Instant Gratification

The knitting ADD continues. I've mostly been working on my Lady Eleanor wrap and February Lady Sweater (what is it with these Lady things?), but I have strayed a bit for some instant gratification.

Remember this?

It's my Corriedale handspun from Grafton Fibers. Well I decided on short notice that a non-knitting friend needed a birthday gift so I made her these:

They're Fetchings, modified slightly with a longer cuff and more length in the fingers as well.

I chose this particular yarn because this friend and I went to school together in southern Vermont and Grafton Fibers isn't too far from there. So, a Vermont gift for a Vermont friend (even though she lives in CA). And super quick! I started them one evening and finished them in time to meet her and her husband for dinner the next day.

Last week it finally got a little chilly around here; enough that my feet were actually cold and I realized I didn't own any slippers. So I made some.

These are essentially socks, knit at a huge gauge and felted. I think the pattern is from Knitting at Knoon Designs. I have knit this pattern so many times that I barely look at it. I used less than a skein of Malabrigo in the Stone Chat colorway that I had left over from another project. Yay for stashbusting!

Holy cow could my legs be any whiter?

After I felted them I put some puffy paint on the soles to prevent them from slipping.

Would you believe the cashier at Michael's insisted I show my ID in order to buy this? Who knew puffy 3D paint was a controlled substance?

Back to (Monkey) Business

I've now picked up an old project that had been stagnating since the summer; my Monkeys made from my own handspun. When I started them I just couldn't get the pattern to flow in my head and constantly had to check the chart as I went along, which made for slow progress. That kind of surprised me as the general consensus on Monkey is that the pattern is pretty intuitive and moves along quickly. This time however the pattern stuck right away and I only have to check the chart every so often. Now they're moving right along and I love them.

I have finished one and have one more pattern repeat to go on the leg before I start on the heel flap. Here's the finished one on my foot. Again; holy crap I'm pale.


Happy Thanksgiving!

We just got back from Thanksgiving dinner; I'm still full and it has been a very nice, relaxing day.

I made cranberry sauce among other things. This one is easy; for every bag of cranberries you use one navel orange chopped (I use the food processor) and sugar to taste. Toss it all in a pot with a smidge of water, heat it until simmering and the cranberries are popped, adjust sugar to taste and then once it's cool toss it into the freezer. Let it thaw for a few minutes before serving. Delish.

I also made glazed sweet potatoes with bourbon (toss bourbon on anything and it's good) and a salad but never got around to taking pictures. I am lame. And stuffed.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope yours was as relaxed and enjoyable as mine.

Another California Invasive Pest Warning

Another warning from the California Department of Food and Agriculture: Beaglus Gluttonious.

She is so busted.

Damn dog didn't even bother separating the muskmelon from the vine before she dug in.

Here she can be seen teaching Miele the joys of really, really fresh produce.

Miele was busted recently too:


Is there a doggie reform school anywhere nearby?

Remedial February?

When not occupied with documenting the bad behavior of the resident hairballs, I've been knitting. Or trying to. I seem to have developed a severe case of knitting ADD. I have a whole list of new things I want to start - a couple of different lace projects, toe-up socks, gifts, some dish rags, an afghan and of course there are always a few sweaters in the queue. And that doesn't even count the things I have in progress.

Despite the distractions, I've managed to focus on two things. First, I started another February Lady Sweater. I'd made one about this time last year, but a combo of it stretching and me shrinking a bit made it necessary to come up with one that is slightly smaller. Then I started another February Lady Sweater. And after that, I started another February Lady Sweater.

Sigh...

Why when the first one was so easy do I keep on screwing up this one? The gauge in the swatch was different from the gauge I actually knit. So I frogged the entire thing. Then I found an error way back that couldn't be fixed any other way than frogging. Again - all the way back. Then I happily sailed two inches past where I should have put buttonhole #2. Oy. More frogging. My latest attempt seems to be working okay though:

This is Dream in Color Classy in the Lagoon colorway (I think). I lurve this color!

This the color in this one is probably a little more accurate.

I'm making the same changes I made on the last one - a stockinette stitch yoke instead of garter stitch, and I'm doing yarn overs for increases. I also don't do that row of eyelet increases - I just keep on going with the yarn overs on either side of the shoulder increase for a few more rows. At this point I probably have 2 -3 more plain rows to go before I start the gull stitch for the body.

I have also picked up the Lady Eleanor stole that I started in March. It's actually going to be more of a couch throw than a wrap and given the number of dog and cat claws around our house, I think I'm going to pass on the fancy fringe. It's just asking to be snagged.

This is Noro Silk Garden (Colorway 88) that I got from Webs a few years ago at a kee-rrrazy close-out price. Actually that's about the only way I will buy Noro. The color changes are pretty but there are a lot of knots as well as vegetable matter, and I think the regular price for what you get is outrageously high. On sale however - that's another story.

And they sure do know how to put colors together.

Closing Shots...

Look who got her first haircut!

She was traumatized only slightly by the scary clippers. Here she is being comforted by clipper-man himself.

Does this girl have long spindly legs or what?

Girasole e Finito

Girasole

Design by Jared Flood

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious Single Silk in Blech colorway.

I used a little less than 3 skeins.

Cast on August 21st, completed October 21st.

It would have been finished a lot sooner but I slacked off on more than a few occasions.

It's a big project but a really fast knit. I'm in lurve and hope more of my friends get married so I can have an excuse to make more.

Miele's not the most enthusiastic model:

Trouble's not too excited either:

Brian needs to learn how to be unafraid to express his true feelings:

New Invasive Pest Plagues California

Warning: The California Department of Food and Agriculture has issued a warning about a new highly energized invasive pest, Puppius Dementedus, now threatening to take over California. The population of this pest isn't high but what it lacks in numbers it makes up for in its ability to [appear to] be in 14 places at once, and raising hell in all of them. This pest persists in rocketing around the living room like a freakin' pinball, thinks that jumping the cat is great fun, and has no sense of personal space.



Be afraid...

Oh Hai!

Wow. Well. Here I am and I survived. Right now I have a big meeting to plan and prepare for and compared to what I've been doing the past two months, it's a piece of freakin' cake. As of two weeks ago, I'm back to relatively normal work days, I am no longer getting up at 4:00 am and I'm feeling pretty human again.

What had me so busy? Well I was in charge of planning and organizing this.



We sent 32 riders and a bunch of support people on a ride from our office in Morgan Hill to Las Vegas. Here's a bunch of them at the office just before we sent them off:




They had some wild days including crossing Death Valley in 116-degree heat. Here's a link to Patty's blog - she was one of the riders and she can tell it a whole lot better than I can! From what I've heard from those who were there, it went well, and it was worth all of the time spent. So yay. First big project at the new job accomplished.

Now that it's not all about work I've regained some energy. There has been knitting:

Girasole continues to grow. I'm nearly halfway through chart F (the next-to-last chart before the edging) and I still love it. It looks kind of crappy here but I'm blaming that on the fact that there are nearly 650 stitches in each round and I'm limited to a 47" circular and can't spread it out. And the fact that my photography skills are seriously lacking (that includes the color - it's more lavender and less grey than in this shot).




I also pulled out the Grafton Fiber I spun during Tour de Fleece:

And made a pair of Fetching (Fetchings?) for a friend.

The color below is a little more accurate:

It's a nice pattern but I find if knit as written they're too short. So I added an extra cable repeat on the cuff and another at the fingers and an extra 2 rows on the thumb. Easy peasy.

Mom, Those Things Have Been In Trees!

A few weeks ago my youngest niece decided she wanted to go apple picking for her birthday. So we spent the afternoon here. At one point while we were in the orchard she wanted an apple so her mom wiped one off for her. She wouldn't touch it until it had been rinsed in water, saying 'Mom, those things have been in trees!' Oh the horror. Cracked me up.

Anyway, we came home with this:

This is about 17 pounds. The niece and her family went home with nearly 70. Yikes.
A tiny portion of the 17 pounds was turned into Norwegian Apple Cake. Apparently it smelled too good to wait to get a picture before we dug in.


The following week we had an influx of figs from the tree so I made the same recipe again, using figs:

It was good but the apple version was better.

The garden is slowing down but I made tabouleh using some cherry tomatoes and parsley which are still doing well.


Today's cooler weather sent me into a cooking frenzy. I made beef stew, baked some spicy drumsticks and made some chocolate peanut butter cups this afternoon.


The stew isn't pictured and you can thank me for that later. It has been in the fridge for a while and cold stew looks well...gross. Anyway, it was nice to have it cool enough to want to use the oven again, and the house smells great.

Obligatory Puppy Pictures

Miele continues to grow. She has learned how to play and here she is trying to teach Trouble to do the same:

She's developed this lovely habit of bringing stuff into the house and chewing it all over the rug. Here she'd decided to drag the entry rug from the kitchen into the living room and use it as a placemat for her dried corn snack. So sweet that she likes a proper table setting.

Tearing the house apart each day is exhausting!