bsj, nyc

Welcome to any visitors who heard about our glass and fiber obsessions on the Lixie Knits It podcast!

I cast on for Eliz. Zimmermann's well-known Baby Surprise Jacket a few days ago, partly as a stash-busting exercise and partly because, though I've seen pics of this sweater all over the Internet, I still couldn't quite understand how it works. The curious thing about it is its funky construction, described by many as an amoeba or knitting origami. I found some good pictures of one in progress, but still wanted to knit it myself. It is totally irrelevant that the only baby-to-be in my life is a pretty far stretch away -- my brother-in-law's brother's first child. Whatevah. Gots the yarn, gots the pattern -- must cast on.

Once Scott's bakery got past the Thanksgiving rush, he decided it was time to fire up the torch again. I think he's on a good track with these small floral buttons he cooked up, but unfortunately there are some sooty imperfections in the clear glass. He cleaned all the tools and glass along the way, but there were still a few dark spots, so we're wondering if it's some sort of impurity in the boro or something that he should be doing differently. If any lampworkers out there know, we'd love to hear from you. The little paper snowflakes in the background came home with us from Cirque du Soleil's Wintuk performance in New York City this weekend. This show and NY trip were excellent in every way.

I don't usually like to show a bunch of progress pictures here, but corrugated ribbing takes me f-o-r-e-v-e-r, so reaching this point on a mitten cuff feels like a huge accomplishment. They'll be the mittens on the cover of Knitting Marvelous Mittens by Charlene Schurch. I started a pair a while back with a plain cuff because corrugated ribbing is so painfully slow for me, but at the time I didn't think the highly patterned mitten looked right with a plain cuff, so I tore it out. (Although now that I look back at that picture, I think I was a fool for tearing it out. Too late now.) Anyway, I am ga-ga about the Selbuvotter mitten patterns, but the book isn't available in our library system, so I'm very tempted to buy it (which, if you know me very well, you'll know that this is a pretty significant statement), although I'm really not sure that I'll enjoy knitting such detailed mittens/gloves. My solution was to again try a pair of mittens from Charlene Schurch's book, available at our library, and then see if I'd want to do it again or if I never want to see another colorwork mitten pattern in my life. To be determined. Although now that I'm looking at those Selbuvotter mittens and gloves, I'm noticing how many of them have plain or just striped cuffs. Hmm...even more of a temptation.