lost

You know what drives me crazy? When we're all finally (finally!) ready to walk out the door to meet my knitting pals at the Sow's Ear and I can find every single stinking needle I own (and that's a lot, trust me) EXCEPT THE ONE I NEED. I'm normally quite organized about my knitting stuff, but the needles are a problem. I have a pair of 16" size 7 circulars I need to make a hat for Anya and I'll be darned if I can find it. I just got it, too; it's one of the Harmony wood fixed circulars from KnitPicks, and I love it. I used it for not one, but two Ripple hats (second one never got photographed before I gave it away, so it never got blogged), and now I want to get started on the hat she'll need for Halloween but I can't because that needle is missing. I'm sure I've got another 16" size 7 circular somewhere but I want that one because it's nice and pointy and smooth without being too slick and knitting it just plain pleasurable with it.

It's not as though I get much, if any, actual knitting done when I meet my knitting friends with kids in tow. But still. You never know when you might sneak in a few stitches.

I think I have finally reached the point of saturation. I have too much yarn, too many needles, and my system (if you can call it that) of organization is breaking down. I don't like the idea of sticking everything in a 3-ring binder, which I know some people do. Too lumpy, and too much plastic for my taste. No way am I spending big bucks on a fancy needle holder, either, especially if it doesn't exactly fit my needs. Yes, I might have to draw on my own creative power and design something myself. Back when Stitch 'N Bitch first came out, I sewed one of those circular needle holders that goes on a hanger, and it works okay.



But something about all those needles hanging out and clicking together and threatening to slip out and fall to the floor offends my strong inner sense of orderliness. (Yes, I do have an strong inner sense of orderliness, even if it's well-hidden. Stop laughing, dad. I got it from you!)

This will take some thinking. My hypothetical custom-made needle case will need lots of space, perhaps wide, deep pockets to store rolled up circulars. It will need to fold up or roll up. It will need some type of closure, like a button or snap or tie. It needs size labels.

It also needs to have a companion case for all my DPNs! I made myself a simple DPN needle-holder when I first started knitting socks, around 2001...



...and it's nice as can be except it doesn't hold above a size 8 needle, and I've got a few sets in larger sizes for hats and sleeves (which I didn't know could be knit in the round before I learned about socks. Wonderfully versatile craft, knitting.)

Even if the needles aren't terribly organized, I usually have most of them in one basket or bag or at least a pile somewhere, but lately I've been having more problems finding what I need, especially at the last frazzled minute. I can't really blame the kids, either. Once the rule was laid down about NOT poking holes in the couch with pointy sticks, they pretty much lost interest and left them alone.

I'm not sure when I'll find the time to make a needle case. Operating a sewing machine with two squirmy children hanging around is no picnic, and I can't really count on Anya's naptime to do it, since lately her naps are only lasting 45 minutes or so. Evenings and weekends seem to get sucked into other chores and activities...but I'll just have to buckle down and do this if I really want a nice case for my needles. Perhaps tonight I'll start by thinking and measuring and sketching out some ideas.

yummy socks

Give these socks a sniff, and you'll understand why I call them "yummy"!



The above picture is my first FO made from my streak of Kool-Aid dyeing in the spring, and they still smell faintly of fake fruity flavor. I didn't use a pattern; funny how I own books full of sock patterns and yet most of the socks I make are vanilla top-down right out of my head.

These were specially made for my friend C (of the blog happy stuff.) I had commissioned her to make some silk-screened linen hand-towels for my MIL's birthday early in the summer. When I said I'd be more than happy to pay whatever she would charge for such an item on her etsy shop, she suggested an exchange instead: towels for socks and a lesson in making homemade noodles. I was more than happy with this arrangement, so I invited her over to look through the KA-dyed sock yarn and my patterns. She picked out the red right away, but then after looking through many fancy-pants patterns, admitted she would really rather have simple socks with stripes. Of course, I didn't have the right blue on hand, so I just ordered a skein of Valley Yarns Huntington in the color "porcelain", and I think it goes with the red rather nicely, don't you?

I wanted to try something new with this pair of socks, just to challenge myself, so I did a little rolled st st above the ribbing, for fun, and I tried an afterthought heel. But I hated the afterthought heel. Hated. It. Didn't look right, didn't fit right, and there were funny gaps at the corners, so I ripped it out and went with the old classic slipped-stitch flap and short-row wedge. I swear that never fails.

C doesn't have her socks yet, though I sent her a picture, so I'm not ruining the surprise. She'll get them in person this week. We'll make a trip to the library where she works for hand-delivery. I hope you like them, C!

Oh, and we haven't made noodles together yet, but whenever that happens one (or both) of us will be sure to take pictures and blog it, maybe in November when she's got a little more time.

relief

I just got a call from my brother that his girlfriend is finally, officially, completely, cancer-free. She finished chemo in July, but a PT scan showed a spot under her arm they hadn't noticed before, so there was surgery last week to remove some tissue and do a biopsy. Results just came back and they are negative! I can't tell you how relieved I am, how relieved we all are.

Next post I'll show some actual knitting, but since I had mentioned MJ's illness and treatment here before, I thought I'd pass along the good news, too.

Yesterday was kind of a long day. I've got a cold and while I didn't want to admit it, I was feeling pretty lousy all day yesterday with aches and a low-grade fever and clogged head and all. I wasn't sick enough to ask Stuart to stay home from work, so I just had to pretend I felt fine and deal with it. The kids have it, too, but it hasn't slowed them down one bit; there's just some extra sneezing mixed in with the running and climbing and tower-building and general mess-making.

Part of the reason I was in denial is that I was scheduled to meet my knitting friends at a café last evening and I really didn't want to miss it. They love seeing my kids, so often we'll meet during a weekday morning, but every once in a while we'll pick an evening time so that I can have a conversation from start to finish without interruptions and actually get some knitting done. I was on the fence all day about going. Yes, I felt crummy, but if I stayed home, would I be able to lie down and take a nap? No, I would have been chasing the kids and cleaning the kitchen and wishing I could be out with my friends. So I made dinner and went to the café, where I sat a safe distance from my friends, armed with plenty of tissues and hand sanitizer, and I had a good time.

At one point we got on the subject of baking, and I told them about how when I was hugely pregnant and had insomnia so severe I would go entire nights without any sleep at all, I would do the strangest stuff in the middle of the night, like bake bread. The Thanksgiving before Anya was born, I remember my parents and brother were here to visit for a few days. There was someone sleeping in every single room of the house except the kitchen and bathroom. I was already spending enough time in the bathroom since I had to pee every 5 minutes, so at 2:00 in the morning when I couldn't sleep and my feet itched, I would sit in the kitchen chewing ice cubes (my only pregnant craving) and knitting garter stitch squares. The night before Thanksgiving, I decided to make the next day's dinner rolls because even with knitting I had a hard time sitting still. Unfortunately, all the insomnia and hormones messed with my head, so even performing relatively simple tasks presented enough of a challenge (I'm still not sure how I managed to pull off my exit recital that same week.) Long story short: at 2:30a.m. something in the oven started to burn, there was smoke everywhere, and I got the smoke alarm removed from the wall and down in the basement barely in time. One more minute and it would have started beeping and woken everyone up. You might say I was going a little nuts. A week later, my doc gave me a prescription for sleeping pills (I only took one).

I may still be sleep-deprived (which probably explains why I got this cold worse than the kids, for once), and I may have days that are long and frustrating and exhausting...but it sure beats being pregnant and half-crazy. All in all, life is good.

can't get enough ruffles!

Remember this?



It's the end of another "just enough ruffles" scarf. I finished it a while ago, but didn't blog it because I wanted the scarf to get to Jenn first! This is her crafty pay-it-forward prize. (Jessi, I promise to finish yours soon.)



Pattern: Just Enough Ruffles by Laura Chau of Cosmicpluto Knits
Yarn: SWTC Bamboo, just over 1 skein. This yarn has been sitting in my stash for a loooong time waiting for the perfect project, and it fit the bill! Jenn lives in southern Texas, so there was no reason for wool. It kind of curls with this yarn more than the first one I made, but I don't think that matters much with the ruffles and all.



I don't have much else to say about this, except that I could conceivably make this scarf over and over. It's that much fun!

Daniel was my willing scarf model the day I took these photos. I think Stuart was too busy roasting coffee to get any pictures with me, which is just fine. You see my mug here enough!

wisconsin sheep and wool

I dragged my little fambly out to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival on Sunday morning. All right, "dragged" might be too strong a term, actually, because it was a really beautiful sunny day, so Stuart was glad to have somewhere to go, Daniel was excited about seeing sheep and lambs, and Anya...well, Anya's generally game for anything as long as she's with us. By far the coolest thing we saw was the shearing demonstration. This picture isn't great, but Daniel took it with his own camera:



This man has made shearing sheep an art. "It's harder than it looks," he said, and it surely didn't look easy, though he moved swiftly, gracefully, deftly and with impressive strength. He trained at a shearing school in New Zealand, he has sheared sheep all over the world, and through the winter he keeps in shape by chopping firewood and running on a treadmill. I think Daniel watched the shearing demos for at least 45 minutes; it was that captivating. He took a sheep out of the pen, turned it on its back, gently holding its forefeet in his hands, shaved off the wool, and released it back through the gate all in less than a minute (here's a link to a youtube clip from a couple years ago, same guy.)

We watched part of the Crook and Whistle dog trials, during which at one point a competitor gave up on her dog completely and herded the sheep into the pen herself. We also saw different breeds of sheep, some with truly strangely shaped horns, and petted newborn lambs. All very nice and fun but I didn't want to lug my camera along, and Daniel's pictures are too blurry to share.

When the kids were starting to wilt, I bought them ice cream and sent them to a shady spot with Stuart so I could go to the vendors. Two barns full of vendors, people! I happen to think I made it through pretty quick, but by the time I was finished walking through, I found my bedraggled husband with our daughter sleeping on his shoulder, Daniel following him with dragging feet and tired eyes. As we were getting in the car, Stu left for one quick bathroom stop, and I said to Daniel, "Is Stuart mad that I took so long?" "Yeah," he replied, "he said Sorry, sorry mom's taking so long a lot!" Harumph. If he only knew how much longer I could have taken! To Stuart's credit, he never complained to me. I think 3/4 of those vendors sold exclusively rovings, fleeces, and spinning supplies, for which I had no interest. I don't spin, and I don't plan to start.

But don't think I left there empty-handed. Oh my no. It's actually not too difficult to limit myself at these things. I didn't even look at commercial yarns because those can be found easily enough in the Madison shops. I'm not interested in sock yarn because I have plenty in the stash and I don't even knit socks terribly often. I don't like variegated or self-striping yarns, so that eliminates most of the hand-dyed. Basically, I was interested in the stands representing small farms and mills offering yarns that can only be had on site. Mind you, even with those limitations there was plenty to choose from. I was mighty tempted by many things. I yielded twice:

1) Honest-to-Pete shetland yarn in natural colors. Black and white sportweight, enough to make a hat and mittens. I'm thinking Norwegian-style snowflake/star motif, but I welcome suggestions.



2)Alpaca/merino blend from Frontier Fiber Mill that was too gorgeous to pass up; the pictures on the site linked there do not do the yarn justice. I had the hardest time settling on a color because there were several irresistible heathery shades. I had a sweater's worth picked out of the green you see in the picture below, plus another skein of a light blue, and I was about to buy both when she offered to put the blue back for me. It's probably a good thing she did because my knitting queue is already about to explode!



I'll have to swatch this and see how it knits up (the label says "DK" but it looks like it could knit up nicely in a worsted gauge), but I think it would make a very nice Margot from the new Knitty. Thoughts?

ripple reprise

I'm having a bit of a dilemma about this weekend. Wisconsin Sheep and Wool is Friday - Sunday and I would really really like to go check it out. But when? Daniel starts a preschool class in the morning, so it's going to be a big day already, though I could take the kids in the afternoon. But do I want to schlep them around by myself at a time of day when they are typically not their best? Saturday's out of the question, since our CSA farm is having a big pesto event that I am NOT going to miss (we went last year and it was really great, plus we made about 2 gallons of pesto and I am not exaggerating!). Pesto Fest takes most of the day, plus the farm is exactly in the wrong direction from Wisconsin Sheep and Wool. Sunday may be a possibility, though I have to be somewhere in the late afternoon/evening, so that would make for an awfully busy weekend. I could go by myself on Sunday and force Stuart to spend quality time with his children without me, but I kind of want them to come along to see the sheep and everything. Or I could just miss it completely, which would be a shame, though I would just be going to shop and observe, since I didn't register for any of the classes. I'll have to ponder my options tonight. It would be nice if I had someone to go with, but all my friends who might possibly be interested are busy with other things this weekend.

In the meantime, I finished the ripples hat. It's definitely too small for anyone but Anya!








Pattern: Ripple, a new release over at Knit and Tonic
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash paints. I think this colorway is just stunning on Anya. Too bad she won't keep the hat on. She like to pretend it's a sock.
Mods: none, though I think my gauge was a little tight since this came out on the small side. I didn't check my gauge and I've never knit with this yarn before (I don't believe in swatching for hats...which might explain the trouble I've had with another one of late). If I'd made the hat longer before starting the decrease section, that would have helped. Still, it fits Anya just fine.

ripples!

I started this little hat yesterday and I ought to finish it today. Gotta love those impulse knits.



Oh, who am I kidding? The only reason I'm posting at all is because I couldn't resist sharing this picture of Anya. Happy Labor Day!

the beauty of bartering

A little while back, someone contacted me about yarn I had listed on craigslist and wanted to know if I'd be willing to barter products rather than cash. I'm open-minded, so I said sure, we could talk. Yesterday she stopped by and took a lot of yarn off my hands in exchange for equivalent cash value of her own line of organic products: LusaOrganics. She and her husband make all this stuff themselves, and you can buy it online or at their stand across from the farmers' market in downtown Madison. I have to confess I've grown to hate going to the downtown market on Saturdays. It's huge and crowded and parking is a mess, and there are street musicians every block or so that aren't really any good (for example, today some barefoot lass was singing "Thriller" with a conga drum, and no, it didn't really work) and at one point Daniel ran off looking for us because he couldn't see that we were right there next to him (that's how crowded it is) and I panicked because I was afraid he would get really and truly lost (we found him 3 minutes later with the help of many people in the crowd - the market's a friendly place, you can say that much) plus Taste of Madison is this weekend so there were lots of extra trucks and people...I'm over the whole downtown experience, really. I like our little market on the west side with all the familiar vendors and only the one group of mediocre street musicians (a bluegrass group that plays THE SAME TUNE over and over every week)...

Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes. Bartering. Much as going downtown on Saturday mornings brings out my impatient, claustrophobic qualities, it was worth it to shop at LusaOrganics' little stand at the end of State Street because it kind of felt like picking out fancy soaps and such for free. I got a head start on some holiday gift shopping, and picked up a couple things for myself while I was at it.

....

Remember the Classic One-Fifty cardigan I started several months ago? I got all frustrated with the roly-poly collar, put it down for a few weeks, finally fixed the collar, put it down for a while longer, and yesterday I finally got around to sewing on the buttons.



I truly feel like a dork when I'm modeling sweaters for a photo shoot. You should have seen me when I was 12 and in the 4-H knitting end-of-year fashion show. They had a little catwalk set up and everything. It was like DorkFest '91.



I really love this sweater. It fits and it's classy without making me look old and the yarn - oh! - is just lovely. I think I've raved about it before. The stitch pattern is a faggotted rib pattern that really only works with this sort of wool (100% merino). If you tried to make this pattern with a summery yarn like cotton or bamboo, it would stretch out of shape in no time. The collar was a huge pain, really the only complaint I had with this. The original pattern calls for st st with short rows, and there is just no way to keep it from curling. I tried blocking it, then tacking it down, and neither of those things worked. Finally, I just ripped it out and re-knitted it in 3x1 rib, which looks similar enough to st st without the curling problem. It still wants to flip up if I'm not careful, so I may yet tack it down right by the button band.



Pattern: Classic One-fifty cardigan by Pam Allen, available free on the CEY website here
Yarn: Classic Elite One-Fifty, 5 balls, exactly what the pattern called for.
Mods: None, except for the collar, which I explained above.
Made for: me! hooray! I probably have a week or maybe two of wearing this before it gets too cold for short sleeves.

purple cardigan for...someone

Right now I am experiencing untold luxury. Both kids are napping AT THE SAME TIME, I've already got the house reasonably clean, and it's too early to start supper. Not only that, in an hour the sitter comes so I can teach piano lessons. Except that I don't start teaching until next week, so I have a whole 2 hours to myself to do what I want. I could use that time to run errands; goodness knows it's a lot easier to go to the grocery store and post office alone...but I am contemplating doing something a little decadent, like getting coffee and working on my latest sweater. Oh, the guilty pleasure!

In the meantime, I have an FO to show you:



Pattern: DROPS design jacket (available for free here), a simple short-sleeved cardigan with wide garter bands and raglan sleeves
Yarn: Lion Brand cotton-ease, about 2.5 skeins.



Buttons from The Sow's Ear. Cute, yes?

Made for: well now, that's tricky. I intended this to be for my friend's daughter, who turns 6 in a few weeks and just started kindergarten today. I had made her little sister a sweater for her 2nd birthday (this one), and I certainly don't want the big sister to feel left out, you know? She's blond and blue-eyed and would look lovely in this color and style except for a couple things. First, September in Wisconsin is a little too late for short-sleeved anything, so she probably couldn't wear it much. Second, I haven't measured or anything, but I'm pretty sure this is too small. I didn't do a gauge swatch (swatches always lie), instead trusting the label and my instincts...and now, even though I made the size 7/8 size and the gauge for this yarn is supposed to match what the pattern calls for (uh, yeah, no way am I using alpaca/silk blend for a 6yo!), this just looks too small. So I'm going to save it for Anya (who also looks smashing in purple) and I'm going to make this little girl something else instead. Perhaps a hat and mittens, which is infinitely more practical since you can't have too many hats in Wisconsin and kids are always losing those things. Also, there's a chance I'd get something like that finished by her birthday. I may even design something (simple) myself, but it shall remain secret until it's done, just in case her mother is reading this!