Mystery Cast-on

So after swatching the green Koigu for the Mystic Light mystery KAL I decided I wasn't crazy about that particular yarn for this project. Instead, I ordered some Dream in Color Smooshy in Lipstick Lava (isn't that a great name for a color?) from the Loopy Ewe. If you haven't ordered from LE before, I give it a high recommendation. Shipping was fast and along with some little knitterly extras there was a note in my order thanking me for my business - how cool is that? The internet has give us a vast number of choices, but in many cases it has removed the human touch from our dealings. Great customer service will definitely earn my loyalty.



Anyway. The first Mystic Light clue arrived on Wednesday, so I wound my Smooshy and then a bunch more yarn that was still living in LYS bags in my office. Can you tell I like red and blue? The off-white was kind of a fluke...it's Ultra Alpaca Light and some very soft Blue Sky Organic Cotton. I put the various other yarn cakes away and left the red, white & blue out so that I can say I'm ahead of the holiday game for the first time this year. As opposed to saying I'm still cleaning up remnants of 2007 and my stash is so out of control I'm pretending it's decor. Hey - at least it's not dirt.



Re: My knitting. I cast on with the red Smooshy and knitted through the set-up rows and about a third of the first clue-chart, and like it much better than the Koigu. Still love my Koigu, but now I love Smooshy too. Plus it's fun to say.

Deep Red Cravat

Here's one of those in-between projects I always have to have when my main projects get to that awkward teenage stage (hard to take anywhere, always asking difficult questions, sulking, what-have-you):



It's the Leaf Cravat by Teva Durham, which I found in an old issue of Interweave Knits (Winter 2002/2003 - before I started knitting!) The yarn is Knit Picks Merino Style in the Hollyberry colorway and it was knitted up on my brand-new Knit Picks Harmony Options, which I love love love.

The Easter Bunny!

Could it be? Those ears are awfully big!



Oh, it's just Snoopy, taking his four-hour midmorning nap.



I think he's determined to sleep with one eye open, just in case that rabbit comes back. Maybe next time he'll leave some biscuits instead of all that chocolate.

Clouds

Every now and then I look out my kitchen window and see something like this:


We don't get a lot of dramatic weather here in Windanseaville...sunny days, foggy days, and not much in between. This storm blew through overnight on Saturday and by Sunday we had Mary at the beach. She swam while John and I huddled in sweatshirts, chilled by the 65° afternoon.


This morning we heard from Anna, who's in Shanghai right now. She left on Saturday for a three-week exchange in China with her school and is spending this week attending classes at a high school there. She writes:

Hey daddy! It's me anna, I'm here in china and can already say i've reasonably beaten the time change. I feel like I've spent three days on a plane, really i have. We missed our flight in beijing and had to get a later flight, but we're finally at the school. It's cold. Like really cold. Like 5 degrees centigrade cold. Really cold. I mean, where's all this global warming I was promised?

Meh, walked around shanghai all day, I'm exhausted. I spent the morning in my partner's classes, music (which was nice, we sang, and there was an electric bass sitting in the corner), then math class (i couldn't figure out which kind, but we were doing sine, cosine, and tangent), politics and chinese of all things.

After, we went to the museum (I don't know which kind) but it was full of chinese art and money and artifacts and stuff. I started sketching a small statue (totally forgetting I had a camera) and after a while people started to watch over my shoulder. A lot of people crowded around to watch me sketch and to study the statue, to see what had caught my interest. I only noticed when I was done that I had drawn the attention of a lot of people (and several guards!). I suppose they wanted to make sure the crowd wasn't a commotion.

I got a lot of pictures along the way too. I felt kinda dumb because I walked into some people (the crowds are crazy) and tried apologizing, conveniently forgetting any chinese I had ever learned at that moment, not only did the people have no time for "sorry"s and "excuse me"s but of course the alerting sound of a foreign language and defensive "excuse me" hand gestures I think scared a lot of people. All of it was pretty exciting, and with sore feet and tired mind soon I will go to bed (it's about 8 o'clock here). I'm well and safe in China, not injured or sick, happily awaiting tomorow's adventures. I love you a lot.

To my entire family my love,
Anna

P.S. tell snoopy and patty and all the rest that I'm ice cold at night without them and I really am coming back, love them lots.

You'll notice I'm not mentioned by name like Patty & Snoopy, but I can tell she's thinking about me because of the "injured or sick" part. I'm pretty sure that was for my benefit. I had to go look up how cold 5°C is, and it's 41°F...Here's hoping she doesn't decide to go to school in New England. And PS, I told her to pack layers.

It's weird to think of my kid walking around on the other side of the world across the date line where it's tomorrow, a world apart and yet happy with sore feet.

Swatching a Mystery

Swatch? Me? Well, yes, this time, because the swatch was more interesting than a 4" stockinette square of unrelenting boredom. I swatched this beautiful green Koigu up for a mystery shawl KAL I joined: You sign up, and then you get part of the Mystic Light pattern each week...the project unfolds without you really knowing how it will turn out until it's all done. Click here if you want to join in.

I've never participated in a mystery KAL before (although some of my knitting becomes myterious - check out the little circled portion of my swatch below where I mysteriously switched the order of the YO & K2tog...smooth, huh? At least it's only a swatch.) but it seems like it'll be fun.

Back to the Knitting

Thank you, thank you, all of you who commented and contacted me about my dad's passing. You don't know how your kind words helped me - I appreciate knowing you are all out there! And you lurkers - I lurk on lots of blogs myself, so I know it's hard to come out of hiding sometimes - thank you so much. We are all trying to keep on with our normal lives again and just get on with everything. On this blog, I'm now getting back to my regularly scheduled knitting as evidenced above. That's a cotton kimono jacket you see there, a result of the bedside sitting I did last week. Amazing how just holding the needles calms me down.




The pattern is here, and it's very quick to knit but awfully cute when it's done. I was in Walmart (I know, it's evil, I normally boycott but I couldn't find something electronic I was looking for anywhere else in town. Pile that on top of my SUV guilt.) and wandered through the yarn aisle and saw Peaches & Creme yarn, which I had never seen in person before. Wow, it's $1.27! Sure, it felt like steel while knitting, but how can you pass up $1.27? Plus I had read that it would soften up after washing, sort of like the 501s I used to wear in the 80s.



Anyway, I bought a bunch in the three colorways you see here, knitted up that kimono, seamed it, and started a matching hat. I will admit that the hat, which should've taken a couple of hours, took three days because I screwed the pattern up five or six times and had to rip it back. Good thing I wasn't working on the Wool Peddler's Shawl...I just wasn't able to concentrate with everything going on.



The hat is the Center Square hat from Knitty, of course, and I will be finishing it off with some kind of little pompom or braided tassel in the multicolored yarn to tie it all in. I'll try to post a photo when everything's truly done.



Last night we went to watch Fiona and Anna in Midsummer Night's Dream and took my mom with us, and for a couple of hours we just concentrated on the play and laughed. Fiona played Helena and was a riot, and Anna played a fairy and got to sing in her soulful voice. They set the piece in Mardi Gras theme and overall the kids were great and it was very fun.

Jose Gonzalez, 1921 - 2008

My dear friends, today my darling father passed away after being ill for a very long time. He was dearly loved and will be deeply missed.

Waiting Room Knitting

This weekend started out so nicely...Friday morning Mary's school had a "Solarbration" to flip the ceremonial switch on its new solar power system. The mayor was there, the kids all sang "You Are My Sunshine," and our faith in humankind's ability to reverse global warming was restored as long as we turned a blind eye to all the parents' SUVs (my own included, mea culpa) parked out in front.

Friday afternoon the weekend took a bad left turn (Squeamish people or those wishing to avoid TMI should stop reading here and just look at the knitting.). My mom called to say my dad had an infection on his foot that didn't look too good, and that the doctor told her to head to the ER. My dad is 86, with so many chronic health issues that we're not exactly sure what keeps him going. I think it must be the Gallego genes...his own parents lived into their 90s.

Anyway, I met them at the ER, where we spent all of Friday until midnight talking to a series of doctors about things like amputation, advance directives, and everything else you never want to think about in conjunction with anyone you love, or really, with anyone at all. At 1:00 am they admitted him, at 2:00 am they took him in for a stat CT scan because his blood pressure was crazy high - turned out to be temporary so that was good; they medicated him and then he just sort of calmed down - and simultaneously they started him on two broad-spectrum antibiotics.




Today he is, I think, much better. His spirits were higher, his feet looked better, and he ate half an English muffin for breakfast. The first thing he asked me early this morning was how the Deportivo finished yesterday, and he was delighted to hear they won over Sevilla 2-1. Just goes to show you what people can have on their minds in times of crisis.

The doctors think he'll have to be on IV antibiotics for 4-6 weeks (!) so he's going to need a PICC line inserted...we know all about those now thanks to my niece's lymphoma last year...but all of the drastic measures are now only distant possibilities, thank God.



I knitted until I was sick of knitting, and I listened to Duma Key and watched Damages on my iPod. I managed to finish the garter stitch middle of my Wool Peddler's shawl and then started on a cotton baby sweater since the lacy border on that shawl is a task best undertaken with fewer distractions. In a few repetitions I'll hopefully have the pattern down and be able to take the border on the road again, but until then it'll have to be simple stuff.

Not Quite Half of a Wool Peddler's Shawl

I'm still here...still knitting, too. I've been working away on the many many garter stitches of the Wool Peddler's Shawl from Folk Knits. I have 88 stitches on each half of the body right now, and I have to keep at it until there are 110. So let's see...2 sts increased for each half on each right side row...that makes 22 more rows to go before I can commence the lace section. I think I'm averaging about 5-6 rows a day at the moment...ugh. I might have to cast on an instant gratification knit!

Red Hot Scarf

The Candle Flame scarf is done! I finished it earlier this week and then gave it to my friend Tracy (she of chenille scarf fame) this morning as a belated birthday gift.



The yarn is more of that wonderful Malabrigo merino worsted in the Amoroso colorway. The pattern is here, and I knit it pretty much according to pattern except for two little mods: I started the scarf by casting on three stitches and continuing the pattern from row 2, and instead of decreasing by S2,K1, PSSO, I used a S1, K2tog, PSSO just because it's easier to do. I also added little tassels made from the tiny bit of yarn that was left over. I gave the scarf a very light steam block to keep the ends from rolling under. I really like the textural, bumpy quality and didn't want to lose that.

Mmmmmalabrigo

Remember my shipping-to-Norway dilemma? Well now I can add guilt to my worries, because what I have packed to ship to my swappee doesn't even come close to what I got from my swapper! In addition to a pattern and two sets of needles, I got all the stuff you see here. I got tea, tasty tidbits (there's more down in the little bag you can't see in the photo), and stitch markers.



Of course, the yummy Malabrigo in the Red Mahogany colorway - so fabulous.



But also, beautiful mitered-square coasters with the cutest fringe:



And these incredible slippers, made from my swapper's grandmother's favorite slipper pattern!



Yep, guilt and gratitude, that's what I've got. Love my swap!

Bootielicious

How adorable are these? I had to take a break from all my big projects to whip out a little instant gratification.



The pattern can be found here, and it just takes an evening and some leftover sock yarn to make these cuties. The yarn is some Knit Picks sock garden in the geranium colorway; I believe it's discontinued, which is a shame. And the buttons were just a random purchase from a fabric store, but they're perfect.

Clapotis and Sympathy

My clapotis (rhymes with "cup of tea") is done. It would've been done last week, except that for the second time in a month I've been knocked on my ay-ess-ess by some kind of virus that's felled any number of my acquaintances. Sore throat, fever, body aches...now cough and ear pain. I tanked down the Emergen-C and swabbed with Zicam, and am now feeling like I might live.



Unfortunately, there's nobody available to model it for us, so you'll just have to settle for cheesecake shots (a.k.a. clapotis pron). The knitting was very satisfying - easy to memorize, interesting enough to keep me going through the long middle, and very fun to show other people in the middling stages ("Did you just do that on purpose?"). Plus, getting to fondle the the Koigu is always a treat.



Also unfortunately, I tried knitting while sick and drinking Nyquil and completely left out one of the drops on the decrease portion, really near the end. I ended up having to pull that thread out a couple of inches, cut it, unravel enough to drop the stitches that needed dropping, and splice the cut ends back together. You can't even tell. But now I need a bumper sticker that says "Friends Don't Let Friends Knit Under the Influence."



Above you see it all skinny-like, in scarf form. And below you see it spread out shawl-fashion, looking alarmingly like the planaria we had to cut in half in 9th grade biology....


And now, if you're done here, go visit my friend Sarah-Hope at whatifknits. She's celebrating her blogiversary with a raffle, with the proceeds going toward animal charities in her area. Great prizes, good deeds....go take a chance!

Back to the Future

We interrupt this knitting blog to bring you, like, a really gnarly flashback. Anna went to an 80s dance last night, a la Pat Benatar. Good thing I still had those hair-gelling skills.

Secret Knitting Pals

In December I did a secret-Santa thing through Knitters' Review, and it was such fun that I signed up for another through Ravelry. The holiday one was sweet - check out what I got up above: soft yarn, cool buttons, cute needles, homemade cookies, and a really nice deliaQ tool bag.



For this current swap I'm in, the theme is Malabrigo yarn. This Indigo is hard to part with, but I bought it special for my swappee and since I didn't want to be tempted to keep it at all it's been living in the plastic bag from the yarn store. I also bought soap and a nice-smelling candle, and then I found this cute bag to wrap everything up in.



I weighed my package, sealed it, and went to the Post Office online site to print a label. It was there that I started having second thoughts about the contents of my gift. First of all, it's being shipped to Norway. According to the website, no inflammables. Which I think means no flammables.

Also, no scents. Does this apply to the soap? I'm not sure. The flammable/inflammable candle is scented too. Will I set off an international incident involving Norwegian German Shepherd scent-sniffing dogs?



And - if you ship in a box, it's a lot of money. Really. More than the cost of the contents. (And forget UPS - I could fly to Norway for the cost of shipping. Okay, mayble not to Norway. But to San Francisco, for sure.)

So I've unpacked everything and am considering my options...everything soft, packed into a USPS-provided envelope and shipped at a reasonable cost. I guess I'll shop some more for noncontroversial stuff I can flatten!

A Cautionary Tale

Take a good look at the Anais above, because it's the last time you'll see it in its present state. I knit it so quickly that my gauge got very loose...it's too big for Fiona. She likes the length, but it's just not form-fitting at all. It bags. It fits me. Except I would need to grow five inches to fit the length, so there you go.



Anyway, I am debating steeking the sides and seaming them, but if I don't like how that looks it will completely remove the possibility of raveling and reknitting. I'd have a pile of 15" long threads left after that. Ugh. I should've knit it flat so I could fiddle with the seam allowance, or at the very least so I could've seen at once that it was going to be too wide. And, I could've slowed down. But no.

On the bright side, Cactusneedles nominated me for a "You Make My Day Award" on her blog. Here are the rules if you'd like to play along:

Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.

Now I'm going to add a giant meme, chainletter, and tagging disclaimer: I'm the person that always screws this up. I was also tagged by Somewhat Aloof earlier this week and I haven't tagged anyone yet for that either. I think I have some kind of blogging social disorder, because I worry that if I tag someone I will come off as some kind of stalker...and yet, I don't feel that way about the person that tagged me. I even have trouble friending people on Ravelry. And I assure you, I make friends just fine in person. Weird, I know.

More on this at a later date...for now, visit my friends at their blogs. Cactus Needles is a warm-weather knitter like me, and her dog will make you smile. And Somewhat Aloof could use some positive thoughts, so send them her way.

One FO, Seven to Go

The Baby Surprise Jacket is done. The dratted i-cord border really slowed me down - I just don't enjoy doing it, and I didn't like the way it looked going up the button band so I had to rip it back three times. I ended up picking up three stitches and skipping the fourth all the way up, around the neckline, and back down; and then down around the hem I picked up one-to-one so it would gather in a little bit.



As for the sleeves, I always think the BSJ looks a little skimpy on the length so I added 12 rounds of K1P1 ribbing to both lengthen the sleeves and give a pulled-in look to echo the hem.



The yarn is Patons Decor with Plymouth Encore i-cord. Did I ever mention how little I like acrylic yarn? Even with the wool blend, it sucks. It doesn't splice well, you can't weave the ends in without them threatening to come untucked, and sometimes it squeaks. However, it washes well, and I do like the color.



As for progress on my other projects, I'm working away on the Clapotis; it's almost halfway done, and I really love the dropstitch rows. They're superfun. The Anais is cranking away slowly; I've only done a couple of rows a day since I posted last. The tomten has one shortrow now and is back to straight garter stitch for a while; everything else is still in the same state of undone-ness as it was before. And after all of that, I had to seriously resist casting on a new project today. I don't know what's wrong with me! My knitting ADD is at an all-time high. I gave myself a serious talking-to - just because I finished one thing doesn't mean I should start another, and I shouldn't even contemplate a yarn purchase of any kind until I'm done with some of my UFOs.