storm preparedness

It's just a little tropical storm.  And I have all my supplies: yarn, needles, six simultaneous projects, and my new knitting chair. No batteries, candles, bottled water or canned goods, though.  Only one tragedy has befallen us so far  (and by "us" I mean me since Steve is happily watching the weather channel and ESPN).  I find I am about 20 yards short of two of three colors of yarn required to finish the last sleeve of the destash special.  Fortunately, the internet is still working so I was able to place an emergency order with Artfibers for Toto.


And fear not - we have plenty of wine.

yes I have a lot of catching up to do

But I decided to just skip it and start posting.

There has been tons of knitting going on and my Ravelry project page is fairly up to date with a few exceptions like a baby blanket I finished from my queue but don't have a baby to give it to. Yet.

Instead of rehashing right now, I want to post about my very first Wollmeise purchase.  I can't believe I got sucked into the madness.  I think my curiosity and inner competitor got the best of me.  I bought two Kunterbunt We're Different packages of two semisolid skeins in the 100% merino superwash.

I don't know what the colors are called but I really like them. 575 yards per skein means I can make a pair of large socks with a single.  Nice.

I like the green color the best:

I think I will try to trade maroon:

The bags they came in with German translations of English knitting terms are a nice touch:

 The other night I couldn't sleep and found myself awake at the computer at 2 am.  I conveniently remembered that was exactly the time when the Wollmeise shop gets updated (7 hour time difference and the shop updates happen at 8 AM Berlin time).  I think I have four more skeins coming but I may have dreamed it....


Birdwatching has also been happening.  I put up new feeders in New Orleans and Alabama and I hope to have some good feeder pictures soon.  In  the mean time here is a shot of a Great Horned Owl in a nest with two babies.

The shot is pretty bad because, as usual, I did not have my long lens with me.  I am going to go back next weekend to reshoot, if the babies are still there. There is actually another nest near by with two more owlets. They looked a little smaller so maybe I can geta  shot at them. Here are some lovely Cedar Waxwings on a grey day:

oh snap!

We went fishing on Saturday and caught our limit of snapper.  We went out on the Misty:

Captain Gary practically guaranteed that I would catch snapper.  He didn't lie. Once we had our fill of snapper he got us some trigger fish. Here's our final haul:

Meanwhile, there has been actual knitting going on.  I am 75% done with my February Lady Sweater knit with my first purchase form Sundara.  The pattern calls for Sundara worsted merino and, by golly, it went on sale (because they are no longer making this version of it).  

 

 

This pattern has languished in my queue for too long so I was more than happy for the excuse to buy some Sundara yarn and see what it is all about.  I am pleased with the quality.  It's soft and only a tiny bit splitty.  There are no unexpected knots in the middle of it (so far) and the color is richly variegated.  My knitting, however, is a mess but I have decided to adapt and continue on.  So what if I had about 20 extra stitches on the needles when I started the lace part!  I will just increase less!  Also I am now an expert at tinking back down a stitch to pick up a missed yarn over.

Next blog post I will expose my hoarding for all the world to see.

stupid pool

Construction is going very slow.  It makes one question the wisdom of installing a pool during the summer. Actually it makes one wonder why this wasn't done about a month ago.  When it was supposed to be done.

The outdoor kitchen has plumbing but that's about it.

The tiles that edge the pool are gorgeous. Chad (WAS Design) pretty much picked them out. He's the man with the vision.















Here's the last sleeve of my Derby shrug sitting on top of the tiles.  They are more blue than in this picture. The glaze has a lot of variation and a touch of gold and brown.

I finished something

 
This should have been quicker and easier.  But my knitting mojo is all over the place lately.  Still needs buttons.  I started this because I am on a quest to use up stash and I have a load of this Vanna's choice left over from making the Cartman pillow.  I didn't really enjoy it then and no amount of thrifty destashing is going to make me enjoy working with this yarn this time.  I believe this very cute pattern deserved much better quality yarn. ("Willie", by the way)

No amount of blocking is going to cure the tension problems I had when changing color but I think that using something more elastic like wool or wool blend would have been more forgiving.

I tried to weave as I went.  I wrapped my colors as described in my Vogue Knitting reference. Yet is still came out lumpy and holey.  The color changes are ridiculous.  I tangled my yarn even though there were at most four bobbins during a few rows.  Usually there were only two or three.

Despite the problems I had, I may try to do this again.  I like the one piece construction and it is really fast and cute. Unfortunately I am almost embarrassed to give it to Preston to wear.  I may have to make him something else.

The rest of my notes about this sweater are on Ravelery.

dose of cats

Knitting is decidedly slow so let's look at the cats:

Bath time over.

We are putting in a pool so let's have a look at before and after the big giant pit:

The before shot is after they removed all of the decking and the steps from the back of the house as well as all of the trees. That took about two days.  The pile of sand is for remediation of the water line erosion.  But that's another project.

Putting in a pool is a surprisingly slow process and requires that the contractor not work too quickly or too frequently.  Less than two days a week judging from the pace of it.  I am sure the snail-like pace is for our own good.  However, in light of the fast approaching oil, I want the pool done so we can at least go swimming when we go to our beach house. And in case anyone is interested - and we all should because it's a national tragedy - the NY Times has excellent coverage of the oil spill. It seems like they have an insider involved in the BP's inept efforts to stop the spill.  They scooped CNN and the Times Picayune on the fact that the top kill effort failed by at least 4 hours.

I am blocking the pin wheel blanket for step-grandkid #3 but it's not done yet.  Here is Reggie sneaking a quick nap on it while I was not looking:

Busted!

size 11 is normal

I am getting sick of shoes. I used to love them and now I despise them. I absolutely must wear a size eleven. It's not a choice, it's a necessity. I am willing to spend a fistful of money in any store that regularly carries nice stylish shoes in my size. I want to walk in, try them on and walk out with a pair or two. No, I don't want to order them. Sheesh. I have some painful problems with my feet and I wear two different sizes so the try-on step is a must.

Speaking of things that make me sick and  are two different sizes - here is my shrug disaster. The pity is I don't quite know what went wrong. I carefully did the math for my wildly off-gauge gauge, charted the new rows and stitches and started knitting. For the first time ever, I am off in the length of the right compared to the left. That is an a-typical mistake for me. I make A LOT of mistakes, just not usually that one. I carefully counted rows and decreases and increases and still this:

I wasn't really thrilled with the gauge anyway so I may frog and start all over with a smaller needle. Now I have to run out to the store and buy a shrug to wear at the Derby because my arms are too fat to fly solo. Sheesh.

WIP no more

I am still clearing out old works in progress so I don't feel so guilty every time I start something new.  This Calm sweater should have been done ages ago.  its not hard and the most tedious part was the sewing up.  I put the details on the Rav page.  The final sweater fits great. The edge detail is quite nice and I am pleased overall with the result.  Ultimately this would be hella easier if it was knit in the round.  Sewing up uber-fuzzy mohair can make you go blind.

 

Also finished some time ago is my first pair of socks.  They actually fit me which is hilarious considering the worsted weight yarn I used (Caron's Simply Soft from junk stash).  I have been wearing them like slippers around the house since they are so thick.  I can see how sock knitting is addictive.  I learned by knitting those tiny christmas stcokings back in December and by reading "I Can't Believe I am Knitting Socks" by Cindy Guggemos which I found on the clearance rack at Walmart - no kidding.  It was $1.99.

 

  

The join isn't too bad but I made a purl in the ribbing - what the hell?

Now I am learning magic loop. I am just winging it even though the instructions are included in "I can't believe...".  The instructions suck. 

Look how cute the boys are: 

starting in the middle

 I have a bad cold and spent the whole weekend at home doing domestic stuff (knitting and cooking) in order to get better.  Actually, its too cold to go to Mardi Gras parades so I am glad to have an excuse not to go.

I have had this pin wheel blanket all lined up and ready to go for some time. I made a circular blanket once before and distinctly remember the figgity part at the beginning. You start by casting on a very small number of stitches in the round at the center of the blanket and increase from there. I had no help back then and I had not gotten on Ravelery yet so I just kind of fudged it. It didn't look great.  This time around I had the advantage of everyone's past experience with the famous pin wheel blanket to go from.  (As of this writing, 2378 Ravelery members have knit this blanket!). 

To start I used the umbilical cord method recommended by techknitter in order to get an even non-puckering center for the blanket.  Techknitter and others have other ways of doing it but this one seemed interesting and made the most sense to me.  Also the instructions on how to start the small tube were actually a good lesson in what I think is called magic loop.  I didn't have any US10 double points so I knew I would have to split the small number of stitches over a circular and the splitting concept is nicely explained when working on a small tube. And it worked.  I practiced making the tube a few times and once I had it down along with the magic loop method the blanket got going pretty fast.  Here is the little tube sticking out of the work:

 

And here is the result after removing the little. tube: 

Its not perfect but that may be a function of the yarn, I think.  The yarn is Sprout, organic cotton, and quite chunky.  It is nice to work with and, on size 10 needles, this rather dull knit is going pretty fast.  Its washable, too, so it is a good yarn for baby stuff. I am striping the beige and blue (periwinkle) with the red.  The red was a single skein at 50% off so I had to buy it and work it in to the design.    

 

The stripe pattern is 13 rounds of beige, 1 round red (without the yarn overs) then 13 rounds of blue.  Depending on how much yarn I have at the end I would like do a seed stitch border in the red. 

Reggie thinks knitting is a blast.  Which means I can't get much done if he is awake. He is also growing very quickly, likes to complain if he is hungry or wants attention, and likes to chew of stuff.  Lots of stuff, but mostly Seymore, whose patience is amazing.  

I cooked for V-day with my new John Besh cookbook.  John Besh is a genius of food.  Restaurant August is my favorite, of course.  His new cookbook definitely does the man credit.  The photography is super and the writing is interesting and completely in touch with the recipes and what fans like me want to read about.  There's even a chapter solely devoted to chantrelle mushrooms and blackberries (two little recognized south Louisiana crops). Sheesh.  Steve recently loaded us up with large shrimp from his last trip to the Westbank so I made Besh's version of shrimp and cheese grits.  Insanely delicious.

 

holiday catch-up

Look. I got a new macro lens for my camera for giftmas. SeyMo says I should stop taking very close pictures of him. You can see his eye boogers. Ick.

Also accomplished over the holidays and demonstrated with the new macro lens are some more stockings. I practiced smooth methods of circular joins and for making jog-less stripes. I am getting better. But in my excitement I forgot to measure the foot length as I went along so the stockings turned out a bit stubby.




Some close ups:




Still trying to master grafting the toe closed. This may be easier with less fuzzy yarn.


And in an exciting development I landed my first set of Knit Picks Harmony needles. My sister sent me the circular kit with an additional size 15s. I can't wait to use them. The crazy stained wood is rather psychedelic.



I was lucky enough to receive an amazing painting from my Aunt Lynn for Christmas. I can't believe she sent us her original painting of Barnegat Light House. She sent a sweet note stating that she hoped it brought back happy memories. And it did. I immediately hung it in the kitchen in the Alabama house. It is perfect right there where we can enjoy it often.