This Has Little To Do With Knitting

My parents returned from their winter residence last Thursday. If there was ever any doubt that my dad is awesome, that doubt was firmly removed when he handed me this little care package.










































These are Norman Love chocolates direct from the artisan's shop in Florida. Those of you who are Food Network afficionados might recognize his name from the Challenge series. He sometimes judges the confectioner's challenges.

And trust me, these handcrafted chocolates taste exactly as you'd expect. They were made by the guy good enough to judge everyone else. They're decadent and delicious and make Godiva (which I love) taste like Barbie chocolate from the toy store.

My dad is awesome. Clearly. And how much does he love me? A ten-piece box much. That's a lot.

With their return came a flurry of events. First my sister took over the kitchen to make a clutch of princes and princesses out of sweet stuff. The dresses are fruit roll-ups, yo. Best part? Watching her try to roll out yellow starbursts to make the crowns.























Then we set fire to a cake in honor of my niece's birthday. Good times. There was also a cousins' slumber party at my house, complete with a wii tournament, sledding in pajamas, and chocolate chip pancakes.





















In the midst of all this birthday shopping, Danger Boy scored a new ripstick. He's managed to ride it several times without ever drawing blood. Benefits of maturity?




















I show you all this in lieu of showing off my knitting. There has been knitting. I just can't show it off now. Someday I'll explain that. But also not now. :) The kid is due home from school in mere moments, and family madness has claimed my life for the moment. As Martha would say, it's a good thing.

Ravelympics Countdown!

Marking my starting point -- I'm about halfway through the fifth pattern repeat of the front of St. B. The back is done. And that's all we have of that.

We'll see how far I get between Opening and Closing Ceremonies. :D I'm very excited to be able to say that my knitting will be a regular part of my day for the next couple weeks. I've logged a lot of extra hours recently to make that possible. I'm ready!

PS. My camera is toast. I need a new one. This one can't be fixed.

February 2010, Taking Stock

I signed up for the ravelympics. There's been a little more knitting time lately even though I don't always have the inclination for it. This isn't the fault of knitting. This is the fault of overcrowding and other people wanting to sit in the knitting chair, plus the noise and disruption associated with all these new bodies in the house. It's not that they're being bad or awful -- they're not. It's just that the second I get into the knitting chair, the dog wants attention. Or the boy. Or the sister. Knitting is my quiet time, my time for contemplation and unbroken rhythms. Or I want it to be that, anyway.

In any case, I'm on ball three of the green afghan, and I'm making progress on the second sock of the burgundy bearfoot. I would gladly show off some pictures, but my camera lens has broken. I think it can be repaired but I haven't had time to deal with it yet. I just keep forgetting. This will have to be repaired before the ravelympics, of course, because they want photos.

So far, the only project I've designated is St. Brigid. My hope is to finish the back and get a good start on the sleeves. That would be a wonderful accomplishment as it would represent a big chunk of time set aside for knitting.

It's possible. Not easy, but possible.

My urge for the past several weeks has been to take stock of my routines and schedule and try to get some better routine and balance. This is merely a function of the chaos around me -- I'm searching for some sense of control, and not finding it. But I'm within a few hours of finishing a major, major project, something several months in the making, and once that is off my desk, I have the sense that a routine will be possible. So this has been much on my mind. What I wouldn't give to be able to block out a rough schedule for each day -- so many hours for this task, then an hour on that, then an hour on that, and so on. That's how I function best, and that's beginning to feel within reach.

And the ravelympics may be a great motivator to reestablish that kind of daily rhythm. I'm looking forward to it.

So what about the rest of you? Who has signed up, and what events will you be competing in?

Made It! Whew!

Back at Stitches in early September, Adrienne and I made a yarn diet vow to each other. Shook on it and everything. I vowed to buy no yarn at all, and she vowed to buy no yarn other than a special dispensation for her trip to Ireland. (Overseas travel should come with an automatic dispensation, right?)

We agreed our deal would last to the end of the year. Perfect, because The Fold's New Year's Day sale would be the ideal feast at the end of the diet.

I was perfect. I bought a couple of magazines but not a speck of yarn. And when our annual trip to The Fold came around, I was ready for it.

Funny thing, though. I got up there and didn't really want to buy anything! I fondled dozens of gorgeous yarns and put them all back. We must have browsed an hour before I snapped out of it and realized this sale comes around once a year. Plus, Adrienne and I had already vowed to extend the yarn diet from January 2 to April 30. So with the realization that this would be my only chance to buy yarn from September through April, I decided to splurge a little.

Even so, I came home with extra cash in my pocket. Quite a bit. Which strikes me as the perfect balance, actually, because I felt like I splurged and still managed to feel virtuous about under-spending.

In the picture above, you'll see three skeins of baby yarn on the right side. I bought enough in these three colors to make a winter set of hat, gloves, and scarf. I've been browsing my Latvian mittens book, trying to pick a pattern. Kris helped me pick out the colors -- I never would have selected that orangey red on my own, so I'm very glad she helped me because these colors really pop against my black coat. I can't wait to see how they knit up.

In the front are two skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn in semisolids. I need some plain, dark socks to wear with my closet full of black turtlenecks and sweaters, so the charcoal and cream Opal and the charcoal Malabrigo will get lots of use.

When will I knit it? Only time will tell. I've been picking at the green afghan for Danger Boy in the spare moments I have available for needlework -- an increasing amount of time, but still not enough to really make any headway on existing projects. Nevertheless, it's an improvement, and I do feel that with the New Year, I've turned a corner and am heading for a sunnier field.

Spooky Cuffs

I've been wanting to show these off for weeks, but my camera wasn't working. Or so I thought. Turned out there's a switch that does things I didn't know about. Pays to read the manual, right? Anyway, now I can take pictures again.

These cuffs were a gift from my batty friend DisGrace as part of our Secret Spook exchange for Halloween. She knit them. Lovely, aren't they? And they fit perfectly. Danger Boy says they're good for superheroes and punching things, and that they make Wii work better.

Over the years I've accumulated a lot of bats as a result of my involvement with this bat writing group, and my nieces and nephews are fascinated by them. I think it's because it's so unusual to have an office decorated with bats. I mean, who does that! Well, I do. The kids have named most of the little bats sprinkled all over my writing and editing corner. There's Batscot, Stretchy Uno, Sparkles, Nocturna, and a few more whose names I can never remember.

The kids are currently debating names for the bats on these cuffs. I voted for Bam! and Pow!, but I think they've about resolved on Scritch and Scratch. They say it's because the of the wool, which feels like a good Shetland wool, very sheepy and a bit crunchy. (Well, they don't know that it feels like a good rustic wool -- but I do.) It's not ruggy, not too coarse to wear, but it's rougher than the cheap acrylic gloves from Old Navy which these kids usually wear. So to them, this is a hallmark characteristic of the mitts and Scritch and Scratch might end up being the winning names.

Which leads me to an important question. How will I ever get these mitts back to myself? lol

Half a Hat, Now With Bonus Ladders!

Bleurgh. Look where the needles join. See the vertical ladder line in the fabric under the join? Bet you don't have to look very hard. (sigh) I never get ladders. I can knit with all sorts of yarns and dpns, and I don't get ladders. EXCEPT...

With very slick superwash wool. You know the kind I'm talking about. It's the stuff that gives superwash a bad name. Feels great, but handles strangely. Gauge might wobble, fabric might gain inches during blocking, ends won't stay put.

And in my case, ladders.

I reckon I'll have to use my crochet hook to turn those ladders into stitches, and then use a k2tog on the live stitches to get rid of the extra one. But that will come when I'm just about ready to close the crown. No point in "fixing" it too soon.

This is the Kittiwake pattern by Alice Starmore, btw, from Aran Knitting. Except I changed it a little. (Shocking, right?) I wanted more of the braid, less of the rib, so I shortened the ribbing section by an inch (leaving it still long enough to fold in half), and am adding another repeat of the braid cable. It's a slow knit, fiddly, and I will never, ever do it on double points again.


After the hat is finished, I get to knit this:














Details will follow. :)

Silence is Golden

I have the house to myself this weekend. Even the dog is gone. This is because, clearly, God loves me best.

And s/he wants me to have the knitting chair.

And s/he wants Panera Larry's baby to be warm this winter.

And s/he wants me to have the pride and satisfaction of finishing something. Anything, really.

Hooray for God for being smart enough to arrange all this.

The stats:

Pattern: Chevron Baby Lace hat (ravelry freebie) and my own baby mitt pattern
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull, what else ;) About 80% of a skein for the set
Needles: US2 dpns

Notes:

The crown of the baby hat is a bit fiddly, and I'm not sure the end result was worth it. But it will do.

To make the mitts, co 30 and join, leaving at least an 8" tail. Work k1 p1 rib for 1.25 inches. Increase to 40 stitches and switch to stockinette. Knit plain until mitt is 3.25" and then k1, k2tog on alternating rounds until you have just a handful of stitches left and can draw the yarn through the loops to close the circle. (On non-decrease rounds, just knit plain.)

Break the yarn and knot it to the 8" tail at your cast on edge. Slip a crochet hook into the cast on stitch next to the tail -- this will be the base for a chain. Chain stitch along the knotted tail until the chain is about 26-28" inches long when unstretched.

Using your final loop in the crochet chain as your slipknot, cast on 30 and make the second mitt as above. When you wind in the ends from the knot in the chain, weave them in opposite directions. to hide the bulk. And yes, it's best to knot this. You need a strong connection. Don't worry -- it's invisible once it's woven in.

This will look like a fairly large mitt, but it really isn't. Newborns tend to curl their fingers, but you want the mitt to leave them room to stretch.

Now, onto the hat for Panera Eric. He deserves something good, too.