I'm Back - Sorta...

I'm not sure why I have a knitting blog when as it turns out I have a yearly pattern of taking six months off starting in the spring every year. I should really take up some hobby that I could talk about for the other half a year.

Oh wait, wouldn't that be the yearly creation of the Jewel Ball. The very reason I can't knit being the countless hours of computer work that make my elbow hurt too much to hold knitting needles? Yes, this is me in my blue hat, looking the way I do for a week every August...the end of a jam-packed year of putting on that party. Thanks for another flaterring photo, Fiona! I can only blame the camera angle for how those arms look sleeveless, since the truth would be too painful.

Luckily, this year's Ball was soooo much fun to put on - we got to paint gigantic recreations of famous art pieces (which, who knew the same muscles that don't let me knit and drive a mouse too much at the same time are also affected by wielding a giant paint brush) and hopefully raised buckets of money for our beneficiaries.

I hurt my left thumb during the week we set the Ball up, so I was in a cast for a couple of weeks from that, and then I hurt my right pinky, and we had a Santa Ana that made it unbearable to touch anything other than ice cream, so I haven't knit at all. Like, since April. I know, wah wah wah. You want to offer me some cheese with that whine.

On the creative side, I did have a very productive spring and summer graphics-wise.

Knitting? What Knitting

Oh my gosh. I have to finish the Tuscany shawl, or something else that qualifies as a shawl, by July in order for it to be used as an incentive prize for people selling raffle tickets. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but my knitting has totally taken a back seat to life in general. The only thing I've accomplished this week has been the sock you see here, taken from Lace Style and modified to be a short little anklet. And I don't like it, so you're not going to see a second one in this lifetime!



Anna had a birthday this week including two parties (friends & family), Fiona got back from a singing trip to Chicago, and I've been busy with Las Patronas because we're coming up on a newsletter deadline! Oh, and we had a fencing tournament on the weekend but that turned out to be awesome - check out Anna's good news!

Hippity Hoppity, Easter Came and Went

Well, we're back in town, the big girls are in school again, Mary's on break, and Easter came and went. We had Easter at my sister's, where I got to see my little nephew Charlie in one of the versions of the five-hour baby sweater (although it took me more than five hours - ymmv). He is such a cutie patootie.



I've put aside the Tuscany shawl for a while because I realized I was doing a stupid thing. I've been slipping the first stitch on each row, but only on the right side. So I've got slip stitches on the knit side and regular stitches on the purl side. What a dunce...I'm seriously consider ripping the whole thing out but before I do anything drastic I'm working on the socks from Lace Style. Sometimes the knitting mojo just takes a vacation.



Snoop spent Easter at home, even though Anna made him a bunny suit to go with his ears.

On the Mission Trail

Whew...we have been covering a lot of ground. We've seen a lot of schools already and we're still not in LA yet!

It turns out g-girl is a Mills alum - Mills is an incredibly beautiful women's college in Oakland. It's more like a park than a school, and there's a lot to be said for all-women's education. Fiona liked it a lot, and said she'd be happy to go there. She also like USF well enough, mainly because it's in the middle of San Francisco, which is great. St. Mary's was acceptable as a lower choice.



Santa Clara was the favorite coming out of SF and surrounding areas, though. And who could blame her? It is the most beautiful campus, with incredible gardens, gorgeous buildings and friendly staff. Check out that wisteria!



This morning we were in Sarah-Hope's neighborhood, UC Santa Cruz. Fiona loved it so much she had to dance through the woods. It's currently in first place, at least until we hit Santa Barbara tomorrow.

And then this afternoon we rolled into San Luis Obispo to take a look at Cal Poly, which is down near the bottom of the pack. It's okay, and it's a good education, but it's so big.



And the best thing about road trips? How else would you see a giant artichoke?

Adventures in Googleland

I'm posting this from my BIL's commuter apartment in sunny Mountain View, CA (home of Google) and where we have been staying since Thursday night. Mountain View is actually a cool place - there's a little downtownish place where there are a couple of blocks of cheek-to-cheek restaurants, most of which have sidewalk tables and all of which stay open into the late evening.

Fiona and I have been looking at schools, so far hitting Sta. Clara, Mills, Berkeley, USF, Stanford, St. Mary's. On Tuesday we leave for Sta. Cruz, San Luis Obispo and points south.

I was totally expecting cooler weather so I packed kind of wrong (Why oh why are my beloved flipflops in La Jolla?) and even optimistically packed some of my knitted warmy things, but it looks like they'll go unused yet again.

Yesterday we were only going to visit USF, so we thought we'd go on a little yarn crawl first. Armed with mapquest directions, we made our way to Uncommon Threads in Los Altos. First of all, Los Altos has a cute little shopping area, much like Girard in my beloved La Jolla, but SO MUCH BETTER. Sigh.




Anyway, Uncommon Threads is a great yarn shop...in my opinion, not as great as Knitting in La Jolla, but it is roomier. I got to see a ribwarmer all knitted up, which I'd never seen before except in photos. And which, PS, I won't be making one of anytime soon, at least for myself. I think it would actually subtract inches from my height and add them to my hips - no thanks.

I also got to touch a bunch of Jamieson's wool, which I've almost bought a boatload full of before sight unseen, and discovered it's scratchy. Even after swatching. Even after washing. Still a little too scratchy for me. So see? Yarn shopping ends up saving me money in the longrun.


Instead I came home with some of my beloved Koigu, which was there in the flesh and you see pictured at the top and below, and some Lana Grossa sockyarn, and some little 4" dpns in size 2 for said sockyarn. Remember, it's vacation yarn!



After Uncommon Threads, we hit the 101 north and headed for ImagiKnits in San Francisco. It turns out that ImagiKnits is smack in the Castro, where, I'll tell you right now, people are having a damn good time on the weekends. In looking for a link for you just now, I found out that I Remember Mama took place in the Castro...it doesn't look like, however, you'll find anyone anyone vaguely resembling Irene Dunne there now.

Fiona tried to get some pictures of the local landmarks from my moving vehicle as we cruised for a parking spot (in vain), but sadly, no photo of Moby Dick. We gave up trying to park and headed for USF (pictured below) instead.



Last night we took in a show at the Eureka Theatre on Jackson, where the 42nd Street Moon puts on lost or obscure Broadway gems from the golden era. We saw Plain and Fancy, a musical about the Amish, I kid you not, from way before Weird Al even had the idea for this. It was actually fabulous!

Despite the parking, San Francisco remains just about my favorite city. It's got the culture and the art scene, it's got nightlife, it's got great food, and it's tolerant. It's tolerant almost to the point of being intolerant, true, but I love it. And everywhere you look, there's something beautiful.

And now, since it's Sunday, your weekly dose of Snoop, weighing himself.



"I gained 8 ounces this week!"

So Little Time, So Little Knitting

I'm sorry to report that there's been no knitting at all so far this week; instead, making and taking pictures of things like these crazy moss balls has kept me occupied.

When I'm not hot-gluing moss I'm busily trying to get things in order so I can go out of town for a few days, which means I've been chained to my computer getting a graphics job mostly done and trying to keep up with things like, you know, laundry, so we'll have clean clothes on our trip.

Fiona and I will be driving north to Ellay and however much further we can go in 9 days to look at colleges. Yes, it's hard to believe that youthful moi could possibly have a child that old, but what can I say? I'll just tell people I had her at 10.

So far, Fiona has been so excited to go look at schools that she has barely managed to sleep until noon, and I think she's only playing WoW 6 hours a day! To be fair, she works pretty hard during at school, so I suppose I can be grateful she isn't spending spring break starring in a Girls Gone Wild video.

When will the knitting content return, you ask? Dear reader, soon, one can only hope.



PS Your weekly gratuitous photo of Snoop, in his cave (aka the cpu cubby in my desk!).

Busy, Busy, Busy

Don't you hate it when your tasks interfere with your knitting? Among other things, I've been working on a lot of invitations/newsletters/what have you. And I'm plugging away on my Tuscany shawl, although I haven't been able to touch it in days!

Ready to Block

Sometimes the days just get away from me - it's been an entire week since I've posted, but to tell the truth I haven't gotten a lot of knitting in. The world intrudes.

My shawl, despite a few setbacks, is finally done. There it sits in all its unblocked glory. As you know, I ran out of yarn about five rows from the end. When the new shipment of Kersti came I decided there was enough to add those five rows plus an entire pattern repeat. I know, I know... despite dedicating an entire post to never learning, ever the optimist am I. There was enough for the extra pattern repeat, but not for the five rows of garter + bind-off. Tink. Tink. tinktinktinktinktink.



I finally ended up with two rows of garter and bound off using the Russian bind-off you see above. It's accomplished like this: *p2tog, slip the st back onto the left needle, repeat from * to end.



In other knitterly happenings, I was over at Knitting in La Jolla picking up some Cascade superwash for a little somethin-somethin for Snoop, and got distracted by a couple of books - Lace Style, which I promptly added to my "Style" library, and No Sheep for You Actually, Suzanne showed me No Sheep because it has a sweater pattern that is basically the World's Biggest Shedir -



yes, even bigger than my own gigantic one - that has three pages of charts and looks like it might take my natural lifetime to knit!.

Anyway, I've been paging through them all week for inspiration, and yesterday I cast on six stitches: the start of the Tuscany shawl (scroll down for a photo) from No Sheep.

Mary's playhouse continues to progress, but the weird fog we've had (See? La Jolla has weather problems too. And I was going to link to a picture of the fog, but the first hit on google images that really showed it also linked to a naked guy holding some kind of crustacean at Black's Beach, which frankly sounds like a bad idea and wasn't very attractive to view, either. So no photo for you.) has not been conducive to painting. And - horrors - rain is predicted on Wednesday. Maybe later in the week I'll get a shot of the playhouse if the sun cooperates.

And - looky here! Snoop's ears have stood up, making him look like a cross between a fruit bat and a holstein.

Guilt is a Powerful Motivator

Some time ago, a friend gave us her children's old playhouse because her house was about to be remodeled and it was in the way. John went down and disassembled it, hauled it up here, planted the pieces in our side yard and we all went about our business, ignoring Mary's little comments: "I wonder when my playhouse will be finished....I wonder if I'll be able to play in it someday....I wonder if I'll be grown up, out of college, and working on an MBA when it's done...."

Okay, maybe it didn't go that far, but at this point my friend's remodel is done and the playhouse is still in pieces.

Since Snoop's arrival the playhouse has started to bug me.



Snoop goes potty on a little plot of grass that, if you stand there with him, makes it darn near impossible not to notice something like a disassembled playhouse.

So here we are this weekend, the weather's nice, there are myriad heinous tasks pressing in (laundry, taxes, work) but we've gotta get that playhouse built while Mary can still fit through the door. We're hoping to put the roof on tonight and maybe I'll be able to start painting next week.

Which leads me to other guilt sources: the taxes!! are probably the hugest thing hanging over my head and making me crazy, but there's also some KAG (knitting-associated guilt):




This is the cabled shawl with pockets from Knitpicks, more than half done and going nowhere.



This is half a shedir, strewn amidst the left over balls from other projects.




This is the shawl I needed the extra ball of Kersti for, which I thought would be done by now.

And then there are those as-yet-unstarted mittens to go with the little cabled hats.

To top it all off, we, and by this I mean probably most of you reading this, too - all woke up minus an hour this morning. Stupid spring forward.

Little Cabled Hats

Alright, things are settling down around here with the new puppy and everything. I'm ashamed to say that I bought him a sweater yesterday. Yes, I bought a knitted item. But - it was half off, and I haven't had time to knit him anything quite yet! I have to be able to put him down in order to knit, and he's imprinted on me like a baby duck...I'm sure he'll be more independent soon.



I did finish the two little hats based on the Green Cables pattern. They're the same pattern and stitch count and everything, but I made them on smaller needles with worsted weight yarn. The gauge is 4sts/inch on the pink and 3.5sts/inch in the blue over stockinette, and I think they're about toddler/small child size (they're stretchy). Now I'm thinking about what to pair with them. Seems like booties would be for a younger baby, so maybe some little cabled mittens would be good.



The pink yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran that also saw this use as well as being the flower on this scarf, and the blue is Knitpicks Andean Silk in bluebell left over from this capelet. Isn't stash wonderful?

Impulse, Shmimpulse

Warning: there is so little knitting content in this post it barely qualifies for a knitting blog. But if you like puppies and kitties (and who doesn't?), read on.

Another crazy weekend at chez Windansea. Fencing tournament, fundraiser for a school none of my children attend, two (two!!) projects involving a posterboard and/or construction of a miniature stage and puppets, a sleepover, and I'm not sure what else because I think I've only been home for 10 minutes in the last three days.

Here's what's really crazy: in the midst of all this, I had a major impulse-control problem leading to the acquisition of a puppy.

Yes indeedy, internet friends - meet Snoop. Snoop's a rat terrier; we knew absolutely nothing about the breed before we met him, but once we found out that blue eyes are an undesirable genetic trait in the breed we knew he was for us. (Mutant dog? Absolutely, where do we sign? I blame John.)

And guess what? Despite the fact that I swore I'd never put clothes on a dog, something about his size made me have to go into gay dog overdrive. I bought a rainbow collar, a pink Kate Spade-looking doggy purse (me!), a leash with a daisy on it and a t-shirt that says "Security" so he can be just a little thuggish sometimes. John made me put back the tanktop with rhinestones that spelled out "Rock Star" but the Petco is an easy 10 minutes by freeway.




Today is day two and Patty is adjusting pretty well; she still says "All your dog toys are belong to us!" but the feisty fight-picker does have a tender place for her new buddy.



Spot's still not so sure...he's trying to decide whether it's something to eat or just another ill-mannered dog to put up with.

PS Gratuitous Knitting Content: Now I can knit those doggy sweaters I keep seeing patterns for. Although maybe not this one - don't want people thinking my dog's been in the big house!

All Quiet on the Knitting Front

Usually you know when I start posting pictures of scenery there isn't a whole lot of finishing going on.

But this time you'd be wrong: I've finished the Green Cables hat in red worsted (to fit a toddler) and pink (for a school auction) and am working on a blue (also for an auction).



I wound the Kersti that will finish my shawl, hopefully tomorrow. (I'll be suffering the affliction, familiar to all parents of children participating in a sport, known as bleacher butt; I'm resigned to developing a corner in my ass but luckily will get lots of knitting time in to make up for it.)



So maybe Sunday you will see the pink hat, the blue hat, the shawl on blocking wires, and more, but for today, the pink and the blue of a La Jolla sky at sunset.

Oh Happy Day!

My shipment from kyarns came today! Oh, Koigu Kersti #621, you complete me.



And of course you brought friends...Koigu #622, you beautiful pink thing!



And KPPM #433, with your turquoisey complexion and lavender highlights, you sing your siren song to me.



Koigu Kersti and KPPM, there will always be room for you at my table.

Anna of Green Cables

Get it? Anna of Green Cables? Anne of Green...okay, it's lame, I know.

Because St. Patrick's Day is coming up and there's a green hat KAL and all, a green cabled hat made from one hank of Knitpicks Sierra.

It fits my 23" head, but since it's cablicious it also fits Mary's head with the brim folded up and Anna, whose head is a bit larger than mine (She actually said it was snug, although I don't see her eyes popping out or anything. Instead, that same sort of amused expression she always gets in one of my hats...the look that says "Other moms go to work, or drive a soccer van, or drink a bottle of white wine in the afternoon....my mom has a knitting blog."). I was going to show you how well it fits me, but the day I took this picture I was wearing my Old Navy camo pants and a black hoodie, and when I put the hat on all that was missing was some of these.

You can add length to the hat easily by adding more ribbing at the bottom. I personally don't like anything folded up on my ears, hence all the beanie-style hats I like to make.

Yarn: Knitpicks Sierra, 1 Hank.
Needles: 1 16"circular & a set of dpns in size 7, or whatever size gives you gauge (I knit big, so knit a swatch! The needle size on the ballband said 9-11)
Gauge: 3sts/inch in stockinette (To see this hat in a smaller size & gauge, check here.)

Begin

Please note: if you downloaded this pattern before 12/5/07, there was a missing purl stitch after the p2tog in the 2nd round of the Third Cable. This has been fixed.

CO 72 sts on the circular needle (switch to the dpns during the decreases) and join for working in the round, being careful not to twist. Place marker to indicate beginning of round.


Ribbing

Knit 10 rounds of K2P2 ribbing.


First Cable

Round 1: *Slip next 2 sts to cable needle and hold to back, K2 from left needle, K2 from cable needle, p4. Repeat from * to end.

Rounds 2 through 5: *K4, P4. Repeat from * to end.


Second Cable

Repeat Rounds 1 - 5 as in First Cable.


Third Cable - In which you start the decreases.

Work row 1 as in First Cable.

Round 2: *K4, P1, P2tog, P1. Repeat from * to end. You have 63 sts now.

Rounds 3 & 4: *k4, p3. Repeat from * to end.

Round 5: *K4, P2tog, P1. Repeat from * to end. 54 sts remain.


Fourth Cable

Round 1: *Slip next 2 sts to cable needle and hold to back, K2, K2 from cable needle, P2. Repeat from * to end.

Round 2: *K4, P2tog. Repeat from * to end. 45 sts remain.

Round 3 & 4: *K4, P1. Repeat from * to end.

Round 5: *K2tog, SSK, P1. Repeat from * to end. 27 sts remain.


Fifth Cable

Round 1: *Slip next st to cable needle and hold to back, K1, K1 from cable needle, P1. Repeat from * to end.

Rounds 2, 3 & 4: *K2, P1. Repeat from * to end.

No round 5 on this cable!



Sixth Cable

Round 1: *Slip next st to cable needle and hold to back, K1, K1 from cable needle, P1. Repeat from * to end.

Round 2: *K1, K2tog. Repeat from * to end. 18 sts remain.

Round 3: *k2tog. Repeat from * to end. 9 sts remain.

Break yarn and thread tail through remaining sts, pulling tight to cinch closed. Pull tail through to wrong side and weave in ends.



Copyright 2007 Lydia McNeil - You may not use this pattern for profit or reproduce it for profit; you may use it to knit hats for yourself, for others, or most certainly for charity, but not to sell.

Fake Isle

I was inspired by g-girl's recent blog posts about what's on her needles (although - yo, where are the pictures? You'll have to be satisfied with her travelling vines scarf, I guess!) to turn the frogged scarf of underestimation & shame into a Fake Isle Hat). It's a great pattern, although again - my gigantic knitting probably warranted sharper decreases at the top. Hmmmm...what to do with the rest of the Noro, though...perhaps some Fake Isle mittens.



I do have another FO to post about, a cable knit hat of my own design, but I have to wait for the girls to get home later so I can stick it on someone's had and snap a photo. I haven't figured out how to take a picture of my own head very well yet, a skill a lot of other knitters have mastered.

In a completely different vein (that has absolutely nothing to do with knitting) I saw this article that appealed to my love of all "when worlds collide"-type tales about Jose the Beaver (I kid you not, his name's Jose, despite the fact that, estoy pretty segura, he's not Hispanic! El coyote, si, Hispanic. The beaver, not so much.) in New York. He's the first beaver to appear in NYC in 200 years! I like how the biologist says he's sure people will see more and more beavers now....I guess Jose's texting them.



I wonder why Anna always looks so amused in one of my hats?

When Will I Learn?

Above, the before picture.

Below, the after.



This isn't the natural order of things, but it's been that kind of day.

I ran out of this Kureyon about two-thirds of the way through this scarf, which wasn't even very fun to knit. Said scarf then sat in a drawer for six months next to finished objects, where I'm sure it was teased mercilessly. Yarn can be cruel.

Now look at this:



I ran out of Kersti 7 rows too soon - can you believe that? This is the purly bump side of the Falling Leaves shawl from Lavish Lace. It will block flat in a diamond pattern, just as soon as I get more Koigu.