Oregonians know it’s fall when the incessant, rhythmic rain starts coming down, and this weekend that’s exactly what occurred. I know some people get depressed living here in the somewhat gloomy fall and winter, but I actually like rainy days, even if they take up about half the year. Anyway, the beautiful greenness and sunshine of spring and summer here make it more than worth it.
I’ve been taking advantage of the coziness of the past few days to knit, bake cookies, and drink coffee and hot cocoa.
Most of last week I was working on Sara’s birthday project: a sock-making kit. She had told me before she wanted to learn how to make them, so what wanted to do was knit a single sock, then give her the pattern, yarn, and needles and meet for a cup of coffee and an all-inclusive sock knitting workshop. I didn’t get to take a picture of the finished sock before I gave it to her, but I used some really pretty Dream in Color Smooshy in Blue Lagoon, since her favorite color is blue. It was so pretty and sproingy and fun to work with! I had been stalking their yarns ever since the Yarn Harlot posted about it, and now I’m practically lusting after their November Muse colorway. Hopefully once Sara’s finished the other one she’ll let me take a picture and I can post the pattern.
After a very frantic time trying to finish that in time to block and give to her on Friday, I took back up on my Wisp and now have just over ten repeats done.
I am completely, head over heels in love with this yarn. It’s a really good thing that I found it on sale, because I probably wouldn’t be able to knit with it otherwise, seeing that it’s normally about $15 a ball and I am a high-school student yet to get a job. It’s so fuzzy and silky and soft…I had expected it to be itchy like the mohair in Lamb’s Pride, but it’s not at all! It even SMELLS GOOD, as Anna pointed out to me while I was knitting at church this morning. I can’t wait to have this done so I can wear this piece of mohair and silk goodness around my neck.
Here is a weirdly-lit photo of the cookies I baked yesterday afternoon:
They’re oatmeal-raisin-walnut and they’re delicious. I used the recipe under the lid of the Quaker Oats can, added some chopped walnuts and extra cinnamon for good measure, and they turned out really well.
On Thursday, my Creating Personal Fashions/Design (sewing) class took an all-day field trip up to Fabric Depot, which is supposedly the biggest fabric store in the Northwest. It was really cool, and they had so much stuff I didn’t even know where to start! I got materials for my first actual project (our first one was aprons for the neighboring Intro. to Culinary Arts class, and that’s the project I learned how to use a sewing machine on) there, which will be a jumper-dress:
I’m making the one pictured in the middle, which calls for grosgrain ribbon for the straps. I actually found the brown-and-green gingham print (which in my opinion is totally awesome) in the children’s prints section, but I don’t really care. I can’t wait to start!
at least I’ll have my Clementine.
-Pink Martini
I finished the Clementine Shawlette last night and soaked it this morning–it had been pinned out in my room most of the day until I got impatient and started using my hairdryer to try and make it dry faster. Then I unpinned it and it was still damp, but it dried the rest of the way while I was photographing it, so that was good.
This project used up a good bit of my DK-weight recycled wool/angora yarn, but I think that there are still a couple of little hanks buried in my yarn basket.
It feels SO good to have the last of my summer WIP backlog all finished up. Now I can start a new batch of projects, completely guilt free! In fact, I cast on for a Wisp this morning and have done a little over two repeats of the pattern. The Rowan Kidsilk Haze makes such a delicate fabric, it feels like it’ll just blow away if I let go of the needles. I also am aiming to go to Boersma’s tomorrow so I can purchase the yarn for Sara’s birthday present and get going on that, after all it’s only 5 days away!
*WOW* it’s been awhile since I’ve posted.
Here are some of the things I’ve been doing during the time I was supposedly too busy to pay attention to my poor neglected blog…
First off, I finished the Endpaper Mitts (Sorry, I got a little pic happy with the photo shoot since they had just finished blocking)
I think I’m in LOVE with these fingerless mittens.
Truly. The pattern was so fun to work and actually knit up a lot faster than I expected (not counting the few days of crazed deadline-catching-knitting in which they were on a short hiatus). Plus, now I can confidently do somewhat more advanced colorwork, as this was my first extremely successful attempt. The Gems Pearl was already soft before I blocked them, but now they feel so good on my hands I want to wear them all the time, regardless of the merino’s pilling tendency.
They’re a little snug, and the drawstring-thing on tubular cast on kind of bothers me, but I don’t care.
Next up, I was bored a few days ago and decided to bake some muffins.
They’re from a really nice recipe from Jane Brody’s Good Food Book that my dad referred me to, in which the only sweetening is orange juice. They’ve got blueberries we picked this last summer (and still have about 7 lbs. more in the freezer), lemon zest, and cinnamon, and are delicious.
I sat on the (dirty) kitchen floor and knitted while watching them bake:
Last but not least, I made Paul a hat for his first birthday (YAY Paul!) using Hello Yarn’s Top-Down Bonnet pattern, obviously omitting the anime character and modifying to use some soft aran-weight wool from my stash.
It’s a little small on him, but still incredibly cute. He’s walking a lot now, so I decided not to try and get him to stay still and model it.
Other than that, I’ve made a little bit of progress on the Clementine Shawlette and am trying to finish that so I can make Sara’s birthday present.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
I don’t usually do this kind of thing, but I found this quiz while blogsurfing and couldn’t resist.
Here is what I got:
“You are Merino Wool.
You are very easygoing and sweet. People like to keep you close because you are so softhearted. You love to be comfortable and warm from your head to your toes.”
So, what kind of yarn are YOU?
Sorry I’ve been neglecting this poor blog of late…we started school on Tuesday and the past few days have been a whirlwind of syllabi, homework (yes, homework already and it’s only going to get better) and trying to find my way around a new school. I guess I would appear to other students as the ‘obvious freshman,’ map of the campus and all. Luckily I’ve got my schedule down and can even open my locker (imagine!). I haven’t gotten much knitting time at all, but I finished the first Endpaper Mitt last Sunday afternoon. It’s a little snug, and I don’t know if blocking will fix it because of the floats at the back. Otherwise, though it’s so awesome! My first colorwork went really well, and the first glove just sailed off of my needles! The only problem is that I am now stalled in the middle of the first pattern repeat of the second one. I finished the increases of the second half of Clementine sometime last week…and I guess that’s about it for my knitting except for the few rounds I’ve been able to get away with on La Chandail de Mystere.
A couple of days ago in French class we got to pick new names for ourselves, and I am now Melanie (pronounced MEH-lah-NEE, it has an accent on the first E but I still can’t find how to insert one). I now know how to say:
“Bonjour! Je m’appelle Melanie. Comment t’appelles-tu?”
“Hello! My name is Melanie. What is your name?”
Sorry I haven’t been able to post lately. It seems like every time I try to get on and write a post, there’s not time to do anything except check my email. But now it’s a quiet, beautiful Saturday morning (my last summer Saturday), and I can finally get a post done.
Pictured above is my progress on the Clementine Shawlette: I finished the first half a couple of days ago, and started the second. In that picture, I was just through the first segment of the Chart B increases, but now I’m almost done with that and will be starting the straight-knit portion soon.
This shoulder wrap is turning out a lot prettier and softer than I expected, and the textured purl-ridge pattern is beautiful in the recycled wool and angora. The only problem with that yarn is that somehow when I was unraveling it, all the twist came out of the strand, so I’m just left with five splitty plies to try and knit with. There are a few stitches so far that have split, resulting in little loops hanging on the front of the fabric.
That’s basically all for my recent knitting, except for the fact that I’ve begun the first Endpaper Mitt and learned tubular cast on (which is awesome…now I know how that professional edge is done!). As of last night I am through the ribbing and the first chart repeat, with the ribbing and foreground in Lilac, and the background in Cream. I really hope that I’m not having problems with tension, as I have never done any major colorwork like this before, let alone on DPNs. I don’t really know how to keep the floats the right length when bringing the yarn from one needle to the next, but hopefully it’ll work out. I was looking on Ravelry at other people’s finished Endpaper Mitts, and I saw that someone had knit theirs inside out (purling instead of knitting, with the floats on the outside, and turning them right-side out afterward) to keep the tension steady, but by then I had already started doing the colorwork right-side out and don’t really feel like ripping back to the ribbing.
I also picked a TON of tomatoes that were practically bursting out of our first prosperous garden…
Aren’t they pretty? Those are mostly smaller tomatoes like Romas, Pears, and Grapes, but we have vine of Beefsteak tomatoes that are just ready to ripen. I tasted one from this bowl and it was really good. I guess all I can say is that I really like tomatoes, especially ones from our garden.
