koigu socks, so I decided to write my own. This will be the first time that I have ever made up my own pattern for something that wasn't a scarf, so I am pretty excited to see if it will work or not. I'm using Kristin's sock tutorial as a guide for the ratios and when to decrease, etc., and it will be pretty simple - just ribs and cables - so hopefully even I can't mess that up! Stay tuned for progress...

I heart socks.

2006-05-02T21:32:00.000-04:00

Pattern: Kristin's sock tutorial at www.cometosilver.com
Yarn: Knit Picks Sock Memories in Cape Cod
Mods: None.

So, Mark likes his socks. Mark says they are nifty. Mark says that they make his feet feel warm and slippery like a seal in autumn. Right.

Me, I just can't get enough socks. I've cast on for the next pair already with the Daikeito and am looking for a relatively easy and simple stitch pattern (no lace) to really show off the gorgeous Koigu that Lori gifted me with a few weeks back. I don't think that I am ready for the Pomatomus pattern, even though SJ says it's not that hard. Check out her stunning finished Pomatomus.

Thanks to Carrie and Holly for the NYC yarn store recommendations. I am definitely going to make the journey to School Products, since I've heard so many good things about it, but I am hoping to cram in as many shops as possible in the time that we have free.

To everyone going to Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend, have a great time! I will be envying each and every one of you!

The city of yarn love...

2006-04-24T22:43:00.000-04:00

This weekend, Mark and I traveled to Philadelphia to visit with this friend:

and her parents Matt and Melissa. By the way, the sweater in the photo is this one in action. We had a great time. We had cheesesteaks from Dalessandro's, walked around the city, and visited yarn shops. You see, Melissa is such a fabulous host that she arranged a trip here:

where they had a lot of this:

We also visited a new-ish shop in the area called The Main Skein. Sorry, no photo of that as it was raining pretty hard during our visit and I did not want to take the camera out of the bag. However, I did bring back a souvenir from The Main Skein:

That's Diakeito Diamussee Fine - a yarn I'd never seen before but instantly fell in love with. Does that colorway make you salivate or what? I know it did to me, so I think that this is destined to be a pair of socks in the very near future.

I was also an enabler. I bought Melissa a couple of skeins of Cascade 220 and some bamboo needles, and we had a little knitting lesson late on Saturday night. She's a natural knitter and was having a great time with it. Of course, I did some knitting myself, mostly in the car:

All in all, a relaxing weekend. In May we have a wedding to go to in New Jersey, so Mark and I will be spending a few days with friends there and in NYC. The friend that we are staying with can't get off work one of the days that we will be there (damn the man), though that gives me a day to do stuff on my own. I'm planning to go to the MoMA, since I've not yet seen the new building. Can anyone recommend some good NYC yarn shops (preferably any that are in the general vacinity of the MoMA that have great sock yarns) for me to drop in on while I am there?

Stitch and bitch reminder!

2006-04-18T08:10:00.000-04:00

Stitch and bitch. Wednesday, April 19 from 7pm-whenever. The Cafe at Barnes & Noble, Waterworks location. Hope to see you there!

Surprise knit!

2006-04-16T10:34:00.000-04:00

Pattern: Anthropologie-inspired Capelet by Julsey at Peony Knits
Yarn: JoAnn's Sensations Dolcetto, just over 2 balls
Mods: Not much. I made mine a little longer than the pattern called for.

Special thanks to amazing and prolific knitter Baigneuse for the inspiration for this one. I'd seen the pattern on Craftster some time ago and liked it, but it wasn't until I found Baigneuse's blog through the Tubey knitalong on Craftster and saw her version knit in Dolcetto that I decided to knit it. I have a ton of Dolcetto that I bought up when my local JoAnn's went out of business. This pattern is super quick and fun to knit. It's also very comfy - I wore it over a shift yesterday for an outing to one of our favorite restaurants, Point Brugge, and a visit to the Frick. Thanks to Julsey for a great pattern!

My Excellent Harlot Adventure

2006-04-10T20:57:00.000-04:00

On Friday after work, I met Lori at Starbucks where she surprised me with some wonderful gifts from her recent trip to Portland and San Francisco. She gave me some lovely arts and crafts-style bookplates from the de Young Museum in San Francisco and this:

She knows I covet the Koigu, and there's a shop in Portland called Knit-Purl that has so many pretty colorways in stock. What a wonderful friend!

We left Starbucks and walked to Knit One, which was already jam-packed with people waiting to see the Yarn Harlot. Lori and I found some seats in the front windows and before long, the Harlot herself came out. While we couldn't really see her unless we ducked around and peered through a display, she did not disappoint. She's just as witty and funny in person as she is on her blog, and it is nice to now be able to put a voice with a face.

In addition to seeing Stephanie, I also got to see/meet some local bloggers. I met Yvonne for the first time:

and I saw Jane:

After Stephanie spoke, a line formed for her to sign books. My sock and Lori's newly purchased Cotton Glace surveyed the line (which you really can't see in this photo, but it was mighty long):

But it was late, and my stomach was growling fiercely, so I decided to forego having my book signed, and Lori and I went to dinner, which was excellent. Here's the closest I got to the Harlot, while on the way out the door:

All in all, it was a most excellent diversion for a Friday night, as I am usually asleep by 9pm most Fridays (I know I'm sad). Viva la Harlot!

Happy feet

2006-04-06T21:57:00.000-04:00

Because socks can't make you feel fat and lumpy:

Pattern: Kristin's wonderful sock tutorial at www.cometosilver.com
Yarn: Knit Picks Sock Garden in Geranium

Love, love, love(!) these socks. The yarn is so yummy and soft and the colors are so happy. Kristin's tutorial is awesome for beginning sock knitters. I've cast on already for the husband's socks using the same recipe, and I will be working on the first sock of his pair tomorrow, while listening to the Yarn Harlot. Hope to see some of you there!

Oh yes, thank you again to all of you who made very nice comments about Tubey. I am very proud of my knitting job on it, so all is not lost. I feel a huge sense of accomplishment since it's the largest knit that I have so far managed to complete. Maybe I will feel better in it by the time it is cold enough to wear it again :)

It fits, kind of...

2006-04-03T10:09:00.000-04:00

Thank you all for your nice comments on Tubey. It does fit, but on me, it's not so flattering:

Pattern: Tubey by Cassie Rovitti
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash Wool in Shane's Red
Mods: I combined two sizes, using the medium for the shrug part and the small for the body. I also knit a few rows of seed stitch for the sleeve cuffs instead of the purl row, because it was still awfully curly with that purl row.

I've gained some weight in the past few months (post-wedding bingeing), and I am now heavier than I've ever been, so I am pretty self-conscious about my body to begin with. This sweater does not really help matters. In short, it makes me feel lumpy and fat. Mark and I have been exercising, and unless I can get back down to my pre-wedding weight again by next fall, I don't really see much, if any, Tubey wearing in my future. I guess that's incentive to lose the weight, if nothing else!

Finished. Finally.

2006-03-27T08:27:00.000-05:00

That's Tubey, blocking. Modeling shots to come soon, if it actually fits me.

Until then, I will share some recent stash acquisitions:

All from Knit Picks, that's some Essential, Sock Memories (in the Cape Cod colorway) and Shimmer, along with Nancy Bush's book, Knitting Vintage Socks and some new double points. I would just like to say that it seems to be nearly impossible to find shorter (6"), metal dpns in size 0, 1 or 2. If anyone knows where I can procure some of these elusive needles, please leave a comment. Extra thanks if you can tell me where to find Addi steel dpns in that size and length. The Sock Memories yarn is for a pair of promised socks for the husband, and I just couldn't resist that color green, so that is destined to become something out of the Nancy Bush book. The Shimmer is for a lacey scarf for my mom, who's previously hinted at wanting one. I'm still not sure what lace pattern I'll use yet, but it's really looking like feather and fan.

Also, there's this:

Did anyone else out there know that Webs was having an overstock sale on Kureyon last week? $5.50 a ball! Naturally, I couldn't help myself. In other yarn/knitting purchasing news, I finally bit the bullet and ordered myself a ball winder. The thought of winding that Shimmer into a ball by hand was just too much for me. Soon all of my yarn will be in pretty yarn cakes.

Oh yeah, and one more thing:

"Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is coming to Knit One at 2721 Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill 412-421-6666 on Friday April 7 at 7 pm. She will be doing a talk and presentation and a book signing for her new book "Knitting Rules." There is no charge but if you are able please bring a can item for the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank."

I'm so there. Anyone else planning to go?

100 Things

2006-03-20T10:30:00.000-05:00

Again, since I have no knitting content, I'm putting up a 100 things post. I apologize for the extreme amount of narcissism to follow, but I do enjoy reading these on the blogs of other knitters, so I started this list several weeks ago and have been gradually adding to it. It's very difficult to come up with 100 things about yourself!

I'm hoping to have a finished Tubey to show this week - I'm on my last four inches and can't wait to finish so that I can get back to the socks, which I am not letting myself work on until Tubey's done.

I hope the following doesn't bore any possible readers or put them to sleep!

_______________________________________________
100 Things...

1. I am anal. Not about everything, but about lots of things.
2. I'm also a little obsessive-compulsive. I will re-do something (knitting, cleaning, etc.) over and over until I feel it is perfect or as close to perfect as possible.
3. This drives my husband crazy. He's not anal or obsessive-compulsive. Or neat.
4. The fact that he is not neat drives me crazy. I spend most of my cleaning time picking up after him.
5. He's a great person, though. I am lucky to have a wonderful husband who puts up with my OCDs and idiosyncracies.
6. I talk in my sleep on a frequent basis.
7. I wish my husband would record me so that I could see what I do and say.
8. My roommate in college was pretty disturbed by my talking. She told me one morning that I'd been talking about spaghetti and candles.
9. I also sleepwalk, but not as much as the talking.
10. I'm always tired. I wonder if that's because I'm not getting enough peaceful sleep, but I'm too lazy to participate in a sleep study.
11. I rarely remember my dreams, but I still have the same recurring nightmare that I've had since I was very young.
12. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in Fine Arts/Crafts.
13. My concentration area was metalsmithing.
14. I have minors in art history and journalism.
15. I was scared to graduate because I didn't know what to do with my life, so I stayed at school for a fifth year. Hence the journalism minor.
16. I considered going to grad school after graduation for my Master of Fine Arts, but decided that I could not afford to incur any additional debt.
17. My first real job was at an auction house. I was hired to take photographs of the auction lots, so I got to see lots of neat art and stuff.
18. That was the best job that I ever had. I met Lori (who was my boss) and my husband as a result of it.
19. I wouldn't mind going back to school for my MFA, but I am not sure what I would do with it if I did. The husband's family business is here in the 'burgh, so we would never be able to relocate. If I did go back for fun, I think I would get my masters in art history or photography.
20. Since we can never leave the area, I am pushing the husband hard for retirement in England, so we can be regulars at the pub in Tadcaster or York. Or somewhere on the Cornish coast. Decisions, decisions. He thinks I'm joking, but I'm not.
21. I am an anglophile.
22. I love architecture. Old churches and cathedrals are my favorite.
23. People think that's funny because I am not at all religious. I'm pretty anti-organized religion.
24. I was raised Catholic, but I never bought it. I remember thinking that as early as age 7 or so. From what I've read, my beliefs align a little more with Buddhism, though I don't consider myself a Buddhist.
25. Rejecting Catholicism really upset my mother, but she has come to respect my decision.
26. My mom's favorite word to describe me is "tenacious". Even though she is a Catholic, she told me that she believes that I was reincarnated. She says I used to say and do "weird" things when I was a kid that led her to think that.
27. I have one older brother who is married, and two nephews.
28. I love really windy days. One of my favorite things is, in the springtime, to open all of the windows in the house and take a nap while breathing in the wonderful windy air. I also like taking windy walks.
29. My favorite seasons in order are: Autumn, Spring, Winter, Summer.
30. I am miserable when I am hot in the summer and will tell everyone within earshot.
31. My middle name is Lrae. That's my dad's brother's middle name spelled backward.
32. I don't really like my first name. I always thought that there were too many of us. I once had a class with eight of us, and it was a small class.
33. I was born on the same day as Emily Dickinson, 145 years later.
34. She's one of my favorite poets and has been since childhood.
35. Emily is also my favorite girl's name. If I ever have a daughter, her name will be Emily.
36. I detest people who are arrogant and hypocritical.
37. I collect antique books, mainly from the 1900s-1930s. They have the best illustrations and decorations.
38. I now own a family heirloom that was built by my mother's uncle. It is a bookcase filled with antique books that were once owned by my mother's aunt.
39. It is my most-prized material posession.
40. The bookcase and books survived a fire in their home on Troy Hill (Pittsburgh). My mother's aunt did not - she died from smoke inhalation from the fire. If I ever have a daughter, her middle name will be after my mother's aunt, who I never knew.
41. My favorite things to knit are scarves, probably because from fall through early spring, I wear one almost every day, all day.
42. One of the attorneys at work can never remember my name, but calls me the "French photographer" because I am always wearing a scarf. Who knew that scarves = French? That attorney is a little strange. However, I am always wearing one at work.
43. My current favorite yarn to knit with is Noro Kureyon or Silk Garden. There's nothing like that rush of excitement every time the color changes itself. Hey, what can I say? I am easy to amuse!
44. My other constant favorite is probably Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride and LP Bulky. I like the way they knit up and I love the way they feel. Also, they're pretty inexpensive, and you can't beat that.
45. I love wool.
46. I have a WIP with a cotton/silk yarn. I don't like to knit with cotton yarn, so who knows if I'll finish. Though the addition of the silk makes it a little more bearable.
47. My husband and I live in a wonderful house in a wonderful neighborhood.
48. We were lucky to find a place in the town that we wanted, which is pretty small, and awesome.
49. The town reminds me a little of that town in the Gilmore Girls. Everyone is into everyone else's business, and it's very quaint. It is realistic, though, unlike the town in the Gilmore Girls.
50. We are in love with our house.
51. When we were looking for houses, it had everything on our list that we wanted with the exception of one thing: finished wood floors.
52. The day that we got the email from our realtor about it, I walked past it and I just knew it was our house. I had "the feeling" from the very beginning.
53. No small feat, because the previous owners had terrible (in my opinion, of course) decorating taste, which included lots of pink, black lacquer, and white leather.
54. The house was built in 1915, and is a craftsman style, so we are trying to get the decorating much closer to the style of the house than what the previous owners did. Their decorating style belonged in a very modern house, or in Miami Vice or something.
55. It's a lot of work to do that, but we soldier on.
56. It's probably obvious by now that I have a slight infatuation with the early 1900s. If I could be transported back in time to any decade, I think I would pick the 1920s.
57. I am very unathletic. When I was in grade school, the only test that I could pass in gym class was the flexibility one. Where were the yoga classes when I was in school?
58. I don't want to be athletic. I hate to excercise at all.
59. I do like food that's bad for me though, so I guess I have to unless I want to weigh a million pounds or have a heart attack or something.
60. Probably the only activity that I can stand is walking, so I will be doing more of that in the very near future to get in shape. I'd like to have a runner's body, but who am I kidding?
61. I don't like athletics in general. I don't understand most of it and don't really care to. I do like to go to baseball games, though, but I don't care about the baseball - I just like the atmosphere.
62. In October 2005 I was married to my husband.
63. We lived together for some time before that, so not much has changed, except now we both wear rings and can file jointly on our taxes.
64. I can't imagine life without him, even if he does drive me absolutely nuts lots of the time.
65. We went to England for our honeymoon, and it was everything I thought it would be.
66. We visited York, Tadcaster, Bath, Wells, Avebury and London.
67. We travelled everywhere by train and bus. It was a blast.
68. York was our absolute favorite destination (along with the Samuel Smith's Brewery in Tadcaster). Everyone was so friendly in the north.
69. We plan to go back before we start a family, and will see more of York and the north next time (definitely Durham, which we couldn't fit in the first time), along with Scotland and hopefully Wales.
70. We'll definitely take the trains again!
71. I drank the spa water at the Roman Bath in Bath.
72. It tasted terrible.
73. I also stood on Jane Austen's doorstep and walked down the gravel path (from Persuasion).
74. I ate potatoes every day. My favorite meal included mashed potatoes and chips in the same meal.
75. I have an unhealthy obsession with potatoes. They are my favorite food. My first love would be French fries, but there is really no potato preparation that I won't eat.
76. Cheese is my second favorite food. My favorite type of cheese is a good English cheddar, though stilton is grand too. Better yet, put them together. (Okay, that's double gloucester, but it's close.)
77. I am a paper whore.
78. I like Crane's stationery, or cotton fiber paper.
79. My favorite drink is a Bombay Sapphire and tonic, extra lime.
80. I prefer Coke and do not like Pepsi. I do not like diet soda.
81. I'm one of the few people in Pittsburgh that use the word "soda".
82. I also say "rubber bands" vs. "gum bands". I don't use much "Pittsburghese".
83. However, I was surprised to find that no one knew what a "jagger bush" was when I went away to college. Oops!
84. Politically speaking, I am way over there on the left.
85. I try to respect the political views of others, but it's hard sometimes.
86. My current job is as a marketing coordinator for a downtown law firm.
87. I like the people I work with on a daily basis.
88. I commute for a total of almost two hours a day, by bus.
89. I like public transportation, but I wish we had trains instead of buses.
90. When I am concentrating hard on something or stressed out at work, I twirl my hair. I'll probably give myself a bald spot soon.
91. I'm always cold at work.
92. I recently knit my first sock (March 2006) and now I am obsessed with the thought of knitting socks. They are so portable for bus knitting, and practical, too!
93. I used to hate wearing socks, but now I love them.
94. My favorite pair of shoes are clogs with straps by Ecco. They are the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned.
95. I have wide feet and bunions, so I also have foot pain about 50% of the time. There are no cute shoes for people with feet like mine.
96. I am nearsighted with an astigmatism and wear glasses most of the time. I have contacts, but they aren't very comfortable. I started wearing glasses around the third or fourth grade - I can't remember which. I've had some very ugly and embarassing pairs in my time.
97. I have pale skin and try to stay out of the sun for excessive amounts of time.
98. I have a phobia of eating meat that's on a bone. Because of this, I never tried hot sauce or anything "buffalo flavored" until recently. I am now obsessed with the buffalo flavor and hot sauce. I'm making up for lost time.
99. My favorite restaurants in Pgh. include Mad Mex in Oakland, Piper's Pub on the South Side, Aladdin's in Squirrel Hill, John Harvard's in Monroeville, Primanti's (of course), D'z 6 Packs in Regent Square, Point Brugge in Point Breeze, and countless others. Now I am hungry.
100. I learned to knit (the proper way, at least) in November 2003.

Stitch and bitch reminder!

2006-03-13T11:05:00.000-05:00

This Wednesday, March 15, at 7pm at Barnes & Noble in the Waterworks. My tubey and I hope to see some new faces there!

One sock down...

2006-03-09T14:29:00.000-05:00

I've finished one sock and cast on for the second, though I'm not going to post a photo of the finished product until they're, well, finished.

Until then, this is shamelessly lifted from Mim's Knitting Frenzy:

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
(His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman)
~~Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling~~
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
~~The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien~~
(The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
~~Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling~~
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
(The Secret History - Donna Tartt)
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Atonement - Ian McEwan
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
~~Dune - Frank Herbert~~

I'm tagging anyone who wants to participate. See you soon with more knitting content!

And now for an interruption in your regularly scheduled programming...

2006-03-06T09:13:00.000-05:00

I am absolutely flabbergasted that I could do this:

I've tried socks before, see, and never been successful. This has been my work/bus knitting, and I can't believe how fast this has worked up. I owe it all to this wonderful tutorial by Kristin at www.cometosilver.com. If you want to knit socks but have been unable to figure out any other pattern (like me!), I would highly recommend this tutorial. Clear instruction, helpful photos and just darn wonderful. Thanks, Kristin!

Tubey has not been entirely neglected, but I haven't worked too much on it either. It's supposed to be 67 degrees this Saturday. Yikes! Sorry to all of you out there who are looking forward to the warmer weather, but I hope that it stays cold for just a little while longer!

Extra, extra! Actual knitting progress made!

2006-02-26T21:40:00.000-05:00

Here's where I am with Tubey. It's getting to be very cumbersome as bus knitting, so it is hereby retired to home knitting. Unfortunately, that means that my progress will be slower since I get less time to knit at home than I do on the bus and during my lunch hour. Anyway, I am fairly pleased with the way it's fitting so far, so maybe that will get my ass in gear to finish it.

It's been a busy weekend here at the old homestead. In addition to nursing another cold, we did some work on our TV room, including cleaning down the walls and baseboards, painting, shampooing the carpets and installing a new ceiling fan. Now I just need to get it together and find some furniture to go in that room. It's not quite large enough for a full-size sofa, and loveseats are too small, so I don't really know what we will be doing with it yet. I have two comfy chairs that need to be reupholstered also - anyone know a reasonably-priced upholsterer in the eastern suburbs (Lawrenceville, Etna, Blawnox, etc.)?

But all work and no play make Jen a dull girl, so we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast on Saturday morning and then do a little grocery shopping at our favorite highly-priced food store. While we were in the general area, we stopped at another favorite store for a treat:

Man, I love that store. Now, I know that I've publicly sworn off all needles that are not Addis before, especially when it comes to bamboo double points, but I can explain (they didn't have any metal dpns). I've been thinking about my post-Tubey knitting, and I came to the conclusion that I would really, really like to start and complete a pair of socks. The same day that I was thinking this, I came across this link on Becky's blog. Maybe this is just what a really, really remedial sock knitter needs? Tune in to find out!

Via the Post-Gazette:

2006-02-21T08:08:00.000-05:00

If there are any Lily Chin fans out there, she will be at the Pgh Knitting Festival this weekend.

Shrug ahoy!

2006-02-19T21:59:00.000-05:00

The completed shrug part of Tubey:

I've had the shrug part done for about a week now, but have been too lazy to blog about it. I picked up the stitches at last week's stitch and bitch and have about an inch or two of body done now. I was looking forward to knitting this weekend, but instead we disassembled and cleaned our 90 gallon fish tank and delivered it to its new owner. Boy, am I glad to see that thing go. We inherited it with the house (though Mark already had a smaller tank) and I have always disliked it. We're back down to the smaller tank, and I will soon be renovating our television room, where the fish tank used to be. It also includes a hideous rainbow-colored fan. We also had some friends over for a 15 degree BBQ on Saturday night. It. Was. So. Cold. Much fun was had anyway. So, One Weekend - BBQ - fish tank cleaning - time to visit with the in-laws = no knitting at all. I'm on it, though, these temperatures in the teens definitely call for a Tubey!

Last weekend's SnB was lots of fun. Hi to Rita, May and SJ, who is making gorgeous and speedy progress on Blanche-Neige, her olympic knitting.

More Tubey progress coming up!

Stitchin' reminder...

2006-02-13T11:01:00.000-05:00

If any of you Pittsburgh knitters can drag yourselves away from the Olympics on Wednesday night (02/15/06), the monthly knitting session at the Barnes and Noble in the Waterworks will be happening. This used to be hosted through meetup.com, though they now require an organizer to pay a fee to list events there, so the group is defunct through that site. It will live on, though we can't dare refer to it as a "stitch and bitch". See here for why not. Ridiculous, no? So anyway, Bitch & Stitch, Wednesday night, B&N Cafe, Waterworks Mall, 7-ish. Be there or be square.

This weekend was another home improvement one, so no knitting on Tubey over the weekend. I'd say I have about four inches of sleeve to finish before I start on the body (woohoo!).

Go olympic knitters, go!

Danger!

2006-02-07T09:35:00.000-05:00

Oh, why can't I leave well enough alone? Yesterday, after checking out this post on the Tubey knitalong site, I thought, "what a great solution to my sleeve curling issue!" So, I proceeded to unbind my bound-off stitches when I got home from work. Now, it's been a stressful time at work lately and by the time I get home, I am really tired, my eyes hurt, and I'm not really able to concentrate well. I don't know what I was thinking. As I was unravelling, a little voice inside my head was screaming "danger- stop now!" Sure enough, before I knew what had happened, I had all live stitches, some of them starting to ladder, and visions of my sleeve laid to waste. It took me two hours, but I finally sorted out all of the stitches and re-knit them in seed stitch:

It looks pretty wonky, but I am hoping that will all sort out after I block it. I'll tell you that I almost cried when I finished, I was so relieved that I didn't have to re-knit the entire sleeve. I'm not sure it will look great with the ribbing, since the seed stitch will only be on the arms, but I'll deal. Hey, at least it's not curling.

Thanks for all of your comments to the last post. Jenn and SJ- thank you! I am so relieved to hear that I am not crazy. Well, as it pertains to the crochet cast-on, anyway. Jane, thank you for your comment- I need all of the encouragement that I can get to finish this thing! Jessie- I am a very slow knitter, so I am just hoping to have this finished to wear for at least one cold day this winter. Hopefully I'll have it done by March, but it's not looking too good :) As far as the sizing goes, I am a little curious to see how it will come out myself. What's nice is that you can try on as you go, so I know the back and arms fit (true to the cross-back measurement in the pattern for the size medium). I'll be trying the size small body instead of the medium though, as my upper arms are large-ish, and my back is wide, but my chest measurement fits the small. The pattern is very easy to tweak as you go. Good luck with it!

Hey tubey!

2006-02-02T21:40:00.000-05:00

I finally got to work on Tubey again last night while Lori and I knitted. I bound off on the first sleeve after trying it on, then unraveled the crochet cast on, which was a pain in the ass. The wool fibers really stuck together, so it didn't come out as smoothly as I'd hoped it would. Also, somewhere I lost a stitch. Neither I or Lori could find a dropped stitch, though we looked it over several times, so I can only assume that I lost it due to the slipped stitch at the beginning of each row. I made a stitch, but it bothers me that I had to do it, and it probably always will. However, in the interest of progress, I guess I can live with it. I'm about an inch or two in to the second sleeve now, and here's what it looks like:

The edges of the sleeve and back are really curling, despite a row of purl on the sleeves before the bind-off. I am hoping that a good blocking will correct that and I think that the back rollage will be taken care of when I pick up the stitches for the body.

Thanks for your comments on my car photo. That was fun, though I wheezed and hacked for about three minutes after I did that. So sad. Hope that everyone's "training" for the olympics is going well!

Oh what a feeling!

2006-02-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

Anyone out there remember those Toyota commercials from the 80s? Just thought I'd share :)

Back from the dead.

2006-01-31T12:22:00.000-05:00

Nope, no knitting here. I've been sidelined with a cold since last week, so I have been going to work, then going home to sleep. That is all. The worst of it is over and I am on the mend, so there will definitely be knitting this week. In fact, Lori and I will be knitting tomorrow, so I should definitely have some goods to show then. When I last put down my knitting a week ago, I'd finished the first sleeve of Tubey, though I want to pin the other arm hole and try it on to check the length across the back and the sleeve length before binding off.

Congrats to those of you who are participating in the Knitting Olympics. You are stronger than I. Though I don't watch the actual Olympics, I am looking forward to seeing all of your progress during it!

Ed. to add:

Oh my, I almost forgot! Yesterday, I became an aunt for the second time around. Our brand new member of the family weighed in at 10 lbs. 14 oz. (and his mom is teeny). I was so unmotivated that I never knit anything for the poor boy. Bad knitter! But, I did purchase yarn, so he'll be well-dressed for the spring, if I ever finish Tubey, that is!

Four

2006-01-23T09:26:00.000-05:00

I've been tagged by Jane. While I don't usually meme, I'm going to do this one just as an update as I have no knitting to show. I'm almost finished with sleeve one of Tubey but did not knit this weekend and never got around to taking photos. The reason that I don't usually do memes is that, frankly, I am a pretty uninteresting person and I don't want to put any possible readers into a coma. So please, don't laugh. Without further adieu:

Four

Four Jobs You Have Had in Your Life

1. law firm marketing coordinator
2. auction house employee
3. Pier 1 salesperson
4. personal care worker for disabled students at Edinboro University

Four (random) Movies You Could Watch Over and Over

1. Shaun of the Dead
2. Lost in Translation
3. Rushmore
4. Delicatessen

Four Places You Have Lived

1. Oakmont
2. Friendship
3. Edinboro
4. Oakdale (with my parents - I don't get around much. Bored yet?)

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch

1. Cold Case Files on A&E
2. Barefoot Contessa
3. Boy Meets Grill
4. Pimp My Ride (RIP)

Four Places You Have Been on Vacation

1. England (London, York, Wells, Bath, Avebury, Tadcaster)
2. Cape Cod
3. Finger Lakes region, NY
4. Manhattan

Four Websites You Visit Almost Daily

1. Post Gazette website
2. New York Times website
3. Washington Post website
4. random knitting blogs when I get the chance

Four of Your Favorite Foods

1. French fries, preferably from the O, but any will do
2. mashed potatoes
3. roasted potatoes
4. cheese and onion pasties

Four Places You Would Rather Be Right Now

1. York, England
2. at home in bed
3.
4.

Four Cars you've owned
1. 2006 Volvo v70 (just picked it up this weekend!)
2. 2000 Nissan Altima
3. 1994 Dodge Spirit (shudder)
4. 1989 Ford Escort (the best little car that ever was!)

Four People You're Going to Tag
1. None - feel free to take and post on your own blog!

More knitting this week. I promise....