Fun vacation stuff

Kirby's Epic Yarn for the Wii is awesome. Not just because I like yarn either.
For dinner tonight Roast chicken.
I'm working on a second Capra sock - cashmere socks, how impractical!

Before I forget again

Dinner tonight - Cook's Illustrated's best French Onion Soup ever. It takes about 4 hours, but it's worth it.

Fetching

Not a bad pattern:


I've really been fence sitting on this color and today in the car the spouse looked over and asked had I bought that color on purpose because "dude, I'd've sent that back".
It would never occur to me to send yarn back. I sent all kinds of things back - I'm learning to pride myself on being enough to have learned not to bury myself in crap I don't want. I can say no to all kinds of things, but send back yarn?

Need a change

I love vacation - it's been cold here so there's no reason to go out. So lots of time to knit and play games and that's perfect for fussy, slow knitting. That said, I'm sick of black.
I’m looking for something nice and NOT black to work on during vacation. And here it is, Carnation Capra:


I got this yarn to make a scarf for my sister in law and didn’t like the color up against a face (though it’s a nice color and a scarf in this in a 2x2 rib would be nice). She would probably look great in it but I can't gift someone with something this pink without knowing for sure.

Fifteen inches

So I have another 5 to do before shaping the neck and shoulders for the back. Arans are a lot of fun once you get into them. Actually, everything is fun, you just have to mix it up with good timing.



Our oldest nephew is going to school in Canada. His birthday is in March. Maybe his birthday present will make the prototype for the men's version of this.

Christmas

We got snow tonight, which unusual for down here.  Oh yeah, and a TON of presents.

Back from the beach

We just got back from Hilton head. It was awesome.
















Oh yeah and I'm working on a new women's Aran sweater pattern.

Giving up on stuff

I have 2 sets of black yarn I want do something with; Suri Dream and Alpaca Silk.
I started with the Suri - I designed a sweater for it and got 2 inches in. I wasn't sure I was happy. I showed it to a fellow knitter who said "well, I guess you could pull it off because you're small".
And I knew - I hated it. I would look like Oscar the Grouch's cousin in it.
There is a reason there aren't many garment patterns for Suri Dream. Awesome for throws; not so much for a sweater.
I'm quite relieved, really.
More later ....

Socks and other presents

Nice hair (not).

One down

At indoor soccer practice:




Working on number 2.

Done

Well it needs clasps, which are in the mail, but it's drying nicely.

Fun pictures for Friday

Overheard while knitting today

Knitter #1: [Heaving a heavy sigh, working on redoing the fronts to a sweater she's been working on having adapted the Vogue pattern to go with homespun yarn, ouch] "There must be a patron saint of knitting, don't you think??"
Me: [With a straight face] "Yeah, St. Jude."
Knitter #2: [Wry smile]
Knitters #1 and 3: [Quizzical looks]
Me: "Jude is the patron saint of policemen and lost causes."

Slightly later, I'm finishing winding the last ball for my vest, 440 yards of sock yarn.  Knitter #2 looks over: "Wow, you're almost done with that?  You're fast - I always have problems with my balls."

I'm almost done with the neck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vest nearing completion

Okay, first thing to notice, see that tiny little scrap ball of yarn?  Yeah, I still have to pick up and knit the neck.  Planning fail.  I have the yarn, just not with me.
That said, I like it.  I used an idea from one of the Monday knitting folks and used a purl side roll rather than ribbbing for the arm holes, which I like a lot.  I also used short rows to shape the neck hole rather than taking stitches off and I think the finished product will be MUCH nicer this way.  I also constructed it in flat peices, but with the idea that it needed to be very 3 dimensional, so I built in a solid tab down the side, underneath the armhole (sort of armpit strip, if you want to be poetic) and I wanted the armholes to have more hole-ness to them, so I constructed insets for the shoulder seams, just short cable bits, and set them in (you can see them in this second picture).
So, I need to finish it, block it and find some clasps for the neck.  And take some daylight pictures, the neck is hard to see in these (hard to see too, when it's still a big mess and not all worked into place) .I hope everyone had a nice holiday -we did.  The cooking discovery of the weekend went to this corn bread chorizo stuffing.  Don't wait for next Thanksgiving, make it.  It can be dinner all on it's own.  Granted, it's crapload of chopping, but once you do that, it's pretty quick to make and be real, how can you go wrong with chorizo, cornbread, veggies and a stick of butter?????

I'm back

Sorry, life was crazy there for a while. Not that the holidays help with that sort of thing (neither does a family, or a job or any of those things).
Speaking of, I'm feeling more on top of Christmas than in a long time - and yes, I'm doing lots of knitting. This is for my mom - it's vest. I should make more vests, they're fast.



The problem with knitting presents is you really have to plan ahead. Like, so far ahead, it takes all damn year. And who wants to plan out their knitting life that far in advance?? Talk about killing all the fun.
But I was reminded of This today. So, if you need a gift for a crazy bibliophile, check it out.
I need to look at scarf patterns - going to try out Capra

Socks they're good for waiting

Like at the deli

Going to the dentist

Knitting is relaxing.

Happy Halloween!

Knitting at a game

Indian food later. The little one has made vast strides in his goalkeeping.
Working on sleeves.

Cat by firelight and finishing things

Hipstamatic is fun.



So, I'm working on finishing the black pullover. God, it's A pain in the a$$, but the fabric is so nice and there's almost something really satisfying about working something so fine in gauge. And it's almost the time of year to wear it.
I'm also nearly done with brown; think jury is out until I can try it on, but it feels nice.
Finally Kauni. I want to rip it out and redo it. The gauge is a hair off and I'm not happy with it. What about doing a sleeve to sleeve using simple fair isle patterns?

Dinner

Been awhile again

Sorry. Went to lunch today - husbands birthday - and the place we ate had these;




Yes, gold wolves. Odd, but cool. I also thought the ceiling was cool;








Something else nice is Summer Storm - coming along nice and fast despite my being kind of a moron and having a really hard time with the pattern - binding off when I'm supposed to cast on, being thwarted by short rows (which I did finally figure out) - brings to mind a recent conversation about what kind knitter are you, do you read patterns all the way through before you start or not? Me? Not. By rights I should have finished this puppy days ago but for all the ripping out;



I think I should call this one UPS (what can brown do for you).
Oh, and I put nail guards on Indy - I was being festive but the little one thinks I'm being mean to the cat. Look at his feet;

Something new; and boring

The pattern is Summer Storm in Knitpicks Comfy bulky.







That's less than 24 hours of knitting.
Also, from one of our all time favorite BBQ joints:




Lightnin' is tasty.

Random

Kid art!

One witchy sock done

Started on the second one today (I still like the color pooling on these, feet a bit less than the leg, but what can you expect with the gusset decreases):




Yes, Indy has recovered from the window install - he acted extra skittish all day. Then we watched Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and we were skittish. Yikes.
Here's a better color snap of these socks.

More new windows

Kitty hates new windows. Actually, he's probably indifferent to windows but hates noise and strangers.




And here's some blocking I did for a coworker; her scarf is also going into the silent auction next week.

Vest!

When color pooling doesn't suck

Happy accident of needle size, gauge and pattern. Probably dye lot as well. Colors are much nicer, richer, in real life. This ball of Imagination seems to have little or no mohair, which is sad but it's pretty.