Work Impeded by Sick Kid

We are on Day 2 of The Little Emperor staying home from school sick. Wednesday after school, he told me that he hadn't felt like eating at lunch. At bedtime I thought he felt a little warm. Thursday a.m. Mr SABLE took L.E's temperature and it was 99.9 in the armpit. That translates to about 100.9 oral temp. Temperatures tend to be lowest right after waking up, so that didn't bode well. He had a very low energy day yesterday, just lying on the couch watching episodes of Curious George I had taped from PBS. And wanting me near. Today, he seems somewhat better, but I'd rather he takes another low-energy day to rest. So, nothing that required continuous thought by me got done yesterday. And he still wants constant interaction, so another day where I can't string two complex thoughts together.

Knitting News
Last night, I did manage to get the neckline and one sleeve done on my Dulaan Pullover.

I think it'll pretty cute when it gets done. A good blocking will help some of the funny tension around the upper section, where I switched from back and forth to circular knitting and then the collar pick-up. I think I'll make a hat and mittens to coordinate.

More CASP2 Gifts!!!

I found a box leaning up against my door this afternoon. My CASP 2 pal sent one last package! She had been going through a pretty rough time over the summer and working insane hours. Here's the overview:

A book with paper airplanes to make and fly. (This is a good one for us. We had a previous copy, but all the good ones got used up and lost some time ago.)
A small blank book
Postcards of Oregon (gorgeous! I really need to visit there some time. It's a part of the country I've never seen in person.)
Caramel corn
Playing cards in a plastic case!
Two boxes of her fudge!!!

My husband gets brutal migraines from chocolate, so she included a safe box for him.
Thanks Monica! It's good to have a CASP who runs a fudge shop!!!

What didn't make it into the picture: the chocolate round things labeled Buzz, Buzz. Must be chocolate covered coffee beans. I think they jumped out onto the table before the photo op.

In Other News
It's a grim day in Wisconsin. Although we reelected our Democratic governor, Wisconsin passed a truly nasty amendment to the state constitution. I'm ashamed for my adopted state.

Knitting News
I did virtuously work on the Foothills pattern for several hours today. I got over the psychological hump of working through some tedious details and number crunching and now it's just a matter of tidying up and proof-reading.

Election Day

I voted. I hope you will, too. Especially if you live in Wisconsin and you agree with me on the major referenda on our ballot this time. We have a lot of important stuff on the table right now. Get out there and vote. It matters.

In other news, here's a progress photo of the sweater I started at the Dulaan Knit-In on Saturday:

I'm going to repeat the same treatment at the bottoms of the sleeves as the bottom of the sweater body. Still need to decide whether or not to include the band on the upper arm to match the chest. And whether to do the neckband in plain yellow, one of the other colors, or stripes? Any opinions, let's hear 'em. This is all worsted weight 100% wool yarns from my stash. Very old yarns, like from the time when Red Heart made wool. I picked them up at thrift shops here and there for a song. The colors are pretty wild, but I think they work well enough and should keep a child in Mongolia a little warmer in a cold winter.

After I took the sweater picture, I went around the yard looking for things to photograph. Here's what I found: ornamental grass, milkweed, and old sunflowers.








Tomorrow I will chain myself to my computer chair and not stop working until I have substantially finished writing at least one of the patterns I have pending. I promise. I'd really rather go to my lair and cast on for something new. Who wouldn't?

What a Week!

(Caution: photo-heavy post)
I'm a little dismayed to see it's been a week since I posted. I guess I've been busy. I'm trying to gradually restore a bit of order to my chaotic house now that both kids are in school. I find I really avoid this, but when I buckle down and do just a little, it makes me feel better. With a houseful of slobs, though, I feel like it's one step forward, three steps back.

We got through Halloween with the usual crises and fits followed by over-consumption of candy. I'm glad that's over for another year.

I meant to post the close up picture of the stitch markers my CASP sent and kept forgetting. Anyway, here they are:

Lovely!

Yesterday I went to Franklin's Dulaan Knit In in Evanston. My friend Carol came with me, so I had good company for the drive. She crocheted two cute hats out of bulky yarn and I made a good start on a top-down raglan. Here are a bunch of pics:












My personal highlight of the day was when BonneMarie Burns told me she was a fan of my work! Who'd have thought?

A couple hours into it, Carol and I took a walk on the lake shore across the street from the knit in.

Here's a distant view of the Chicago skyline


And an artsy-fartsy pic of the beach

(This one gets bigger if you click on it.)

Today I spent the better part of the day excavating my bedroom. It's now cleaner and more organized than it has been in several years. I hope to purge enough useless clothing to make room for the clothes we actually wear to all get put away. Friday I took several years of back issues of The New Yorker and The Atlantic to the recycling bin. The cat had been using them as nesting material under my dresser. She would get in there about 2 a.m. and start rustling. Every time we thought she was ready to settle down, a new surge of rustling would start. But no more. I'm hoping that really cleaning my room will help with my allergies, which have been getting more and more obnoxious over the past 6 months or so.

I did spend some time on pattern writing, too, though I have a bunch more of that to do. This week. Really.

Fear of Commitment

Why is it so hard for me to use the most special yarns?

A while back, Sarah sent me some luscious handspun Alpaca she had made, just because I said I wanted it! It was a complete surprise to me and really made my day. Of course, she's been eager to see what I'll do with it, which is understandable. In my defense, I'll say that I've been doing other things, which is true. There certainly has been a fair amount of knitting going on around here, which is great. But the other thing is that I have always had a hard time bringing myself to knit with my most special yarns. I have spent way more time thinking about the most perfect use for some yarns than any project would have taken. I'm trying to get over this problem, but it's slow progress.

Yesterday I started to work a bit of the Mead Alpaca (the lighter one in the photo above) with some chocolate alpaca I bought in April at the Alpaca Fest. The Mead is a wee bit heavier, but not much. I've put more discrepant yarns together in projects before with happy results. I'm thinking about a simple fair isle vest, mostly chocolate brown (because I have more of that), with Mead. Of course, I also think the Mead alone would make a stunning lacy scarf. See, now I have two opposing ideas and choosing one means not choosing the other. It's a wonder I ever got married!

In Other News
Franklin's Chicago Area Dulaan Knit-In will be happening on Saturday. I'm planning to go with my friend Carol, who crochets. In preparation for the day, I thought I'd design a new hat pattern that I can hand out at the Knit-In.

This took about 2 hours to knit on #9 needles from Knit Picks Panache. It fits the Little Emperor very well, so I might need to make another one to give to the Dulaan Project. The hat was the price he extracted from me for the modeling session.

Download free PDF Here!

I have a lot of pattern-writing to get to! That'll have to be this week's priority.

Gifted!

My Cheap A$$ Secret Pal came through with more goodies today! What fun! I didn't get a close up picture of the stitch markers, yet, but they are really gorgeous. The other items in the picture above are two skeins of vintage wool, two packets of fancy cocoa, notecards, Perugia candies, family planner*, and a catnip pillow for the cats.

Here's Hailey being awakened from a nap to enjoy the pillow:

After a minute of sniffing, she made the flamen face. I wonder if there are animals at the place where these are made?


Thanks Flutterby! It's a great package!

*Of course, my "family planning" days are done: I had my tubes tied after the second child!

Kelebek Cool Swatch!

The Kelebek Vest I made has a warm range of colors in it. Even the neutrals I used are on the warm side of the color wheel.

Here's an alternative view, using blues, greens, and cooler neutrals. While I was knitting it, I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but after I got it off the needles and cut it open, I changed my mind. This swatch still keeps the paler colors in the background. Looking at it more, I think I'll try another one with the light and dark positions reversed, which would make read more as a blue and green design than a pale grey design.

What do you think?

A Rant About Plastic Pumpkins (and more)

How can anyone get fired up against a simple iconic item of American childhood? What kind of curmudgeon am I anyway? Let me tell you.

What I hate about plastic pumpkins:

Every fall millions of plastic Trick or Treat pumpkins are produced and transported to stores all over North America. They are made of plastic, which is made from petroleum products. The are shipped across oceans and then on diesel-burning trucks to Walmarts, Walgreens, Targets and similar mass merchandisers. They are typically used for a season or two and then, discarded and replaced. Every year, I see hundreds of them in fine usable condition in my local thrift shops. I wonder why factories, probably located in Asia, are cranking out more of these when there seem to be enough already in existence to last us several years. Further, I wonder why so much energy and plastic is used making items which we do not need. Any kid can tell you a pillowcase makes a fine trick-or-treat bag.

This is a prime example of the American approach to life. We spend money on this stuff in order to throw it away. We thoughtlessly consume a dwindling resource, create pollution, and contribute to global warming in order to do this. The item does not cost any one individual much money, but collectively it costs us all more than we know. They are so ubiquitous that folks have come to see them almost as a necessity. And this is just one small example of our messed up values with regard to the planet and its resources.

If you call yourself an environmentalist; if you have any concern for the future of the planet, stop and think about items you buy. Could you live without it? Could you buy it used? The less we need to consume, the more enriched our lives will be.

Foothills Finished!

Got the second sleeve done and ends darned in last night. I gave it a little soak and spin and it dried overnight

Here's The Little Emperor himself modelling his new pullover:




This evening I found out that there's a new baby in my neighborhood, so I'm making a little cross-front cardigan in DK weight Encore for her. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around normal baby sizes as my guys were born huge and stayed big. The new neighbor is a little early, so I have to adjust my numbers down a bit, or she won't be wearing it for ages. It should be a quick knit.

My mind is reeling with possible projects. It's nice to feel so inspired, and so productive!

Mundane Knitting

First up, here's the close-up of one of the buttons I was forced to go out and buy.

Owen helped me pick them out. He has a lot of opinions, not all of them ones I agree on, but that's okay. I should be grateful to have a son who loves browsing in the fabric store as much as I do. Not only are these buttons kind of interesting looking, but they were reasonably priced, too.

On to the mundane knitting:

Yesterday I put the first sleeve on the sweater for The Little Emperor, which has been brought out of dormant status. This morning I got the neckline done, too. One more sleeve, then darning ends and a good wash. It's getting very wintery here, so just in time on this project.

Another "just in time" for the blue watch cap. This is the third plain blue hat I've knit for Owen in his life. Plus, a blue polar fleece hat I sewed when he was a baby that L.E. still wears. The other two blue knit caps both vanished last winter. It was no great loss in the grand scheme of things: they were both from Red Heart acrylic (Hey, he chose it!). Still, I'm worried about what this signifies for the future of this hat. This new hat I made from some Emu Superwash DK I bought right before we moved to Madison in 1996. It's wonderful for hats, even for super-feelers like Owen. I used #3 needles and cast on 120 stitches. The whole thing is just 1 X 1 ribbing. If he loses this one, I'm going to start buying hats at St. Vincent's and let him deal with that for a while.

The other big thing I did yesterday and this morning was start gathering all the yarns to audition for the next Kelebek swatch.

I think I might need to throw in something a little vivid, just to spark things up a bit. But, don't they look pretty sitting there all together waiting to become something?

Rant du Jour
I've been thinking about how little public ranting I do. It seems like the bloggers who rant more get a lot of comments, so I'm wondering if I should try it. Of course, some of those comments would be hate-mail. And a lot would be "me toos." I actually have a steady stream of rants going in my head all day. It's just that my computer keyboard is not quite at the right height and it aggravates my wrist if I type too much. So, I tend not to take the time to put them out there. But here's a short little one that's on my mind as the new school year moves along.

Parents at my younger son's school park like F***ing Suburbanites! Ok, they are suburbanites, so that explains it. Between 3:00 and 3:20 on school days, the on-street parking in the blocks near school gets pretty crazy. But it drives me absolutely bonkers when car after car has left a gap about three-fourths the length of another car between themselves and the next car. If you pulled that crap in NYC or Chicago, it would be trouble. Even though it's a nice suburban sub-division, we still need to park efficiently at school pick up! Don't park like a knucklehead! End rant.

Next week, I'll have a rant about plastic trick or treat Jack O'lanterns.

Until then, I'll be my nice, calm, unruffled self. All those blue and green yarns will help.

Kelebek Finished!

This morning, I finished darning in the last ends and sewed on my buttons. I hadn't yet monkeyed with the self-timer on my new camera, so I thought it was a good time to learn. Still more learning to be done, I'm afraid.
Here are two blurry photos:



I'll have someone (husband or son, not sure which) try again for me. Or maybe I'll read the manual a little more and see if there's a handy tip or two I missed.

Before I release a pattern, I'm going to make at least one other colorway swatch, maybe two, in more popular colors. I have a lot of teals, blues, and greens of the Harrisville New England Shetland and I have a lot of oranges and reds I think could live together, too.

In other news
On Saturday I got a suspicious letter in the mail. No return address, something thicker than paper in there, marked "Hand Stamp" in big letters on the front. It was a little random act of kindness from saintjay/Rhymes with Mango:

an emory board with butterflies from Kaleidescope Yarns and a funny postcard from a Cafe Press store. Thanks! It was a fun little surprise.

Remind me to tell you all about the time when Mr. SABLE got a suspicious padded mailer and it eventually led to a visit from the bomb squad. Don't worry: false alarm. Sure gave the neighbors something to think about, though. But that's a story for another day.

I spent most of today on a field trip with the kindergarteners to the Perfect Pumpkin Patch. Rounding up gas molecules in the great outdoors. Most of the kids were very good, but I'm beat.

This was interesting...

My strongest match was to an African-American man. Hmm. Julia Roberts is a pleasant surprise. Not too happy about John Goodman, though.

Another version of the same thing:

No women in this bunch. Not even any pretty men. I'll stick with Barack Obama and Julia Roberts.

Some Shots of My Steeks

The moment Bezzie has been waiting for!
Here's a picture of one of the armhole steeks with the center stitch outlined for clarification:

A crocheted steek involves using a small hook (size 3 steel hook in my case) to make two parallel rows of single crochet, working through the adjoining stitch and the center stitch. The hairiness of shetland style fibers helps hold this all together.The hook enters the middle of one flanking stitch of the center stitch and emerges in the center stitch. A loop is drawn up and the single crochet stitch is completed enclosing the two halves of the two steek stitches. All the pictures except the first one get bigger if you click 'em.

Work crochet on one side of the steek and tie off the yarn. Then start on the other side to complete two tight parallel rows.



Time to cut! Use sharp scissors and cut up between the two rows of crochet.



You end up with something like this. The bound edges naturally roll to the inside of the work. After you pick up and knit bands, sleeves, or facings, tack these edges to the inside with your yarn. This will help strengthen the cut area.

Here is the knitting up of stitches for the front band:

Kelebek Front Band

If you want a closer look, click on the picture! This is hot off the needles and, as yet, completely unblocked.

I just finished the front band. I've crocheted and cut one armhole. The other is still untouched. I have a bunch of pictures of the process and tonight I'll try to get them formatted and blog-worthy.

I'm getting very excited to see it all done.

But there's a Murphy's Law about button stashes that I need to share. I have a lot of buttons in many varieties and sizes. Fancy ones, plain ones, antique ones and newer ones. Metal, mother of pearl, plastic, shiny, matte finish, etc. But I never seem to have exactly the right button in the quantity I need for a project. Why is that?

Kelebek is Off the Needles!

Right now, this is a pretty funny looking garment. But by tomorrow I hope it will look a lot more like a vest. Bezzie, brace yourself! I'll commence steek action tonight. This will involve reinforcing along the areas I will cut, then cutting up the front and for the armholes. I will be crocheting my reinforcements on this project. This shetland-style wool is very hairy and grabs well. I don't expect any trouble from wayward ravelling on this project. When I cut steeks open on superwash or slippery yarns, I prefer sewing machine reinforcement, just to make sure nothing is going to come disasterously undone. You can see an example of how this will work here. Sorry some of those pics are pretty bad: I took them before I really understood what I was doing. Expect better pictures to come from the work in progress!

For those of you keeping track at home, I made another bone-headed error on this. I was doing a three needle bind off and on my first effort, I bound together the two halves of the front at the shoulder seams. Doh! Undid that and managed to get fronts married to back and back of neck stitches safely on hold. Stay tuned.

Quick post

Here's the newest progress pic of the vest. About 4 more inches of knitting on the body, then it's time to graft shoulders, cut steeks, and finish the trim.

I just wanted to stress that even though the pattern looks a little complex, it really isn't. Although the colors cycle through a 24 row repeat, the rows actually repeat on a six row cycle. Then you start working back out from what you just did, in mirror image. Anyone who ever made a lace project can absolutely make this pattern.

Thanks to all the commenters. I hope to find a bunch more of my old swatches to post. I think I learn a lot by seeing what doesn't work and thinking about why.

Here's a purple coneflower for you:

Look at how those bright yellow bits of pollen really stand out on the dark rust and green cone.

So many flowers are in bloom in our yard right now, it's hard to remember that we're several weeks past the usual first hard frost.