Finest hours

There are many ways in which I'm not a great person. (I'll spare you the laundry list; just trust me on this.) Parenting, in particular, has a way of slapping me upside the head with my failings.

On the rare occasion, though, I make minute progress.


Take this...thing. There is very little to recommend it. The yarn writhes like the contents of a snake pit. The texture is, while soft, creepy in a Peter Lorre kind of way. It hung on to even Addi Turbos like I was trying to pry it from the edge of a cliff. In short, it sucked Hoovered big time.

But I promised a long time ago I'd finish knitting this little rag. And finish it I did. I don't know if Offspring the Eldest cares a thing about it anymore, but I kept my promise and it feels good.

What Ravelry can't do

* Floss teeth.
* Give the dog his pill.
* Clip the cat's nails.
* Pick up the in-laws at the airport.
* Replace warped brake rotors.

But it can make a killer caramel latte. Resistance is useless. (You knew that already, didn't you?)

Just going to get this out of my system

You Are a Ring Finger

You are romantic, expressive, and hopeful. You see the best in everything. You are very artistic, and you see the world as your canvas. You are also drawn to the written word. Inventive and unique, you are often away in your own inner world. You get along well with: The Pinky Stay away from: The Index Finger

What Finger Are You?

You Are a German Shepherd Puppy

Intelligent, quick witted, and a bit aggressive. You've got the jaw power to take a bite out of anyone you choose.

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

You Are: 70% Dog, 30% Cat

You and dogs definitely have a lot in common. You're both goofy, happy, and content with the small things in life. However, you're definitely not as needy as the average dog. You need your down time occasionally.

Are You More Cat or Dog?

Your Inner European is Dutch!

Open minded and tolerant. You're up for just about anything.

Who's Your Inner European?

Your Career Type: Artistic

You are expressive, original, and independent. Your talents lie in your artistic abilities: creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art. You would make an excellent: Actor - Art Teacher - Book Editor Clothes Designer - Comedian - Composer Dancer - DJ - Graphic Designer Illustrator - Musician - Sculptor The worst career options for your are conventional careers, like bank teller or secretary.

What's Your Ideal Career?

Your Power Color Is Lime Green

At Your Highest: You are adventurous, witty, and a visionary. At Your Lowest: You feel misunderstood, like you don't fit in. In Love: You have a tough exterior, but can be very dedicated. How You're Attractive: Your self-awareness and confidence lights up a room. Your Eternal Question: "What else do I need in my life?"

What's Your Power Color?

Your Hidden Talent

You have the natural talent of rocking the boat, thwarting the system. And while this may not seem big, it can be. It's people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes. You're just a bit behind the scenes, so no one really notices.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

And my personal favorite:

You Are 16% Abnormal

You are at low risk for being a psychopath. It is unlikely that you have no soul. You are at low risk for having a borderline personality. It is unlikely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at medium risk for having a social phobia. It is somewhat likely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at low risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is unlikely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

We have an FO, folks

Socks for Offspring the Elder
Yarn: Fixation, color 9205, about 1 3/4 balls
Needles: Clover 7-inch No. 4 (3.5 mm) bamboo dpns, 5
Pattern: Cobbled together from various sources. Two-by-two ribbed leg, slip-stitch heel flap. I began the gusset by knitting through the back of the stitches I picked up along the flap. (I love this little touch, which I find both functional and attractive.) Basic toe, grafted closed. (We are not a family of pointy-footed people. I like to start toes late and end them short and wide.)

Accommodating-crazy-knitting-parent pose (what? they didn't teach that in your yoga class?):


I'm not sure about Fixation. Sometimes it was fine to knit; other times it was a real pain (literally). I was never quite certain about my tension, which felt like it was all over the map but continued to look reasonably consistent.

We'll have to see how it wears. For now, OTE seems pleased.

Decision made

Ann Budd's Undulating Rib Socks* it is. I'm glad the spouse picked out this particular pattern; it's been calling my name.

*Found in Interweave Press' Favorite Socks, edited by Ann Budd and Anne Merrow

Chatty little bird

This was for the small daughter of friends who had us over for dinner last night:


Largely BitterSweet's pattern again, with just a few modifications. Be warned: making these is addictive.

Anniversary socks begin

Another Friday, another birthday party

It's Offspring the Younger's turn to be off to a slumber party. We made the entire gift this time. It consists of a totebag:


This is made from two florals from Erin McMorris' Urban Garden line for Free Spirit and a tonal paisley from the Tiddley Winks line by Arrin Turnmire for Moda. Offspring the Younger chose these from the offerings at Bolt. All three were great fabrics to work with and this was a fun project. I intend to try it again with some modifications.

We also made this fun little guy:


He's based on the wonderfully clear free pattern at BitterSweet. We will be making many more of these, I'm sure!

Spring cleaning

Offspring the Elder spent Friday trying to pull together a gift for a friend's birthday. The present was looking a little, well, thin...and we were running short on resources. But lordy, have we got a house full o' crap. Enter this idea:



In the seventies, my dad was quite the dresser. Frye boots, velvet sport coats, Swiss ski sweaters, and leather trenches were his sort of thing. He also had a couple of cashmere turtlenecks. When he handed a yellowish one off to me and gave me carte blanche, I threw it in a big pot of water with several packets of drink mix. Thus was the softest mottled spring green felt in the world born. I love it.

Back to the story at hand: we needed to beef up a birthday gift, as well as wrap it. This seemed a reasonable solution. The pocket, which I made by using the entire turtleneck collar, has two compartments. More fun that way, I think. (And the cashmere. Oh. We just wanted to keep stroking it. Ooh, what about using this bag as a hot water bottle cover?)

Problem solved...and I have a bit more room in my sewing nook. Cool!

Relief

...is spelled I-G-O-T-I-T-A-L-L-D-O-N-E-I-N-T-I-M-E.


This banner came together the night before the baby shower. I used wool felt, a cotton velvet ribbon, and Heather Bailey scraps from the quilt my mum made for the baby. The mother-of-pearl buttons are antiques my gram (who will be 90 this year) inherited from her mother and grandmother.


Mum's quilt:


My cousin looks like he's examining the finer points of the stitching, doesn't he? I've seen him look at x-rays of my teeth this way. Actually, he's reading the cool label my mother sewed into the corner of the quilt. She does this for all of her pieces.

Here is my bigger FO, the little cardigan I designed for Adeline. Those of you who wander the blogosphere will understand that I owe a big debt to Nona for inspiring this one:




I think they liked it.

Ugly, but useful

The humble swatch.

What do you suppose...

...this will become?

A few hints:

Face off

The offspring and I were charmed by the idea of making some of these for a baby shower:


Here's my prototype:


I think I might prefer it just as it stands (sits) now, without a face, but the offspring are rather creeped out by that idea. What do you think?

Every last drop

It's deeply satisfying to find interesting ways to use up scraps. Many thanks to Mary-Heather over at Rainy Day Goods for this idea. Go check out her cool Shrinky Dink straight pins.

Visitation by the ladies of the blog

They were humble and humorous and human. Nonetheless, I was too in awe to approach the table, so my spouse did it for me and snapped this photo while he was at it. Imagine his surprise when Ann pulled out her camera and returned the favor.

I now have a signed and stamped book. Kay and Ann even spelled my name right (harder than it sounds). I am verklempt.

There was a gathering of very nice knitters at the festivities, and I had a chance to talk with two of the loveliest: Meghan and Kathy. It was grand meeting you!

Birthday beads

I made this a couple of weeks ago as a gift for Offspring the Younger, who turned 11 on February 21:


And these are gifts I just finished for Offspring the Elder, who turns 13 tomorrow:

CeCe refuses to die

I was too tired to include (and no doubt you would have been too tired to read) these items in my last post:

I don't often find a button I'm perfectly content to commit to. What works well when I accessorize with black won't necessarily look so hot when I'm wearing brown, etc., etc. Or what if I'd like to close my cardi with a broach some evening? And then there's the whole issue of button washability to consider.

So...I was particularly happy to be reminded recently about options for temporary buttons. Here's what I did for CeCe: I paired a nice fashion button with a small, flat, clear button and made something like a cuff link. The ribbing was stretchy enough to accommodate the little button (i.e., no buttonhole was required where I would have normally sewn on the button), so I was lucky. I simply measured the thickness of the overlapped button bands and made the shank (out of a few plies of my yarn) that long. Lovely.

I have one regret, too. I wish I had made the top portions of the button band (the parts Bonne Marie has you knit separately and then sew to the back neckline) shorter. I thought I was doing a good job of following the pattern's instructions to knit them so they would need to stretch slightly, but apparently I was too timid in my interpretation. The band along that section wants to stand up a bit and wave. I wish it were less friendly.

New threads finally

Or, as me dear gram would say, "A child is born."


Pattern: CeCe
Length: 17.5 inches
Width: 38 inches
Yarn: Filatura di Crosa Amico, color 11, 7 balls?
Needles: Denise US 7

How happy I was to start this lovely little cropped sweater for the birthday of the November Sibling. November. And yet here it is, nearly the end of February.

What happened? (Get your coffee now: this is a long story.)

It began well enough. CeCe is one of Chic Knit's delightful designs, and the pattern is solid. (Bonne Marie's customer service, by the way, is top-notch.) I forwarded a photo link to the NS, who loved the sweater at first sight. Bingo! Birthday present dilemma resolved.

On her next weekend in town, the NS picked out a suitable cotton from my stash and off I went. I like to learn something new each time I knit a project, so I gave some thought to possible refinements while swatching. How about a tubular cast-on? There's a great tutorial on Knitty (though for me these instructions would have resulted in twisted stitches, so I had to pick up my stitches differently).

My swatch goes well. The cast-on looks great, and I find an increase I like for the side shaping. I try out the lace pattern. I determine I'll need to use US 7s for the body.

I pull out US 5s to cast on the sweater itself, feeling that might be a little too generous. Doesn't Montse Stanley clearly say, "Always work with needles two or three sizes finer than for the pattern to follow" when employing a tubular cast-on? Nonetheless, I cast on with the US 5s.

CeCe is knit in one piece, at least until you get to the sleeves. Still, when I finish the bottom ribbing for the entire garment and find that no, those US 5s were really too small rather than too large, I don't sweat it. I'm still having fun.

I try it again, this time with the US 6s. I decide I like the way that looks and charge on, happy to get to the lace. Wow, this isn't bad at all! A teeny sweater--a shrug, practically--and on size 7 needles! I speed up the body...and then slow down as I find myself looking harder and harder at those slipped-stitch band edges. Dang. Maybe that works for Bonne Marie in Calmer, but in my hard little cotton, it's looking just too slack and sad.

Okay. Back to references and swatching. I try most every exposed-edge treatment I can find and decide that I'm happiest making a single-stitch column at each side edge in stockinette, which rolls neatly to the inside of the garment.

Now to drop the columns in question and hook them back up. Here we go. Back in business.

Right.

Maybe I'm just dense, but for the life of me I don't seem to be able to reconstruct my very first or very last columns of stitches, the ones that constitute the edges. The geometry eludes me. I'm always left with loops--BIG loops.

But I really don't like the ribbing on the US 6s after all, as it turns out. It still pulls in too much. This realization makes it slightly less painful to rip out all my work (remember, two fronts and a back) and start again, sadder but wiser.

And I can still do this--get CeCe ready in time for the NS's birthday at the end of the month. I cast on a third time, armed with the US 7s. Perfect. I work the first and last stitches in stockinette. Exactly the effect I was hoping for. I settle in for some serious knitting.

And really, it goes well. It starts to feel fun again. (My single buttonhole doesn't please me much, but I didn't have high expectations there.) I carefully write out a list of how many times I need to decrease and where. My thoroughness pays off. I'm decreasing, decreasing away. A week and a half before the birthday, and I have maybe two or three hours' worth of knitting to go. I imagine the look on the NS's face when she opens the package.

I clearly remember I had just finished watching an episode of Doctor Who. There were my dwindling stitches and--why am I going to run out for this front before I will for that front? Everything else looks fine. I'm the same number of stitches out from the side markers. So wha...Oh. Dear. God.

Lessons learned:
1. Think long and hard before doing a sweater in one piece rather than three or more. 'Cause any mistake is likely to be three times as difficult to fix and take three times as long for your "isn't this great? no finishing!" sweater.

2. If foolhardy or arrogant enough to attempt a sweater in one piece, make liberal use of markers to clearly distinguish back from fronts.

3. Measure. Count. Repeat. No, you can't stop yet.

4. Spread it out on the sofa or bed, often. Look carefully.

I guess I must have been a little tired, or perhaps a bit distracted, when I finished the ribbing that third time. Hell, maybe the dog barked. All I know is that when I set up the first row following--in other words, the first row of the body--I lost my ability to count. Because right there, in that first row, still hung my little safety pin marker to attest to the miserable fact that I had robbed the back of any entire lace pattern's worth of stitches and bequeathed them to the left front. Right there in that f***ing first row.

There was tunnel vision for a time. And then tea.

More lessons learned:
5. If you ever again think it would "be nice" to do even a spot of lace, up your meds.

6. Remember when you used to explain to your knitting students that wool was forgiving, but each stitch you knit in cotton might as well be set in stone, because it would preserve every little variation in your gauge? Remember that? Consider what the results will look like when you drop large clumps of stitches down some 15 inches and attempt to hook them all back up--in a lace pattern.

7. Decreasing in pattern while working lace is something devised by Dante for a lower ring of Hell. I'm just saying.

I will spare you the slow slog through yet more sorry details. Suffice it to say that it felt like a death march at times.

However...would you look at this face:


And really, what more is there to say? Except this: Happy belated birthday, November Sibling. You are worth it, every bit.

Plotting a project

Nona keeps expanding on her great idea. Can't wait until I'm free to start devising my blatant ripoff homage!

On second thought

...perhaps I should have taken a moment to total up the price of the yarn for my fantasy baby cardigan. Urgh.