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.