It's a Scorcher

It's been hot, hot, hot. Yesterday our home thermometer read 94. So what were our activities? Swimming in a cool pool? Chilling in the AC? Sipping frozen cocktails?How silly! Why, of course I weeded in the garden and knitted wool socks while BB baked bread and pizza ... outside.

Here is our outside bread/pizza oven that BB fusses over (he's a wonderful baker and the reason why I find it so hard to lose weight).

And here is what he produces:

Pizza, so yummy!

And his incredible sourdough bread.

Here is what I have been producing.

Lucky in Rowan All Season Cotton for BB's cousin's new bambina.

And I did have to reorganize my stash b/c it was just such a mess. So here is my new closet.

There are a few clothes smushed to the side, but aside from that, it's all yarn. I live in a small, older home with very little closet space so I think it's just a hoot that I have even less due to yarn hording!

And meanwhile, out in the garden ... I told myself that this would be the year that I would not wake up in August to find that the weeds had overtaken my garden. Well, it turns out that this is the year that I wake up in July to find the weeds have colonized huge sections of our tiny urban lot. Cukes run rampant, switch grass in all the beds, morning glory pulling down the tomatoes ...

But the stars of the garden are currently the sunflowers and the goldfinches who feed on them.

I can stand the heat when I have these companions in the garden and fresh bread on the table.

Deconstructing the Calla Lillies

I have been a bad blogger this week, as I have had a house full of people for days, and have not had a lot of knitting progress to report. My current WIPs require some sustained attention (more on that later) so I have focused enough on the Calla Lilly socks to be able to finish them today.



Project Specs:
Pattern: Calla Lilly Socks by Sundara Yarns
Yarn: Sundara Petals Collection superwash merino, "calla lilly"
Needles: US1 Addi Turbo 40"
Pattern notes: I tried magic loop with these socks for the first time, and I may be a convert. I have some problems with pain in my fingertips when I use metal (or even bamboo) DPNs, and even had numbness in my fingers for a while after knitting Mom's marathon socks. This was much more comfortable on my fingers, and I do think it went quicker. The pattern called for Nancy Bush's welsh heel, also a first for me. According to the pattern, if you knit as written you won't have any holes, but I ended up with a hole on both socks. Nothing tragic, but a hole nonetheless. My lace is also a little wonky on the first sock, but the lace disappears enough to make the mistake very hard to see. I managed to misplace the pattern before finishing the second sock, and had to deconstruct the toe decreases by eyeballing the first one. Not a perfect job, but again, good enough.

The true pleasure of these socks was the yarn. The colors are glorious, the finished product is fantastic, and the pattern was simple enough to be a knit-while-terribly-busy project, yet the color changes and pattern details made it a satisfying, interesting knit. I do have a lot of yarn left over, so it may become some cute baby booties, or more likely, will join the other little balls of sock yarn leftovers in the sock drawer.

Thanks, Sundara!

Oh Canada!

What a trip we had! The San Juan Islands were magnificant, the weather was perfect, the hiking extraordinary, and Vancouver Island was superlative. If those durn Republicans win the White House next time, our little family is going to try to relocate north of the 49th parallel. Incredibly wonderful people, more sensible government, great parks, and breath-taking scenery (okay, the winters are a pain, but there is the western coast ...).

But on to the travel knitting and yarn ...

I forgot to pack my 2nd skein of Fortissima Colori Sock Yarn, so after the first sock was finished ...

I picked up some Trekking on Orcas Island. Poppies in Eastsound is a great yarn store, formerly a fabric store. I also bought some Lamb's Pride there to teach our friends how to fingerknit, the shopowner was thrilled that I was creating converts to the knitting way. We stayed at Doe Bay Resort, camping out in our rented VW camper. We loved it!

This trip did it to me. I am now a sock knitter. I love the sock. But it wasn't all sock knitting, here was how most of my time was spent ...

Then we travelled to Vancouver Island and up to Tofino ...

Where I found a great natural fiber store, Fiber Options Naturals. I bought some organic cotton pants and some hemp yarn. The yarn is not as nice as the AllHemp, however, it was cheap and will make a great sweater for Rosie ...

Tofino was just as we remembered it from eleven years ago, only better. The wildlife was incredible and just look at our sunsets ...

Then we headed down to Victoria. Here is where I would like to live. We did the touristy thing, hung out at the inner harbor, had high tea at the Empress, but then I heeded Peg's advice and visited Beehive Wool Shop. And discovered Fleece Artist and Handmaiden Yarn. This stuff is spun gold people. I bought some of their Sea Silk and Silken 100% Silk. Thanks Peg!!


The Sea Silk is made from Silk and Seaweed. Seaweed, my friends! It actually smells like the sea (or a really nice sushi dinner). I love it, love it, love it. I take it out and look at it often. I was told that you can't get Handmaiden Yarns in the US. If that is true, then I will be having this stuff shipped. It's not cheap, but it is phenomenal.

And not to let ourselves rest for even a moment, we are off to the DC area tonight to see Amadou & Mariam perform at the Birchmere -- I can't wait!

An Urgent Clarification

I received an urgent e-mail from my sister after having read the Trekking Blah Sock post, and she wanted to make a few things clear to the readers of XRK. So, with her permission, here is the e-mail exchange, with a few edits...

Socks and sandals? Socks and sandals? Never. Just because I'm eco-girl doesn't mean I've lost my freakin' eco-mind and relegated myself to the bottom of some stale hippie fashion bin! Even on the muddy trail a lady is still a lady, and a lady knows that if it's sock weather, it's shoe/boot weather. For shizzie Lizzie :)

That's the kind of stuff we promised to keep each other straight on throughout life, and I'm here to tell you I'm still on board 100% with the socks and sandals rule. I may have fallen off the wagon once or twice in college, but that was then, what can I say.

One of the other major things was short sleeved knit sweaters, but we did refine the definition to require protrusions like pom-poms as well as holiday and seasonal graphics, like Santa and migratory birds. So we're still straight on that. And we're doing okay vis-a-vis mu-mus.

Other than that nothing comes to mind, so, we're good.

So then I asked her about the Birkenstock-with-socks look, which in my book, with hand-knit socks, is totally acceptable, and a look that I remember her sporting in her college years.

The Birks were the in-college fashion moment. At least in hindsight. It's ok for other people - I have no problem with it as a general thing, but for me specifically it's firmly in the no-no category now.

I like to think that the switch to Tevas (sans sandals) say less hippie shuffle, more action with traction. I'm a new age eco girl, the kind who is more likely to have a proper multitool and a Luna bar in my pocket than a half a doobie and some fuzzy raisins.

I would like to say that the hosts of this humble blog truly have no problem with the socks-with-sandals look, whether it is with Tevas, Birkenstocks, or more high-fashion choices. I struggle with the search for the most appropriate footwear for my handknit socks, as my socks are usually hidden inside boots or stuffed into clogs. My sister is not a knitter (I am working to change this), and has never yet worn the handknit sock, so she does not know the dilemma one has when wearing a special, beautiful, handknit sock.

But my sister wants it to be made clear: she will not wear her socks with Tevas.

NYC Trip Notes

Mr. S and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this weekend. We decided to take advantage of our proximity to NYC and spend the day on the town. Our hotel was in Rockefeller Center, and after a quick lunch and beer, we spent the afternoon at MoMA. This trip was really all about enjoying a special dinner, and there was much discussion about which restaurant to choose, and many reservations were considered, attempted, made, confirmed, and cancelled. Ultimately, we had dinner at Aquavit, which was well worth all the sturm und drang. Very imaginative food, beautifully presented, with great service. And a dinner is always successful when you find a new form a liquor to like!

Sounds lovely, idyllic, romantic. So what does this have to do with knitting? New York has fantastic yarn shops, right? Well, back in our dating days, Mr. S and I made a pact that we will never shop together on vacation. It is a long and ugly story, but it involved being in Freeport, Maine and trust me when I say we are a very happy couple for appreciating one another's differences. And of course, the Summer of Stash is keeping me out of yarn shops in general.

But never one to let my readers down, I did have one fibery encounter, in the apartment of one Curly Purly! Regular readers of this blog know that we old high school friends were recently reunited thanks to the Green Gable Knitalong. After 17 years and much water under the bridge, we had a fantastic reunion brunch, met her wonderful husband and were completely charmed by her luminous Squid. After we ate, we had a knit-chat, where I was speechless at the feat of plane geometry, the defiance of the time-space continuum that is her yarn stash in a teeny New York apartment. I got to touch her Mosaic Moon yarns up close, and take a close look at the super-cute toys she knits out of thin air. I got to see her life up close, and know my old friend and fellow blogger as a grown-up person, mother, knitter, now-friend. Thanks, CurlyPurly, for sharing your day with us, and welcoming me back into your life.



And especially thanks to Mr. S for wordlessly, willingly indulging my knitting obsession, even on our romantic anniversary day together. That's one hell of a husband, ain't it?

Trekking Along with the Blah Sock

There are so many reasons to love knitting socks. Instant gratification, gorgeous colors and combinations, soft soft yarn, experimenting with different stitch patterns and construction techniques...unfortunately, my Trekking Blah socks are giving me no sock-love. Slow-growing on US0s, blah gray and cream colors, a standard K3,P3 rib...these socks are boring me to tears.

The only reason why I persist with these socks is that they are for my sister. These socks will be lovely for her. They are the quintessential hiking socks. They will fit her narrow feet and look great while she treks along in her graduate school program in ecology. They'll look fanstastic with Tevas and adventure pants. All her eco-pals will be green with envy (yuk, yuk). I even signed up for the Trek Along with Me KAL, and imagined my sister completing the hike before the deadline, and inviting her to guest-blog her hike for us all.

But this summer is all about enjoying the knits, and releasing any guilt, oppression, or unpleasant associations with knitting. No deadlines, no additions to the stash, releasing unloved stash, etc.

Thus, in order to release myself from the oppression of the Trekking Blah Sock, I have decided that this sock will strictly be my traveling sock this summer, and I will knit it only when actively traveling. Certainly boring knitting is better than no knitting at all. And my sister is a natural-born traveler, who will truly appreciate socks that have many miles knit into them before ever having been worn. She also has no deadlines and no requirements for me when she knows I am knitting for her. She happily accepts woolen mittens in June, and will love wool socks whenever they are finished.

So far, the Trekking Blah sock has accompanied me from my home in the Philadelphia suburbs to:
- Narragansett, RI (546 mi round trip)
- Down the shore (200 mi round trip)
- to NYC (leaving from the shore, 288 mi round trip)

Knitting on the NJT Train

Thus, the Trekking Blah sock and I have traveled a total of 1034 miles. I have (mostly) completed one sock. (When I make toe-up socks, I knit most of the cuff, then begin the second sock. I finish both socks together to keep the lengths the same and to use up all the yarn). I have many more trips back and forth to the shore and other road trips planned this summer, so I am curious to see how far Trekking Blah socks and I will travel this summer.

Readers of this humble blog can keep up with the Trekking Blah sock's mileage over in the sidebar. I will leave it to my sister to do the hiking when they are done.

And the winner is...

Calla Lilly, hands down. I thought perhaps it seemed excessive to bring four knitting projects on vacation. Sundara's yarn is a total pleasure to knit, and the pattern is a simple, lovely pattern that compliments the yarn. Love it.


And Orangina grows too.

The Blah Trekking sock has been ignored, but will be trekking with Mr. S and me to NYC tomorrow to celebrate 8 wonderful years of marriage.

A Conundrum of the Best Kind

Look here and see what I got:



My Sundara Petals Collection Yarn and my Lorna's Laces from Grumperina!

I received the Sundara yarn yesterday, and let me say, once SoS is over, I highly recommend that you patronize her (and other indie yarn artists out there!). Her yarns are absolutely beautiful, and the package was put together with such care.

The colorway is Calla Lilly, and she definitely captured the colors perfectly. She also included a beautiful postcard, a lollipop, and a fantastic exclusive pattern.

Then, today, I received my Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock from Grumperina. She selected a beautiful colorway, called Cool. She also included a chocolate bar! Yum! Thanks so much, Kathy! I promptly ran to the yarn room and picked out a pattern: IK's Winter '05 Embossed Leaves.

So, my dilemma: which do I bring with me on vacation down the shore this week? Of course, I will bring that bbbbbblllllllaaaaaahhhhhhh Trekking sock for knitting while trekking, and I am (finally) chugging along satisfactorily on Orangina. But this is vacation! I want something fun, beautiful, indulgent. Calla Lilly calls to me, and there is something just so delicious about the exclusiveness of the yarn and the pattern. You see so many of the same things on blogs all the time -- it would be fun to have something unique. But I have lusted for Lorna's Laces for a long long time, and cannot imagine it marinating in my stash...and the colors are so perfect for a seaside vacation?

So do I bring Sundara's Calla Lilly? Or some cool Lorna's Laces?

A Day Without Knitting is Like a Day without Sunshine

Thanks for all the kind word of support after my last post. Mr. S. even assured me, totally unprovoked, that my knitting would be better tomorrow.

As many of you on the East Coast are, we are experiencing days of deluges. I decided to take advantage of these rainy days, and armed with the advice of my good friends Sally and Ann Marie (these are actual friends from my actual knitting group), and put aside the knitting and pursue some other creative outlets.

I am not, at heart, a crafty person, despite the knitting obsession. I do not do lots of craft projects with the kids. I do not make all my holiday gifts. I do not sew, quilt, paint, stamp, decoupage, or scrapbook. In fact, I have been a stressed out because I have been recruited to be the craft coordinator for the monthly meeting of my MOMs club. Never mind my extreme ambivalence for the MOMs Club in general...but these ladies have really asked the wrong person if they want anything more than crayons and glue sticks. Maybe a foamie-craft. That's about as crafty as I get.

However, my general lack of natural craftiness does not keep me from hoarding craft supplies, and purchasing things with the intent of making something with them someday. So in the spirit of Project Spectrum and Summer of Stash, I decided to dig through some of these craft supplies lurking in the closet and see what I could make. The final products did require one trip to the craft-o-rama, but many of the supplies were on hand to make the following:

Ribbon belts

Top to bottom:

1 -- this was the inspiration. The ribbon is actually a vintage silk skinny tie that I bought on a vintage shopping expedition with my sister this Spring.
2 -- brown with pink polka dots for me -- please ignore my horribly wonky hand-stitching. I mean it when I say I am not crafty.
3 -- orange with white polka dots for my skinny little Rosebud. Before we went to the craft store, she declared she wanted her ribbon to be orange polka-dots, because orange is her favorite color. Was I relieved when we spotted this ribbon?!

Stitch Markers in Project Spectrum June colors (blue)

And now does anyone think that I really went a whole day without knitting?

A much improved Orangina, with much prettier stitch markers.

Knitta, please!
(scroll down to the show notes for episode 28)

Defeated by the Knitting

Sometimes, the knitter and the knitting dance, with lovely yarn and a satisfying pattern, and a project just flies through your fingers onto the needles, pleasurable progress.

This is the week the knitting kicked my ass.

Orangina is killing me. I just can't get the lace right. It is a simple, 9-stitch pattern. Easy to memorize. And I keep messing it up. Over and over again. I have ripped it countless times this week, casting on again, only to be defeated yet again by simple yarnovers. In my first few attempts, I did use stitch markers liberally to keep me straight, and it did help. But about four inches into the piece, I realized it would be too big. So, I ripped it out, and with hope and excitement, cast on for the smaller size, knowing that it would go even faster, since the rows were now shorter.

I decided to forgo the stitch markers this time, since I had memorized the pattern, and seemed to be moving along without trouble. The stitch markers are a pain in the ass for this project as the lace shifts over one stitch every row, so instead of simply slipping a marker, you must slip a stitch, remove the marker, slip the stitch back to the left hand needle, knit it, and the replace the SM. This seemed to be slowing me down, I thought, and pressed on.

And then I spent the rest of the week wading in the frog pond, missing a YO here, or a K there, and throwing off the whole pattern. I think I have ripped out the first three inches of the back of this sweater 6 times now.

This weekend, we went down the shore. I brought Orangina and little sister's crunchy granola Trekking sock with the intention of knitting the sock in the car, and Orangina in the house when I had some free time. See, sister's crunchy granola Trekking sock has been boring me to tears. Gray. Cream. And every possible variation of gray. And Cream. And these socks are knitted on US0s, so progress has been slow going, to say the least. I have been studiously avoiding said socks, but decided to buckle down and make some real progress before the Sundara and the Lorna's Laces arrive, never mind the two skeins of STR, a few hanks of koigu and other lovely sock yarns just screaming to be knitted. It is time to get the dull Trekking socks out of my life, once and for all.

200 miles round trip in the car would get me through the cuff of the first sock. I was convinced. And while I ended up doing the driving on the way down the shore (if I cannot knit while driving, Mr. S cannot Blackberry while he driving either), once I again ripped Orangina on Friday night, having been again vanquished by simple lace, I was truly hopeful that this weekend would see a finished Trekking sock, with the second sock being cast on immediately. The sock would come along on my overnight anniversary jaunt to NYC with Mr. S, with lots of progress. I even imagined my Trek Along With Me post, with my humble gray and cream crunchy granola sock logging many miles with me -- Rhode Island, down the shore, NYC...

Things were looking good. And then, Saturday night, I tried one on. At least, I tried to try one on.

THEY ARE TOO TIGHT!

Now my sister has lovely narrow feet and delicately slim ankles and calves. But this sock would not go over my heel. See, I picked a slipped-stitch ribbed pattern, that gave wonderful definition to the ribs, but the combination of both ribbing and slipping stitches made for a too-tight cuff.

So, the 6-inch long cuff got ripped, and now I am knitting the ribs without the slipped stitches.

And I am trying to knit Orangina with the only stitch markers that were available down the shore.



Please please please let this be a better week.

Preparing for Take Off ...

So we leave for Seattle/Vancouver Island in five days ... FIVE! Yikes! I'm most definitely NOT ready. (sleeping bags? hiking shoes? passports? do we need passports? oye ...) But my knitted things are ready! (priorities, you know) I will be visiting with one of my best friends and her family's presents are all done:

Knitted bowls from One Skein by Leigh Radford

Penobscot Scarf (from Interweave) and Double Cable Scarf (from One Skein)

The other gift is the starfish purse which I posted earlier -- that should take care of Mom, Dad, and two girls. The bowls are done in worsted weight brown sheep (I doubled the yarn and knit them on size 17 straight needles, then sewed them up rather than on 15 dpns with bulky weight). The Penobscot is done in Hemp for Knitting DK and the Double Cable is done in my new favorite yarn -- it is soooooooo incredible (I am serious, I want crates of this stuff, I mean after the SOS of course ...) -- Blue Sky Organic Cotton. The softest, most luxurious cotton ... dude, you've got to try it.

But now for the big question
I need recommendations for Yarn Stores!! Send me your favorites in Seattle, Victoria (BC), and Tofino (BC). Ask your Canadian friends and relatives, I need good souvenir yarn (it's one of my exceptions for SOSKAL, you know!).

It will be nice to get out of the US for a bit, visit our friendly, more peaceful neighbors to the North. Maybe I'll find some good options for watching the World Cup (it's hard to be a big soccer fan when you don't have cable, there only so many times I can take the kids to a sports bar at 9 in the morning ...).

Send me your Yarn Shop referrals!!!

Buttonhole bags ... felted

Ok, now they are felted. This free pattern comes from the gals at Mason-Dixon Knitting. The pattern calls for bulky yarn on 15s. I used worsted on 11s, so my bags are a bit smaller. I already made another, and I'm fixing to cast on again. I'm telling you, these bags are addictive.

I plan to use one of the bags to make a "Get Knitting" kit for an upcoming neighborhood auction. I'm going to fill the bag with a basic knitting book, some previously loved needles and several balls of yarn from the stash. How's that for some busting?

Progress Report

My recent goal has been to wrap up some unfinished projects while trying to bust some stash. So here it goes -

Washrahgs ... gone! (No pics, you get the idea).

Simply Lovelies ... done!

Itty bitty kinda log cabin blanket made on request using Cotton Ease ... in service!

Easy criss-cross tank in white Cotton Ease to kick off the summer ... dooh! Taking a breaking after some ripping.

Finally, some unfelted buttonhole bags in Lambs Pride wool ... nice stress relief.

Me? A Winner?

Certainly you all read Grumperina?

Then you know that I won her contest for submitting the 200th Jaywalker to her gallery. Here is the 200th Jaywalker, which I knitted in December 2005, before the inception of our humble blog. They are knitted in Trekking XXL, in some blue colorway. I would have photographed them better, but I gave these babies away as a gift to my sister-in-law.

This is the first prize I have ever won in my life. My name was never picked for May Queen, I came in second for student body president. I have never won a raffle or won any of the big stuffed animals at the fair. I was eliminated in the first round of the spelling bee. I did once get a plaque with an apple on it, for being the Best First Year Teacher in my county. A dubious distinction if you ask me, and a lame prize for sure.

But on Sunday night, my luck finally turned around and I actually won Grumperina's contest! And the prize?

LORNA'S LACES!!!!!!

Of course, this presented a bit of a dilemma, as I explained to Her Grumpiness. As the founder of the SoSKAL, should I accept more yarn? Especially sock yarn, as this is the section of my stash most in need of busting. Especially since Sundara Petals Sock Club Yarn will be coming my way any day now, to further enhance the sock stash. I briefly considered the non-yarn options, but quickly rejected them (I already owned the books, my rosewood DPNs snapped on me).

But then I snapped back to reality and realized that Grumperina was GIVING ME LORNA'S LACES YARN.

So I humbly accepted my prize and am breathlessly awaiting the newest addition to the sock stash.

Green Gable Done

Here, as promised, are pics of my finished Green Gable.

Project Details:
Pattern: Green Gable from ZephyrStyle
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, Robin Egg Blue
Pattern Mods: I spread out the waist shaping and added more hip shaping. I lengthened it by at least 1.5", and used a tubular bind-off.
Thoughts, ramblings, and lessons learned:
- Knitting from the top down is still a revelation to me. I love having tugless tops, despite the number of times I frogged the final few inches of this sweater to get it just right.
- There are numerous problems with this pattern, most of them detailed exhaustively on the Green Gable Knit Along. The main issue is sizing, and there is no schematic to help a knitter out. Believe me, I will look a lot closer at patterns and think twice if there is no schematic whatsoever.
- I did learn the the tubular cast-off for this sweater. It was not quite as fiddly as others have described it, but having mastered EZ's Sewn Cast-Off, I guess I am accustomed to casting off with a darning needle. I am not totally in love with how it looks, and I am not certain it was worth it, but it is nice and stretchy, and it is nice to learn a new technique once in a while.

Of course, the best thing about this sweater, my reunion with Curlypurly, has already been detailed on the blog. But you can read my final posting on the knit along if you are so inclined.

PS -- Sally, the full face picture is for you, girl!

Wednesday WIP Report

Current Sock in Progress: Trekking sock, US0's, slipped stitch rib pattern. It's for my sister, who has begun her masters in Envirnomental Science. Do these look sufficiently crunchy and ecological? Whaddya think, Kate?














Current Design Project: My first design, a simple baby sundress. Gedifra California yarn. First attempt was promising, but must rework bodice. First step: find real baby to try it on.





Current swatch
Soon-to-be Current-Sweater in Progress: Orangina on size 3s. Will swatch on size 2s to determine just how open I want the lace. Fit seems to be pretty easy to fudge with this clever sweater.




Latest Stash Busting: Sweet little baby socks in Fixation, using up most of the leftovers from Rosebud's knee socks, and my traditional post-sweater Dulaan knit. Pattern and yarn undetermined. Stash diving later.

Post-sweater?

Where is Green Gable, you ask?

DONE!! Notes later this week once I get some good photos.

Knitting That Stash ...

So I'm plugging away at the stash ...

One starfish purse from America Knits in All Hemp 06 Lilac.



And most of a Penobscot Scarf also in the Hemp. I've done much more work since I took this picture, I've only got one lace block left. I'm excited to see how it will smooth out when I block it.


I tried to make a felted bowl (Brown Sheep Kiwi) when I was just knitting around one night, but lo and behold, I have either a baby bowler or a big grassy mound for the kids' little gnomes to run on ...


I've done some small amount of work on the stole, but I've started Lucky in Rowan All Seasons Cotton Black Currant for a baby that should be arriving soon.


Here is what I have so far for The Dulaan Project -- Fantastic! Many thanks to Liz and Martha who knit the bulk of the hats!

Question about doing yarn overs in the Penobscot pattern: When I do the yo, sl 2 kwise as if to k2tog, k1, p2sso, I find that my yo is much looser than the corresponding yo on the other side of the decrease. It's not that noticible with the hemp and with this scarf, but I think if I were actually doing it in the silk, it would bother me. Do other people have issues with their yo not being uniform? Liz, yours were just great in your shawl ... is this something that you focused on?

The Shawl Makes Her Debut

Last night was my sister's 30th birthday, and Mom took us to Le Bec-Fin to celebrate. Six courses later, I am still stuffed.

But the shawl made her debut, so, here she is:

The obligatory full-stretch shot.

A close up, highlighting the lovely color variations, and to see the stitch pattern up close. One of the nicest things about this shawl is that it nicely defines your shoulders. At least that's what my sister-in-law said.

A bit of the dresss, for those who care to see...

Oh, I'm just so gleefully proud of myself!!

The particulars:

Pattern: Weavers Wool Mini Shawl
Yarn: Blue Heron Yarns Rayon Metallic in Hibiscus
Pattern Mods and Notes: The pattern calls for knitting the shawl in garter; I used stockinette. This yarn is totally unlike anything I would normally choose. I mean, it has a gold thread running through it. It almost borders on (she leans in and whispers) novelty yarn. But the colors are just absolutely beautiful, and they do match the dress quite well, if I do say so myself. And the hand of the fabric is just wonderfully soft.

The pattern is incredibly simple, which still did not incubate me from many trips to the frog pond on this one. I took me a while to be able to read my lace (although this hardly qualifies as lace, in light of what other lace knitters have created), but once I figured it out, and made liberal use of lifelines throughout the project, it went much quicker.

High School Hi-Jinx

I've noticed in the last day or two that there is a "Memories of High School" meme floating around on some knit blogs. I generally avoid memes, but at least felt the need to share something that happened last week (anyone bored of my stories can scroll down to knitting content...)

As you can see from the sidebar, I joined the Green Gable Knit Along. Now I'm sure readers have been wondering, "where the hell is Liz's Green Gable?" We'll get to that in a moment. Last week, though, a poster named Curlypurly posted her finished Green Gable with a cute photo of her in a black gable with elbow length sleeves. I loved the modification, and her blurb was something funny about her 3-year old causing some kind of unspeakable chaos as the pic was snapped. Then, she seemed awfully familiar to me.

Well, the truth is, I am one of those people who remembers people. I remember names, faces, both significant and chance-meeting people. It was a great skill to have as a teacher, but can be devastating when you realize that while you remember everyone, everyone doesn't always remember you...So truthfully, I recognized her right away --

It was Marnie! Marnie and I were friends in high school. Read her blog entry on the Weird Little Internet -- she encapsulates our friendship perfectly.

Of course, as high school friendships do, it ended before high school, and we hadn't seen or heard from each other since graduation day, er...17 years ago. So you can imagine the hesitation before I clicked SEND on the e-mail I sent. Even in blogland, it feels more than a little awkward to re-acquaint yourself with someone after a long long time.

But here we are now, blogging and knitting the same damn sweater simultaneously. You should see the sweater she knit for ALICE COOPER. Too cool for words.

Knitting Content:

So what did happen to Green Gable? She was done. I tried it on. Cast off was too tight. Weird bagging in the love-handle region. I must rip out several inches and re-knit the increases in the hip area. So she languishes, but will be revived this week.

In other knitting news, this post was supposed to be accompanied by a glorious picture of me in a pink party dress, standing on the porch of a cedar-shake-clad home overlooking the incredible Narragansett Bay, showing you my finished, lovely Mini-Shawl.

It rained horribly the whole time we were in RI, so no good shots. The only picture the shawl showed up in is the drinking-college-friends-with-bride shot. See?

Heads have been removed to protect the innocents. Note pink shawl, second from left.

But have no fear. The whole outfit will have its return this weekend when I have fancy dinner at fancy Philly 5 star Frenchy dinner yumminess. Pics to follow!

Rosebud's Watermelon Knee Socks

Take a picture of my feet, too, Mommy!

2 balls of Cascade Fixation
US3 DPNs
knee socks for skinny-legged, narrow-footed Rosebud
+ 550 miles in the car
___________________
Fastest socks ever!

Other project stats, if you care: knitted from toe-up using Wendy's generic pattern, short row toe and heel, EZ's sewn cast off.

Rosebud loves them and so do I -- I think I see more Fixation in my future, but after Summer of Stash! I have enough to make some tiny baby socks too.

Now to decide my car-knitting for my trip to Rhode Island this weekend...