Two Purls

Library books ROCK!

Can I just say how much I love my local public library? It's two blocks from my house, a teeny tiny little thing of a branch of the main library, but they have an amazing selection of knitting books. I'm convinced that there is a knitter on staff there, as the knitting section is larger than the gardening section and rivals the cookbook section.

While there today, I picked up Men in Knits by Tara Jon Manning to give me some ideas of sweater construction for men. I plan to design an aran pullover for DH for his Christmas present and need to start exploring how these things are made.

Originally I bought a ton of Galway wool (see one of the posts further down in August) in brown tones, but now I'm thinking that I'd like to use something a bit chunkier - like at least a size 9 needle, preferably 10 or 10.5. Maybe I can use the Galway for a hoodie for myself. I'm thinking maybe Cascade Ecological wool... any experiences with it? I had him feel it at a LYS and he said it wasn't too scratchy, so that's good. Still looking, though, and I might put off buying something until I hit Stitches East in Atlantic City and NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, both of which are in October. Those should be so much fun!

Smart-n-Sassy

Check out this website (click on the logo) - I saw it linked on another message board I'm on. I like these ladies!

Back from a few days of much needed vacation at the shore! Ahhhh.... DH and I were in a (BIG) house with my ILs, his four sisters, one BIL, and 12 (!) nieces and nephews. We actually had a lot of fun and wished that we could have stayed the full week with everyone else. One nephew, Max (aged 8), pleaded with me to teach him to knit and unfortunately, I had left my extra needles at home. We tried using chopsticks, but it just didn't work so we used the chopsticks to make a God's Eye with the extra yarn I brought instead. Here's a pic of him pleading with me to teach him knitting. I promised him I would the next time I see him. That face is irresistible...AND he's wearing the t-shirt we bought him as a thank-you for the kids when they were in our wedding in November. :)

So, here's what's new on the needles ~ a scarf in Noro Silk Garden, knitted up using a vine lace pattern. Here are two pics, one of which shows the color changes and the other shows off the lace pattern. So very pretty and I am loving knitting with the Noro.

Brazen Hussy

It's just what the (Knitting) Dr ordered - a Brazen Hussy. I'm off to make one now, as my current research project hit the toilet yesterday and this weekend is being spent re-working the damn thing. It's definitely time for a break - and a stiff drink.

Off topic from knitting, work, and alcohol, I'm currently reading Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy and I have to say that this is one fine book. Reading about the history of maternal instincts across a variety of species as I myself face the prospect of becoming a mother in the next few years, well, it's quite fascinating.

Knitting entries to resume next week. Post-Brazen Hussy inebriated entry to possibly follow in a couple hours. ;)

Hm...I just realized that I might get some strange google hits, what with the last entry titled Good SEX and this one titled Brazen Hussy!

Good SEX

Oh yes, it was a very good Stash Enrichment eXpedition today. A friend and I decided to meet in Hoboken and take the ferry to Lower Manhattan, where she was introduced to Seaport Yarn, my favorite yarn store. I picked up enough Galway wool to made DH an aran sweater for Christmas, per his request....here's a pic of the goods. Included are 6 skeins of a Heathered Light Brown, 3 skeins of Cream, and 2 skeins of Heathered Dark Brown. I will chart up a design on my own...

Then I added in 2 pairs of Addi Turbos to do the knitting (size 8 - how did I make it this long knitting with no size 8 needles?!)

Since I still needed more yarn to hit the $100 mark (in order to get a 10% discount - hehehe), I decided to try Noro Silk Garden for the very first time, and make myself a fabulous self-striping scarf for winter. I think this will look superb as a contrast to my green wool winter peacoat:

Next we got back on the ferry and went to try out the brand-spanking-new LYS in Hoboken, Patricia's Yarns (website coming soon, as her flyer says). Patricia is just the nicest person you could meet, and although her store is very small, she's stocking very nice yarns with a good color selection. Since the yarns I bought off Elann a few weeks ago are just not working out for the pumpkin hat and booties I am knitting up for a preggo friend, I needed new orange and brown yarn for the project. Alas, Patricia carries Cascade 220 in both orange and brown. The orange is in superwash and the brown is regular wool:

And when I arrived home, what was awaiting me in the mail but the yarn I ordered last week from Little Turtle Knits. I'm not too happy about the yarn - it seems a bit scratchy and the colors aren't as pretty as I thought they seemed online, but I'll hold off final judgement until they are knitted up into the intended diaper soaker and baby longies.

So, it's time to get knitting. Tomorrow will be a day of diving into the frog pond. In addition to frogging the R Baby Blanket, the Calmer Baby Raglan and the first pair of pumpkin booties are on the hit list. Bad me didn't check gauge on the raglan (it's turning out miniature), the blanket is short on yarn, and the pumpkin booties are just rough, scratchy, and all over ugly. Time to purge of the ugly and ill-planned and start on the beautiful and thought-through!

Close to Home

AH HA HA hahaha...I have days where I feel like this and I don't even have any kids - just a crazy dog and an overworked husband. I spotted this funny (Close to Home by John McPherson) in Friday's local paper - which I'm just getting around to reading now that it is Monday.

No knitting today. Too busy reviewing a paper that I am supposed to be presenting in San Francisco this weekend. Thankfully, my co-author allowed me to bail on him a couple months back and he'll present it at the conference instead.

I just received an invite to a friend's baby shower down in DC on September 12th (the one who the R blanket was for). I think that I've decided to knit her just a pumpkin hat and bootie set instead of the blanket, and I'll save that yummy Rowan All Seasons Cotton for a couple sweaters instead. Just need a break from the doomed blanket mindset, if that makes sense. I'm thinking that it might be awfully fun to take the train down to DC and have some relaxing knitting/reading time instead of battling traffic on I-95 for hours on end. Off to check train ticket prices now...!

Two FOs for Two Purls

Yeah! Two projects are completely finished: the baby bootie and hat set for our friends in London and Oscar's sweater. Since the baby (Carson, a girl) will only be 2 weeks old by the time the package arrives, the baby set was finished in time to actually be worn. Here's a pic:

Both booties are from the Simple Knits for Cherished Babies book, with the slippers done in size 0-3 months, and the warmer booties in size 3 to 6 months. Hat will hopefully fit through 6 months of age, as it has a 14" diameter and is very stretchy. The yarn is Schoeller Stahl Morea in Vintage Orchid color, bought on Elann.com. It is 51% Merino wool and 49% microfiber, washable and soft.

Oscar's sweater is finally finished as well. I'll get some peppy pictures of him tomorrow, but he was a shy sleepy pug when I was snapping the camera, so this is what we get for now. Since he wears a harness instead of a collar (for his delicate collapsible trachea!) I inserted a buttonhole in the appropriate place so that the sweater can lie flat on his back and the leash can poke through. It was knitted in washable-yet-warm Wool Ease on size 10.5 needles.

I'm also making lots of progress on the Sirdar Sweater and managed to get some arm measurements this weekend off the recipient, my niece Katherine. She turned 7 years old on Thursday and received her much-longed-for wish of the American Girl doll, Kit, so I have decided to make Kit a matching sweater. Measurements from Kit (the doll) were taken after Katherine went to bed last night and I just know that this is going to be a wonderful surprise of a Christmas present for her.

"R" blanket problems

Hm. I was telling a fellow knitter (a woman that I met in a waiting room - yes, I do chat with just about everyone) about my planned "R" blanket, and how I was annoyed that in our move I lost the pattern/diagram for my two color square-in-a-square with the inital R in the very center. She pointed out that if I was going to be doing fair isle knitting on a blanket, I might want to cover the back with some soft flannel, so that my stranding (or intarsia work, depending on the size of the area I would be working in) would be hidden. Good point - especially as a blanket might get dragged a lot of places, and stranding could catch on little baby toes and whatnot.

But I don't *want* to do a flannel backing - it might pucker, shrink in different ways from the knitting, etc. etc.

The original plan was to have a solid color blanket, with the initial just purled into the design, as is pictured in Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. But I didn't purchase enough yarn of the same dark purple, and when I called the yarn store later in the day, they had already sold the remaining balls. So then came the two-color plan. Now I wonder if I should just do plain stripes? Or, stripes on the main center section of the blanket, but keep the garter stitch edge all in dark purple? I'd have to rip back a bit so make the stripes more even throughout the whole blanket.

Or rip the whole thing out, keep the yarn for something else and start over a new blanket with a yarn that I actually have enough of to make the purled design? Or I could frog it and start over making a sweater that has the purled R on the front with this yarn. Ideas?

Yarn Binge

Yesterday I went on a yarn binge. It had been almost six weeks since I last bought knitting-related treats for myself, and I made up for the break with a few splurges. I happened by The Yarn Connection in Manhattan (okay, so I walked 8 blocks out of my way to "happen by" - details, details) and just look at what I found on sale! Rowan Calmer...

I have always wanted to buy this yarn, but priced at $10.95/skein it has just seemed a touch pricey. So when I saw it listed on sale for $8.75 I just had to pick some up. I got three skeins in the dark teal (one skein is already on the needles, and not in the picture) and two skeins in a contrast lighter blue-green. I'm finally making the raglan sweater from the Debbie Bliss book Simple Baby Knits:

I also picked up some Cascade 220 in purple to make winter gloves and decided to toss a skein of Crystal Palace Fizz for the cuff. Now that we are on the final stretch of summer (I still can't believe that it's August already) I feel the urge to start Christmas presents. Here's a pic of my goodies, with Oscar already staking claim. Actually, I think he was really trying to recapture his patch of sunlight that I placed the yarn on for the photo.

In addition to my in-store purchasing, I also did a little online shopping at Little Turtle Knits, buying patterns for the Ribby Wrap diaper soaker (how cute is that?!), the LTK longies, and the pumpkin hat. Here's a pic of each:

Of course, when I saw the handpainted wool yarns that Theresa at LTKs has for sale, I couldn't resist and picked up two skeins, one in True Blue and one in After the Rain. Hopefully both will make wonderful soakers.

I love it when there are yarn goodies on their way. Now I just have to get knitting!