critterknitter, part 3

Sheesh. Remember last week, when I said we get a bit of wildlife here on our teensy patch of land, less than a mile from the business center of a 35,000-person town? First it was Bambi; then Winken, Blinken, and Nod; and today we had another encounter with this none too friendly guy.

Shovel included for scale
We've run into this dude before and I even mentioned him in a blog post last October, in the paragraph below the pic of Jesse soldering stained glass stars. I don't know if he's gotten any bigger, but he definitely hasn't become any prettier and his attitude is just as grumpy as ever. Since that curb he's on is at the edge of a fairly busy intersection, we can only assume that his primary care physician has not prescribed him the proper medication to date and he remains suicidal as well as belligerent. Scott bravely picked Sir Grumperino up on a strong, long-handled shovel and gave him a lift back toward the ravine across the street from us, where we presume he belongs, in hopes that he will find a happy place and it'll take him another six months to climb the hill and ponder venturing onto the asphalt to become a turtle pancake...with attitude.

Just so the knitterly aspect of this blog isn't totally hijacked by the critters, here I present a pair of socks knit for my mom for Mother's Day. She only received one on Mother's Day, but I knit most of the other one on the ride home from Pittsburgh. They're my usual toe-up, Widdershins gusset, mindless 2x2 ribbed socks in Cherry Tree Hill squishy soft yarn, received by me as a birthday gift from...can you guess?...my mom! Isn't it fun how things go 'round like that?

Today I will watch for the flock of turkeys from the woods or perhaps the fox who nests in the neighbor's slope, or maybe I'll actually get some work accomplished. Y'think?

smithing and sewing

Ever since I first learned to knit socks, I've been wanting to do two socks at a time on two circular needles. I finally gave it a go, did a few rounds, and decided it's not for me. I never have a problem finishing the second sock of a pair and mostly do socks because it's a super small project, so I've decided the extra bulk and extra fiddling just aren't worth it for me. Back to one at a time I go. Isn't this Cherry Tree Hill yarn purty?

Not fiber- or glass-related, but Jesse has had a lifelong interest in blacksmithing, so we go to hammer-ins (this would be the blacksmith version of a stitch & bitch) whenever we can. This past weekend's hammer-in was at the CT Eastern Railroad Museum, where we got lots of tips about setting up our own forge and getting supplies, as well as great conversations with a ferrier and a glass/PMC artist. Bonus prize was checking out the trains, riding on a pump car, and enjoying the fiddler and guitar player's music. Jesse is soooo ready to get into blacksmithing himself now, not just watching it anymore, so we're checking into our options to do that. You can see how much he's paying attention to this friendly and informative blacksmith, with whom we spent much of the day.
Leah is now officially sewing-crazed. We used freebie fabric (from our Freecycle friend, Denise) for her first dress, just in case we didn't choose the right size or something, but it turned out great!


The pattern was a Christmas gift from Grandma, a very simple design with detailed instructions for a new seamstress. We worked through every step together. I haven't sewn anything from a pattern in many years, so I was (re)learning right along with her. She did all the cutting, pinning, and pressing, and most of the sewing. I helped her out with the curved pieces and hand stitching. Even though it's a beginner pattern, it has nice little touches, like the ties in back, the patch pockets, and the bodice being cut on the bias, which is an especially good fit since the fabric we used has a tiny checked pattern. She has worn it continually, with pride and glee.

She's ready to dive into making a second dress and has her own fabric stash from which to choose. She visited her fabric fanatic Grammy yesterday and came home with a big squeal and a bag of fabric scraps. There's some patchwork in progress and book covers in the plans too (small for her paperbacks and large for the biggies, like her current Harry Potter read), and quilted bookmarks and a halter top and shorts and doll clothes and...!

schloooop! and goldilocks

You hear that schloooop? That was my mom getting sucked into the knitting obsession. She's been dancing on the slippery slope for a while now, working on a project here, a project there. But today she and I spent some time at Creative Fibers (one of the few local stores with Sunday hours), where she found puh-lenty of droolworthy patterns and a very helpful store staff, who tracked down enough skeins of the right type of yarn, in the right color and texture, to set her on her merry way. Her swatch was right on target for size, so she plans to cast on before vacation and bring her project along for the ride.

I cast on for this baby hat yesterday and got it to the single-color top section, the portion that'll be good mindless travel knitting. (Don't worry; I'll have other projects too.) This is the same Dale of Norway hat that I've done a couple of times before, with Dalegarn Baby Ull and leftover Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn (the red/orange/purple variegated). Funny, though, that the first time I made it, it turned out too small. The second time I made it, it turned out too big. This time? Just right.

But back to my mom. You know, the one who claims she's a "seasonal knitter" but chose some of Scott's handspun for a future project for herself, was tempted by a Philosopher's Wool kit yesterday, and dropped a solid three digit$ worth into her yarn bag today? Well, she just called to tell me there's a mysterious ad in the newspaper about a gigantic yarn sale in CT that doesn't say where it'll be. I said I bet it's the place in East Haddam. I've heard of it, but never been there. I called the info number from the ad and, sure enough, it's at Farmhouse Yarns/Hopyard Spinnery. I couldn't find the info on their website, but the ad said the sale is April 3-7. After reading a few people's comments about past sales, though, I think it might be worth a visit. Oh, I just found some more info here. Sounds like a party!

My mom likes parties. :-)

is it getting warm in here?

Oh, my family, they have requests. Lots of requests. Specifically knitwear requests. They'll keep my needles happily in motion for y-e-a-r-s. I have a mental list of Scott's requests and Leah's list is so long that I keep telling her she better knit faster because there's no way I can make all the things she wants. But Jesse? Nuthin'. Doesn't wear sweaters. Has gloves that he likes. No need for a scarf. Not interested in warm wooly handknit socks (or at least so he says, though he does seem to enjoy stealing them from my sock drawer in the winter).

So, on packing away the winter wear this spring, when the boy's favorite balaclava was proclaimed too worn out to keep around for another snow season, he said, "Can you knit me a new one?" You bet, kiddo!

There are many free online patterns for a balaclava/head sock/helmet liner. Jesse chose this knitted helmetliner pattern and some Patons Classic Wool Merino from the stash. He even agreed to model the finished project, even though it's July...with promise of some fresh raspberries from our bushes after we took the pictures. :-)

I made the neck portion about 4" longer than the pattern called for, which was a good move. If I knit another one, I'd do the ribbing around the face in two sections, top curve and bottom curve, with overlapping intersections near the eyes, because it gaps out a bit at the eyes when he pulls the bottom curve up over his nose, as for snowball battles and crazy sledding fun, but such details are not important to a 12 y.o. boy in the midst of snowstorm glee. This pattern also called for decreases in such a way that the ribbing around the face looks less neat than I'd like, but again, I figured it doesn't really matter on this type of project and I knew the recipient wouldn't care as long as it keeps his ears and neck warm during snowstorm romps.

Also off the needles this week: a pair of socks in Cherry Tree Hill yarn, received for my birthday in January and mostly knit while the kids were splashing about in ponds or the ocean lately.

As usual, toe-up construction, magic/figure-8 cast-on (I'm not sure which I actually do, but it works for me, so I haven't bothered to look it up), 2x2 ribbing on size 2 needles, Widdershins gusset and heel, plain old loose bind-off at the top. I'd like to find an improved bind-off for socks, so I hope to try the one Brenda Dayne has mentioned on Cast-On lately. Socks are easy, mindless, portable, practical, lightweight knitting...perfect in the background while visiting with friends.

I'm just glad there was no one else around with a camera while I was taking sock pics. The contortions required for such a feat were quite entertaining to raspberry-munching boy, who giggled hysterically at my efforts at socky self-portrait.

slug-like

There's been a whole lotta relaxing going on around here the past few days. While Scott's making buttons (ooh, wait until you see the newest ones!) and the kids are engrossed in their books, I've been perfectly content to plop myself in a chair with a cozy blanket and my knitting. My mom, who almost done with the sleeveless sweater she started just before we went to Greece and she has another project on the needles now, stopped over one evening last week for help with her colorwork knitting and saw me in slug mode with my chair-blanket-knitting. Alarmed, she asked, "Are you sick?!" Nope, just r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g.

All that slug-like behavior of doing "nothing" does end up with some tangible results, though. Here are some skinny-looking socks that stretch nicely to human proportions, made of Reggia (I think) yarn bought on sale at Webs last spring. My standard sock pattern: toe-up, magic cast-on, Widdershins gusset, 60 stitches on size 2 circs, 2x2 ribbing. Pure luck that the heel stripes match. Nice for those of us who wear clogs and have heels showing.

This is a Dale of Norway baby hat knit for a relative who is expecting a son next month. Mostly Dalegarn oh-so-soft washable 100% wool yarn, but the variegated red is leftover Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. Much of the blue top portion of the hat was knit during our flight to and layover in Milan last month, so it's been sitting on my desk since then, just waiting for the ear flaps and cords.

I started yet another baby hat on Thursday, while in the dentist's office, and put the finishing touches on last night (Sunday). Again, Dalegarn and sock yarn, but this time it's the leftover Sockotta from the socks Leah made a few weeks ago. The hats still need to be blocked, so I'll do that today because I want to get them both into the mail. I've made a few minor changes to the pattern with each hat, including the tiny variegated band above the stars and then knitting the top portion in a different color than the star background, and also doing ssk and k2tog on the ear flaps for better symmetry of the decreases.

Ever wonder how to get a 12-year-old boy interested in your knitting? Just add power tools. :-)

Reenactment of baby hat cordmaking with use of power drill and hook bit.

We saw Cellobop at Cheshire Library yesterday. This is the 5th or 6th time we've seen Gideon Freudmann's shows and they are truly fantastic. He played everything from Bach to the Brady Bunch to Jimi Hendrix to his own compositions. The demonstration of how he creates the layers of musical phrases is fascinating and you'd never expect quite so much laughter and fun for all ages at a cello performance.

when all else fails...

...knit socks. I'm working like 70 bajillion extra hours this month and am, not surprisingly, really tired and with not too much brain power come evening. And it's really hot out, so the last thing I want is Leah's nearly-complete sweater resting on my lap as I knit round and round its yoke. So I've been finishing up some socks that were in various phases of done-ness.
The blue/purple ones and the pink ones are Socks that Rock yarn, which I love. The red ones are Cherry Tree Hill, also very nice. All of those are for Leah (small people = small feet = nearly instant gratification). The dark stripey socks in progress are Regia, for Scott. I'm not nearly so fond of this yarn, but at Webs' tent sale days, the price was oh so right.

The pink ones were done toe-up with trials of every toe-up sock heel known to the internet (okay, not really, but a bunch of them) and I was displeased with all, so I ended up just doing a peasant/afterthought heel. I don't like that one either, but came a time when I just wanted those darn socks to be finished. So I've been back to knitting top down socks, even though I'd rather do toe-up if I could find a heel I liked. Then what to my wondering eyes should appear on Knitty, but the Widdershins sock pattern, a toe-up pattern with traditional heel and gusset. Be still my beating sockgeeky heart! So, as you can see, I'm just about finished with the first sock done this way (not truly the Widdershins pattern, but merging that style heel and gusset with my usual K2P2 mindless ribbed socks) and I'm tickled by it.

Today temperatures will soar and I will be knittin' mittens while near/in water. :-)