mamacate

Arrrr!

Argh, me maties, the pirate mittens, they be done, yar, and me laddy young Henry be gleeful. 

Don't ye be put off by the scowl, tis only the face made by bucaneers when they are in the process of saying "arrr!"

Lest some scallywag try to hornswaggle the mitts from my young swab, they are marked with the pirate's name and the date.  Beware ye scurvies.

Fer ye maties who wished to know, the booty is knitted with Hauk, the yarn specified in the pattern, with 2.5mm needles at a tighter gauge than recommended in the pattern.  Tis how this mama pirate managed to make them the right size for the particular intended pirate.

Arrr!

I forgot my blogiversary but getting older is harder to miss

So I don't think I mentioned that I'd been doing this blogging thing for three years in June.  So now it's three years plus.  Thing is I'm not doing it that much anymore, so I'm not sure how impressed I can be with myself at this point.  It's hard to have something to say for that long.  Aren't you sick of me?

Anyway, don't answer that, because tomorrow (Tuesday) is my birthday.  I'm a rather boring age, 38, but that's okay, because it means I have a little while until I need to start thinking about being 40.

There have been comments from certain quarters about the need to observe the wild sweater in its natural habitat.  My rack, that is.  Well, that's part of the problem.  See it took me a few wearings to really come to terms with the fact that the neckline is too wide and too low, and the raglan is too long and I will probably need to do something involving scissors and weeping and possibly also alcohol.  There hasn't been time to come to terms with it. 

Love steeking, love it, but the downside is that if you fucked something up, you're screwed because you've got yourself one-row strips of yarn there to work with.  Ain't no frogging.  I have evil thoughts that involve cutting and seaming around the shoulder tops but I'm not terribly optimistic.  --Deb has been down a similar road and it hasn't been easy.  I will probably put the sweater in time out for a while and wear it, because it's just barely wearable, but not quite nice--not as nice as I believe it should be--before I bend it to my will.  I'll let you know when I get there, I promise.  Heck, maybe I'll cut it in public again.  Anyway, learn from my mistake.  If you knit the larger sizes, make the neckline WAY smaller than the pattern suggests.  If I rip and re-knit, I'm going to remove a whole pattern repeat.  Did I mention I made the neckline over an inch higher than the pattern called for?  Yah.  Row gauge was fine while knitting, though I haven't had the heart to measure it post-blocking.

Oh right, did I mention a picture of my rack?  Here you go:

I might entertain exhortations to leave it as is, but you'll have to see me wearing it and tugging at it before you can be sure.  Anyway, pretty colors, huh?

In other news, Ellie got a new scarf.  Laura talked me into buying this insane roving from Heather at the Fiber Revival, and when I got home with the skein, which I spun at the Revival, Miss Ellie declared that it would be hers.  She preferred a Faroese shawl, but a quick calculation had me convincing her that a scarf would be a better choice.  A brief negotiation on the topic of fringe had the deal complete.  Two short evenings of knitting, a little fringing, and we've got a happy girl.

Of course, she's also decided that the scarf makes her a rock star.  I tried to point out that she was already a rock star, but it can be hard to talk to rock stars sometimes, especially when they're rocking out.  See?

Just so that my son does not suffer the combined indignities of not being the current recipient of knitwear (don't worry, it won't be long) and of not being featured on the blog in all his cuteness, I give you a picture of a couple of best friends.

Can ya stand it?

In wheel news, I have divested myself of a very well-loved wheel, because someone else loved it better.  The Norm Hall needed to go back and live with Sara, which is okay because it's too similar in function to my other wheel.  I've already used some of the proceeds to pick up a used Schacht, which so far rocks my world.  I'll probably hang on to the Lendrum for travel (maybe...maybe not), but the Schacht could easily become my primary wheel.  I just like spinning on double drive.

I think I'll go do just that.  I need to come up with some solstice gifts for teachers, plus I have a deprived child who has no currently fitting knitwear.

I.O.U.

I owe you pictures.  My computer is back, just the same as ever, though I appreciate it more now.

But I owe you pictures.

Rogue

The hood is taking forever for some reason.  I'm enjoying this, but I am also ready to wear it.  And there's been some startitis (all from stash, thankyaverymuch).

Remember project spectrum?  Well, last day of April, here's my entry:

The sock yarn is my prize for being randomly selected as a winner in Sandy's blogiversary contest.  Cool beans.  I'm making a Claudia sock.  Apparently, the picot edging virus was transmitted via the yarn.  Sandy's doing the same.  On the right is a swatch for a maybe vest in Rowan Silken Tweed in copper.  I actually started it, and then for the first time ever, I found out why they always say "join in round BEING CAREFUL NOT TO TWIST STITCHES."  Doh.  A whole video movie's worth of knitting (Elizabethtown--odd), down the tubes.  Oh well, I think I'm going to go a different way with the ribbing anyway.

I'm back on the job with the cashgora.  Justine should have her final wedding shawl installment in the next week or two.

And despite not being fancy enough to be able to moblog like Judy, I did get a shot of the Most Excellent potluck lunch at the CT Sheep & Wool festival.  Note to self: knitters+potluck=really a lot of delicious, homemade, wonderful food.  Do not worry about not having enough.

Sunshine, food, knitters, and good conversation.  Good stuff.  Of course, everyone seemed to, erm, skitter off, after lunch.  I think they might have been avoiding me.  I couldn't even enable anyone into a (rather expensive, but still nice) polwarth fleece.  The kids had a blast up until the end when exhaustion caught up with them and there was a balloon incident (yes, it was me you were staring at with the two kids throwing themselves on the ground screaming, sigh).  When we finally got in the car, it was about 5 minutes before they were out cold.  Too much excitement.  Still.  The kids loved it, but it will be fun to go to NH and have some mom-time too.

I haven't had an official modeling of Henry's green sweater, so here's a pick from the fest that I like:

No, we didn't buy the sheep. 

Tomorrow is my first day as a regular employee.  I've been there since last February, but I'm strangely nervous.  Life is weird sometimes, isn't it?

A Finished Sweater

Look, I do sometimes finish things.  And look at that happy boodle in her brand new sweater!

I confess that I didn't expect this sweater to come out so well.  I thought the raglan increases were a little hinky--expanding too fast and then stopping oddly with a pucker.  I put the flowers in as a bit of an afterthought (more of that auto-pilot stockinette knitting that gives me knee socks when I didn't mean to) and I thought they were too low.  But girlfriend inherited my long torso, and I think it works.   And blocking (wash and lay flat, shaped, to dry) took care of many things that made me nervous when I'd just finished knitting.  I heart top-down sweaters--the lack of finishing work is dreamy.

This started out as a sweater from Top Down for Toddlers, but I kind of abandoned the book once I got into the yoke.  The flowers, which are knitted fair isle (I considered intarsia for, oh, about 30 seconds), catching floats after about 5 stitches, which was necessary on probably half the rows.  I got the chart from Jessica Tromp's site, which, if you haven't been there, is an absolute treasure trove.  Great stuff.  The yarn is Colorado Vail, which was on closeout in enormous quantities at Webs last year.  Be warned, however, if you've stashed this stuff: it claims to be superwash, but I have a pair of felted aran sandal socks that beg to differ.  Perhaps the natural color is the only culprit.  But be careful.  I'm guessing maybe it was closed out because the superwash process didn't completely take.

Since, as a twin mom, I'm constantly trying to keep sibling rivalry at bay, I immediately cast on for a sweater for Henry.  I must say they have been surprisingly mellow about this whole one-sweater-at-a-time business.  Henry's will be a top-down v-neck.  I am using this ack-crylic blend yarn he picked out at the store--the colors are just too perfect for him, and heck, for the boy who really doesn't understand why something as interesting-feeling as applesauce shouldn't be eaten with ones hands, machine washability works for me.

 

This is what I did last night while--guess what?--watching TV, but I am going to rip it out--the gauge is way off.  I wasn't liking how it was knitting up as a single strand, so I doubled it.  It claims to be a worsted-weight, but even at 20sts/10cm, it's kind of flimsy.  And doubled, it will make quite a nice, thick fabric, but I'm undecided.  I'm worried it will be too thick.  I don't know.  Maybe I should go find him some green, you know, WOOL for a sweater.  But this has already been pronounced "nice," and I don't want to mess with that.  I think I'll just fix my pattern to reflect the doubled gauge (13sts/10cm--at least it will be quick!).  I can rip again if necessary.

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the smiley, happy girl in the pink sweater.  And work on getting out the green paint that got on the front yesterday.  Because what higher honor could a kid sweater receive?

Fibery Things at Which to Look

You'd think hooking up a USB cable and pressing the mouse a few times was an impossible task the way I avoid it.  But avoid it I do, so photos come sporadically, and blog posts only slightly less so.  In the interim, I enjoy the opportunity to distract my friends with "surprising" prouncements like memes that indicate that I am "a complete lunatic."  The "need food" theory as the determining factor predicting the assignment of Animal as muppet personality seems to hold firm (see the comments on the last post to find out who your lunatic friends are), though I'm intrigued by the fact that we're all the types who decide to reverse engineer a quiz that gives us an answer we don't like understand.

Anyway.  Pictures.

First of all, my better pal.  I'm one lucky gal.  Emma was my better pal, and that girl has impeccable taste and wide-ranging interests perfectly aligned with my own.

The final package arrived, along with her admission of guilt identity disclosure.  Thank you, Emma.  Thank you thank you thank you!

Now, on the right there is an exotic fiber variety pack from Scottish Fibres, which includes something called Coypu fiber.  I had, of course, to go looking it up, since I'd never heard of a Coypu.  Turns out it's an invasive species in the UK, sort of along the lines of possum fiber in New Zealand.  So I'm googling this information, and I make the mistake of sharing it with Rhys.  She waits a beat and says "Cate, FIBER is an invasive species," and then gestures to the overflowing project basket next to my chair.

What's your point?

Anyway, thank you Emma.  Not pictured are two delicious chocolate bars.  Sorry, I was too busy eating them while I took the picture.  The dyeing book is especially inspirational as the weather warms; I've ordered some madder and some alum so I can get going on this, and the book is greatly appreciated.  The sock yarn gave me an almost-irresistible case of startitis, and the Kaalund mohair made me sigh.  Most wonderfully, that cake of beautiful red yarn in the middle was dyed by Emma herself with cochineal.  How enormously cool, not to mention inspiring.

Thank you Emma, for being such a great better pal.  I loved my SP experiences, and I've loved my BP experience too.  My spoilee, by the by, was Jan of Be*mused, an incredible quilter and artist whose blog is always a feast for the eyes.  Jan, it was great to get to know you!

I appear to be participating in Project Spectrum in spite of myself.  I had no intention of signing up for this thing, and then I looked at my knitting.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea, but I tend to resist anything that prevents me from doing Exactly As I Please when it comes to knitting (note the absence of any sort of olympic medal on this blog).

So, the first month of Project Spectrum is March, and the color for March is Red.  Now, I confess to going on color jags with projects.  You can see last year's color scheme here.  So hey, I'm down with the cool kids because I'm knitting red, just like Project Spectrum said to do.  Go figure.

Starting from the top and going clockwise, that's my second Klaralund, this one in Kureyon, that I've been knitting rather languorously for a year now--it has been my mindless knitting project and I'll miss it.  It's off the needles now and is ready for seaming, which, if past experience is any guide, could take a while.

Next is Rogue, yes, I've finally given up on spinning for it (though I have more than 500m spun, I'm just not optimistic about matching the grist after all this time).  I got some nice Jaeger Shetland Aran on ebay, and here we go.  I'm using Claudia's mods for a cardigan, though I've already messed up the pocket (made a shorter hem but didn't start the pocket early).  Any reason I'll regret just picking up those stitches and knitting the pocket second instead of first?  I realize that almost every knitter on the Internet has already made this sweater, so I figure maybe someone has advice.

On the bottom and the left there is the Fleece Artist/Handmaiden goodies.  There were sales, things were bought, I have no comment for the press, except to say, "lookie!"  Pretty, huh?  The bottom one is 2-ply cashmere (I know) and will be a nice feather and fan scarf for work, and the one on the left is one of two giant skeins of mohair at 820ypp that I think is going to be Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style.  How could I not knit it with a name like that?  I love the colors of that yarn with all my heart, but was having a little trouble figuring out what to do with it.  Eleanor is a perfect match.

Speaking of Eleanor, this has resurfaced.

Even though I have 50 projects going, it's really not any worse than usual (sorry if you didn't know, I haven't been intentionally hiding these things from you).  I cast this on about this time last year, and sort of put it aside for, I kid you not, being too lazy to put the arms on stitch holders.  Since Marcia (dude, go over and give her some love for passing that test) and I are starting a "Knit While It Still Fits" KAL for those of us who are gaining weight at an alarming rate, it reminded me that my daughter is, in fact, supposed to be growing quickly, and therefore I should try to finish her projects within the decade.  I did everything past the armholes last night while watching Hitch (good movie, I know I'm the last person on the planet to see it), and it's nice to see it in a picture because it actually looks like I accomplished something.

Finally, in my red-orange (not purple) haze, this here bunnycrack is waiting in the wings

Until I finish this.

Two ounces of cashmere goes a long way.  I have about 1.5 times more than this on the other bobbin.  And I'm still loving it.

So Project Spectrum it is.  Stay tuned for the flashing of my sock yarn stash.  Don't get too excited, while not inconsiderable in size, it's not like I'm flashing my spinning fiber stash; I choose these things carefully, you know.  And a happy anniversary celebration tomorrow.  Fourteen years, baby.  I suppose now that we're past lucky 13, anything's possible, huh?