Something I Noticed... And a Contest!

I got The Best of Interweave Knits from our public library system. There are a lot of wonderful patterns in there, which isn't too surprising. But I did notice a funny thing about this book.

How many of you remember the cute red headed model who worked for IK for years? Quite often, she was the one chosen to model the most dubious designs that made it into the magazine. Further, the items they put her in were often not well-suited to her build. I miss seeing her in IK these days. The funny thing I noticed is that she does not appear once in this book! Which goes to show that of the 25 or so patterns deemed by the editors to be the best from the first decade, not once was it one that she got to model. I wonder if the editors were to choose the 25 worst patterns from the first decade of IK, how many she would be wearing?

And one more thing I noticed. The model on the cover of the book is also quite familiar to regular readers of IK. She's a lovely, lithe young woman with a dancer's poise. She's also the daughter of the former editor, Pam Allen. Over the years, she has very rarely been posed in unflattering designs. She appears in this book more than any other model.

I'm just wondering...

The Contest
I just realized my sitemeter is fast approaching 100K! If you are the lucky 100,000th visitor to my blog, take a screen shot and email it to me at elizabethmorriso (at) gmail (dot) com. That's right: no final "n" on my last name. My site meter is at the very bottom of the page, so scroll on down. If you don't know how to take a screen shot, just email me and let me know. I'll know if you cheat if I get more than one claimant.

I'll think about a prize and post that tomorrow, after I rummage in the stash. Maybe I'll come up with a few items and give you the choice.

At my current rate of visitors, the 100,000th hit should be in three or four days.

Various updates

Sloane Pullover

Here's the new cabled turtleneck pullover. It's coming right along. Yarn Thrower, you'll be happy to know that I did remember the short row bust darts. And I have just about completed the waist shaping, so maybe will get the body finished in the coming week.

Spinning Every Day
I'm not really a joiner: don't do a lot of memes or knitalongs or such. But there is a movement afoot to spin every day in February. I didn't officially put my name in for this, but I think I'm going to try. Even just 10 minutes.

The You Make My Day Award
In other meme-ish news, I've been blessed with the You Make My Day award by Marie Grace, Molly Bee, Cindy at Baxter Knits, and Yarn Thrower. Thanks ladies! I feel like one of the popular girls at school!

Funny timing on this, because last weekend, after Last Saturday Knitting, I was reflecting on what a wonderful group we have and how it's all because of the internet.

The award instructions read as follows:
"Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."
My You Make My Day awards would go right back to the same gang, plus a few:
Teleknitter, who spins amazingly and chats with me online when we should both be working.
The Linnet Knits, who has taken up weaving as well as spinning and knitting.
Wendy at Knit and Tonic who is not only a big time famous blogger, author, and designer but someone I consider a friend.

OK, I know that's not 10, but if I keep going to get to 10, I'll soon find myself at 40, so I think I'll stop now. But you should know, if you're reading this then you make my day!

Knitting Machine Surgery
Last night I did some surgery on one of my knitting machines. The LK-150 is a great beginner friendly single bed machine. I've had mine about 10 years. Mr. SABLE got it for me lightly used. In the last year or so, I noticed it was getting more difficult to run the carriage across and began to fear that something expensive was going wrong with it. In the machine knitters group on Ravelry, I learned that a common cause of this might be something called the sponge bar. Clicking through on the Ravelry advertiser who sells knitting machines and parts, I ordered a new sponge bar for $6 and spent last night replacing it and cleaning all the needles while I was at it. You have to take out the 150 needles to do the job. Which means, you have to put the 150 needles back in when you're done. It's not a job I would want to tackle very often, but has made a world of difference to this machine!

Stay warm! Happy Knitting!

New Project!

This is the strange looking knitting, about 48 hours later. I'm very excited about this project and find it hard to stop to take care of things like meals and getting kids from school.

I misplaced my copy of Knitting From the Top, so I'm working out the top-down set-in style cap sleeves as well as I can from logic and memory. Seems to be working so far.

Adirondack Pullover: Finished!

The Front View



The Back View


Dance Like an Egyptian?

Pattern Available Here!

In other news, can you make sense of this?

You can make it bigger by clicking on it. More will be revealed next time.

Friday

Here's my second version of the Iron Mountain Hat, finished a couple weeks ago, but finally just photographed on a human head. I made this for Mr. SABLE, but he says it's a bit too tight. It fits Owen very well, though, and he says he likes it, so all's not lost. This one was made with a sport weight yarn, with a more rounded, less squared-off looking top than the original.

I also did finish Mr. SABLE's new Adirondack Pullover and it's washed ready to photograph. I took a couple pics flat on the kitchen floor with the glare of the overhead lights and the camera flash. The detail was absolutely lost. Craptacular photos. I hope to get a picture or two actually on the recipient tomorrow, when the temperature will approach the freezing point and it might not hurt to be outside for more than a minute or two.

Finally, a peak of the planning on my next project...

This is going to be a turtleneck pullover for my brother's wife. I played around with various textural details and think I have a plan now. I'm using smooth, classic worsted wt wool, at about 4.5 st per inch, and making a top-down with fitted sleeves. I'll put a fairly substantial cable down the center front, but leave the rest in stockinette stitch for several reasons. One, my S.I.L. is a bit busty and I want to work bust darts on the front. Two, my S.I.L. probably will be more flattered without the bulk that too much texture or too many cables can add. And, finally, three, I just want the elegant simplicity of stockinette st. for most of this garment.

The kids got out of school at 11:30 this morning, just putting the finishing touch on an already-doomed week. Monday: no school for MLK day. Monday night: the LE vomits at bedtime. Tuesday: LE stays home; seems fine. Wednesday and Thursday: I breathe deeply and drink gallons of coffee and before I know it, it's 3:00 p.m. and time to get my boots on. Friday: Home before lunch so the teachers can have time to fill out report cards. I think there are nearly as many disrupted school weeks as normal ones in our school year calendar.

January

So I don't know where my blogging mojo's been lately. I've been full of resolve, but very few posts to show for it.

Well, you know, it's cold. Of course, you think, Wisconsin in January is supposed to be cold. But, even by our standards, it's cold. Tomorrow might possibly be so cold that we have a school cancellation. They do that for Wind Chill Warnings. Unfortunately, I can't find the definitive standard for Wind Chill Warnings here, but ours is apt to be about 20-30 degrees below 0, Fahrenheit, in the a.m. So, I might get an added day of togetherness with my offspring.

I could rant about all the various holidays and in-service days and half-days and such that the kids are not at school. There are a lot of them. Then, you throw in the various sick days and a couple of malingering days, and it starts to seem like way too much togetherness. How about weekends with a high of 1 degree F? And that ain't wind chill.

What else? My husband acquired a big (by my primitive standards) flat television, an XBox 360, and the game Rock Band over the course of the last 6 weeks or so. And, for the record, not one of these is an item I would have considered bringing home. However, much to my surprise, I seem to have a secret, previously repressed inner desire to be the lead singer in a rock band. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent channeling Shirley Manson, Mick Jagger, or Michael Stipe. In my fantasy world, I'm on tour with my band, wearing leather and torn fishnet stockings, belting out bad-ass lyrics with bravado.

Has there been knitting? Well, some. I'm this close to finishing Mr. SABLE's Adirondack Pullover. I hoped to have it done already, but lost a bit of time to refereeing the kid-fights on Monday (What? That wasn't what MLK was all about?) and then, the Little Emperor missed school yesterday because he threw up Monday night. I don't think he was really sick, but I felt obligated to do the 24 hours observation thing. I know a lot of parents aren't vigilant about keeping sick kids home but I feel it's the moral thing to do. What was I saying? Oh, yeah. So, I'm down to the last couple of inches of the second sleeve. A few ends, a quick wash and it'll be done.

But the pictures...

Did I mention the cold? Not sure when we'll get to pictures. If there's a nice sunbeam streaming in a window in the next few days, maybe I can get a picture of it lying flat.

There's also been some spinning. And it's not really the photogenic type of spinning. More of the Brown Sheep mill ends three ply I started back in August. I'm hoping to get to some slightly more exciting spinning soon.

You folks who live in warm places, wish us all well for tomorrow. We'll just be chillin', that's for certain.

More About Baklava

A short post to answer the questions...

Marie Grace, they used the recipe in the Joy of Cooking, omitting the lemon and orange zest. They were entirely self-motivated. Owen is definitely turning into a Serious Foodie (is that redundant?) so I expect he'll be making a lot more goodies as time goes on. As a toddler (!) and pre-schooler, he loved (really loved!) watching cooking shows on PBS. No kidding. A born foodie. His next ambition is to make marzipan from scratch. But we don't currently own a full-size food processor, just a mini-chopper, so he's thwarted in that plan for now.

Bezzie, they did not make the phyllo from scratch, but Owen has also expressed an interest in trying that. I think one needs pretty heavy machinery to roll the pastry layers that thin. And way better humidity control than we have.

For all of you who never tried making it, I say, don't be afraid. My husband has done it several times over the years. The first time ever, I explained to him the thing about buttering every layer and he misunderstood. He took a stack of several sheets for the bottom layer and buttered it, put in filling, a top layer (also many sheet thick), and buttered that. D'oh! We had a good laugh about it after, when I told him he really did need to peel every thin sheet and butter it.

My sister used to be the Queen of Baklava when she was in high school. I've made a number of phyllo-based main dishes, like spanokopita, and the main trick is to have your stuff all ready so you can work quickly and not let the pastry dry out. Keep the pastry between two layers of plastic wrap with a damp dishtowel laid on top.

Dale, I'm sorry to report that it will be long gone by Friday, except for the part that takes up residence on my derriere.

Mmmmmmmmm

It has occurred to me that blog posts about food are very popular. My bread post got many more comments than most of my knitting posts. So, never one to miss an opportunity to improve my standing in the blog-o-sphere, I give you tonight's dessert...

My guys made baklava today.

Posing with their creation



Yummy close up view!

I also took pictures of the lentil soup I made, but somehow, steaming in the big pot, it just didn't look as appetizing. Maybe I should have taken the picture of it artfully served in a big ceramic bowl with crusty baguette posed nicely on the side.

Here's the current progress on Mr. SABLE's Adirondack Pullover. I just need to finish one more sleeve, about 6 more inches on the body, and darn in ends. And wash and block. But I'm in the home stretch, for certain.

I've been playing with swatches for sweater for my brother's wife. I think I've hit on a good idea that might actually lead to a popular pattern. Stay tuned.

The kids went back to school on Monday. Just in time, too. Two weeks of togetherness was pushing our limits! I took a couple very long naps this past week; I guess I'm not back on the school schedule yet.

Hope you are all surviving your winters ok.

First FO 2008

Click to make it bigger. You know you want to!

I've got chicken soup started on the stove and fresh baguettes from bread machine dough. Unfortunately, I'm out of barley which is my favorite chicken soup ingredient. I'll just have to use noodles this time.

We narrowly missed having the snowiest December on record here in Mad Town. 34.4 inches (the record is 35"). Our annual season average is only about 48 inches, so you can see we're ahead of the curve this year. It's a good time to hunker down indoors with chicken-vegetable soup and fresh warm bread.

A Post Several Days in the Making

I started writing this on Friday, but didn't have photos ready to go and didn't have enough undisturbed time to put two thoughts together coherently. So, am finishing, editing, adding pictures today (Sunday).

Current Knitting
I started knitting Mr. SABLE a version of of the Iron Mountain Hat (v.2) with slightly fatter yarn, in blue and black


Still working on Mr. SABLE's Adirondack Pullover

Still working on the Tahki Tweed version of the One Row Scarf


In addition, longer standing WIPs include
Constance Shorewood about 98% done
The very long-standing tweedy slipstitch sweater for Mr. SABLE
Some miscellaneous socks

Finished a few weeks ago:

A quick little hat from Knit Picks Panache. Not sure I like how it looks, but it feels very soft and warm on my head, which counts for a lot around here.

Meanwhile, I've made plans to make another Iron Mountain v.2 for my friend Jim, for whom I made the brown fisherman's knit raglan last year, and a pullover for my brother's wife. I'm hoping to match both these projects up with stash yarn.

Family Life
Maybe part of why I'm so determined to match projects to existing stash has to do with our pre-holiday preparations. Mr. SABLE's brother and his wife came for a short visit on the 26th, which was great fun. There was a lot of hilarity and fun and games. But before they arrived, Mr. SABLE was driven to clean as I haven't seen him in at least 15 years. He purged and cleaned and filled garbage bags and recycling bins. He scrubbed the bathroom. And now our house is further from the brink of chaos than it has been for some time. So that's part of my motivation to reduce stash: having come this far in our house-normalization process, it seems like a good thing to continue.

The other thing is that on Christmas Eve I had to retrieve some "Santa items" I had hidden in my lair. It took me a full hour of dedicated searching, moving, and organizing to find the bag'o'goodies in a bin I thought I had searched early on. D'oh. And through that, I kept finding yarn I'd forgotten I owned. So I had a moment of clarity where the truth of my sickness was made quite clear.

Christmas Day was quiet. The Little Emperor came into our room about 10 minutes before 7, which is amazingly accurate. We had told him that nothing was happening until 7 and he doesn't have a clock in his room. We tried to doze the last 10 minutes then he gleefully announced that it was time. The morning went well. My brother made one of Owen's wishes come true by sending along an electric guitar that he owned but doesn't play these days.


In the early afternoon, The Little Emperor started to act a little sick. He fell asleep on the couch, spiking a fever of 103 F. In the evening we got a dose of Tylenol into him and got him up to bed. He woke us up at 3:30 a.m. saying he felt hungry and also unwell. Then he had big gastro-enteric symptoms (both ends), several bouts, pretty much keeping us up until 5:30. This was the day that R & C, the relatives, were coming, and we worried about them walking into a house of contagion. It seemed like the little guy was pretty much on the mend by late afternoon and was able to eat a good dinner (pizza) that night with no consequence. Still, I worried a bit, because I know gastro-enteric viruses can stay contagious for a few days after symptoms have passed.

R & C were supposed to stay two nights, but we all had an eye on the weather forecasts which were uniformly grim. They decided to return to C's cousin's in Chicago last night, so they were sure to make their flight back to NJ this afternoon. As it turned out, the flight was canceled, along with all the other flights to NJ on United today.

Finishing Post on Sunday Afternoon
R & C were able to get home, albeit, in a very Planes, Trains, and Automobiles kind of way. They got a flight on a different airline out of Midway, instead of O'Hare; to Philly instead of Newark. Then a rental car to to retrieve their car from Newark Airport, and eventually home to Summit.

BTW, here's one of a series of group pictures we had been ordered to produce for that side of the family:

C., manning the camera, had successfully gotten a laugh out of the kids by asking, "What kind of bees make milk?"
Answer: "Boo bees."

Happy New Year to one and all. Stay safe. Friends don't let friends knit drunk.

Beatrix Hat & Cardigan Pattern

The Beatrix Hat and Cardigan are worked in Dale Baby Ull in bright vivid colors. Of course, you can easily substitute a pastel palette. Or swap out the magenta main color for a more masculine choice to suit your favorite boy.






Pattern worked at a gauge of 7.5 stitches per inch, but don't let that scare you. It goes fast on such a small project. This set would make a perfect first Fair Isle project. The motifs are simple and fun. Worked in round with cut steeks at front and arms.

Pattern written in three baby and toddler sizes.

Available for immediate download $5 US

Winter is here.

The weather says "Winter" and so does the calendar. No doubt about it.

Knitting pictures coming soon. I promise.

WIP Progress Pics

Recent photos of my two biggest WIPs:

Taken last night because he was dressed up. Long story, but it's a rare occasion.


Taken earlier in the fall at a local park.

Gingerbread Tam

I just made one of the Three Tams by Angela Sixian Wu, from the Winter '07 Knitty. This was a quick fun knit and completely up my alley.


This is the expression of a woman standing in her front yard when it's 14 degrees F, with no coat or gloves, in shoes but not insulated boots, fiddling with a camera and wondering if the autotimer will work.


The back view. Notice all the snow? This is not typical this early in Wisconsin.


The detail.

I used some ancient brown worsted wt wool yarn I picked up at a thrift shop and Knit Picks Bare that Shelagh gave me when we met in NH in summer '06. The kids and I dyed it with Wilton's paste and koolaid. I think the hat looks like a gingerbread house or some other brown confection sprinkled with colorful candy bits. Yum.

Scott's Adirondack Pullover update

Sorry, it's a little fuzzy. Winter light and too cold outside for pictures in full daylight. I added light grey stripes to this one because I don't have quite enough yarn and Mr. SABLE is a big'n'tall kind of guy. And he liked the stripe concept enough that he said he would want them even if I did have enough dark grey. He's really living dangerously with his wardrobe choices these days!

I had an assistant helping, too:


More gratuitous cat pictures:

Should We Call the Experts?

I was unpacking my 6 year old son's backpack from school last night and found this art project:

Should we call a child shrink for an evaluation? Or just apprentice him to Tim Burton and call it good? (click it for a closer view.)


Here's the Solstice Tree '07

The kids put tinsel on after this picture, so now it sparkles a lot more. Every year I have to remind them that we are looking for a Charlie Brown kind of tree, because our living room is not that big. And the trees always seem much bigger when you get them in the house. This one is not very tall, but has a nice shape. The Little Emperor, artist of the work above, chose it. I think he did a nice job.

A note about the painting on the wall above the mantle on the upper left of the photo. This was done by my late grandmother, who was a watercolor painter of some local renown in western Illinois. She gave it to me years ago. It's not particularly one of my favorites of hers but I like the story that goes with it. She called it "Forgotten Landmark" or something kind of sentimentally evocative like that. My dad always comments, whenever my parents visit, "Oh, it's that old whore house down by the river." Somehow, I trust his interpretation more than hers.

A Slightly Sinking Feeling...

I sent a submission packet to a magazine late last month. Their deadline was Dec 7. I sent my submission Priority Mail and requested delivery confirmation. I know that the magazine in question usually sends receipt confirmation pretty quickly, too. And I just realized that I've received neither of these. And it's Dec 9. Hmmm. Must find my postal receipt, but checking back in my blog posts, I know I sent it before Nov 29. Well, as much as it's a drag to get rejected, it would be an even greater drag to never even get in the running because of a postal glitch.

How long does the postal service usually take to deliver the confirmation? I've never paid for that before and don't know what to expect.

edited to add: the confirmation postcard came from the magazine the other day. I just didn't know it because someone else carried in the mail. So, it got there. And now the waiting resumes.

Some Recent Knitting

Scott's Adirondack Pullover

Any color, as long as it's grey.

Gift Scarf 2

Not sure yet just who will get this one.

Gift Scarf 1

The Universal Yarns wool/dralon blend. This feels nice for 70% synthetic. The color sequences were messed up at the factory a bit, but I don't mind too much.

My life in list form: no time for a proper blog post.

Machine conspiracy: one vehicle in shop with unknown malady.

Tomorrow's scheduling complications: re dentist, kids, schools, cars.

Today's expected snow on top of

All the other snow and ice we already have, and

It's cold. It was 1 degree F at 7 a.m. today. (or is that one f'in' degree?)

current knitting: another gift scarf.

Seasonal rant: Maybe this can hold off til around Dec 22?

I hope to make a proper post with pics and fun stuff soon. But my BIL and his wife, who are very nice, but childless and tidy and earn about 10 times (not exaggerating) what we live on are coming to visit the day after Christmas and I'm not sure how we can get ready for that.

The good news is, my sister phoned the other day and we chatted for over an hour. We haven't really talked in about 15 years, so this was interesting.

More anon. I'm off to pick up Thing 2 at his school. Later, will (I hope) be able to pick up Huz-beast, Thing 1, and my car on a subsequent outing. Otherwise, I'll have to get creative.

edited to add:
My vehicle was ready. Whatever made the Check Engine light come on was self-limiting for now. So, I don't need a new transmission today. (Whew!)

Which means tomorrow will be relatively easy in terms of picking up both kids from school and getting them both to the dentist for their appointments.

Whatever snow we're supposed to get tonight hasn't started yet, so I didn't have that added complication to my late-afternoon errand-running.