Spring Socks

Here are the second pair of Broadripple Socks. Again from Elann's Sock it to Me! Collection Esprit. I like these better because they have lime green, a color with which I am obsessed. I wore the first pair the other day and they were nice, maybe a little big, but I still haven't washed them to find out what's going to happen there. I expect them to shrink a bit, at least I hope they do.

So, I'm between projects and I'm considering knitting and felting some Easter Baskets or possibly knitting some bunnies. I printed off THIS BUNNY pattern today. There is also a bunny pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. The problem is, we are leaving for a long driving trip tomorrow and I won't be able to hide my project from the kids. I have a bunch of Cascade 220 in my basket that I need to do something with, hmmm.

Oh, and the other thing. My LYS is having a March Madness sale today. And I have nothing planned for this morning except any last minute errands before we leave for vacation. All I have to do is take a movie back. I'm trying not to buy any more yarn, but I have NEVER made it to one of their sales, and I don't even know what I want to buy, yikes, a dangerous combo.

Oh yeah, speaking of being good, I might knit a scarf from Scarf Style out of some Lion Moonlight Mohair that's been sitting here a while. I bought this yarn because it looks exactly like Dune (forgot who makes it) which I've made quite a few scarves from. Maybe I could gift it to someone.




View from Sewing Room Window




I like this picture because you can see my cherry tree starting to bloom and the newly renovated and painted (yesterday) pool house. I have been researching how to take care of these two ancient cherry trees and managed to spray them with a fungicide this year. It is a nontoxic kind used in vineyards, called Bordeaux Mixture. So, I have grand hopes of maybe making a little jam this year. Last year all we had were little black mummified cherries, ick. . .

Ready for Break

Before



After


We had dd's first cast removed (pink) and replaced with a waterproof one (green). They took another Xray while it was off and it's about 50-60% healed. She broke it while skating on her Heelys and running over a spiky ball from a sweet gum tree.

We leave for the Nick Hotel, Discovery Cove and Sea World in two days (hence the waterproof cast). I don't look forward to these trips -- it's just so stressful to have to DO so much. The kids get tired and cranky and I get tired and cranky. I'm trying to have a good attitude. I must be getting old -- I hate any break in routine.

Knitting

More sock knitting along with watching the new Pride and Prejudice and the Bollywood Bride and Prejudice. I'll probably finish the second pair of Broadripples today. I loved the movies. The new P&P seemed much grittier and natural than the A & E version (a giant boar - humongous huevos - Whoa! - walking through the house???). Darcy wasn't very hot, I'm afraid,(who can compare to Colin Firth??) although the girls were fantastic. The Bollywood movie was so fun, a modern day version set in India with lots of dancing, beautiful costumes, etc. My IRL Indian friend is going to lend me Hollywood Bollywood next.

I've been checking out
Grumperina's list of non-wooly sock yarn. Last summer my Mom gave me some Schachenmayr Nomotta Crazy Cotton (100% mercerized cotton, 6.5 st/inch) and said it makes good socks. I'm guessing it's discontinued because she bought a bunch of it on sale and gave it to me. I might try my next pair from this yarn.

Haven't had a chance to listen to any podcasts lately, but hope to go walking later this morning and get caught up.

Won't be posting again until next week when we get back from the trip. See you then.

Does This Skirt Make My Butt Look Big?

Umm, yeah. . .



So I had to make this skirt from OTTOBRE WOMAN. The tier hits me at the widest point. While I was trying to whittle the thighs down this morning at Curves, I decided to redo it, making the upper tier longer and adding ruffle at the bottom. Alas, when I got home to check I discovered there's not any fabric left at all. The fabric is nice, a handkerchief weight linen with a little bit of a crumpled texture and a nice drape. This is the first project that's come along that would work with it. Maybe I'll wear it anyway, but usually the skirts just hang in the closet unworn. Why make an exception for this one?






Knitting

I rented Capote and Howl's Moving Castle while I started another pair of Broadripple socks. I actually finished one, so I'll have another pair finished by the end of the week, just in time for our spring break trip to Florida, where I hope to wear them.



General

The Girl Scout cookies are all delivered, thank you dog. . . My dining room is almost completely free of cookies except for those I need to mail to my sister and MIL (unless she visits us first, we'll see who outlasts who). Trying to catch up on reading my New Yorkers this week, and then maybe I'll start reading my IRL book club selection, The Other Boleyn Girl.

I listened to Moll Flanders while I made the skirt this weekend. Man, it made me tired just keeping track of all that lady was up to. . . Just trying to count all the husbands, lovers, kids -- it blew my mind. Makes you realize how much we women have today, not being the property of men any longer.

Angel

Meet Angel the Guinea Pig


Here she is enjoying some grass in the backyard. I have to keep her underneath the wire part of her cage with access to her pink igloo, or else she's uncomfortable. We have a lot of hawks around, plus the dog. . . Umm, and let me just say if you are ever considering a solid white pig, remember, cleanup is a pain, definitely go with brown. And no, I will NOT take a picture of her other side, it's just too embarrassing and that stuff doesn't come out even with shampoo -- I usually have to take the scissors to her.

Broadripple Finished




These socks are so quick and pretty. I used Elann's Sock it To Me! Collection Esprit in color 9903. I made the legs 5" long and could have made them at least an inch and a half longer without running out of yarn. For a summer sock, I like them a bit shorter. I just cast on another pair in a slightly different colorway, it has a little lime green in it.

Surprise in the Laundry Basket

Can you spot the Jaywalker sock in this picture? I wore it this week and it was very nice, I didn't even notice I had it on. The green and blue ones behind Tiger's head are my favorite k4/p2 rib pattern from Vogue Knitting Socks Too. My mom made the stripey grey one, she typically does a K2/p1 rib all the way down the leg, then switches to stockinette for the foot.

Okay, here's my confession. I went to Kohl's yesterday and bought two skorts and two pairs of shorts (plus a bunch of Vneck Tshirts). I'm struggling with how much of my wardrobe to sew myself. When I can buy okay-fitting shorts for under $20 it's hard to resist. They have tons of fancy pockets, fly fronts, etc. -- lots of time consuming details. It would cost me at least $20 to sew them, plus a full afternoon (or more) to make them. I just heard on the news that they are shutting down a garment making plant in a rural, poor county in our state, laying off 800 people, due to cheap Chinese imports. . . Sigh. . .

Knitting

Broadripple socks are coming along, might finish them tonight. I succumbed to peer pressure and ordered some Socks that Rock yarn today. The two big projects waiting in the wings are the Charlotte's Web Shawl and a scarf size Lady Eleanor -- might use the DANICA pattern (man is that guy cute) from knitty. I have 8 balls of Silk Garden, not enough for Eleanor, and let's face it, I'm a scarf girl rather than a shawl girl.

Reading

The New Yorker came yesterday, along with Vogue Knitting. I also have a copy of Threads that I haven't opened. Right now I'm finishing up Funny Times and then maybe I'll get to a book. I'm getting tired thinking about it all.

Richard Parker Tshirt

Here's the Tshirt (pattern from OTTOBRE) for Life of Pi. One of the books themes was color. Green for Islam, Orange for Hinduism, and what color for Christianity? Many people on the book forum suggested red, which I think fits, all that blood, you know? I kept picking up this piece of fabric. . . And of course the stripes fit with a tiger.

Blues/Greens

I spent some time in the sewing room today, just piling things up and thinking. Now some of these fabrics are actually scraps, so I can't get a complete garment out of them, but they could be combined to create something, maybe. I guess I've got Spring fever. There's a light aqua piece in there that wants to become a tiered skirt from Ottobre Woman at the very least.

It's cold in this house!

Batman and Tiger are trying to keep warm. Or maybe it's Pi and Richard Parker gettin' cozy in the lifeboat.?

Happy Spring

I Sewed!

Spring break will be here in two weeks, so I'm putting the Ottobre Woman to good use. The TOP is nice, but I'm not an ironer, so I'm not sure whether it will get much wear. Woven tops like this usually hang in the closet neglected, while I wear Tshirts.

Speaking of T Shirts

I posted a REVIEW of this too.

Here is the conversation of the weekend -- 5yo ds says "mom, I hate it when you're sewing because you're not taking care of me." My response: "I'll be there in a minute." Half an hour later "mom, when are you going to come downstairs and knit?" "Just a minute." Fifteen more minutes pass and he's clutching his tummy "mom, I'm starving, I can't stand up, oww, my tummy, etc. etc." So I turn off the machines and come downstairs. Sigh. . . One of the reasons I'm not sewing as much these days.

At Least There's Knitting

One Broadripple sock is finished, won't take me long to make the second one. I'm a bit concerned about the wearability of this yarn. It's mostly cotton with a little elastic. The only other pair of cotton socks I've made were in Fortissima Cotton and they eventually got hard and uncomfortable. I will give these a wear test before I knit up another pair from this yarn. I think I have enough to knit 4 or 5 more pairs, though, yikes, hope I like it.

Reading

I finished Life of Pi this weekend and really enjoyed it. Now I know why the group must have hated it. (SPOILER) Because it has an alternate story and it's not clear which version is true. So many people get their panties in a wad over this. I don't mind the ambiguity myself, but can see why people don't like it. Maybe because in life you can't have it both ways? In fiction it can be any way you want it. I will probably start The Other Boleyn Girl next, which is my IRL book club selection for next month.

Let's Get this Garden Started

Marigolds -- Happy Days Mixed

I had great luck with these last year. They came up fast from seed and bloomed right away. I've always disliked marigolds because of their smell, but my experience last year changed my mind completely. I had so much trouble with every other flower I tried to grow from seed, but the marigolds, ahhh, they made me proud. They were compact and fast growing and easy to maintain. They will be replacing these pansies in, oh, six weeks or so, when it gets too hot for them:

I have worn the green Wandering Aran Fields capelet for the past three days. It's funny, I wear handknits all the time and people hardly ever notice or comment, but this one had several people asking me if I made it, etc. When this happens, I wonder if it looks amateurish, you know, *loving hands at home*. But I'm TRYING not to feel that way and looks like I found another mom in my ds's class who knits. That is like a nice unexpected little surprise, so I'm thinking it's a good luck garment.

Speaking of lucky,

An embarrassment of riches, no? You have to love preschool art, don't you? I will NEVER have to go to Party City ever again to buy seasonal decorations, because I have a PRESCHOOLER WHO MAKES ART EVERY DAY.

On the reading front, I am about halfway through Life of Pi. My book club read this last year before I joined and it caused quite a controversy, although I'm not sure why. I'm guessing that it was something to do with the animals being injured, that part was somewhat graphic. But, I'm not finished yet, so we shall see. I'm considering joining this KAL and they are reading it now too. Although I'm a bit stumped on what you would knit along the theme of this book - maybe it will become clear when I finish it. . .

Not Geeky Enough

My dh had an
ARTIST create this picture of our house. I just love it and the artist gave me permission to use it in my profile, which I can't figure out. . .

On to the knitting, here is the start of a Broadripple sock. I am using a Cascade Fixation Knockoff, called Sock it to Me from www.elann.com. I love the Springy colors. Considering making it for dd, since she's on a purple kick these days, but I'm not sure she's deserving, because she's never worn any other handknit socks I or my mom has made for her. These needles are driving me crazy, they're much too long. My regular sock needles are short little 5" Brittany Birch size 2s, so I am hating this set. I'm sure at the time I bought them they were the only 3s I could find and I was probably very thankful that they weren't metal, so I never even considered how long they were.

I promise to work on editing. . . It's not coming easy for me and I'm already spending way too much time on it. Believe me, I'm trying to separate the photos and create some white space, but it's not working.

Green Stuff

Here is the blouse. I always forget how long a project like this takes. It has eleven buttonholes - eleven! And then sewing on all those buttons. . . Plus it took me two days to fit it. And you know what, then I'll be bored with it and not want to make it up again, what a waste. . .

I think next I'll try the Sleeveless Blouse, the weather here is about to be hot. I'm hoping that the two patterns will be similar enough that I can transfer the changes right over. . .







Here is Wandering Aran Fields from the Wrap Style book. I used Knitpicks Andean Silk in Leaf (10 balls). I bought the yarn intending to make Twisty Turns from that book, but changed my mind. I really wanted to make this one in white or ivory, more like a classic aran sweater, but I WASN'T BUYING ANY MORE YARN at the time, so there. . . One of my New Year's Resolutions was a to try a cable project and this is it.

The other is Socks on Two Circs, so I'll be posting about that soon. . . .

Bear with me, I promise I am working on learning enough html to make this a readable blog. In the meantime, I'm keeping it a secret until I feel like I have a few things figured out and it isn't so embarrassing.

Why did I start this? Because there are so many knitalongs on Blogger and you can't join unless you have an account with them. . .

First Post

The title says it all. . . First I'll attempt the obligatory cat photo. Oh, and I'm having trouble with things like paragraphs, etc. but I'm sure I'll figure that out soon. You don't mind streamofconsciousness do you? Today I finished a blouse from www.ottobredesign.com and posted a review over at http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=13220 (sorry patternreview, I promise to figure it all out soon, sigh. . . ) Knittingwise, I started a Broadripple sock today, using a yarn from elann.com that is similar to Cascade Fixation. It's very strange knitting with a yarn with elastic, so stretchy. . . The colors are really springy, pics to come.