Things We've Been Doing

It's officially spring here in Cleveland -- the daffodils are blooming, the trees are budding and the deer are eating my spring bulbs. Luckily they only ate about half but it's still quite depressing looking around and seeing all of the munched plants. Daffodils have been spared but the crocuses, tulips and glory of the snow are all a dismal site.

Things the munchkins and I have been doing: visiting the zoo, science center, and children's museum with our homeschool friends, playing hockey, running, gardening, hiking, baking, and more. Please not what we have not been doing: knitting, crocheting, or spinning. I get a few rows done everyday when they're in the bath but otherwise it's just not happening.


ACC in a box


Goofy boy


Hellebores


Hellebores


This will be a SKB


Jaywalkers

New Hat

Alright, so it's a new month and I'm still not getting much more done. Rangling children sure does take a lot of time. Between running them around to popcorn factory tours, visiting friends, and the normal household duties I'm not getting a ton of fiber love. I did knit up a ribbed hat out of my homespun merino -- it is oh so soft. I do wish it were a few rows longer so I may crochet a border out of some purple merino left over from Little Girl's coat.



Yesterday a few of us from the Eastside SnB members saw the Monet exhibit at the CMA. It was wonderful! While in college (3rd time or maybe 4th. . .) I was there at least once a week but since having JCC I've only been once! It was nice to revel in the silence and enjoy the color. To continue the color fest, afterwards we hit the local yarn shop. I managed to escape with only the following:

For Dad

Post haircut


Now with bangs!

I'm working on a Harry Potter scarf for Chris right now, I'm almost finished. I have a few gifts to knit and a bunch of new fiber to spin. Still doing well on our vegan eating plan. Still blah about February. I'll be a better blogger next month. . .

The Crafting Blahs

The finished skein from last week's post

The doldrums of February combined with a very active January find me with NOTHING on the needles or wheel. I cast on a balaclava for Chris but ripped it as I was foolishly attempting to knit from memory and was doing k2p2 instead of k2p3 even though I had a ton of stitches. You'd think I would have been proactive enough to consult the pattern after an inch or so of thinking "Gee, that looks awfully big." But no I waited until I had 3 inches completed.

Instead I've been reading and sleeping. :) I do much of my crafting in the evenings after both children are asleep but now that I've given up caffeine I find myself going to bed an hour or so earlier. I guess it's good to be getting the rest my body needs but my brain is craving a bit more.

Reading wise I've devoured a bunch of cooking books -- Eat to Live by Joel Furhman, Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl. All three are good reads. I read the first two during the same week which made for an interesting juxtaposition as they are at the opposite ends of the eating spectrum. The former proposing a vegan, nutrient dense, low-fat diet and the other cooking offal in butter and cream. We're trying out the program outlined in Eat to Live and are doing pretty well -- we may be exhibiting a green tinge from all of the salad we are eating but otherwise feel satiated and healthy.

I do expect happy crafting days ahead of me as I have a large KnitPicks order coming my way with yarn for Chris's striped scarf, a surprise hat and a ton of dye for my Tunis roving. I also was lucky enough to have some spinning questions answered by a lovely and talented spinner. I can't wait to read the next post about drafting. I have more HPY fiber on the way as well as some other yummy stuff to spin and will test out her suggestions.

Thanks to the blizzard outside tomorrow will be our third day in a row home. Normally we are home on Tuesdays but get out and be merry the others. Today was surprisingly pleasant and hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same.

Lastly, I have to mention that my vacuum died the other week and I replaced it with the Roomba (for those that wanted a report, this is a Remanufactured Roomba Discovery) that my heart has been coveting. I LOVE it. It freaking rocks. I was doubtful that it would stand up to the fur but it does a great job even if I do have to empty it after every use. Now my only problem is figuring out how to keep Little Girl from turning it on every ten minutes. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon.

Vivid Violet

roving with bits of lemon yellow throughout. Isn't it pretty? And oh so soft. Spinning is really an amazing thing -- time seems to evaporate when I'm doing it. I don't know if it's just because I'm learning and spend so much time thinking about what I'm doing or if it's just a magical craft in general. I've managed to solve my overtwist problem but now feel like I'm spending more time predrafting the roving than actually spinning. If you have advice please comment.



Pile o' baby hats awaiting to be delivered. (Babies have already arrived.)

Book Reviews

Remember way back when when I said I was going to sew? I bought very pretty fabric, prepped the fabric, cut out some patterns and then put it all away. I seem to have the best intentions to sew but then get stymied by some detail or another. However I really want to sew so I'm trying to find some good basic books sort of in the Stitch 'n Bitch vein.

While Amazon surfing I stumbled on Amy Butler's In Stitches and as I LOVE her patterns and fabric (to look at of course, haven't actually MADE any of them) I thought this would be a good book for me as it's supposedly a beginner book. Ha. The projects at first glance do look simple but when you actually look at the details they are much more complex than my new sewer self can hope to figure out. Luckily I found another that is much more suited to my needs: Sew U: The Built by Wendy Guide to Making Your Own Wardrobe This book rocks! It's for the absolute beginner and walks you through all the basic sewing stuff plus pattern modification. Three patterns are included with many details on all of the variations you can do with those three.

While reading through the how-to part of Sew U I figured out my sewing issue -- it's the fiddly nature of pinning and cutting out patterns. I get really annoyed when they slip or don't end up just right. (I don't want to discuss the zipper and drop-stitch cardigan for this very reason. Or rather the 4 failed attempts at proper zipper installation.) Wendy suggests using weights and a rotary cutter instead of pins/scissors. Hallelujah! I had a similar issue with gardening -- I grew up amongst gardeners but was never interested until I tried it while wearing gloves. That was the whole problem -- I hate the feel of dirt. Sew. . . here's hoping this is the launch of a new hobby. (Because I don't have enough of them as it is.)

One Wizard Scarf Complete

Nice and big. Chris loves it. I will be making another here shortly. His love is not for the HP tie-in but for the double layer, super long warmth so he has picked two blues instead of any of the HP school colors. I found downloadable ebooks from my library while knitting this and it has resulted in a dedicated knitter. Well, that and the fact that I was a monogamous knitter for once. Makes me wonder how fast I could do a sweater if I tried. This was about 700 yards including fringe. I swear my hair is not that *big*.



Here are the wee children painting.

And now I'm off to soak in the tub and peruse my new books: The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns and The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook. I'm a tired girl tonight.

And the Hogwarts Scarf Begins

You can't get better timing than that. I finished my socks last night (after posting I immediately snagged one of them on a slightly raised nail and had to do repair work) and now the yarn for the Hogwarts scarf is here. However this scarf is not for me nor is it a gift -- a homeschooling mama is paying me to knit it!

How cool is that -- someone is paying me to knit. Rock on. It really doesn't get any better than that in my little world. Chris couldn't quite understand my excitement about this but when you haven't earned any income in almost 3 years any little bit is cause for a celebration. Anyway, do those colors look Gryffindor to you? The yarn is posing in the snow to get the best representation of the color. I'm not sure about the gold.

Boring Socks are Done and Little Girl is One!

From this. . .


to this. . .


And one goofy brother. . .


What a quick year that was! Not much knitting, but a wee girl is a good reason for that. She's really started communicating in the past week or two -- some signs (eat, more and book) and new words (bath and ball). She's had that moving thing down pat for a while but added climbing onto the couch and going backwards down the stairs to her repertoire.



For the knitting update -- the boring socks are finished. The yarn is some cheapo Knitpicks stuff that I don't really like (they feel rough and the yarn split a lot) and I even took off a recommended inch in length but they still feel too big. Apparently I like my shoes big. I buy size 9 shoes but when I put that in the sock wizard pattern generator it comes out with socks much too big for my feet. Anyway, these were fun to make and I have more sock yarn on the way for birthday gifts.

And lastly, I found a boo boo in the SnB Kitchner instructions. They have the four main steps but leave out those two preliminary steps (yarn into front stitch as if to purl, yarn into back stitch as if to knit) to get you ready to Kitchner. Laura, I wonder if this is why you are an unhappy kitchner-er?

Happy Knitting Anniversary

I've been knitting two years as of this past weekend. Sniff sniff. Who knew something so simple would be the key to happiness? Not me. I really wish I would have found it sooner. Maybe I would have been able to graduate from college without the extended stay, not wished away JCC's first year or had to count traffic cones as a way to entertain myself on my family's many driving trips. It really has been that much of a panacea for my restless brain.

I know all of you who read this from the strange little world of knit bloggers understand this, but if you're coming here from the homeschool or gardening path I encourage you to try it. All of our crazy great-grandmothers (playing with fiber has skipped two generations in my family) were on to something.

Knitting for Joe

Joe is my father in law and the only person (not including JCC) who has requested a knitted object. Bless him. Ask and you shall receive. . .



a balaclava. :)

From the Winter 06/07 Knit.1. Made from just over one skein of black Cascade 220. Took one day to knit. Not bad considering it's been lurking in my brain as something to do for over a year. Hopefully it will keep him warm.



To take care of another Thing to Knit, I made another Umbilical Cord Hat (SnB) out of 100purewool for my cousin's two month old son. Both packages are addressed and ready to mail. I'm feeling quite productive.

On Cooking

After 4 years of allergies my son is eating like a normal person and it is wonderful. Well, we're still on Feingold so not quite normal, but normal enough to celebrate. All of the possibilities leave me wanting to start cooking again. I cook dinner almost every night but it is not something I really enjoy. Like housework it is just something I do as my job.

However now that I can use butter, cheese and flour again I feel like maybe scrumptous food should appear on our plates. Lasagna sounds wonderful (though we haven't tried tomatoes lately) as does spinach salad with bacon and eggs. Tonight we're having Portugese Canja (chicken soup with rice and lemon) with garlic bread. Yum yum yum.

Part of my desire to cook comes from reading a fun new book: Talking with My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes and Other Kitchen Stories by Bonny Wolf. An enjoyable read with a ton of recipes (I'm thinking I should buy the book as I have so many pages dogeared.) The Irish Soda Bread is kick ass and takes 5 minutes to mix up and 45 minutes to bake.

Now that I've finished that I'm going to start another cooking book -- Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. Maybe I'll be trying French cuisine next.

The knitting has been unremarkable. More felted mocs, more baby hats, blah blah blah. Another friend is due with a baby soon and I still have two babies already in the world who need hats.

My first FO of 2007

Irish Hiking Scarf made with 3 skeins of KnitPicks Swish Superwash in the Fired Brick colorway. Despite having almost the amout of yards called for this is a bit too short (it is longer than it looks in the pic as it's wrapped around his neck twice) -- 53 inches after blocking. I'm not in love with the yarn even though it held up well in the wash. It's probably great for kid items but it just felt too plastic-y for my knitting enjoyment. I also didn't realize that *everyone* was making this pattern for the Red Scarf Project. Oh well.

Not too much else going on in the knitting department. I did receive some great gifts from my SnB pals (or knitting friends as JCC calls them) and spent my time filling a new notebook with a list of all my knitting books and what patterns I want to make from them. For actual knitting I've been cranking out felted moc slippers.

Otherwise we've just been living our normal life of playdates, parks and chores. I feel very busy with our rather relaxed life and can't imagine what it would be like to have a job outside the home or school with which to contend. We are very blessed to be able to enjoy the non-hurried life.

HPY -- yum!

Doesn't it look yummy? I don't think I have enough to make a vest but I think I'll make a clapotis out of it to wear with my cape.



And the pretty roving. Unfortunately I think it's *too* nice for my spinning skills as it is a PITA to join and getting the intial bit going took a good twenty curse words. I'm halfway through the ball and am just hoping it doesn't all come apart when I take it from the bobbin to the niddy.

The red scarf is done. I just washed it (in the machine as it's superwash and I figure this is how its designated college student will treat it) and am hoping that I can get a few more inches out of it via blocking. 3 skeins only got me 44 inches which is a bit too short in my opinion.

Next up in the knitting front are *more* felted mocs and then some baby items. I had to put the HPY away so I wouldn't accidentaly cast on in a moment of weakness.



Obligatory cute kid pic.

What Happens in Baltimore, Stays in Baltimore

Well, knitting presents anyway. We were in MD for 12 days enjoying the normal holiday festivities. One of my lovely aunts bought the following for a $1 at an estate sale.



Yep, a handmade wheel and an unpictured spindle for one dollar! I made her a pair of felted slippers for a thank you but didn't manage to get pic. I did get a pic of another multidirectional scarf I made for a friend out of my last bit of blue/green/gray 100purewool. However the wheel has to stay in Bmore until my parents venture north in the spring. I had two children, a large suitcase, a large duffel and two carry on bags to drag through the airport yesterday and a wheel just wasn't in the cards.





Wee baby sweater, awaiting a baby to be born tomorrow! I am now DONE with this colorway -- one sweater for me, one baby sweater and a scarf is overkill.


Detail of the Irish Hiking Scarf I'm making for the red scarf project. It is turning out lovely but it does get a bit tedious.

While I was gone my HPY order arrived -- a much speedier turnaround than last time. The roving is BEAUTIFUL but my attempt at brown/blue yarn is just not what I wanted. Too much brown. Pics coming soon!

Handspun

I started spinning last summer but got put off after I read an advanced spinning book that said the way I was taught was the wrong way to learn. Even though I had been quite happy with my spinning up until that point. This ended my spinning career until I picked up Shannon Okey's Spin to Knit and read about the same technique I had been taught. So I figured I might as well spin up all of the yummy fibers I bought at Stitches last summer. To make it a little easier on myself I bought another bobbin, the lazy kate rack missing from my wheel, a new brake strap (mine dry rotted) and a beautiful niddy noddy from Hello Yarn (who has some seriously rockin customer service -- same day shipping). I then spun up my purple and black bump from Grafton Fiber and knitted up Panta.



The batt was heaven to spin and I was happy to find that it was not horribly overspun as I was afraid. It is quite the thick and thin but worked up fine for the headband. Small children and I have been outside quite a bit in the snow and this is a nice replacement for my fleece earwarmer. The whole experience was so pleasant I'm going to spin up my black alpaca and then knit something for the little boy with it and the rest of the purple/back yarn from above.



He's been asking "When will it snow again since April?" He's a happy boy!


Little elf

Ta Da!

Hallelujah! They're done (but not photographed)

I've finished my two sweaters! The drop stitch cardigan turned out lovely (thanks to 100purewool) but I am determined to know how the hell a v-neck cardigan is supposed to have a collar. I looked through some books and can't find any pics of one and the pic in the magazine is a great example of Maggie Righetti's theory of knitting magazine subterfuge -- why oh why, is there not a front view of the sweater? Because the collar is ugly, that's why.

Anyway, the Lace Leaf pullover turned out well too. I thought I had really screwed up in using handspun (Malabrigo) to kitchner a sweater together right smack in the middle of my torso, but it blocked out great. This one took me 4 months to finish, but if I was a monogamous knitter it would have only been a couple of weeks -- it's a really easy and fun knit minus the honking needles that wore a hole in my finger. I'm one of those pusher people and that bulky wool and size 13 needles just don't work well for me.

Last night I cast on the MDS in another skein of 100purewool and I'm in heaven. It's such an easy, fun, thoughtless knit that looks so wonderful. This one is for Chris. Here it is posing by my favorite lamp.



In spinning news, I am awaiting an order from Hello Yarn -- a beautiful niddy noddy, two bobbins, a brake band and the missing lazy kate for my wheel. And then I joined another HPY co-op, still trying to get that elusive blue/brown merino I crave. I ordered some roving with it as well. Maybe that is what I'll spin up for my handspun secret pal.

And here are some garden pics, some beautiful late fall color and texture along with hunter kitty extraordinaire, Sophie.







This is Euphorbia dulcis 'Chameleon'. I love the range of colors -- right now the leaves range from dusty purple to tangerine orange. It seeds like crazy but it's hard to resent such a beautiful volunteer.

Swing Thing & Joseph Coat

Two finished objects to show! I also sewed the zipper in my Drop-Stitch Cardigan (after ripping out the collar) but it is uneven and I want to get a better zipper for it.



Pattern: Swing Thing from MagKnits by Theresa Belville
Yarn: Interlacements Worsted II Merino Wool. I LOVE this yarn. So nice and sproingy -- it would be good for something with cables.
Needles: Denise size 7 & 8 (sleeves)
Changes: I couldn't get the stinking super cute knot buttons to work for me so I subbed some boring buttons I had lying around.


Front View with goofy face


Back View



Pattern: Joseph from Knitty by Kerrie Rycroft
Yarn: Colinette Point 5 in the Tuscan colorway, donated by Nona
Needles: Denise size 13
Changes: I knit the smallest size because of my gauge issues


Just a cute pic!

Happy Anniversary!

Today we've been married for 7 years, together for 10.5 years. Amazing! We celebrated today with a pizza from Deweys after spending yesterday bumming around sans children. We spent our time drinking coffee, eating Italian food, looking at books and buying electronic equipment. This was commonplace pre-children behavior which we spent a considerable amount of time indulging in in our two-income, no kids world. Now it's a treat.

We bought an ipod holder/FM transmitter thingee for our car but it doesn't seem to be working. Chris is going to give it another try and then if it doesn't work I'm going to exchange it for a simpler creation and two iTunes card. I've decided that an iTunes card, an hour in peace to browse for music, a latte and a piece of chocolate cake is the perfect Melinda gift!! I did stumble upon a Roomba yesterday and I'm in love. (Chris says he's read hacks for them -- what the hell can you hack a vacuum to do???) I am asking for a vacuum for the holidays -- what a strange world I inhabit. I am lusting over this thing.

Before JCC I couldn't care less how our house looked but now that my world revolves around it I spend a considerable amount of time thinking I should vacuum. 3 times a week just doesn't cut it when you have one of these:



Please notice the tufts of fur hanging off of him. We think he is part German Shepherd part Chow Chow. The glory of this is that it means he both sheds constantly like a Shepherd and blows his coat twice a year like a Chow. Nice. And lately he's had a bad case of the itchies and the vet diagnosed him with allergies. So now we have to treat our dog for allergies in addition to the other family members.

And yes this is another post with no knitting content -- bwah ha ha. In fact I am procrastinating knitting by writing this. ;)