Firsts

Almost seven weeks have passed now, with many "firsts":

Smiles

Baths

Naps with the Tuna

Fall Days at the Beach

It's a good life.

Last Minute Giftie

I used to be pretty good about offering the occasional freebie pattern - especially at Christmas. The last few years the freebies have been harder to fit in, mostly because it takes time to write out patterns in intelligible terms. By the time I have time, I'm already on to something else. When Ann showed such a keen interest in obtaining my dad's vest pattern for her knitting circle, I decided it would be a nice opportunity to slip in a little freebie before 2007 comes to a close. So while Moxie was cheering on the Patriots, I was happily pattern drafting. Voila!

The vest is written for a 44" shirt size, with tips for re-sizing. It's a quickie, so please read over the pattern carefully for errors before proceeding. If you spot an error, please let me know. We'll revise as we go along. Happy New Year! xox, J

What the Elves Made this Year

One vest for dad, one apron for mom, coming up!

Hoolia Claus did not go unassisted. Townes helped to make sure that the vest was folded completely flat for packing by putting in some dedicated napping hours on top of it, and the dogs assisted with moral support while I sewed by lounging lovingly on the bed. I could not have done it without them. I hope that your holiday crafting was just as merry and well-supported. There's nothing quite like having a good crew to get you through!

Lookie Kay!

I can wear my nightie with jeans!

After I wrote Kay to let her know that I had finished the after dark nightie she commented that as soon as she saw it over jeans her work would be done. I was loathe to disappoint, but given the snugness of the nightie, I felt it was best to warn Kay that this wasn't a happening proposition. There just didn't seem to be any good way to get both myself and a pair of Levi's under this thing at the same time. Then this morning, while I was working from the home office and wearing the nightie, I caught a little chill that even my shearling booties couldn't shake off. So I figured there was no harm in at least trying to get the nightie over a pair of jeans. If it was ugly, only I would know, and then there were Kay's feelings to consider - I should at least make an attempt. And then a miracle happened - it fit! A few minutes later, with the aid of a strapless bra and a tight-as-hell yoga top for added coverage, I was ready to roll. Then I remembered something the ladies at Marie Claire told me earlier this spring - never go out in your tunic without a belt (or sash). I think they may be right!

I loved this as a nightie, but as a nightie and a tunic I like it even better. I can see all sorts of uses for it - nights out with the girls, romantic evenings with Moxie, maybe I could even wear it as a cover-up at the beach. We're going to be inseparable, this nightie and I.

Hiding in Plain Sight

All my handspun skeinlettes,
with my spindles stored in between.I've been enjoying a new podcast lately -- Stash and Burn -- which my friend LoriZ recommended in one of her great Sunday surf posts.* I've made my way through all of their episodes in the last week, so I hope Nicole and Jenny will keep podcasting regularly so that I can get my fix.

One of the many interesting topics covered in the podcast is how to acclimate your spouse, significant other, flavor of the month, etc. to the vast amounts of yarn that will invade their lives as long as they remain with you. (I suppose a corollary of that is how to keep them around despite these vast amounts of yarn.) One of my favorite suggestions was to hide everything in plain sight, in order to de-sensitize your significant other to yarn by exposure. This is one I have lived by for quite a while. A few years ago, when my stash reached rather unruly proportions with the advent of internet yarn sales, I purchased a Magiker cabinet from Ikea to store all my yarn in. It's been a great solution. The yarn is protected from dust by the cabinet, but with the glass doors I can see much of what I have. My particular unit is half the size of the one in the link - it is tall, thin and deep, so it scoots easily into every living space we have had and yet accommodates a lot of yarn.

My fabric stash,
housed in the closet.Unfortunately, not all of my yarn fits in the Magiker unit, so occasionally, after such major events as that damn Black Sheep Knittery 50% off sale that would not end, I have to do some re-shuffling and organization. My personal stash goals, such that I have any, include eventually having only as much stash as will fit in that cabinet. It's a pretty big space, so that's not exactly an overly ambitious goal - or at least it shouldn't be!

Anyhoo, this week I am completely going through the girls' room (our extra bedroom, so named because it is predominantly used by me, my crafts, and all my girlfriends who craft). My clothes closet is in there, and I have gone through that completely, and am now in the midst of going through the yarn, fiber, fabric, buttons, beads, and ribbon. Oh yeah, and books. Lots of books.

Ribbon and ball bands,
which I'm saving for a special project.I'm photographing my entire stash so that I have a visual catalog (to accompany the all-important excel spreadsheet), but I am also finding better and more visible storage for my "little stashes" - the fiber, fabric, buttons and ribbons. These categories of stash are much smaller than the yarn stash, but they haven't been nearly as ingeniously stored in the past. I think it's important to be able to see what I have so that I can use it. For example, I don't have a lot of ribbon, but I do have several pretty, quality yards. These have come in handy as ties for knitwear on several occasions. I used grossgrain ribbon for the straps on Asana, the same ribbon, years later, worked for Thelma's straps, and then most recently, the After Dark Nightie got ties made of a lovely fine velvet ribbon. Having these items on hand in plain sight makes it that much more likely that I will turn to them when I need a little closure. Ouch. That was such a bad pun I'm guessing some may even have missed it.

Just something to think about. How do you store your stash?

Kitty collection,
napping in plain sight.*As an aside, I love reading "link" posts and I have three friends who do these rather well: Andrea, the grand mistress of links, LoriZ, and MJ. Definitely check them out. You can find some really great resources. For myself, the link posts haven't happened (not sure why), but I do keep a running tab of links I like on my BIG LIST, which you can find below the names of my closest pals in the sidebar under "links". If you haven't already, you may want to check it out. There are some great links - especially in the techniques and resources section.

MDK's ADN: Lil' Knitter Rides Again

After Dark Nightie on the hooks.At some point I really want to do a post on the benefits of the knitting machine, and why these handy little guys might appeal to some of you. (It's definitely an "extra," but avid knitters and designers could find it useful.) For now, here's a little intro and a summary of the things I use Marnie's for. If anyone has a similar model and gets more or unique use out of it, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

This particular model - Silver Reed's LK 150 - does both more and less than you might expect it to, and I have to be completely honest and tell you that I know absolutely nothing about any other model (in fact, on one occasion MH brought over a computerized model and I had no idea what to do with it! We'll figure it out some other time!) This machine is a fairly reasonably priced model ($350-$400 ballpark, but shop around, it can be gotten cheaper) that is very manual. It looks like a piano keyboard. You thread the yarn through it like a sewing machine, and then slide a cartridge along the hooks to create the loops. Each row requires that you manually push the cartridge across the hooks, and every manuever other than knitting is done manually. You move different stitches around with the aid of "eye" tools to create decreases, increases and cable crosses before you knit the row, then zip the cartridge across to seal the deal. The wrong side is always facing you, which can make it a bit confusing. Its pretty easy to do, but its also amazingly easy to f*ck up, so you can end up spending a lot of time ripping as well as knitting.

So many good things in this photo.
Do you see them all?I've been able to short cut a lot of the learning process since Marnie taught me (it's her machine). As a consequence I don't bother to muck around with casting on, casting off or short-rowing on this machine - it just doesn't do them in the way that I prefer, so all my cast on and cast-off edges are provisional and done by hand. Similarly, if there is a short-row section, I do that by hand as well (I can't remember if Marnie found a nice way to do that on the machine or not). This particular model will not do ribbed portions, but it will make slip-stitch patterns (again, you move the stitches individually) and it has - get this - a fair isle cartridge! Fair isle on this puppy is no picnic, as you move the stitches manually and have to manipulate all designs from the wrong side, but the results are pretty cool. It is still a bit faster than fair isle by hand, and I can definitely see swatching for color combos in fair isle or slip stitch on the machine, as you could determine which ones you liked relatively rapidly and then go on to hand knit your chosen colorway.

My special, patient helper.I'm not sure I'd often use the fair isle cartridge to make an entire fair isle sweater, because that is something I prefer to do by hand, but I have used Lil' Knitter quite a bit to bang out long stockinette pieces on small needles. For me, that is its best use. If you have fairly even tension, it is not noticeable when you change from hand knitting to machine, surprisingly enough. On my mother-in-law's sweater that I re-created from a favorite of hers last year, I did from the bustline up by hand (It was full of short-rows) and the transition was seamless. I don't think it was my own knitting expertise that made it so - I'm pretty sure that if you've been knitting at an even tension for a little while it won't be noticeable when you transfer from machine to hand.

Another look at the vine lace.Ann and Kay's After Dark Nightie (designed by Alison Green Will) is the perfect example of my favorite way to use machine knitting to get the knit I want fast. I love, love, love working with Euroflax Linen, and if I didn't have about a zillion things going around here and very little time, I would knit every stitch of this by hand. Since that is not the case, however, I'm speeding up the process by using Lil Knitter to zoom through the stockinette portions. In this case, I knit the 5 inches of vine lace (seen at the bottom) by hand over the weekend, and then got up at an insane hour in the morning a few days during the week to place the live stitches on the machine and bang out the stockinette portion.

Sheer and sexy....Once done, I put all of the live stitches on a smaller straight needle, and dunked the entire thing in some Eucalan to rest and re-shape. Machine knitting tends to leave stitches stretched out for a while after the piece is taken off. It usually requires a decent rest and a significant swish and block to get things to look as they will. In this case, the linen has uber-memory for stretch, so I'm guessing it will take even longer.

Anyhoo, I blocked the bottom portion and laid it out to dry yesterday morning. Today I'm going to finish the second bottom lace panel and the second round of stockinette for the front. That way, I will be able to finish the nightie in the car on our way out of town Friday morning. Moxie and I are taking a little trip to celebrate our anniversary, which was last month. . . more on that soon.

Marseilles Finished; Tuna Gets Some Play

Marseilles in Repose

The Marseilles Pullover is all finished and fabulous, but you're going to have to take my word for it that it looks great on, because we are having a record heat wave and I'm not so sure that I can brave the elements to wear it! I predicted that this would happen. The temperature has an inverse relationship with whatever I happen to be knitting. No sooner did I get the Daktari Skirt off the needles then we had a little cold snap. I had about a week to wear it and then I had to shelve it until now.

Ms. Tuna snuggles up.
It's only 90 degrees after all.I am unconcerned, however. My strategy is to alternate hot and cold weather knits. That way I will always get to wear something right off the needles. Next up - Essential Tank Top! Get ready for some snow, Los Angeles!

The shot above was actually hard to get, because a certain someone kept inserting herself into the pictures. She likes new things, but she's also kind of a ham. I realized that I should probably have more pictures of her around here, lest you think I have only one little stinky orange cat. I think there are two reasons that I don't have many pictures of Tuna. The first is her coloring. She really is a challenge to photograph, especially on all the dark furniture that we have. The second reason is that it's hard to photograph Tuna in "action." If Townes is a doer, Tuna is a "be"-er. She's a little buddha kitty with exactly one pose:

And here it is...

I wasn't kidding....

New Life for an Old Knit

Pia makes her fall debut.Those of you who have been reading my blog for a really, really long time, might just remember that I knit Pia from Rowan's Magazine 35. I loved knitting Pia, but once it was all done it was a bit roomy. I always intended to do something about this - either rip and revise or attempt to shrink it a bit in the dryer - but for some reason it never happened, which was quite sad given how much I had enjoyed making this top.

Then fall rolled around this year and I really, really wanted a cool vest to layer over tops and blouses. I have one vest prototype in the works and another in sketches and in my head, but both of those have been shelved to make way for Christmas items and a few things for publication, so it will be a while before those vests take woolen form.

Pia loves Townes.Just by chance I was straightening up my closet and ran across Pia, which is knit in a wonderfully autumnal shade of green called "Fern". It was like a lightbulb went off in my head and I wondered aloud how it would look over one of my blouses with jeans. Viola! What a great combination! I am loving it, and suddenly a knit that has only rarely seen the light of day is getting worn about once a week. It's a favorite!

The best part is that I think there are several summer tops in my closet that can probably be worn this way. My citrus moon is more fitted, but the colors are the right palette, and I think it could work well over a more fitted long-sleeved shirt. I just had to share, because I'm guessing that many of you have made a knitted summer top that is just a little too big - it's almost a rite of passage in the knitting world. Why not re-purpose it and get something you really love?

Knitting, Spinning, Family

The Knitting:

Swallowtail shawl in merino tencel handspun: far and near.

It's going well. I thought that I might be a bit short on yarn, so after I finished the tenth repeat, I weighed the yarn I had used (40 grams) and the yarn I had left (75 grams). Then I made a spreadsheet to determine how many total stitches a full swallowtail shawl would take (18,583), and how many stitches I could expect to get out of 115 grams of yarn (~15, 900). I determined that if I took out two budding lace repeats I would have enough yarn, and that if I simply added two rows with 4 yarnover increases before changing to the next lace pattern, I would have the correct multiple of stitches for the following lace patterns. This shawl was actually pretty ammenable to tweaking, so I really lucked out. I'm sure that what I wrote here sounds pretty complicated, but it's doable. If enough people are interested, I'll write up a tutorial on adjusting this type of shawl sometime. You never know when you'll need to double-check yardage and re-adjust. It sounds dull as dust, but I'm happy to forego the excitement of running out of yarn close to the end.

My adjustments may very well make the shawl too small to be practicable to wear, but I've decided I'm enjoying it so much that I don't really care. If I can't wear it, I'll frame it. It's a lovely pattern and a really nice use of the yarn. I'll let you know if it's wearable or not, though, just in case someone else has 290 yards of fingering that they're considering using this way.

The red sparkly Christmas beret is almost finished, right on schedule.

This is an easy knit. No thinking, no tweaking, nothing. Perfect for a gift, and completely season appropriate. Normally I shy away from sparkly, but this really appeals to me, and the person it's for does sparkly quite well.

The Spinning:

Heart's Content: 80% merino, 20% bombyx silk from Chameleon Colorworks.

I spun this at the spin-in at my house on Saturday. It's only 57 yards, but I should eventually be able to incorporate it into a project with some other handspun. I love the colorway, and especially after washing, it is really soft.

The Family:

The crew, hanging out in bed the morning after the spin out.

We never used to allow the dogs (we had two) in bed, but now that Caia is an elder, we just put an old quilt on top and let her sleep wherever she wants. The night of the spin-in she insisted on sleeping with me, and when I finally woke up, exhausted and dazed, I found that I was under a pile of furry love. I slept in that little corner at the top! It's amazing the way the kitties pile on when Caia is in the bed. They find the tiniest crevasse and wedge themselves in. Not much sleep, but a lot of love.

Hemingway & Faulkner

I've heard it said that if you want to write, you should read all of Faulkner, and then read all of Hemingway to get the Faulkner out of your system. The styles of these two greats are well-known for being at opposite ends of the writing spectrum, and I enjoy them both. (Though if I had to pick, I'd take Faulkner.) This quote found its way into my head after the long ordeal of spinning the raspberry merino tencel was over. After all that precision, concentration, patience, and striving for evenness and perfection, I wanted to spin something positively organic. (Okay, so this is more like reading Hemingway and washing it down with Faulkner - bear with me.) First, I pulled out my Maggie spindle:

Mystery roving from Spunky Eclectic.This was definitely an experience on the road to satisfying, and it was fun to play with a spindle again, but it was just a little wisp of roving (maybe an ounce?) and I was looking to make a big hank of soft, fluffy, thick and thin yarn, and really have some fun. So I pulled out the Rose, put it on the slowest ratio on the big whorl, and spun up the last few ounces of the chocolate-covered cherries bfl which was my very first roving purchase ever last year and the first thing that I really spun into something approximating yarn. The ChocCherries bfl has brought me good luck. It was also the first roving I spun on my Rose.

Treadling with Townes on board.When you are first spinning, more experienced spinners will look at your lumpy yarn and tell you that at some point you will have to work to achieve thick and thin like that, and that you should appreciate not having to work for it now. (Due to woeful inexperience, no less!) I've taken this to heart and made note of exactly what it was that I've done "wrong" to produce such incredibly large slubs, so that I could later reproduce them at will. If you're just starting, take note - your own foibles put you in a position to learn a lot about making designer yarn. One of my favorite thick and thins from early on was this Tahiti handspun, which reminds me of Manos (but lumpier). I was going for an even more extreme, fluffy version. This is what I got:

So fluffy! So soft! So fun!

I'm going to set the twist using Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' method of simmering the yarn, but I'm waiting until I have a chance to hop over to the Goodwill and buy some old stockpots, because I think it's probably a bad idea to simmer dyed yarn in the ones we use for our soups and stews. I've been really impatient to knit with some thick and thin yarn, though, so in the meantime, I've pulled out my Tahiti skeins and started knitting a Christmas Scarf for my little niece, Sophie. I really like how it's coming along so far:

Zoom in, zoom out.

This is almost as good as reading The Bear.

I Have Spun Koigu

I know. It probably sounds a bit boastful, and when I say it, I don't mean that you should all turn in your KPPPM and start begging me to spin for you. My yarn definitely has some "features" that you won't find in koigu, but that said it is shockingly similar. The funny thing is that it wasn't intentional, and that I didn't even notice until I started knitting with it. I just had a strange sensation of deja vu. And then it came to me. I had managed to spin something a lot like my absolute favorite yarn for socks. Happy, happy co-inckie-dink!

I cast on for the Swallowtail Shawl last night. Love it.

I think that the beginnings of the swallowtail shawl look remarkably similar to the beginnings of Charlotte's Web.* Oh happy, happy days. And can I just say that although I am only a wee bit into this Swallowtail pattern I am already hooked on it. It's totally fun, pretty and really easy to memorize. Now I just have to pray that I don't run out of yarn. It's going to be a very, very close call, but I'm optimistic. And I'm so into this shawl that I can't stop. May the knitting gods be with me. Tiffany, my spinning mentor from afar (Marnie was my spinning mentor from anear), is spinning and knitting this one with me. Tiffany, hon, you better spin fast. I'm so excited I may whip through this one despite all the other crap I should be doing.

Here's one last close-up for the knitters out there who are sick of all this spinning content:

See guys? I do still knit! Just with my own brew.

I have several other things on the needles as well, including another handspun project (check the sidebar if you're interested). I've just been so stoked about my handspun that it's been hard to make myself blog the knitting. In this case, it's two for one.

The State of the Koosher
I know that several of you have sent well-wishes to Caia, and I just wanted to let you know that she has improved a lot since last week. Caia is old enough (almost 14) that improvement means we may be able to give her a good quality of life for weeks, or if we're really lucky, months, and that is what we're going for right now. She's not in any pain, and she is still able to enjoy belly and ear rubs, chomping on a bone, and her favorite pastime, naps with Townes. I snapped this picture of them early this morning, before we headed in for her check-up with the vet:

Townes is obviously having blissful dreams of his true doggy love.

I love the way that these two often sleep in similar positions, or even mirroring each other. If there is anyone Townes is more devoted to than he is to me, it's Caia. It's a little bit like watching Pepe Le Pew and that poor black cat. Undying, almost suffocating, interspecies devotion. When we took Caia to the vet last week, we were very afraid that we were at the end, so we brought Townes along. He curled around her head on the exam table and stayed with her throughout everything - shots, having blood drawn - everything. Even the vet was surprised. He said he'd never seen anything quite like it.

*Okay, so that was a crappy Charlotte's Web picture, and never let us mind that I didn't ever get further than that on Charlotte's Web. That was what it looked like before I ripped it out!

Some Help for Achieving a Balanced Ply

The other day, Marnie wrote about how to check to see if your plied yarn is balanced while it is still on the spindle (or wheel). I found this really useful, and was suprised that I hadn't thought of checking my plies this way, especially since I know a similar trick for checking to see what your plied yarn should look like before you actually ply it. Sometimes the rudimentary things just don't filter down! Anyhoo, along that line of thought, I'm sharing the trick for checking to see what your plied yarn should look like in advance. For most, this will be old hat, but perhaps it will help a relative newbie (like me!).

Check your ply in advance in four easy steps.

1. Hold a length of yarn out taut from either your bobbin or your spindle shaft.

2. Place a pen (or any other lightly weighted household object with a hook) over the yarn.

3. Allow the yarn to spin until it slows and begins to spin in the opposite direction - don't let it actually backspin, or if it does, let it go back to "zero" where it isn't twisting in either direction.

4. Take a look at the twist - this is what your yarn should look like when it is plied!

The roving that I've been working with is a merino/tencel blend from Carolina Homespun. It's a little more slippery than what I'm used to, but oh, so nice. No pre-drafting is necessary with this stuff - just grab a hunk and spin.

My individual plies seem very fine, though, in fact, I think the yarn produced will be a DK weight when plied - we'll see. This is a longer project for me. Most of the rovings I've spun up thickly enough that I could easily spin and ply two ounces in one sitting. This roving will take 4 to 6 sessions, depending on how long I spin each time. It's a real exercise in patience, as I am dying to see the finished yarn.

Here's the roving in its original state, with my patient little boy in the background.

This was a long spinning session for the Nounie as well. He loves to sit close by and watch the wheel spin. (When I knit, he sacks out on my lap.) This morning, I spun for so long that he fell asleep at his post by my flip-flops. He is so sweet it hurts my heart a little to look at him.

"You're hurting my heart, little boy."

Townes, on the other hand is completely un-sentimental and non-plussed:

"I'm asleep mom."

"No, really. I am."

When Something Orange This Way Comes

Another balanced yarn? I'll fix that! Cute, but not exactly recommended.

Perfectly Balanced

Not me - the skein! Now I know that this is not always going to happen, and in fact, may rarely happen again, but please take a moment to revel in the fact that my second skein of yarn off the Rose is perfectly balanced. Overspun, thick and thin, yes, but perfectly balanced.

Not the most artistic photo I've ever taken, but you can see the balance. It's so freaking great, I can't bring myself to wash it.

This was one of the few times that a shout out to cyber space simply was not enough. I called both Marnie and Andrea, e-mailed Tiffany and Cara - why the hell don't I have your phone numbers? this is ridiculous! - and would have searched madly for MJ's number in my inbox if I hadn't known full well that she was hanging off some cliff face in Utah having "fun". It was just one of those times when I needed you guys in the flesh, rather than on the net - which is always darn great in itself.

With Townes, for scale.

Also, Mia asked for a review of the Rose in the comments to my Wheelspun post. I feel somewhat inadequate - okay, very inadequate - to do this, simply because I am so new to wheel spinning. But, I'm not going to let that stop me. I have tried a LOT of wheels in the last month (15 maybe?), so I will try to write up something based on my own experience and the very, very little that I know. Just remember to read it with that caveat. In the meantime, I can tell you that the Rose is my wheel of choice. So much so, that instead of sending it back to The Weaver's Cottage, I'm sending those guys my hard-earned cash. Well, mine and Moxie's. He's paying for half as a Christmas/Birthday present. You knew he had to be nice sometime to make up for all those "witticisms," didn't you?

Maternity socks?

Townes right after discovering the socks.
"They're mine. All mine."Yesterday I had a really long work day, which started at about 6:00 a.m. I didn't get a chance to eat until around 3:00 p.m., and at that point I decided to treat myself to my favorite little Italian cafe for some spaghetti with meat sauce (my comfort food of choice) and a few minutes of knitting time.

So, there I am. I have a nice exchange with the waiter, who brings me "the usual," get out my knitting, and start to relax.

Out of the blue, a guy sitting at a nearby table starts talking to me.

Him: "Are you pregnant?"

Me, a bit mischieviously: "Do I look pregnant?"

Him: "You're knitting."

Me, knowingly, and with a wry smile: "Ah, yes, that is right. Only pregnant women knit."

Me again, after a pause: "I've been knitting all my life. My grandmother taught me when I was six. I wasn't pregnant then, either."

He sleeps, confident in his conquest.After that we segued into a very nice conversation, with the mutual tacit agreement that we would pretend as if this strange and possibly rude preliminary conversation had never occurred.

Later, however, I did find myself puzzling over it. Did this man think that the hormones women produced when pregnant caused them to compulsively pick up the needles and obsessively make things? If so, did he believe that once the hormones had flushed from my system I would miraculously stop? (Moxie often prays for this.) It was confounding, and I wished that instead of politely moving on I had questioned him about it. It made me feel as if I were a zebra that he had seen on Nova, and he had asked me why I wasn't being chased by lions. ('Cause, you know, that's what zebras do on TV.) I suspected that he had never married.

If I had been making booties or a little gansey set (both of which I did work on in that very cafe) it might have made sense. But I was knitting a sock. And it wasn't at the teeny, tiny stage where its acceptable to ask what the heck it is. I was practically ready to kitchener the toe.

Everyone should bathe with their socks.And then I realized. He must be related to are you poor? It all made sense.

I finished the socks last night and blocked them, and was planning to take FO photos of them in an attempt to distract you from the fact that I still haven't done an FO photoshoot for the River Stole.

Townes had other plans, however. As soon as he spied them he hopped up on the bed and claimed them for his own. He has been lying on them all day. Sometimes grooming himself, occasionally stretching, and often just sacking out in a contented heap of cat and koigu. He cracks me up. Oh, yeah - and he's not pregnant, either.

Thanksgiving on the Hill

Although I am a HUGE proponent of Southern California and all its weather has to offer, I have to admit that I prefer to be in DC for Thanksgiving. The air is crisp, the leaves are still colorful, and the bounty that is Thanksgiving can be found only a few blocks away from our house in Capitol Hill.

Although this is only our second Thanksgiving here, I feel that I have a ritual in place, which includes waking early and walking down a few beautiful blocks lined with historic homes to Eastern Market to pick up my fresh turkey and a few other essentials, so that I may begin cooking. A morning outing is essential, because by noon the market is swamped and by afternoon it's downright crazy. The market closes for Turkey day and the day after, so it's important to stock up on all the fixins while you can. The two-day wait for groceries can be a long one if you've planned poorly. What is Thanksgiving if it's not all about the food?

This Thanksgiving I thought that I would photo-document my trip, so that you guys could come along with me. I'm thankful for many things, including the things that you'll see in the pictures here. I'm also thankful for all of you. It's great to have such an extended family of cyber-friends to share with, and to hear from on a daily basis. You make my knitting and life much richer. For those of you who are fellow Hillers - shout out! For those of you who don't know these places - take note! If you ever have a chance to do Thanksgiving here, this is a great way to do it.

My first stop at Eastern Market is the Sweet Shoppe. They sell $2 bags of cut up bread for stuffing - it's an economical and quick way to put together a side. This place is also famous for its excellent bearclaws and pesto. My own pesto recipe was inspired by the Sweet Shoppe's use of spinach and parsely as dominant ingredients. It's good stuff.

Stop number two is Paik Produce. I was a good girl and did most of my market produce shopping last weekend, but I did need to pick up fresh greens. The brothers Paik (as I think of them, who knows if they are) always have good produce at a decent price, and if you buy in quantity or bring along a small child, you get a banana for free as a bonus.

Next is the biggie. I hit Market Poultry (scroll down for info!) to pick up my fresh turkey, which I ordered ahead of time. By this afternoon the pick-up line will be around the block. That's because Market Poultry carries the best, the freshest, the most amazing turkeys anywhere. You haven't had turkey until you've had theirs. Their poultry is just that good. Plus its a family-run operation. Everyone there is a son or a cousin or a close family friend. They're good folk, and they'll take care of you. You can get all kinds of goodies there - from game birds to alligator (can you say gumbo?), and great turkey bacon. And can you beat the mascot? Pretty season-appropriate.

Finally, on my way out I pass another Capitol Hill institution - The Sweet Nuthouse. It's run by a husband and wife - she makes sugar-coated nuts and he sells them (and hands out free samples!) and they are good. Everytime you pass, you're treated to a little sweet goodness.

When I arrive home, I can see that the animals are observing their own Hill rituals. Although the world outside may change - leaves fall, the weather gets colder - there are certain things you can count on to stay the same.

Happy Thanksgiving Knitters! May you shop like Hoolias (that's me - phoenetically speaking) and nap like Tunas!

Poem in the Style of Bukowski: Everyone's Sleeping But Me

They're lucky they're so darned cute

I'm harboring the kind of jealousy

That could make even the best mommy

Go a little crazy with the spray bottle.

Shirley Spins (and so does Julia)

I had an absolutely fiber-filled weekend, which included Friday night dinner and maniacal Griffith-finishing with Mary Heather, a full day of "work" at the Knit Cafe, and then a Sunday of spinning with Marnie. Marnie is an excellent instructor. Here she is teaching Shirley, my foster kitty, how to make magic with a drop spindle:

Shirley is a fast learner. Notice how she perfectly mimics Marnie's technique.

I have to warn you up front that there are no pictures of me spinning, because I was so taken with Shirley that I had to drop everything and take an entire series of her first spinning attempts. Here's another cute one:

Notice the funny position of the back paw. She's so intent that comfort goes to the wayside. This is what spinning does to you.

And, at Marnie's request, here's a close-up of Shirley from the same shot:

When she saw this one, Marnie's first response was "Oh look, I think her eyes were even a little crossed!" Spinning is dangerously mesmerizing.

In between doting on Shirley and clicking away with the camera, I did manage to learn to spin, and I actually found it to be really fun. I wasn't frustrated at all, which I attribute to the fact that I was using a kick ass spindle. This is not to say that I didn't experience the usual beginner pitfalls. I put too much spin in the yarn, let the twist hit the drafting zone, and ended up with my very own "handspun":

See Amy even new wool spinners can create "cat barf"!

I just had a heck of a time doing it. One more round with the brown batt and I'm moving on to the chocolate covered cherries bfl. Look out world!

We've Hit Toe!

Just a few decreases and we're on to sock #2:

I'm knitting slowly so that everyone has time to give a little.

Where there is a Shirley, there is a Laverne. As in "Laverne & Shirley" or "Sultry & Silly" as I like to call them:

You can guess who is who.

Ode to a bootie

If socks are the short stories of knitting, booties are the poetry:

Possibly even the hiaku.

For those of you who like cats, or simply photography, here's a series that I took of my little foster kitty Shirley last night, which I call "Shirley Sleeps". I love to play around with photography, and though I'm not yet as good as some people, I can take a decent shot.

Shirley's pretty frickin' cute, isn't she?

Do I lead with the sock or the mountain?

With you knitters, it's hard to know! I know it's risky, since I'm quite sure that you'd rather see the sock, but I'm going to lead with the mountain.

I'm hoping the waterfall will be considered a mitigating factor...

The scene above is Nevada Falls in Yosemite National Park, where I went on a rather lengthy hike to Half Dome this weekend. (Let's just say that stairs are not my friend today!) I plan to put together a little slideshow of my Half Dome Hike and my previous adventures in Utah on the cross country trip, but I'm still a bit hampered in the tech department (I don't have access to my hard drive!!), so for now you just get a little taste. I had never been to Yosemite before, and I was completely wowwed by the entire journey - all 20 miles of it. For me, this scenery is rivalled only by the red rocks of Utah and my beloved Lake George. Even the Grand Canyon falls a little (tiny bit) short. The air is clean and the water runs cold and clear. It's gorgeous. You must go.

In other news, I am still knitting, as you may know by checking out the sidebar. Some of the gift projects cannot be shown until they arrive safely with their recipients, out of fear that they might be glimpsed by said recipients in advance. So for now, I offer you a really beautiful sock:

Click here for a close-up. You know you want to...

The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, and the pattern is one of the subscriber-only freebies on Interweave Knits. It's a wonderful pattern and the yarn is luscious. I would recommend subscribing to Interweave if you get it on a regular basis anyway, because this is only one of many very nice free patterns that you get as a bonus. It's well worth the $20.

Finally, here's one of my new little partners in knitting crime:

Shirley. Of Laverne and Shirley, the two host kitties that I have temporarily inherited while I am subletting in LA and waiting for Moxie, the animal menagerie, and all of our furniture to arrive later this fall. She's pretty cute, and she's definitely interested in the knitting (or at least the yarn!) and the photo shoot.

Where I've been

Things have been hectic here in MindofWinter world, so as a little treat and retreat, Moxie and I decided to head back to the Lake House for the week and enjoy some quality R&R and much-needed together time. Much knitting was accomplished. I was able to polish off the second of Bob Marley's Grandma's Footies in the car on the way up, and came close to polishing off my book submissions during the week. When those are done I should be able to return to my former blogging schedule. If you check out the sidebar you'll see that much knitting has been done, though little could be shared.

Once the book stuff is off my plate I'll write up the footie pattern. It's easy and fun. I can't get enough of the koigu footwear. It's cute, and perfect for lounging:

Depending on who you are at heart, either the background or foreground of this picture will peak your interest.

As much as I love knitting, I have to admit that the background has my heart, so here's another view of the dock, taken last fall when we were at the lake.

Here's another shot from the fall, to give you an idea of the bigger picture.

In my mind, Lake George is rivalled only by the most splendid of landscapes, such as our lovely Margene can claim. As soon as my world stops spinning, I'll have to gather my LG pics into an album for everyone. There's nothing I love more than seeing the wonderful places you knitters live and go, so one of my future goals is to share more of the beautiful places I've been with all of you.

Also, for those who might be wondering (::cough:: Marnie::cough::) we are also the crazy kind of people who are afflicted with the need to take our animals everywhere with us, so Moxie and I weren't the only ones who enjoyed the beauty and wonders of the lake. Here's a shot of Townie and Caia on the dock:

We brought Tuna as well, but she is more suited to the pleasures of the couch...

Believe it or not, Caia is "fishing". One of the many unique things that our sweet Caia does is spend hours on end staring into the still water at the striped bass that live beneath the dock. When one comes close, she growls menacingly, though I doubt that the bass notice this. Since the lake is still in the early morning, it is a ritual of ours to spend at least the first hour of every day on the dock watching Caia as she watches the fish. Townie does it as well, though I don't think he actually recognizes the bass for what it is. His philosophy on such things is that if Caia is involved, he'll be there participating, whether he really gets what he's participating in or not. He's an odd little cat, but nothing if not loyal. Since we're speaking of the Townie, here's another picture of the little boy:

Be vawy vawy qwiet... I'm hunting dwagonflies...."

I'll post more soon - I just wanted to let you all know that I was thinking of you and to share a bit of the joy that is a lake vacation. xox

One and Three-Quarters Sock Wisdom

Now that I'm three-fourths of the way through my second sock, I'm ready to share the wisdom that I've gained during this process. I must warn you in advance, that since I am a big fat geek in all things in life, and knitting in particular, I did a little bit of homework prior to starting my sockapalooza sock.

[If you're curious, the books are: Folk Socks and Knitting On The Road by Nancy Bush and Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy and Ethnic Socks and Stockings by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Armed with these four volumes of sockish knowledge, I doubt I'll ever need another book on knitted footwear again.]

Just to prove that I am three-quarters through my second sock, I offer you this evidence:

Here's the "Three Quarters Wisdom":

1. Your clenched fist has the same circumference as the ball of your foot. [I learned this from either Nancy or Priscilla - Priscilla, I think.] The natural outcome of gaining this knowledge was the urge to test it. I used the punch test to evalute the fit on both Crusoe (for me) and the Little Shell Socks (for my sock pal). If the sock is snug, but you can get your fist into it without issues, it fits. If you're making a sock for a slightly bigger person, you simply put your fist in and open it a crack. Brilliant.

2. If you use a different guage than the one called for in the pattern, you can determine how many heel rows to do by folding over the heel flap to determine whether it is square or not, like this. (The one in the picture is square - you can tell because it folds to meet the edges of the other half of the flap exactly.) Remember that you will have to adjust the number of picked-up sts along the gusset and that you will need to reduce those sts back down to the original number as well.

3. The skp decrease on the heel in the Little Shell Socks looks like poo. I used k2tog instead. The lesson for people not knitting this sock? Just remember there are many decrease methods out there. You don't have to allow yourself to get stuck with an icky one.

4. Picking up sts a whole st in rather than half a st in on the gusset really does make a difference. Going in only half a st leaves an ugly hole.

5. Yellow is a color that many people have a strong reaction to!

For Those Wacky Animal Lovers:

Nounie believes he is a dog and therefore sleeps where Caia sleeps...

Booty Call?!

Last week was pretty busy with the Knitty deadline and deadlines of many other real life sorts. To add to the busy-ness, I made a little trip out to Cleveland for a girls' weekend with my best friends from college. Although both quick and action packed, the weekend provided much-needed time to engage in some fun fiber-craft. I was able to knock out not one, not two, but three booties:

And no two are the same size...

Too bad none of them are the same size! These booties are destined for the feet of another college friend's soon to arrive twins. My plan was to make the smallest size in lavendar and in yellow. I swatched for the lavendar like a good girl, but somehow I managed to change my gauge while knitting the second bootie. [This is unusual for me, and I blame it entirely on my girlfriend-induced inebriated state. Don't drink and knit - you'll get loose!] On top of that, the yellow is a different yarn, so its gauge is different, too. I thought it would be very close, so I didn't swatch. It was close, but not very close. And since these little babies will be small, it needs to be done at a smaller gauge.

The whole endeavor is not a terrible loss, as I have at least two other babies to knit for, but still, I'm going to have to churn out several more of these little things in the next few weeks and although they are cute, I have to admit I'm a bit weary of them already. [Nothing new there - I knit one teacup from my tea set, and after about six out of 20 of the minisweaters I had planned for Xmas gift ornaments I promptly pooped out. There is a lesson here!]

Odd Pet Tricks
Most of you know that I don't feature my animals on the blog unless I can find an excuse that is somehow knitting-related to tie them in. Today I'm doing nothing of the sort. This is for all you wacky animal lovers out there:

Nounie the Spinning Cat!

Our cat, Townes, affectionately known as The Nounie, not only has his own little kitty hammock, but likes it when we spin it around for him. Weird? Yes. But entertaining as well. Who needs a normal pet, anyway?

A Little Knitting

Click me to change cats!

Since we're currently under construction, I thought I could at least leave you with a knitterly picture. A little Townie in his Pi. The pattern, which I modified a bit, can be found on
Wendy's website.
(Wendy, it's great - thanks for offering it for free!) I'll add more pics and project notes later, but felt that I should leave you with something to look at that resembled knitting.....

Test Drive!

Now to add some content and personalize....
This is going to be FUN!
P.S. Mom didn't pose us. Townie has been raised by Caia since he was a little pup (er, kittten, but don't tell him) and is completely in love. They sleep in the same bed every night...