Snow Day

It snowed all day yesterday. The day before that it was so warm that I ran errands wearing a hoodie and nothing more. I spent most of yesterday sitting by my window watching flurries blow around in the sky, but never hit the ground. When I left for work, I didn't even bother donning my boots, those big yellow rubber golashes that I wear whenever there's a little moisture in the air. Mistake.

By 20:45 when we walked out of work, my ballet flats and I found ourselves traipsing about in a winter wonderland, the likes of which had me hearing Christmas carols off the in the distant corners of my mind. By the time I got off the bus, shoes filled with snow from walking through the two inches that had already settled comfortably on the ground, I sat in bed and finished up Fetching.

I had attempted to make these little mitts about 2 years ago. I'd bought a ball of the Debbie Bliss, and just didn't have enough to complete the second glove. It's been cold this winter, and I've had this extra ball of Merino Style from Knit Picks. The yarn is a bit thinner than the Cashmerino Aran, but I knit them on size 5 Crystal Palace double points, and they are just as squishy and wonderful as I'd hoped they'd be. In fact, I stayed up a little late last night finishing the second one, just so I'd be able to wear them in our chilly stock room at work today. It's been freezing back there all winter, and my knucks are looking mighty haggard these days.

Then this morning, I was woken up by a phone call informing me of an unexpected snow day. So instead of wearing my mitts at work, I can wear them at home while I finish up Foliage, another project I started a over a year ago, and had met with disastrous results. I think I first attempted this hat before I realized that I am a loose knitter, and before I really understood how to read a lace chart. Halfway through, the hat was hopelessly large and wonky. I abandoned it until a week ago.

This year I'm trying to get through as much of my stash as I can before I buy any more yarn. This was something I started to do last year, but I can honestly say I've made more progress in the past month than I did in the previous 12, including several sweaters that will appear sometime next week.

This time around I went with size 10 crystal palace DPNs for the body, and size 9 DPNs for the ribbing. The fantastic Malabrigo Chunky was purchased at Loop, though I have long forgotten the name of the colorway. As you can see, I'm all dolled up with no place to go, so I think I'll just hunker down, finish off some projects, and listen to the scrape of shovels against the sidewalk.

Money Shot

There comes a time in day, usually around 19:00 these days that the sun takes a break from bearing down into our eastern facing apartment and heads over to the other side of Broad St. leaving us with a kitchen full of soft grey light that makes even the jar of mayonnaise look kind of dreamy and artistic.

I shot this photo last night as I was getting ready to make a large pot of seafood risotto and watch the Phils bullpen give up run after run to Mets. Oh, the humanity! The season is young though, and after years of disappointment, I have to say that I can really rely on the Phils to lift up my hopes and then crush them on a day to day basis. That's what summer around here is all about.

The scarf is Shifting Sands by Grumperina. I first saw the pattern in progress at Brooklyn Tweed several months ago. He was working it in Malabrigo and I just loved how all the little cables really brought out the imperfect nature of the yarn, its thick and thin pieces, the variations in color...gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. Fortunately, the thing is taking forever, and I'm really just enjoying it without rushing to get it done. After all, it's 70 degrees out today.

Embarrasment

I made this hat for Jay in August. I bequeathed it to him shortly after his birthday in September. It now has a large hole in the crown. I have to say, I'm horribly embarrased that something I knit for someone else is now coming apart. Yes, yes, I realize that this is just a matter of busting out the faithful crochet hook and tapestry needle combo, but really, I should be more careful! At least he had the courtesy to inform me of my error and bring the hat in for emergency surgery before he was just sitting around with a pile of soft but useless wool string. Right now the thing just looks like it's going to start talking to me

The other thing that is embarrasing is the complete lack of knitting that's been taking place recently. We're decorating for the holidays at work. School is over in 2 1/2 weeks. Which will give me, oh....3 maybe 4 weeks to churn out a couple scarves, some hats, and a sweater. My hands feel so idle without wool in my fingers.

Fortunately, the lovely Ms. Abinka is having a stitch and bitch at her place on Sunday. I've got 4 balls of BSA Cotton ready for another Eyelet Cardi. Maybe I'll sew the buttons on the one I made myself before then.

The truth is, life has been pretty difficult lately. Losing my uncle last month was devasting. I knew it was inevitable, but for it to happen within 3 weeks after I moved home...I was just floored. I think everyone was. He was more than just an uncle. To my brother and I, as well as the rest of our family, he was really like a father. Always there, always with big hugs, sound advice, quirky jokes, and fun gadgets to play with. I miss him, but take comfort in knowing that he is no longer sick and is still looking out for all of us. It's been a difficult fall for everyone, but I think if I can get this hat fixed, I can start to get something back on track.

Warm

I can hardly believe that September is almost over. That may, in part, be due to the fact that I spent my day sitting on the beach, watching surfers, and getting a really odd sunburn on my arms and parts of my legs. I never quite put that sunblock on properly. None the less, after being away from home for nearly 3 months, tomorrow I'm flying first class back to Philadelphia, picking up my new car, and finally sleeping in my own bed. It seems like ages. By Monday I'll be back to the usual grind of working, grad school, homework, and hopefully some hanging out.

Of course, there will always be knitting. I hae to say, I've been rather selfish lately, knitting almost entirely for myself. But I'll be honest. I spend so much time knitting for other people, I think I've earned all my little pet projects. Let's take this gorgeous Malabrigo for example. I fell in love with the stuff last autumn when I needed to make a gift for my BFF. Since, I've knit many wonderful scarves of Malabrigo for many wonderful people until it suddenly occurred to me, I've never made ANYTHING for myself.

I scored 5 skeins at Great Yarns on sale while I was in Raleigh. They sat in the bag for a while until I decided that it's finally time I treated myself to a little Malabrigo. I love the texture. So soft running through the hands, so wooly and warm, and just a pleasure to knit with. I look forward to sharing this project with you in the coming weeks.

Naturally, I am working on all those holiday gifts. Yeah, I'm not as selfish as I'd like to be sometimes. I'm trying to keep it simple this year. Nothing crazy. Nothing that will keep me up late on Christmas Eve...famous last words.

Little Things

I've been on quite a tear in the past week or so trying to rid myself of all those little odd balls that seem to keep piling up in my stash. I am one of those people who finds that one lovely ball of yarn sitting in the sale bin at the LYS and buys it. So instead of a stash that I can delve into when the next must have sweater is published in Interweave, I have a collection of oddballs without any clear idea as to what they'll become. Another thing about me is that I'm one of those people who kind of hates having a stash. I know, I know, I'm crazy, who doesn't love having a stash? Maybe it's more that I just don't have room for a stash, and frankly, being inundated with THAT much yarn would leave me with a feeling of unnaccomplishment. I would feel overwhelmed, as if I will never reach the end. I guess that's the point, isn't it?

Anyway, the photograph above gives me a great sense of accomplishment. A scarf out of one skein of Malabrigo found on sale. A pair of Kim's hats made from Plymouth Galway Highland skeins and scraps. A pair of Knucks from a sale ball of Rowan Felted Tweed. A Dream Swatch from a sale ball of Noro Cash Iroha. A pair of wristwarmers from another ball of Cash Iroha (actually in the same color as the ones from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It's a gorgeous shade of magenta that I WISH I'd been able to find more of. Alas! Such is the fate of the sale bin.) Two more hats, the Purl Beret from a ball of Claudia Hand Painted, and a pink sparkly number from a ball of handspun I picked up in Maryland a few months ago.

Granted, I still have leftovers from SOME of these balls, and more bags of leftovers at home. It's getting to be time to make an afghan.

I bought the yarn for this hat from Raven's Nest in Chesapeake City, MD. If you are ever out that way I reccomend you stop by, they have a wonderful selection and a helpful staff. I think it's a blend of wool with a bit of silk and a string of sparkly nylon thread is plied throughout the bulky yarn. I lived the layers of pink with the occasional spot of teal and dark purple. If you've been keeping up with your September fashion magazines you'll see that bulky knits and anything tactile is big big big for fall. I liked seed stitch for this because it spoke to those trends. I had no pattern, simply cast-on 60 stitches onto size 8 circs, knit an inch in 1x1 ribbing, made one increase and switched over to size 9 dpns for the body. When I thought it was long enough I decreased, and voila! I'm kind of in love with it.

The Purl Beret from the Purl Bee, started off on size 2 Plymouth Speedway circs. These needles are awful. Do not use them. Fortunately, my gauge was off, and the colors were pooling, so I swtiched over to larger bamboo circs and voila! I LOVE this colorway. It's called Bootcamp, and I picked it up from kpixie. It's just so...fall. The burnt oranges against the navy and olive, beautiful. Now, I would've finished this in one day, but I misread the pattern and knit the body far too long, began to run out of yarn, and frogged the whole thing and started from scratch. Sure, I could've unknit, but I liked working with the yarn so much that I didn't mind ripping it out and starting fresh.

Now, the colors do pool a bit near the crown at the second round of decreases, but I'm ok with this. A little bit of pooling is ok, but had it happened throughout the overall look would have been splotchy and very very un chic.

Finally, I got around to finishing Danica. This came out of 4 balls of Noro Silk Garden I got on sale (there was more than one ball! hurrah!) I can't say that I'm entirely in love with the colorway. You may recall I started a very colorful and narrower version of this scarf, but have yet to finish it. (The scarf is in Philadelphia; I'm not.) Anyway, I wanted a wider version so I bought 4 balls and started off casting on 40 stitches. This was too wide, so I went with 30. I love the entrelac because it knits up so quickly and people are so impressed by it, especially with self-striping yarn. I think the whole thing took 5 days fmro start to finish, but I was taking breaks to knit all those little bits and pieces. I'm still not sure that I'll keep this for myself. It's kind of dreary. For some reason I thought it was more purple, but there's a lot of grey bits that aren't winning me over. It also needs to be blocked.

I've got some bigger things on the needles right now. Stay tuned.