Domestic Goddess

Oh yes I was quite the domestic goddess this weekend. I got my seedlings all planted in their pots: I managed to finish all the Rebecca Wrap Cardi pieces and get them blocking:
Heck, I even baked a pie (yes, from scratch):
And even after all this strenuous activity, I somehow managed to get through the Flirty Ruffles cast on:
Heh. Dontcha just love those triangular shawl cast-ons? It doesn't get much easier than that! The weather was gorgeous but unfortunately the swarms of bloodthirsty black flies kept me from being able to really enjoy it. I just opened all the windows and tried to enjoy the fresh air as it came in. At least there are lots of pretty flowering trees and plants to look at right now!

What Is It?

It's a Kitty Blanket! I'm working on this for Knit Knack's Critter Charity Drive. It couldn't have come at a more opportune time...my stash is suddenly exploding due to my neighbor cleaning out her attic and giving me two shopping bags full of Bartlett Yarn 2-ply Fisherman. Which is a yarn I love, but what the heck am I going to do with that much of it?? As I was looking at the yarn piled all over the floor, I noticed these four skeins of TLC Amore that I was thinking would be nice as an afghan. But I must face facts and admit that I'm never going to actually get around to knitting said afghan. This seems like the perfect way to use it. I am knitting it in brioche stitch and it is so nice and lofty and velvety soft. I'm going to finish this one and run it through a wash and dry cycle to make sure it will stand up to shelter use. If it's OK I have enough to make three more blankets.

I also have a Kitty Pi that I made a couple years ago when I first started knitting, but that I could never get fully felted. I brought it to the laundromat last night and I think I actually managed to felt it properly!

Plus I have scads of yarn leftovers that I can convert into catnip mice and other toys.

So go check out Knit Knack's page...there's lots of fun prizes and best of all you'll be helping all those poor little critters who are waiting for a home!


What about this poor little critter:
"Thank goodness these fools finally obeyed me and opened the windows! Sheesh!"

OK, so I definitely wasn't kidding about possibly going crazy knitting this shawl. I've been swatching over the last week, and let's just say...I hope I haven't gotten in over my head! My first swatch took about three tries before I *somewhat* got the hang of the pattern. This picture is of my last and best swatch and I still see some errors. The print o' the wave pattern just doesn't seem to lend itself to easy memorization. I'll be casting on this Memorial Day weekend...let's hope Flirty Ruffles is kinder to me than the swatch was!

I finally picked up the poor, abandoned Rebecca Wrap Cardigan again, and I'm cruising along on the fronts (done at the same time, bien sur).
I must say I'm especially pleased that I finally figured out how to do a sloped bind-off, thanks to Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook: Nice smooth bound-off edge. I'm not sure why it took me so long to do this, but I guess sometimes I'm just a little slow on the uptake (no wisecracks, now).

The Amazing Lace: Meet the Team!

THIS is the TRUE Story...

Of two teammates:

Picked to spend the summer on an AMAZING LACE Adventure...

To find out what happens when they STOP being polite:
And START getting REAL:
THE AMAZING LACE: North Woods Edition!

This episode is brought to you by QUINCY, official sponsor and mascot of the 2006 TEAM FLIRTY RUFFLES.

Sock Success

Aaah! I knew I should have heeded the warnings of my subconscious!

Ha, ha, actually I think my hair came out fine...pretty much the same cut as I always get. Hey, I've been seeing the same stylist for two years now, I hope I don't get any surprises at this point!
I look kinda pissed off in that photo, but I swear I wasn't. Anyhoo, thanks for all the great comments about the dream--they definitely made me laugh.

I did get my fish scale socks wrapped up: Does everybody else find it as hard as I do to get a decent photo of socks? Here they are, in "Red Sox" mode:
And here you can see what life is like in my shoes...er, socks: Project Notes:
"Child's First Sock In Shell Pattern" orginally an 1899 sock pattern re-interpreted by Nancy Bush in her book Knitting Vintage Socks.
Worked in Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4-ply, color "Strawberry" on US size 1 needles

The pattern was wonderful--very well written and the stitch pattern was pretty easy to memorize. I did make one mistake in forgetting to knit three plain rows before starting the toe decreases, but that didn't seem to affect wearability.

The yarn--eh. It was a bit splitty for my taste and it was completely impossible to get an even-looking cast-on. My theory is that it seemed to twist up easily and thus some of the cast-on was done with what was basically tighter-spun yarn. Maybe this was the fault of poor knitting technique, though? Also, the color looks more "Raspberry" than "Strawberry" to me, but I guess that's splitting hairs.

And that's all there is to say about that.

Well, this summer should be quite an adventure now that I've joined The Amazing Lace KAL. My "teammate" is going to be the lovely Flirty Ruffles Shawl. I ordered the kit today and I will be making it in plain ol' black...I know, kind of boring but I think it will be more versatile and wearable in black. Also, hopefully the black will cut down on the cuteness factor of the ruffles. I plan to work on some other projects this summer in addition to the shawl (you won't have to see endless pictures of slowly-growing black lace), plus I need to get cracking on that Rebecca wrap cardi that I temporarily abandoned.

Right now I'm listening to the stupid Yankees beating the Sox and the evil Yankees crowd. They always sound so ominous to me...why is that? It's like there's a creepy echo in that stadium or something. Oh well, at least I got to enjoy the glory of last night's rout. I was psyched during tonight's radio broadcast of the game. They have a "Today in Red Sox History" feature, and tonight's was the May 10, 1999 game against the Mariners where Nomar got two grand slams and a two-run homer on top of that--I was at that game! I was a witness to history! Darn it, I AM somebody! :D Of course that was back when you could easily get tickets to a game (the stadium was only about half-full that day) and when the Sox played some teams besides the Yankees and random interleague matchings. I can't stand the new schedules...you get a bit sick of seeing the Yankees ALL THE TIME. But I guess it's all about money and ratings. Blech.

We had a gorgeous sunset here last night. Of course it was even better in person but my meager photography skills will have to do. So I had this weird dream, well more like a nightmare, last night...I got my hair cut and the front was this really bad bowl cut and the back was a mullet! I spent the rest of the dream trying to put the mullet into a ponytail in an unsuccessful attempt to make it look better. Any dream interpreters out there? I have an appointment to get my hair cut this Saturday...do you think I should be worried?

Maybe I shouldn't dwell on this one too much...

I've been so busy I haven't been able to post in a while! Work has been sucking up an inordinate amount of time (much to my chagrin); on a happier note G's grandparents visited us from Thursday until this morning, which kept us busy.

I did manage to finish up one sock:

Sort of an awkward pose, but I am really happy with the sock. My only complaint is it feels a bit tight around the top edge due to a tight cast-on, but I hate socks that fall down so hopefully this will counteract any stretching. Also, to answer Desi Knitter's question in the last comments regarding wrap and turn short rows...I followed the directions for this method in an article about short rows in the Winter 2004 issue of IK. According to that article, the method's purpose is to close the hole that would occur if you made the turn without wrapping. I suppose it may also increase the stability/strength of the heel, but I've never tried any other short row method so I'm not sure of this. I'm definitely not a short row expert...yet!

The weather has been so gorgeous here over the past week that we couldn't resist going hiking last Sunday. We got a lovely view of the lakes and mountains: Another fun thing this week was having some friends over for dinner and treating them to a "chocolate buffet" for dessert: This is the chocolate we brought home from Switzerland and holy cow is it good! Everybody had their favorites...I think mine are the raspberry (which has the delicate flavor of real raspberries, not yucky faux flavoring) and the milk chocolate with corn flakes mixed in. Three words: to die for!