Cottage46 Knitter

New WIPs and St. Brigid yarn

Sitcom Chic #2 is coming along nicely.  I have one sleeve done and the other one is about halfway.  I ordered a sweater clasp for it instead of a button, but it hasn't arrived yet.

I went on a little cast on binge at knitting group.  First, Lupine Lace socks from Fiber Trends in ONline Supersocke cotton.

And then Branching Out from Knitty in Dream in Color Smooshy.

I haven't touched either project since then.

My St. Brigid yarn arrived!  It's Cascade 220 Heathers, Colorway 9463.  It's a little less pinkish than shown in the picture.  More burgandy.

Although it was in the house all last weekend, I did not touch it until my Economics index was done.  So I wound all 10 hanks last night and Actually. Swatched.  Got gauge with #5s and happily cast on, carefully placing my stitch markers between cable sections.  On the first row I realized that there 2 sections where I hadn't cast on enough stitches. Duh. So I ripped it out and will try again tonight.  Evidently it takes at least 2 tries for a 5-years-of-knitting-experience knitter to cast on the right ^&$*!%& number of stitches.

I also picked up another hank of Smooshy.  The colorway is Pansy Golightly.  I love that.

Brigitte tagged me for a meme!  (Appropriate to be tagged by Brigitte on my first St. Brigid post.)

 

The rules: Posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer. Play nice, children.

 

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Hmmm... working at the same library, but as a part-time circulation clerk. And commuting 3 hours round trip to Kalamazoo's Western Michigan University for my history masters.  Glad gas wasn't $4 a gallon then.

 

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today - in no particular order? Cast on the appropriate number of stitches for St. Brigid, run library payroll, read some more of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (great writer, great book), avoid the chocolate cake in the staff lounge, pick up some groceries.

3. Snacks I enjoy - potato chips, popcorn (not microwave), pretzels, really anything covered in salt.

4. Places I've lived -Indiana and Michigan.  Well that's just sad.

5.  Things I would do if I were a billionaire - Set up various friends and family for life, travel, add a few hundred square feet to the cottage, adopt several children, try to reduce the number of kids in the world who starve to death or die of stupid treatable disease.

 

6. Peeps I want to know more about - Skipping this one since most knitters have been tagged by the time I get around to doing memes.

Monday is Memorial Day in the U.S.  I'm looking forward to a 4-day weekend.  (I see no reason to work Friday.)  It's supposed to be in the upper 70s which will be nice since it's been pretty cool.  Sunday will be the running of the Indy 500.  This is the only car race that we watch and we both get weepy when they sing Back Home Again in Indiana.  "When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash, then I long for my Indiana home."

There will be much knitting and reading; hopefully we'll get the kayaks in the water too.

Sock love

Finally, an FO about which I have no criticisms whatsoever.

Pattern: Celtic Braid by Lynda Gemmell
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Into The Mystic colorway
Needles: KP #1
Comments: I think Smooshy may be my new favorite sock yarn.  Wonderful stuff, and it's called SMOOSHY.  I didn't make the cuffs too long, but I'm surprised to find I have enough yarn leftover for another sock.  Maybe I'll knit a new cozy for my ipod.

I got a message on Ravelry last week asking if I might part with a skein of Treking in my stash.  Happily I obliged a fellow knitter, but what to do with the $18 the transaction put into my Paypal account?   ETSY!

Yummy!  The colorway is Muddy Garden.  I have a muddy garden and it is in no way this pretty.
I'm going to wind it tonight.  I'm thinking maybe a simple 3x2 ribbing sock?

I also received an order of Cotton Ease from knitting-warehouse.com which I neglected to photograph.  Blue for another Sitcom Chic, pink for Spring Forward, and yellow for perhaps Cabaret Raglan.   

We had to cut this willow down this weekend.  And by "we" I mean our neighbor who is a magician with a chain saw.

Now it looks like this.  We hated to do it, but we were afraid it was going to fall down. There used to be 2 of them, both huge.  Between various lightning strikes and tornadoes and high winds, the one that was left was in pretty bad shape. 

   

The economics index is coming along v-e-r-y slowly.  It was supposed to be due today, but I still don't have all the chapters.  Happy to have the knitting time though!

 

Comfy and Pilly, Together

I have nothing but love for Sitcom Chic.  It's an easy knit that creates a cute sweater.  I'm feeling considerably less love for Knit Picks Comfy (75% cotton/25% acrylic).  It was pilling by noon.  Aaaaarrrrgh.  It's really soft though so it will make a good around the house sweater once it's too pilly to be worn to work.  I think I'll knit myself another in some other yarn and make one for my mom for Christmas. 

Pattern: Sitcom Chic from Knitty
Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy
Needles: #8s

And there are socks.  If I spent a little more time on these pictures I might get the sock on my left foot on straight.  They are not as wonky as they appear.

Pattern: Garter Rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Socks that Rock, Farmhouse colorway
Needles: #1s
Comments: They fit well, but the pooling... enough said.

On the up side of knitting, I finished the first Celtic Braid sock.  It's the most perfect fitting sock EVER.  And no pooling.

Like many knit bloggers, I compose fantastic posts at night as I'm falling asleep.  Most of them are maniacal, yet well-reasoned, political rants.  Luckily for all involved, most never see the light of day or the blog.  But after watching the news tonight, I just have to ask:  Why does it take WaPo reporters or a dad with video recorder and YouTube to get the fricking military to provide decent living quarters for soldiers?  Honestly!  Where does all that defense budget money go that they can't get 60-year-old plumbing fixed, slap up some paint, and call in an exterminator? 

When did the U.S. become the Keystone cops of empires?    Well, I have a pretty good idea of when that happened but I'll stop so as to prevent my head from exploding.  [As an aside, while I recognize that the U.S. is an empire, I'd prefer that it weren't.]

 

Must Have revisited

Remember Must Have No. 1?  (I ended up using the square buttons, BTW.)  I love it, but the sleeves are way too long and the body is just a little too short.  I ripped one sleeve back with the intention of reknitting a cuff a couple of inches shorter.  This, I can assure you, is a monumental pain in the ***.  This is why it has gone no further and I didn't get to wear it at all this winter.

And it was a fun sweater to knit so I'm doing it again.  This one is in Paton's Classic Wool.  She's perking right along. 

I went to knitting today at the LYS and picked up some summer sock yarn:

And some great stitch markers made by Haley, daughter of Lea-Ann, owner of Knitting Today.  Industrious young lady, that one.

            

Although it's supposed to get cold and stormy, the last few days have been springtime-in-the-Midwest gorgeous.  The hyacinth are blooming!  (And I love, love, love my new Canon PowerShot A570.)

Cables, I need cables

Progress is flying along on Sitcom Chic.  One more row to the eyelet detail. 

I have 4, no, make that 5, cable sweater patterns I want to get started on/get back to working on.  I've taken FLAK out of the deep dark cave it has been in.  Managed several rows of sleeve.  It's Elann Peruvian Highland wool on size 5 needles which makes a nice, dense fabric, but after a few rows it feels like I'm wrestling with the stitches. 
St. Brigid: yarn is on order, Cascade 220 in a blue/purple heather
Fulmar: stash dark blue Frangipani
Must Have: thought I'd do it in stash Paton's Classic Wool, now I'm debating about maybe doing it in a cotton blend, maybe Cotton Ease?
Spring Forward: Planning to order some TLC Cotton Plus as soon as I get my next indexing check. 

Current sock projects are also cables, strangely enough.  Celtic Braid in the fabulous Smooshy:

And some Knit Picks Gloss for Clessidra:

I'm not sure if I have startitis or plannitis.  Thoroughly enjoying myself either way.

Book review!
I just picked up a copy of The Ultimate Sock Book.  Exceeded expectations.

There's an interesting chapter on sock knitting history, not as indepth as some other sources, but interesting.  The section about knitting during wartime has some wonderful reproductions of postcards used to encourage women to knit socks for soldiers during WWI.  It includes a German postcard which I'd never seen an example of before. 

The next chapter is basic techiniques: cast ons, working with DPNs, decreasing, short rows, kitchener, etc.  A new sock knitter would really appreciate the anatomy of a sock chapter.  Good detail about sock construction with helpful pictures.  Wish I'd have had this when I learned socks.  My first pair were just pathetic. 

There's a chapter on designing socks which includes how to take measurements, how to choose yarn with a great chart with specs on various yarns, a universal sock calculator chart, and universal toe up and top down patterns.   There's also a chapter of stitch patterns that will work well with socks including some colorwork patterns. 

The second half of the book is patterns.  I see several that I want to knit up.  There are patterns by sock gurus Cat Bordhi, Nancy Bush, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, and other designers who are probably sock gurus that I'm not familiar with.  (Sorry for the preposition ending sentence.)  The Meg Swansen Arched Shaped Socks are here which I find fascinating (but apparently didn't photograph).  There's an argyle pattern which I think is still part of the TKGA Master knitter level 2 requirements.  It's a nice mix of cable, lace, colorwork and ribbed patterns. 

I ordered it thinking I could donate it to the library if I didn't like it.  I'm keeping it which is high praise from this librarian.  (Since I'm at a library every day, I have considerably less need to own them myself unless I'll really use it a lot.)

A sampling of the patterns that I'll be knitting eventually:

Could this dog's life be any better?  No, I don't think so either.

Making up for lost knitting time

Finally, I'm posting some FOs!  I've been waiting for a new camera to arrive since our overpriced Nikon went wonky on us for the 3rd time.  VK's aunt bought it for us and it was WAY more camera than we needed (especially since we are loath to read a manual) and expensive.  When I told VK we could get a camera with 2 more megapixels for about a 10th of the price, I think he didn't quite believe me.  The aunt is a strange sort of technology early adopter.  She doesn't use technology but must own it immediately.  She has a beta video camera.  Seriously. 

I had about 2 weeks between knitting projects and I knit like a fiend.  I installed the zipper in Rogue.  (Whenever I accomplish a new knitting technique, I hear Tom Hanks in Cast Away when he says, "I. Have. Made. Fire."  I. Have. Installed. Zipper.)

I love, love, love this sweater.  I've only had a chance to wear it once.  Not that I'm complaining.  I have no problem whatsoever if spring is here and I have to wait for fall to wear Rogue again. 

Pattern: Rogue, from Girl from Auntie, cardiganized with the help of Claudia's instructions
Yarn: Cascade 220
Comments: I did wuss out and skip the hood grafting in favor of 3-needle bind off.  Life is too short to graft in pattern. 

I had barely finished the bottom border of this vest when I had to put it aside.  When I picked it up again, I realized I hadn't exactly been following the pattern.  It's a 1x1 ribbing that offsets by a stitch every 4 rows.  I however was just doing 1x1 ribbing.  So I snipped the yarn and started over.  Having less knitting time focuses the attention because I finished the Clock vest, buttons and all, before the next indexing project started.

Pattern: Clock Vest from Folk Vests (the 3rd vest I've done from this book)
Yarn: Cascade 220 in a heathered peach color
Needles: KP Options, #7 or 8?
Comments: Love it.  I've done a bit of colorwork lately (Moose? What moose?) and I'd forgotten how much I love cables.

I wanted to try out Knit Picks new cotton/acrylic yarn, Comfy.  And I wanted a nice mindless project to work on, so I cast on for Sitcom Chic.  So far the yarn is lovely to work with.  Very soft.  It's only 25% acrylic, so I hope is doesn't stretch too much. 

We made a dent in raking all the leaves we left last fall today.  I anticipate being really sore tomorrow.  Those leaves are heavy after soaking up moisture all winter.

Crocuses!  It's our first really springy day.  Hallelujah!

Of course the dogs had to help.  This is Lucy and her stick pile.  She has taken every one of those sticks from elsewhere in the yard and put them on a pile up on the hill.  It would be nice if she would pile them where we could burn them, instead of up a steep hill that we have to climb to move the sticks to the burn pile.

This is Shane and his soccer ball.  He simply loves this dirty, slightly deflated ball.  I tried to lure him inside with a piece of bread.  I tossed a piece to him.  He picked up the bread and tried to eat and hold the ball in his mouth.  When he discovered it couldn't be done, he dropped the bread and kept the ball.

Zoey stayed inside.  She is singularly unimpressed with Lucy and Shane's antics.  She takes cute to a whole new level though, doesn't she?

We watched some neighbors down the way put their pier in today.  Honestly, the ice just broke a week or two ago.  But the truly interesting thing was the cheers and high fives when they were done because they were the first on the lake to have their dock in.  On the other end of the scale, we reached the point a few years ago that we quit putting it in all together because then we'd just have to turn around in a few months and take it out.  Sort of the same way I look at trying to keep the free-floating dog hair under control  ;o)

Just a quick post so no one thinks I've disappeared from the planet.  ;o)

Here's the sum total of a month's worth of knitting at Cottage 46:

I did manage to get Rogue blocked.  Just need to install the zipper.  The moose sweater continues to marinate in its "almost done" status.  I think I'll make weaving in all those ends my commuting project.

Last week was my 40th birthday.  Here's me and my mom.  Note the very fashionable tiara!  What you can't see in the picture is that the tiara lights up.  The best part of turning 40 is the yarny gift certificates!  A trip to knitting retreat from VK, and a gift certificate to my LYS from my parents.  I'm thinking maybe some Silky Wool?

The last couple of days have been very spring-like.  Finally!  Zoey loves the snow, but I think even she is relieved to feel the warmer temperatures.  Of course, this reminds us of how many leaves we left on the ground last fall.  *sigh*

The Blanket of Hope has arrived

It has arrived and it is an amazing blanket!  It's huge and Rebekah sent a grocery bag of leftover squares.  VK and I are both so touched.  He'll have another PET scan in a month or so.  He's been having some gallbladder trouble lately, and the BoH has been a great boost to his spirits.  We can't thank Rebekah and everyone who sent squares enough.  We are both feeling very well supported and cared for.  Zoey, Shane, and Lucy have been thoroughly enjoying sniffing Abner and Django on the blanket too!   VK adds, "I'm eternally grateful to everyone, especially Rebekah.  I appreciate all the time and effort that everyone put into it to create such a wonderful gift."

I took it with me to knitting yesterday and we had a great time identifying all the different kinds of yarn.  There's some great stuff in there.  Have I mentioned how much I enjoy my knitting group?  I don't get to go too often because of my pesky job, but I do love it when I'm there. 
Here's the extent of how much VK likes to be photographed.

Sorry it's been so long since I posted.  For a while I had no knitting progress to show, and then when I did I had a wretched cold that seemed to hang on forever.  I'm feeling better but still producing great quantities of snot.  The progress is that the sleeves on the Moose sweater are finished.  Yay!  Of course now I must take my traditional long pause between the knitting and the finishing.  ;o)  There's about a gazillion ends to weave in.  If I get ambitious, I'll block it this weekend.  And I still need to put the zipper in Rogue.

I started some garter rib socks in STR Farmhouse.  And guess what!  They're pooling!  Grrrrr...  I thought about adusting the stitch count, but I'd rather have them fit. 

I made my mom a pair of Fetchings.  She liked them so much she wanted another pair in another color.  And one of her co-workers wanted a pair.  Glad they knit up quickly.  Oooh, navy blue.  How colorful.

I hope I post before another month goes by.  I have a big indexing project (1100 pages!) so I don't know how much knitting is going to happen.  BTW, you know how it's the little things in life that really make a person happy.  I got a new AC adapter for my laptop today and I can't tell you how happy I am that I don't have to constantly wiggle the connection to keep it plugged in.  *sigh*

Baby, it's cold outside

I've been neglecting sock knitting for far too long.  So these helped me procrastinate on starting the moose sleeves.  They're for VK so it's OK to avoid his sleeves for his socks.

Pattern: generic toe up with 2x2 ribbing
Yarn: Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Moosecreek colorway
Needles: KP #2

I wound a hank of Socks that Rock Farmhouse colorway with my new Christmas swift.  I love yarn cakes.

I may be over hand-dyed yarns though.  I'm currently loving heathered yarns or more subtle colorways.

I'm planning to sew the sleeves into Rogue today and try my hand at this applied icord thing.  I still haven't purchased a zipper, mainly because I've never bought a zipper before and I'm not really sure what variables I need to consider.  I'm guessing length and color are crucial.  Anything else?

I don't normally mind cold weather, but this is a little ridiculous.  It's currently -2F/-19C with a -19F/-28C windchill.  I woke up this morning and ran to the bathroom to see if the pipes froze overnight.  They didn't!  Hallelujah!  It is a little eerie to see steam blowing off the lake though.  The dogs are finally learning to potty quickly when it's this cold.  When they were puppies, they'd stand out in the cold holding one paw up with a pitiful "My feet hurt but I don't know what to do" look on their faces.  Now they go out, get it done, and get back inside.  Good doggies.

The Moose body is done!

Finally!  The body of the Moose sweater is done and only the sleeves remain.  Well, that and all the finishing. 
The front:

The back:

There are a few lumpy spots, but I think they will block out. 

In spite of how dorky I look in hats, I have to have something on my head when we cross country ski or hike.  So I whipped up the Norwegian star hat from Charlene Schurch's Hats On.  Excellent hat book.   BTW, this is how stupor-ish I look after dragging 60 heavy boxes of books up from the library basement for the recycling people to pick up.  I'm stiff as a board and I'm sure it will be worse tomorrow. 

And because I ain't afraid to copy great ideas from other knitters, a ponytail hole ala Jessie at What Housework?  Usually I try to cram my hair all under the hat, but then as I'm skiing it starts to fall in one direction and pulls the hat off to the side.  Ridiculously annoying.

I cast on for the Clock Vest (Ravelry link) from Folk Vests for a little break from colorwork.  I've only knitted 4 rows so really not picture worthy yet.

Like the rest of the country, our weather has been completely freaking weird lately.  The last foot of snow was kind of wet and stuck to the trees in quite a lovely fashion.  Since then it has melted and dumped about 3 inches of rain in the area.  Water, water everywhere.  But the snow was gorgeous for about 4 days.

And just because I am so impressed with VK's meat pie baking ability, here's his latest creation.  Isn't it pretty?  It was delicious too.