Giraffe

This is one of Little A's Christmas gifts that I didn't get finished up until yesterday. She's been dragging it around the house already and giving it all the love a two year old has to offer. Yeah, it's a little rough but it's looove. I'm not a huge fan of knitting toys since I hate sewing all those little pieces together but this one isn't bad and the outcome is worth it.

Pattern: Giraffe from Itty Bitty Toys by Susan B. Anderson
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in Daffodil & Orange
Needles: US #5 Clover
Mods: I knit all the pieces on a long circular using the magic loop method. After knitting the body and the head I sewed them together and then picked up stitches from the body and knit the legs down so I wouldn't have to sew them on. It worked pretty well but the lower legs are a bit splayed. All other pieces I knit as written. I used a 1 & 5/8 clover pom pom maker for the mane, horns, and tail. After sewing all the pieces onto the head I went back and reinforced the neck seam for added strength since the extra weight on top was making him a little floppy. The spots are definitely worth the added time to knit separately and applique.

Two!

Little A's birthday just happens to be Christmas Eve. I've found Christmas the last couple of years to be a lot less interesting now that I have a little one's birthday to celebrate the day before. This year we had balloons, a taco bar, and a tasty cake with ice cream. It's no small feat to come up with something everyone can eat - vegetarians, the lactose intolerant, and the gluten-free. Tacos just happen to be A's favorite so we had corn tortillas, beans, rice, and a myriad of taco toppings and fillings. Delish.

She got a lot of good presents. Good as in the day after the party she's still playing with them and having a great time.
I knit the sweater, Prudence, from Rowan Miniature Classics for her second birthday and while I'm very proud of it she's a bit reluctant to wear it. I managed to wrangle her into it for about 10 minutes on Christmas so I could snap some photos. Let me tell you, wrangling a toddler for pictures is not the easiest thing to do when there are people and presents and food around. Happy Birthday, Little A!

Prep

Just a little knitting before I launch into my latest debacle. It involves baking.

I knit this slouchy hat for my Mother in Law for Christmas. She's allergic to wool but may possibly be able to wear alpaca so I dug out a skein of Cascade Pure Alpaca in a nice red and cast on. The pattern is Ripple by Wendy Bernard and I loved knitting it! This is the worsted weight version but the pattern also includes a sock weight version which I'm contemplating for myself.

So. Baking. Little A's birthday is tomorrow so I attempted a birthday cake. I am NOT a bad baker, in fact, I have a pretty good track record with the oven. My problem is egg whites. They hate me. I do research and follow tips and treat them as I would a fragile work of art and... they fail. Every. Single. Time. Granted, I was working with a Martha Stewart recipe (usually these work great for me) which I found to be over complicated. You know, extra steps and hard to find ingredients where regular ole grocery store ingredients would do and stuff like that. But really, the cake just did not rise more than 1/4 inch and was far too sweet and and and I should have known when I saw the batter that resulted from following the recipe. No good. In steps google and I found a super easy and fast recipe that turned out as batter-y as a cake batter should be and not too sweet and just came out of the oven deliciously golden and birthday cake smelling.

There you have it. Two cakes in a little under three hours and I need to pick up more vanilla for the strawberry frosting. Phew.

Final

I'm finding it hard to concentrate on studying for my final that is scheduled for this evening. Little One has been in her bed but NOT sleeping for the last couple of hours. She won't sleep but she also doesn't want out and how is a girl to study with all the noise going on in the other room? I counted on this afternoon for a good solid few hours of refresher/studying before I head off to class and it's just not happening. Reflexive verbs what? Conjugate who? It's just not sticking today and that is a bad bad thing.

Vespergyle Mittens

Take that corrugated ribbing! You don't got nothing on me! I started these mittens way back in July and finally pulled them out again to finish them up. Corrugated ribbing is my mortal enemy so it's not really surprising that I was about 2/3 of the way through it when I called it quits - sometimes you just have to say ENOUGH and chuck a project in time out for a while. It only took a few days get things all smoothed out and ready to wear. They still need a good blocking but in the meantime they're actually getting worn.



Pattern: Vespergyle Mittens (free!)
Yarn: KnitPicks Palette in gray & sky blue
Needles: US #1 1/2 bamboo
Mods: I knit these on a larger needle than stated in the pattern and did a shorter decrease section with a more squared-off tip.

Failed

After trying all of the tricks on the Apple website to get my computer to boot up I tried the installation disc. Yep, my computer ate it. Off I went to the Apple store Genius Bar where they booted up my computer and ran diagnostics. Hard drive - FAILED - in big yellow scary letters. Well, it was nice to see something on the monitor besides a gray screen. The computer is not totally shot but I left it at the store to get a new hard drive (an improved one since the one I had isn't even made anymore)and the good news is that they'll have it fixed between one and three days so I should get it back Monday at the latest. I love/hate technology.

Broke Down

My lovely Mac is trying to commit suicide and I'm trying to talk it down. Things will be a bit quiet around here until I can solve the problem or buy a new computer. Eek. Not the best thing to happen around the Holidays but there is hope that the computer is salvageable and all my stuff is recoverable. We shall see.

It's hard living without a way to watch movies and keep connected and it's only been ONE DAY.

Snow Daze

Well, it happened. It snowed in Seattle the Monday before Thanksgiving but I have to say that I'm not nearly as inconvenienced by that as I thought I would be. Little One and I ventured out to run errands during the day before the temperature dropped and it got icy and then came home to start some homemade soup. We stayed in and enjoyed our toasty apartment (the house of mold was forever freezing cold) and I got some Holiday knitting done.

A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving I knit Poppy for my younger niece in some Rustic Wool DK I've had sitting around in my stash. This is a great pattern and free on Ravelry. You can use several different yarn weights and the construction is interesting - you knit back and forth using short rows to create wedges and then pick up and knit the ribbing at the bottom. Fun!

I also knit Habitat by Jared Flood. I've knit this pattern before and enjoyed it the second time around. I always forget how much impact cables have on a knitted item and this one, well, it's really cabley. This version is knit in Rialto Aran so it has great stitch definition and is really super soft and machine washable. Rialto Aran, to me, is definitely on the luxury end of the yarn spectrum. It's only 88 yards and retails for around 9 dollars a ball. For a small project like this it's definitely worth the price since knitting with it is heavenly but I'd have to contemplate long and hard about knitting a sweater with it.

And, finally, some snow. We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving this year with perfect nap times for the Little One and a later meal start time. Everyone got along in the kitchen and it was far and above one of the better Thanksgivings I've had in Seattle. We have little in the way of leftovers since we don't have a ginormous spread but I'll trade that for sanity during my holiday.

The One Woman Sweatshop

I made a decision at the end of October to knit all of my Christmas gifts. Usually I try to stagger my gift knitting throughout the year so I don't have a huge push in November and December to get everything done. My sofa has become a one woman sweatshop where I spend every possible free moment churning out gifts. Luckily I chose hats for almost everyone on my gift list and I can knit those in a couple of days. The most recent WIP is the Bee Hive Beret knit in Frog Tree Merino Worsted. This yarn is incredibly soft and warm but does not stand up to un-knitting very well. I also ran out of yarn and had to get up to the shop to grab another skein - this is not a pattern error since I went up a needle size I should have accounted for more yardage. If I had stuck with the needle size I could have knit this with ONE SKEIN of yarn which would be a whopping $6.50. Not bad for a handmade gift, huh?

Fish Hat, Dead

A couple of weeks ago I knit this fish hat for a Christmas gift. The recipient is a 4 year old boy and I think he'll like it a lot.

Pattern: Fish Hat (Dead) from Knitty
Yarns: Stash scraps - Classy in Blue Lagoon, Lorna's Worsted, and Silk Garden
Needle: US #7 Addi Turbo
Mods: None. Knit just as written with stripes as the mood struck.

Winter Twist Collective

It's up and it's pretty. Plus, there are capey things.

Today

Today I want to run screaming from my home. Little One refused a nap and is now trying to decimate my last shred of sanity with her random mood swings.

It's probably uncool to dose her with sedatives, right?

Castlegar Cardigan

My Castlegar Cardigan is finally done and I love it! After all of my complaining about how long it was taking to knit I totally love the final sweater. In fact, I put it on and said "I want another one!"

Pattern: Castlegar Cardigan by Laura Chau
Yarn: Miss Babs Baby Bamboo/Merino Sock
Needle: 2.75 mm (!!!)
Mods: Slightly shorter sleeves cause that's how I roll.

November? Already?

I can't believe that it's already November. Time passes so quickly these days - registration for next quarter of my Spanish class is next Monday. Huh? Didn't we just start class? The Little One continues to be crazy/adorable/smart and keeps me on my toes every single dang day. I turned the calendar page over to November today and realized that the Holidays are fast approaching (in knit time) and I need to get some gift knitting done. Last Monday I started the Log Cabin Socks from Handknit Holidays and pushed through the first one in about a day and a half. These will be for my mom's boyfriend who is an enthusiastic knit gift receiver. They are really quick, just knit them on #7 needles and Ecological Wool and you'll have a pair of gift slipper socks in no time. That is, if you don't fall prey to second sock syndrome.

Hazel Knits

Wendy of Hazel Knits had a trunk show at the Fiber Gallery last weekend. I wound up my birthday week by buying even more yarn.

Top to bottom: Merino Soy sock in Pacific, Artisan Sock in Strawberry Lemonade, and Artisan Sock in Chocoberry.

Aimee

Did I ever tell you about my recurring cape-knitting dream? Yes, recurring. The most I can ever remember is that I'm knitting a capelet out of one of my Japanese knitting books in blue worsted weight yarn. This dream sparked a conversation at my knitting group about all of the other capelets that people want to knit and that we should do an informal KAL. Before embarking on the capelet of my dreams I decided to knit a simpler pattern to see how I felt about sporting a capelet/ponchette thingy-ma-bob. The outcome is Aimee by Kim Hargreaves - one of my all time favorite designers.

Pattern: Aimee by Kim Hargreaves from Thrown Together
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers color #9489 & GGH Kid Melange #012 held together
Needles: US #9 Addi Turbo
Mods: Converted to work in the round and knit to 55 cm tall rather than 59 cm tall. Yarn is held together for super fluffiness.

Keeping On

Castlegar, she is growing! I'm just about to hit the 8 inch mark and just keep slogging through a little bit every day. Once I get the sleeves joined and the first set of decreases done I'll be a happy girl.

Scare Isle

When the new Deep Fall Knitty came out I knew that I needed to knit this tam in time for Halloween. Every year Greenwood businesses host a trick or treat so I'll be working at the yarn store and handing out candy to hundreds of kids. Why not do it in Halloween style? The pattern is Scare Isle knit in odds and ends of crazily bright fingering weight yarn from my stash (why did I have those eye-searing colors? dunno.) and some black spindrift that I purchased. I had a few problems:

1. I ran out of black yarn
2. the 1x1 rib stretched out a ton
3.we didn't have a plate large enough to block this to tam formation so it's more of a slouchy hat

I still like it even after my, uh, pitfalls and I think it's the only really seasonal or Holiday piece of knitwear I own. The yarn came mostly out of stash and it was fun to knit a Fair Isle pattern in crazy colors.

The Big 3-0

This weekend marked my thirtieth birthday so I got the heck out of Seattle with my sister and my friend and went over to Port Townsend for a couple of days. As usual, I packed far too much knitwear. The weather was beautiful, although slightly chilly, and I was able to provide warm things enough for us all to wear. I bought lots of yarn, ate lots of yummy food, and knit knit knit to my heart's content.

Top 5 favorite things this birthday (in no particular order):
1. Vegetarian Poutine
2. Knitting with friends
3. Being on my own schedule
4. New yarn
5. Drinking beer in the afternoon

This birthday went exactly how I wanted it to go, relaxing and easy-going. Thanks to everyone for the awesome gifts - you rock!!! A girl couldn't have much better friends!

Good Goes

I was recently paging through a knitting magazine and found a tiny little blurb about Good Goes, a program organized by Save the Children that provides medical treatment and other support for newborns and children in needy countries. They're asking for donations of knitted or crocheted newborn caps to distribute. This coincides with a lot of recent thought about my small balls of leftover sock yarn and this would be a great way to use them up and give to a good cause. If you are interested in learning more you can do so here, there is a downloadable pdf with shipping information and a free worsted cap pattern here.

Castlegar, Castlegar

I started this sweater with the best of intentions. You know, intending to knit it mostly monogamously so I could have a shiny new sweater to wear this Fall. I am moving along but it feels quite slow and not as gratifying as I feel it should be. It's the Castlegar Cardigan by Laura Chau and I really really want to wear it but I don't really really want to knit it. On sock yarn. On 2.75 mm needles. I purchased this yarn in my buying frenzy at Stitches West this Spring and it is lovely to work with and I'm not getting any pooling or flashing or anything but wonderful softness and sheen from the merino/bamboo blend. Miss Babs, you do me right. If the glass is half full I've already got the two sleeves done if the glass is half empty I haven't even cast on the body (almost 300 stitches) and that, my friends, is a setback indeed. Instead I knit a baby sweater and a headband and bought yarn for a Super Cupcake Cowl and am doing anything but casting on those stitches. Kick me, please, and just tell me to cast on and knit the damn thing.

Single Skeins and Stuff

Before I went on vacation I knit a handful of single skein projects for Stash & Burn's annual Single Skein September. It's kind of a KAL but mostly just a chance to look at all the single skeins in stash and use them up in some type of manner. I like quick and easy projects so I dug out a single skein of Manos del Uruguay Clasica in color X, also known as topaz. This is Elizabethtown from the MdU booklet Adirondack Accessories. I knit mine up in a little over an evening on size 10 needles. It's knit from the bottom up with cable decreases and then a ribbed split neck to fold over a jacket collar. There's also a buttonhole to fasten the split neck securely but I don't use mine.

As for the other stuff, last week was my four year wedding anniversary and we had a tasty tasty dinner at ToulousePetit in Lower Queen Anne.

We also took the Little One to her first fair where she enjoyed her first corn dog with lots and lots of yellow mustard, giggled at the baby chicks, and cried when a rooster crowed right in front of her.

My best friend is now in the Ukraine starting her stint in the PeaceCorps. Check out her blog and make a donation to help finance her Eastern European experience. Really, she doesn't even know if she'll have hot running water in her abode and the PeaceCorps living stipend is, shall we say, frugal.

Milkweed

My newest little piece of loveliness - the Milkweed Shawl by Laura Chau.
Yarn: Sundara Sock Yarn in Bronzed Sienna
Needle: US #4 Addi Turbo Lace
Mods: None! I knit it just as written and blocked the heck out of it.

Vacation

This is what vacation looks like! Bright, I know. I took my camera along but failed to take any pictures whatsoever. There was a lot of relaxation, knitting on the back patio, basking in the lovely weather, yarn buying (eep), and general awesomeness. We made our way down to San Francisco to have lunch with Nicole from Stash & Burn and to buy yarn at Imagiknit. Yes. A whole side trip just to buy yarn. Yeah, like you haven't done it before! I came away with a bag FULL of Madelinetosh loveliness and on top of that we dyed yarn with kool-aid a couple of days later. We used Lamb's Pride Superwash Sport and the pic is what I came away with - a skein of bright blue (8 or 10 packets of blue raspberry, presoaked in 6 packets of green tea) and a skein of shockingly bright orange (4 packets of orange and 4 packets of pink lemonade postsoaked in black tea). They look like goldfish mittens to me! If you haven't dyed yarn before I think this is a great way to start, plus your yarn will smell slightly fruity for a while. Other than the SF expedition and yarn dyeing not much happened except for hilarity with my sister and my BFF.

Quick

I leave for California tomorrow to visit for a whole week. It's just me and the Little One hanging out with my very good friend and my family. I've been knitting a whole lot of little projects for Stash & Burn's Single Skein September. It feels good to do some small, fast, satisfying, and scrappy little projects. Of course, I'm knitting them faster than I'm taking pictures so I won't have anything to share for at least a week. I'm eager to see exactly how much single skein knitting I can get done this month since I think I managed only two or three last year.

See you in a week!

On. Off.

Last week I realized that the end of August was fast approaching so I buckled down and got back to the business of knitting. My Central Park Hoodie had been languishing a bit due to smaller, more portable projects. This weekend I knit up to the hood and am now about half-way through. Go me! Hoods are almost as bad as sleeves for knitting, knitting, knitting and making almost no progress until you've magically knit past the point where X is supposed to happen. Once the hood is all knit up I have one more sleeve, a little bit of seaming, and buttonbands left to go. I'm hoping to have it done before I leave on vacation next week.

One of the small and portable projects is off the needles. The Playful Stripes Cardigan knit up quickly and I'm glad there are larger sizes available in the pattern because I'm pretty sure I'll want to knit another one in a couple of years for my larger size girl. The Little One seems pretty happy in it and has already christened it with apple juice (a special treat for her) since she refused to take it off. It fits great and has a little room to grow so she should be able to wear it through this Fall and Winter. Well, one can hope it'll last that long.

Little Knitting

I've been feeling a bit, um, underwhelmed by a couple of the projects I've got on the needles. They're not bad projects and I know that I'll finish them eventually but they didn't exactly inspire me to knit. What I have been wanting to knit are baby and toddler clothes. My stash has been a nice source of creativity since the big re-organization so I dug in and found some baby cashmerino I bought to knit the Little One a cardigan so I cast on and am loving it. It's the Playful Stripes Cardigan by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting (she also has a podcast) and it's the perfect blend of simple and fun. The baby cashmerino is incredibly soft and springy and I'm progressing quickly enough that my interest isn't lost.

Special thanks to Rose who gifted me the pattern; it's exactly what I need to get inspired again!

Aphrodite (Shawl #7)

Last weekend I finished up my Aphrodite shawl. This thing was totally time consuming and I knew that if I didn't focus and finish then it would be a long-hibernating WIP. I'm totally pleased with the result. My yarn was definitely on the cobweb side which was a bit of a pain but the blend was wonderful and the final result is quite pretty.

Pattern: Aphrodite by Sivia Harding
Yarn: Colorful Yarns Heavenly Lace in Turquoise
Needle: US #3 Addi Lace & size 12 crochet hook
Beads: size 8/0 silver lined transparent dark aquamarine, approx. 13 grams
Mods: My yarn was tiny enough that I followed the instructions for the large size and got a medium-ish size shawl with about 540 yards (the skein I bought was 600 yards).

It Continues....

Startitis continues to plague me despite the great stash reorganization. Sunday night I came home, dug out my bag of Malabrigo Twist, and cast on for the Central Park Hoodie. The CPH is 3600+ strong on Ravelry and I'm eager to add mine to the number. I've told myself the real reason for starting this is that everything else I've got on the needles is sock weight yarn but really it was just a whim; a sudden, undeniable urge to knit with one of the softest and squishiest yarns I've ever encountered. I've already got one sleeve done and it is a thing of squooshy yarn beauty. At least the yarn was easy to find after that organizing stint of last week.

Stash Attack

This week I decided to reorganize my stash. I pulled it out. All of it. Every little bag and box and bin got emptied out on my living room floor and with the "help" of the Little One it got sorted and restashed. Little One helped by climbing into an empty bin and reading her books for a while. I, on the other hand, spent a great deal of time figuring out what was actually in Ravelry and trying to catalog what wasn't in Ravelry. Tiring. Miracle of miracles the stash still fits in it's designated space(s) which consists of a cedar chest and a space bag under my bed. The picture is the sock yarn portion of my stash which is also the bulk of my stash. Whoever said that sock yarn doesn't count was lying because it takes up the same dang space as other yarn. My strategy for reorganizing is this: gather it all together, dump it all out, sort by size, detangle, destash, restash. Granted, my stash is smallish for a 5-year knitter and yarn shop pusher but I like it at about this size. Next up on the agenda is the Great Needle Inventory. Eek.

Fall Twist Collective

The Fall Twist Collective is so freaking amazing! It made my heart skip a beat and then pound away like I'd run a seven-minute mile. Amazing! I've been starting things like crazy in order to stave off a fear of losing my knitting mojo and seeing this issue really inspired me to a) finish the things on my needles so I can b) start something(s) new from this issue. But what? What would you cast on first?

Vespergyle

My startitis continues in the form of mittens. I dug into my stash and came up with some Knit Picks Palette from ages and ages ago and cast on these mittens, er, this mitten. I'm just about ready to start the decreases at the top of the hand. The pattern (Vespergyle Mittens) looks great but takes quite a bit of concentration and I can't seem to hit a rhythm between the pattern reading and the knitting. This is a free pattern and has been languishing in my queue for maybe two years? Since I declared a self-imposed yarn buying hiatus I've been really digging into my stash and my Ravelry queue and working up "old" projects. It makes me feel good about my stash and my awesome taste in patterns! Really! Maybe it just took a few years of honest stash acquirement to have a nice selection to match with my patterns. Maybe. But it really is fun to dig in there and use some of what I have with patterns that got passed up for newer, more exciting projects.

Smoking Needles

Things have been flying on and off my knitting needles at such a rapid pace I need some kind of cool Western cowgirl name. You know, quick on the draw like Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead.(did you know Sam Raimi directed that?!) Three finished projects this week have me feeling quite smug. Knitmeter tells me that I'm inching close to 16k yards knit this year. Boy howdy! That is a lot of knitting.

I pulled out the first Japanese knitting book I ever bought - Favorite Aran Knits - and whipped up a couple of hats. Top left is #5 cap knit in Dream in Color Classy in Blue Lagoon. This was a
partial skein left over from the Little One's February Baby Sweater. I still have 69 yards left of the skein. After digging through the stash a little I found an almost full skein of Malabrigo Worsted in Azul Profundo which is my very very favorite Malabrigo color. I cast on #1 Cap and knit away. I don't know why I don't knit with Malabrigo more often since it's like butter in my hands. It's incredibly soft and has great stitch definition. Those cables just POP on the reverse stockinette background.

I also finished up my Brandywine Shawl. This is shawl #6 for me this year. It's a pretty little thing and it was fun and easy to knit. All of the action happens up front with the first chart and then
it's just the border with acres of garter stitch in between. This thing practically flew off my size 6 lace needles. Really. As in 4 days flew off my needles. I finally cast on a more complicated project that has beads and multiple lace charts and even GASP counting! Oh my.

E is for Emergency

This week marked our first run to Urgent Care regarding the Little One. After a day in which she was cantankerous and refused to nap I had a lay-down when the Man came home from work. 15 minutes later there was a muffled, "I need help!" I sprung out of bed to see Little One bleeding from her head (quite profusely) and the Man with a soaked paper towel. I grabbed a clean towel from the cupboard pinned her down and we stopped the bleeding. Apparently she had somehow wrangled the food processor blade* out of the kitchen cabinet and fallen on it leaving a one inch gash in the center of her forehead near the hairline. I called the nurse hotline and was told to bring Little One over just in case stitches were needed. Somehow these things always happen during rush hour so we finally finally arrived at urgent care, got admitted, and a couple hours and a popsicle later the Little One had her wound cleaned and glued back together. On the whole scale of first-time emergency visits this one is not too bad.

*All bladey-type kitchen implements are now far removed from little hands. All I can think of is that after we moved we forgot to baby-proof a couple of cabinets in our haste to unpack.

Startitis Rules

The changing weather seems to be affecting my ability to focus on large projects. Small projects are leaping on and off my needles with astonishing speed. This Brandywine Shawl is growing quickly - I've already got 12 repeats of 15 completed. I'll attribute that to the amount of garter stitch in the pattern rather than my staying up all hours to work on it. This yarn is from Deep Stash (bottom of the cedar chest) and was purchased at my first Madrona several years ago. Tactile does beautiful natural dye jobs and I hope the store gets back in production. I've also got socks, bloomers for Little One, and a sweater for Little One on the needles at the moment and I'm thinking about adding something else today. Part of the casting on craziness comes from diving into my stash, seeing what I have, and wanting to knit it RIGHT NOW. If only I had an extra set of arms...

Lizard Mittens

I got an itch to cast on a small colorwork project Sunday night and dug a couple of partial skeins out of my stash. Voila! Lizard mittens! They're sized to fit a 3 to 5 year old.

Pattern: Lizard Mittens (free Ravelry pattern)
Yarn: Le Vieux Rouet Superwash Sock (blue) & Knit Picks Palette (green)
Needles: US #2 1/2
Mods: I knit these holding the yarn double so I got a nice thick mitten. It's helpful to have a bit of Selbuvotter knowledge while knitting these since the instructions are a bit brief.

PS - Thanks for all the lovely comments on my previous ranty post. It helps to know that other people have the same problems!

Dear Judgey Seattle Parents,

Please eff off. Seriously. The last thing I need when I take my kid to the playground is commentary on my wardrobe. My choice to wear a t-shirt with a zombie on it ( and a cardigan over it!) is not tantamount to wearing daisy dukes while smoking virginia slims and talking about how baby daddy just got back from prison. You probably wouldn't have even noticed it if I hadn't been fanning myself with one side of the cardigan. Take your crocs-with-socks wearing, North Face fleece clad, poorly chosen plaid Bermuda shorts and shove it. Hard. Just because I'm young and choose to wear Converse rather than sensibly ugly shoes does not mean I love my child any less than you do yours. Remember what Mom said about keeping your mouth shut unless you have something nice to say? Yeah, it still applies as an adult.

Sincerely,

Tired of Judgey Hippy Seattle Parents

Cece

I finished my mom's birthday sweater last week buuuut it's still sitting out waiting to be put in the mailbox. She's in Havasu basking in the desert warmth anyway so she'll have a nice surprise waiting for her when she gets home. The sweater is actually a lighter green but my camera really hates photographing green so this is as good as it gets.

Pattern: Cece from ChicKnits
Yarn: Vickie Howell Craft by SWTC in Cathie & Steve color
Needles: US #6 Harmony interchangeable
Mods: I lengthened the body by about 2 inches.

This & That

I realize I've been pretty quiet lately. Maybe that's because now that I'm done organizing our move I've been organizing a crap-ton of other stuff like Knit Night at the Rat City Rollergirls with some of my awesome knitting group. Yeah! I had soooo much fun and got a little over zealous reenacting jams with Stariel who was injured in my..um..excitement. Next up is my housewarming a la People's Pub which is in my new hood and a visit from my BFF at the end of the month. Now that Old Moldy is out of my life I've been doing quite a bit more knitting including my Mom's birthday sweater (Mom, pretend you didn't see this!). When I asked her what she wanted she sent me a picture of a big, woolly, cabley, collared sweater but with added text for something "summery". Ignoring the picture I immediately went to some organic cotton/milk fiber yarn that I've been wanting to try and hit up the ChicKnits patterns we have at the store. I should finish tonight with plenty of time for blocking, drying, and mailing before birthday time.

Louise Cardigan

I recently finished the Louise Cardigan from Vintage Baby Knits for a sometimes Purlygirl who is due...today! Wow! That went by quickly! It's a sweet little sweater and it was fun to knit.

Pattern: Louise Cardigan from Vintage Baby Knits
Yarn: Color Baby (Australian Merino is so soft!)
Needles: #3 Addi Turbo
Mods: None!
This sweater is knit bottom up and in the round. I had no problems except for trying to start the sleeves on my bamboo needles which totally hated the slip stitch pattern. I recommend something pointy and sharp like Addi Turbos for maneuvering those tiny little stitches.

Kira

Kira is done! I have a small adjustment to make with the button placement to keep it closed a bit more snug but I'm really happy with the finished sweater. I ran into a couple of problems - mainly that I ran out of yarn just short of finishing the dang thing but luckily we had the same dyelot at the shop. I found my ceramic buttons from Stitches and they're a perfect match. This sweater feels so light I think it will become my late Spring/Summer wardrobe staple. I can't say enough good things about the yarn either. In all 7+ balls of yarn I only found ONE knot. Excellent!

Pattern: Kira by Cecily Glowik MacDonald
Yarn: St Denis Nordique by Classic Elite Color #5820
Needles: US #6 Harmony & Addi Turbo
Mods: None!

I do suggest knitting this with a bit of positive ease (mine has about 1.5 inches) so that it can be worn with a lot of different things. Happy knitting!

The Cat Returns

Not the animated movie. Moving has been good but crazy. The actual moving day went very smoothly and we slept at the new place that same night. Since then we've made good headway into unpacking, organizing, and setting up the new household. The Little One barely skipped a beat with her sleep schedule and likes the new place. I think that it's because we have an open floor plan and she's not denied access to the kitchen. We had a small disaster when my feline stepdaughter ran away for a few days but she's now safe at home again and acting as if nothing happened. The new place is good and the old place is, well, saaad. Sad in a bad way. I spent six hours there today cleaning. Six! With all of the furniture moved out the mold and mildew in the bedroom is really really noticeable and it takes a long time to get things cleaned up. I'm happy to report that both bedrooms are completely and thoroughly scrubbed, the living room window (Miss Kitty's hang out) cleaned and sparkling, and all but two kitchen cabinets freshly cleaned and sanitized. I don't mess around with the move-out stuff. If they're going to try to withhold deposit money it won't be for the lack of cleanliness in that moldy little house.

Tired

Moving is in full swing and I am so tired! As of yesterday I am up to five carloads moved by myself. In total we have eight loads moved. The house looks sparse since there's almost nothing on the walls and most of the shelves are empty. The Man has the next two Mondays off of work for moving time so the plan is to stay at the new place on Monday night. I'm looking forward to living in Ballard but the move has me sore and smelling like wintergreen (icy hot for backaches). In what little free time I have I've been working on some knitting. Kira is almost up to the armpits and then I have to knit the sleeves. I really really like working with Nordique and the yardage is really good. This sweater only calls for seven skeins for my size.
We got a booklet in at the shop last week from Manos del Uruguay called Adirondack Accessories. The cover is of some lovely twisted cable mitts knit in a silky merino blend. I snatched up the book and pulled out my leftover partial skein of Sundara Aran Silky Merino. I knit this first mitt in just two days and it's loverly although it does turn my fingers red. There are a lot of great accessories in the book and they all look like fun to knit. I'm not given to wearing legwarmers but I just might knit the two pair in the book since they're sooo pretty. There's even a hat by Cecily (designer of my sweater, Kira) that is really cute. I'll just work my way through that bad boy and have hats and mitts and legwarmers ready for next Fall.

Return of the Damn Stole

Remember way back in February when I ran out of yarn for the Print O' the Wave Stole? 15 repeats short? I finally got another skein from the lovely folks at Brooklyn General in New York. This thing is back in progress after a 3 month hiatus and I can't say I'm hating it; time out proved to be beneficial for both of us. The new skein has quite a bit more white in it but I'll have to wait for daylight to see how noticeable the shift in color turns out to be. I would still like to see the Ravelry pattern page for this edited to reflect the correct yardage or at least a range of yardages since there are two versions available. Misti Alpaca Handpaints have 874 yards so theoretically I should have had 74-ish yards left over. Not. I'm excited to finish this and see it all blocked out. Squee!

Waiting, Waiting, Moving!

I heard back from the property management group and we got the apartment! Hooray! Things are on hold, however, until the lease is ready to sign and the keys are in our hot little hands. This is such a very very good thing. The landlords of doom came over last night with a letter stating that they're going to repair/remove mold, windows, cracked ceiling, etc over the course of three months. This was followed up by a list of things we have to do like move all of our bedroom furniture into the living room several times to allow for mold cleaning, keep the heat on but also the fans running (can we say waste of energy?), and do some general cleanup outside the house. They ended by saying that we would be required to sign another one year lease with rent raised by $100. Thank goodness we have a place to go that is clean and bright and not with these landlords. The property has not been maintained well in the seven years we have lived here and every time something is to be replaced they act like it's our fault. Um, yeah, it was totally our fault that the 30+ year old refrigerator stopped working and that guy who came to cut down the tree in the back yard? Yeah, our fault he never showed up for work after the first day. Or that the electrician put the grounding rods in incorrectly. Or that the plumber left refuse underneath the house. Sheesh. Good riddance to you and helloooo new apartment!

Waiting, Toe-Up

I'm anxiously waiting to hear back about the apartment we viewed on Friday evening. It's in a good location and is a good size for us and May's rent is free. That means we could take the whole dang month to move stuff over there which would be awesome since moving with a toddler is not something I look forward to. In the meantime I cast on for my first EVER toe-up sock. Judy's Magic Cast On works like, well, magic. I followed the tutorial on Knitty and everything went swimmingly. I'm knitting the Penny Sock by Maia Discoe of Tactile Fiber Arts in some Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks Kona. Ravelry says the yarn is a fingering but it's a sportweight for sure. I don't normally knit socks on this heavy a yarn but I didn't know if I would like toe-up socks so I thought faster would be better. The sock is a little wide but that's okay since I'll be using them as house socks. So, here I am, knitting my socks and waiting for a phone call.