Limping to the Finish

It took some effort but I was able to wrestle myself away from the siren red cardigan and make an effort to finish up the nearly done sweaters.

CPH is finally stitched together, even though mattress stitching always seems like it's coming out wrong. An non knitter will probably think it looks fine. As you can see it's sitting around drying from it's second block. The button bands and hood seemed to be pulling in more than the body pieces that where blocked already.


When it's dry (3 days from now) these buttons will be sewn on, then it will finally be done.


Here's me doing an I-cord bind off for Ophicleide completely wrong. Thanks to the internet I figured out my error. Not before finishing the entire bind off once, of course. That's OK, at least the bind off wasn't finished so it was easy to pull the string and start over again.


And there was freshly baked cinnamon bread to take the edge off. Yum Martha Steward, your recipes have 100 steps the the result sure is tasty.

Secret Swap Knitting Reveled

A nice post about the knitting that was done for the 3 round of the loopy ewe swap refuses to be written. (You'd laugh if you knew how many hours I've spent trying to write about these socks) So how about some pretty pictures.

Oooooo Hazel knits colors.... Laguna to be exact.


Boy do those twisted stitches pop


Hmmm Mr. Crab appears to be compelled to pose next to colors that sound like bodies of water.


Some things about this pattern need to be said:
1. Leg diameter - Using a heavy fingering with my normal loose tension resulted in a comfortable sock that fit over my non skinny leg. Using a thin fingering resulted in too narrow of a sock leg. If you're a tight knitter a forth pattern repeat would probably be a good idea.

2. Wraps - A few of the wraps overlap the start of the round, so you'll need to start knitting the wrap 3 stitches for you start round 2. It's easy to miss this on the chart until you get to the end of the round.

3. Heel Turn - The one in the pattern seemed very shallow. I replaced it with a normal one from another sock pattern and the socks turned out fine.

4. Don't Worry - Despite the items above I didn't find the sock to be all that hard. Once the wraps were figured out the chart knitting when surprisingly fast. The foot is only following the twisted stitches already set up, so turn on a DVD and go on auto pilot.

My swap partner Tracey made a beautiful mosaic over here in the loopy ewe thread. So glad she liked it!

I love the winter weather....

.....because the two of us can get together. There's nothing sweeter, finer when it's nice and cold, I can hold you closer to me, collecting all the kisses due me. I love the winter weather because I've got my love to keep me warm.

A light snow has been falling all day and that little tune has been dancing through my brain.

Maybe because Punxsutawney Phil made his appearance early this week, Philadelphians suddenly seem to be grumbling that this winter has been too long.
I would argue that compared to many part of the country we've had it easy. And unlike last year, which was a long stretch of gray, there have been some light snows to pretty things up. Sure we had that nasty ice storm last week, but after going outside and finding it was an ice rink I called in a personal day. The day was past very nicely in front of DVD's with knitting in my hand and no guilt was felt at all.

Though winter does seem to have had some effect, I can't put down this new red sweater. It doesn't seem to matter that my CPH is just waiting to have sleeves sewn on. Or that the last ball of yarn to finish Ophicleide showed up. Instead I reach for the 3 inches of red sweater which seems to scream "Me first!!" My eyes must want to stare at something bright for now.... or my subconscious wants a sweater to match these shoes. Red suede equals happiness.

Kindred Spirits

It's so great when you happen upon someone just as wacky as you are. Stacey Rebecca of finger puppet fame over on etsy so needs to be an honorary sister. I know my real sister will back me up on this.
A new puppet arrived in the mail today and there was a little message on the back of the envelope.


Ohh secret message! Hee hee hee fun..


Oh my god can't stop laughing!


It's the Devil and it's Fun!!

Thanks Stacey, you too are super awesome.....so would you be interested in pictures of stuffed frogs?

We have no sweaters today

Poor sweaters, they haven't even been touched in days. They are a bit to big for train knitting unless I'm feeling really serious. But there is a new sock...

Retro Rib Socks in some long stashed yarn Sunshine yarn's soft sock. Nice color, nice hand, but soooo thin that it takes ages for someone like me to knit up. I'll probably like wearing them though.

And we have brownies, yum....


And a pretty new purse via my favorite site Etsy..

It totally fits my loopy ewe zipper pouch, love it!

January so Far

(Calendar from Modern Printed Matter)

The first Sunday is for Sewing didn’t go all that well. Do you ever have that sense that all your precious free time is running through your fingers like sand and there is nothing to show for it? That’s how last Sunday felt. First the large roll of trace paper went AWOL and after trashing most of the apartment it turned out to be in the location I first checked. Argh! Next, thinking to save time I browsed through all my Burda Style magazines looking for a pre-made pencil skirt pattern. Only after tracing off all the pieces to the pattern did I notice the instructions said “for stretch fabric only.” Oh lack of reading, why do you repeatedly bite me in the ass? Hmmmm don’t answer that. So knowing trying to make a stretch pattern in woven fabric wasn’t going to end well, I put it away and retreated back to my knitting.


It turns out that retreating to knitting that day was the right decision. On Tuesday a little trip to the book store produced this month’s Burda Style. Inside were not one but two pencil skirt patterns, both worked in a woven fabric and shaped with princess seams. Basically the stars aligned and gave me exactly what I was looking for. I’d show you the modeled shot but the girl’s jacket completely obscures any skirt details.

Thank god for technical drawings which show you the cute little button detail on the waistband. Next step sewing up a muslin to check for fit because Burda Style’s 42 inch hip size doesn’t always cover a 42 inch hip.

Over on the less stressful knitting side, pieces of the CPH are getting finished at a semi-decent rate. I was a bit worried that the fronts were looking too narrow so they were blocked early this week. Fortunately the blocked dimensions did end up matching the pattern with a little light stretching. This totally reinforces my impression that wool is the best fiber to knit or sew with. It forgives me when I use flexible math.

A couple of delightful things found me this week. Things that are not new, just new to me.
First was the Creative Mom podcast – Check out her latest podcast episode titled Awakening. It’s extremely moving and inspirational in some way that I can not put my finger on.
Second is the Iloveobento shop gallery. Scroll down to see some fantastic and funny bento box food. My personal favorite is sliced tomato that looks like a lobster. If you like that you might enjoy a site that is an old favorite Vegan lunchbox. Little Smoo often gets school lunches that make me giggle and then want to eat.

Plans for 2009

1. Knit more sweaters
Knitting sweaters is the most rewarding type of project for me. So much so I'd like to devote most of my knitting time in 2009 to fill up my sweater drawer. Joining the NaKniSewMoDo over on Ravelry seemed like a great way to have a pseudo goal of knitting 12 sweaters and doing it with a bit of company. Part of the plan is to use some of the really nice stashed yarn to knit some of those sweaters. To "put my money where my mouth is" I cast on a CPH with the Mountain Mohair purchased at last years Maryland sheep and wool. It's going well.


2. Take a card from spinners and set a day aside for sewing
I'm going to make Sundays for Sewing for a bit to see if some of the stashed material can be converted into clothing. The thought that it would be super cool to have half of my wardrobe made by hand has been rattling around in my brain for awhile. It seems though that knitting always trumps sewing because no tables need to cleared or machine carried around and set up. Maybe scheduling some time will help me get my ass in gear. Here is some wool from the grandmother stash that might make a nice pencil skirt..... if there's enough yardage.


3. Knit some more socks for my husband
Now that Christmas is over my husband is in possession of his hand knit socks and deemed them excellent. Then he said, "I might want some more." Woolgirl then had an end of the year sale so I picked up some Hazel knits in Weekend Warrior and two manly sock patterns from Knitspot Pave Sock and Spectator Sock. Pave is the one catching my eye right now, so the spectators might get saved for another yarn.