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This is what happens when the twain shall meet:
I took far too long knitting this sweater for a wee dude born a couple months ago — so long that I was beginning to be afraid it would be too small for him by the time I cast off, if I didn’t get a flippin’ move-on, already. And thus, when I suffered a bout of insomnia night before last, I finished the knitting, sleeve-seaming, and button choosing:
So. Everything but the blocking, but there was A Thing for the recipient at my office the next day, so I let it go out wonky…and without taking any reasonable photos of it. (LAME!)
Enter Calliope, my iPhone. And thus you have photos, albiet not pretty Pentax ones. Still — an F.O. is an F.O., yes? 
Project: February Baby Sweater, Elizabeth Zimmerman (rav link)
Yarn: Alpaca blend purchased at MDSW last year. I have a LOT left, so expect to see this again. It’s rediculously, wonderfully soft. Has major halo.
Needles: Addi Turbo US 6 (it doesn’t look NEARLY that gauge, does it? so weird.)
Mods/Notes: I skipped the gull patterned lace as this was to be a macho wee sweater, and went stockinette, instead. The rest I knit as written, or at least in so far as I could understand it — there’s wonkiness under the arms there because I didn’t get the “pick up 4 x 7 stitches” part at ALL. Will be hitting Ravelry E.Zim. forums with that question before I knit another one of these, which will likely get cast on…oh, NOW.
Also, with the buttons — there were only four of the blue buttons that had two holes, and one button that was exactly the same as the other four in all ways except that it had four holes in it. Weird! But typical button-box/jar fare, yes? So I put that one in the middle, and it totally worked. ~fin~
Well, here’s a first try at using a cut tag/jump-link to prevent spoilering folks for stuff. I’ve joined a few fiber and sock club things that ask that you don’t spoiler folks who haven’t received their kits yet, and I’m also working on a wedding shawl for SSB, who reads this blog, and who maybe doesn’t want to see her wedding shawl until…you know, her wedding.
So this is where we give that a shot, mmkay? Ready? GO! (ATTN: SPOILER for Rockin’ Sock Club January yarn after the jump. Be thou forewarned.)
Continue reading New Tricks
I have started and stopped projects from my own handspun maybe a handful of times, and I have one really massive project that’s been floating around in my head ever since I got my first spindle and fiber in hand, but I had never actually completed anything from my own handspun until now.
This is yarn I spun from fiber purchased from Flawful Fibers; she called the colorway Valkyrie, which was at least half the reason I purchased it. In the braid, it looked very starkly red and black, but I LOVE how it mellowed with the drafting and spinning and plying. I originally spun the yarn vascillating between wanting sock yarn and laceweight, and it shows my inconsistent thinking, but it turned out really beautiful on its own and I ultimately decided I wanted to knit something very simple from it to show it off.
There are somewhat random, beautiful grey stripes that run throughout the yarn that took me by pleasant surprise.
So these are just simple 40-stitch stockinette tubes, with an 8-stitch afterthought thumb opening knit into the tube with a scrap yarn (resulting in an 18 stitch thumb, ultimately, when I picked up one stitch on each corner to try and avoid holes); knit in marginally fingering-weight yarn on size 6 US Addi Turbo needles. (I think. Must try and confirm needle size. That’s the ballpark, anyway. Since the Blog has stood in for my memory more than once, I really ought to confirm that for myself.)
I have plenty of yarn leftover, so I may either knit another pair of these mitts with some kind of patterning in them, just for fun, or I may pick up and knit from the wrist down on these to extend the length; right now they’re very sort of Regency hobo looking, very Oliver-Twist-looking (hence the title of this post), but the wind still creeps up my coat sleeves and makes my forearms cold. Also contemplating adding on mitten flip-tops. Time will tell.
Anyway, I leave you with two more shots of the colors this roving produced in a simple two-ply spin, and a gentle nudge in the direction of Flawful Fiber’s shop. Only because I love you, you understand.
Our household has seen quite a bit of change since the holidays this winter. December 29th, my youngest stepson packed a backpack of approved items and took himself off to Army basic training. His goal is to join the Infantry and make the Army his career. Thus far, he seems to be doing well, having been made squad leader in his platoon, and being happy despite the hardships necessary in Basic.
It’ll be interesting to see what physical and mental changes have been made in him when he graduates the program sometime in I think April.
Meanwhile, his older brother, who turned 19 a week ago, moves out this weekend. That’s been quite the drama roller coaster, but hopefully everything will turn out fine and he’ll land on his feet. (his current plans include storing most of his stuff and hitting the Appalachian trail from Shenandoah, VA to Georgia.)
I’ve been knitting on this and that, a few rows per project with little progress to show for it. I stalled out on the Beck sweater in favor of SSB’s wedding shawl. I’ve since stalled out on the wedding shawl because the yarn is proving too fine to pre-string the beads, so I await the delivery of some staggeringly tiny crochet hooks ordered yesterday before I can rip that back and start over. Lady Eleanor stalled due to lack of interest sometime after Thanksgiving, and sits on a bit of scrap yarn right now so I could use the needles on Beck.
And so it goes.
I leave you, then, with Brutus Maximus Glorianus: (hmm. I wonder if he is a chosen Scion of Kushiel?  )
True to form, I did not finish my husband’s sweater in time for Valentine’s Day, but I DID manage to get a photo of the very love-appropriate cables on this thing.
I’m knitting Beck, from Jane Ellison’s Queensland Collection Book 9, using some Skye Tweed. (Ravelry links; OH how I mourn the discontinuation of this yarn!) Originally I’d intended to knit The Sainted Husband a sweater that was designed entirely by me (or at least with a little help from Elizabeth Zimmerman), but when I found this book on a trip to North Carolina, I knew this sweater was right up his alley. He even picked the yarn.
Thus far I’m done one sleeve (which stood in for a swatch), and half the back.
(photo above taken only about a quarter of the way into the back — that was taken February 7th.)
I’ve never been much a fan of reverse stockinette, but I must admit that it looks somewhat Zen when viewed just for itself:
And that is pretty much all there is to show you of lots of grey tweedy bits. (well, okay, I took more photos of it, but really, how many times can you look at the same two pieces of in-progress knitting before it ceases to be entertaining? However, if you’re Hardcore, feel free to check out Flickr for a couple other shots of this sweater-in-progress.)
Meanwhile, the day I took those photos of the sweater bits, TSH and I took my daughter down to run along the trail beside the Potomac river, where we had a grand time. We even got to stop and gawk along with everybody else who was out in the beautiful weather that day, as Martha and George, our resident Bald Eagles, have nested just alongside that trail. Martha was the only one we saw, as she was busy hanging out looking regal in the nest, but it was still supremely cool.
I thought there were a few other beautiful things out that day, though.
~happy sigh~ I really am very, very lucky. Oh, by the way, check the sweater on Miss Plum, there! That was knit for her by her godmother, SSB, who, in addition to being a medical student at Tulane (Third year? FOURTH? GAH how time flies!), is also getting married on Halloween this year, so we’ll be headed down to New Orleans to attend and for me to be all bridesmaid-y on her behalf. YAY! I’ve finally figured out the right shawl pattern to knit for her, and the designer was AMAZING about getting the pattern to me, so as soon as I can warn the bride away from reading a particular post, I’ll show you some cool details.
In yet another bizzare twist to the disturbance-but-non-theft of my husband’s truck and mine, the Skully Hat has been FOUND! Not in the center console of my husband’s Jeep, where we left it, however, but instead buried underneath stuff that was tossed about in my car when whoever did this went through everything in my center console, glovebox, and handbag.
So all in all, a totally bizzare experience that ended up causing no damage whatsoever and in the loss of nothing of value. I am so glad the hat is not gone, I can’t even tell you!
Life is so ruddy bizzare sometimes, no?
Also, still not happy with the retooling of the blog yet, so bear with me as I go on messing with it, please?
Doing quite a bit of fidgeting with WordPress this evening and I expect that to continue for another day or few. Let me know if you hate it or like it or what?
Totally new theme (that I haven’t decided I like, yet), new headers, and etcetera. (But the headers will still cycle through for you, theoretically, if you obsessively refresh. Not that I expect you to be the sort who’d do such things…that’s usually just me. )
Couple of notes — I’m working on a laptop with a resolution of 1900 x 1200 pixels, and will see this tomorrow on a monitor with nothing like that sort of resolution when I’m at my office. If this works okay in both areas, I may leave it more or less as it is, barring tweakage of the sidebars; but if you’re viewing it on your setup and it’s hideous, do let a knitter know, please?
Remember this hat? (Please forgive the very old, fuzzy quality photo — this is intarwebs wayback at work!)
 The hat I knit my husband that was stolen last night I awoke this morning and went through my usual routine; when I came out to get in my truck, however, I discovered that someone had been through my truck; emptied out the center console, dumped out my handbag, and just generally went through everything.
The good news is, there was nothing actually stolen out of my car. I still don’t know what the thief was really looking for.
The bad news is, they checked my husband’s car, too, and evidently decided that the only thing worth taking was the ONE thing I could not simply replace with an insurance check and a shopping trip — my husband’s handknit, much-loved, much-worn skully hat.
So I’ve already ordered yarn to knit him another, but in a perfect world (and yes, I know how unlikely this is), the hat would find its way home.
I do have a case number with Fairfax County Police, so if you see the hat floating around this area (presuming you’re local!), please let me know where and if you can, a description of the individual wearing it so I can let them know.
If by some really freak, crazy accident the person who stole the hat finds their way to this blog –
Dude. NOT COOL. Return the hat, please? That’s 30-odd hours of my life spent knitting that hat, and love put into it for my husband. Do the right thing. Bring it back and just leave it on the doorstep or something? I’m not looking to press charges, I just want the hat back. Thanks.
 In Case of Ransom A Post! AND a finished object! Is it the Apocalypse?!?
 Sophie's Unoriginal Inaugural Hat Living in the D.C. metropolitan vicinity made it feel pretty imperative to us to attend the Inauguration on the 20th. In the interests of being as prepared as we could be, I decided that Sophie needed to have a warm wool hat. In typical me/knitter fashion, I decided this on the 18th.
Enter Steph‘s Unoriginal Hat. Bulky yarn, not a lot of stitches, just enough pattern to make it interesting, and FAST. I cast on the night of the 18th, knit a couple of rows; and sat down for evening television on the 19th and it was done.
 Fudged decreases on the top I used the largest needles I could unearth from the chaos of my house (US 10, I think; details are on Ravelry as my brain is a sieve), and a gorgeous skein of Manos Del Uruguay I’ve had lying around the house for a while simply because I adore the colors.
I think there’s enough left to knit one of these for me.
 Happy Girl “Potato Chip Knitting: Betcha can’t knit just one”!
Meanwhile, I’ve also joined (in a fit of returning knitting mojo) the Blue Moon Rockin’ Sock Club. The first shipment arrived this week and I am (as expected) totally giddy over it. I don’t think I’m supposed to show you what all is in it just yet, so instead I leave you with a view of the crowds at Inauguration, from inside the Third Street tunnel in D.C.:
 Inaugural Crowds, Third Street Tunnel, Washington, D.C. 2009
I received my christmas present early this year, though I’ve been spec-ing out and considering options for a new camera since at least last Christmas. I am still trying to figure out how to use my new Pentax K20D properly, but I know I really love the 50mm fixed focal length lens I got to go with it. To wit:
This is a project I cast on intending to make the tube scarf with a chiffon insert found in Alterknits. However, what with the cowl craze going around, and the fact that the (initially unintentional) stripes in the thing are making it take just about forever, I am considering just casting off right about where it is now and calling it a cowl.
I went to Kentucky to visit family at Thanksgiving and stopped in at a lovely little LYS, where I purchased yarn and needles for my cousin’s daughter whom I was teaching to knit. I may have had a minor credit card accident in my own favor…
No idea yet what I’ll do with it, but the color, the sheen, and the sheer softness of it was too hard to resist, and thus I didn’t try.
Meanwhile, since I can’t seem to settle to anything in particular knitting-wise, I’ve begun sewing up pajamas for my family to wear on Christmas morning. The boys — my two teenage stepsons and TSH — are each getting their own pair of pajama pants, and Sophie and I will have full pajama sets in our respective fabrics.
My husband’s flannel has penguins drinking martinis all over it. Not sure why I decided in the fabric store that this fabric was the one he needed, but he loves it, so clearly I wasn’t wrong.
Sophie refers to this as “Hollow Kitty”.
And the boys get these:
I am realizing as I type that I actually HAVE got “real” knitting to show you — I began the Lady Eleanor stole not too long ago and actually have made some progress on it, so that’ll be next up on the docket to show you.
Meanwhile, Sophie’s birthday is on Monday, so we have a weekend full of all-Sophie, all the time. I think tomorrow brings homemade oreos to be made.
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