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Would you like crackers with your pea soup?

Mar 9th, 2010 by Diane T

The only thing worse than driving across the state of Iowa in March is driving across the state of Iowa in March in a fog so thick that you get tunnel vision: nothing to see to the right or left, up or down, except a blanket of white cotton; nothing in the rear view mirror and in front the barest shadow of a tractor trailer. I chose to follow a dark blue and yellow trailer truck because the white and gray ones disappeared in the fog. When the truck changed lanes, I changed lanes, figuring he was passing another vehicle that I couldn’t see yet. This strategy got me from Des Moines to the border without mishap.

Edibles consumed:  some of the cheese and crackers, nuts, one clementine, a few Tootsie rolls and a rabbit’s worth of baby carrots to keep me awake in the fog. Plus shrimp salad for lunch.

It was a long day.

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Posted in Life | 6 Comments »

I saw her first

Mar 8th, 2010 by Diane T

geese1

Buzz off buster

Based upon their loud and aggressive posturing that would.not.end until I reminded them that pooping on my deck was not included in the Complete and Unabridged Handbook of Canada Geese Mating Rituals (not even in the end notes), I’m guessing these are males establishing territorial rights over our back yard and some poor bedraggled female who just wants to be left alone with her morning ration of the neighbor’s corn and a warming sunbeam. She’s in for a long spring.

~

Chez moi, we’re preparing for a little road trip tomorrow.  True to my neuroses, I’m packing enough stuff to last for a month. Not so much the clothes but all the projects that I’m convinced I’ll have time to complete. Balancing the checking account for the last two months. Reading three books. Making headway on four knitting projects.

And just in case we get caught in a late-season blizzard, here’s what I have packed for food for a 7-hour car ride.

  • 6 oz of cheddar cheese, sliced.
  • Crackers to match.
  • 1.5 pounds of homemade trail mix (walnuts, pecans, almonds and dried fruit).
  • Apple juice.
  • 3 cans of diet soda.
  • 8 oz of those little baby carrots that aren’t really baby carrots.
  • A bag of Tootsie rolls.
  • Half dozen clementines, peeled and ready to eat.
  • Yogurt
  • Water.

I hope we make it to the restaurant for lunch before starvation sets in.

Posted in Life | 5 Comments »

Someday was yesterday, FO-wise

Mar 6th, 2010 by Diane T

brachscarf

Now that sunlight has returned to Middle Earth* I’ve been able to get a decent shot of Finished Object (FO) #2. (Note the Japanese maple has made real progress since I last photographed it. It even has tiny little flowers.)

For years I’ve been setting aside a small bin containing yarns that were too special for everyday knitting (whatever that is). I’ve been saving them because someday I’d have time to search for patterns worthy of their specialness.

In that bin were 3 small balls of cashmere I bought on sale at one of my local yarn shops. It’s been marinating in stash because it’s cashmere — on sale cashmere — so it required a pattern that was special and just perfect.

When I realized that I kept looking at this pattern and liking it’s simplicity and the yardage was spot-on for the cashmere, I whipped out the needles and set to. This was as perfect as it was gonna get.

Because someday is now chickadees and there’s more cashmere and alpaca in that bin that needs to be knit and worn and enjoyed. And if the yarn is special enough, it makes the pattern worthy.

So what special yarn are you holding onto that should be knit?

~

Pattern: Branching Out from Susan Lawrence

Needles: US 6 Addi Natura (wooden)

Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Pure Cashmere, 25 grams, 88 yards, 3 skeins

Size: 5 inches by 6 feet

Time to knit: Don’t remember, but off and on about a month

Notes: The pattern is easy to memorize and not difficult at all. It would be good for a beginner or perhaps advanced beginner because the number of stitches does change on a couple rows. The cashmere is soft, light and a pleasure to knit. It turned out just the right length for wrapping all kinds of ways. I expect I’ll use this scarf for years to come.

*(Knitwonpurltoo uses that expression all the time, I think it’s perfect for us Mid-westerners.)

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Posted in Knitting | 9 Comments »

Project promiscuity

Mar 1st, 2010 by Diane T

My head is full of projects these days. I’ve finished a couple things that have been sitting around for months (and years) so I’m “allowed” to start something new.

I’ve been looking through patterns and pulling yarn out of stash, making swatches for this and that. I’d show you a picture of my knitting area (the couch and coffee table) but it just looks like a jumble of magazines, books and tea cups all mixed in with single skeins of yarn and fiber to spin. Once something clicks, I’ll be able to clean it up, but for now I feel unsettled and flighty.

Today, I think this is what I’ve settled on as my next projects. Ask me tomorrow and it may be different. (Socks aren’t listed but there’s always a pair or two in the works.)

minswatch

The Minimalist cardigan (Rav link). The pattern calls for a merino/alpaca blend and I just happen to have a similar yarn in stash (we luvs the stash). The gauge is supposed to be 5 st to the inch, but I like the fabric better at 5.5 stitches. It has a little more body to it, less open and floppy than at 5 spi. I’ll rework the pattern numbers and start the back. I can always change my mind.

Oh and I don’t like the version of Moss stitch in the pattern, over an odd number of stitches. Either I’m not doing it right, or it just looks funky. I swatched an even number of stitches and used Barbara Walker’s version of moss stitch; works better for me.

Patterns are meant only as suggestions, right?

fingerlessmitts

These fingerless mitts. It’s been a while since I’ve done Fair Isle and after lace, it’s my favorite kind of knitting. I don’t do it more often because it requires concentration and usually I have a lace project that takes up that portion of my knitting brain.

But I have a good bit of fingering weight yarn so it’s fun to pull skeins out and play with color combinations, always a challenge for me.

Now I just have to remember the rule about which hand is dominant for making yarn pop. I haven’t been able to come up with a mnemonic to help me hold this information in my leaky sieve of a brain.

redscarf1

I’ve also started something for the Red Scarf Project, using the Palindrome pattern but with an 8-row repeat instead of 6. The trick with this pattern is that it’s completely reversible, the cables look the same front and back. It gets done in bits of time since I have until December to finish it.

What about lace you say? Well there’s this:

honeybee1

For some reason, I’m not feeling the love.  The yarn is beautiful and I’ve gotten into the pattern rhythm now so it’s going faster. But I had to cut some repeats in the center section because I thought I would die before I finished. That doesn’t usually happen. I’m determined to complete this because I think it will be lovely when done. One of these days, I’ll make it my primary project and it will fly.

~

Pics of the finished stuff soon.  I need to put in my first zipper and I’m procrastinating.

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Posted in Knitting | 8 Comments »

Cancel spring

Feb 22nd, 2010 by Diane T

icicles2

Mother Nature stomped all over our traces of spring this weekend, leaving behind five inches of snow and ice. I started the morning shoveling snow, not for the first time this winter. Dare I hope it will be the last?

Not.

icicle

I went to a woodworking show with Jack this weekend. Small by comparison to events like Stitches, but similar in many ways. Lots of doo-dads that made no sense except to the initiated. Finished objects on display. When knitters want to get down and dirty, we look at the inside of a sweater; woodworkers open drawers and look at dovetails. (I’ve seen better.)

Different because the testosterone level was off the charts. Most of the vendors used cordless mikes to demo their products so clumps of men would stop up the aisle before moving off to the next sales pitch. One demonstrator had big blue bandages on 6 of his 10 fingers, not a very confidence-inspiring sight. I moved along before bandage #7 became necessary.

And no color. Blue jeans, brown jackets, work boots. No screaming yellow socks, purple cabled sweaters or fun fur ponchos. Apparently the only colors available to the manufacturers are black and silver with occasional power shots of orange or red.

And knitters have waaaay more fun with show and tell. I was sitting out in the lobby waiting for Jack and 3 guys stopped in front of me. They were each carrying something they’d bought and not a single one opened their bag to show off their score.

For Pete’s sake, bounce a little, you might shake loose some of your inner girl.

icicles3

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Posted in Knitting, Life, woodworking | 9 Comments »

Traces of spring

Feb 17th, 2010 by Diane T

japanmaple

The other day I had a bout of spring fever and went out into my patch of garden looking for some early green. I thought I might find some early daffodils foolishly poking up through the February snow. It took some scraping through the mulch but I did find the first green shoots. I covered them back up when the wind blew a snow squall through. We’ll leave them to sleep a little longer. Knowing they’re there is enough right now.

In the meantime, the plants I overwinter in an unheated entryway are beginning to show signs that winter won’t last forever. The Japanese maple has broken its winter dormancy, putting out long sprigs of pale green leaves, a month early. I usually expect this graceful guy to leaf out in March, just before it’s time to move on outside.

On the other hand, the azalea which normally blooms in late January has a single flower bud ready to open, a month behind schedule. Could be that its’ winter home next to the window was colder than normal, slowing flower production to a crawl. Or I pruned it too late. No matter, it looks like March will be azalea month here.

The big drawback to winter isn’t the snow or cold, it’s the absence of light. The shorter days, the weaker sun make for a listless grumpy attitude around here unless an effort is made.  Getting up in the dark and cooking dinner as dark falls again leaves me cranky.

Meanwhile, I check the azalea and the little potted maple every morning to see how they’re progressing. They promise spring and sunlight.

Efforts are being made.

japanmaple2

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Posted in Life, garden | 6 Comments »

Snow traks

Feb 12th, 2010 by Diane T

pawraccoon

birdssnow

pawcat

pawsquirrel

footprint

big momma raccoon, little brown bird, confused little orange cat, tree-hugging gray squirrel, me

(these pictures were all taken on different days, after different storms, hence the difference in snow and lighting)

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Posted in Life | 6 Comments »

Making lemonade

Feb 10th, 2010 by Diane T

cornsnow

My version of corn snow. This colored corn is indestructible. I thought the birds would peck away at it all winter, but they haven’t touched it. A life lesson.

~

This is not the post I had planned for you. I had this whole chatty post about preparing for spring written in my head, which segued into the benefits of learning something new to keep your brain (brainnzzz!) from atrophying, botanical gardens in winter, how people learn, competitiveness, yada, yada, yada.  It was marvelous I tell ya, you would have loved it. And then the project I had it centered on went into epic fail and even the epic fail was so ugly that it wasn’t worth a picture (gray, wet cement). So, no post.

Life lesson #2: be flexible.

And then I thought, well OK, I have another FO, I can write about that.

And then I didn’t get it blocked, so that has to be postponed.

Life lesson #3: plan ahead.

So you’re getting a picture of corn in the snow. Because that seems to be the extent of my cleverness this week.

I’ll try to do better next time.

But don’t count on it. I believe atrophy is setting in.

~

OH! Here’s something you might like if you live in a snow state and are fearful of ever seeing green and living things again. My sister-in-law sent it in an e-mail. Click anywhere on the screen. Or hold your left mouse button down and scroll around.

There. A little lemonade to start your day.

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Posted in Life | 9 Comments »

Still haz brainz for knitting

Feb 6th, 2010 by Diane T

The invasion of zombies has been vanquished with the aid of sunflowers, peashooters and puff-’shrooms.  I swear I thought Wordtwist was a time suck, this is so much worse.  An hour gets lost in a flash. I’ve mastered all the levels I can in the online and trial versions and have pinky-sworn that I’m not buying the paid version.

Now I remember why I deleted all the games that came with my computer.

Although….I understand the paid version has butter throwing corn. And grumpy squash…..hmmm.

No, I’m not buying it.

I mean it. Really.

First FO of 2010

Noroscarf2

Ta da! A FO for 2010 already, this might be a record for me since it was cast on and finished in the same month! Knit, blocked and worn. It’s devilishly difficult to photograph, but it’s cheerful and bright.

It’s also pretty amazing because I hated this yarn in the ball. It felt like stringy hard cotton with no stretch. I bought two skeins of it on a whim because I saw it knit up in an attractive narrow scarf. Got it home, tried the scarf, found it boring and put the yarn away for two (three?) years. When I was stash diving recently I decided to give it another go and after many false starts, figured out what I wanted to do with it.

Yarn: Noro Sakura (discontinued) two skeins, 147 yards/40 gram skein. 36% Rayon, 28% Polyester, 18% Nylon, and 11% Silk. I’ve misplaced the ball band, so I’ll add the color family when I find it.

Needles: US 7 Addis

Size: 5 inches wide and 80 inches long

Started: 1/14/2010
Finished: 1/31/2010

Pattern: What pattern. I cast on a bunch of stitches (somewhere between 200 and 300) and did garter stitch the long way. This took advantage of the long color changes in the yarn to produce very subtle stripes. I knit up all of one skein, ending on a purple stripe. On the second skein, I wound off the first half until I got to the purple part again and started knitting out. This gave me a roughly balanced looking scarf with blue-green on both outer edges and purple in the middle.

I could have stopped there, the scarf was long enough to wear but that left me with half a skein of yarn. I decided to wind the leftovers into two balls evenly divided by weight. Then I picked up stitches along each short end and knit down in garter. This added another 8 inches to the length on each end so I can wear this multiple ways; wrapped multiple times, or with the ends through the middle.

Three of the four colors on the ends don’t repeat in the long part of the scarf. And the first skein has a stripe of brown in it that’s not in the second skein. So even though the yarn was from the same dye lot and the same color family, the colors in the two skeins did not completely repeat.

After washing and blocking, the scarf became soft and relaxed and a pleasure to wear. It’s funky and colorful and just the thing for gray winter days. I’ve been using it all week. For someone who doesn’t like to knit scarves, this tickles me no end.

~~

cleosleeping

Between guarding against zombies and harassing the birds, Cleo is exhausted beyond words. Actually she’s faking it, hiding behind that paw. One eye is barely cracked, keeping an alert out for any treats that might fall on the floor.

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Posted in Knitting, Life | 7 Comments »

Send sunflowers

Feb 5th, 2010 by Diane T

sunflower

Can’t post, the final wave of zombies is nearly at the door.

Must plant more sunflowers.

Tune in tomorrow to see the outcome.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

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