Summer's here!

Summer is most definitely here. It's hot. School is out. Sports are done. We've had our big party, and it was a good one (thank goodness the forecasts of severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, etc., were wrong).

We harvested our first carrots, and boy do they look weird!


They taste good, though.

My summer projects are going well. Here is Adamas (am I the only one who thinks of Battlestar Galactica when I hear the name of this pattern?):

I've done 11 out of the 14 required repeats of chart 2, then it's chart 3 and the cast off. This may sound like I am almost done, but it is deceiving since you increase the number of stitches every other row. I started with 5 stitches and now I think I have over 300. Each row takes quite a while to get through, at this point, and the last few repeats of the chart are going to take some time.

I am also working a little slowly because of this laceweight yarn. I really don't enjoy working with it. I just can't get used to how light it is. There's no weight to help me manage the tension of my stitches, and that is slowing me down. Well, I wanted to try laceweight, and now I have. Don't think I'll want to do it again. Frankly, I think this shawl would be just as nice, if not nicer, with a slightly heavier yarn. In fact, I have seen some of the Ravelers doing this shawl are using fingering weight yarn and I think the stitch definition on their projects looks great.

The Summer of Socks is underway, as well, and I have started my first pair.

The is Apple Laine's Apple Pie yarn in the Blue Bayou colorway. I've had this yarn hanging around for almost 2 years, and I decided it finally needed to get used. It's rather light, so I wasn't able to get a good gauge with it on my usual 2.5mm no.1's, and that is why I had not used it yet. But I recently purchased a set of 2.25mm no.1s, and the yarn looks great on that size needle. I thought about doing Baudelaires but decided against that pattern because the yarn is so colorful. In addition, the mohair content of the yarn gives the knitted fabric a major halo, so a lacy or complicated pattern would be impossible to see. In the end, I decided a simple rib pattern would be best, so here it is. The fabric is incredibly soft because of the silk and the mohair in the yarn. VERY nice.

We went to the library this week and signed the kids up for the summer reading program, which was just the last little nudge CatGirl needed to start reading again (Mathboy doesn't need any help there). As Mathboy settled down with the EarthSea Cycle by Ursula LeGuin, C picked out a whole bunch of books, including--get this--a Nancy Drew. I had been recommending Nancy Drews to C for a while, but she was never interested BUT a little girl she was talking to in the Juvenile Paperback section that day told her that she had read tons of Nancy Drews and loved them. After that, C came over to me and asked which Nancy Drew I would recommend she start with, and we happily found her The Secret of the Old Clock. You know, peer pressure can be a good thing. :o) Meanwhile, I am still listening to The Pillars of the Earth, but I am ready for it to be over. I have enjoyed it very much, I just want to have something new. I am also still reading The Last Child in the Woods, and I am tired of that one as well. I think it was very interesting, but I feel like I've gotten the point and I've had enough of that.

So that's it. Summer's here!

Season's Over

The Lucky Charms lost a tough one last night, ending their season. They should be pretty proud of themselves, though, having finished 4th out of 10 teams. This is pretty good, when you consider that the coach scheduled very little practice time at all this season, and the team was comprised mostly of younger girls (our team had only 2 3rd graders, while the team that beat them last night had 4 3rd graders).

In other news, the kids tell me that the birdhouse already has new tenant, and that there are eggs!

They live to play another day

The Lucky Charms won a squeaker last night in game 4 of the playoffs, so, like the title says, they live to play another day. They play again tonight. If, by some miracle, they win, they play tomorrow night. And so on. They are having a good time, but any game could be their last. Tonight, in particular, they are facing a tough team. So we'll see.


We are empty nesters. The baby birds, pictured here in probable teenage equivalent age, decided a day or two after this photo was taken that they needed more space (and maybe more privacy?). The birdhouse is vacant for the time being, but we comfort ourselves with the hope that maybe one of our babies will come back to start her own family in her ancestral home.

My secret project is finished. I just have to to take it to Woolbearers and show it off. I know the ladies there will Ooh and Aah for me. It's so nice to have a place to where you know you can get that gratifying admiration for your FOs. I showed the thing to my kids and C just said, "It doesn't suit you, Mom." Grr. Luckily it's not for me, I replied.

I started this, the Adamas shawl, because I've been dying to do a lacy shawl and this looks like a good introductory one. Plus I had the recommended yarn in my stash: KnitPicks Shadow Lace, in the Vineyard Heather colorway. The yarn is not quite a soft as I would have hoped, but it was crazy cheap, so what do I expect? The pattern is not difficult at all, but working with laceweight is definitely a new experience for me. I really am not used to such a light yarn. I'm finding it a little difficult to control, if that makes any sense. This picture shows the about 3 repeats done on chart 2; I am currently 6 repeats in with 8 to go. I am planning to keep it on the straight needles as long as I can. I despise circulars.

The garden is cruising along. We are inundated in lettuce, because the garden is producing so well and because our weekly farm share regularly includes several heas of greens. Holy smokes! But we finally have some little tomatoes growing and I am really looking forward to their ripening!

In other news, Rudolph has no dignity. In case we did not know.

Random Thursday

I can't believe that May is nearly over already. Man, it flew by. School will be done in 2 weeks, the pool is open already, camp payments are due, the piano recital is imminent, Mathboy's belt test is looming, and baseball and softball playoffs are right around the corner. Help!

In the midst of all the craziness, we have managed to get some stuff done around the house. Rich and Catgirl powerwashed the shed and the front porch this weekend. The patio was swept with sand. My garden fence this year is shorter but better-looking than it has been in prior years, and it is finally complete (I needed to get back to Home Depot for that last couple of feet). The annuals have been planted, so hopefully they'll be of a respectable size by the day of the croquet party.

How does my garden grow? Slowly but surely, it seems. I have lettuce, carrots, broccoli, chard, tomatoes, herbs, a couple zucchini and some peppers in the kitchen garden as well as containers, and I finally can see some tangible growth in the plants as the weather is warming up.

Actually, I've been picking lettuce in small amounts for sandwiches and such, and that has made my inner farmgirl feel all warm and fuzzy. My own lettuce! :o)


I made a few quickie projects in honor of the weather. First, there were a couple water bottle carriers (Ravelry link to the pattern here), to make it easier to schlep around drinks.

We want to get some letterboxing and some bike rides in this summer, and we definitely notice that the amount of water we bring with us has a direct relationship to our enjoyment (and an inverse relationship to the amount of whining we must endure). Mathboy's carrier came in handy on his school camping trip. These were crocheted with dishcloth cotton, so they can be tossed in the washer and dryer.

We are trying to stick to reusable water bottles as much as possible from now on--I got tired of paying for cases of water and I got tired of our overflowing recycling can. I am also trying (trying!) to remember to bring canvas and other reusable shopping bags with me when I go to the store. I have a couple of purchased poly ones, but I saw a pattern for a string bag on the Internet and thought that might be even better: they should be easy to keep around as they can be scrunched up into tiny bundles when not in use and stretch to hold tons O' stuff. I knitted up this market bag in a few days, and it isn't bad for a first try, I think. I actually did disdressed's version of the pattern. If I make another I will make some changes of my own, including doing it in the round so I don't have to worry about the side seams (which were seriously annoying to do).

I squished 12 webkinz in here, and I think I could have fit more. Hoo-ee!

I finally finished Cat Crazy Girl's socks last week.

The toes are a little too pointy, but she likes them anyway. I love the way this pattern looks, even the simplified one-panel version that I did here is nice. I think I would like to try it again. C's socks were done in Colinette Jitterbug in the Blue Parrot colorway. It is very pretty and I have a ton of it left. I'm not sure what to do with the leftovers, though. I am a little concerned about how this yarn will hold up, as I have heard some horror stories about the dye fading. We'll see.

I have also had several frogging adventures. I was working on Rich's socks, and even turned a heel, but frogged back to the middle of the foot. It just looked wrong. This is the second time I have had to frog back to the middle of the foot on these socks from h**l. It's just a plain sock, fps!

I also ended up frogging my Jeanie. It was painful, but I had to face facts. This yarn was NOT a good choice for this project--it stuck together dreadfully, making the dropping of stitches difficult and time-consuming. Worse, although the colors are beautiful, I hated the way they looked in the pattern. In my mind, this pattern really needs a solid or semi-solid colorway. And although I think Jeanie is lovely, I really feel like my recent clapotis met whatever need I may have had to make a drop-stitch shawl. Been there, done that. I don't really want to do it anymore. So I will rewind this skein and try to find a more suitable project for it.

I also had to rip out a couple of squares I worked on for the Great American Afghan, one because I realized I did not have enough yarn to finish the square and another because of a gauge disaster that I still don't understand. Even though I was getting gauge on that square, it was still turning out to be an inch and a half too wide. How does that happen?? Argh! So I ripped it out and I'll just start again with fewer stitches. It's annoying, though. So far, I have 4 squares done out of 25 . Here are a few:


I worked on Inishmore for a while, on some chilly nights when wool was still welcome in my lap. We sat out of the patio with the firepit blazing, some warm blankets wrapped around us, and the Phillies on the radio. But I'm still only 15 inches up the back, which is supposed to be 26 inches long. No picture, because it looks the same, just longer.

I started a couple new projects, trying to get some things done before the Summer of Socks begins. There is a secret gift project that I can't show here. It is veddy, veddy nice, though! And I started a summer top for myself with some yarn I bought for that purpose, um, maybe 2 years ago? Bad me.

It's a Sweater for the Ages from the Yarn Girl's Guide to Beyond the Basics, and I am (gasp!) actually using the yarn recommended for the project, Artful Yarns Fable. This is a cotton and silk blend in a strange orange/coral and purply/brown blend. I can no longer remember quite why I bought this particular color. I am cautiously optimistic, however. So far, so good. It's good to have one project that is straight stockinette, and it should go quickly. The yarn is super splitty, though. Why do I keep choosing splitty yarn?

We Have Babies...

Demanding little babies. As I was out in the backyard yesterday, I observed the harried mom make seemingly endless trips out for food and then back to the birdhouse to satisfy these seven hungry mouths. Honestly, I think she was constantly on the go for at least 2 hours. I know because the peeping that begins whenever she pokes her head in to the birdhouse is becoming so loud you can hear it all the way across the yard.

In the days since I took this picture, the birds' eyes have opened. We are all looking forward to flying lessons!

By the way, we are not totally sure what kind of birds these are, although Mathboy's best guess based on the quick glimpses we get of the mom is woodthrush.

The kids go to college, while the lawyers go to Disneyworld

My 20th college reunion was this past weekend. When I first started hearing about it a few months ago, I thought that I would really like to go. I had not been back to Wheaton since the day I collected my diploma, and I was interested in seeing what they had done with the place. Also, Dela's death last year made me think about how long it had been since I had seen the friends that were so important to me when I was in college. We had all been so close and had enjoyed a great four years together. It was sad that we had allowed so much time to go by without seeing each other. So I decided I wanted to go.

Then life got in the way. Rich advised me that the firm was going to have a retreat that weekend in Orlando, Florida, and that he had to go. So I decided that I couldn't go to reunion.

Then Jen sent around an email: Who's going to reunion? And I thought, why can't I go? So I'll have kids with me. So what? They'll enjoy it. And so the joke started: the lawyers are going to Disney, but the KIDS are going to COLLEGE.

The weather was not very cooperative on Friday. As Jen, Nancy, Shela, and the kids and I scurried from building to building trying not to get too wet, we forgot to take pictures. We attended a lecture in the science center, played some air hockey in the campus center, settled in to our dorm room in Meadows North (which was as dreary as I remember). Then we had a nice dinner (the food was always good at Wheaton) and went to the Chapel to hear the traditional pre-graduation concert of all the school's a capella singing groups. All in the pouring rain.

But Saturday turned out to be very nice, and I finally remembered to get out my camera. The kids and I were the only ones just hanging around on Saturday--Jen and Nancy had commitments and Shela was attending the graduation. We wandered, found a letterbox in the Wheaton woods,

and enjoyed the library. Mathboy loved the library. I don't think he realized libraries could be that big. We walked through the vast underground stacks, found him an encyclopedia of mammals to look through, and settled him down in one of the comfy chairs in the library tower under the skylights, and he was happy. I think Mathboy is going to like college, when he gets there, don't you?

Then we went to the bookstore. Mathboy was disappointed that they seemed to be out of actual college textbooks at the time (end of the year, sweetie, ya know?), but we got some nice souvenirs. Any Wheaton paraphernalia I had during my college years--and I will admit that there was a lot--is all gone at this point. I needed some new stuff. We also got some reading material for the kids, since they went through most of what we brought on Friday, and since we couldn't carry that encyclopedia of mammals around campus with us. :o)

On Sunday, we remembered to take some pictures of us. Here is one of me, Nancy and Jen, taken by either Mathboy or Catgirl--I am not sure.

I don't know why I am the only one not smiling. Maybe my lack of confidence in my kid's photographic skills? Oops.

Then the kids decided to go relax in the campus center. Here they are, with Jen's younger daughter. I think they've settled in pretty well, don't you?

It was wonderful to see everyone this weekend! I enjoyed meeting Jen's daughter, Nancy's husband and Shela's friend (now fiance!) Ron. I loved showing Wheaton off to my kids. It looked so wonderful. The school has made some very nice cosmetic improvements in the 20 years since I left, and I can confidently say that I am proud of it. The new athletic center is huge and very impressive, but it may have been the little things--like the new brick pathways everywhere and the outdoor tables, chairs and benches all over--that made the strongest impression on us. They made the campus seem so friendly, inviting, and just pretty.

I know that we students were all upset when the college first decided to go co-ed. But if that decision enabled the school to remain selective and keep the friendly atmosphere that I felt this weekend--as well as continue to bring in enough money to keep the school in the lovely condition I saw this weekend--then I think we all should concede that the decision was a good one. Yes, it would have been nice if it could have remained a women's college, but it was more important that it remain a good college.

Here is one last shot I took of Peacock Pond, as we were getting ready to leave. Even Chase Dining Hall, which is not one of the most beautiful sights on campus, looked really nice this weekend. On Saturday night, the wall around the pond was lined with luminaries, and there was a bonfire on a platform in the middle of the pond.

So the kids went to college, and they liked it. You are probably not surprised to hear that Mathboy was entranced with the idea of a school that you don't have to leave (all school all the time? yay!). But even Cat Daughter was intrigued by the idea. She asked what we did all the time, and I said that if we did not have class and we had done our studying we pretty much had fun. That impressed her.

ADD Knitting. Again.

So a friend told me the other day that knitting is recommended for people with ADD. It helps them concentrate by keeping part of the brain busy. Interesting, no?

I don't know if I have ADD as it is conventionally considered, but I do show ADD tendencies in my knitting. I started 2 new projects lately, because I guess I did not have enough going on (!). On the plus side, I finished a big one (the clapotis shawl), and I'm close to being done on a little one (the Fetching mitts). Not so bad, hm?

Long story about Clapotis . I had 3 skeins of this yarn, the Kraemer Silk & Silver, hand dyed at Woolbearers. I really, really thought that 2.5 would be more than enough. I was sure of it. Accordingly, I started using some the yarn for Branching Out, a lacy scarf that I am doing as part of a KAL (knit-along) with a group on Ravelry. I just knew that this yarn would be perfect for the pattern, and, like I said, I was sure that I would have plently left over from the Clap.

Tempting the Knitting Gods is never a good idea.

So. There I was, cruising along on the clapotis, and working on my Branching Out when I felt like it. Then ... the partial skein I was using for Branching Out ran out. Hm. I put it aside, and decided to work harder on the Clap so I could and get the rest of the leftovers for the little scarf. Unfortunately, as I watched my ball of yarn shrink more and more rapidly, it was becoming apparent there would be little or no yarn left over from the Clap. Then the Clap started casting its greedy, cannibalistic eyes on Branching Out. I had to face facts and do some frogging. And so my little scarf bravely and quietly gave up its yarn for the greater good (i.e., finishing the Clap). And this is all that I had left of the 3 skeins of fingering weight yarn (over 1200 yards, mind you!), when all was said and done:

Such a sad little ball, about one and a half inches in diameter. Barely big enough to call a ball, really.

After I cast off, the clapotis finis measured 22 inches by 74. I figured it would grow some upon blocking, which was what I wanted. But I had no idea what a monster it would turn into! Here you can see it in all its 25.5 by 93 inch glory, blocking on the playroom floor:

(9 year-old added to help give perspective. As you can see, the Thing is too big for the beach towel I lay down underneath it.) Anyway, I know it is HUGE, but I love it anyway. It has plenty of length to help me keep it wrapped around myself. I can even tie it in front. I made it to wear with a very pretty brown summer dress I have, and I think it will be a great way to glam that dress up for the wedding this summer in Maine.

Meanwhile, I was committed to the Branching Out KAL, so I had to "reboot" that with a different yarn. I settled on the Zen String Serendipity Sport I had originally planned on using for this pattern:

Here it is, with about 18 inches done, so far. It's all right. The pattern is somewhat lost in this busy yarn, but it is better IRL than this picture shows. Hopefully blocking will help as well. I regret the loss of the Kraemer yarn for it, though, because it had looked so nice.

Yet more evidence that I must be completely insane: I started the Great American Afghan. Actually, I think there is a method to my madness, in this case. The afghan is made up entirely of 12 inch squares with different stitches and colors for each square. I thought it sounded perfect for an ADD knitter: there is enough variety to keep me engaged, the squares are small enough to be portable, and the needle and yarn sizes are large enough (worsted) to make progress visible and rewarding. So far I have nearly 2 squares done:


I am not sure that the top one (yes, the one blocking between the toothpaste and the hair gel on the bathroom counter--sorry!) will work with the rest of it. The yarn (Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted, in Safari) may be just a little too crazy. An aside: I bought that yarn at purlsoho in NY. I wasted a half hour on the subway and 15 minutes walking in the wrong direction on Soho streets getting to that shop, so, by golly, I was going to buy something there and I thought this was pretty. But I will say that purlsoho isn't half the store that my favorite LYS, Woolbearers is. As Dorothy says, there's no place like home.

Anyway. I loved the stitch for that square, and it is not quite as lost in the yarn as it seems in this picture, but I know a solid yarn would have been better. I may do it again in a solid. There are a few squares in the pattern that I really don't care for, so I plan to skip them and do second squares of the ones I like best.

The second square (the one 3/4 done) uses Knit Picks Swish Superwash in Merlot Heather. This yarn is wonderful. I can't believe how soft it is! Because it is so reasonably priced, I think I will do most of the afghan in earthy shades of Swish, with a few other yarns thrown in for contrast. At least, that's my plan at this point in time. We'll see how it goes.

I made some progress on some long-languishing socks while I was riding trains in NY, because that was the only project I had that would fit in my purse and did not require I bring a chart or pattern along. And my Fetching Mitts are almost done, thanks to the car rides to and from NY.

Blogger Catch Up

Man, I've had trouble getting motivated to blog. Ravelry is meeting my needs for sharing my knitting progress with other knitters, and I know that my family almost never reads this, so I've started having that "why bother?" attitude. I am pretty embarrassed to see that it has been over a month since I last posted an entry here. But it has been a pretty exciting month, so maybe I should write something about it.

Easter Break: For Easter weekend and the environs (which was a whopping four weeks ago! holy smokes!), we went down to Charlotte to visit Leslie and Frank. It was the first Charlotte trip for the Scarlet Carlet, as Rich wants to call the new car, and it did admirably. (Unfortunately, it is so darn cute that it attracted the attention of a state trooper on the way home, but let's not get into that here.) It was a very low-key weekend, which was perfect. The weather was beautiful. So, aside from church, most of what we did was letterboxing, and we couldn't have been happier. We had carved a new stamp in preparation for the trip, and Leslie had printed out lots and lots of clues for us to hike around and find. We had a blast.

MathBoy liked to be in charge of the clues, but Cat Girl was very observant and great and finding hidden boxes.

Some people have carved gorgeous stamps. Here Cat Crazy Girl shows off a pretty one: an elaborately carved tree with leaves in contrasting colors:


After we got back from Charlotte, we were thrown abruptly into softball and baseball season. Honestly. We went from not even knowing what teams they were on before Easter, to having a full-blown practice and game schedule in force by the time we returned. I really wish they wouldn't do it like that, but nobody asks me, you know?

Model United Nations: The next thing we had to start getting ready for was the Montessori Model United Nations, in which Mathboy's school was participating as the delegation from Sweden. This was held in New York from April 16th through the 19th. Since it was the first time Mathboy's school was involved in this, we really did not know what to expect from it, and everyone was pretty nervous and unsure about what they had to do. Cat Girl and I accompanied the group up to NY on Wednesday and did our own thing that day and Thursday, then Cat Girl went home Thursday and I joined the group to help chaperon for Friday and Saturday. I'm not sure how much help I was, but everyone graciously allowed me to join in, which I appreciated.

Wednesday afternoon and evening were spent at American Girl Place. We indulged, because we had no boys with us to complain. Nicki got her hair done, we bought stuff, we had dinner.

Thank goodness Nicki had good table manners. I must say, there were a lot of kids there that evening that were too young for the place, I think. The girl at the table next to us spent the entire meal standing on the settee looking out the window.

After dinner, we had to get to Grand Central Station to catch a train to my friend Elyse's house, just outside the city, where we were staying that night. It was rush hour, and the cabs were not stopping for us, even though Nicki kept raising her arm so politely. Eventually, we gave in and accepted a ride from this guy in his pedicab.

Did you know that these things can squeeze between cars and cabs, go through red lights, and do all sorts of interesting maneuvers that will get you to the train station way before any conventional cab can? Neither did I. It was an exciting, if harrowing ride. Don't think we'll do it again. Once was enough.

Rich took the train in on Thursday and met us at the American Museum of Natural History. What an amazing place! I have too many pictures of that to post here. (Friends and family can see them at my Flickr site.) It was a gorgeous day, so we went over to Central Park to eat lunch by the lake and climb Belvedere Castle and make faces in the Shakespeare Garden.


We had a great time and will definitely have to go back. We barely got through half the museum, and just scratched the surface of what Central Park has to offer.

On Friday, I joined the UN group, where I heard things were going quite well. Mathboy was having the time of his life, closely involved in writing a resolution that the General Assembly was writing to present to the entire group on Saturday. Mathboy enjoyed this experience so much that he was nearly crying when it was over. We were all very happy to hear that it will be held in NY again next year, rather than the Dominican Republic as we had previously thought. (A trip to DR was really not in the budget for next year.)

Saturday was the big day, when the whole group was to meet in one of the voting rooms at the United Nations. The kids got to sit where delegates from their countries normally would sit and see their votes tallied on the big electronic voting board.



(You can see Mathboy and his group in the mid to upper right in the bottom pic.) There were over 500 Montessori school children involved in this program this year, and a lot of parents and chaperons there on the last day. In fact, there were so many that they had to divide the spectators into 2 shifts, with each shift supposed to be allowed to see half the program. Our group drew the 2nd half. Mathboy got to give a short speech during the first half, which was exciting for him but bad timing for me. I sure would have like to have seen that.

Anyway, the real scandal was that many of the parents who attended the first hour did not leave, which meant that the second shift of parents had trouble getting in. The security guards were quite vigilant; if you did not get a pass from a parent who was exiting the voting room, you could not get in. We had to rely on the honesty and good nature of the parents who were already in there. They stopped the program a couple times to announce that the first shift of parents should leave and emphasized that parents were still waiting to get in, but I know for certain that several parents stayed for the entire program. Our teacher said that a group near him just looked at each other and mulishly said to each other, "We're not leaving." Ah, human nature. Fortunately, I was able to get in and I had a good seat from which to take photos. I think eventually everyone must have gotten in somehow, but some unfairly got to stay and see the whole program.

We came back Saturday, after fighting our way out of NY through the Passover traffic. Six loads of laundry and one huge grocery store expedition later, we are back to our regularly scheduled lives. It's now Wednesday the 23rd, and we've had 3 games, 2 piano lessons, C has had 2 tests, and Mathboy is taking Terra Novas at school today and has karate tonight. Phew!

Strange March

This has been the weirdest couple of months. Easter is March 23. Daylight Savings Time began March 9. We are all discombobulated by the wonky calendar in our house this month. No one can fall asleep at their regualr time, and getting up in the morning is even more difficult than usual. The kids can't figure out when they need coats and when they don't, so lately they have been erring on the side of non-caution. (Then they come in 45 minutes later complaining that it's too cold to play. Well, duh, I say. Did you consider wearing a coat, perhaps?)

Cat Crazy Girl has her oral biography report today. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Saint Elizabeth of Hungary:

What did she do? She died. And people who prayed over her grave were healed. That's it. Oh, and she wore clothes that are difficult for me to duplicate. We couldn't have chosen someone with a simpler costume? Someone who actually did something? Apparently not. But C. is so excited to give her report today. It's very cute.

I am cruising along on Inishmore. Two sleeves are done, and I have started the back.

It took one entire skein of yarn to do just the ribbing on the bottom of the sweater back--that's how yarn-greedy this twisted stitch, cable-heavy pattern is. The back should take quite a while to do. I just started the charts for the body, and the directions say to just keep going for about 25 inches. That's a long way. While I'm working on it, I will be pondering whether I can do this sweater as a cardigan. The knitted fabric is coming out so dense and warm, I think it would be much more useful to me as a cardigan than as a pullover. The question is how to do it. But, like I said, I've got plenty of time to think about it. The back should take several months, and I'll probably take a break from it over the summer.

In the meantime, I did a bad thing. I joined the clapotis club. It's my LYS's fault. I stopped in there and saw the most beautiful hand-dyed sock yarn: Kraemer silk and silver, that the shop owner had kettle-dyed in a semi-solid rust brown. I succumbed and bought it. The color was so rich and warm, and the sparkle gives the yarn a little something extra. I was kicking myself, because I thought it would have been gorgeous made into Jeanie, but I had already started Jeanie with something else and I'm not going back on that one. Then I started thinking about a clapotis, and before I knew it I had cast on and I went back to the store to join in on their clapotis knit-along.

This project is flying along so fast! It is so easy, the stitches move so fast, the yarn is gorgeous and I am enjoying watching the shape of the project progress. It's very relaxing to knit, with a rhythm to the stitches that is almost hypnotic. BUT I don't think I am going to have enough yarn! I have to go back to the shop and see if they can dye another skein for me. I hope they can!

Meanwhile, I finished the bellamoden mitts, and Cat Crazy girl took 'em. I actually don't mind; I think I would prefer them a little looser. Mathboy asked for his own pair. I'll have to find a nice masculine yarn for him and make some simple ribbed ones.

More of the Same

The problem with knitting large, slow projects is that it's hard to show progress in pictures. I keep knitting and you'll have to trust me that the project gets bigger, but you just can't really see it.

I have two big projects going right now: the Inishmore sweater and the Jeanie shawl. Unfortunately I found in the last week that it is difficult to go back and forth between the two because they have such different "hands," if that makes sense. Inishmore has me working twisted and cable stitches in aran weight wool on small (size 5) needles. It requires a very heavy knitting hand. Jeanie, however, is all ribbing, with dropped stitches, using a fingering weight silk/wool blend on big needles (6's). Because of this, I find that Jeanie requires a delicate touch (for me, at least) and concentration. Both projects are slow going. And it is very difficult to get my hands used to the different projects when I move from one to the other.

I don't have a new picture of Jeanie because it does not look much different from the last time I photographed it. Although I spent a lot of time on it last week, I only have a measly 2 or 3 more inches to show for all my work. Currently, the shawl is about 12 inches long, with about 58 inches to go (plus edging). This weekend, I decided to put Jeanie away for a while and to concentrate on Inishmore, which seemed more appropriate for the cold February weather.

I neared the top of the first sleeve and did some measurements. To my surprise, I found that I was meeting the gauge set in the pattern, even though my swatch had indicated that I was getting less stitches to the inch. I don't know why I was surprised--swatches lie all the time, right? So. I had cast on for the small size sleeve because I thought my gauge was big; since my gauge is correct I adjusted to do the medium size. Luckily, this was pretty easy to do with a sleeve. Actually, that is why I did a sleeve as my first piece. I love it when I do something right. :o)

I finished the main part of the sleeve, and left the middle stitches on a holder to do the saddle later. I want to do the body pieces first so I know how long the saddle will need to be.

Then I started the second sleeve. Why a sleeve and not the back or the front? I have no idea. I was on knitting autopilot and, for unknown reasons, I did a sleeve instead.

I also did some work on a smaller project: the bellamoden fingerless mitts. I finished one, and even figured out how to make a thumb, although I did not enjoy it very much. Tiny rounds of 14 stitches. It was very strange.

It is super pretty though. The yarn is gorgeous and very soft. Although the name of this colorway is "Iliad," it reminds me more of a wild garden in full bloom. I am creeping along on the second one. But Inishmore is addictive and I am spending most of my knitting time working on that.

In other news, Rudolph is enjoying his new window perch.


The kids and I also got a little carried away last week on one of those weird days when it felt like April or May outside and did this:

We planted our seeds. And they came up already! Holy smokes! They were supposed to take 2 or 3 weeks to come up, not 3 days! Looks like our first lettuce and broccoli crops this year may end up in pots by the kitchen windows instead of in the garden.

They're not ready. In case there was any question.

Kids these days want everything. I know I sound like the biggest curmudgeon when I say that, but it's true. Ipods, laptops, cellphones ... they want it all. Frighteningly, the kids is this area seem to be getting it all. Cat Crazy Girl talks about girls in her (3rd Grade!!) class with their own cell phones. Mathboy's best friend casually advised us that he was getting the new video ipod for Christmas. Now, I do have the new video ipod myself. But I'm not 10 years old.

If anyone needs evidence that the elementary school generation is not ready to Have It All, I offering the following evidence:

Cat Girl and Math Boy have been enjoying trekking through the woods in our neighborhood this month. They found an area where some young boys were clearing the woods for their own golf course, and check on their progress frequently. They also found a horse farm that adjoins the back of the woods, and they can watch the horses from the fence.

It's all very sweet and innocent; they cross no major streets and they are not that far away as the crow flies, so Rich and I have been OK with it. But they do tend to lose track of time, and it is a pain for us to go looking for them. So last Sunday, when they asked if they could go, I said that I wanted them to bring my cell phone with them. Cat Crazy Girl was very excited that she was allowed custody of the phone--maybe she was deluded into thinking it was the first step in getting her own?

Admittedly, the phone had seen some better days, but it worked. After their walk in the woods?

Not so much.

It was about one hour into their excursion when the house phone rang for the first time. "Hi Mom! It's great out here today. We played with the boys at their golf course and we're going to see the horses."

"OK. I want you guys to turn back for home in about ten minutes. Got it?"

Muffle, muffle. I hear "We shouldn't have called," murmered away from the phone, and then a resigned "OK, Mom."

Ten minutes later the house phone rings again. "We're coming back now."

Five minutes later the phone rings again. "We're at the golf course."

Five minutes later. "We're crossing the big stream."

Five minutes later: "We can see the house." At this point, Rich and I are kind of tired of answering the phone. We remind them that the phone was supposed to be for emergencies.

Five minutes later, Mathboy comes running in the house. His first words are, "I'm sorry about the phone, Mom." I assume that he means he is sorry that they called so often. If only that were it. But no. I see Cat Crazy Girl dragging her feet homeward across our big backyard and I know the phone is NO MORE.

Apparently, Cat Girl was so worried that something might happen to the phone while they were crossing the various little streams in the neighborhood woods that she actually thought it would be safer to THROW THE PHONE over the streams rather than carry it in her own pocket. Eventually, at the last crossing of the day, in the woods close to our house, she made a bad throw. Plop. Mathboy never stopped her. Smart they may be, but the judgment is lacking--you know?

The phone eventually dried out well enough to turn on again, but it was still messed up. So it turns out to be a happy ending for me, because I wanted a new phone anyway.

Now that I have a "cooler" phone ("Oh, Mom, lots of girls in my school have that phone"), Cat Girl covets it even more than before. It's nice to have actual evidence to use to support our refusal to get her one.

And I'm not letting either one of them touch my ipod.

Close Encounters

It's still close enough to the beginning of the year to make some resolutions, so I thought I would take stock of my stash and my UFOs with the aim of DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THEM in 2008. Actually, I made clear progress in 2007 and January 2008 in both of these departments. As long as you don't count my Inishmore supply of Tivoli wool, I definitely had a net reduction in the stash over the past year, knitting up and selling more yarn than I acquired. I knitted up several pairs of socks, and loads of scarves and hats were gifted at Christmas.

As for the unfinished objects (the UFOs), I made progress there as well. I started and finished the Lopi within a 12-month period. After careful consideration, I frogged 2 would-be sweaters that had been in limbo for well over a year: a denim cardigan intended for Rich, which had been cast on in the Summer of 2004 (I think), and a pullover intended for Mathboy, begun in 2005. (I actually took a good look at Mathboy's sweater, and realized that he had already outgrown it, even though it wasn't even half-finished. And there, in a nutshell, we see the danger of knitting for children.)

So this is the state of my knitting. According to Ravelry, my total stash is about 150 skeins of yarn. Wow, that sounds like a lot. It also does not include any of my dishcloth cotton. So, wow. Out of the total, 42 skeins are the Tivoli wool I am using for my Inishmore (the 23 Leslie and Frank bought me for Christmas, and another 19 I got off eBay in case I need more).

Here are the UFOs, in order of age rather than beauty:
1. The ecru Denim Cardigan for me. My slog. Every time I have myself nearly convinced to give up on this, I remember how much time I have put into it so far and I think about how nice it would look if I could just force myself to work on it some more. I washed one piece of it a few months ago and was entranced with the way the piece shrunk, the yarn softened, and the stitches all tightened up. After that, I could not bring myself to throw it away, but I couldn't bring myself to work on it, either. It has a special Rubbermaid tub all to itself in the closet. This year, I pledge to make a decision about this sweater once and for all. Either I finish it, or I build a ceremonial funeral pyre for it in the backyard. It will not be on this list in 2009. I have no new picture, I don't care to take one, anyone who really wants to see one should go here.

2. the Knittery cashmere socks. Cast on in July 2007, on the floor of Barnes & Noble, next to the Manga section (which is surprisingly large--what's up with that?), where I found a corner to rest in while waiting for Harry Potter #7. Currently halfway up the foot of the second sock. What's holding me back? I hate this yarn. But I do think I would like the finished socks, so I don't want to pitch the whole project.

3. the Solstice Slip socks. Cast on in September, I am currently halfway up the foot of the second sock. What's holding me back? The stitch is annoying, and the yarn (STR lightweight) is not my favorite. It keeps kinking up on me.

4. Rich's socks. Cast on December 2007. Currently 2/3 of the way up the foot of the first sock. What's holding me back? It is hard to see where increases need to be made for the gusset because of the striping of the yarn, so I keep messing up and having to rip back. I need to knit these in better light that I usually have available in the evenings. I also need to figure out how the heel will work out, and am planning to adapt Cat Bordhi's heel from the Salish Sea socks. This requires thought, concentration, and probably a pencil and paper. So ... it's laziness that is really holding me back on these.

5. Cat Crazy Girl's Jitterbug socks. Cast on January 2008, adapting the Slippery Socks pattern and using Colinette Jitterbug yarn. Currently close to finishing the first sock. These are coming along nicely, now that I made the decision to do only the front cabling pattern. But I do need to have a chart to work them, so they are not exactly mindless knitting.

6. Inishmore. Cast on January 2008, starting with a sleeve. I am almost to the saddle top of that sleeve. This is a beautiful pattern. Although the charts look very complicated, they actually make a lot of sense, so I can knit without needing to look at them. The only thing holding me back on this is that the actual knitting is hard on the hands. Working this yarn, in complicated cables, on a size 5 needle can be tough. I don't work more than a few rows in any given day. This will take a while. I don't have a picture because it pretty much looks the same as it did when I last photographed it, just, uh, longer.

7. Jeanie. So pretty! Cast on at the end of January 2008. So far I have about 8 inches done. This is slow-going because of the nature of the knitting involved: it's all ribbing, with half the stitches being twisted, cabling every 6 rows, and dropping stitches every, um, 12 (?) rows. The yarn I am using (Handmaiden Mini Maiden, a wool/silk blend) doesn't like to come undone very easily (how's that for irony? the one time I want stitches to drop they don't seem to want to drop), so the drops take time, too. This project, like Inishmore, is a long-hauler. I hope to have it finished to wear this summer during a family wedding weekend in Maine. Isn't it cool?


8. New "Quickie" project: Fingerless Mitts, compiled from a few patterns I found on Ravelry. Bad me. I really just wanted a small, simple, non-sock project, so I cast these on this week. I was completely seduced by the pretty yarn, bellamoden, unable to exercise any self-control in the face of these beautiful colors. I am doing a simple cable and ribbing pattern, and I'll figure the thumb out when I get to it.

It looks like a flower garden, doesn't it? Nice spring colors to be playing with in February.

So that's all--a full accounting. 8 works in progress is not that bad, when you think about it. Well, four are less than a month old, so maybe my issues are more about casting on than failing to finish.