stitch marker

chevette

And I don't mean the "cheap, compact and lightweight" car of 1979/80. I mean an elegant necklace, knitted in three colors of delicious ShibuiKnits Sock yarn, or of course the yarn of your choice. It can be worn with the "corsage" in any position, though I love this picture of my friend Stevanie with it in back. It's custom-sized for any neck, and the corsage is removable for a completely simple look when that's what you want.

It's my newest pattern, and it is free and ready to go Vroom.

Knitty link.
Ravelry link.

the days are longer, but not long enough

This little sweater is almost finished. Almost.

But I had to take a break because I got the most amazing opportunity to take an all-day class with Annie Modesitt yesterday. I took her Twisted Float shrug class (more on that after I download the pictures). Today I'm making up for lost work time over the past two weeks.

While I sit, head bowed over grant proposals, the hops are starting to climb. Birds are chirping in high gear. Our locust tree is getting its leaves, to join the leaves already out on our vine maple and hawthorn.

Sebastian is practicing saying "I'm three." So very big. He puts a piece of paper on his head and says "This is my house, Mommy." A piece of straw, "This is a propeller, Mommy." When it's time for bed, "Snuggle me, Mommy." Every second I look at him he breaks my heart.

So so many things I  want to think about, read, cook, knit. I wish I had another entire day for every actual day.

grassy

I finally finished up this soft, airy thing. A neck warmer whose vertical lacy pattern reminds me of grasses. The simple pattern is a 2-page pdf, and calls for Cascade Venezia Worsted. The yarn has a sheen that is inexplicable.

$4.50

coffee achiever*

pretty photo thanks to NotHip.


Hey there Coffee,

Thanks for yesterday. You had my back. I had an awful cold and dreadful fatigue, and needed to get through a long day with Sebastian. I strategized, making you, coffee, in the machine rather than french press, so I could afford a steady stream rather than a stiff but all-too-early shot.

And you came through. You bounced me along as we lived through a 6:30 waking, a trip to OMSI, and a long afternoon of walking, cooking, watching Reading Rainbow again and again, playing as the day slipped into night and Sebastian's playfulness turned to overtired screeching and then, finally, quiet snoring.

You are powerful. Even as you lift me up you give me a sinking, drained feeling that can only lead me to more of you. (Sometimes in the morning I wake up grateful that a new day is starting and that I can have more because the previous day, er, I reached some kind of limit even for me.)

After all those years in college (let's leave it at that, ok?), and all those mornings in New York when I struggled through the crowds on the PATH train with my little blue Greek deli cup ("regular," meaning cream and sugar) I thought I came to understand your power.

But while I was writing our knitting book I became newly impressed and amazed at the color you impart to yarn.  So full of caramel and life. So rich. (It sure makes me wonder about the  possible handpainted nature of my esophagus.)

I remember when I first got the coffee yarn for the French Press Cozy design. I was going to design something cabley and reminiscent of steam. But when I saw the color you, coffee, made with the yarn it totally changed my direction.

my own crummy picture.

Your yarn looked like paneling, like wood, which made me invent a sort of mod, uneven ribbing design.  Later, the steamy image came through in the faintly racy i-cord lacing. And besides being a knitter's delight - with pretty yarn and a satisfying knitted-on edging - I'm happy to say the cozy really works to keep you hot.

How do you like it?

Thanks again, coffee, my old friend.

Write back!

Larissa

* Post Title: Martin loves to talk about the coffee achievers, and how David Bowie was one of them.
** Pattern: French Press Cozy from my book Knitalong. Also on ravelry.
***Yarn: Kona Superwash dyed with Stumptown coffee grounds. Available in a kit with enough yarn for 2 cozies or 1 cozy and another small item, exclusively at Abundant Yarn who is happy to ship. Call Stevanie or Rodger and get yourself some! It is so good.

i know i can, i know i can

The next installment in the holidayknitting is on the needles - the dashing wrist warmers for Teacher Raevan in, yup, a Raven colorway from Blue Moon (called Haida). I'm using lightweight sock yarn doubled, and knitted on size 4s, because Teacher Raevan has the smallest possible adult wrist, like 5" around or something. You could snap her like a twig. I have no idea how she works with toddlers.

She is my mom's assistant. My mom has visited Tina at Blue Moon with me, and this is what she said. She said, "Would you make something for Raevan with one of those yarns from that girl out in the country? The one with the barn?" Tina are you reading this? You are the girl with the barn.

So, I knew I'd love the yarn. But unexpectedly, I love this pattern. I thought I would just do it because it would be nice for Raevan. But it's really a lovely little pattern! I think I may make more, likely for me.

Lest this seem really easy and like not enough pressure for December 16th, I am working on a sort of complex design that is due like yesterday. Oh, and I had a hangover today from a very fun John-Hughes-is-now-35 type party (complete with a woman named Molly with curly short hair in a mint green prom dress). We all stashed our children with various babysitters, dressed up formal, ate a vast piece of meat and some other delicious food around a huge table, drank red wine, and played parlor games. Martin won a contest for best bridesmaid dress (long story; he was wearing a groomsman outfit from a Pakistani wedding).

the holidayknititng, or one whose B is A

I think of it as all-one-word like that, sort of urgent, or German.

(Or perhaps as in Sanskrit, one whose B is A.)

I usually don't get caught up in it, the holidayknitting. I don't make a list and an effort. I sit back and enjoy watching the Yarn Harlot's annual effort, thinking that if someone who is clearly such a fast and good knitter as Stephanie can get behind, then the world is okay for all of us.

This year, though, her effort is inspirational to me in a different way. This year I did get involved in knitting several things for the Big Holiday Around Here, and I like to think in Harlot terms that if I don't get finishing some things it's going to soon kick my arse. (It's fun to think with the word "arse" - so much cuter than the American "ass.")

My holidayknitting is not yet kicking my arse, but I'd say it is nudging my arse. I did finish the gigantic long cabled scarf for my sister and that's quite a relief. I have the sock above, and also a pair of arm warmers for my mom's assistant for which the yarn has not yet even arrived. I'm trying not to freak out about that, but am looking expectantly to the mailman each day. No response on that, from the mailman.  Oh, and I want to make garter mug cozies for various people.

My list seems tame compared to some, but we're talking about 13 days here, and not much free time to knit. I'm starting to fit it in between things like while waiting for water to boil. I kind of carry the sock in my pocket, just in case. And I may begin breaking out looooong, engaging movies for the child.

goings on

Okay, for the people in my neighborhood these may be old news, because I'm tremendously slow with this sort of thing. But:

• Saint Cupcake on SE Belmont? Across from Zupan's? They now sell individual cupcakes (not just the $14 boxes). And they have day old cupcakes for $1.50!
• Powell's on SE Hawthorne, the 'books for cooks' & crafty Powell's, has soak for half price in their clearance area at the back of the store. But not the Aquae flavor. I got the flora one for $8.50 a bottle. Woohoo. Goodbye smelly dirty sweaters.

Also, Friday 10:30 playgroup at Abundant Yarn gets more and more fun. Sebastian is totally in love with Rodger. Starting on Thursday he starts to talk about how we'll take two buses and then Rodger will be there. And Rodger will give him pink milk. And it's all true.

Also, I'm on my second front of the drops cardigan. (I took a break to make a calorimetry for cold running ears and to start a Noro scarf no less than 5 times and still I'm going to rip it again.) I'm knitting the cardigan on size 8 needles that Mama Urchin sent me as a gift (thank you, lady!). I love using gift needles. It sounds cloying, but it really does make the knitting more fun somehow.

When I finished the first half of the cardi, shown up there, I laid it out for this picture and Sebastian said, "Mommy knitted a driveway!"

an updated feather & fan

The re-written pattern for this bonnet is here:

Download juniperbonnet.pdf

.

all aboard

I'm finishing things. I just want to get through a certain number of unfinished projects (I'm not sure of what number that is) so I can move on to another wave. I have some knitting to do by late September for my little brother's wedding, so I'm feeling the crunch.

So following up the simple cabled blueberry socks, I have The Bootees. They are Cute. In the pantheon of cute they sit in a high place. They made the desired impression on my neighbor when I gave them to her and congratulated her on her new granddaughter.

Pattern: Saartje's Bootees
Yarn: Shibui Sock in Sand colorway
Needles: US 2 straight (If I do these again I may try Adrian's circular method. There was a lot of fussy sewing for such a small project. Though the results are worth it.)
Buttons: From a garage sale haul.

These are great booties. So damn cute.

Almost as cute as what's happening right now:  Martin blowing a horn in Sebastian's bedroom and telling him it's "the sleep barge" coming to put him to sleep. "Everybody on the sleep barge gets their own blankie, and their own doggie, and their own water bottle." Look out; here it comes.

one nice thing

It feels so nice to have finished one nice thing before bed today.

I also had a really good run. And then Martin made us a good dinner and we ate it all together at the kitchen table. What a lovely end to the day.

Adrian has been making these booties and inspired me to start. I did mine flat style and used some buttons from a garage sale lot.  The yarn is Shibui Knits Sock in Sand - truly a silvery beige, as described on their site, which in garter stitch shows up sort of like a luscious, weathered wicker - and I used size 2 needles. It's half of a gift for my next door neighbor, who's going to have a grand-baby any day now.

sweet

The sweet baby cap from Gros Blog, via Hello Yarn.
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock mediumweight in Moss Agate.
Size 1 needles
2 days

And a ton of yarn left, or a few ounces anyway, for the new mom to make something to go along with it! And no, Sarah, even though you jumped the gun and started having contractions yesterday this is not for you and Baby Monroe. You're not ready yet. And I am not ready for your baby either.

circle time

One of my favorite little kid stories ever is about my friend's newphew, Christopher, who at the time was the most adorable little round 2+ year old with big brown eyes and rolls of remaining baby fat (I think he's in college now or something). He started preschool, and after the first few days my friend asked him how he liked it. He balled up his fat little fists and with great, deep anger he forced out,  "I.  Hate.  Circletime."

(Circletime came out as one).

I was just thinking about him as I was pondering my needle options for making the Sweet Baby Cap. And I realized. I. Hate. Magicloop. The pulling through of the cords in the little spaces between stitches is fussy, I think, and I dislike wondering when I should do it and having to make that judgment on every round.

So I called Mabel's in the last hour before closing, found that they had a 16" size 1 circular, and jumped in the car with Sebastian to go get it. I would have liked a size 2. But those who Hate Magicloop cannot, ultimately, be choosers.

The hat is really really really cute. After I started the decrease-only portion, I switched to two size 1 circulars and it's been working out just great. I recommend the pattern for anyone with a bit of sock yarn around and any babies handy.

lone square

Finally, finally I have tucked in ends and I'm sending off this little square for the Lone Knitter. I started it in January!  It's embarrassing how long that took. I hope it's still needed. The yarn is all Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock heavyweight:  kermit, rooster rock, henpecked, and carbon.

a blanket

Just at the moment I thought I could not finish this book and had given up all hope*, this blanket came together. I'm going to write more about it later, because it was such an amazing community effort. But I have to run Right. Now.

Please click the photo to see whose squares are being used in the book sample, as opposed to the additional charity blankets to come next. And also please check out knitalong.net to plant your little flag on the knitalong map!

* See Alicia? I was at 95% and I started to cry as usual!

you win!

This post is really a big thank you to every one of you who knitted squares. They came from England, Canada, Portugal, and from across the US, everywhere from Alaska to Brooklyn. We laid them out yesterday (my crack squares team and I) and it's confirmed that we have enough to make at least two blankets. Whew! So one will be saved for book purposes and one more will go to Warm Up America.

And so, to thank everyone properly and really celebrate how fast a bunch of knitters can put together two awesome blankets, the prizes have been drawn. (How fast I can sew those squares together is another question entirely). But anyway, the prizes are as follows:

C, also known as Muscadine Hill, you've won this incredible sock yarn dyed by Adrian at Hello Yarn!

Cindy of Knit for Joy, you have won two skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca, a new yarn that's included in our book, along with a sweetly scented candle donated by Tracy from England.

Rhonda M., you've won two skeins of yarn - KnitPicks Shimmer in Grape Hyacinth and Cascade 220 in a pink shade - donated by Celaine. (It all comes around, right? Aren't you the same as C. above?)

Aurora, I did get your amazing square, and you've won yarn buttons and magnets from Girl on the Rocks.

Katie B. who made the Hawaii-colored square, without a blog(!), you have won a set of gorgeous stitch markers from Knitwit Momma.

JJ, you've won a very cool clay needlecase donated by the artist, Francie O. The prize one is green and salmon pink toned squares. (It'll go nicely with your "detail oriented" baggie system for storing your circs, JJ. Which I really admire)

And of course Froukje has won the two skeins of sock yarn from Funknits! And Froukje, you win it yourself. No giving away prizes until after you receive them (then I can't stop you). :-)

Thank you everyone. More news soon...

i can tell you this

It's so late for me, I'm sort of turning into a pumpkin as I write this. Or at least, I'm degrading to  the reading-and-writing-at-grade-level of a pumpkin. So I do not have a total square count for today, deadline in the mailbox day.

But I can tell you that the winner of the coveted and harder-to-win-than-expected Prize for Most Squares* goes to Froukje. The mysterious Froukje who lives right here in my town but has no blog and so I do not know anything. Anything! It's driving me mad. Froukje, who are you? Your squares are gorgeous. And blocked like my Uncle Les's hospital corners. I used two of yours (on top there) to practice sewing up today and they lined up so perfectly it was eerie.

Thank you. And raise your hand and tell us about yourself. :-)

More winners will be announced on Saturday, after I make sure all the names are entered and I find an adorable child or two at Mama n Me Knitting @ Sydney's to draw winners. There are more wonderful prizes than you know.

* The Prize for Most Squares, donated by the pattern designer herself, Shelley Mackie, is two balls of sock yarn from her online shop Funknits. Froukje, I'll contact you with details.

cave woman progress

I think it was Ursula LeGuin, but I'm really not sure and can't find a source, who wrote that it was easy for cavemen to tell exciting stories about the hunt, but that it wasn't so easy for the cave women who did repetitive work to tell stories about wrestling berry, after berry, after berry from the bush.

That's how I feel about any knitting I might show you tonight. It's good, I did it, and it's likely dull as hell to look at. If you're really curious, it's 5" of All Seasons Cotton in stockinette stitch on the little man's Drive Thru sweater.

Some more exciting things came to pass, though. M learned to knit! He's been threatening to do so for many, many months. I guess he thought with the book due in a few weeks this was as good a time as any. He went to Abundant Yarn's drop-in class tonight and Pat got him to make this. "It was going to be a washcloth...It's a bookmark."



And in the mail today, we got 4 more squares! I have to admit that I was a bit surprised at the fewness of them. That brings us to 27 total in hand, and we have about 400 people signed up who are ostensibly making them, with just 2 days left to get them here. I'm thinking either we're going to have a very high non-completion rate, or the UPS store is going to be reeling tomorrow.

However, even though they were few they were mighty. Very very pretty squares and all four went together and matched my coffee cup. Thank you Dana, Jenn, Michelle, and Beth.

p.s. Despite the truly wretched nighttime photos in this post, I do think I have a couple sources of photo tips and one or two of my own amateur insights to share about taking knitting photos for blogging. I'll write a post about that to answer a question or two I've gotten about photos. But please note, a lot of the good photos I use are credited to Sarah, who takes gorgeous photos and shares them all with me because she's a generous and kind person. She wrote here about her film camera, and about not taking digital shots. She takes no digital photos. None.

11 and rising

That's the square count as of today, what I have in hand. Every day Mom goes to her mailbox to pick them up and it's like Santa coming all over again. I have squares from Oiyi, Siri, Chawne (that's her square above), Katie, and Jessica (we sound like a private school cheerleading team).

I had a date with a neighbor today to block a shawl for our book. Erin has a whole room with a whole bed in it that no one is using, something that sounds strange and wonderful and far off as we are still living four humans and four pets to a tiny house during our construction. And Erin doesn't have as many creatures crawling and sniffing around her house. Anyway, her place is good for the shawl blocking. But. She wasn't home during nap. So I got to "sneak away" from my obligations for a few minutes today and I got to do some knitting. For myself.

I actually finished and bound off the front piece of my klaralund...

...so now all that is left is the back. I felt awfully guilty, but also realized I needed a break from thinking about more complicated patterns, where I am in charge and peoples' future project success is depending on me. Enough of that sort of pressure happens when I open the square envelopes and realize I have a lot of blanket making to do in the next week and a half.

But I'd almost forgotten how very nice it is to get all the notes and little presents that come along with such squares. Siri sent me a thrifted camo shirt that looks oddly like this fabric (which I never did get). Very cool! And she sent six squares, all gorgeous.

(She is seriously contending for the most squares prize, so anyone who has a few done you might want to crank it up, honey).

squares

A couple things have happened. Don't they always?

1. I knitted my own square finally.

And learned something. (You know, I've written before about how I hate when that happens).

I told y'all that Socks That Rock mediumweight would make a good 7" square. But I knitted mine in the above gorgeous Mudslide colorway, and knitters, it is Yooge. Great. It's got its own weather system. It's 8" if it's a centimeter. So, don't listen to me. Use your STR lightweight if you want to knit a 7" square with our knitalong pattern and size 2 needles.

2. People continue to be generous and kind and enthusiastic.

And it makes me happy to be alive and reminds me to always treasure things that people make. I see Sebastian learning to paint and being so small and vulnerable and new to creativity. Giving me things he makes with pride, even before he knows that there is a world where you can create things and have them rejected. He puts out such pure expressions. And I see that in each of us grown ups when we put ourselves out there and make something for someone else.

But I digress. What I was going to write about was how we have several prizes pledged for people who are knitting squares in the knitalong (still open for signups here until 1/20). Each square that lands in our mailbox by February 1st will be good for one chance in a big drawing.

• Knitwit momma has donated a set of her stitch markers!
• Celaine has donated a skein of Cascade 220 and a skein of Knitpicks Shimmer in Grape Hyacinth!
• Girl on the Rocks has donated a set of knitting buttons and a set of knitting magnets!
• And a non-random, volume prize!  Shelley--the designer of the pattern, who also owns a yarn shop--is going to donate two 100 gram balls of sock yarn from her online shop to the person who gets the most squares to me by February 1.

3. I heard today about another different square along.

And as I sat in my big green chair thinking about squares and generosity, and feeling my ususal generalized weepy sentimentality about my son growing up so fast and how I love him so fiercely, I thought I should really pay back the universe for all the goodness. So I'm knitting a square for a knitalong being run ironically by The Lone Knitter. Here is her call for squares.

And here is my effort (on top of my gigantic mudslide square).

I'm making my favorite kind of square (corner to corner dishcloth style with stripes of gorgeous yarn). I just feel like even though I'm busy, if I can't do this today then I have no business writing about the community of knitters. So thanks Lone Knitter for the opportunity to partake in this industrious indulgence.

no one's going anywhere

In Portland today. (Well, except maybe this guy.)

The news of snow is going nonstop on the big flatscreen TV at our neighborhood coffee shop, and I'm holed up here at the bar. I got stuck here partway to work this morning and I'm still here now at 2 pm. An hour into my normally-30-minute commute, having found myself no further than 8 blocks from my house, I stopped and ordered hot chocolate and turned on my computer and whipped out a scarf project. There are soooooooo many people here today at Cooper's Coffee. Lovely cabled hats and woolly scarves and arm warmers as far as the eye can see.

Today is a great day to knit a square, no?

Just note, please, that I've changed the size specs over at knitalong.net.

the next knitalong is only for squares

Julie called them the “precious coin of knitterly love.”

Afghan squares.  The go-to project for knitters when anyone, anywhere is in need.  No Knitalong book would be complete without them.

And I hope you will knit one or two.

My Knitting Life wrote about sewing up such squares, "It is humbling to be in the presence of the handiwork of so many knitters."  I know I will be awed and overwhelmed by your goodness and uniqueness if you do.

Please see the knitalong.net/testalong main page for information, and to register if you're interested in squaring along.

It's for the book, and for charity, and for fun. I hope you'll join me. (Maybe you'll pay more attention to your square than I did. I hope you can't see my mistakes.)

running & knitting

There's something soothing about both, don't you think?

Hmmm, I wouldn't have thought that a while ago. I never wanted to run when I was younger. I started when my father did, after he'd had his first heart attack. We were both tortoises, slow plodders, but happy to jog around our little town. I remember when Daddy ran his first race...and came in last. He was aglow, waving at the whole town, the ambassador of lastness. He bought Gatorade for all of East Hanover that day.

I remember running again after he died, at the beautiful cemetery and park where he rests. Alone under gorgeous trees. I visited him there, near the baseball diamond and the water.

I took up running again a few years ago. And I use the term very loosely. 15 minute miles. Races in which, after I passed a mile marker some nice volunteer would pick it up and put in their trunk and drive away. The first time I faded quickly to the back of the pack during a race I felt instant shame. All the horrors of a heavy childhood came back instantly. Then I remembered my Dad and just tried to channel his happiness at running at all, slowly but with total joy and confidence. A few years later I finished a marathon, slow and steady with 6 hours and 47 minutes of run/walking.

Then this past year I decided I'd like to get faster. I wanted to run with the small mamas, the cool ones, the ones who were doing the Hood to Coast relay - the longest relay race in the United States. Twelve of us mamas would make it from Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast in two days.

So I worked at fastness. And sometimes I didn't want to want to be faster. The desire for a speed that I couldn't reach, a speed that hurt, was painful. By never wanting speed, I never had to suffer through anything besides long long long runs. But once I got a tiny bit faster I began to love it. Soon I had some of the greatest runs of my life.

I got faster, just enough to be the slowest person on the mamas' team, but still On. Their. Team. I ran at 4:30 am in a tiny town called Mist and felt the cold darkness turning me into a new, true runner. A hooked one. A person who puts on a headlamp and plunges into darkness, emerging 5 miles later to hand off to another person just like me.

And now I got a nike+ ipod sport kit for Christmas and I'm a running fool. Today I joined runagogo's challenge. I knitted a little apple transmitter cozy for my non-Nike purple asics, and I took off for the reservoir. Just me...and Sebastian in the jogger...and Ellie with her twisty mangled up leash and sniff-stops and pee-stops. I must have stopped a hundred times - okay a dozen times, but it felt like a hundred - to unwind her leash from the big jogger wheel. I must have stopped a half dozen times to let her sniff or pee, and another couple of times to point out doggies to Sebastian or to check if he was comfortable. The graph on my nike+ entry is erratic, jumpy, with an average pace of nearly 13 minutes per mile, and it ends after just 1.91 miles.

A short run. A mama's run. A dog-loving slow-assed mama's run. And I did it.

(Oh, p.s., on the back of my new ipod nano, in the spot where you can get something engraved? Martin had them write...MIST.)

2006, the knitting

Adrian has a quite inspirational list of her 2006 knitting posted today. I liked the way she gathered it all - I'm a great lover of lists. So I thought I'd do the same. These are my finishes for 2006. There were many more starts, believe me.

January 2006

juniper bonnet
kepler

February 2006

gg's shawl

March 2006

zimmermann bonnet
another juniper bonnet

April 2006

seal rock ankle socks

May 2006

sebastian's birthday hoodie

June 2006

tiny wrap sweater

July 2006

emergency baby hat

August 2006

wrap sweater for davis

September 2006

charlie's angels wrap sweater for me

October 2006

candy cape

November 2006

a meathead hat
and two secret book projects

December 2006

socks 101
and another meathead for the book

Not counting all the false starts, the work on projects now placed in cryogenic stasis, and single socks, I'd say I knit about 4 baby bonnets, 2 adult hats, 2 baby wrap sweaters, 2 adult sweaters, 1 toddler sweater, 2 shawls, 2 pairs of socks, and a few miscellaneous secret things. Plus I did a whole lot of sewing that I'm not sure I can quantify this cleanly.

Stitch marker celebrated its 2000th comment, and I added riveting hopefully-at-least-somewhat-fun categories such as favorites, thrift & vintage, phone blog, and the homemaking hall of fame. You helped me through the dark Boob Nazi times, cheered me on while I ran, and celebrated with me as Binx grew and as we celebrated knitting together. Thank you for being my friends and co-knitters.

Oh, and whatever I may have lacked in wit and quality? Sorry 'bout that. But I made it up in volume! According to the kind and no doubt accurate people at typepad, this is my 500th post.

ok, weird question

Doesn't anyone knit for diabetics? Like slippers and cozy socks? My grandma Olive was always knitting them for my grandfather Chet. I'm looking for someone who organizes such a thing, and searching the Internet I can't find anyone alonging on this issue. Unbelievable.

sweater for davis

Last night Sarah and I met to do some last-minute finishing of items that are going to the state fair. Forms were due earlier in the month, but actual items are due tomorrow.

Sarah wasn't home yet when I got there, but her husband Jonathan greeted me with pink wine. Then he strapped Truman on his back and went into the kitchen to cook. First he came out with chips and artichoke dip, then sliced avocados sprinkled with rice wine vinegar, salt & pepper. Finally, a ragut with sausage meat and angel hair pasta. He also kept filling my wine glass. What service!

Somewhere in there, Sarah came home from her emergency trip to Jo-ann and we started earnestly crafting. The husbands took one boy each leaving us with just Truman (who likes to eat scissors, it turns out). I fixed up my trellis sweater with some re-seaming, checked over my leaf shawl for a few fixes since it's been worn and washed repeatedly, and then finished the little sweater you see above even though it's not going to the fair. When I left around 11 pm Sarah was working on a gorgeous miniature quilt involving strips of her wedding gown fabric and bits of all the other sewing projects she's done this year. I'd given up on finishing a knitted baby bonnet that is only halfway done.

The little sweater is a wrap sweater mostly done with the pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting, though I made straight sleeves instead of the several decreases and increases in their pattern. There was something wonky about the way mine were folding up when I did it the way they say to. Oh, the yarn is of course Blue Moon Fiber Arts superwash worsted. It's the Marbles colorway, same as Sebastian's hoodie, but this skein is dyed softer, more muted.

emergency baby hat

Today I made this hat really quick for a friend's baby, who was born five weeks early. (What a nasty trick to pull on a knitter, little boy.) He's doing fine and his name is Davis. He lives about 2 houses down and he's going to be Binx's little buddy! He'll get more handmade items, but I just had to make something to bring over with the lasagna I made for them tonight.

Theirs is the greatest birth story I've heard in a while. The mom thought she might be experiencing some water leaks, so she drove herself to the hospital - alone, in the middle of the night, leaving her husband and 5-year-old son sleeping. On the way, she went into full-blown labor and by the time she arrived at the hospital they whisked her away for a c-section (which she was intending to have). Meanwhile, they are calling and calling her husband and he doesn't wake up. So Davis is born and his dad and big brother are snug in their beds at home. The police had to go knock on their door to wake them up and tell them they had a new baby. Can you just imagine that scene?

Amazing.

(click the photo for hat details)

tiny wrappy sweater & yarn ball away

This week I'm having a little Mason Dixon Knitting spasm. It's corresponding nicely with a white-is-the-best-color spasm (besides - or together with - my ususal chocolate brown).

I made this teensy darling wrap sweater for my mom to give to someone at work (from the Mason Dixon book), and I'm already well underway with a log cabin bathmat (also from The Good Book). It's so fun, I may finish before Cara's log cabin knitalong even starts.

Another finish today: my magic yarn ball. It's huge. I ended up using  a very large ball of Blue Moon Fiber Arts periwinkle in the Lagoon colorway, and then added a lot of little trinkets and toys. It weighs 1 pound, 2 ounces in the box.

Teensy sweater and magic yarn ball are both heading off with the friendly postman (Will someone explain to my dog that we like the mailman? She doesn't believe me.)  Now I just have two more packages to put together, for sooz and wee Maeve. Whee!

exhibit b

I finished this neck warmer back in December too. It's made of Baby Alpaca Grande, about 14 stitches wide, felted in a hot frontload wash and hot dryer. This is what it looks like on. Well, sort of, if it's dark and the person wearing it is passing by too quickly to really see it, but this is what I've got.

exhibit a, failure to blog

This is the first of a couple of things I finished in December and never even told you about. And oh, I love it, so I'm dragging it out now when I have less to write about, and a big boring blue thing on the needles.

Here are some more details.

a wonder

This little shrug.  It's so fast and fun, I want to make more. A pod, a prickle, a skulk of them. This one is made with $4 yarn from Coats & Clark called TLC CaraMia. It's a super soft and buttery angora/acrylic mix that I'd never heard of before.  Just stretchy enough to work with, and not sticky and icky like wool in summer.  It's a lot like very soft expensive cotton, which is what I thought it was when I picked it up.

It'll be perfect for movies on a hot day, if we ever get to go to a movie again.

If he lets us...