C U R L Y P U R L Y

Home, sweet home.

2010-03-04T12:32:00.003-05:00

I'm bouncing back (and i use the term bouncing very, very loosely....) from a very rewarding, very exhausting couple of days as a birth doula. I am happy to say that mom and baby are well despite minor setback after minor setback. But the mom was a rockstar (as are all birthing women!) and the experience of witnessing a whole, new, real, live person show up and join the party was just - as it always is - mindbending and fulfilling. And exhausting. Emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Something that is really odd about it - I get a call and I go to someone's house. In most cases we're nearly strangers, having met at most 2 or 3 times before. At a very pivotal point of their lives I slide into their environment fully. I, and my life, cease to exist except where I fit, in that moment, into their world. Very quickly we move past the awkward conversation and politenesses generally exchanged when a stranger visits your home, or you enter as a stranger into someone else's space. Over the next few hours we become intimate. We share stories, we share experiences not often shared among even siblings.

Sometimes we then go together into yet another environment with a new cast - a hospital room becomes our next reality, with the various nurses and doctors and midwives and support staff that become such fixtures in that event. If you've ever been in a hospital or supported a loved one through a hospital stay you'll know what I mean. You get to know the nurse and are disappointed when her shift ends and she goes home. When she comes back the next day, for her next shift, and you're still there - you're overjoyed to see her again, this old friend. And you mourn the departure of the one you've come to rely on in the meantime.

Then this amazing thing happens. This birth happens. And it's huge and tremendous. And we weep together. Marvel together at the strength of mothers, the miracle of birth. I witness women at their most vulnerable - which, remarkably, is also their most power filled - and I weep with joy, with pride. I am moved by these women, every time. Whatever differences we had when we met as strangers now forgotten. And then I go home, and leave them to their new families.

I arrive home, my kids energetic and loving me. I realize how I'd missed them, how I'd relived each moment of their coming. How I experienced again the joy of transformation from woman into mother. How I experienced again the pleasure of changing baby into sibling. I am exhausted. And happy. I shower, if I'm lucky, I catch a nap, and when I awake, it's all gone, like a dream. My life is mine again, and really, that lifetime that just occurred was a flash - a day or two, that's all - in the timeline of my family, my household.

It never ceases to amaze me, how my life waits for me. How comfortable it is to reenter it. How naturally it fits.

Other Stwipey Bwanket.

2010-03-02T09:15:00.002-05:00

Years ago, when my monkey was a mere parasite, I made him this basketweave blanket. Which he, of course, being a wise and compliant boy, loves. And inexplicable calls his Stwipey Bwanket, despite the fact that it's, you know, not striped. It is a blanket, though. Anyway, many things have changed since I made that blanket. One of the things which has changed is that the monkey was born. And now he has two houses. He and his gigantic sister travel a few blocks each week to spend a few nights at his dad's house. And while so far there have been no major losses transporting Stwipey Bwanket to and fro, it's a fear that haunts us all. So we talked it over and it was determined that a second Stwipey Bwanket must be made.

I decided to make it actually striped this time, and in my infinite wisdom used two yarns so close in color (Henry's Attic Inca Cotton in Sage and Oz) that you can't tell that it's striped at all. So again we have a non-striped Stwipey Bwanket. But this one is nice and big and cushy and crochet - so it was finished in about the time it would take Apollo Ohno to build a castle out of legos.

New Pattern, New Site

2010-02-28T23:39:00.002-05:00

I've been working away at all of the different little facets of my life. For one thing, I've been going on a lot of interviews lately. I'm a birth doula and there's a lot of chatting that goes on when you meet a potential client for the first time. I mean, you kinda want to know a little something about the person who will be in the room when you push a person out of you. Anyway. I go on a lot of these interviews. And I end up talking about knitting. It confuses people. But it reminds me how much I love knitting. I feel like I don't have enough time any more. I'm stretched so thin. So many things going on. I need to remember to keep on knitting. Because when I don't? I miss it so.

So anyway, in this working away at the different facets of my life thing, I've updated my knitting website, and published a new pattern. An old pattern, really. The first thing I ever designed (though it's been tweaked beyond recognition from the first version, which I now affectionately call "Alien Bear" because it was so weird looking). My bear pattern. I'm going to be "cleaning house" and trying to get a bunch of my older patterns out there, starting with the animals. That's the plan, anyway. Let's see what happens with that, shall we?

So take a look at the new site at curlypurly.com and let me know what you think. I made it using iWeb from Apple in pretty much no time at all. Web design sure has changed since I started this thing.

Crafting for Haiti

2010-01-20T21:33:00.001-05:00

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/diyers-crafty-aid-haiti.html

Valentina

2010-01-10T17:17:00.004-05:00

Finished! Valentina, named, of course, for the daughter of Dr. Parnassus. These were extremely quick to make, and though I thought they'd be kind of annoying to wear with the wide top opening, they actually feel less fiddly than my usual fingerless mittens.

Four Years.

2010-01-05T15:47:00.002-05:00

So my fourth blogiversary passed on January 1. And I must say I've been a poor blogger indeed, haven't I?

Well, I'll see what I can do to rectify that. First let me offer a whirlwind update of my past, well, year.

I'm now in my 3rd (of 4) years in school, studying to be a homeopath. I've finished my training through DONA to be a birth doula, and am working towards my certification now. The kids are growing, my knitting has been waning. I did work for a while in a local yarn store (now defunct) designing house patterns, so it's not like I gave up on yarn completely.

And then this thing happened. I was in the movie theater, on Christmas day, watching The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. It was amazing. But. I found myself distracted by Valentina's fingeless mittens, and waiting for different shots of her hands so I could figure out how they were made. Seemed so simple, but not like every other pair of fingerless mittens I've made for myself. And then I realized "Hey, dummy, you're sitting in a movie theater WITHOUT YOUR KIDS on a HOLIDAY counting RIBS on GLOVES. I think it's time to start knitting again!"

And so I have.

Oh such a long time.

2008-11-25T20:06:00.007-05:00

It's been a ridiculously long time. It's been a ridiculously long year. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was about 18 years this year.

But I'm back (kind of) and working on being more back. My kids are growing, I've got time to knit again, and I've got a job working for a yarn store. What could be better?

I'm coming up on my third blogiversary. I can hardly believe it. It seems so much has happened in just three years. I have so much to say. So much to report. And so little time to do any of it. I don't have any photos of anything wooly, so these pictures of my beasties will have to suffice.

Summer Knitting

2008-07-09T15:16:00.003-04:00

Yes, I'm still here! I have precious little time to knit these days, and even less time to update the old blog. But I do have some things to show!

I made myself a sweater. This is the 4th sweater I've made myself this year. And the first one that I'm not frogging. Yet. I still might. It's Rowan All-seasons cotton in a beautiful shade of brown. I love it. I thought I wasn't going to have enough to make a full sweater so I started making a wrap shrug. But I had more yarn. So it grew, and grew, and ended up being a wrap sweater. Which looks like total crap on because it was never designed to be a full sweater. But I do love the lines of the fronts.

Here you see a chair modeling the sweater in wrap position. I'm trying to figure out how to reknit the sweater preserving the lines of the wrap without it looking like total crap on anyone but a ladder backed chair. In the meantime I wear it like this:

which does nothing for the lines of the front but at least it looks like only partial crap on. In the meantime the Divine Miss M needed a sweater for ballet class so I made the wrap for her.

It's not the best thing ever but she loves it. She loves that it's cropped and the sleeves hit above the elbow, which was what she specified. I made matching leg warmers but they're far too baggy. I used a wool-cotton blend from Plumknit and it has less memory than I do, which is really saying something. So I'll reknit those before fall.

In the meantime, I've been obsessively trying to develop the perfect mesh bag. I've got a lot of old cotton ease in a shocking shade of orange and I'm using it up. I use (and love) Chicobags for shopping, but what I need are small mesh bags for carrying wet bathing suits and toys back and forth from the sprinkler park. The first attempt was knitted.

As you can see, I was experimenting with stitch patterns to find the one that I think works best for this application. I wasn't thirilled with any of them so I gave crochet a try.

It ended up a little too narrow and tall for my taste. Also, this version doesn't compress as much as the knitted one so it's not as portable when empty. But I like the drawstring. I prefer the handles on the other one, though.

I've got another knitted one on the needles but it's turning out to be ginormous. So I'm planning to frog it but I'm kind of over the orange mesh bag thing for a bit.

I'm Still Here!

2008-06-16T13:01:00.002-04:00

I'm sorry I've been gone for so long. I've missed blogging, and though I've been reading my favorite blogs, I haven't been reading them as often as I'd like. Things have been busy and crazy and I just haven't been knitting much. I have finished a couple of projects, I've frogged a couple of projects, and I'm kind of just feeling the knitting blahs at the moment.

Anyway, I do have some photos to show: I finished a little crochet toy from a pattern by Owlishly, available on Ravelry as a Ravelry download. I modified the Scott pattern to resemble Diego whom my wee Mole adores. Truth be told, he prefers Dora (as evidenced by his calling out "Dora!" whenever he sees some Dora paraphernalia and singing the Dora theme song to himself as he rides along in a stroller or on my back in a baby carrier. However, I was afraid of making Dora's hair, so I attempted Diego first.

I made a crochet loop wig cap and cut the loops. i tried to cut them unevenly to make Diego’s spikey hair but I fear it simply looks uneven. I gave him shorts and modified the stitch count a little to make the short legs wider than the calf. I also added socks and made a little vest and rescue pack.

I am a VERY novice hooker and the Scott pattern is extremely easy to follow. My only problems with this are due to my inexperience - I’m tense, it’s tight, and hard to poke the hook through the holes. Also, the yarns are two different materials - cotton and wool - and thus have different amounts of give. They are also slightly different weights, and I don’t know enough about crochet gauge to adjust properly with hook/stitch count so i just barreled on through with the same hook size (except for the back pack which was a significantly thinner yarn and didn’t need to join with the other yarns so i downsized.)
I made this as a “test” before i plunged into another Owlishly pattern, Seth, which is the one I really want to make. I thought starting smaller would be a good first attempt but really I think the larger doll will be easier. I had trouble with the tiny little arms. they’re kind of a mess and i just sort of winged them in the end because i couldn’t find the actual stitches a lot of the time.

I used safety eyes and embroidered a small mouth but if my kid doesn’t accept it as Diego I might cut more accurate pieces from flannel and stitch them on, as I did with Dora's backpack.

I Can't Win!

2008-04-07T11:00:00.002-04:00

So I have been wanting to try to crochet some amigurumi animals. I knit a lot of toys, but I feel that the texture of the crochet would lend a totally different spin to things. So I bought the "Tikki Tiger" pattern from Simple Arts Planet and got to work. I decided if I had any hopes of the Squid liking this toy (unlike every toy I've knit for her) it had to be pink. So I set out to make a pink cat.

If I were to do it all over again (and I will!) I would not use the plastic nose. I would embroider it. It's just too much plastic on such a small face, I think. Well, my girl came home, picked it up, smiled and said "Pink's not my favorite color any more."

And seriously? I am so happy to end this year-long reign of pink that I was thrilled and thought nothing of the cat. Or the nearly complete Surprise Jacket.

The new favorite color is "light light light light light light light light light green." Which is fine, because I have yarn just that color, with matching alien in a UFO button. All set to become a Bog Jacket. Take that, favorite color change! You can't defeat my stash!

The Good News is that the Mole adores the little pink kitty. Whew.

In other news, I have an ongoing parade of UFOs myself. The aforementioned Surprise Jacket, of course, and two pairs of unphotographed socks. I also have an unphotographed baby sweater for a baby already born. Just needs sleeves and a button band.

I've been working on Stephanie Japel's Alexandra. Since the last sweater I made for myself ended up being enormous, I'm knitting this one small. I've changed the gauge and the yarn and I'm knitting the front in stockinette instead of garter. It fits, ahem, snugly, right now. So snugly that I'm skipping the shaping.

I really like it. I like the yarn, Henry's Attic Alpine Cotton. I knit and blocked a swatch so I'm thinking I know what's going to happen to the sizing of this sweater. but you know. I worry anyway.

I've also got the crown of a Matilda on the needles for a friend. Too bad it's spring already. The color is still springy, though, so if I get cracking it might not be useless until next year. My how I love that Peace Fleece. I just adore everything about it. I keep dreaming about how many things I'm going to make for myself next winter from Peace Fleece.

Sunday in the Park with Friends

2008-03-24T11:21:00.002-04:00

Making great progress on the Surprise Jacket. This is the end of one skein of yarn, plus 2 stripes of a matching near-solid. I have assembled the jacket "inside out" for this photo, because I am trying to decide which side I like best. the "right side" can be seen in the back of the jacket - the stripes of the near-solid are clearly delineated. The "wrong side" is shown on the sleeves and front, in the garter stitch it makes a more gentle transition from the variegated to the near-solid. I'm leaning towards that, but I'm not sure. Luckily I have all the time in the world to decide. What do you think?

Ok. Thus endeth the knitting content. Following is a mess of photos from our day in Bryant Park with friends. Just warning you.

The Divine Miss M was beside herself with glee at the prospect of going to Bryant Park. We've been there a bunch with tourist-friends, but never Just Because, and she thought that was an amazing prospect. She breathlessly begged to ride the carousel, then proceeded to slowly and deliberately spin in circles while marching up and down, in her imitation of a carousel pony.

The Mole was less than impressed by the carousel and preferred to sit back and chomp down some Veggie Booty while watching his crazy sister and her crazy friends ride around and around. The Divine One showed a moment of barely-bridled glee as the carousel started up.

To be perfectly honest, she actually spent more time laughing with her friend as they hid from the camera every time they passed me. Those two join forces to become a menace to society. Or at least a menace to me. I fear the teenage years. The girls have been friends since they were less than a year old. And it shows.

Liv's mom, Rosie, is the world's finest children's movement teacher. Seriously. Here she proudly sports a bonnet her kid made for her.

Also joining us for some carousel fun was our friend Issa. Issa has what may be the most beautiful singing voice of all time. On top of that, she happens to be one of the most gentle people I think I have ever met. And, she's got this very cool idea when it comes to selling her music: self-determined pricing, to "ensure that money (or lack of it) never comes between the artist and someone who might be lifted by their offering." I find that to be pretty amazing, and I would love to follow in her footsteps. I'll be working on converting my pattern sales to follow this model as soon as I have a minute to sit down and update the store.

In the meantime, you should definitely go to Issa's store where you can buy her music, become a patron and support her as she records new music, and buy songs from some similarly minded artists (as well as songs Issa recorded under her former name, Jane Siberry).

The kids (including Issa's incredibly cool, confident, and kind niece who was here visiting from Canada) then played that old heart-stopper hide and seek.

This is where my urban parenting gets challenged. I want the kids to run and feel free to be and play however they want to, but HIDE? and SEEK? in Bryant Park? gulp. Luckily we had plenty of adults and we all just took a kid and kept our eyes glued to the kid. And luckily for the kids, they didn't catch on that if they just looked where the adults were looking they'd find their hiding friends.

The Mole didn't quite get the whole "hiding" part but sure did love flinging himself all over the ground like the big kids.

Oh hey, see those pants? Despite their current filth-covered state, those pants are in pristine condition. I made them for Miss Squid almost 4 years ago. I had to peel them off of her this year to pass them on. Last year she wore them with legwarmers to cover her ankles. She loved those pants. And you would never know it looking at them. They are in perfect condition. not a pill, worn spot, or sag. I made them from Peace Fleece and looking at them now, I don't think I will never buy a different yarn for kids' clothing. It gets so soft (picky Squid girl wears them as PANTS, fergodnesssakes) and looks great with zero maintenance.

See? I managed to end on a knitting note after all.

Happier Now.

2008-03-20T12:09:00.003-04:00

Ripped out the hem of my grey sweater (for the 4th time) and added a couple of inches. still hated it, so i dropped a bunch of stitches and picked them up again with my trusty crochet hook, so the sweater is now ribbed from the bust to the bottom. it fits a whole bunch better. Still ginormous, but not tent-like.

Discovered the problem. I read the pattern and then cast on for it while I was not looking at it. I remembered the gauge as 16 stitches/4 inches but it's actually written to be 17. So my already-intended-to-be-roomy sweater became a whole bunch roomier.

Whatever. It's fine now. Cozy, comfy, and not an embarrassment.

Spring is for Sweaters

2008-03-18T09:54:00.003-04:00

I was running late for school this weekend and hadn't prepared a school-friendly project. So I grabbed 2 skeins of yarn (Berocco Comfort) and decided to wing a springy cardi for wee Mole. However, I forgot to bring a tape measure with me, so I guessed on the numbers, and it's coming out more like a 2T than the 12 mos. size the wee one needs. So I'm sticking it on hold for the moment and moving on to more pressing things, that will fit now, when they're needed.

Which means, it's time for a new Elizabeth Zimmermann Surprise Jacket. This time for the Squid, following the Adult pattern found in The Opinionated Knitter so I can make up my own size. Lately I'm really nervous about sizing. I've had some bad luck with my powers of estimating and I'm concerned.

The Knit Along is, hopefully, going to help my trepidation.

The yarn is nice and thick (Montana Targhee dyed by Mosaic Moon in the "Malayan Orchid" colorway with a skein of the same yarn dyed by Mountain Colors in the "Rosehip" colorway. I have a skein undyed for emergencies.) and I'm thinking to make a hood or a foldover collar or something to make it more jackety.

Miters are cool

2008-03-10T13:14:00.003-04:00

So I got this idea. Whenever I'm between projects and spinning my wheels about what to do next (which is when i usually cast on 15 things I don't really want to make) I'm going to start using up my scraps to make miters. Then I will put them together (no, really!) for a blanket for my bed. So far, so good.

I particularly like the cashmere ones!

Oh, another thing I knit. Sigh. I'm really sad about it, and it's ABSOLUTELY my fault. I've been admiring the lines of Tahoe for a year. I finally decided to make it. But I made some changes, and nearly all of them turned out to be bad ideas. Cumulatively, they make the sweater unwearable.

Looks ok, right? The yarn is pretty. It's single ply merino from Mosaic Moon.

Anyway. Yeah, that was one. I used a worsted merino. So the lines of the sweater no longer draped so much as seemed, well, big. And I knit it at a larger gauge than usual hoping to maintain that drape, but instead I made it so this single ply merino, already prone to pilling, pills like it's winning a speed pilling contest or something. by the time I was seaming I could already tell which sleeve I'd knit first.

Which is another modification I made. I ditched the bell sleeves and went for tapered. I like the sleeves a lot, actually. It was a good choice, because with the extra thickness of the yarn, the drape of the bell would have been unbearable. As it was, I had to slice the sweater in half across the middle and reknit the bottom downwards to omit some of the shaping to make it narrower at the bottom. I did this three times. And it's still not long enough.

And in case you didn't notice i made it a pullover instead of a cardigan (like) and I raised the V a little (do not like).

In the end, the only things I kept of the pattern, really, are the armscyes and the sleeve caps. Which are really, really great and fit very well. I think I will reknit the sweater, saving the sleeves, and going from there.

I'll leave you with the Divine Miss M eating a Ginger-O, the best cookies on the planet.

Oh such a long time.

2008-03-08T21:08:00.003-05:00

I've been busy. We've been sick. We're getting better. (The kidney stone is missing, they think it might have dissolved. whatever.) Winter is ending. We're applying for Kindergartens (yes, i KNOW how insane that is. but there are some really amazing "empowerment" public schools in our district, one only a block away. and admittance is by lottery, so we're applying for kindergarten. So there.) The Mole is nearly one. yikes.

Oh, and I have a pattern published for free in the most recent Berocco newsletter! I'm very excited about this.

The fun part about it this time of year is if you stop after knitting the body, you have an egg. Then after you're finished decorating with eggs, you can "hatch" them by going back, adding neck scultping, wings, beaks, and tails.

Onto more knitting.

I made some socks from Cherry Tree Hill DK sock yarn, part of my gift from my delightful sister. I made nearly-knee socks, my favorite length, and made them sufficiently slouchy. Knit the foot on US 3s, and the leg using 4s. They were pretty quick and I didn't hate making them.

Had enough yarn left over (I always do toe-up and try to use all the yarn, but this yarn was neverending, especially knit on 4s) to make a pair for The Squid who is very happy with them.

Let's talk about the Squid for a second, shall we? She is an amazing kid. This morning my husband slipped on one of the 70 thousand toys strewn over our 2'x2' living room and she said "see, papà? this is why it's a good idea to clean up before bringing new toys out."

And she gets on her hands and knees and starts putting things away. The Mole crawled over to where she was putting blocks in the block box and started doing it, too. and she said "good job, wee man."

She's so amazing with him. Her patience and tolerance seem endless. She's sweet, looks out for him, and is generally pretty good natured when he tries to eat her eyeballs or her toes.

I have about 10,000 photos just like that - him attacking her, she is still and smiling beatifically. Most of them take place in the park, because we're big park geeks.

And here's the Squid enjoying our one and only day of snow this year.

If a Rolling Stone

2008-02-11T15:18:00.000-05:00

Gathers no moss then I have one seriously mossy stone. My kidney stone has not moved. It's there. Causing trouble. The Squid calls it my Rock and asks me often "How's your Rock, Mamma? Where is it now?" and then she admonishes "You'd better drink more water, Mamma, or you're just going to get more rocks."

Sigh.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you the shortest-lived socks ever. Too much of our family illness has killed them. there's not even really enough left to darn anymore. I'm throwing them away.

Luckily I've found a way to not hate making socks so much. This is Cherry Tree Hill DK sock yarn, from my sister's lively gift certificate. I've found that knitting socks on 3s is easier for me than on 0s. And besides, I really do prefer a thicker sock. There's not as much DK sock yarn out there (and from now on i will never use a yarn without nylon!) but I don't care. Two at a time, on size 3 needles, I can manage.

I got some Henry's Attic Pigtail Cotton in two weights. I actually got this about a month ago but just got around to fondling it. The thinner weight is the same stuff I used to make the Squid's blue chenille bunny. I got a little of each to play around with. Who knows.

No Photos

2008-02-05T16:29:00.000-05:00

i have no photos to show you. because are you ready for this? I have a kidney stone. i've been in and out of the hospital and off and on morphine, toradol, and percocet. i'm a drooling, blithering idiot. and i'm attempting to pick up and attach some ear flaps to one of the mole's hats. i can't wait to see what it looks like when i sober up.

in the meantime, if you have some "ok. enough with the sick" energy to send my way, i surely would appreciate it.

Razor Shell Turtleneck

2008-01-31T12:09:00.000-05:00

So I've been wanting a neck warmer. I had something pretty specific in mind. I really liked the stitch pattern in the Razor Shell Neckwarmer from Knitology but I really wanted something nice and tight. Something I could pull up over my chin, because the very tip of my chin is always the coldest part of me outside. I also wanted it to flare out over so slightly at the bottom of the neck, to cover the opening of a crew-necked tshirt. So I started with the stitch pattern and just made up the rest.

The yarn is "Ballet" by Fiesta Yarns (one of the yarns I bought with my gift certificate, thanks, Eej!). It's a blend of Alpaca and Tencel and has delightful drape. It's also nice and soft, and not the tiniest bit itchy - a must in neck warmer yarn. I'm wearing it now to keep my sore throat nice and cozy. I'll let you know how it keeps its shape.

So: modifications. Start with the Razor Shell stitch pattern. CO 84 stitches. I did not do the 4 rows of stockinette the original pattern specifies, but jumped right into the stitch pattern. After 5 inches I did all of the YO increases, but none of the decreases for one row. I did a few more rows in pattern, then one row of YO, k2tog around, then a simple bind off.

It's simple as pie, but oh-so-beautiful. And the fanciest thing I own (I'm a super plain-jane type). And it happens to match my hair color.

Go Ahead.

2008-01-30T15:17:00.001-05:00

Tiennie says, on her blog, that the idea behind this is "Give the award to people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on." I was touched and shocked that such a talented woman thought to mention me. And hoo-boy did it lift my spirits.

We're back in the house of sick. I spent last week barely able to drag myself out of bed with yet another cold, and my husband has the same horrid cold this week. I started to get over mine on Monday, just in time for a trip to the doctor to discover that both kids have ear infections. The Squid's strep is back (and it brought the pukies with it). And my husband has the same horrid cold. And what's today, Wednesday? That "feeling better" I had for all of 48 hours is waning and I'm getting sick AGAIN.

But, sneaking away to read some knitting blogs is what makes MY day, and Tiennie's is right up there among my favorites.

And here are some more:

b r o o k l y n t w e e d 's designs and photography always fill me with such calm. His yarn and color choices inspire me and reading his blog is like a brief visit to a tropical island. In the shade. With a cocktail.

Pamelamama is one of my favorite people in the world. Her blog is part yarn, part kids, and all pamelamama. I adore her.

Crossroad Knits: knitblogging reconnected me with high school friend LizK. I love the glimpses of her life now, some unspecified number of years later. And meeting her good friends through the bolg has been wonderful, too.

Machin-truc: what does that even mean? I have no idea. This is my sister's blog. It's brand new; she started it while she takes a semester's sabbatical from her professordom in Kansas, of all places.

Through The Loops never ceases to inspire and delight me. I found her blog when I started to knit one of her designs: Tahoe, from knitty.com.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: I don't know her. I don't have a kitchen to speak of. I don't cook. But I read her blog every day and pretend that I do know her, do have a kitchen to speak of, and that I cook all of her delicious looking treats every single day.

Brainylady: brainy indeed. And charming. And talented.

Ok, back to my world of disease-ridden kidlets. Thanks to all of these bloggers and more who give me my little daily escape.

Survival

2008-01-21T15:05:00.000-05:00

So, it's a horrible cell phone photo but I wanted to show this scarf. I made it from Henry's Attic Andromeda (silk/merino) and my simple dropped yarnover pattern. I really liked the pattern when I first made it years ago, and then every time since I've thought about making one I felt it was a little cheesy and unexciting. But with this yarn it really turned out beautifully and I like it all over again. I made this scarf during a weekend of homeopathy classes and wrapped it up to give to my teacher as a new year's present. I need all the help I can get since I haven't done a single assignment all year. My midterms are next week. Should be interesting.

I also made myself these socks in class. This yarn is some (non-superwash) Merino I bought years ago in Milan. I dyed it in my one and only dyeing experiment using acid dyes. I made a single sock about 4 years ago, hated it, and never made the other. So I frogged evil first sock ever and made 2 new ones.

Added a cable up the back to alleviate the boredom.

I then continued my mitten extravaganza by making these for my friend Martha who was visiting. See the blue Ikea bag in the background? It's a sign of things yet to come. I'll get to that part later.

In the meantime, The Mole learned how to play peekaboo. He lives for peekaboo. Epecially when played with a bowl of Pirate Booty.

Then things went to hell. Remember the blue Ikea bag? We brought back more than just some wooden bowls and a string of star-shaped lights on clearance. My little Squid brought back a nasty case of Scarlet Fever which she picked up in the ball pen. Never, ever ever again.

I was trying to figure out which was the worst part of the Scarlet Fever. The fact that she came down with it the day my husband left for a week in Europe? So she was sick, out of school, and I had no co-parent? Or the fact that she and the Mole perfected their synchronized of waking up and wailing "mamma!" in the middle of the night while sleeping in separate bedrooms, so I needed to constantly choose which kid to leave screaming for me while I cared for the other.

But eventually with the help of some antibiotics which made the Squid a Squid-on-Speed, the Scarlet Fever passed. The Squid went back to school. For one day. because the next day she woke with a rash. I gave her benadryl immediately upon seeing the rash, by the doctor's orders. Guess what? she's allergic to that, too. A reaction to the antibiotics and then to the Benadryl has lasted longer than the Scarlet Fever they were treating and led us down the road to anaphylaxis, and, thankfully, back again. Hideous doesn't describe it. Nothing can tell of the fear that coldy gripped my heart as i sat next to my girl's bed watching her chest rise and fall - waiting for it to stop. Willing it not to. Nothing can come close to the look on her face or the sound in her voice as she screamed "IT ITCHES!" at 3 am. And it's still not really gone. Not yet.

Maybe the worst part is that I wore a hole in the bottoms of both of my brand-new green socks within a week of completing them. I just never took them off and shuffled from kid to kid on wool carpets for a week. When I finally took them off (and showered) I noticed the holes. boo. I patched them with some leftover yarn from the Donnie Osmond socks. There's enough Nylon in that yarn to hold anything together.

Here she is today, the Divine Miss M, playing with her baby brother. She just looks sunburned now. That will go away eventually.

Shall we talk about knitting again and banish evil thoughts of sick kids from our hearts? Check out the Mole's sweater. I finally finished it. I had intended to make the sleeves really long so he could wear it for a long time. But really I just ended up making the body too short.

I really need to go back and add a few inches but I just can't bear the thought of more stripes. And yes, he's rummaging through my yarn stash.

Stitch n Bitch!

2008-01-11T19:58:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently today's pattern in the Stitch n Bitch 2008 page-a-day calendar is my Urban Urchin. I don't actually have a copy of the calendar, it's apparently on its way to me. So I didn't know it was today. Whoops!

And apparently there's an error in the pattern. Several people have written to me asking me to explain the odd abbreviations in the pattern. They are not odd abbreviations - they are typos. Whoops!

Wherever you see "s2s" in the decrease rounds, the pattern *should* read "sl 2, k1, psso" meaning “slip 2 stitches knitwise at the same time, knit the next stitch, then pass the two slipped stitches over the knitted stitch and off the needles. ”

This is essentially the same double decrease as sl1 k2tog, psso, but the sl2 k1 psso version lies flatter and is more invisible.

Sorry for the trouble!

What do i make from this yarn?

2008-01-05T22:03:00.000-05:00

Remember my Clapotis? I love the yarn. I adore the yarn. I still want to make myself something, probably a scarf. The Clapotis showed off the yarn beautifully but the pattern bored me to tears. I tried "Branching Out" and the pattern was more interesting but made the yarn look muddy. Or the yarn made the pattern look muddy. Or something.

So what can I make? looking for some of your favorite patten suggestions to show off an alpaca-silk blend fingering weight yarn, of which I have 333 yards. Beautiful colors, short repeats.

Happy 2008!

2008-01-01T12:01:00.001-05:00

Well, it's two full years since I started this blog. So crazy crazy much has happened in the past two years that I can hardly think of it all without my brain exploding.

For one, I've made and kept two resolutions in a row, now. In 2006 I resolved to keep a blog. Check. And then last year I made the whole stash resolution which I managed to keep, for an entire year. And yet I still have a ridiculous amount of yarn.

However, it's time to buy yarn. I just can't take it any more.

So I have two questions: What would you buy if your incredibly wonderful sister gave you a gift certificate for $50 at Yarnmarket? I'm thinking socks. I know. I know. I KNOW. I hate knitting socks. But I love wearing hand-knit socks. And I think they'd be great school-knitting projects. So which sock yarn might make me not hate knitting socks? Or do you have a better idea?

Second question. My husband wants a black sweater. Either another Seamless Hybrid or a Cobblestone. He wants it black. Solid black. Not a tweed, not charcoal. Black. Solid Black. So will a Cobblestone look horrid in a solid color? Will I lose everything if I don't use a tweed? and which black yarn should I use? He's extremely hard on sweaters. Elbows wear out in months. When he likes a sweater he wears it every single day until it expires. Think of him as a two year old. But large. I was thinking perhaps Blackberry Ridge?

And now I'll leave you with a few photos.

Here's our tree topper. I made Elizabeth Zimmermann's Christmas Fiddle Faddle stars using Malabrigo held double on size 13s. I made two stars and sewed them together, leaving an opening at the bottom. I stuffed the points with a little wool roving to make it puffy. This was our first tree and the squid decorated it with scraps of yarn and candy canes. She also put random balls of yarn under the tree in lieu of a tree skirt. All of this yarn love with utterly without prompting, by the way.

Then I made these slippers for my sister. I used the Little Turtle Knits felted moc pattern (no longer available) which I've owned for years and never tried.

I used Mosaic Moon's one-ply merino, which feels just like the Malabrigo I used for the star. I knit the womens size 8+ on 11s and felted them for 8 minutes and they felted so beautifully, but they shrank a LOT. They do perfectly fit my sister's 6.5 feet, luckily.

Oh, So Many Mittens

2007-12-20T12:08:00.000-05:00

Ten pairs of mittens (one isn't pictured here because it's already wrapped). The Squid is so excited to give them to her friends. She told me that she told everyone already, told them which color they're getting, and that it's a secret and a surprise and not to tell anyone. I bet they'll be so surprised.

I made these out of yarn that matches my husband's mittens of last year. As soon as my girl saw them, she said they had to be for Malik, because when they play house he's always the dad (she's the mom, of course). So since they match her dad's mittens, they're for Malik.

Which means the crazy 80s mittens are for Makani, which is actually more appropriate. He's that kind of guy. He wears gold lame sneakers.

Max lives for all things green, so this yarn was chosen for his mittens.

Mia gets rainbow mittens. Her favorite color is actually yellow but I didn't think it was such a great color for mittens. My Squid's pink ones are black within 2 seconds of leaving the house. I don't mind, but someone else might. So we picked this yarn, which has bright yellow in it, but is a little more playground-friendly.

And there you have it. A preschool class with warm hands for Christmas. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited to give them away and see how excited my girl is to hand out gifts to her friends.

Flu. And Mittens.

2007-12-17T10:12:00.000-05:00

First, happy birthday, Liz! Can you believe the first time I said that to you it was twenty-two years ago? gulp. moving on.

So a few years ago I was in line at the bank. I had a cold and was commenting to a friend of mine how scratchy my throat was, and how I was sick of the drippies, and I said something about "I get this same flu every year." and the woman in line in front of me turned around and literally hissed at me "if you're standing in this line it is NOT the flu." I was, of course, taken aback. Well, this past week, the Mole and I had the flu. And now I am one of those hissers. a cold is NOT the flu. Man, several times this week i wished I were just in a coma somewhere. No exaggeration. Bone pain like labor. And I've done that twice, without drugs, so I should know. just bad, bad, bad.

And worst of all, I got completely behind on my holiday knitting. Just as the Squid decided that she wanted me to make mittens for ALL of her classmates. Sigh. Luckily there are only 9 of them, including the Squid. And then two non-school friends. But those can wait. the classmates' mittens need to be finished by Friday. So as soon as I was able (yesterday), I got to knitting. (oh and by the way, as soon as I have a second I will happily share my mitten formula with all of you who asked.)

For Angus. Matching a hat I made for him last year.

For Declan, the Squid's current bestest friend. Diego to her Dora. The kid who broke my heart by telling me his favorite color was pink and that he was sad that only girl clothes came with rainbows and unicorns. He wears pink flip flops in the summer, but knows what makes boy clothes "boy clothes" and just wants rainbows, damnit. I wanted to make him something rainbowy-er and pinker, but my girl chose the yarn, professing it the "best one for her best friend." So there you have it.

For Macayla, who has not for a moment wavered in her love of purple since the moment she could talk.

These will be for Malik, when finished. Some of these is form yarn in balls, not cakes, so I have to do one at a time. Which annoys me, but there you have it. Look at that mitten. Now picture that mitten as vague geometric shapes, as if sketched in pastels on bumpy paper. Picture that, say, aqua triangle imposed over a salmon rectangle with a zorro-like scribble of black, on an oversized white shirt with shoulder pads, bloused out over a wide, asymetrical black studded belt. Over an acid wash denim miniskirt. Over slouchy suede ankle boots. I think I wore that to Liz's birthday 22 years ago.

Tomten! Finally!

2007-12-10T15:59:00.000-05:00

Moley is sporting his first fever, so please excuse the sad, sad gaze. He's actually an amazingly chipper sick baby, but we were out on a little walk to get some fresh air and he was zoning out a little. These photos are taken with my cell phone while holding it up to a glass door so I could center the photo. So clearly not my most pristine images ever.

I haven't received the buttons I ordered yet, so I've tied a scarf around his neck to hold the hood on. He's in a baby carrier strapped to my chest to the front is staying closed that way. I love the shape of this hood.

I'm thinking about adding a blanket stitch edging in royal blue or purple. I have to see what the buttons look like when they arrive. I love the Rowan Big Wool in garter stitch, and I love the shape of this Tomten. I just halved the numbers EZ specified and skipped the short rows and the jacket is perfect. The sleeve length is great to just unroll and use as mittens.

I can't believe how long this took me to finish. I've been holding off on the last 14 rows of the last sleeve for ages. I don't really love knitting at such a large gauge, and the bulkiness of the big wool meant I couldn't tote it around. I loved the pattern though, and will be making one for the Squid soon.

In the meantime, this was a school weekend so I got some other knitting done, too. Wanting to give hand-made gifts this year, but having only my persnickety kid as a gauge - the only thing she has ever loved that I've made for her are these mittens. Almost a year later, she readily admits her love of pink, though she still mostly shuns princesses (especially princess movies, though she is sometimes tempted by some sparkle and shine in the toy store). When she lost one of her pink mittens, you'd have thought the world ended. I made her some new ones (she's at school with them right now, so no photo) and she wept with joy. Seriously.

So we decided to make mittens for all of her friends for the holidays. We meaning she decided what I should knit, for whom, and which color. And I'm doing the knitting. This pair is for Ruby and they match Maya's ladyslipper cardigan.

This pair is for Liv, who used to like blue but now likes pink and blue. Only 4 or 5 more pairs to go.

I also started a pink bunny out of some Muench Yarns Touch Me. So shiny and pink. The Squid requested it, of course. I fully expect her to reject it, but I needed to make one anyway to photograph for the pattern which I'll be printing up soon.

Urban Urchin

2007-12-07T09:29:00.001-05:00

I designed this hat 2 winters ago. I was looking for something that wasn't snug, but stayed on. Something that wasn't froo-froo, but wasn't plain, either. I had been making myself some mistake rib scarves - I can't stand when scarves are all bulky under coats. So I was making skinny scarves just long enough to wrap around my neck twice and tie. When I'm inside, i unwrap it a little so it goes around my neck one time - but it's not thick so it doesn't make me hot, and it doesn't dangle too long and get in the way. So I decided to make a matching hat. The first version - the one I still wear every day in winter - you can see in my little photo of me over there in the corner.

This pattern is in the 2008 Stitch N Bitch calendar, but I've finally gotten it laid out and ready for you to buy if you don't want to buy the whole calendar. I haven't seen it yet, but I've seen some of the other designs on Ravelry, and it looks like a great collection - I hope mine arrives soon!

The red version pictured here? Stolen by the Squid. Though sometimes even the infant Mole wears the hat. I love mistake rib.

(and the Knitty pattern of the similar name? yeah, I know. But I submitted this to the Calendar in autumn of 2006 so it's a little late to change the name now! hats *do* resemble sea urchins. what can I say?)

Tying up loose ends.

2007-12-05T09:29:00.000-05:00

Finally lengthened Brigitta's sleeves. put new soles on my slippers, and my husband's slippers. made the Mole some tiny rainbowy leg warmers. finished one sleeve of the stripey sweater, can't face the next one. have half a sleeve left on his Tomten. need to knit the Squid a hat. holiday knitting? hahahaha.

bye bye, Arwen

2007-11-30T11:13:00.000-05:00

So. After seeing this beautiful cardigan by Tiennie I decided to abandon Arwen. I've hated nearly every minute of making it. I may try again some day, because I do love the cable and especially how it reverses, but I think I'll try to remake it in worsted, as the pattern calls for. I think playing with gauge and not understanding the construction is all too much for me. If I can get gauge I can just follow the pattern and not have to work so hard. My brain can't take the working so hard these days.

So I bought the "Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie" pattern from Webs, and while I still need to convert the pattern from worsted to DK, at least this one is a raglan and I can figure it out if i hit some glitches along the road.

So I'm going to tear out Arwen and get started on that this evening. Wish me Luck.

I Hate Stripes.

2007-11-29T11:43:00.000-05:00

This Treliske striped sweater is killing me. I loathe knitting stripes, especially striped sleeves in the round, spit-felted and magic looped. But the alternatives sound so much worse: weaving ends, seaming... I just hate stripes. The Mole will have outgrown this thing before I'm finished with it.

To distract myself I ripped out the red muppety shrug I made while pregnant, salvaged the sleeves, which fit nicely, provisionally cast on and knit the raglan up, following EZ' plans, and then picked up and knit down. I find myself with a too-snug raglan and a too-wide rest of the sweater. I'm going to have to rip it out again and provisionally cast on far fewer stitches and do the raglan decreases every 3rd row. But now i don't feel like it.

So I made myself some mittens. The convertible ones I made myself 3 years ago got lost last year - or at least one of them did. I've been wearing my Knucks a lot, but when I push the stroller I need a bit more. So I made plain old mittens. I've been hoarding this yarn for a while. I just love it, and that's saying a lot for someone who is not head-over-heels about blue. In fact I mostly hate it. But I love this yarn. It's an Oregon Merino from Mosaic Moon and the texture reminds me of a cross between Adam's farm merino and Blackberry Ridge. Buttery soft, but sturdy. I knitted it pretty tightly to hold up to the wind. I also made a duck-webbed thumb gusset which looks crazy but fits like a dream.

In other knitting news, Brigitta is fitting me well with the addition of a couple of buttons and some wearing. I do need to lengthen the sleeves. Then I can put the other sleeve on the Tomten for the Mole.

Also? i found another skein of that Farmhouse Yarn's "I'm Allergic To Wool" to go with the pink one for the Squid's biki. Ihad the squid choose a color to complement the pink and she chose a peachy-orange that reminds me of Baby Aspirin. Nice combo.

So Many Things, Halfway Finished

2007-11-20T11:32:00.000-05:00

We have houseguests (don't get me started) and it's impossible to find the time to sneeze much less take posed photos of unfinished knitting projects.

So here's where I am. An all-verbal update. Finished Brigitta. Maybe. It came out as I expected with my adjusted gauge. Problem is, I am not the size I expected. I don't actually own a full-length mirror which makes it hard for one to have any concept of one's changing shape after having a baby. and I am not one of those people who bounces right back after having a baby. So I made this sweater based on what shape I think I am. And I'm not.

So I occasionally wear it around the house trying to decide if ripping it out and making it again, larger, will help or not. I don't really think so. I think it is what it is, I am what I am, and we shall just continue to hang out together, a little uncomfortably.

I'm also plowing away on that mohair thing. Progress is being made but I think I might not have enough yarn. And I suspect that's going to be too small, too. I need to get a mirror. and possibly measure myself.

Oh, and here's a photo of my hair perfectly matching the decor in a Chinese restaurant. Too bad I hadn't finished the mohair thing. It's the same color. Classy.

School Weekend Knitting

2007-11-13T10:09:00.001-05:00

Last weekend was another lecture weekend for us first year students in the NY School of Homeopathy. Which means I broadened my knowledge of the medical art, more deeply explored my thoughts and ideas about illness and cure, spent alone, adult time with no small people climbing on me, sucking on me, puking on me, or wiping their maple-syrupy fingers all over me. And I got to knit a whole bunch, too.

Brigitta. I did a lot of playing around with size, but decided to follow the numbers for the size small arm scye and sleeve cap. I am glad I did. It's tough to take a photo of black yarn on a cloudy day, and it's equally tough to use words to describe how well this sleeve is constructed. I have to say it's been a long time since I've knit a set-in sleeve, because I hate designing them and have rarely found one in a commercial pattern that fits just right. This one definitely does.

The sweater itself doesn't look particularly great on me, but that's my post-partum body, not the sweater. It would look adorable on someone who is built differently - either slender or roly-poly. I'm neither at the moment, I'm lumpy, and while this sweater masks the lumps somewhat, some lumps just won't be masked.

I don't have a finished photo yet because I need to pick up the provisional cast-on for the sleeves and put on the cuffs. I couldn't do that in class because it requires more trying on and measuring than I'm comfortable doing in a casual class of 20.

So on Sunday, I cast on a sweater for the Mole.

It's various natural shades of Treliske Organic Merino from New Zealand. Part of my ongoing use-up-the-old-stash experiment (still have not purchased yarn this year, can you believe it? and I have TWO sweaters on the needles for myself. whoops.) I wish these photos could show how beautifully squishy and soft this yarn is. In my opinion, there is nothing finer. I love this yarn. It may be my favorite yarn of all time. t does pill and felt rather severely, so who knows what i'll look like by the time the Mole finishes rolling all over the wool rugs while wearing it, but I don't care. It's soft and lovely and uses up 3 partial skeins of yarn. And he needs sweaters.

Brigitta is Speedalicious

2007-11-08T09:39:00.000-05:00

Arwen has been bringing me down. It's lovely, but takes forever. I need a sweater yesterday. Plus, I've been reading about the modifications some people have made and I wish I had made them. I'm contemplating tearing it back to the beginning and starting over. It's been over a month since I started and I haven't finished the first front piece yet.

Then Brigitta entered my life.

She's everything I wanted Arwen to be, but knitted on size 15s. I will either be adding buttons or leaving it open because i'm not really a brooch kind of girl. I love the swinginess and I love the shoulder shaping. Can't wait to get there. This is going so quickly I'm sure I'll be there soon. This weekend is another school weekend which means 2 days of sitting in 8-hour lectures. I can be wearing Brigitta by Monday, for sure.

And, I alreadt have a bunch of Rowan Big Wool so I bought the pattern and cast it on. Then checked my stash of black Rowan Big Wool because I've been using it for little things here and there. Because I have so much of it.

you see where this is going.

I think I'm going to run short. Which is ok. Because then I'll just rip out the Mole's Tomten. Which is ok because I never intended to make him a black one anyway. I intended to make him a red, orange, and white one. But he needed it for Halloween. But I didn't finish it on time for Halloween. So he doesn't really need it. Never mind that I'm only about 28 stitches away from finishing it.

Anyway, I'm focusing on loving Brigitta instead.

"hooray" and "poncho" in the same sentence

2007-11-05T10:33:00.000-05:00

When the Squid was wee, I made her a poncho. I was tired of the fighting to get the arms in the sleeves, the buttons all buttoned, the taking in and out of the stroller or baby carrier to dress and undress her as the temperature changed - the poncho seemed perfect. Fashion be damned. It worked well, so I wrote to my dear friend Martha and asked her if a poncho was a girl thing or a boy thing. I thought Martha's son The Professor might benefit from one, and I knew Martha to be sensible about the whole boy/girl clothing thing. Not all scared that putting a pink diaper on her son might make him gay, but not putting him in a lace pinafore to be mocked by the masses, either.

Anyway. I said "Would you consider putting a poncho on your son?" and she replied "Theoretically, yes, though it instantly brings German tourist child to mind. Personally, I don't think so. Someone a bit crunchier might."

So I replied "if you had said "hooray! finally a poncho by son can wear!" i may have put forth some effort."

Her answer? "Hmmm. I actually wouldn't use "hooray" and "poncho" in the same sentence."
Bah. I have to say that those words echoed in my mind last winter when my husband suggested that the Squid needed a poncho for the back of the bike. And I resisted. But this year I caved. And despite the Squid's pout, she likes it, too. Immediately after I took the pouty photo, I took this one:

That's my girl saying "Gotcha!" You can see the whole gamut of facial expressions on flickr.

Oh, and the white ribbons? Don't ask me. My child has never worn a ribbon. My child has never shown interest in a ribbon. But for whatever reason this morning she insisted that she wanted 2 pigtails, 2 ribbons, and 4 clips. I tried using yarn but she found this huge satin ribbon from a present and demanded I use it.

We Survived Halloween

2007-11-01T11:41:00.001-04:00

Of course the unicorn costume turned out pretty much like every toy I make for her. She refused to wear it. I did get these three fast photos with my cell phone, so excuse the quality. There she is playing in the coffee shop with the Mole, who also refused to wear his costume.

There were wristbands and legwarmers which she flat out refused to put on. She did wear the hat for a bit, but then took it off. When someone asked her where her costume was, she said "I'm wearing a costume, look!" and plucked at her white unitard. Last year she took her costume off and told people "I don't need a costume, I'm jut me!"

She sure did love going into all of the stores on Avenue A saying "Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! If you don't, I don't care - I'll pull down your underwear!"

She always took extras and came running back out to the sidewalk to dole them out to her friends when they were too scared by the various masks and decorations to go into certain stores. And if she herself was frightened, she'd mutter, "it's only a costume. There's a person in there. I'm going to go touch it!" and she would. then she'd clench her teeth, pretend to shudder, and say "sceeeeery!" while dancing around in a little circle. All in all, I'm proud of my girl. And not just because she gave me half of her candy.

A New Beginning. Again.

2007-10-30T11:52:00.001-04:00

It got suddenly cold here. Tomten and Arwen were placed on hold for a second while I get to work on a poncho for the Squid. She needs one for riding on the back of her father's bike on the way to school every morning.

I've had this Black Forest Naturwolle for years . Four skeins were given to me as a gift and I have been looking for the right project. The yarn is beautiful. A mess of color without being garish. thick thick thick and bulky - I'm knitting it on 10.5s but could probably stand to go up to 11s. And the Squid says "hm. yeah, it's soft enough."

Speaking of Tomten, I've joined this fledgling knit-a-long for Tomtens of all shapes and sizes. I think you should, too.

Yarnicorns

2007-10-26T11:16:00.000-04:00

I think I mentioned that my Squid wants to be a unicorn for Halloween. And her friend has decided she wants to be whatever the Squid is going to be. Well, being my Squid, she insists that her costume be made out of yarn. And so I make two.

I bought a bag of "alpaca" boucle on ebay a couple of years ago. It cost next to nothing and was far too expensive for what it is. If there's any alpaca in it I'd be very surprised. It feels like shredded shopping bags. And I have 10 balls of it. So I started by coupling it with some rainbowy yarn from Mosaic Moon. Big tassels make lovely tails.

I made a gazillion smaller tassels from oddments + "alpaca." I'll be knitting bonnets from the white and attaching ears and these tassels to make manes. Not sure about the horn yet. I'm picturing a cone of paper painted with glue and wrapped with rainbow yarn in a spiral around the cone. Or maybe crochet. Not sure.

I'm also holding the "alpaca" doubled with some of the rainbow yarn and knitting wristbands and ankle bands. The rest of the costume consists of white unitards, so I thought the fuzzy, rainbowy echo at the wrists and ankles would be cool.

And here's what happens when you put a sleepy baby in a high chair to play with a block while you have a staff meeting at a coffee shop. He falls asleep in the middle of chewing on the block. Kind mothers take photos with cell phones before rescuing their children from naps in high chairs using blocks as pillows for their gums.

Arwen is kicking my A...

2007-10-24T10:14:00.000-04:00

But it's my fault. I'm trying to be all clever but I'm not reading ahead. I decided that my backwards loop cast on looked like garbage so i did a cable cast on for the arms - then realized i couldn't graft the cuff together that way. sleeve be gone. Then I decided that I'd be clever and end the body cable in the middle of the repeat so that I was doing the same part on the cuff after the short rows and miscalculated.

Anyway. I've ripped back, STILL miscalculated the body vs. cuff cable thing and added 2 extra short rows in the arm to make the cables balanced.

I really shouldn't knit with a cold.

Shades of Green

2007-10-22T12:34:00.000-04:00

The Squid found the Surprise Jacket and put it on. She loves it. She loves the short sleeves. She loves the cotton yarn. And it actually kind of fits her. If I had more yarn I'd take out the bound off edge and add more to it, giving it a bit more length and width. Alas. So I think I'll just add buttons, let her wear it for a bit, and then when she's done with it I can add the extra length that the Mole needs to make it a long-sleeved sweater. I have enough yarn for about 10 more rows on each sleeve.

I have to say this color is perfect for the Squid. She has these mercurial color-shifting eyes and this olivey-sagey-green is the exact match of one of the colors they sometimes become (and they fixed color they were before they started changing this past spring).

Oh, and I have no idea what the Mr. Roboto pose is in the photo. you should see the others.

I also got back to work on Arwen a bit, taking some time off from the Tomten. It'll be January before it's cold enough for such a heavy jacket if this weather keeps up. And I wanted to work with more reasonable sized needles for a bit.

I got a big ahead of myself and made some "improvements" which resulted in tearing back to before the sleeve cast on a total of three times. I'm taking notes, though, and I hope my "improvements" do indeed turn out to be useful. Remind me to check the knitalong notes for future projects.

gartergartergarter

2007-10-18T11:36:00.000-04:00

It's time for my daily photograph of black garter stitch.

I know you're all thinking (I know I am), "When will she finish that thing?" Soon, I hope. I tried it on the Mole this morning and the sleeve length fits him perfectly. I have a few more sets of decreases to do per EZ and I will do them. Cuffing the sleeves means the jacket will fit for a while. And I like the look of a garter sleeve with a garter cuff.

I miss working on Arwen. I miss the delicious yarn (Big Wool reminds me of those yarny ribbons my mother used to put in my pigtails, obsessively matching them to my outfits, when I was a child in the 70s.). I miss the cable. I'll be back to it, soon. I'm thinking to make just the Tomten for now and go back and add the bottom later, when (if?) it actually ever gets cold.

My Little Tomten

2007-10-17T10:23:00.001-04:00

I tried to take a photo of the Tomten-minus-sleeves on my baby to showcase his newfound sitting skills (and the adorable hood on the Tomten). But my baby wouldn't cooperate, yanking it off so violently (uh-oh. this is a bad omen.) that he fell over, banged his head, and wailed. repeatedly. So I'll have to make do with two separate photos.

I have to say that when I grafted the hood I thought "oh, this cutting all measurements in half thing was a bad idea. this will never fit. look at that tiny hood! and those huge armholes! and there's almost nothing to the darned thing before those armholes appear!

But, as always, EZ is a genius and it fits perfectly. Or at least it seemed to, in the 2 seconds my kid had it on before falling over.

A Productive Weekend!

2007-10-15T15:25:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't frog the starting of the black cardigan, I snipped the yarn and just started on a Tomten. Because my gauge is 2.5st/in I'm following the "baby" instructions, but cutting everything in half. So far, so good. I'm finished one front, and am halfway through the back. It's flying by, though I can't stand knitting with the big needles (I'm still using the 13s, thinking this will make a nice, dense fabric for a snowsuit). Then I put the Tomten aside as a not very portable project. Because this weekend, I needed a portable project.

I have enrolled in the New York School of Homeopathy, and in a mere four years I will receive my diploma and be ready to sit for the certification exams. Whew. This is something I've wanted to do for quite some time, and I was waiting for the right moment. I came to understand that there would be no right moment, so I just went for it. The bulk of the classroom hours take place in monthly weekend seminars of 8 hours per day. So I brought some knitting.

I should point out that I have ADD and the thought of sitting in a classroom is horrifying to me. Really, it should be called Attention Excess Disorder, as I have no deficit of attention, but a surplus. Knitting busies my hands and counting takes just enough of my mind that I am able to listen and remember the lecture. In the moments in which I put down my knitting I found myself cloudy and lost. So I kept on knitting.

I made some more EZ bootees for the Mole. I made these following the instructions for the newborn size at a slightly larger gauge, and they are a bit large. I'm sure they'll fit any day, though. I ran out of yarn on these and had to do the last three stitches of the graft and the ties in solid purple. It matches perfectly and is completely undetectable. The yarn is a domestic organic Merino from Mosaic Moon.

I made another pair, in Treliske Organic Merino in a Marle blend of natural colors. Also too big.

I also put in a good amount of work on Arwen. I'm ready to cast on the extra stitches for the first sleeve. I love this pattern. I love this yarn. If it doesn't fit I'll be most disappointed. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

What am I Thinking?

2007-10-12T11:12:00.000-04:00

What the--?

Ok. So in a fit of something yesterday I got out this huge ball of Rowan Big Wool (4 skeins - i started making myself a Tomten from it and then frogged it all into one giant ball) and decided that the Mole must have a black garter cardigan immediately. I decided a simple, jackety drop shoulder with zipper would be best.

My big needles are all Knit Picks Options and I could only find one 15 and one 17 but I was able to find both 13s. So I used those. The fabric is dense, but actually fine for a fall jacket.

But now that I see the back complete, it's a bit stiff and I'm thinking a modified drop shoulder would be better. Then I thought - why don't I just make a Tomten? I had planned on making the Mole a Tomten with legs out of some red Big Wool. Why not make it black?

So now what I'm wondering is this: I've finished the back and half of one front for a basic drop shoulder cardi. Do I simply rip back the last few rows of the back to where the armholes should be, and continue knitting the front in pieces, and make a seamed Tomten? Or is that actually more work than ripping the whole thing out and starting over completely? Or should I just finish this cardi as I started it and make the Tomten in red as intended?

Why do I always cast on impulsively and then overthink things?

Undone. Continuing.

2007-10-11T10:54:00.000-04:00

You know how some people have those eyes - the ones that change color based on what they're wearing, or their mood, or the weather? I have those eyes. They're mostly olive green but can go from grass to grey depending on a lot of factors. I think this yarn is the same way. Today is a stormy day and the yarn is taking on a steelier, bluer hue. I like it a lot.

Remember my lemon tree? Well, I live on the ground floor, surrounded by community gardens. Nice. But it also means mouse central. One got in and got to a Dagoba mint chocolate bar I had sitting by my knitting. I like to have a nibble or two late at night. The thing is, the mouse also got at my projects pile and ate a hole out of my pixie's head. The thing ate my knitting! AND my chocolate. I am displeased.

But then I have this face grinning at me while I scurry around taking pictures and it makes it hard to be angry about anything. His little half-open mole eyes squinch up to almost nothing when he smiles, giving him the appearance of such beatific joy that it's hard to not smile back at him.

Progress Report

2007-10-10T11:32:00.001-04:00

So the problem with the Cardigan for Arwen is that I can't just pick up a row here and there - I lose my place in the chart. So I only work on it when i know i can sit down and do all 8 rows of the cable. Which makes for slow going. I'm liking the fabric of the Wool Cotton very very much. And I find the cable beautiful. I'm not crazy about how the bottom of the cable looks. I'm following the pattern to the letter (except for gauge) and using the backwards loop method of casting on for the cable is making the bottom all wonky looking. I might have to go back and add some kind of icord edging or something, which makes the whole hem thing in the rest of the sweater rather pointless.

Anyway, pretty soon I'm going to need to stop working on this and knit two unicorn costumes. The Squid and her friend insist on being unicorns, and they insist that they are yarn unicorns. Ever eager to please, I said "sure!"

Hey, look what I see right outside my Manhattan window on this rainy finally-fall day. Lemons!

Nearly Finished

2007-10-09T14:05:00.000-04:00

The Surprise Jacket is nearly complete. It actually fits the Mole pretty well. I am going to add a couple of rows to the sleeves to make them full length, and then it will join the Squid's Ladyslipper cardigan in the pile of things awaiting buttons.

I did have some traveling decreases at the beginning, but I think it's fine the way it is.

While waiting to finish the Surprise Jacket, I cast on A Cardigan for Arwen for myself, using that Rowan Wool Cotton. There is not a lot of shaping so it's easy enough to change gauge without even having to think much. the cable band in the front is going to be narrower, but not significantly, and I don't think it will take anything away from the sweater. I love the reversible cable.

This was in Interweave Knits a couple of issues back but didn't impress me because I generally prefer a more fitted sweater, and the open front seemed not so useful to me. But now, I'm still all post-partumy doughy with a big rack and bigger belly. I know I won't be built like this forever, so i don't want to knit something fitted in a bigger size. But I figure even if i make this nice and big I can still wear it when i am shaped smaller than I am now. I'm thinking that the DK yarn will keep it swingy and not simply huge.

The open front that seemed silly before seems practical now - I'll probably most often wear it open over a baby carrier or wrap strapped to my front (I get hot easily so I'll like a sweater I can wear over a carrier instead of something I will find myself trapped underneath).

And yes, I've already made a mistake in the cable pattern. And yes, I've already decided not to care.

A Surprise Grows in Manhattan

2007-10-05T09:09:00.000-04:00

It's growing. And it is, as EZ says, it is starting to look quite odd indeed.

I tentatively did its origami fold to see the size and it will most certainly swim on the mole. I'm seriously thinking that i could just add sleeve length and make it a cropped sweater for the Squid. I'll have to see what it looks like when it's finished.

In the meantime, I had a wonderful experience last night. Some friends opened a restaurant and I went to the opening party. He's a chef from Mexico. She's a chef from Tuscany. They created a menu that is an absolutely perfect blend. Like the quesadillas with prosciutto and basil. Or the pesto made from cilantro. The place is named after their daughter, Matilda (who also happens to be a perfect blend of Italian and Mexican) and is on 11th and Ave. C. You should seriously consider going to eat there as soon as possible. We're actually scrounging to find a last minute sitter so that we can go tonight and just gorge ourselves on wonderful food in peace.

I might even bring some knitting.

The Surprise Continues

2007-10-04T09:18:00.000-04:00

Plugging away at the Baby Surprise. Every report I've read is true - you just can't stop knitting this thing in anticipation to see how it'll end up becoming sweater-shaped. It's like rushing along to the conclusion of a gripping novel. I've finished the decreases; I've started the increases. I think I get it, but I'm not really sure.

The pattern is easy enough. The only problem I've been having is due entirely to my addled nursing-mother brain. I can't seem to keep track of the stitches, even with the stitch marker, and my decreases traveled some. I ripped back a few times, and just decided to not care other times. So if you closely inspect, my decreases do not follow a straight line. I choose not to closely inspect.

I do think it's going to be too big for the Mole right now. Oh well. It'll fit by spring. And I have to say I am in love with the feel of this yarn in garter stitch. The drape is amazing and there is just the right amount of squishy tossed in. I'm wondering how it will block.

Surprise!

2007-10-03T12:35:00.000-04:00

Surprise! I loved the bootees so much, that I've finally decided to take the Baby Surprise plunge. I have 3 skeins of Elsbeth Lavold Cotton Patiné that I'm lukewarm about, so I figure that's a good test run. If nothing else it'll work for an over-the-jammies extra layer at home.

I'm knitting on 5s and getting 5.5 stitches to the inch, which is exactly halfway between the gauge cited for "baby" size (6 stitches) and "1 year and more" size (5 stitches). The Mole is 6 months old, so halfway should do it. If not, he'll grow into it. And cotton will work year-round. I've incorporated the extra arm stitches into the cast on, and plan on picking up and knitting down to extend the sleeves to full length. I have to say the 3/4 length sleeves on the Baby Surplice we have are a very practical length, but if I get this right I'm going to want to make another one knit tightly with wool as a jacket, and I'll want longer sleeves.

The yarn is fine, not so splitty. Soft enough. The color is fine. It feels a little weird in garter, so we'll have to see how it drapes and wears.

Oh, and for everyone who asked: the bootees pattern is from The Opinionated Knitter, page 108. I cast on 43 instead of 51, picked up 10 on each side, and only did 3 "ridges" of plain garter before the toe decreases. My gauge was 4.25/inch using worsted weight yarn, and they fit perfectly.

Heavenly Bootees

2007-10-02T10:06:00.000-04:00

Took a break from that evil blanket. Made the Mole some bootees, Zimmermann style. Yarn is Mosaic Moon Organic Bluefaced Leicester. I modified the pattern for the worsted gauge (4 st/in in garter) by casting on 43 and only doing 3 "ridges" before the decreases at the graft. They came out sized perfectly for the Mole, who is 6 months old.

The shaping is perfection, the construction unique and interesting to knit. These were super speedy. I particularly like the high ankle - babies' clothes ride up, especially when they have big cloth diapers like the Mole, and ride around in baby carriers. I made modified legwarmers (shin warmers) for the Squid, but I think these bootees might do the trick.

The photo is a bit blurred (taking photos of spazzy kicking baby feet is no small task) but you can get a pretty good look at the garter graft at the toe. I love these booties. Especially in crazy variegated yarns, I think they're wonderful.

It's October

2007-10-01T13:34:00.000-04:00

And time to think about Halloween. The Squid says she's going to be a black cat wearing a rainbow dress. Luckily she already has the rainbow dress so all I need to make are the ears and tail. Phew. She's also thinking that the Mole should be a mouse. And while I was in the consignment store dropping off all of the newborn clothes when I found some ears.

Now I need to make the Tomten-with-legs I was planning. I have some black Rowan Big Wool so it would be speedy. But what if it's too warm for that? Maybe I should make a Baby Surprise out of some lovely charcoal merino I have lying around. He does have a pair of charcoal fleece pants... I could make booties to match the sweater - That's probably more practical. (Speaking of Elizabeth Zimmermann, the Mole is sporting a Baby Surplice made for him by our good friend Kim. It's so lovely and the fit is insanely great. I love the 3/4 length sleeves. It's perfect for keeping him warm but not getting tracked through grossness all day long. And I love a wool sweater for a baby. Many people don't. I have no idea why. Wool is perfect for soaking up baby gooey messes. And washes quickly and easily. I love it.)

Anyway, Papà, The Squid insists, must be a vampire. Me? What do I get to be? Cheese. So the Mousey-Mole can eat me.

The Apocalypse

2007-09-27T12:20:00.000-04:00

It's raining down frogs around here so often it feels like the apocalypse is nigh. And I can't tell if I'm needing to frog back to the beginning so many times because I'm being a smart ass or a dumb ass.

I made a crochet ripple blanket before. I counted stitches on one my grandmother made and replicated it faithfully. This time I am winging it. I am trying to make more undulating ripples, I am playing with size, I am using yarns with very different gauges... In short, I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm ripping this out again. I now know exactly what to do. I found the right tension, the right hook, the right pattern, and the right number of stitches. Unfortunately the version I have going right now has none of those elements. Every day the Squid wakes up, picks up the smaller-than-ever project in-lack-of-progress and makes this sighing "ugh" sound. "Again? It's never going to be finished."

This will be the 8th time I've ripped this project back to the beginning. Which has shown me one thing: these yarns - Farmhouse Yarns "I'm allergic to wool" and Henry's Attic Inca Cotton both frog very well.

Sigh.

Ugh. Biki Hell.

2007-09-26T11:18:00.000-04:00

I really really really appreciate all of the support and ideas from my hooker friends. The hand holding is much appreciated!!

So I ripped it out and started with an 8m hook, which is appropriate for the pink Farmhouse yarn. Nice. But then when i got to adding the Ecru Inca Cotton, it was far too loose. Gah. So I ripped it out again and tried starting with the white and a smaller hook and going up to the larger hook for the pink. Yes, I know that's a terrible idea., and I ripped it out again.

So I've started on this thing for the fifth time, using the 8mm hook, starting with the pink, and being super careful about my tension. I've decided to live with the white sections being lacy, and I am doing 4 rows of white for every 2 rows of pink. This makes the lacy sections the same height as the pink.

I have no idea what this will look like when I'm finished. And of course there's the wild card of how much pink yarn do I actually have? No photos today - it looks pretty much as it did yesterday, and I didn't bother taking photos of the 2 versions I made and did not keep.

I do, however, have a photo of this yarn:
which is a beautiful organic Bluefaced Leicester dyed by Mosaic Moon. I'm trying to decide if this will be pants for the Mole or slippers for me. I gave birth all over my last pair of slippers, and so I need a new pair before the cold sets in.

Pink Biki: Take Two

2007-09-25T10:46:00.000-04:00

I started in on the pink stripey biki last night. I'm using a 6.5mm hook and it's killing my hands. I'm wondering if i should go up a size. Which means ripping out the 2 rows I already did. But then again, if it makes things less painful, perhaps it's worth it. I'm too new at crochet to have a relaxed hand yet, it's all so tense and tight. I guess I should bite the bullet and go buy a bigger hook, right? Sigh.

In other news I finished writing up the elephant pattern - it's available on the side there with the others. My brain is really fried lately and writing the thing was harder than knitting it, by far. So if you spy errors, let me know. I've had testers looking at it but they've been looking at my insanity as long as I have, now.

Next up is a pink bunny. Because I let The Squid choose which "aminal" got which color. And it seems to be all about pink around here. As much as I thought we'd never escape the all red, all the time of last year... I'm starting to miss it.

Blue Velvet

2007-09-24T11:20:00.000-04:00

Oh, my. I made this little elephant using some deep blue Touch Me by Muench Yarns. Never has there been such an aptly named yarn. It's chenille, but velvet, and so much more than either. There's a touch of wool so it felts if you want it to, into the perfect soft fabric. Even the Squid likes this yarn.

I have 2 more bags of this yarn. Look for toy patterns to come soon!

Trip to the Frog Pond

2007-09-19T23:35:00.000-04:00

She insisted it had to be a blanket. I insisted it would be so small that she wouldn't like it. She insisted. I decided to attach strings to make it a superhero cape when it wasn't busy being a tiny blanket (Thanks, Pam).

So I made it. It took 3 episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer on DVD.

She liked it, she really did. She said "Yay! now go put it in my bed so I can sleep with it."

I showed her the Mole's blanket made from Inca Cotton and told her that I could easily rip out the pink blanket bit and add some white to it. I showed her photos of granny squares. I showed her some knitted blanket patterns. Finally, she decided on a crocheted ripple blanket, like this one.

I think it's an excellent idea. It'll take no time at all. I know for sure she'll actually like it. I know for sure she'll actually use it.

So it's off to the frog pond.

Thank you all very very much for your suggestions. I appreciated each and every suggestion. The Squid enjoyed the little presentation I offered her, made of all of your ideas. As the Squid says when she wants to know more about something, "Let's go look at it on your computer. Your computer knows everything."

I know it may seem like I'm letting a four year old walk all over me, but this is what we do. We look stuff up, we think about it, we talk about it, we try it, we trash it and start all over. I enjoy the incredible challenge of looking for something she will enjoy. I love it when I hit it on the nose. I don't mind when I miss terribly. I guess I just like the thrill of the hunt.

Sunday With My Little Squid

2007-09-17T11:10:00.000-04:00

So the Squid says to me yesterday "Hey, mamma. Remember that time we went to the grocery store, just you and me?" When I tell you that the grocery store is next door, I mean next door, as in the bricks of my building touch the bricks of the grocery store. And that exciting trip to the store was probably 3 months ago, and it was to run and get milk. I felt immediate pangs of guilt that my Squid sees so little of me without the Mole attached.

I do try. We spend every afternoon together at the park, with friends, at the coffee shop, hanging out. The Mole lives in various baby carriers, just hanging in there while I try to shower attention on the Squid. But you know, after 4 years of spending so much time with her - I miss her. And she misses me, too. Ok. I get it.

So we strapped the Mole to papa for a walk to the computer store while the Squid and I went to the park. Where we had a fabulous time, swinging together, sitting on a bench and talking with no one squeaking, squawking, or latched onto various body parts. On our way home we stopped into the yarn store to pick up buttons for the Squid's cardi, nearly finished.

Yeah, this is what she chose for her beautiful, earthy, yet still purple and pink sweater. My Squid is an enigma.

And as I was paying, I felt this little curly head leaning on my thigh. I looked down and she was hugging a wildly expensive single skein of hand-dyed pink yarn. "I love this yarn," she said. "It's the best yarn ever. Can we buy it?" Wildly expensive. Single skein. No more left in the store. She rubbed her tender, little girl cheek on the yarn, and hugged me harder. "You could make me a biki. A little one." I told her it would have to be really tiny wee and she said "I don't care. I just want it to be this yarn." And then she got me. "I just want something you made for me that is pink and sparkly and soft from this yarn."

Sigh. I am such a sucker. So we walked out with a wildly expensive single skein of this pink and sparkly and soft yarn. "I'm Allergic to Wool" by Farmhouse Yarns. 85% Cotton. 15% Rayon. 150 Yards. Suggested needle, 11 US, 2 stitches to the inch.

What am I going to make with this? Cannot be a toy. Or scarf, hat, mittens, vest, pillow, or legwarmers. It cannot be mixed with another yarn. Which leaves??

Sigh. When we got home, and returned to our lives again, me nursing the baby, her playing at my feet, she looked at me and said "Mamma? I love you all the way up to Canada and all the way down to Brooklyn."

Next up, Zimmermann for the whole family

2007-09-13T11:08:00.000-04:00

I have all of these Zimmermann plans. I know that I want to make both a Bog Jacket and Tomten for myself, and I have decided to make smaller versions first, following the original EZ instructions. I know that I want to make some modifications for my own versions - such as short row sleeves and waist shaping. Since the original instructions make boxy garments perfect for children, and I happen to have two sample children on hand, I figured making wee ones first would be a good idea. This way I'll be better able to visualize the modifications - knowing exactly what I'm modifying.

I'm thinking to start here. This is Alpine Cotton from Henry's Attic, dyed by Little Turtle Knits. I'm thinking this will be a good Bog Jacket for the Squid for fall. She has a down vest (she calls it a life jacket - thanks Dora and Diego) which she really likes to wear, and I figure a nice cotton sweater-jacket underneath would be perfect. I'm thinking to double the yarn - I have plenty - making a warmer, thicker garment. Let's see.

The Mole is getting a Tomten. I'm making it from some Rowan Big Wool (in the red marl above with the pumpkin for detailing. Maybe), so I'm going to have to do the math to make it fit. I'm also adding legs to the bottom of it to make a cozy suit. The Squid was a stroller girl, so all of her hand-me-down winter wear is a solid bunting at the bottom. Mole needs something split into legs because he's a baby carrier boy.

My husband? He got his EZ last year. This year he's getting Brooklyn Tweed's Cobblestone. If I know Jared a little bit, I'm sure that his design has enough EZ love inside to make it a fine choice for the EZ Family.

The New Year

2007-09-12T13:43:00.000-04:00

I've always liked the timing of my birthday, which was yesterday, by the way. As a kid (and now again as a parent) it's the start of a new school year. It's also when the weather starts to change. I hate the heat so I find myself with renewed energy in September - getting out more, walking more, enjoying my friends and my city. It's also, coincidentally, right around Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year which is not, somehow, at the beginning of the Hebrew Calendar. Kind of like my birthday.

Anyway, this new year, this birthday, and this second post-partum period of my life seems to be marked with a reclaiming of misspent youth. So I've dyed the blue bits of my hair fire engine red and bought myself some flowery Docs.

I have also taken the opportunity to take the Ladyslipper sweater out of hibernation. The yarn is Montana Targhee dyed in the "Ladyslipper" colorway by Mountain Colors. It's beautiful and earthy and satisfies the Squid's newfound love of pink and purple with my disinterest in all things gaudy and flashy. Boots and hair notwithstanding.

I'm knitting the neckline now, then all it needs is a button band and some buttons. It's the same EZ/Ann Budd/Me seamless yoke cardi I've been making for the past year, and I'm pleased with the shape and fit. Hoping it gets us through the winter... I've just discovered that all of the Squid's wool socks are too small. Damn. I hate making socks.

Back To School!

2007-09-06T09:10:00.000-04:00

And not a moment too soon. I don't know who's been acting more like a petulant child lately, the Squid, or me. Whatever the case, she's been moaning and whining about going back and could hardly contain herself this morning. It's only a ha;f day today and I think she'll be miffed about that, so I'll be bringing the just-finished chenille bunny with me as a "happy back to school day" surprise. We'll see if she actually likes it or not.

I used Henry's Attic Pigtail Cotton. This is my first time not using wool for a toy. I was nervous about it but the fabric is actually very nice, though the ears do not stand up, even for a second. I did stuff with wool, because I couldn't handle the thought of sticking icky polyfill inside my labor of love. I did use acrylic eyes and an acrylic nose because I thought it might break the spell of "hand made" that the Squid seems to balk against. The first bear I made her had button eyes. She wasn't crazy about them, either, but she at least carried it around for a day or two. We'll see. I suspect she might complain about the lack of a mouth. I did embroider one on, but I still prefer the bunny without it.

The yarn makes a far softer fabric than it feels wound in a ball. I knit it tightly on 3.75mm needles, and it feels sturdy but not the least bit stiff. I can't get those ears to perk up to save my life. The tail is sufficiently squishy, and all in all I think it turned out pretty well, for a new yarn experiment.

Maybe I should have kept all of it to make a larger throw - We inherited a sofa bed from friends on the move to Canada (Coco, Sabrina and David - we miss you already!). The couch could use a spiffy throw tossed on it. Squid's been lying there every day since we got it suggesting that she might even take a nap! So a cozy something or other wouldn't be such a bad idea.

I Took a Taxi to the Louvre

2007-09-05T22:02:00.000-04:00

My baby barfed on my keyboard. Which is really only a big deal because I have a laptop, which means I can't simply plug in a new keyboard.

So I waited for the kids to fall asleep and headed to the 24 hour Apple Store on 5th Avenue. Holy Louvre Cube is all I can say. It sticks up like a big crystal cube in the middle of 5th Avenue. A cylindrical glass elevator in the middle of the cube takes you down to the store. I didn't take the elevator. I took the stairs. Because I was so embarrassed about the fact that I was moved to take a photo of the place with my iPhone (yes, I am that nerdy) that I couldn't see straight to look for the button.

Anyway, it's midnight on a monday night - Labor Day, no less, and the place is packed. Crazy busy. I go over to the Genius Bar where I discover to my dismay that there are no openings until 4am to meet with a Genius. Damn. I tell my tale of woe ("I had to wait for two kids to fall asleep before I could leave the house! I have to be up early in the morning to spend the day with those kids! I can't possibly stay here until 4am!") to a Genius, who is unmoved until I say "essentially all I need is for you to pop on a new keyboard," at which point he says "I can fit you in right now!"

So I sat and knitted a fluffy blue chenille bunny while sitting at the Genius Bar at midnight on Labor Day. And I wasn't even drunk.

How Do I Resolve This?

2007-09-02T12:26:00.000-04:00

Excuse the utterly insane look on my face. This photo was taken in January at a fundraising award ceremony for the Squid's preschool. I was sitting at a table with Gloria Steinem and had to make a speech praising the director of the school - two women I adore and admire. I was pregnant and emotional and weepy. And I have hideous stage fright. All the time. Especially, apparently, while pregnant and in front of Gloria Steinem.

But let's talk about the shrug, shall we? A friend had loaned me the dress, and though it was January and the dress was sleeveless, I wasn't about to buy another maternity dress no one would wear a second time. So I decided to make a shrug.

The thing is, I'm not really a shrug person. I'm short, tend to have a little belly (even when not pregnant) and they just don't suit me. Of course it was perfect for a pregnant woman who had 3 days to come up with something. But for every day? not so much.

I do love the yarn. It's GGH Soft Kid in the only shade of red I can actually wear. It's soft, airy, warm, beautiful. The sleeves are perfect, I love the way they fit and feel. But as you can see, not being a shrug person, I have no experience with shrugs, and this one falls right off my shoulders. It desperately needs to be reconstructed.

I used 2.5 skeins of the yarn, and have 2.5 more. I knitted the sleeves first and then made a raglan top to it from the sleeves up, knitting only the back. I picked up and knit around the whole thing, adding about 2" all around. It's cute, but not functional at all.

I used size 8 needles, but could probably safely go up a little without making the sleeves look weird, if i needed to stretch the yardage a little.

I'm thinking about some kind of wrap sweater - maybe a faux wrap so there's no double layer in the front. or maybe a deep V neck. not sure how long i can get the sweater to be, though, with so little yarn. And having trouble matching the dye lot. So. suggestions?

Spending the Afternoon with Old Friends

2007-08-31T14:32:00.000-04:00

Squid went out to play with some friends and a babysitter yesterday. The Mole made the best of the opportunity to sleep without someone pulling on his toes or folding his ears inside themselves by taking a three hour nap. Whee! Did i knit? I did not. But I did photograph one shelf of the stash for input into Ravelry.

Let's peruse some highlights, shall we?

Ok, though lovely, it's not the most exciting yarn to look at. Peace Fleece Hemlock. It was going to be an Everyday Cardigan from the Peace Fleece pattern line. But then I remembered this blog post about the most beautiful bog jacket i've ever seen, and I decided to abandon the Everyday Cardigan for now and make the bog jacket from this yarn. So the photo is nothing to speak of, but the thought of making myself a beautiful tweedy green bpg jacket is exciting. And I've remembered how much I adore Peace Fleece and how I want to knit about a thousand things from Peace Fleece.

I also found this tweed - from my former LYS near my apartment in Milan. Yum. Merino with a touch of Rayon. Soft, fluffy, and tweedy good. I know exactly what I want to knit with this yarn, but it's not nursing friendly so I think it'll wait one more year.

Blackberry Ridge Grapes on the Vine. Delicious felted merino. Stretchy, soft, barely pills. Ever. I have 4 skeins of this. I think it should be a long cardi for the Squid. Or maybe a dress.

Last but not least, this Rowan Wool Cotton. I have fifteen skeins of this, in the most extraordinary color. I need to make myself something stunning out of this yarn. Not sure what.

I also found my stash of Blue Sky Alpacas organic cotton. Slated for a Top Secret Project. And a couple of other handpainted merinos that have no project in their future. I'm enjoying photographing and cataloging all of my yarns. Since I've got little time for knitting with it, dreaming about it is keeping me pretty happy right about now.

Speaking of knitting, blue chenille bunny is nearly complete. I ordered some plastic eyes and even a plastic bunny nose to see if it makes the toy seem less offensively hand-made to the Squid. We shall see.

Monday in the Park with Mole

2007-08-28T01:27:00.000-04:00

The Mole got his first ride on a swing. I had to prop him up with all manner of things, but he loved it. The angle is actually perfect for his little mole-eyes to peer down at his sister. She pushed him on the swing and they were both in heaven. I was snipping "ok, now, gentle..." every 2.5 seconds but they were conspiring against me, and every time she pushed him until I thought his wee head would snap off, I would repeat "ok now, gentle..." and she would say "but he liiiiiiiiikes it!" And indeed, he would chortle and gaze lovingly at her. As his head lolled about.

I have not, I am saddened to report, yet mastered knitting in the park with two kids. I don't remember at what point I was able to knit with the Squid. I may have to cast on some socks (gasp) and give it a shot one of these days.

My Blue Period

2007-08-27T00:25:00.000-04:00

I tend to shy away from the color blue. Years of school uniforms with their powder blue peter pan collars and navy jumpers and kilts have put me off of it. Yet these days I find myself surrounded by blue.

The coffee shop (more about that later, I promise) is largely blue. I don't know why I was drawn to it - but it's all shades of blues and greens. Of course there's also the blue chenille. And now that I have a son, I've been wading through boxes of hand-me-down clothes - no one likes to throw away baby clothes, but we Manhattanites have no room to store anything so at the first possible occasion we dump our 37 thousand boxes of outgrown clothing onto the next victim. I literally have hand me downs from over a dozen people. And all of them are filled with baby blue. Lots and lots of baby blue.

And then something possessed me to do this:

I've covered my natural light red-brown with black, blue, and purple. Excuse the cell-phone photo cutting me off at the nose.

I'm actually a pretty conservative person. I have no idea what brought this on. I'm chalking it up to post-partum hormones and an utter lack of "me time". In any event, my biggest concern is the coming autumn and the sheer number of green and brown tweed yarns I have saved up to knit for myself. I was feeling all wild and planned to break out of my normal blacks and charcoals with shocking colors like chocolate brown and pine green. Now I'm going to have to re-color my hair to match my yarn.

Chenille, How I Loathe Thee

2007-08-25T14:43:00.000-04:00

So I've had these 2 skeins of cotton chenille forEVer (actually i had 4 but I just gave 2 away). The Squid wanted a sweater. No, a blanket. No, a bunny. No, a blanket. No, a bunny.

Anyway, she finally insisted it needed to be a blanket. Not a biki mind you, a BLANKET. What's the difference you might ask? I did. A biki is a small blanket which one cuddles. A blanket is big enough to cover one whilst one sleeps. Hooray for me.

So I got to work on the blanket. Just in time for her to insist it be a bunny. So I didn't frog the blanket but started in on the next skein for the bunny. Just to see how long it lasts. Remember how I said I would never make the kid another toy? I'm making it anyway. Now I have two kids. If she hates it I'll give it to the other one. He'll drool on anything, he's not picky.

I did finish the pixie, by the way, kind of mostly. It's neither stuffed nor seamed but that's intentional. I need to make more pixies, of different varieties, so I can print up the pattern. And I need step by step photos of some of the stuffing and sculpting parts. So I'm saving all of the carcasses to seam up at the same time during one big photo shoot. I've started another one in the meantime.

Back To Work

2007-08-19T13:09:00.001-04:00

A nearly-finished pixie carcass that's taken me over a week. It's progress, right?

I have all of these beautiful Mosaic Moon yarn odds and ends begging to become toys. And I have all of these toy patterns begging to be typed up.

So little by little I'm trying to chip away at it all.

Everything else is going well. The Squid's out of school until September 10 and we've been all going insane... I mean, having a wonderful time together. Trips to the Connecticut suburbs on a weekly basis with the Squid's wee friend - his heavily tattooed mom and me with my blue and purple hair (did I mention that my hair is now blue and purple?) are turning heads in the sleepy suburbs. We take the train in and out and I think the entire neighborhood heaves a sigh of relief when we leave them.

But the summer was made for the suburbs, I think. Backyards and sprinklers and swingsets and the beach.... The Squid is beside herself and I get to kick up my feet with the tiny Mole without someone saying "what are we going to do now, Mamma?"

Photos

2007-08-10T00:48:00.000-04:00

Since I've got no knitting to show, I figure I can show some kids.

Here we see wee man being his usual jovial self. He has that little half-grin most of the time. Watching his wild sister fly about the room is is favorite pasttime and generally elicits a little chortle to go along with the grin.

And speaking of the wild sister...

Here's my little daydreamer.

Still notsomuch with the knitting

2007-08-09T00:07:00.001-04:00

I want to knit. Every day I have some new plan for what I'm going to knit next. And yet.

On the actually getting things accomplished side of the coin wee man is growing well and healthy, though we have discovered that his mole-like qualities come from bilateral ptosis - meaning that the muscles of both eyelids don't fuction properly, so his eyes don't open fully. He'll have surgery in a yearish. They generally wait until the kid is 4 or 5 but his doctor says that this is a "pretty good case of it" and it'll probably make things hard when it comes time to walk. Though given that he's rolling over like a mad fool at 4 months, I'm thinking to dress him in velcro and stick him to the carpet. With a 4 year old and all of her teenytiny toy bits lying around, I really am not very interested in a mobile baby right now.

What else? I have successfully opened a coffee shop in Manhattan, that's pretty cool. I love it and it's air conditioned. Pretty good coffee, too. And deeeeelicious cupcakes.

Another interesting tidbit: my husband scared the pants off of me last week when I found that his pulse was in the 40s and his temperature was 95. Huh? I looked it up and found all kinds of things about poor oxygenation and heart disease. After 2 trips to the cardiologist and a 24-hour EKG (that made the Squid laugh like crazy) it turns out he's fine. has some insane heart murmur that is, they say, perfectly alright, but it's impossible to read his pulse accurately without an EKG and his body temp is just weirdly low. Who knows.

The Squid is perfect in every way. I cannot get over how much I love that kid. And when I say to her "I cannot get over how much I love you, kid," she replies: "I cannot get over how much you kiss me, mom." Oh well. By the way, she intends to be either an astronaut or a stretchy toy maker when she grows up. She says we can have stores next to each other where I can sell not-stretchy toys and she can sell stretchy toys. So if someone goes into my shop and asks for something stretchy, I can send them her way. And if someone goes into her shop and asks for something not stretchy she can sell them on the virtues of stretchy toys and convince them to buy things from her store.

Anything else? Oh yes, the raffles for my friend's family went well. I wish I could say with great enthusiasm that we raised over $2000. I just can't say it with great enthusiasm because it went to buying a headstone for a kid who will forever be three. I hung out with his family this past week. There was a hole in the summer. Natty was sorely, sorely missed.

I Finished Something!

2007-07-20T23:15:00.001-04:00

I finished a soaker! And it even still fits my kid!

However, I'm listing it for round two of raffles for the Professor. Though he left us in December, his parents are still paying for the funeral. And they have a headstone to buy soon. And no one should buy a headstone instead of buying back to school clothes for pre-k.

So, more raffles thanks to the Fiber Arts Avengers. Go. Shop. Loads of Yarn.

trying... trying... trying...

2007-07-19T17:14:00.000-04:00

utter lack of capitals due to one handedness...

so i am trying to return. i have been knitting one row (41 stitches) a day on some cuffs for the yellow-green soaker pictured in my pile of mess below. i'm getting there.

i'm being inspired by Ravelry. and i'm trying to vow (but not yet vowing) to spend every moment i am sitting but unable to knit organizing my Ravelry page. user name is curlypurly, natch. because marnie was taken.

mewling babe. must attend.

Pathetic

2007-07-06T01:59:00.000-04:00

i finally got it together to finish up that yellow and green soaker... I absolutely cannot find my scissors and darning needles. I had to go to the store to buy more. And of course I came home with my new scissor and needles... and didn't finish the soaker.

But. Wee Mole has started to hold things so I'm getting motivated to make the purple elephant that the Little Squid insists he needs.

Motivation

2007-06-05T10:03:00.001-04:00

This is my pile of unfinished objects. They're not even big unfinished objects. That's a soaker that is by now, too small but only needs cuffs so I don't want to frog it. But I have no motivation to finish it. Then there's part of a front of a kimono that i started before it turned 400 degrees. I thought it might be useful in summer air conditioning, but since I have no air conditioning. I have no motivation to finish it.

Then there's the soaker that will fit, that yellowy-greeny thing. No particular reason, but I have no motivation to finish it.

Here we go again.

2007-05-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

Remember my fleet week experience last year? Well, here we go again.

In the meantime, in between nursing and dodging Navy planes, I finished my crochet project.

It was boring and is kind of ugly, but it was a great project for using up yarn, and easy to do one-ish handed. So I might make more. I have not been able to knit much more. Just a soaker minus the leg cuffs that the mole has already nearly outgrown and will certainly not fit into by the time i finish the cuffs. And part of a kimono sweater.

I did manage to get that pattern written up and nicely pdfed so that was a small accomplishment.

And here he is in some pants. Probably the last time he'll wear them. Poor kid is heading for second baby syndrome. I whipped up a bunch of baby things for him but now I'm thinking he's going to outgrow them so fast anyway, I may as well wait until he stops growing to make him more stuff.

In other news, I'm now a partner in a kid-friendly cafe opening up here in the East Village. Don't ask how that happened. It's still a blur. But we're opening this month and then maybe I can knit again.

My One-Handed Life

2007-04-20T11:46:00.000-04:00

These days, I need to find creative ways to do everything with one hand. The other always has a child draped across it, either nursing or sleeping. Heaven forbid I be allowed to put the sleeping child down for a moment. Oh my, no. So, I'm getting creative. I can cook myself lunch one-handed (pre-sliced salami eaten standing in front of the fridge while rocking a sleeping baby with one hand). I can shower (rinse my head in the sink with a hand-held sprayer while supporting a nursing child with one hand). I have not, however, figured out how to knit with one hand.

But I can crochet.

This is a blanket I am making using all of the odds and ends from my stash. I wish it weren't mostly blue. I feel so hackneyed making a blue baby blanket for a boy. But the fact of the matter is, I had more blue odds and ends than any other color. And I tried just using random balls of whatever but it looked better having some unifying color. This is my first real attempt at crochet. I thought I was doing a double crochet but it turns out it was a single crochet. Who knew.

Here's the Mole dozing on a blanket I knit way back when I had two hands available. The crochet blanket is one my grandmother made when I was a baby. She was quite a hooker, my grandma. Unfortunately she's not still around to mock my not-really-double-crochet. But I'm sure she'd be proud. See how I'm copying her ripple blanket design? She was big into the ripple blankets.

Oh, and please note the Mole is sporting a soaker I knit. I have to say it fits rather nicely. As do these pants.

Of course everywhere we go people can't resist saying "already wearing lots of yarn." True. But as the Squid is growing older and more opinionated I need someone to dress who won't argue with me. And now you know the real reason for having a second child.

P.S. this entire post was typed with one hand.

Showing off a finished object...

2007-04-08T13:48:00.000-04:00

Some other time I'll tell you the story of how I caught him myself standing in the middle of the room, unwrapped the cord from around his neck and cuddled him while I waited an eternity for him to start breathing. In the meantime, admire my boy, would you? He's tiny wee, and he's a bit of a mole - 10 days old and still hasn't opened his eyes. But we like him.

Kettle Dyed Yarn

2007-03-09T13:55:00.000-05:00

Is there anything more beautiful? Really. I'm obsessed with the subtle variations (and sometimes downright odd colors) that spring out of a "nearly solid" yarn when it's being knit up.

This is the beginning of a cardigan I'm making for a classmate of the Squid. Her mom is a friend of mine and a wonderful photographer and she took a bunch of photos of me a while ago - some great photos of my hands making stitches that I'll use someday for something useful. Her daughter is a pink and purple fairy princess fiend and I thought a cardigan in her colors - but in a beautiful, earthy way, would be a nice thank-you.

The yarn is Targhee dyed by Mountain Colors in their "Ladyslipper" colorway which they claim is "Lavender, Mushroom, Taupe, and Peaceful Peach." The yarn is perfect for a spring sweater - heavy enough for those "do I need a jacket?" days, but soft and rugged enough for a kid. She may be a princess, but princesses roll around on the playground, too, you know.

This is a scarf I made for my husband, to coordinate nicely with his panta. Yes, he wears a panta. Want to make something of it?

The yarn is a merino from Ebay vendor "100purewool" in the color "black," which, of course, it isn't. This yarn is remarkably similar to Malabrigo (the Malabrigo version of this same color is the yarn used for that little photo of me in the grey hat in my profile). I think the Ebay version is slightly thinner, and slightly less pilly. You can see in this photo that the scarf that my husband's been wearing for less than a month now is already hazy. It's not sturdy yarn, but it is soft, and I do love the near solids. The multiple color variagations from both Malabrigo and 100Purewool make me crazy because it's never what you see pictured, and no two skeins are ever alike. In my experience, no two skeins are ever even alike enough to use side-by-side. I do love the solids, though.

Last but certainly not least - here is another pair of baby pants (full photo here) knit from an organic merino hand dyed by Mosaic Moon. While her multicolor variegated yarn is more popular, I am enamored with her solids. Look at that depth. The richness of the color makes me want to lick it. And I have to say, I'm not generally a huge fan of purple.

So that's what I've been into lately. All of the soakers and pants has been about using up odd balls, and most of that isn't even yarn I purchased for myself, but leftovers from various projects which were chosen for me. It's nice to get back to knitting with yarn I've chosen.

About Patterns

2007-03-03T12:21:00.000-05:00

I've received a bunch of emails about the patterns used for the clothes in my previous post. I responded to each inquiry, but thought that maybe saying it here would save people some time.

Soaker pattern: mine. There's a link to it in the sidebar. It's a free PDF pattern you can download.

Pants pattern: mine. I haven't published it because it is very similar to my friend Pamela's Perfection Pants pattern available at her Wooly Wonder. My pattern changes a little bit every time I knit it. Pam's is well written, well photographed, and chock full of how-tos. I'm not going to bother publishing mine because hers is so complete. The instruction for the pleated waistband I use instead of a drawstring is in my soaker pattern, and can easily be incorporated into Pam's pattern.

Sweater pattern: mine. I made this up after measuring a bunch of clothes the Squid had as a newborn, and shaving or adding inches where I thought it was needed. I have not tried this on a baby yet, so I have no idea if it fits at all. If it does work, I will certainly make it available to anyone who has interest in it.

There you have it. Thanks for your interest and your emails and comments. If you feel like it, vote in the sidebar for a name for this kid I'm having. He's a boy, by the way, and his last name his huge and long and Italian. So many of our choices are Italian names. They just sound better.

Still here. Still knitting Still whining.

2007-03-01T10:52:00.000-05:00

I loathe being pregnant. I find no charm in it. I am tired of being poked and beaten from the inside. I am tired of my stretched and worn muscles being pushed yet another inch. I feel like I'm being drawn and quartered.

And then I remember that I'm healthy. The baby is healthy. This is temporary. And I try to buck up and eek out a smile. Junk food helps, a lot. I have recently discovered peanut butter double stuff Oreos. I hide them from my child.

Anyway. I am still knitting. Baby things, of course. They don't take a lot of time. And I don't have a lot of concentration.

Soakers. Knitted wool diaper covers. An excellent stashbuster. I've made 4 newborn sized soakers, 2 small sized soakers, and one medium. I'm wavering back and forth on the sizes. The Squid was a tiny 6 pounder and wore preemie-sized clothing for 2 months. So I hesitate to not have enough newborn sizes. But I have this enormous fear of giving birth to a huge 14 pound baby (all of the junk food), so I'm afraid to spend too much time knitting things that will either never fit, or fit for a day.

Yarns pictured and needle sizes used (clockwise from top):

- Little Turtle Knits farm yarn, dyed in "Midnight Ride" (grey/maroon) 3,5,8.
- Wooly Wonders by Nada Bluefaced Leicester, aran weight, dyed in unnamed colorway (yellow, sage, blue, red)3,5,7.
- Mosaic Moon 2 ply Targhee, dyed in blue and green - 5,7,9.
- Full Belly Farm organic wool dyed in blue, purple, and brown by Mosaic Moon. Waist and cuffs in New Zealand Merino also dyed by Mosaic Moon 3,5,7.
- Uruguayan Merino dyed in black, red, blue, and yellow by Mosaic Moon (this one is going to stretch beyond reason but it's soft so I made it anyway, for the early days. It's not like a newborn is going to crawl out of it) 3,5,8.
- Mosaic Moon NZ Merino kettle dyed blue (same as the waist of the FBF soaker) 3,5,7.
- Organic Bluefaced Leicester with NZ merino trim dyed by Mosaic Moon- 3, 5,8.

Yes, I went against my own pattern's needle recommendations. This for no other reason than I was too lazy to unpack all of my needles (from the move 2 months ago).

I made some itty bitty newborn pants, and am now working on some small sized pants, which suddenly seem enormous.

I made this little garter stitch raglan cardigan from several colors of Cotton Fleece that I bought to make a sweater for the Squid 3 years ago. It never became that sweater, but it did become a hat for the Squid and a placket sweater for Asher. Cute as that placket sweater was, it looked a little goofy on him in his newborn necklessness, so I made this cardi with only 2 rows for a collar. Aside from needing buttons, I like this little sweater. It reminds me of a roll of Five Flavor Life Savers. I'm thinking some little striped cottony pants for the spring/summer with the last of the yarn. Now so useful as a diaper cover, but awfully cute.

I'm trying to quell my desire to make another blanket. I've made one already, blankets bore me silly, I have a thousand blankets already, and yet...

Zimmermann - Squid Style

2007-01-28T20:49:00.000-05:00

Made this sweater for the Squid using yarn she chose (I offered 14 shades of red, 3 shades of pink, and then a "ok, grab what you want as long as there are 3 skeins of it." and she chose 2 shades of natural brown organic yarn from Full Belly Farm). Together we decided where the stripes should go. It was her idea to have the sleeves and majority of the yoke be the light color and the body be the darker color. I think it was a wise choice; I love the colors of this sweater.

I loosely followed Elizabeth Zimmermann's Seamless Yoke formula with some minor changes. One minor change was to eliminate all neck shaping - I'm a firm believer that all clothing for kids should be reversible. So I always either make the neck shaped for either side or eliminate shaping altogether. A yoke sweater begged to become a funnelneck so that's what I did.

I spread the yoke decreases out a bit further than EZ specifies. She suggests starting the decreases when you have reached half of the yoke's final height. I started a hair earlier than that, and if I were to do it again, I'd start even earlier. I feel like there's just a little bit too much room across the chest, especially when the kid is in motion. And my kid is almost always in motion.

I also spread the sleeve increases out a bit. Doing them as EZ specified left a too-bulky sleeve, in my opinion. Granted, the Squid is built like an average size 4T except for her height, so when I scale things for her they come out all wide and short. So it may be my kid's proportions that are off, not EZ's calculations.

All in all, I'm pleased to have made yet another classic piece from EZ's classic books. The Squid seems happy, too, as evidenced by the fact that I didn't even need to sneak in the photo. She did, however, request that I make sure to take a photo when her tongue was out and she wasn't looking at me. I was happy to comply.

Who Ordered the Winter?

2007-01-23T20:09:00.000-05:00

I fear it was me. I was moaning and groaning about the utter lack of cold and for that I apologize. We have been suddenly smacked with winter. Hard.

So that means I can't stop making socks for my Squid. I feel like she needs them. Besides, they're a great way to use up those 4,000 tiny balls of yarn that make up the majority of my stash.

Of course they're as difficult to photograph as ever, those pesky socks. This time i ribbed the top of the foot (not that you can tell from this angle) and I think the fit is even better than the last pair. I do think I need a few more rows of plain stockinette in the back after the heel before ribbing the cuff. This photo angle is actually perfect for demonstrating that.

The more I knit up my stash the more I am glad I built that "buying yarn for new projects is a-ok" clause into my "knit from stash 2007" challenge personal rules. really and truly the majority of my stash is tiny little balls. The curse of a toymaker, I suppose.

Oh, and check out my talented kid.

She took this photo herself with a camera that's bigger than her head - my Nikon D70s. I'm signing her up for photography camp right this very second.

The Stash Thins

2007-01-18T12:11:00.000-05:00

Have you ever tried to photograph a 3 year old's feet while she hugs them, rolls around, and sings "I love my socks! I love my socks!" At least she likes the socks, right?

Well, last week it was 70 degrees. Today it's 11. The Squid needed more wool socks. She chose the yarn (Mosaic Moon Organic Merino, naturally) and off I went. This is the first time I've ribbed the entire top of the sock and I think it makes a huge difference in the fit, especially for a non-superwash merino which felts, pills, and stretches easily.

Teeny pants. We had to try them on every doll in the house to make sure they didn't fit anyone before the Squid could concede that they were for the baby, not a doll. Looking at them they look so funny. I'd forgotten how oddly shaped newborns are. More Mosaic Moon merino.

The stash is thinning. I'm feeling great pride and accomplishing a ton of tiny projects that needed to be done.

Knitting for Baby

2007-01-16T12:47:00.000-05:00

Made a couple of teeny tiny soakers. I used some delicious yarn I had on hand - the "near solid" blue is an organic merino that makes you weep it's so soft, and the multi-hued purple, blue, and brown is another organic wool that is a bit sturdier. I used the merino for the trim. Both yarns come from Mosaic Moon and I adore the colors.

Though I used to knit soakers for a living, and though the pattern is my own, I was surprised to see how much I'd forgotten. I had to read along with my instructions and made a few mistakes. I have to admit coming to a few spots where i thought to myself "oh, hey, that was pretty clever of me."

Choosing blue was pure accident, i just grabbed from my stash. I'm struggling with the concept of having a boy - not that i wanted another daughter, but I am used to the concept of being the mother to a daughter. I'm having a hard time getting my head around having a son. I guess it's better than last time when i couldn't picture myself with a child at all.

Also, I tend to loathe blue, we're not big sports people, and camouflage as fashion statement pokes me in my pacifism. So I'm glad I'm a knitter and can make my kid things that avoid those three staples of "boy clothes." So what do I knit first? Blue. Of course.

Stashing Away.

2007-01-08T22:54:00.000-05:00

In addition to the whole "Knit from your stash 2007" deal, I'm participating in a "stash game" over at the forum at Wooly Wonder. It's a funk way to kick off the whole stash thing and encourages me to finish up some ufos.
Mittens were made from 2-ply Targhee from Mosaic Moon in a very very very pink shade of pink that my girl who has always shunned pink is starting to gravitate towards. She's too proud to admit that she does, after all, like pink (she's always been snooty to store owners and the like who very condescendingly bend to little girls and say "I bet I know what your favorite color is...." and she has a lot of disdain for the whole princess thing in general). So I've been making her some pink things without asking her opinion about it first, and she's overjoyed.
I also finished Martha's socks. Just in time, she's coming to visit on Thursday and it just might dip below 60 long enough for her to need socks. What is with the weather these days?

Anyway, I washed and dried them and they did improve some, though they are still rather baggy. I think i would most certainly go down to 000s the next time around. I like the yarn (Trekking XXL) and the way it stripes up, so I would like to find a way to make it a functional yarn for me.

Knitting from Stash in the New Year.

2007-01-01T17:18:00.000-05:00

Wendy came up with a great idea for a New Year's Resolution: knitting from stash for nine months. I like the nine months thing, but I'm going to modify the rules a bit for myself (this is not cheating, this is encouraged by Wendy herself. So there). I waver between thinking that since I modify the rules I really should go all 12 months, but I worry that there will be some internet frenzy in September marking the end of Knit from Your Stash 2007 and I'll fall off the wagon just because I don't want to feel left out.

So I'm keeping the 9 months, but I will assess at that time and see if I want to/need to continue.

Here are my personal rules, adapted from Wendy's:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. I'm having a baby. and I have a toddler. If I find myself in need of making either of them some specific item, I must first attempt to use stash, but if i can not, I may buy yarn for a specific project only. For me the object of this exercise is to not add to stash. So if I buy yarn and use it immediately, then it's ok.

2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that I really and truly do not have the yarn for, I may buy yarn to knit that gift. See above.

2.c. If I are knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.d. I get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- I am allowed to fall off the wagon one time, but only if the yarn is a one-of-a-kind find, an extraordinary deal, etc.

2. e. Yarn needed for work-related knitting is exempt, provided I buy it with intention and use it immediately.

3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

The two big changes between my version and Wendy's version are that I am giving myself a "with a specific project in mind and to be used immediately" clause. The main reason I am doing this is that in all honestly, the bulk of my stash are single and partial skeins used primarily for toymaking. It's the exception for me to have multiple skeins of a particular yarn lying around, so not giving myself that clause means I will either be stuck knitting small things all year, thus utterly stifling my creativity and will to knit, or I will have to buy yarn on occasion.

The second big change is that I am not exempting myself for sock yarn. I don't have a huge sock yarn stash, to be honest, and since I gave myself the "with a specific project in mind and to be used immediately" clause, I imagine most sock yarn purchased I'd be tempted to make would qualify.

Happy Blogiversary's Eve!

2006-12-31T18:56:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it. I made a resolution and kept it. And this blog is the fruit of that resolution.

Hmm. What to resolve for 2007?

I'll get back to you on that one.

In the meantime, Happy Blogiversary's Eve, or Happy New Year's Eve, for those of you who choose to celebrate something a little bit more inclusive.

Felting Overload

2006-12-30T11:27:00.000-05:00

I haven't talked much about my new apartment. Short version: it's around the corner from the old one, we've been moving for a month and it's still ongoing, it's big. it's got huge windows. And. it's got a washer and dryer. So, of course, I've been felting.
I have to make a number of "gift items" for some amazing people who will be honored at the Squid's annual fundraiser in a couple of weeks. I have been hemming and hawing and everything I could think of seemed a bit too personal for a formal gift for legendary people. I finally settled on felted bowls.

I'm still not sure it's *the* perfect thing, but I like them, and I think they're fine for the occasion.

I used Noro Kureyon in a color that I can't recall, and looking for the ball band just got me distracted for over an hour. So let's just say when I find it, I'll let you know.

I love the colorway. This is my first experience with Kureyon, and for felting, I'm hooked. the colors, especially how they dance and shift from one to the other, are remarkable. It felts beautifully (though I think my bowls could use a shave) and quickly - two cycles on my handy dandy washer.

I've made the first two in different shapes, and I'm trying to decide which I prefer. I think I'll make the last 2 different as well and have several to choose from. I have actually been writing down what I'm doing, so in theory, they're all things I could reproduce.

Preparing for a New Year

2006-12-27T11:06:00.000-05:00

The Seamless Hybrid is complete. Check out that "shirt yoke" option in the saddle. My Goodness how I adore that Elizabeth Zimmerman. There were a few occasions when I thought "I must be reading this wrong" and even, I admit "this must be written incorrectly" but I wasn't. And it wasn't. It's sheer perfection.
I used Rowan's Yorkshire Tweed Aran in the "deep plum" color. It's a strudy feeling yarn as opposed to a cloud-soft deal, but it's not the slightest bit itchy; my husband is wearing it quite happily over a short-sleeved t-shirt.

I went for a 1" hemmed collar (I continued the double decreases in the front more for look than fit) and I'm very, very pleased with the outcome. I did not do fancy contrasting facing, and I thought I might regret that decision but I don't, at all.
This design is perfect for my husband - he has fairly scrawny shoulders and this hybrid saddle really seems to make them appear much broader. He has a classic saddle sweater and a few raglans. The raglans seem to accentuate the narrow shoulders and make his chest look pudgy (it's not) and the regular saddles are better but still cut a little funny across the chest. This sweater fits him perfectly and, in my opinion, really works with his body type. I'll be making him many more of these, to be sure. And being EZ, of course I can play around with stitch patterns and color to make them all different while using the same basic design.

I based the entire sweater on his chest measurement, as EZ suggests, and only tried on the cuffs of one sleeve (I had gauge issues as I got pregnant between making the body and making the sleeves and I could NOT match gauge. I ended up just putting it aside for several months while I waited for my fingers to return to closer to normal. Aside from that, the only real "issue" I had was in creating the saddle - there is a part of the instructions where EZ abandons her percentages and merely says "for 44 rows". Since my gauge was different from hers, I had been completely ignoring her numbers. So it took me a while, and a little calculation, to go back through her sample numbers and discover that she meant "50% of remaining stitches".

Other than that, I loved the experience, I love the final product, and my husband does, too. It was originally supposed to be a gift for our 10th anniversary together (September 15) then our 6th anniversary of marriage (November 11) then Hanukkah, then Solstice, and I finally finished it at 11pm on December 25. So at least it made it as a gift for some holiday, instead of just being an unceremonious "here, I finally finished."
I'm nearly finished with Martha's socks, too. I hope to see her in mid-January and they'll surely be finished by then. I have a ton of yarn left over, the socks are baggy, and a perfectly respectably high-crew length. I think I know why it's called Trekking XL now.

And finally, in "it's a small world" news, guess who I bumped into at Ikea? Annie Modesitt and family! I was glad to have been able to thank her in person for her ultra-generous donation of a signed book and a sample bracelet she donated to the auctions we held for the Professor. She was, as always, warm and smiling and I even got a big hug, right there in the middle of storage solutions. Were you looking for yarn storage, Annie? I was.

Ripping off the Band-Aid

2006-12-17T15:26:00.000-05:00

it may seem odd but I kind of don't know how to post here anymore. So I'm just ripping off the old band-aid and diving in.

My husband requested mittens. He said he wanted them to be just like the ones I made for The Squid last winter (she still wears and loves them). It's just a basic old mitten, no pattern, but that's what he said he wanted. And he picked out the yarn - delicious-yet-sturdy merino from Little Turtle Knits in the "Midnight Ride" colorway from last winter's holiday collection.

He also insisted on modeling them in various positions for the photo montage above. He likes them a lot; he grins like a child when he puts them on. The one complaint is that it's been so unseasonably warm that he hasn't really gotten a lot of wear out of them. And he wants a matching scarf, but I've got no matching yarn. Oh well.

I've also re-connected with his Elizabeth Zimmerman Seamless Hybrid - one sleeve nearly complete. If I'm lucky I'll finish this sometime before the New Year. Fortunately we don't do any real standard holiday so i don't have a specific date by which I need to have completed the sweater. But New Year's Day is my goal.

I also have a pair of socks on the needles. These are for Martha, the professor's mom. I started them when I was flying down there, and somehow thought I'd actually finish them there. I even brought yarn to cast on for a different project for the return trip. Ha. that was 16 days ago and I'm still knitting them, a little bit every day.

I have so say I have issues with these socks - or it could be my weird, loose-jointed pregnant hands. They are really baggy and loose. I'm using Trekking XXL, and though size 2s are recommended, I'm using 0s. I tend to prefer densely knit socks so I often size down. But these feel very airy and loose to me, even on 0s. And though I've cast on my standard 60 stitches on size 0s, these are big and floppy as well as being airy and loose. Fortunately Martha loves me and will forgive my weird saggy baggy socks. Plus she lives in the tropics and probably won't ever even wear wool socks, so it's just a sign of her kindness that she's feigning excitement about them at all.

And here's the newest "just can't say no" project I've gotten myself into. I went to pick up The Squid at preschool the other day, and found her and her teacher (whom I adore) sitting in the doll-play corner, lamenting about the shabby state of the dolls and their lack of clothing.

So the teacher says "these dolls need new clothes, don't they, hint hint." And somehow it was suggested that since The Squid, among all of her classmates, is most taken by the dolls, that she bring them home, one by one, to bathe them, comfort them, and bring them back with new outfits.

So It has begun. This was the first victim, and I got away with a tank top with crocheted straps and shorts. Let's see how things progress, shall we?

Oh, and I finished the octopus pattern. It's available in the sidebar.

all the king's horses and all the king's men

2006-12-06T20:29:00.000-05:00

just couldn't put natty together again, and he went softly from us on friday afternoon.

Martha called me friday morning and asked me to come, and so I did. She called me at the airport to let me know he had died, and i have to say that was the longest, saddest plane ride i've ever taken. I picked Martha up from the hospital friday night to take her home, and her strength and certainty that this is how things are supposed to be made me see a parent's true love for her child - rather than dwelling on her own sadness, Martha was comforted by her son's release from his suffering. It was a humbling experience for me.

We got through the next few days, the travel, the funeral, the weeping, and I've returned home, inexorably changed.

Thank you for your kind thoughts. Please keep sending your love to Martha, home now, without her boy.

Professor - you are now and will forever be, deeply loved.

Serendipity, perhaps not.

2006-11-19T23:22:00.000-05:00

So I get the feeling that I'm not loving my weird boucle shawl collar. I stopped, seamed the sweater, snipped the collar in progress and threw it in the bathtub. I need to see it on.

So now I need to wait 16 years for 9 skeins of Rowan Chunky to dry so that I can try it on, confirm that I hate the shawl collar that is morphing into some kind of floppy sailor collar, and then figure out what to do about it. I tried to photograph it drying to get some opinions but it looks so hideous lying there all soggy that I'm not going to bother.

In the good news department, I sent in my first pattern to Debbie Stoller. Completed one day before the deadline. (Ok, there was actually less than an hour left in that one day before, but it counts.)

Serendipity, perhaps.

2006-11-18T17:45:00.000-05:00

So I bought this discontinued Rowan Chunky from Ebay. It was cheap, I bought 9 skeins (all there was. I admit the odd numberness of it bothered me.). I'm lukewarm about the color, but did I mention it was cheap?

I had been planning on making myself an Elizabeth Zimmerman Tomten from this yarn, but I'm running short on time, and in need of something to fit over this belly of mine. So I broke out the knitting machine and went to work on the Ella Rae Wrap Sweater. I had contemplated making the Tomten in stockinette on the machine (would have been a breeze) and I may yet do that. But for now, I wanted to play around a little.

Well, the 9 skeins wasn't really enough since I'm knitting at a tightish gauge for this yarn, and the sweater needs to be rather, um, wide.

So I was hemming and hawing and found these beautiful skeins of Tabitha rayon boucle dyed by Little Turtle Knits nestled in my stash. I've been hoarding it and wondering what to add to it to make it enough yarn for something. And the match is perfect.

trim goes around the cuffs, the bottom (yeah, that lighter color boucle trim around my hips isn't going to be the most flattering choice i could have made, but oh well.), up the fronts, into a shawl collar. I'm contemplating adding pockets and trimming the pockets, too - sort of a mock shearling thing.

I'm not sure if the belt should be the boucle or the original yarn, i'm thinking the original but i'm not sure i have enough left.

I knit up the main pieces on the machine and now i'm adding the boucle trim by hand. I have to say this pattern is kind of hard to keep track of, especially the top where you're decreasing on the armhole side every other row and your neckline side every 3rd row... it's just not intuitive. I love the armscye, though. The sleeve fits in there perfectly and lays beautifully. It's similar in fit to a hybrid set-in/drop shoulder I've been using a lot lately, but this is much more curvy and elegant. I like it a lot.

It loses a bit of perfection for me since i sized up (and added yet more in the width). Had I known how the arm would fit I would have made the top to fit and only enlarged the bottom part. I was thinking it was a wrap sweater and an extra size wouldn't hurt. Oh well.

In other sweater news, the EZ seamless hybrid creeps along. It's boring. I need a trip to the movies for some knitting to pound out that last sleeve and get to the exciting bits.

In non-knitting news, Nat the Professor continues to improve. He's going through his first round of chemo right now and I'm waiting to hear how that's going. We're hoping to take a trip to see them next week, if he's up to it.

Knitting is Pretty.

2006-11-16T09:22:00.000-05:00

Hasn't been much knitting in my life these days, I've been scrambling with the raffles for the Professor (which went very well, by the way, thanks to you all for your kind thoughts) and the fundraiser for my daughter's preschool. And I'm looking for an apartment which is a total nightmare in this city.

Total. Nightmare.

I can't tell you how many "two bedroom" apartments I've seen that seem to be missing living rooms. And are over our budget anyway, even without the living room. Ugh.

But I did spend an afternoon with the talented photographer Sabrina Usher who took some photos of some new top secret projects for me, as well as shots like the one above - step by step technique shots for patterns. I think they make the whole knitting process look so lovely.

In other knitting news, the EZ hybrid is kicking my... well, I'm having issues. I have these weird, wobbly, pregnant hands and my tension changes like every 14 seconds, it seems. I have started the first sleeve no less than 4 times and every time need to rip it back and start over. I think it's working now, and i just need to measure my gauge and change needles every few rows to keep on target.

Our anniversary has come and gone so maybe this sweater will be a gift for the holidays instead. If all goes well.

P.S.

2006-11-09T20:36:00.000-05:00

i love your comments and frequently would like to respond to them, but if you do the anonymous email thingy then I can't. And i feel cheesey and pretentious responding publicly.

But here goes anyway. The patterns for the animals I make are my own. And yes, I am working on releasing them, I'm just slow. i hope hope hope to have at least one or two toy patterns ready in time for holiday knitting.

I will always cite the designer if I knit something not of my own design, so you can pretty much assume if there's no designer listed that it came from my own weird brain.

Eureka!

2006-11-09T10:11:00.000-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, hold on to your hats. I've found it. Well, actually she found it. The toy my child will actually ENJOY! First, we started with a trip to Downtown Yarns where the exceptional Rita helped us find everything in the store that the Squid deemed "soft." Finally, Miss Squid settled on Muench's Touch Me, a rayon/wool blend chenille that is, indeed, crazy soft.

Then we spent a month or so at home with Miss Squid carrying the ball of yarn around not letting me knit it. Then one day she came to me, yarn in hand, and said "Can you make something from this for me? I know you can. You're a knittingerly superhero."

We discussed what she'd like me to make, and she settled on an octopus.

And I made it. And fearfully gave it to her (remember The Elephant?). Her response? "Oh, I was dreaming of this!!" She loves it. She ran right away and put it in her bed (bed toys are a rare and special breed of toys).

And guess what? over a week has passed and she STILL likes it!

phew.

In other kid news the Professor continues to heal. He's feeding himself and talking a bit, and the post-operative seizures and hallucinations are falling slowly under control. We're not breathing easy yet, but we are breathing. Thanks for keeping him in your thoughts.

Auctions for Nat continue, and include this amazing find:

I went to see the amazing Annie Modesitt at a book signing, and she offered a signed copy of her new book all about knitting and crocheting jewelry with wire. She also gave me one of the pieces she made for the book! I'm overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity for the Professor. Knitters rock.

So visit the auctions and check out Annie's stuff. Some beautiful hand-dyed yarns for $1 raffles, too.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I appreciate it more than you can know.

Fiber Arts Avengers Unite!

2006-11-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

The Fiber Arts Avengers are holding an event from November 3-November 12 - selling, auctioning, and raffling off all kinds of hand crafted stuff (i hear tales of hand-dyed yanr!)to help support Nat's treatments. Mostly we're hoping to spread the word and get lots and lots of people thinking of him and sending him energy and hope.

There's not a lot of news. Nat's just resting and trying to heal in preparation for the treatments to follow.

As for me? I'm trying to get back on my horse and keep moving forward. I've been organizing the Avengers event as well as just trying to keep it together, and that's proved a full-time job.

I did manage to knit this:

Which made me rather happy. Pattern forthcoming.

And I went out on the town with this lovely jaguar last night:

She wasn't particularly taken with everyone being in costume. She couldn't really figure out why everyone kept trying to give her candy. And she wouldn't wear her ears. However, she was every so slightly more into the holiday this year as opposed to last when she insisted on dressing as "just me." and saying "no thank you" when offered candy. Come on, kid, even if you don't want any, why not think about your mother? This year I managed to wrangle a few bits here and there, and she ate shockingly little.

The Professor's Brain

2006-10-28T12:04:00.001-04:00

It was discovered that Natty had a very large Medulloblastoma tumor. This type of malignant tumor is among the more common in childhood cancers. The surgeon is hopeful that it was completely resected, and testing later today will tell us for sure. We are also waiting to hear if any cancerous cells are present in the spinal fluid.

Based on the answers to these two looming questions, a course of treatment including radiotherapy and chemotherapy will be determined. If these treatments are able to keep the Medulloblastoma from recurring for five years, Natty has excellent chances for living a full, cancer-free life. Unfortunately Medulloblastoma is very persistent and very agressive. So we really need to devote our energies into keeping this away from our boy.

Please send Nat and his family your best thoughts and healing energy. He needs our strength right now.

And while money doesn't solve anything, I just don't want Nat's family to have any extra worries right now. So if you're feeling as helpless as I am, and you'd like to contribute, please consider donating through Paypal. If you'd prefer a different form of donation, please contact me.

A group of artisans will band together to offer auctions and raffles to raise some money for the Professor. If you have something you'd like to contribute to such an effort, please contact me.

Immediate expenses include the hospital deductible and co-payments, costs of complementary treatments, and all of the little expenses that crop up from living on the road.

Donate here.

All About the Professor.

2006-10-26T13:04:00.000-04:00

Well, not all about him. It's hard to say all about anyone, isn't it?

The Professor was born 3 weeks after my Squid was born. They met when we moved to this country, so the kids were about 9 months old. Here's that auspicious meeting:

That's the Professor reaching out to touch the Squid's face. See how their teeny toes are intertwined? See their matching diapers? Aren't they sweet?

Though the Proffer lived ages away, we got together several times a year, when he came to visit his Great Grandma Shirley the former vaudvillian tap dancer from Coney Island. Or we'd go see him when we needed a little vacation, a little suburbia, a little peace and quiet.

Through the years the kids have spent a lot of time together. He's a great kid, a nice and kind (if a bit demanding and opinionated) kid. He's a big brother now, to a 7 month old baby. He goes to school, he has a kind of intense affinity for nursery rhymes. He has a brain tumor.

I've been talking to his mom. He's been sick to his stomach a lot lately. Dairy? Soy? Gluten? We've run through the various potential causes. She'd call me from the health food store asking me to look up this or that product. I did my research thing because that's what I do.

So yesterday she told me that she was called to pick him up at school because he was pale and wobbly. She said she'd call after she came home from the doctor but she didn't call.

The Professor has a brain tumor. Apparently it's rather large. They don't know what kind it is or anything about it. Who knew that vomiting was a main symptom of a brain tumor?

Anyway, I'm here feeling completely impotent, so I'm doing something. Whatever I can, however lame. So I quickly wrote up the pattern for that chemo hat. It makes a nice winter hat, too, actually. I wore one all winter last year, before it became a chemo hat. It's not much but the best I can do immediately. And I just needed to do something immediately.

So it's for sale here, as a downloadable PDF. I don't know what else to do but I figure money, right? the thing no one wants to think about but it's there. I know they're going to supplement whatever standard care he needs with some natural care, too, and those things, and the comforts, the travel, the time off from work... well, if nothing else they can buy him a really kick-ass present, right?

Oh yes. I made more socks.

2006-10-20T10:19:00.000-04:00

These were knitted from the excellent "Widdershins" pattern from Knitty. The pattern was in the summer issue but seems to not have made it to the archive. Not sure what's up there. Anyway, the first sock gave me fits, but only because I insisted that if you have 36 stitches and add one you get 47. The second sock, once I got the counting thing down, was a dream to knit.

I used Brown Sheep Wildfoote Luxury Sock in the "Brown Sugar" colorway. I got this yarn from someone in a trade, I think. It's really anything but luxury, but it's fine. They don't feel icky while wearing them, which I was kind of afraid of, because they certainly felt icky while knitting them.

I also made these. They're for the Squid, she chose the colors from my stash of little leftover balls from Mosaic Moon. This is an organic merino that is everything the Wildfoote is not. Namely, luxurious. And not so much superwash, hence the halo you see in the photo. They've been through the wash once already. Surprisingly, they survived with only an excess of fuzz, no felting at all. Lucky for me my husband is a fan of the cold wash.

I knit these two at a time using magic loop. I always magic loop socks, but this was my first foray into the two at a time deal. I love it and will never look back. I also just made up the pattern using a short row, garter stitch heel, and that made life so much easier. no thinking. One of my biggest problems with sock knitting is that I use socks as my "go everywhere" project, and yet I always come to a point where I need to count and think - and that point generally arrives at an inappropriate moment, so the socks go on hold and I get stuck sitting somewhere without anything to knit.

Finally, a sweater. I made this using Targhee hand painted by Dashing Dachs. The yarn was sent to me by the sweater recipient's mom, and I have to say it grew on me. I wasn't so sure of those colors together but in the end I really like it. It reminds me of those blue-skied autumn days. Very unlike any we've had thus far in New York City.

Speaking of New York City, I'm desperately seeking a real 2 bedroom apartment for rent starting in January. So if you hear of anything, please let me know!

(By the way, Blogger's spell check wanted to replace "superwash" with "superego". I think that's perfect.)

2006-10-10T10:19:00.000-04:00

I cannot stand the sight of this sock. Though not pictured, there really is another, matching one.

When I met my husband, he was wearing these hand-tooled Italian shoes and grey and light blue striped socks. It was an odd combination and one of the things, frankly, that made me fall for him. I was young. These things happen.

Fast forward many years. The socks are long gone. I discover knitting. I see everyone knitting socks and loving it. I figure that I can knit socks and love it. I buy some grey and blue self-striping yarn and open my Ann Budd handy guide to knitting lots of stuff and get to work.

Well. I hate the yarn. Hate. It feels like plastic. It squeaks. I hate my needles. I keep snapping them (I'm knitting dk yarn on size 2s. maybe that has something to do with it). I buy bryspuns. I like them a little bit better. I knit the first sock, with much agony, and start on the second. The second ball of yarn is full of knots. So I painstakingly snip, measure, find another repeat of the appropriate color, and splice together yarn, damned near every color change, the whole damned sock. So much for 'self striping' yarn.

I snap the bryspuns.

I toss the socks in a corner and ignore them.

Now I'm knitting my husband a sweater. He loves it. He's happy. He's already requesting the next one. He remembers the socks.

I pull them out, reluctantly, and find that all that's left are the toe decreases. A year wiser, I whip out my addi 40" 2s and magic loop the toe, finishing them off.

They're too big. They slouch. I made a mistake when knitting the gusset - I decreased every round instead of every other round, making a tiny gusset, and a weird tight-yet-slouchy part at the ankle. He loves them. Which is all that matters. Kind of. Because now, when looking at his stripey feet, instead of my heart skipping a beat, I cringe a little. Am I really considering making another pair? Do I really believe a better yarn will help? Do I really think that I'm smarter now?

Or, do I dig deeper within myself and figure if I was able to learn to live with the imperfect owner of the feet, that I can eventually learn to live with the imperfect socks? I mean, the relationship has made it a decade. I doubt the lousy socks will. Will they?