I Was a Knitting Moron

I present  my Coralicious Socks knit in the Piedmont Wildsocks yarn I bought while in California. They really should not have taken as long as they did but I had a touch of the moron that slowed down their creation. I tried knitting them as Artichoke socks and after knitting over 4 inches there was no denying it they looked like crap. Maybe the yarn was meant to be toe-up socks so I tried Victory Socks - about 3 inches knit, again crap. Seriously what was going wrong?   Was I screwing up when doing a yarn over between a knit and purl stitch? So I hit the you tube videos and the truth was enlightening and embarrassing. Somehow I had forgotten how to do a simple yarn over. I had been doing them in the wrong direction. I have done yarn overs before, lots of them. No problems. Honestly!

So I started fresh with the frogged yarn rewound and a new pattern picked out. And lo and behold - not crap!

I know I've mentioned before how freaky my feet are but seriously check out how much wider my right foot is!

Fabric Napkins with Freezer Paper Stencils

I kept meaning to whip up some cloth napkins but it was one of those fleeting thoughts that never occurred to me when I was someplace that sold fabric. But I actually remembered when I visited Gather Here on their opening day. Gather Here is just adorable; fabric and sewing patterns that makes me wish I was a better sewer, pretty yarn, inviting space to sit and stitch, just a really lovely store. If you're in the Cambridge, Mass area - go there. I was so overwhelmed by all the pretty that it was hard to restrain myself to only buy some fabric that I had an immediate use for.  But I was good and only bought some Kona Cotton in a gorgeous shade that matches the blues in my kitchen just wonderfully.

I can manage to sew a straight line (sort of) so sewing up the napkins wasn't that hard. I think the ironing and pinning took longer than the actual sewing They needed a bit of something so I decided to try freezer paper stencils for the first time.  I made two of a silverware place setting and two of artichokes.  Oddly enough, the artichokes with far more cuts and chances for things to go wrong came out better than the relatively simple silverware. Who knew? 

 

Gifts for My Niece that Aren't Zoobles

Have you ever seen a Zooble? They are these little round plastic balls that pop out into animals and they were the hip toy for the 6 year-old set this winter. My niece pointed them out to me at a toy store when I asked what she wanted and I took one look at them and said "Yeah, someone else will get you those." And they did. At no point, was the small child deprived of  Zoobles. But to be honest, they creep me out. I am pretty sure if you look at them too long they will try to steal your soul, just sayin'.

So I got her something that I always liked, a kaleidoscope. Actually a  make your own nature kaleidoscope kit. It came with rocks and dried flowers and glass gems but you can change what's in it whenever you want. We put it together over the holidays and it made really pretty views. I wanted to see if I could get a few pics by sticking my camera to the eye hole and it worked.  Here are a few of my favorite shots just because I think they look neat.

I also wanted to make something for my niece so she said she wanted a new hat, as long as it had a pompom. I made the Norwegian Star Earflap Hat (a free ravelry download ). It's got a little bit of colorwork but it's a real quick knit that I naturally did not finish in time for the holidays and now I just need to get it to her. I mostly knit the pattern as-is and just made mods on the detail work. I added a single crochet edging, made the ties braids instead of i-cords and added a pompom of course.

Holy crap, it's been how long?

Whoops, guess who hasn't blogged for a long while? Truth is I didn't have a whole lot to say (insert sister's snickering here) and most of my knitting was for the holidays so I couldn't show anything. But I have re-emerged and hope to blog more often in the new year. I would like to take more photos and cook more in the new year so you may see some fancy pics of beet risotto or at least more veggies with googly eyes.

So now let's do some knitting project catch-up.  A few years back, I knit my brother a scarf. It was a really nice scarf, it had cables and it was the first thing I had ever knit for him. So last year I noticed on a cold day that he wasn't wearing it or any scarf. I mentioned it casually to my mom and she said, "He lost it and he's afraid to tell you". While striking fear into my brother's heart would have at one point given me a sick thrill I guess we both must have matured at some point by not wanting to inflict pain on each other. The scarf was lost on one of those odd Boston days when you walk out of the house and it's cold only to have the temperature swing by 25 degrees in a few hours and having a super long wool scarf wrapped around your neck while on the T (Boston's subway) is torture. So the scarf somehow disappeared and joined the ranks of other things gone missing on the T, I myself must have contributed half a dozen umbrellas to the T lost & found over the years. So my brother got a new scarf, the Shale Pleated Scarf knit in Ultra Alpaca.  It has a really nice texture when knit up and the only mods I made were to knit it on needles one size down to make it a bit denser to block out the winter winds. The color is a much darker navy than what appears in the photo.

For my brother-in-law, I knit a pair of the Pirate Mittens (it's a free download on ravelry) to go with last year's pirate hat. I followed the pattern to go up in yarn size and I went up in needles and they still won't fit him unless we cut off his fingers down a knuckle or two. So I officially owe him a project of his choosing. Maybe a nice scarf perhaps? They tend to fit well. Something silly and geek related?  So here are photos of the too-small mittens which I am sure someone will wear...someday. 

 

I decided my sister would appreciate the gift of hand-knit socks. There was a bit of a false start, it's amazing how a nice yarn and a good pattern can result in something that gives you motion sickness while knitting it. I knit about an itch into the pattern saying "she'll either love it or hate it but I sure as hell hate it" and had to stop. So putting that yarn aside for another day, I went back to one of those basic yarn facts, my sister loves her some Noro and she loves stripey socks. So off to Mind's Eye Yarn I went to pick up Noro Sock yarn. While there Lucy reminded me why LYS' are so awesome by helping me split my skein into halves. What was likely to have been stressful and frustrating at home (Noro sock yarn twists onto itself a lot)  was a much more pleasant experience in her cozy shop chatting with other knitters . (Note to self: a scale for yarn would be awful handy to have).  The socks don't match each other at all but luckily for me I know that my sister probably prefers totally mismatched stripes. 

Look Who Came Home!

It's my mojo, it seemed to find its way back home.  At first I thought it smelled the yummy butternut squash soup I was making or it wanted shelter before the Nor'easter hit town but then I remembered what really brought it scampering home.

I won a contest over Talk Crafty To Me ,  after several days of  recapping all sorts of craft books to inspire you there was a contest for a $25 Amazon gift card to spend on some crafty books and I won! I have had
The Big Ass Book of Crafts in my amazon wish list for a long time so I think I may finally get that. And we all know that I love me some knitted toys and I have admired Rebecca Danger's monsters for a while now so I am pretty excited for her book Big Book of Knitted Monsters that is coming out in January. Any other must have craft books that people out there just adore?

I also think my mojo came back because it knew Ariel was headed to town. Arriving 24 hours earlier than I expected (not that she arrived early just that I am a bit of an idiot), we have already spent some of those 24 hours eating awesome burgers, drinking cocktails with names like The Ditzy Blond and The Petite Flower and plotting a possible trip to Webs. A good day by all standards.  Only a true knitting friend understands the importance when you say you are contemplating a sweater (really it's been ages since I did a big project) and it involves steeking.

Ubiquitous Baby Knits

I've got some friends who are knocked up so it's time to work on some knits for the wee ones. My usual go-to is a toy but I figured I'd go for something different. Well, different for me, really these are some of the most knit patterns out there and you know why? Because they are so frakkin' cute.

This set is for my college roommate who is not due until October so it is really odd of me to be so ahead of the game.  Everything is knit with Tahki Cotton Classic with just a bit of Knit Picks Shine Sport of the green parts.

The Kid's Fruit Cap - I figure we can say it's a blueberry. The hat seems amazingly small to me but after putting out a call to my friends on facebook asking them to compare newborn heads to various fruits i.e. melons, grapefruits etc...it probably is not too small after all.

Saatje Booties (although I actually used the Fleegle Seamless Version - because avoiding seaming is always better) Yes, the buttons are little blue apples and as far as I know there are no blue apples but hey, they are cute and I was sticking with the fruit theme. And buying them  gave me an excuse to go Windsor Button and hang out at the counter fondling the Malabrigo lace weight.

Camp LiSaLa

It all started over a sushi dinner with my friends Lisa and Laurel. I mentioned how my niece was going to Girl Scout Camp and had come home with her sit-upon and my sister mentioned this on her facebook page and all sorts of people chimed in about summer crafts of their youth. This began a conversation that had to go for almost a half hour of all the things we made.  We decided we needed a camp craft day to relive our youth and really I just love any excuse to play with googly eyes and pompoms.

First Lisa and I took a trip to the craft store where we went a little crazy picking up some supplies.

We did some tried and true classics like corn husk dolls jersey loop potholders, god's eyes and gimp lanyards (somehow managed to not snap a picture of the lanyards or god's eyes - I blame the Moscow Mules Lisa mixed up instead of taking responsibility for my slacking off on photo-taking)

I was disappointed when I had gone to the supermarket in preparation for craft day and they didn't have a macaroni letters. So I had to decorate my picture frame with this new fangled sparkly letters instead. But on the plus side, I was able to sneak some googly eyes on them.

Then our new pompom pals took a stroll in the backyard to sun themselves on a leaf and make some new friends.

A simply great day with wonderful weather, tasty food and drink, amazing company and googly eyes. Really what else could a girl ask for? I am thinking a second session of camp may be in order since this one was so much fun and we still have 990 popsicle sticks to use up!

Odds and Ends

I swear this recent sock-knitting binge is going to end soon, I mean it has to, doesn't it?  I was looking through my stash and figured I could eek out a pair of anklets from the leftovers of my Endpaper Mitts project.  The pattern is the Pom Pom Peds knit up in Valley Yarn's Huntington. I was so concerned that I was going to run out of the grey that I started the toe on the first sock a bit early and the sock is a teensy bit short. And did I run out of yarn, noooo, of course there's still some leftover.

I then had to decide on what to cast on next.  I was on ravelry playing around with all the new pattern categories and found this super simple crochet necklace.  I dug down into the big old Rubbermaid tub of stash and found this bag of gold and silver metallic yarns that my grandma had given me. To put in perspective how long this stuff has been kicking around her place I am pretty certain some of the thicker gold yarn was used to make my Barbie a very fabulous skirt/sweater set with matching set of luggage. In the bag there was some thin silver almost thread weight yarn and with some beads from the bead stash, voila! a super simple necklace made up of three strands. I like it so much I can actually see myself wearing it out of the house (I have a bad tendency to make jewelry and then never wear it - stupid, stupid, stupid).  Anyway, I am pretty glad to have actually use some of grandma's yarn - she will be thrilled to know I got some use out of it.

Too Hot to Knit

Hi, I would have written this post sooner but it's been hot and humid and sticky and icky for quite a few days now and I don't deal with heat all that well sometimes.  It makes me cranky and sleep funny and I forget to eat and then get crankier and a bit woozy because I forgot to eat. I am also pretty sure a large portion of my blood stream has been replaced with a mix of iced coffee and iced tea. Yes, I realize that the large intake of iced caffeinated beverages may have something to do with the sleeping funny thing but we'll ignore that for now -I am pretty sure logic does not survive in high humidity. But today is cooler and my CSA veggies have been washed and tucked in to their crispers so now I can post. 

I spent the 4th of July weekend up in Maine. Luckily I was not told about the recent bear sighting on my folks front lawn until after I was already up there or I may have begged off.  It was one of those "Didn't we tell you about the bear? Your brother knows about the bear." I get to hear about the trip to Costco so my Dad can get white fish but they forget to mention a bear!! Apparently some crankiness lingers....maybe I should have another iced coffee.  Anyway....I saw no bears just the usual finch and chickadees and a special treat. 

A robin had build her nest on the edge of the garage and we spend the first few days checking up her three baby birdies, we watched Mama come by with some tasty food, and then them venturing out on the ledge and stretching their wings.  But when we woke up on the 4th we discovered two of the birdies had their own independence day of sorts and had taken off.  Leaving just one little birdie, sulking that he had been left all alone.

Don't worry by the end of the day he too had left to join his Mama and siblings up in the trees somewhere.

Back in knitting news, I finished up yet another pair of socks. Seriously, they are the crack of the knitting world. I may need an intervention. This time it's Spring Forward  knit in TOFUtsies.  I think a solid colorway may show off the pattern better but I since this is mainly a non-wool yarn I am excited that I may actually be able to wear a pair of my hand-knit socks sometime before October although clearly not for a while.

Here my sock takes in the view of the lake from the deck. Trust me there's a lake out there past the trees.

My friend Lisa came back from Maryland Sheep and Wool a few months back with beautiful raw silk from Tess Designer Yarns and cast on right away to knit Summit. Turns out they have a retail shop in Portland. Cut to me spending a large amount of time admiring the beautiful colors and chatting away with the dyer herself (not Tess by the way), Melinda.  I really went in with the mindset to buy some of the raw silk to knit up Summit myself since I just adore the pattern and have had it queued since it that edition of knitty came out. But somehow I  ended up with this GORGEOUS 100% silk in this fabulous brass colorway as a belated b-day gift from my mom. It has less yardage than the raw silk so I may make a smaller version of Summit or find another pattern or just clutch it close to me muttering "precious" as I did for the first few hours after I got it.  Really the picture does not do it justice it is luminous and so amazing to touch.....

Sarah's Crafty Calendar - Summer Edition

So I was chatting with some of my knitting friends and mentioned how there were some crafty events coming up and totally confusing myself on which one was on which day and where so I figured I'd organize myself so I don't miss anything as I recently did with the Coolidge Corner Art Fest :( and share the details with my peeps.

Sowa Open Market - every Sunday crafty delights in South Boston/South End. While there are some local farmers and bakeries who set up there really is not a lot of food so get lunch at some place fabulous in the South End first. (May I suggest the crab cakes at Stephi's on Tremont?)  Check the site to make sure they're not closed on holidays and for directions and parking (yes, parking!) details.  Oh, and for some folks who I know head to Rhode Island quite a bit, they do have a sister market in Providence.

Boston Handmade Marketplace - July 10 Union Square, Somerville. I've never been to this small market but there be live music and demos from the Common Cod Fiber Guild (of which I am a member) so go learn how to knit or spin or appreciate wooly goodness!

Art Beat - July 17th - Davis Square Yes, it's going to be hot it always is, but just cool yourself off with a mango lassi from Dali and enjoy the music, crafts, activities for kids (if you're into that kind of thing) and food. Yummy, yummy food. Davis Square restaurants set up shop in carts on the street so you can get your Redbones pulled pork sandwich while walking.

Boston Bazaar Bizarre Summer Fair - August 21, Union Square Somerville I believe this is their first summer fair but their winter show is always such so fun and have artists I really like that I am excited they are doing a warm weather fest. 

There all nice and neat. 

Oops, I Did It Again

Crazy as it sounds, well at least to me, I knit a second pair of socks. And again,I enjoyed it, this may become a habit.  I dug down into my stash and found my Flying Happy Jenny yarn.  I think this yarn had been waiting to be made into socks and I just didn't know it until now. It is Knitpicks Bare, that Jenny had dyed for me a few years ago. 

Based on recommendations from my sock-loving friends I knit Charade, a super popular sock pattern.  It's a a free ravelry download so click here to check it out. You know why it's a super popular? Because it's a really good pattern. It's easy to memorize, keeps you interested, looks great, an all-around good pattern.  I made a few tweaks just to adjust for my weird feet and they fit amazingly well.  I also made the cuff a bit shorter because I don't really like tall socks and I used an eye of partridge heel just because I kept reading people mention it in the rav forums and wanted to see what the difference was between the other heel I did.  I think it's just a bit prettier and I am sure there is something about how the heel wears but since it's 80 degrees here I am not wearing these soon to test that out.

Look at My Foot!

My trip to the Dark Side is complete, I have finished my first pair of socks. And *gasp* I enjoyed it. 

I definitely did learn a bit along the way. They are a teeny bit big since I was so afraid of them being too small. They are definitely not perfect, the first one has a serious pointy toe. Oh and how does one get that last stitch when you're doing the kitchener stitch to be tight? I seem to always end up with that last loop flying around. Then on the second one I was about half-way through kitchener'ing (that's a verb right?) when I realized I was doing it the wrong direction and would only have worked if my toes were moved by 90 degrees and then it would be seriously hard to walk. My feet are wonky but not that much.  I do understand now the serious pride at being able to turn a heel.  I found myself thinking things like "sure that person can do such and such (insert impressive achievement here) but can they make a sock? Doubt it!"

I also got to experience trying to take photos of my feet. It seemed to work best with me upside down with my legs propped on the back of the sofa and my head resting on the ottomon. Should anyone from the apartment building across the street happened to look at that time they must have been seriously confused, all the more since it was at something like 6:30am on a Saturday.

Since I normally wear short socks, anklets and such, I am now scouring these kinds of patterns on rav.  If anyone has a favorite or a favorite spring sock yarn let me know. It's finally too warm to wear wool socks here! Except my folks did say the got 2 inches of snow this weekend in Maine.  Really, winter is over now!

It's Flooding in Boston, but I Hear Hell May Have Frozen Over

My knitter's block has not really not wanted to un-block. I made several attempts at casting on only to rip everything out. Nothing was working. I had to try a new tact.

Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode where George decides to do the exact opposite of what his natural instincts tell him to do? I decided to give that a whirl. So what is the item I never, ever,ever knit? That I have stubbornly refused to knit.   Altogether now boys and girl- SOCKS! 

Yes, I decided to knit socks. (Somewhere in San Francisco, Ariel is cheering). I went to my LYS and I scanned their wide selection of sock yarns.  My instincts pulled me to my familiar favoite colorways, blues, blue and green, blue and purple, do you see a trend? And it struck me again - opposite! No blues, no quiet, muted nature or jewel tones. I had to go for loud and bright to break me from this block.

So I picked this skein I would normally never buy.  Look it has orange and a bits of pink! I don't wear/knit orange or light pink.

I have cast on the plain old sock recipe in The Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules.  Well actually I cast on and frogged and cast on again, and then knit a whole bunch and ripped back to the ribbing and changed needles sizes. First they were going to be too big, then too small, then too big again, and I mutter about my fat calves and freakishly wide feet but I kept knitting. I was determined and it helped that I was like a small child and really wanted to see what happened next with the self-striping yarn. 

Here's a pic of where I am so far.  I just finished turning the heel which was far less stressful than I anticipated.

Carve Me out a Bit of Inspiration

For some reason February is never a good month for me. It is the New England winter without the holidays of December or the optimistic brand new year-ness of January. And this year was no exception. While we didn't get hit with the snow that the mid-Atlantic did, the bitter cold seemed to freeze any creative inspiration I had. I couldn't figure out what to knit for the Knitting Olympics and while I watched my fair share of aerials and speed skating and I did not once pick up a pair of knitting needles.

Last week March finally arrived and with it came temperatures in the 40's and my niece's birthday. I always try to make at least a portion of her gift.  She is still into fairies and since I already knit her little fairies last year so I had to come up with something else this year. I figured some rubber stamps in the fairy motif would add to her drawings. 

Hopefully, this will re-spark my creativity and get me back to stitching or knitting or what have you,

Mary, Skeletons and Bacon, oh my!

I can show off some embroidery I did now since my friend has received her gifts.  A few years back I was sitting at my weekly Stitch n Bitch and I was working on some embroidery instead of my usual knitting. And it struck me as funny because all these knitters kept saying "oh my that looks so complicated, too hard for me" and they were totally serious.  Included amongst them was my friend Ariel who was probably in the middle of knitting socks on size 2 double pointed needles.
Any one who has visited Ariel's place soon notices her collection of religious and Day of the Dead well, stuff so I knew the Dia de Los Muertos patterns from Sublime Stitching would be just up her alley. I stole this first photo from her blog she took because for the life of me I could not get a decent shot of the skeletons. I embroidered these and then made them into teeny pillows and while I am proud of my embroidery, my sewing skills are still a bit well, sucky. It's not my fault, the sewing machine is possessed!

And for some added silliness, I crocheted up some bacon 'cause also if you know Ariel you know how she feels about bacon. 

Present for Me

I posted previously some handmade gifts that I made but now I have show off the handmade that I got!!! 

While I was knitting away on my sister's radishes she was busy putting the finishing touches on my awesome new apron. 



I had seen some cool vintage styled aprons around at craft shows and on etsy and I thought well hell, I could do that. But then I realized my sister sews far better than I do and she knows how to use them pattern-y things and to cut fabric straight and do all the things that I tend to screw up when I sew.   So I hinted that this would be something I might like.   And by hinting I really mean saying, "Hey, you can make me this for my birthday/Hannukah/other gift giving opportunity!" 

Apparently forcing her to shop for fabric is similar to asking a knitter to shop for yarn not a big hardship for her there; something tells me she probably picked up a little something for herself along the way.

It's got some red to match the KitchenAid mixer (doesn't everyone accessorize to match their appliances?) and I totally never would have thought of florals for me but they are bright and happy and offset with polka dots (sis loves polka dots) and I love it. You can't really tell from the photo but it skirts out so I totally feel like I am channeling my inner Betty Draper from Mad Men when I wear it. Now I just have to get around to doing some cooking....

Oh, Now I Get It

I always heard people talk about Malabrigo yarn and I've touched it but I never really got it before now. I was shopping at my LYS and I figured it was about time I knit with it. While I was holding the gorgeous Worsted in Indigo, I looked up at a sample knit of Wavy. I knew that it was the perfect meeting of the right yarn and the right pattern.

The yarn is so soft and such a dream to knit up. I suddenly got it, ah, malabrigo. Then there is the color. I would be knitting this scarf up and would just stop to stare at it, the mixtures of colors from the kettle dying that just is such a feast for the eyes. Even at work, people (non-knitters) would comment on it as they walked by me knitting away at lunch. The photo doesn't do it justice but it is just wonderful.

Here it is being modeled by the lovely Glenda at my folks house on Thanksgiving. Yeah, you see the whole mannequin thing runs in the family.