done with you

it seems a bit anti climatic now.   i am not sure what i was working on the last couple of weeks that prevented sharing of the FO's.  but it did.

the ridge cowl, purl soho

the cowl that never ends is DONE!  though i would have liked to have put it in a tub of soak to "bloom", my sweet friend was extremely anxious to have it keep her neck warm in the mornings.  so i let her.  and she loves it. she keeps it in her bag so she can whip it out at any given moment in order to wear it.  and i have to say, it looks great on her...

she wears it with a little more sass then in this picture, makes it a little more of her own.  however it is worn, it looks great and i am really pleased with how it came out.  the yarn is very light but warm and gives the cowl a lot of movement.  whenever she wears it i am  amazed at how great it looks.  but i will never make another one.

maybe i should qualify that by saying i love the pattern and i love the yarn, but i will never put them together again.  ever.

berroco foilo yarn, pearl and mount desert

the pattern called for a bulky yarn.  and though i like the movement this thinner yarn gives the cowl, i had my challenges with the yarn and the pattern as a unit.  i think if the yarn had been bulky the stitch pattern would have been easier to read and i would have been able to keep track better.  yet this yarn is so lovely!  lovely to work with and even lovelier to wear.  i still have a ball of each color way left over and i can't wait to figure out what i should use them for.

still, the cowl is done, my sweet friend loves it and i can move on to other knitting.

which i did.

neck and neck with finishing the cowl, i finished the first sock in the pair i am knitting for myself.  it is wonderful and i love it!

zig zag lace sock
colorway, nemo

the last couple of pairs of socks have been for the big guy and the best sister ever.  both pairs were short, sport type socks which means they were basically a few rows of cuff, an immediate heel flap and turn and then the foot of the sock.  just basic knitting.  i had forgotten how i love to knit socks with a lacy pattern.  something with a little interest and design.  especially when knit with a soft, squishy yarn, which makes it even more fun.

the pattern was one size fits all and i was concerned it would be a bit small, but it is really the perfect size.  i have already turned the heel and finished the gusset on the second sock.  which is very exciting since it means it is almost done.  which means i would then have a pair;  which means i can wear them!

the last thing i made was a baby hat.  i don't knit for babies but a friend of ours is having a baby in march and i thought it could use a hat or two.  so this is the first...

baby hat with top knot
sidar snuggly

this was a very quick knit.  it is easy to forget how small people are when they are born which makes their articles of clothing small.  as well as being easy and quick to knit.  hopefully she and the baby will like it.

my gauge was off a smidge on this one so it came out a little bigger than i planned.  i am thinking of knitting another hat that will be smaller.  different pattern, different gauge.

but it won't happen until next week, after the valentine knitting is done!

it is the cowl that never ends...

my sweet friend has a box of clothes sent to her monthly.   these clothes are well made chic pieces that can be a bit pricy.  she picks the pieces she likes and sends the rest back within a certain time frame.  in octobers box was a black and white cowl made from a yarn that was 100% acrylic.

my sweet friend fell in love with it.  she thought it was the best thing ever.  i told her i could knit her a cowl since the price for the 100% acrylic yarn cowl was a bit much. i thought buying  an acrylic yarn at a local craft store would be less then purchasing the clothing box cowl.  and my knitting it would be a money saver. she agreed and sent the cowl back.

then began the adventure...

after weeks of searching ravelry for the perfect cowl pattern, she found one that met her criteria.  we were now ready to choose yarn.  i gave my sweet friend the choice of going to a yarn store or going to a craft store for yarn that was similar to the box cowl.  being the daughter of a yarn store junky, she picked a yarn store.  so off to the LYS we went.  the pattern called for an amazing amount of bulky yarn, none of which was catching her eye since the yarn of the cowl she liked was two toned and none of the bulky yarn at the LYS was.  i then suggested getting two different color DK weight yarns which i would hold together as i knit so the cowl could have two colors.  she thought this a good idea, picked out a yarn she liked in two different colors and off we went.

now, every experience i have had with holding two different yarns together while knitting has ended in tangles with me trying to sort through them.  cursing may have been involved.  this time i decided to put the different yarns in seperate paper bags like everyone suggests.  then i could put a bag on either side of whatever chair i was sitting in when kitting.

on to gauge.  i used the suggested needle size and it looked like i was knitting air.  so i kept swatching with smaller needle sizes until i found the size that gave me the drape i was looking for and maybe close to the gauge i needed.  maybe.

finally i was ready to cast on.  but since the needle size was smaller i was concerned i would need to cast on more stitches then called for to meet the 60" length criteria.  technically, if my gauge was spot on, i wouldn't need more stitches.  but my gauge wasn't spot on so the hysterical, non-rational side of my brain thought it best to add a few stitches.  which i did.  to the tune of 100 more.  just in case.

the original cast on called for 196 stitches.  adding 100 to that made it 296 stitches.  obviously, my hysteria got carried away.  i  rationalized it by being concerned about the cowl length.  the extra 100 stitches helped alleviate that concern.

so i cast on half of the stitches (296 IS a lot of stitches) before going into surgery.  i took this project with me since we had to stay in so-cal during the surgery process.  after surgery i finished casting on and started to knit.  and though the pattern is a simple two row stitch repeat, having to knit said pattern on 296 stitches was more than my mind on pain killers could maneuver.  the first inch of the cowl, though fine, reflects my muddled mind.  the spines are fine, but there is some mushiness in-between.   not to mention there is a total of 297 stitches.  yup.  so much for counting while on pain meds.

nearly two months later, i am still knitting this cowl.  the pattern calls for a knitting width of 15 inches;   this would make the finished cowl 60" long and 15" wide.  at first this seemed entirely reasonable.  each ball of yarn produced about 5.25 ish inches of knitted width.  since i had 3 balls of each color i figured that would be perfect, i would hold both colors together, use all 6 balls and when they were gone, be at the needed width.  but as i continued to knit, i realized 15 inches doubled around the neck is good if the neck is as longs as a giraffes, but may be a bit overwhelming for a mere mortal.  i decided finishing the cowl after knitting 2 balls of each color yarn would be fine.  this would have the cowl end up at 10.5 ish inches in width.

i am 1/3 of a  ball of yarn away from being done.  the cowl is currently 7.75 ish inches in width and i can't seem to knit fast enough to be able to finish it.  though the pattern is easy, it can get tricky if i am not paying attention.  i lost a stitch when i added the second ball and never made it up.  for some reason i thought it would be okay until 3-4 rows in i noticed it was really not ok.  so i had to un-knit the 3-4 rows.  which doesn't sound like much until you realize each row is 297 stitches.  you do the math.  yup, tell me about it.

i have gotten much better at reading the stitches so mistakes get caught and corrected much quicker.  and i learned when knitting an item with so many stitches, it is not a bad idea to put stitch markers every so often to make sure the knitting is on track (this came from having to correct the joining of the second ball).

and though the yarn cost a bit more than the box cowl, not to mention my time, i have to say, the cowl is lovely.  the yarn is 90% alpaca and 10% nylon.  the alpaca makes it extremely soft to the touch and the nylon helps it keep its shape.  it holds the stitches well.  the colors are grey and white which makes the cowl interesting and textured.  i know my sweet friend will love it.  i know i do.  i just have to finish the blasted thing!

pattern:  the fluted cowl by purl soho    yarn: berroco folio in pearl and mount desert.

somewhere beyond the sea...

i love yarn overs.  they're cute, they're decorative and they are easy to do.  they were in the first item i knitted.  i think they add a little something to a project.  and they are the first step to lace knitting.

i have always been drawn to knitting lace, heaven knows why since i can't read charts.  but ever since i started knitting i have been entranced by lace patterns. a hint of lace is what draws me to a pattern. i have books on lace and have downloaded gobs of  lace patterns. i look at them longingly, aching to cast on, until i break out into a cold sweat when reading a pattern that is all charts.  sigh.

a few years ago while participating in my first swap, i was introduced to the pattern "blossom".  this is a easy lace pattern shawl.  it was designed for hand maiden sea silk yarn which is a beautiful yarn made of silk and a sea weed derivative.  it is beautiful, believe me.  my swap buddy gave me a hank of the yarn and suggested the pattern.  i was mesmerized.  the yarn was so amazingly blue and shimmery.  and the pattern!  it was nothing but double yarn overs!  i was in heaven.

but i didn't cast on.

i can't remember how it happened, it must have been because i was working at the LYS and the yarn was on sale, but i decided to make my mother the blossom shawl out of elsbeth lavolds silky wool.  this is a tweedy looking wool, but very soft when knit up.  and when it is washed, it is quite lovely.

the shawl took me quite a while.  i couldn't figure out how to keep track of where i was in the seven row repeat.  and i couldn't find my rhythm in the various double yarn over and k2tog patterns so was continually having to rip my knitting;  i also had a challenging time reading my knitting so when i made a mistake i couldn't figure out where i made it, i just knew a mistake had been made because the pattern ended incorrectly.  somewhere in the fifth repeat of the pattern  i got to a place where everything was correct, i knew where i was and i put the project aside.


fast forward two-ish years. i decide it is time to clean up some unfinished projects so out comes blossom.  i figure out where i am, glance at the pattern and off i go.  amazing what a few more years of knitting experience teaches you. not only did i find my rhythm in the various double yarn over patterns, but i could also read my knitting and correct my mistakes.  amazing!  i was so thankful.  so i finish the shawl and gift it to my mother;  who loved it!  the color and fit were perfect for her!  she couldn't wait to wear it to church!

(commercial break for some yarn deets:  yarn:  elsebeth lavold silky wool;  color:  #24, claret (discontinued); yardage: 192 yds per skein; close to 3 skeins used.)

finishing my moms blossom meant i could now start mine.  eagerly i cast on the sea silk.  quickly i discover how slippery silk is.  wow!  i was instantly thankful i had made blossom out of a heftier yarn first because this yarn was so slippery on the needle.  stitches regularly slip under the markers or under other stitches so i have to pay attention to which stitch is where and are they all accounted for.

but can i tell you how beautiful this yarn is.  it is like running water.  the picture doesn't do it justice since it does not catch the light or the oh so slight variegations in the yarn.  it is so lovely.  and it shimmers.  the picture is one repeat over half-way done.  i am at the stage where i think i will have gobs of yarn left over and then the pattern explodes into bigness and sucks up all the yarn.  pretty soon it will barely fit the 26" circulars it is on.  at that point i will need to be very careful not to make mistakes.  knitting back over hundreds of stitches to correct a mistake is not my idea of a good time!  but on the other hand, i can't wait.  it is closer to being finished then not being finished, which makes me more anxious to finish it which makes me more prone to make a mistake.  sigh.  i'll keep you posted.

i've just seen a...

my sweet friend and i seem to be have been bitten by a baking bug. not sure exactly how or why, but we are just going with it for the moment. she is baking cupcakes and cakes and i am baking...anything. and though i am not one to celebrate today, i felt a strong pull to bake these...

and these...
and even these...

which inevitably led to this...

it was a lot of fun though. had not baked like this in many years. next time i won't make a double batch. one batch is quite sufficient. and d & t, i do not know how you get along without your kitchen aid. seriously.

because of the baking bug, i have not had as much time to work on this...

the beginnings of the lace ribbon scarf out of malabrigo silk blend. the pattern has been in my ravelry queue for awhile so when the LYS announced it was doing a KAL of this pattern and suggested the silk blend as a yarn substitute, i was in. i have been lusting to use this yarn for something but did not know what, so here was the perfect excuse!

since using a weightier yarn then the pattern calls for, the suggestion was to use size 8 needles and drop a repeat. but i didn't have size 8 needles that were suitable, then couldn't find size 8's that were suitable. so after a bit of knashing, grumbling and finally swatching (!), i decided to use size 7 circulars with the number of stitches called for. the pattern came alive on them. and can i tell you how much i love this yarn. love this yarn. it is heaven to use and looks beautiful. since it is hand dyed, the variation of color is subtle but adds a bit of sparkle. i had never understood the fascination with manos until i used this yarn. and now i may just be hooked!

but i am not sure when i will get around to knitting on it again since tomorrow i am planning on making home made tortillas and pesole. that bug!

catching up...

so i have been sick the last couple of weeks. and though i do have some knitting to report on, i don't quite have the where withal to write, take pictures, download pictures, etc. so instead here are some things i have been meaning to share for awhile...

like this wonderful bag i won from worsted knitt who had a contest sometime this past summer.

not only does worsted knitt knit, design patterns, blog, moderate the ravelry dafur group but she also has this wonderful online shop, and this bag is one of the items available. it is quite sweet and big enough to hold a shawl. which is what i am using it for.

the shawl in question is the bird's nest shawl which i have been longing to make since i first started knitting. i have had the yarn for the past year, which is knit picks alpaca cloud in heathered moss. but i am being needle challenged. the pattern calls for a size 5 needle for the borders and size 6 needle for the body of the shawl. except when i swatch, i find those size needles a bit loopy/holey/loose for my taste. i find a size 4 needle more to my liking. but i debate whether to use a size 4 for the whole shawl or just for the borders and a size 5 for the body. decisions, decisions! even looking it up on ravelry didn't help since the needle sizes there were all over the map.

the next challenge with the size 4 needle is casting on. there are 346 stitches to cast on while holding the yarn double (it's knit sideways). i can do that with a size 5 or 6 needle but for some reason find it challenging on a size 4. sigh.

and so the yarn and pattern sit in this sweet little bag, patiently waiting for me to work through my various challenges. i look forward to carrying the shawl of my dreams in this sweet little bag and bragging about winning it and talking up worsted knitts shop. but, until then, stop by worsted knitts online shop and look around. your bag may not cause you so much drama!

rhythm of the night

i like the new house. it has a lot of pluses. more pluses then negatives. but one of its negatives is a pretty big negative. for some reason the internet is down more than it is up. and, for me, that is a big negative. mainly because i am an internet junkie. i use it for everything: paying bills, making appointments, coordinating meetings, recipes, reference, reading, learning, connecting and of course, shopping. and so, since i am an internet junkie, i really don’t like that our internet is down most of the time.

though there is an upside. i am getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. i stay up late so i can be on the computer uninterrupted. but since the internet is down, i have no reason to dawdle, so i read a book and go sleep. which isn’t a bad thing.

but the most important thing i have re-discovered without internet is my knitting rhythm. after a frantic fall, on new years evening my knitting rhythm finally clicked into place...make supper, clean the kitchen, do a general pick-up and knit while watching a dvd with my sweet friend. it was a pretty perfect evening. she is finishing up a scarf, i need to knit on my sfs sock 30 min a day and then i knit on my other projects. not a bad rhythm. it suits me just fine. except now i am staying up way to late...knitting!

project info: socks for soldiers out of knit picks essential in buckskin;

knit grrl stripey scarf out of a trendsetter tonalita in raspberry shortcake.

here comes the sun

though the move is over, the actually settling in is taking some time. and though lots of purging was done before the move, it wasn't quite enough. all items that were on the fence before moving, are now in the give away, recycling or trash pile.

but my knitting books are unpacked and in their bookcase. and after much searching and various unsuccessful starts, i finally found a baby hat pattern in said knitting books that i actually want to knit. trick is, it is for a co-worker leaving for maternity leave this week. oi! i better get started!

but first a view of a sunrise i made tea to a few mornings ago. made my day!

breathe...just breathe

so this is what i have been doing for the last month or so:

first it was the costume sweatshop where nine, count them, nine ranger jackets were made in one afternoon, as well as modifying some of the female gowns. then it was makeup. i am head makeup putter on-er so, with the director, i figure out which characters need what kind of makeup; then i experiment on some of the cast, get the directors feedback and finalize the "look" and what it entails; then we have a training day with the cast, show them what their makeup will look like, explain what it entails and have them run through putting it on themselves; then there are the musical run throughs and dress rehearsals where the makeup gets tweaked because it looks different under the lights and filters; then there are two weekends of performances. all of this around a 40hr + job.

i am a bit beat.

but instead of being able to rest, we get to pack because we are moving. yes moving. in 12 days.

the last few years have been a financial challenge for us and not having all of the expenses of owning a house will hopefully help us regroup. and so we are renters once again. of a house that is 400+ square feet smaller than our current one. which doesn't sound like much but it is. except for the fact it allows us to pare down, simplify, or, in essence, purge ourselves of 15 years worth of "collecting".

the important thing is the new house meets our stringent criteria of being within walking distance of my sweet friend's high school and allowing us to have the bbfd (big black furry dog). all of which i am grateful for, it makes the transition easier.

and so we weed through our various collections and we pack.

but i long to knit. and so i do. something mindless like the socks for soldiers. which fits the criteria of being lots of mindless knitting. thank heavens.

i have finished a couple of things though. the sweet little puffin hat for rachel and ryan's baby boy. made out of crystal palace puffin which is a delight to knit with. and will be very soft for a baby.

and i finished the bath mat designed by vyvyan at fishbone designs. i really like the way it came out. the picture doesn't really do it justice. honest. one of my goals this year was to do some color work. and though this is not really color work, i am color inept so i was a bit concerned how the colors would work together since the majority of this yarn was in my sugar n' cream stash. but it works. and i can't wait to use it in the master bathroom of the new house. oh boy!

amazing

so this is my 100th post.

it is amazing to me that i have been babbling about knitting and various other things for 100 posts. and that there are people who read these babblings, for which i am forever grateful. i have been inspired, challenged, encouraged and well fed by some amazing cyber friends.

i always thought i would have a celebratory contest for my 100th post but the planning of it is just beyond me at the moment. perhaps by the time i am done babbling on this post, something fun and quirky will arise.

but until then, i think i will babble about what started this blog in the first place, sticks and string...

so i was very sick a few weeks ago. like fevers of over 102 and lying in bed doing nothing for 5 days straight. i was so sick, it hurt my head to knit. and at the time i was in the middle of knitting a garter stitch potholder that will be felted, which is knitting at its easiest. as soon as i could pick up needles again, i finished it. it is knit out of some blue paton's merino and a green cascade 220 i had in my stash. of course i did not want to knit 3 potholders out of the same colors so i purchased another skein of cascade 220 in an deep aqua blue that would complement my two stash yarns. (yes, the yarns in the picture are the same, the color is different because of the lighting, booklyn tweed i am not.) this project got derailed for a bit when my cp size 10 straights began to split at the tip. very annoying. i had already done the sandpaper and wax paper thing to no avail. plus, the needles are a bit short for the amount of yarn that needs to be on them. i thought brittany needles would be the perfect solution. of course the LYS has every size but 10 and none of the other yarn stores in the area carry brittany's. grrr. after much hemming, hawing and gnashing of teeth, i traded the cp needles in for another non-splitting, longer pair of cp's and i am off and knitting once again.

once the potholder was done, i went straight to the cute husband's socks and finished the first one, finally. this is out of lorna lace's shepard sock chocolate stripe colorway. can i tell you how much i love this yarn. i love this yarn. i love the feel of it, the way it stripes, how easy it is to work with, even in a darkened theatre. i cast on the second sock immediately and knit on it whenever i can.

the next item to be finished was the lace capelet out of ry cashsoft baby dk, colorway 502, sweet. it turned out pretty well. when i asked my sweet friend to try it on for size, she did not want to take it off because it was warm and soft. which i took as a good sign. i immediately frogged the boring ruffle scarf also being knit out of cashsoft colorway 517, donkey, to start the second lace capelet. these are for two very dear friends who i usually give the same type of present to. i found the pattern on ravelry and it is quite easy. my personal challenge with it was keeping the correct number of stitches consistent. for some reason, whenever i did the yarn over rows i would either lose a stitch or add a stitch. it was maddening. i frogged the finished capelet down to practically the beginning to correct this, just to have it happen again! i finally decided it was one stitch. it really wasn't going to make that big of difference. and, of course, it all turned out ok in the end.

still on the needles is my sweet friends short ruffle scarf. as you can see, i have picked up the stitches on the short end and added the ruffle, but the long ends has 297 stitches to be picked up which is a daunting task to me. plus, i was expecting the ruffle to be more ruffle-y. since i will also be making this scarf for me, i may experiment with repeating the ruffle pattern. and if i have enough yarn in which to do so. but i need the needles so i better get on with finishing this one.

there are babies. i had never made anything baby so i decided to do hats. the first one was for baby alison, a beautiful and amiable baby at work (i work at the local ymca where there are plenty of staff babies around). much to my sweet friend's chagrin, i decided to knit up the sprout hat pattern by leigh spencer which i found on mag knits. it called for mission falls cotton, which i had never worked with before. i really liked it. i chose colorways 206-peony and 404-indigo. the yarn was easy to work with and lovely when knit up; it complemented the moss stitch well. unfortunately i did not get a picture of the hat before i gave it to baby alison, so here are all the ingredients, you will need to imagine what it looked like. fyi, peony was the dominant color, indigo the accent; picture it in your mind.......ok next.

the second baby hat was for rachael and ryan's baby. they live in the city (s.f.) where the coldest part of the year is coming up, summer, so hat's for a baby are totally appropriate. while doing an east bay yarn store crawl, i mentioned baby hats to the person behind the counter at k2tog. she suggested crystal palace puffin, a bulky polyester fleece ribbon yarn. one ball makes a hat, and she provided the pattern. what more could i ask for? the colorway is dotty circus. and though i was a bit skeptical about the polyester once i started to knit it i was quite pleased. this yarn is so soft and will be so nice for a baby head. and it looks really sweet knit up. can't wait to finish it and give to baby callum.

in the way of yarn, this past januray cheryl had a comment contest on her blog. by lucky circumstance i won a couple of skeins of yarn from it. some beautiful crimson kilcarra in which to make a tudora; and some homespun yarn from craftspun. the original thought was to try my hand at dyeing and dye the homespun, which i would have then shared on the blog. but i am now leaning towards keeping it undyed. it is really lovely but i am not sure what to make. and to be the non-metric american, how long is 250 grams? so i shall see.

and though i have been trying to knit from my stash, temptation is strong, so very strong. so i confess i have been collecting sock yarns. i figure they are relatively inexpensive and one skein equals a pair of socks so it is not like going overboard...is it?

the first sock yarn purchase was via the grey's anatomy knitters group on ravelry. sknitches had a "seriously" colorway. if you are a watcher of grey's anatomy you know the various ways this word gets used. the colorway had sold out but sknitches was willing to dye a special batch for group members if they pre-ordered and pre-paid. score! had to have one! and i love it! seriously. i am hoping to score another one for my sweet friend. she would like legwarmers. we will see what happens.

the second sock yarn purchase was from sockpixie. this woman owned a lovely little yarn store in petaluma, the town above mine. if my LYS was not within walking distance of my home, i would have become a regular in her shop. she offered wonderful classes and beautiful yarns. then her husband was transferred to boston so her yarn store closed. she kept in touch through her blog which morphed into sockpixie, which offered sock patterns, and eventually sock yarn. she and her daughter dye a different colorway selection in various types of sock yarns each week so when the yarn is gone it's gone. this colorway came from the week she was inspired by famous women and named her sock yarn colorways after them. this specific colorway is colette, a writer i met in college, became enamoured with and have read over and over again. so, of course, had to have it; love it; can't wait to knit it up.

whew! i think that is the latest. and i am sorry to say, something quirky is still beyond my reach. perhaps at blog number 150! so stay tuned. many thanks to all of you who amaze and inspire me. it's a lot of fun.

(it is a bit sad that life is so busy this post took three weeks to put together! yeesh!)

a nearly perfect weekend

so i have been alone this weekend. the big guy is at school and my cute husband and sweet friend are at a ymca conference for three days. i had the whole weekend to myself.

and i nearly did all the things i wanted to. i got some material to make more knitting project bags; i picked out new lip colors; i bought a waffle iron; i stopped by the LYS for the first time in weeks; i made myself turkey meatloaf; i knitted; i slept in; i made buckwheat waffles; i cleaned the house a bit and did a bit of laundry; i took a long walk; took pictures of my stash for ravelry and baked bread. and believe it or not, the list of things i did not get to is longer than those i did. but that's ok. i did whatever i wanted to and did not feel pressure to do more.

and i got to bake one of my favorite breads, pioneer bread. it was a baking staple when i was single. the recipe calls for cornmeal but i would substitute millet. since there wasn't millet flour, i would buy millet in bulk and grind it up in a spare coffee grinder in order to bake with it. maybe it was the name, maybe it was the fact i had to grind up the millet to make the flour, but the bread always reminded me of something ma ingalls would do. so i always appreciated baking day.

but this time i got to use the new bread pan. which is cool, but may be to small! who knew my bread loaves were hefty size?! so the bottom of the loaf did not brown like the rest of the bread(s). the recipe also has eggs in it which makes the bread very soft. the first few slices were quite wiggly. it may have been because it was hot out of the oven! but it is very good. and it made a mean turkey meatloaf sandwich!

i got it today!

i would like to take a walk and i have to make three more headdresses for the spirits in my sweet friends musical that opens this weekend, but i just got my invite to ravelry and i am having such a hard time staying away! i need some tea!

i need another bread pan...

little did i know that tuesday was world bread day. the sole pupose being to bake some bread. so i offer my simple little post:

sunday bread came from one of my all time favorite bread books, the tassajara bread book. though these loaves were courtesy of the revised and updated version, the original tassajara bread book introduced me to the vast world of bread baking beyond betty crocker. it introduced me to my first sponge and sourdough; it helped me continue my experimentation with various grain(s); and it taught me how to braid six strands of bread dough. i am forever grateful to this simple bread book.


and my sweet friend is grateful i am making white bread. though the majority of the bread is white flour, i have always put a couple of cups of king arthur's white whole wheat into my bread, just to give it a bit of heft and to make myself feel the kids were getting a bit of whole wheat without all the "but i hate whole wheat bread" discussions. i do risk a "MOM!" by putting sesame seeds on top though.


and lest you think this is turning into a food blog, i have been knitting. but i seem to have so many WIP's nothing is getting finished. coupled with the fact that since doing the vvs swap, the number of blogs i read has expanded! i spent this afternoon doing a bit of reading until i came across the breast cancer awareness month dishcloth pattern by vyvyan from knitting in a happy camper. it made me run to my sugar 'n cream stash to make sure i had enough yarn to knit this "reminder" for as many of my women friends as i could. it is a bit quirky and i truly don't mean to offend, but click on over to see if you would like to "remind" someone you know to stay healthy. take care.

i bit...

i am #30,332 with 18,844 ahead of me. i guess time will tell.

one would assume there would be movement...

...but no, not really.

i am still in the slumps with the knitting. i picked up a few unfinished projects over the last few days and have ended up frogging what i knitted. never a good sign. i did manage to knit a few rows on the sari ribbon scarf but not quite enough to finish it. sigh.

i have been sewing up more project bags though; gifts for friends.

so hopefully i will have pictures of FO's soon. but in the meantime, breakfast and tea may help.

salved by the chocolate

my sweet friend came home from so cal today. since it was on the way, decided to take a tour of the scharffen berger chocolate factory in berkeley, something i have been meaning to do for awhile.

the factory itself is rather small and would be easily missed when driving down the street. but their chocolate is very big. their dark chocolate is very dark. even their milk chocolate is ok, though i find it pales in comparison to the dark chocolate, excuse the pun.

i took the 11:30 tour which means i had time for a good breakfast. a wise thing considering once the tour starts, chocolate tasting abounds. and once the tour was through i stopped by their cafe for a bowl of hot cocoa and, just for the heck of it, a chocolate scone. it made the knitting so much easier!

sunday musings

so here are the books i have gathered over the last week or so. with only one of them read cover to cover!

i am spending way to much time reading various v v s blogs and not knitting. i have therefore missed my personal deadlines for finishing the drop knit scarf and oceane. we are going away for a few days and i wanted them both done by then. since they aren't, decided i may as well pack them because, heaven knows, there is so much to knit and so little time.

all in a sunday afternoon

so this is what occupied most of my sunday afternoon.

it may look like a heap of odds and ends, but this heap represents 3 project bags, 2 pairs of pants, 1 circular and 1 straight needle holder.

i am not fond of cutting out patterns so tend to cut everything out at once. will keep you posted on their progression.

nestled among the various pattern pieces are two balls of sugar and cream. it must be selective reading, but my first encounter with this yarn was via my stitch n' bitch desk calendar where it was a yarn of the week. i had never even heard of it. as i continue to explore knitting blog world where knitted dishcloths seem to have a life of their own, this yarn is mentioned a lot. so when i saw it at joann's fabrics i thought, why not! let's see what all the hub bub is about. doubled with tea and cakes sharing a really sweet dish cloth pattern which looked extremely enticing in a different colorway of this very yarn. thought i would give it a whirl.

in other knitting news: oceane is going well. i like the way the smaller needle size is making it look. and though i am a slow knitter, this is knitting up very quickly.

even though i do not need another project, i couldn't resist. i was really just meaning to make the hank into a ball, but the yarn was so pretty and i bought new brittany needles in just the size i needed for it so...i cast on and it practically started knitting itself! so, yes, the sari ribbon yarn is in the midst of becoming a drop stitch scarf. and i really like it.

open to suggestions

so i have been knitting with circulars a lot lately. most of my circulars are crystal palace and though i love c.p. needles, the transition from the plastic strand to the needle is driving me crazy. with all of my various circular needle projects, the yarn is consistently getting stuck there and i have to cajole it onto the needle.

i have found clover needles to be to blunt; lantern moon to be to expensive; i am not fond of the steel addi turbos but do have a couple of pairs of their natura needles, which is their bamboo needle line. the trick being,very few stores carry them.

so i am open to suggestions. what are your favorite needles, circular or otherwise? i would love to know.

and now we have...

last weekend was a productive knitting weekend.

i finished my sweet friend's skirt...and panicked. the length was correct but the width seemed way off. then i put the elastic in and lo and behold, it all came together! and it fit her! and she thought it was cute, in the tone that said, "this is much cuter than i anticipated and i would even consider wearing it!", not the tone that said, "never in a million years."

the skirt is a mac and me pattern with the suggested knitting yarn being blue sky alpaca organic cotton in white. in an effort to support my LYS i substituted cascade's cotton yarn, sierra, in pink. in the meantime i have been exposed to blue sky alpaca's organic cotton and told my sweet friend if she ever wants another skirt, it will be knit out of this. but the sierra was a reasonable substitute.

when i first read the pattern it said the elastic could be woven into every other stitch after the skirt was finished or knitted in. i chose the former, which was fine. the trick being, elastic is white, the skirt is pink, so the elastic shows. and there was no way i could get it into every other stitch without feeling like i was wrecking the skirt. so i am thankful the style is longer tops, so they cover the elastic.

i also fixed the feathery lace stole. i have finally memorized the pattern and have been knitting two rows at a time whenever i can as a mini meditation because, though i have memorized the pattern, i still really have to concentrate on the stitch. yesh! i find if i don't concentrate on it completely, i mess up. which is what i did last thursday. i knitted 4 rows and discovered what looked like YO's in places where there should be no YO's. the thought of correcting the real YO's and SKP's for 4 rows was daunting to me, but i took it slowly, approached it with gobs of patience and humor, and, luckily, made it right again. whew! and now i am off and knitting, but with no distractions of any kind, no talking, no movies/tv, no ipod. just me, saying the memorized stitch, over and over again.

but the real fun of course was being able to start a new project. the goal was to use the much anticipated louisa harding sari ribbon. i have only 122 yds of the sari ribbon so whatever i made had to be relatively small. so i googled "ribbon yarn patterns" and found a simple drop stitch scarf pattern that i think will do nicely that is within the needed yardage requirements. except that i needed size 10.5 circulars; or size 13 circulars; or size 15 circulars. none of which i have. and it was 9:30pm on sunday night. and i HAD to start a new project right then. so after much shifting of stash, i settled on a french girl shawl pattern, oceane. i am knitting it in the suggested rowan linen print yarn, only in the smoky colorway instead of the blush. and knitting on size 17's instead of 19's because that is what i had.

so, i have gobs of knitting to do. yay.

truly, it was for research purposes only

i had a meeting in the city which ended early and found myself with a some free time. so what to do? go to the nearest LYS of course.

artfibers can be found up a creaky stairwell in the heart of the san francisco financial district. their yarns are a mix of various natural fibers with their own unique colorways. artfibers strives to be eco friendly by selling their yarn on recycle able/returnable cones but also has recycle able/returnable ball cores available for smaller purchases. the only place to get their yarn is at their store or on the internet. so i thought this the perfect place to scout out some unique s.f. yarn for my yet to be named virtual vacation swap buddy. and boy was it fun.

the store is relatively small but packed full of truly beautiful yarn. most of the yarn is swatched which made it helpful to see how it looked, felt, draped, etc. knitted up, along with a nearby index card with content of the yarn, gauge and sometimes a pattern suggestion. a couple of services i thought helpful was a computer system that can adapt any pattern to the size you need, instantaneously! as well as a corner that has samples of their yarn available for knitters to knit and experiment with.

so after wandering around touching everything, i spotted this really lovely, quite simple scarf that was knit out of this beautiful, shimmery silk, mohair and wool yarn. one skein would knit the really lovely, quite simple scarf. a great idea for my vvs buddy. or not....? hmmmm...am i sure? what to do? got it! experiment with the yarn myself. just to make sure. i mean, i wouldn't want to send a dud yarn. so i did the only responsible thing, i bought the yarn which came with the pattern for the really lovely, quite simple scarf with the intent of making sure it would be an appropriate yarn to share with my vvs buddy.

so i will see how the yarn does. make sure it's ok. and if it proves to be unsuitable for my yet to be named vvs buddy, i can always regift the scarf!