Now this is freaky

Maybe not so much for you, but for me (and I’m guessing DH), this is pretty durn freaky.

Now, chill’uns, let’s hear the story before we judge.

            In late November, a good friend and colleague of mine casually mentioned a need for a poncho that would fit over her bouncing babe in her baby carrier, the kind that can go on the front or the back. She’d found a few (pricey!) options in online stores, but me being me, I knew we could improve the general concept. I have an aversion to ponchos–drafty, and of limited access to arms, a fact that seems especially inconvenient for mothers)–and an aversion to shapeless and ugly garments, however functional.

           I’d seen a poncho-ish sweater on the bias before (it’s here if you are interested), and since I’m fond of bias knitting and in this case I felt it would be both stretchy and yet slimming, I decided that’s what I needed to do (NOTE: I’ve been on the Ravelry forums enough to know that taking inspiration from a pattern and not buying it will tick some people off. For me, it’s the same as adding a lace panel to a basic sock pattern and calling it new. The idea is so brilliantly simple, that I have no qualms admitting I took inspiration & nothing else. I totally give props to the designer for her originality! Oh, and for the no purling thing. Still don’t quite get how she accomplished that, although I did change a lot about the pattern.).

            So the above shot is the sweater in full-baby mode, frontways (I still can’t quite wrap my head around wearing your baby like a backpack, but my friend assures me it’s quite comfortable), and here is how it will look sans progeny. I’ve got a couple of closure options, but the recipient will decide exactly what she wants, so that’s why I’m holding it shut in this picture. I voted for a “baby on board” sign. I lost.

            It was lots of fun to collaborate on a project: I sent her links to various online & local vendors for yarn choices, and she made the decisions and came up with the colors (K’picks WotA in bare and Wine, plus Twirl in rust). I have to say that it looks not so good on me, but my friend actually does have pigment in her skin and very dark hair, and the colors look good on her. Plus it fits her muuuuch better. That being said, as much as I enjoyed it, at times it was very stressful, knowing that she’d invested a bunch of money in my skillz. She’s had it on, however, and she loves it, her formerly dubious husband was much impressed, and… she wants to learn to knit! Happy ending!

in spite of the good foot & a half of ease on me, it’s stylin’, eh?

And finally, I hope you all had a wonderful looooong weekend! We did.

ETA: PS– Hmm, I may be headed to the realm of rant a bit in this post. Forgive me if my words are ill chosen, and as always thought though seldom expressed please feel free to kindly express a different opinion. I actually tend to enjoy divergent opinions, thoughtfully spoken and with the intent of enriching someone else’s world. I am very sensitive to the issue that as a “hobbyist” things look a bit different than from the professional angle.

PPS Hobby. Hobbyhobbyhobbyhobbyhobbyhobbyhobbyhobbyhobby. Weird word. (Talk about enriching, eh?)

 

Neenerneenerneenerneener!*

In a land of people already accustomed to defending (or not) their choice of hobby to the rest of the world, I fear this confession will make me an outcast.

But out it comes: I enjoy deadline knitting.

Knitting for me has never really been about relaxation. Distraction, yes, relaxation, no. You see, I don’t handle the whole relaxing bit very well. I am most happy when I have a clear project, a clear time line (both of my own making, of course), and when both are related to knitting it sends the experience to a new level of joy.

Thus when my mother noted at Thanksgiving that most of the socks I’ve made for her have been too thick to wear with her normal shoes, I was delighted to add a pair of SP-McPhee’s “Earl Greys” to my non-existent list of Christmas knitting. They were completed shortly after the DH and Grandpa socks, and I thought, wow, that was easy.

Then when my brother (probably not realizing the gift he was giving me, he being quite accustomed to enjoying relaxation) called last Monday–two weeks before Christmas–and could not stop talking about how much he loved the socks I gave him last January, and gave me the line that he wore them EVERY NIGHT without washing them because they were the ONLY ONES that kept his feet warm, I was thrilled (not with the lack of hygiene I was apparently encouraging, but with the opportunity to knit for my bro. And another funny thing? The other person to use that exact same line on me…was my MIL!!).

I was even further delighted when he oh-so-casually mentioned that his dear girlfriend likes blue. Actually, he thinks the color she likes looks like green, but she insists it is blue–you know, THAT color.

Ah, happiness! Two pairs of socks to make, AND a trip to the yarn store because I was fresh out of sock yarn in the colorway blue-but-looks-green!

My delight was compounded when I realized that with these new additions to the gift list, everyone with whom I’d be spending Christmas would be getting handknit socks from me except for my dad. And you may or may not know this, but my dad is the best person you could ever hope to meet (being in elite company with DH and my mom). He probably wouldn’t even think twice about not getting socks, being delighted with the Alison Kraus/Robert Plant duet CD he’s getting. But of course I would know about the lack, and that would never do.

Moral of the story? Two weeks, three pairs of fingering weight socks…sign me up! Gives a whole new meaning to, “The stockings were hung by the chimney with care”!

(Plus I mentioned the situation to DH and he responded, “I fail to see the problem. You can do that no sweat, right?” I’m afraid my loved ones are sadly misled as to my abilities…and I am more than happy to continue the delusion).

three down, one to go (or six down, two to go, depending how you count)

Oh, and here’s another reason (or twelve) to enjoy the season! Have you been celebrating with Girl who Knits and Knitting Lemonade?

Merry Christmas to all of you!

*It’s the Twilight Zone theme song, of course! I am also a firm believer that onomatopoeia enhances every conversation…as long as one is required to spell only the sound and not the term itself.

P.S. The pictures are from my Christmas decorations, providing a bit of playful commentary on the text at times. There are two, um, unique family traditions shown here: L*g* Santa, who is one of those traditions that has no reason for being but having been for so long, and the Christmas pickle, well, enough said, right (actually in my family whoever finds the pickle gets to open the first present. Except I always get to open the present, but that’s another enough said now isn’t it?).

 

Let the gifting begin!

First off, I love Christmas. Consider yourself warned.

I have a friend, of the sort that will know me for the rest of our days. I am so thankful for her–friends since kindergarten, the most fun, the best listener, the most wise, the most caring, my Mary Kay lady, need I go on? She mentioned she needed gloves, and I was thrilled to have the chance to do something for her (Then she accidentally expressed an interest in learning to knit. I’m sure the next thing she remembers is getting out from the yarn I’d piled around her with four or five rows of a scarf on the needles…).

 

A swirl, anyone? I didn’t intend to do it, but when I got to the end of the ribbing I knew I had to put a little something extra into these, because honestly? My friend just sparkles. And she mentioned that she, like me, feels like she looks awful in hats, so as a bonus I was happy to try this Drops design for her. Can’t wait to see how it looks, but thus far the pattern is highly recommended!

(specs: stashed Lion brand Wool Ease in seafoam, size 4 Bryspun DPNs, gloves= no pattern, ear warmer= see link)

 

 

 

Merry Christmas to Jess, and to all people whose very presence makes you feel like the best version of yourself!

 

Reality? Hello, reality? Are you there?

I’d like to thank you all so sincerely for your encouragement, lauds, and general good cheer, especially about my past few projects! I have to go deep into the real world for a few weeks, and am thus on blogging (and knitting. No, seriously. Not a stitch in three days) hiatus.

Happy October to all of you!

(If you’re wondering what’s going on, there is no book or baby, ha ha. I’m giving my thesis as a lecture to my department, which is a moderately large deal in the real world front, and I’m a research assistant to a prof who is giving a lecture to her entire society two weeks after that. She’s a little, um, behind, and it is my job to catch her up. Heaven help us all! Plus there is a choir concert and a wedding in the midst of that. And class. There is always class, there always will be class.)

 

little things

I tend to be more on the self-conscious side of the spectrum (which can, at times, lead to an extraordinarily loud internal monologue), and thus when I encounter an opinion that is drastically different from my own my first instinct is usually to question myself. Such a reaction, I’ve learned, can be dangerous, but as I become more and more aware of it, I learn to use it to my advantage.

That said, it always surprises me when someone does have a bad reaction to something that I am very fond of–the knit/blog community for example. To combat this negativity, I am going to show you pictures of cute cats and handspun yarn and finished socks. Don’t worry, I am careful when wielding such powerful weapons.

 

Yarnzombie said it best: what’s more fun than a cat in a box??

…maybe a cat sleeping?

This handmade travel spindle was a gift from a classmate whose wife is an accomplished spinner and weaver. Actually, you might recognize her. She is absolutely delightful, I promise! I am touched and delighted at the gift. It reclines oh-so-gracefully in my bowl-o’-homespun for the photo, but I’m sure will go with me many places. Anyone else think it is easier to spin extremely fine on a spindle?

 

 

DH socks- Lorna’s in Aslan on size 0, basically Wendy’s toe-ups with gussets. I was very happy with how little pooling there was, just a bit about the ankle, as shown in the second picture.

 

 

 

Finally, more experimental handspun. These are both domestic wool in Deluge from Abby’s Yarns. You can probably tell just by looking that I’m still experimenting with the navajo ply. I wanted to experiment with the perfect ply, especially give the poof factor of this yarn, so I overplied the top yarn and underplied the bottom yarn. Then I decided that the underplied yarn was ugly, so I felted it a bit and I’m more happy with the filling out it did after the abuse. A bit rugged, I’d say. I’m anxious to swatch these up and see what kind of differences there are in the knitted fabric. Spinning could seriously take over my life.

 

 

Have you ever seen such an earnest face? aka, the Ravelry trance

 

 

Listen, my knitters, and you shall hear…

…Of socks that vanished for o’er a year
‘Twas the mid of the summer, the heat of July
Hardly a sock was thought alive
that would match the embossed leaves that you see here*

This is a chilling true story, so you might want to make sure that all of your handknit socks are safe and close by you before I begin. Last summer one day whilst slaving over the laundry I noticed that I was missing one of my newly-finished, hardly worn embossed leaves socks (they’re red because they are embossed autumn leaves, people! Cut me some slack! actually at the time I didn’t have a sock yarn stash–now that’s scary!). Ah, but handmade socks don’t go missing, do they? Not after all the time and energy and love invested in them. Surely, I thought, it will turn up in the next load or two.

Well now we wouldn’t be having our little chat if it had, would we? I searched the dryer innards as deep as I dared, from the inside through the lint trap and then outside through the vent. I searched under furniture and in sleeves and pant legs and sheets and towels. I whined profusely. Six months later, I returned the leftover yarn to the “to-do” pile, thinking that my intentions of replacing the missing sock would lure it out of hiding. I even apologized for being disappointed with the wiry K’picks Essentials yarn I used to make them.

Then

this very afternoon

upon arriving home from school

I noticed a reddish blur right beside my bed. Chiding myself for leaving laundry on the floor again, I never would have suspected that my hand would soon be holding the long-lost sock. After confirming that it was indeed the missing sock and not its well-behaved sibling, I was simultaneously jubilant and downright flabbergasted.

Now I want to know: how did a sock that was missing for a whole year end up sitting nonchalantly a mere yard from my sock drawer? What do you think happened to my sock in the year it was gone? Was it traveling as a stowaway with the Harlot? gracing one size 7 foot of a sock bandit? jealously building an army to take on the Cider Moon stash?

Robert Stack, now here’s an unsolved mystery for you!

*Consider yourself lucky I chose Longfellow and not Peaches and Herb (?!?):

“Reunited and it feels so good!
Reunited ’cause we understood
There’s one perfect fit
And, sugar, this one is it
We both are so excited
‘Cause we’re reunited, hey, hey”

Oops, looks like I just did it anyway! Sorry, heh heh heh.

 

PS My only clue is that there are chew marks the piano bench and a page torn out of one of my theory books this week. Do you think some furry felon was stashing my sock to be returned at a moment when he needed to get back into his mummy’s good graces? Me too.

 

I’ve found the underbelly!!! (ie, you guys are the best)

When the “7 weird things” meme came my way, I revealed that

2) I read knitting blogs for almost a year before finally jumping in and getting my own. I was convinced that there had to be some dark underbelly to all of these people posting pretty pictures of yarn, it couldn’t be that good!

Well, I’ve found it! The dark and unspoken underbelly of the knitting blog world. Are you ready?

It is that good, and even more amazing than the yarn is the people.

I really can’t tell you all how grateful I am for your willingness to give me a shot, and for your incredibly kind words and bursts of enthusiasm for my lil’ patternish sort of thing. Every so often I realize exactly how much being a part of this community brings to my life, whether in learning about new techniques, yarns, or patterns; giving recipes, books, and well-wishes; or the simple but necessary (as is oft forgotten) act of sharing lives and stories.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Oh, and the other, secondary fabulous thing about this community is that everyone is talented and I get to partake of that talent daily!!!! For example, take a gander at the goodness below, from Franquemont Fibers by Abby of Abby’s Yarns. Abby writes with humor and an inspiring level of attention to detail, and her blog is a treasure of knowledge. She is extremely generous in sharing her expertise, and does so in a manner that makes it extremely accessible and exciting.

And she makes pretty things. Enjoy! I figure that a little stash-flashing is truly the best way to express my appreciation for and to you all…

 

Falkland top in Spice

Romney top in Sea Foam

Superwash top in Lemon Zest

 

 

Domestic wool top in Deluge

 

 

 

 

Merino/tencel top in Maize

 

Superwash top in Oak Tree

 

 

DIY is just how I roll

A sudden and very welcome storm.

 

Pines, cornfields, and empty roads mean I must have been at my parents’ house in the midwest for the weekend.

And what was I doing there? Getting a new side view mirror, after mine got whacked off in an unfortunate incident involving my driveway, the neighbor’s fence…and me in the passenger seat (minor accidents such as this one are always much funnier from that angle than the driver’s). It took all three of us (mom, dad, me) to de- and re-assemble the door to get this thing working, and there were a few Red Green moments (can you believe I just linked to that? Me neither), but now I can change lanes with confidence once more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is really strange about these pictures (and interesting to no one except me, sorry!) is that I’ve always thought I had my dad’s hands, but here Mom’s hands are on the left, and mine on the right. Strangely similar! The only way I knew they weren’t my hands after much debate and scrupulous picture inspection was because of her wedding ring (And I took the picture, but who thinks of small details like that?).

 

 

Knitting! There was knitting!

S’mores socks on Saturday afternoon and Monday night (they were done on Sunday, actually, but who’s counting?)

(specs: Trekking #163. Size 0 needles. 68 sts with Wendy’s toe up pattern mashup- old short row toe & new heel. 2 x 2 ribbing up the leg. )

And he loves ‘em. What good taste my man has! And what good timing I have, to accidentally finish them just in time to be stuffed with Sm*rties for his birthday.*

*note: the picture is feet-filled socks, not candy-filled socks, which looked a little strange and took lots of effort for said candy extraction.

 

a good day

 

Wednesday was a good day.

DH took his reallygreatbigimportant test, got done two hours early (!?!), and felt great about life. It has been a long time coming. We talked about going out to eat somewhere fancy, but in the end decided to celebrate the best way two poor college kids can: order a pizza! And then we thought if we were going to eat pizza, we’d have to watch an episode of the eating queens themselves, the Gilmore girls.

 

 

And wouldn’t you know, that very same afternoon the postman (who is now my dear, dear friend) paid us a visit and brought with him…

A care package from Stars Hollow!

Sweet anticipation, and the prettiest stationery that ever was.

Tell me, girls, did you read my mind, or do we just have the same good taste??

 

(I don’t know if this is good netiquette, but oh well. I hope you’ll forgive my enthusiasm.)

In honor of the end of the show, some Gilmore junkies (like myself) had a contest about the show’s best moment, and I won! I can’t even explain how much fun we had with this! Each item came with its own little tag with a quote from the show (so cute!), and DH snatched up the Dorothy Parker book as soon as the shutter snapped! (I love excalmation points!)

And look at that yarn, will you? Maybe you don’t know this about me, but that is ME yarn- reds and deep reds and sage-y minty greens…I was speechless! Right now I’m daydreaming about winter gloves (because I wear gloves all winter, and will get to see the yarn all the time!)

So, GG fans, do you know the significance of everything up there? (from front left): The Portable Dorothy Parker, Rory’s dance book; biscotti, for Lorelai biscotti moment; Poptarts, for a GG appetizer (and breakfast, and lunch…); Luke’s hat; a coffee mug (”how many cups have you had today?” “None.” “Plus?” “Five, but yours is better!”); chocolate–good call; and this beautiful yarn that I will link to as soon as I get home!

Girl who Knits and Knitting Lemonade… THANK YOU! You couldn’t possibly have known how perfect your timing would be, but I hope you know how much your thoughtfulness and creativity are obviously unparalleled! World, these ladies rock!

 

 

And for a sneak peak at the newest KO (knitted object, but I hope to knock it out today & tomorrow, ha ha)…

PS Shouldn’t there be some rule against testing the fire alarm system in a library? Just askin’.

 

My garden grows…