[misc] Murderface Monday

He loves the crinkle of this plastic bag:




Here he is scratching up my shoes, which I'm okay with because it means he's not scratching up the couches.



I bought him a cardboard scratch mat but he just sits on it.


And this is a little rug I knit for him this weekend while watching Alien³:



I had a wierd scarf knit with bulky-weight Plymouth Yukon that I was never going to wear. I ripped it and reknit two strands at a time on size 17 needles. I cast on 20 and knit garter stitch until I had a rectangle. It's a little slippery on the wood floors, so I'm thinking I might sew some non-skid drawer liner material to the bottom.

[knitting] Yarn on Sale

This past weekend I went a little yarn crazy without spending a lot of money. I was hunting around the web for info on a sale at Knit New London and happened to find out that a local senior center was having a fabric, yarn and crafts sale. I went over early in the morning and brought home:



There was enough of this yarn to fill a plastic grocery bag and it only cost me $1. The colors are really REALLY BRIGHT.



I think (hope) it's wool. To find out, I knit a little swatch with a bit of each color to find out the gauge. Next I'm going to throw it into the washing machine to find out if it felts.



The plan is to make a Christmas stocking for Dollar with this yarn. Now I need BRIGHT fair isle patterns and charts.

Oh, and about the yarn sale at Knit New London? It was awesome. 40% off Cascade Baby Alpaca chunky, Manos del Uruguay Semi Solids Multi Colors, Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton, Jo Sharp Silk Georgette, Pear Tree 4ply 8ply 12ply, ROWAN Summer Tweed Cashsoft DK & Aran weight Bamboo Tape Kidsilk Aura Wool Cotton, Noro Kureyon, Malabrigo Worsted Weight 100% Angora, Classic Elite Premiere Cotton. I got lots, Malabrigo probably being my favorite. It's one of the most popular yarns on Ravelry and everyone says it's "buttery soft" but I've never knit with it.

It is like little pieces of heaven spun up into yarn.

[knitting] Mitten Knit Kits

My sister came over last week to help me make knit kits. I have lots of yarn and lots of mitten patterns but I needed her artist's eye to help me choose color combinations. I then bagged the yarn with the pattern and wah-lah! All ready to go...













Murderface Catdog guarding the kits:



I am trucking along on my squirrely swedish mittens- I've just started the snow section of the second mitten.

[amy] Update

[knitting] I finished one sleeve of the yoke pattern jacket! I'm well into the second sleeve. I have five balls of yarn but I think I'll only need two more to finish the sleeve and do all the seaming. The Upper Valley Knitting Guild is meeting this Wednesday evening at the Norwich Library from 7 - 9 pm.

[watching] The Wire: Season 4. This season's theme was Education and it was an awesome season. Possibly my favorite so far. If you've not seen this show (or you've seen an episode and were like, "Oh, it's a cop show."), you're missing out.

[cooking] Polenta, my love for you hath not waned. I had some for breakfast with a little cream cheese whipped in. I also roasted some baby red, white and purple potatoes based on a recipe from a copy of Fine Cooking I picked up. I actually didn't roast them with rosemary, fennel or garlic, but opted to use some cajun seasoning I had in the cupboard. Tasted great- these little potatoes do get soft and almost creamy on the inside. [Aside: Fine Cooking is a good magazine. Not as complex as Gourmet or even Bon Apetit, and not as Consumer Reports as Cook's Illustrated. This issue had an article on coconut milk and I made a Thai Shrimp soup that Dollar and I loved.]

[exercising] I joined a gym last week and it's been nice. This gym is way nicer (and way more expensive) that the one I used to attend. I had a physical consultation that they will perform every 90 days to track progress. If that isn't motivation to work it, I don't know what is. I'm trying to get into shape for all the hiking I want to do this summer.

[loving]
- Lion Brand LB 1878. I ordered a cone in "Fisherman", which I plan to hand dye and use for mittens. LOTS of mittens.
- The Perry Bible Fellowship. I find these comics to be hilarious.
- iPod Shuffle. So necessary at the gym to keep me pumped.

[Cooking] Polenta

Oh my God... I've fallen in love. Last week I had some chicken in the fridge and after flipping through The Joy of Cooking, I decided to make chicken cacciatore. The recipe says to serve with polenta so I went to the grocery store and got some instant polenta. The combination of the saucy cacciatore mixed with soft polenta was amazing.

I can't believe I have lived this long and never had polenta before. I saw a cook on Food Network prepare it once but he made an enormous amount and poured it onto a table for people to share- which came across as rather decadent and weird to me.

Anyway, I made it again the next night with a pork stew over it. I poured the hot leftover polenta into small, oval, non-stick gratin dishes. For breakfast the next day, I turned the solid polenta out onto a cutting board to cut and then fry. I had it with mushrooms and two over-easy eggs on top. Runny yolks + mushrooms + polenta = bliss.

Even though he politely ate his way through all of this, it appears that Dollar doesn't like polenta. :(

Too bad because I bought a different kind to try. Almost all "instant" polenta is pre-cooked (and then dehydrated) because cooking the real thing involves an hour of standing and stirring. But the taste is meant to be so much better than the instant stuff- richer and cornier. This new stuff I bought isn't pre-cooked but cooks just as fast because South American corn is different from European corn blah blah blah. I just can't wait to see how it comes out.

Warning: hot bubbling polenta is the same consistency and temperature as liquid magma. Don't try to taste it, don't let any splatter onto exposed skin.

Here are a couple polenta recipes I want to try:

Creamy Polenta
Polenta Pie with Cheese and Tomato Sauce (just because I want to try those pre-cooked polenta tubes that look like huge yellow sausages.)

I can't think of any more at the moment. The only way I've prepared polenta so far is to cook it in chicken stock with a little freshly grated parm cheese added at the end. I'd like to branch out and try adding other cheeses, or milk/cream, or butter, or herb butter (I still have a bunch of herb butters in the freezer that I made at the end of the summer).

Have you ever had polenta? Do you like it? What is your favorite way to have it?

UPDATE
NPR just had an article on cornmeal.

[knitting] Squirrely Swedish Mittens

Last week on my trip to DC, I decided to only bring one project with me: Squirrely Swedish Mittens. I am using Frog Tree 100% Alpaca Sport Weight and size US 2 needles. One down (sans thumb), one to go:



I noticed that all the squirrels look fairly cute and innocent except for that one on the end. That guy looks evil... Enhance!



Am I the only one that sees horns and a scowling expression?

I'm well into the 2nd mitten but I'm going to get back into the Yoke Pattern Jacket. Someone on Ravelry contacted me about some yarn in my stash- the Classic Elite Skye Tweed I'm using for Dollar's jacket. I'm going to spend the next few weeks trying to Wrap. It. Up. Then I'll know how many balls of yarn I've got left over to trade. Here's the last photo I took of the jacket...

[knitting] Rangoli Steering Wheel Cover

Here's the Rangoli hat (tammified) in all it's huge glory:



The pattern is pretty and hat is soft.



Just not terribly wear-able.

And today I have bonus pictures of Murderface Catdog. He looks sweet but beware...

[knitting] Raggi Socks

Another pair of socks for Dollar.

Yarn: Jarbo Garn Raggi. I really liked this yarn- it's exactly the stuff I like to work with: worsted weight sock yarn with great yardage. I picked up the two balls at Patternworks in Center Harbor.

I'd be willing to use this yarn exclusively for socks from now on- it's not too expensive (although, $16 for a pair of socks does seem extravagant when I could knit a pair in Lion Brand Wool-Ease for $4), it's plush and the socks fit like a glove. For your feet. Which, I guess, is what socks technically are.

I have two balls Cascade 220 Superwash in a heathery evergreen for another pair of socks. And then I think that's it for all the worsted weight yarn for socks in my stash. I can't believe it. I'm trying so hard to stash bust but I know I'm going to crack and make an unnecessary trip to either Webs or Patternsworks.

By the way, my sister and I made a trip a couple weeks ago to Proctorsville (I had never been to that part of VT before) to visit Six Loose Ladies. This was a wonderful little shop with local yarns, some familiar and unfamiliar yarns. I had never seen the brand Ironstone Yarns before and I picked up a couple balls of Harmoney for a pair of quick, bulky mittens. There was a class going on in the back, the sales lady was super helpful, everyone was friendly and there were lots of fiber art pieces hanging on the walls. This was a great local yarn shop that you should visit if you happen to be in the area.

[travel] Washington DC - Better stick with beer

Long time, no blog. I spent last week in DC for work and had a nice time.

Almost every night started at RFD (which we constantly referred as "Beers of the World". Check out the beer list. And that doesn't include a double-sided page with 40 different bottles and 40 different drafts that change every month. I had a raspberry lambic that came in a small wine glass. Really, it was an oversized shot of beer. But nummy. I had an apple Belgian beer. Very good. Then a bottle of Lucifer. The next night I decided to stick with one beer: WEIHENSTEPHAN Hefe Weiss. The bar was crowded and I had to shout my order which came out as a very uncertain and incorrect "Weis-en-vise-en Heff-eh-vise-en!" Thank god the bartender could decipher what I was asking for.

We went to an upscale Mexican place for dinner one night. There were seven people in our party and we started by asking for three orders of guacamole for the table. The guacamole guy came out and prepared it at the table and it was very nice. I then looked back at the menu and told one of my co-workers, "Did you know that those three orders of guacamole cost thirty-six dollars?" Which I thought was highway robbery but whatever. I'm the cheapskate at the table who thinks that thirty-six dollars for guacamole is crazy and too much money to spend. The guacamole was good but not THAT good.

The next night we went to a mezze place and you know what? I didn't really like it. Everyone from my work that goes to DC a lot kept telling me to go to this place- go to this place! There were five of us and I think we ordered something like fourteen items to share. I think I only liked three. Which is disappointing because since we were all sharing everything, I got eleven bites of things I didn't really like and three bites of things I did. The sirloin was too chewy, the lamb didn't taste lamby, the chicken was dry, etc etc.

So with all this eating out and getting ripped off, it was really nice to come back home and cook something simple.

[knitting] Gauge-shmage

I started a new hat pattern for me: the Rangoli hat with two balls of super fuzzy Bernat alpaca. This project has been a trial. The yarn is nice and soft but terribly sheddy. Seriously, it looks like a rabbit exploded all over my stomach and lap whenever I put this project aside.

My biggest problem is that the hat is turning out to be an over-over-oversized rasta cap. I didn't like how the pattern created something that wasn't quite a hat, wasn't quite a tam, so I decided to tamify the pattern. And I'm knitting it with bulky yarn, rather than sport-weight.

I would periodically try on the tam while knitting and look at Dollar. He said things like, "Hey mon," and "We be jammin'?" And it grew. It grew and grew and grew. I tried to pass it off as a bold fashion choice. I would think, "It's like wearing a pillow on my head- I can just go to sleep wherever I am."

It IS like wearing a huge, round, cable-knit, fuzzy pillow on my head. Which IS a bold fashion choice... If you're a crazy lady pushing a shopping cart full of recyclables down the street.

I'm going to finish this thing. Then it's either going to be (a) washed/dried to see if it'll shrink down to a reasonable size, or (b) a pillow cover. I'll go out and buy a large round pillow and use this as a cover. Because it's so huge. Huger than a steering wheel.

Happy Valentine's Day, mon.

[knitting] Baby Shower

I went to a baby shower this past Saturday and brought the Ripple Hand Towels (as burp towels) and a baby set:

Hat:
Pattern: Basic Hat Pattern (infant size) from The Knitter's Hand Book of Patterns by Ann Budd
Yarn: Louet Gems Baby in Baby Willow
Needles: US 2


Mittens:
Pattern: Baby Mittens
Yarn: Louet Gems Baby in Baby Willow
Needles: US 2 (I really should have used US 4 since the yarn was held double)


Booties:
Pattern: Saartjes Bootees
Yarn: Louet Gems Baby in Baby Willow
Needles: US 2



And the whole set together:



I was able to make all of it with one skein of the Gem's Baby, with enough leftover for another pair of mittens. Not bad for an $8 skein of yarn. I'm very happy with this yarn- no knots whatsoever, very soft, machine wash/dry. It was super fun making the mittens (because they were fast) and booties (because they're so cute- wookit tha widdle buttons!) but I found the hat to be boring. Maybe next time I'll add cables for use a self striping yarn.

[cooking] Duck Duck Duck Duck Duck...

I finally got around to cooking the duck this week and now the entire downstairs has a greasy duck smell that won't go away.

Here's what I wanted from the 5.78lb duck:

1. Roasted duck for dinner
2. Leftover duck meat used in an imaginative way
3. Duck stock made from duck carcass
4. Rendered duck fat

I really can't think of what else I might be able to squeeze out of the poor animal. The crisp roast duck was nummy but a complete nightmare to cook. I had to use my dreaded largest roasting pan which I hate to use because it's larger than my sink and takes HOURS to clean thoroughly. The smoke alarm went off at least six times during the three hours of fatty, splatty, smokey cooking. As if maneuvering a white hot roasting pan and draining/turning and fatty, splatty duck isn't hard enough, imagine doing it while listening to "WHEET! WHEET! Fire! Fire! WHEET! WHEET! Fire! Fire!"

The next day, I stripped all the meat that I could from the carcass. I read some imaginative recipes for leftover duck meat online and I think I'm going to go with duck dumplings. The dumplings I'm thinking of are called mandoo in Korean.

(ASIDE: If I were to write a detective novel, I'm going to name my main character Duck Mandoo. I just like the way it sounds. "It's Duck Mandoo!" "Oh, Duck Mandoo, thank God you're here!" "Mr. Mandoo? You're table is ready." My imagination took it several slapstick levels further where someone shouts "Duck!" to him and he turns, but they really meant "Get down!" Then he's out at a club doing his sleuthing thing and someone shouts "Get down!" and he ducks but everyone else starts to boogie. Which leads to him having an informant on the street called Boogie Daze. And on and on and on to crazyville...)

So I'll put the duck meat in a blender with shallots and spices and whatnot to make the filling for the mandoo- the duck mandoo. Tee hee, I can't stop saying it.

The duck stock was yet another three-hour chore that added an extra coating of flavorlicious smell to the house. The good news is that I was able to get at least two quarts of dark stock. I had been looking for a chinois expressly for making stock and found one at Board & Basket... for $113.00. OMFG@($^%@!!! No freaking way was I going to spend that much. Here's what I do when I want something but can't find it anywhere: I go to Dan & Whit's in Norwich.

You know their saying: If we don't have it, you don't need it. IT'S NOT A LIE. They have never failed me. I was there looking at the strainers and asked one of the old guys "Do you have a fine-mesh, cone-shaped strainer, also called a sheen-wah?" He looked at me like, "Really? You really need a... whatever you just said?" He says to me, "No. Get that strainer and line it with cheesecloth. If you want something finer, use a coffee filter." ... I stood there. I stood there trying not to slap my forehead. I got the $7 strainer and a $3 package of cheesecloth.

At home, I made the stock. I ran the hot liquid through sixteen layers of cheesecloth. This kept out all the little bits and pieces but it still looks like there's sediment. I'm waiting for the stock to cool in the fridge so that I can easily remove the hard layer of fat on top, then I'll reheat the leftover stock and pass it through coffee filters.

And with the fat, I shall reheat it to whatever hotness it needs to be to evaporate any water, then I'll keep the fat in a little jar (like I keep bacon fat) to cook with.

You know what, I get the feeling that the duck has made me it's little bitch. I really don't feel like I've won.

[amy] Murderface Catdog

I'm writing this as I wait while a sweater soaks. It's the very first sweater I ever knit and it's dear to me. It's in the bathroom upstairs in a plastic tub resting in a specialty soap imported from Canada. I decided that it was high time for a good long wash. It was probably the cat pee that really sealed the deal.

For a while now, a friendly neighborhood cat has been coming around my home. He started to come inside (no doubt lured by the free delicacies I offered) and made himself at home. Dollar and I call him Murderface Catdog for reasons so random and numerous, it would be pointless to get into it now.

He's the most amiable and grumpy little guy. He purrs a lot but also wants to bite your fingers. He will fall asleep in my lap and occasionally fart. It's all pros and cons with him and right now, it's... Let me put it this way: Do you intimately know what wool soaked with cat pee smells like? I do.

Excuse me while I go check on the sweater and a few machine washable things that also received some collateral damage.

I think I know why he did it. I suppose my shallow square knitting basket could resemble a litterbox. If that's where one keeps a few spare balls of yarn and various knitting projects. Factor in that Murderface hadn't been outside to relieve himself in, oh, I'd say three days. The weather has been particularly frigid recently, which is one reason we let him stay over.

Anyway, he left this morning. He didn't want breakfast (I should have known something was up!), just to go outside. I went into my craftroom in the afternoon and noticed a smell. I bent down to pick up my sweater and noticed that it was damp. Wondering how my sweater got wet, I felt all along the damp part and put it to my nose. Smells like wet wool and something... sharp... sniff... like a vinegar... sniiiiiff... what would be... It's pee OH MY GOD IT'S CAT PEE!

I rummaged through everything in the basket, feeling some things wet, others dry, some yarns smelled like pee, other's didn't, or did they? Everything had to go except for the things I could wash. Yeah, I could have kept the yarn and washed it and knit with it, but I would know- I would know that there had been pee. And forget about ever using the yarn to make something as a gift.

The Aftermath: The sweater is almost ready to come out. I washed it three times. I'm looking on the bright side- it was high time to wash the sweater anyway. I've got other smaller things to wash but those will be easy. I'm going to a fancy dinner out tonight where I expect to pay too much money for too little food. I plan on extremely enjoying the meal and telling everyone at the table, "Wow, this is so nice after dealing with cat pee all day long. Could someone please order me another glass of wine, I'm going to wash my hands again."

[knitting] Ripple Hand (Burp?) Towel

Last finished one:



I have three now in pastel colors. I think I will give these has burp towels at a baby shower. I know I'll have another baby shower to attend in a few months and for that, I think I'd like to try a different pattern. Maybe the Mason-Dixon Moss Grid Hand Towels...

[knitting] Boku Striped Scarf

Pattern: Striped Scarf

Yarn: Plymouth Boku from White River Yarns; two red balls, two blue balls (heh heh)

Needles: US 8

New Techniques Used: Continental knitting made the knit 1, purl 1 ribbing fly by. I think it took me just over a week to knit this scarf. I wound the balls of yarn into cakes before I started to see where the knots were. There were quite a few and spit splicing to join new yarn was awesome- I only had the two ends at the start and two ends at the finish to weave in!



This was such a treat to knit. Just two different colorways of yarn give you a scarf that makes it look like you knit it with forty different colors of yarn.

[knitting] Camel Scarf

Here is the finished scarf:



Pattern: Just a basic fisherman's rib. These were the only instructions I found online that called for an odd number of stitches to be cast on. I preferred slipping the first stitch of each row for a tidy edge.

Needles: US 10

Yarn: 100% baby camel from School Products. This is a 2-ply lace-weight yarn that they wound into 3-strand cakes for a worsted-weight yarn.

The idea for this project was to make a manly scarf for Dollar to wear with his Navy pea coat. I liked the fisherman's rib because it's inelastic (it doesn't suck in like a regular 1x1 or 2x2 rib) and not fussy looking. I also decided not to make the scarf too long.

Once complete, the stitches were well defined and to be completely honest, the yarn felt a little brittle/crispy to me. The website says that your finished project will need to be washed... MACHINE WASHED. What? I did some research and read that camel fiber doesn't felt easily. I read another review of a camel blend and decided I would machine wash the scarf. But I would err on the side of caution and wash a swatch first. [tapping head] Not just a hat rack, my friend.

Check out the before and after swatches:







Talk about bloomage! The swatch got really fluffy and soft (angora/cashmere soft). Without hesitation I threw Dollar's scarf into a delicates bag and machine washed the thing on a cold/cold delicates setting. I am so glad I used a delicates bag because it shed like crazy. After the spin cycle, I took it out of the bag and shook it- now it looks like a baby camel exploded in my basement. But the scarf- oh so soft. I ran it upstairs to dry on the blocking board and it was dry by morning (I'm used to knits taking several days to dry so that was a treat).

The only negative thing I have to say about the scarf is that it's still a little sheddy. I will periodically need to take a lint roller to the collar of Dollar's coat where the scarf rubs up against it.

I still have some of the baby camel cake of yarn left- and a whole 'nother cake. The yardage is great. I'm thinking it should be another scarf but a lacey one for me!

[knitting] Starsky

Pictures:













Let's see it's taken roughly a year and a half to make this so I'm not sure I can remember all the details:

Name: Starsky, Size L.
Needles: Size US 10
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool (Only 3 skeins! Gotta love that kind of yardage.)
Modifications: Didn't do the belt- used buttons instead. I also found a shawl collar modification written by the designer on Craftster to make the collar shawlier.

Things I don't like:

1. How boxy it is. I presume the belt situation would have taken care of this but I recommend adding some waist shaping if you bypass the belt.

2. I also don't like the one repeat of the banana leaf pattern on each of the left and right fronts. There are four pattern repeats across the back but only two total across the fronts and lots of empty stitches. I think the one repeat is good for the S and M sizes. And the XL and XXL sizes get two repeats across each front. But my L size looks busier in the back than in the front, you know what I mean? I may be crazy but for this size, there should have been 1.5 pattern repeats for the left and right fronts.

3. The sleeves are a little too long and wide.

Things I do like:

1. Seaming. No, I don't actually like the seaming process but the invisible seaming I used (from the Vogue Knitting reference book) is REALLY invisible.

2. Wearing it. I like wearing this sweater around the house. The yarn isn't cashmere, so it's a little scratchy but it's warm and hey, I made it.

[amy] Crazy and not too bright

Dollar and I went to a large poker game this past Saturday. There were 26 people there and I was the only girl. In preparation for the game, I went to Gemstar Gemstone in Enfield to purchase some lucky stones because I'm crazy like that.

I think I was the 5th or 6th person out. Too bad. My last hand was a pretty large gamble and I was madly petting the stones in my hand, thinking, "I believe in the magic, I believe in the magic..." After I went out, all the guys got really silent like they were waiting for me to start crying. I got some conciliatory beer and spent the rest of the night rooting for Dollar- who won! He won with a pair of twos! I'm happy because this means I get a nice dinner out on the town.

Watching... Season 1 of the Wire.

Cooking... My freezer is a veritable zoo of meat (shrimp, duck, lobster, ostrich, chicken, beef) that I need to figure out something to do with.

Playing... Played Scattegories this past weekend. Simple game, right? I kept messing up! At one point, the letter to use was "M" and the category was "Names from the bible." Thoughts rapidly ran through my head in the following order: 'Mary. No, everyone's going to guess Mary. Jesus. No, everyone's going to pick Jesus. Josepth. Yeah, Joseph." When the time came to reveal your words, things like Moses and Mary were said. I shouted, "Joseph!" while every started at me in awe and pity.

Knitting... I finished the striped Boku scarf. Yes, it had lots of knots in it that had to be cut out, which is why I'm in love with the wet splicing method of joining new yarn. I started a baby hat to bring to a baby shower in a couple weeks. I also want to make some matching mittens and booties. This is actually the first time, in all my four years of knitting, that I've knit baby garments.

[amy] General Update

Monster illness came out of nowhere to strike down both Dollar and myself. It was all coughing, sneezing, general confusion and light-headedness, sleeping in until 2 pm, etc. I'm feeling better now but still not back to normal.

Knitting...

I started a striped scarf based on this pattern. I'm using Plymouth Boku in red and blue colorways. I'm knitting the entire thing using Continental and the knit 1, purl 1 is whizzing by. I'm also trying out split splicing (using water, not spit) to join yarn. It's working out really well and I'm psyched to not have a bunch of ends to weave in. Wet splicing might just be my favorite new knitting technique.

I started swatching for a baby hat. I'm going to a baby shower on Feb. 9 and I want to bring a hat and mittens.

Cooking...

This Salmon Chowder was very good. It was a different method for me (Parboiling the potatoes? What?) and I liked the thyme and red pepper flakes. Very interesting.

I went to the Upper Valley Co-op in White River Jct. I usually never go here but decided to stop by. They have no thawed meat but their freezer section has a good selection of local meat (elk, buffalo, venison). I picked up some ground ostrich because I have a thing for exotic meat.

Watching...

LOST, Season 3: Just finished in time for Season 4, premiering next week! I'm so excited!

BBC Planet Earth: This series was so mind-blowingly amazing. I can't recommend it enough.

Cloverfield: Didn't live up to the hype. If you got nauseous from the shaky handy-cam style of Blair Witch, you will hurl at this movie. Dollar had to look away from the movie a few times. I've read countless comments that people had to leave the movie because it was making them sick.

Gilmore Girls, Season 7: Not really into it, just want some closure on the series. It's gotten to the point where I think they're cramming in dialog for the sake of dialog. One funny bit- Lorelai thought Cafe au Lait was actually Spanish, not French: "I thought it was Cafe Ole!, like Coffee All Right!"

[knitting] Productivity

I went to the Upper Valley Knitting Guild meeting last week and I was humbled. The little knitting group I'm a part of is like a pick-up game of baseball while the Knitting Guild is like the major league. The meeting was two hours of show-and-tell. The ladies take out projects they've finished since the last meeting and talk about technique, history, what motivated them to make it, what they would do differently next time, etc etc etc.

Galvanized, I finished several projects this weekend:

1. Starsky. The sweater is done. I seamed the arm, weaved in ends and sewed on buttons. I've been wearing it around but it's a little boxy because there is no waist shaping. I'm going to wash and block the sweater to be longer/slimmer.

2. Fisherman's Rib scarf. Done. Not too long. I made a couple swatches as well- one to throw into the washer and see what happens. Right now the yarn feels a little... brittle. I want to wash the scarf so that it fluffs up.

3. Alpaca tam. All done in time for my mother's b-day this week. I actually saw my mom at the grocery store this weekend- I recognized her from behind because of the tam she was wearing.

All that's left unfinished are a pair of socks and the Yoke Pattern Jacket- WHICH I happened start a sleeve on! I picked up stitches along the shoulder and have started to knit down. I've only done about 3 inches so far.

Lots of pictures to come this week.

[knitting] What unfinished objects?

The UFOs are starting to accumulate...

Tam:



Socks:



Scarf:



Yoke Pattern Jacket:



Plus a couple more.

For local knitters, I stopped by Northern Nights Yarn shop in Norwich the other day. The shop now carries Sublime yarn (I picked up a couple balls in blue to make another kid mohair tam) and... Noro sock yarn! Only three colors are available at the moment but Heather said she ordered ten, so more should be on the way. She also seems to have expanded the color selections for Cascade 220 Superwash and Manos Del Uruguay. I saw some 5" Brittany Birch dpns behind the register and wanted to poke around for some (these shorter needles would be awesome for sock knitting!) but Heather gave me the smack-down: They're not ready yet.

[knitting] Mille Colori Luxe Neck Warmer

Remember the SWS neck warmer? I didn't give up on making a second one and soon after pulled out two stray balls of Lang Mille Colori (in a nearly identical colorway to the natural navy SWS) from the stash. I knit this neck warmer without any problems:



I used size 7 or 8 needles, make two extra feather and fan repeats, and made it a little longer than the first. I used nearly every inch of the two balls. It only took two days to knit.

I wrapped both SWS and Mille Colori neck warmers up for Christmas and gave them to my sister, saying, "You may keep one." I was planning to keep the one she didn't want- no big deal, right? Apparently it's bad form to give someone a present and then demand half back. My sister didn't care but the guys thought it was the perfect antithesis to gift-giving.

I just wanted her to make an unbiased decision. If I gave her one, but then said, "Or, you know, you can have this one if you want," she'd most likely assume I wanted her to have the one I gave her. Really, I wanted her to have either. But not both. I need to think about my cold neck too.

In the end, she kept the SWS one and I kept the Mille Colori one.

[amy] Knitting for a pimp

Had a pretty easy-going weekend. I started another project- a fisherman's rib scarf for Dollar. He recently unearthed two of his Navy pea coats from the depths of his closet. I brought them to the dry cleaner's last Thursday and decided to whip out a scarf before they are ready to be picked up in 7 days.

I have a couple wheels of 100% baby camel yarn that I picked up at School Products in NYC this past summer. I thought this would be a nice, simple color for a nice, simple man's scarf. I brought Dollar into the craft room to show him. "See this?" I asked. "It's the yarn I'm going to use for your scarf." "Nice," he said, "Soft." "It's baby camel," I said, "They have to kill the baby camels in order to get to the soft inner down."

That was, of course, a lie. I think the fur is actually collected as the animal sheds it and the soft inner down has to be separated from the coarse outer hair. But I'm not sure.

Anyway, the pea coat and rustic scarf will be a nice change for Dollar. He got a brown leather blazer for Christmas and has been wearing it non-stop to work. He has also started slicking his hair back and won't let me cut it. All these things add up to him looking like a pimp. Not like some guy who is dressing up to look like a pimp, no, he looks like a frighteningly realistic pimp. Everyone at his work is telling him so. One day last week he brought in a box of donuts for his co-workers and one of them said "Ooo, donuts! The girls must have made some good money for you last night!" Please, I don't want to be going out with someone who looks like an authentic pimp.

I'm tempted to cut a chunk out of his hair while he's sleeping, just to force him to let me buzz cut it. But then it would only be fair for him to eventually cut a chunk out of my hair while I'm sleeping and I don't really want that...

[knitting] Ripple Hand Towels

Some Ripple Hand Towels:



A couple pictures without flash so that you can see the texture better:





These are good sized towels- 12 inches across, 16 inches long. After I machine wash/dry them, they'll probably shrink to 10 inches across and 13 inches long but whatever. I think I might give these away as baby shower gifts.

I took my first class in knitting Continental style last night at White River Yarns. I knit in the English style and Continental is meant to be a lot faster and less strenuous on your hands and arms. I think I only knit two inches on a swatch in two hours. For real, it's so hard to learn a new way. I came home and told Dollar, "It's like you're right-handed, right? Well, I want you to start writing with your left hand. And here, here's the Declaration of Independence, I want you to transcribe it using your left hand- go! You'd have to go slow because you have to think about the construction of every single letter. In this Continental style, I have to think about every single stitch as I'm making it. Blah!"

So I think the plan is to finish up all my current projects in English style then make a permanent switch to Continental. Get ready for ghetto-fugly beginner projects as I learn how to knit all over again.

[knitting] Girlie Dice Bag

I used the smallest amount of leftover Andean Treasure (in "wild rose heather") to make a pink bag for my pink dice...





It's small- around two inches across and four inches long. But it was easy, quick and made good use of leftover yarn in the stash.

Remember the cartoon series Dungeons & Dragons? I got the boxed set for Christmas and have been working my way through the episodes. It's so bad it's good.

[knitting] Sublime Tam

I've had nearly two weeks off from work and in the time, I knit my little heart out. No, the yoke pattern jacket wasn't even touched (oops), but I started 4 other projects. One of them was a last minute tam for my mom:





Yarn: Sublime Kid Mohair (1.5 balls, color: truffle)
Pattern: Basic Tam Pattern from Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns
Needle: US 7
Source: Webs in Northampton, MA

I chose this yarn for a very specific reason. Yarn is sold by weight, the usual weight being 50 gram balls. Depending on the gauge of the yarn, this can be anywhere from 70 yards (bulky) to 400 yards (lace). When searching a worsted weight yarn for a tam, I payed close attention to weight and found a yarn with good yardage and it only weighed a mere 25 grams. 25 grams!

I cast on and knit. It was oh so light. I would pull a length of yarn from the ball and it would float down to my lap like a feather. As I made more progress, I would hold the tam out to Dollar and say, "Here, feel how soft this is. Isn't it soft? It's so soft."

I was able to wrap it up in time for Christmas. I saw a stack of tams at my mom's and counted. I've made 5 for her so far. Little does she know that I've got #6 on the needles right now.