More Philly

Conference center











These are coffee cups



The Reading Terminal Market











City hall



















My hotel on the left

Philly

Random images from around my hotel.  I'm staying right next to city hall.  It's interesting to be back in a walking city - the old buildings and brown stonework are fun to look at.
And I don't think I've ever had so many randomly friendly conversations.  I always think of Philly as being full of mean people - or gruff.  They are a little gruff, but I like it.
All the travel is good for knitting - and I've been listening to No Idle Hands.  Talk about overkill.  :)

Adult situations cont.

Yeah, that's more like it.


We're getting new sinks in the bathroom too. Those were also old and cheap - and so failing.
And I blocked the super scarf. Aloft takes wet blocking well - clouds up and gets very even and soft.

May contain adult situations and themes

Remember back in the 90's when TV rating first started up? Warnings against swearing and nudity - you know adult situations.
Only now, I'm an adult, so I know what this really means: escrow accounts, mammograms, finding a reliable roofer and ....
Getting a new kitchen faucet.
Yup, here it is, to be installed on Friday.





And here's what it's replacing (and yes, I should be too embarrassed to post a picture of this, but I'm not - mainly because it came with the house so I can't take the blame for installing anything a.) white or b.) made by American Standard)

Everybody say it with me now:
Eeeewwwww.

View out my window

Or I guess I should say from my office.  This is the view out my new office window.  I have a nice tree and grass and squirrels.  And now, a robin building her nest in my tree.  You can see the nest and I've pointed out the tail in the picture I took.
Oh yeah, here's the scarf, I have only a few yards left to go . . . .

No pictures yet but

I'm within an hour of being done with the big, insane, LOUD scarf I used to play with Aloft.  I can't say for sure until it's blocked, but Aloft is nice.  I feared it would be sheddy, but it's not.
I now have 3 balls each of white, grey and black.  I'm going to design a beaded scarf pattern for Aloft, knit in the round, this will be very exciting, but I'm not allowed to start until I free up my size 6 needle to do it on.
The stained glass pull over is still coming along, I just got fed up with two color knitting for a while.  I'll finish it soon.  I really like Chroma, and got a bunch of colors in it, as well as some plain Stroll, so I think I'll do some mittens and hats with those, smaller color work experiments.
I'll take some pictures tomorrow . . .

Moon!

My husband managed to take a picture of the moon through the telescope - this is one our son took.




I like this one. Makes me think of kickboxers:



And finally, I took this yesterday and it's grown on me:

Going out for BBQ

And I'm abandoning Dinah - more on why a little later. It was in the 80's today.

Dinah test drive

 You can see the fiber better in the first, but the colors look more like real life in the second.  Still playing with colors and placement of beads, but the Gloss DK is knit on 7's and the Aloft on 5's.  If you start with the bottom portion, when you want to switch yarns it looks like the ratio will be k3, k2tog . . .

Mmmmm Aloft

It's nice to work with.

In the kitchen with Dinah

I used to sing that song a lot as a kid.
A very long suffering person I work and knit with has been making Rowan's Dinah for the better part of a year now.  This is the sweater.  I don't know why they photographed the poor model in that pose - makes her look kind of insane and the sweater really doesn't show to much effect.  But, if you have a Ravelry account, you can search it there under patterns and see some handsome FO's (finished objects).
Anyway, this poor woman I knit with is making Dinah with handspun, so not only has she had to redo the gauge, but handspun is wonky.  If you've ever knit with it you know; it leans, it does a craptastic job of making shaped sweater pieces, and so the whole project has been a nightmare, but she's almost done and it will be lovely when she's finished.
Perhaps I'm morbid but her struggles have inspired me.  I don't think I gawk at traffic accidents, perhaps I give myself too much credit.
I want to try Dinah myself and here's my materials list:

• Aloft black 
• Gloss blackberrry 
• And size 6 beads.

I think this pattern has a lot of potential, but is fraught with peril, too.  Here's why:
Color placement can wreck it - light on top, dark on bottom or you'll look like a house.  Too light of a color (pink) could make it look bed-jackety in a very unappealing way (for me).  I think those who have actual figures (I kind of look like a 12 year old boy) might want to avoid this pattern.  And for god's sake, don't let the change in fabric happen directly in the middle of your bust!  Doing that a.) draws attention to your boobs in a way that's just going to ruin conversations for blocks around and b.) will make you look like a house.  Think empire waist dress, not mohair waterfall off the chest.
So now that's I've tempted the fates in every possible way with my knitting arrogance, I'm going to make this puppy.  I'm going to reduce the poof a bit and use beads very sparingly to weight the curtain of Aloft.
And yes, this is going to have a bow!  If you know me, the bow idea will be a hoot and a half.
Happy Friday!
p.s. I'm working with my loud Aloft making a scarf - I'll take a picture soon, it's LOVELY - not sheddy, easy to work with, fantastic colors.

Update

Yes, that's a "my life is hard" look because mom wants a picture while we're trying to play white version.
I kind of think the shooting clone trooper makes this picture.






I'm on my second take on doing an Aloft scarf - I needed to get a size 6. Nothing to take a picture of yet. It's grey and rainy here today - cat is on my lap:

Now life is complete

Aloft

It's so soft and lovely - yikes, the colors are pretty close to what you see here (mmm, yummy office floor).  I'm thinking these will make an awesome Dr. Who type scarf, I just need to find an appropriately artsy/vision impaired recipient.  I also got some Blackberry Comfy fingering to make a hat/lined mitten set with . . . .



In other news, I've finished the second sleeve of the GMS windowpanes pullover, now I'm starting on the body.  That's a lot of corrugated ribbing in small yarn, that is.  Kept me busy at soccer practice anyhow.  I'll take a picture over the weekend.

I'm going to be at a work conference at the end of the month, lots of watching  so I'm thinking that would be a good time to make the world's loudest er, prettiest, I mean, scarf.

Oh, and I also forgot, I have a request for my lined mitten pattern - from a monk.  So I think that's a first for me, so that's sort of neat.  I'll have to size that pattern up for a guy's hand.