bringer of light

At this time of year, celebrations of the return of the light abound. On October 30, my little beacon of light arrived.


She's wonderful and healthy, and tolerates wearing multiple handknits at once. I'm cherishing these moments and wish you all wonderful celebrations of light.

out of control

Clearly, my hormones are out of control, because this picture made me start crying. That's our President with his little niece. Congratulations on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and now let's see some action, there, Mr. President.

bookworm

Now that we’ve entered the month in which I’ll give birth* I have added incentive to finish up some long-lingering projects that require attention. Happily, the weather is cooperating, and the cloudy and cool days seem just right for knitting. And taking naps.

I did finish one long-overdue baby gift, and shipped it back East a little while ago. It’s the Bookworm Sweater from Miss Bea’s Rainy Day (a theme!) by Louisa Harding. I adore this entire series of small books, and love the classic styles of the patterns.

The yarn is my favorite Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, in cherry red, sadly discontinued. Something odd happened when putting in the sleeves, and I hope that it doesn’t make the sweater uncomfortable to wear. It’s a touch bunchy under the arms, but I hope the lovely cables make up for it.

*As Hubby dropped me off at work today, I asked if he thought IT would happen today. He said no. I have a feeling we are going to repeat this conversation over and over and over again.

surprise, baby

No, no: there's no news yet. The big day draws ever closer… reaching my feet to fasten sandals isn’t easy when I’ve got to reach around a basketball in my lap. And sadly, it’s still sandal weather here in Portland on this first day of autumn. The temperature will be above 90 degrees today, and while there’s no humidity to speak of and a gentle breeze blowing, I am not amused. It’s not supposed to be this hot here at the end of September.

Regardless of the heat (which hasn't been bad all September), I did finish a little Baby Surprise Jacket for the little one. It’s made out of Regia sock yarn, so it should be ready for repeated washing in the machine. I’m quite happy with the colors, and imagine she’ll look great in it.

I’ve got a lot of other projects going on that I’d like to finish up before she arrives* but with only three weeks to go, I’m not sure that’s going to happen! There are a couple more things that I have finished, and a bunch of yarn purchased that needs a photo shoot… all of which will appear in due time.

*While typing that, I got a kick in my left arm, as if to say, “Ha! You, finish four projects in three weeks? As if!” Guess she knows me pretty well already.

where have you gone, joe dimaggio?

What I've Not Been Doing

1. Traveling to Japan

2. Climbing Mount Hood

3. Drinking cocktails

4. Eating raw oysters and sushi



What I Have Been Doing

1. Buying a house

2. Packing up stuff and moving and unpacking

3. Knitting tiny bits

4. Growing a baby (see #3 and #4 above)


Hubby, it should be noted, has been highly involved with What I Have Been Doing, #1, #2, and #4, although the "growing" in the last one has primarily my responsibility. I would really like to be drinking cocktails, especially now that I have a nice backyard and table, and it's gin and tonic season; but as that is not allowed in my current condition, the bottles are still packed in the basement. I would also really love a spicy tuna roll with cucumber in brown rice and a half dozen oysters. But enough about the food I can't eat. (I could go on.)


We have a house that is lovely, and in a great neighborhood that is closer to work, so my commuting knitting time has been reduced. But I did finish some socks a few months ago!


This past weekend was the Sock Summit in Portland, and I am so lame that I did not register for a single class. I did go to the Marketplace and shopped for two hours, and bought more yarn than I have all year. (I have not bought much yarn at all.) It was very entertaining to hear about the declaration that last week was Sock Knitting Week in Portland, see lace shawls on the shoulders of people all over town, and have a nearly full-page, front-page article on the summit in the paper today.


As I start to slow down, thanks to my passenger, I think I will be knitting more. I have lots of ideas...

whoops

Hubby has been visiting New York for a few days, and I've been hearing a near-continual refrain: where's the blog? Where's the knitting? And the cocktails? Well, there just hasn't been much of any of that lately. But I currently have some motivation to work on a new project - a baby blanket - for a little girl who is going to turn 1 before I know it. I don't think that the wedding "you get a year" rule counts for babies, and I'm heartily ashamed. But knitting on size 13 needles is fun, and working on some massive lace is pretty entertaining company while I'm watching the World Baseball Classic.

This afternoon I walked to the store to return a video rental, and the weather was typically Portland: windy and rainy on the way there, then sunny and sort of rainy on the way back. But there was a huge rainbow in the sky, and you can never see too many of those. So, did you miss me?

wipe out!

I didn't come close to my goal of posting five times last week, and for that, I acknowledge my lameness. But to make up for that, please go here and see some highly awesome interpretations of NYC. Yay, New York!

I'll be back!

tangled up

As too many socks make you go blind (and there are more to come!), I thought I'd break up this week's posting sprint with news of a sweater - the Tangled Yoke cardigan from Interweave Knits Fall 2007. Tweedy goodness from Rowan...

I have swatched successfully - just two off on the row gauge, which is plenty fine with me - and WASHED Mlle. Swatch as well.

This is a highly important step in gauge-swatch-making, which I've never done before. I learned my lesson might well on my very last adult sweater project: washing the swatch is really super-duper important, because otherwise you might get a sweater that grows in water like nothing you have ever seen. (And no one else has seen the sweater either, because I put it on, cried, lifted the hem from around my knees, and folded it up and stashed it away in the cedar chest.)

So: I've knit a swatch, achieved gauge, washed the swatch, still been pleased with size of swatch, and now need to cast on somewhere around 200 stitches. That's a lot, and will likely be on hold until the weekend when I can sit and do it all at once. And then the knitting begins: a me-sized sweater on #4 needles. I might be nutso on this one, because that's a lot of stitches. But in finishing the sweater, I'll knock over a mile off my stashed yarn total. (Yes, I count my yarn in miles.)

warming hubby's feet

Hubby is wearing some new socks today.


Fun colors - just enough to keep things interesting, but very suitable for Hubby socks. It's Brown Sheep Wildfoote yarn, in Brown Sugar. One skein had flecks of green, but the other did not... even though they were the same dye lot. The second skein also had different patterning than the first, and I think you can see the difference between the two. But they are socks, and I think that they came out well enough. The yarn had been marinating in my stash since December 2006, and it was high time for it to get knit up.

(Post #2 of the week! I'm gonna do it!)

tap, tap: anyone there?

I spoke with two friends today, and both made comments about my lack of blog action in the past couple of weeks. And it's true, I just haven't had the drive to communicate about my knitting lately. But hearing that my readers are eager for more updates was a bit of a shove in the right direction.

The mornings are relatively chilly here in Portland, usually hovering just above freezing. My double-thick wool mittens aren't really necessary, nor are the polarfleece gloves, since I'm just walking and waiting for a bus. These mittens (Ann Budd's book of knitting patterns) are thin, but provide just enough warmth and coverage. They fit easily into my pockets when I get on the bus, and I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

I think I started them over a year ago, and got as far as the ribbing, and a couple of thumb gusset increases. They were so quick to make that I felt rather silly having them hang around as long as they did. The yarn is Diakeito Diamusee Fine - a Japanese import - and the color changes are subtle enjoyable to watch while it moves through your fingers. I got the yarn years ago in Cold Spring, NY at a shop that's sadly closed.

OK: I will pledge to post each day this week. There's actually a lot of knitting progress to show, s here goes!

no time

I've been driving to work this week - not my choice, for sure. I haven't driven on a daily basis since my first job out of college, which would be 12 years ago. While taking the bus or light rail has it's annoyances, and finding street parking in my part of downtown Portland is a breeze (it's fun to see how close I can get to the office door!), I really miss my reading and knitting time. I haven't knit all week. It's been busy at the office and for the social calendar, and now I'm just wiped out. There's more busyness tomorrow, and a friend is in town, and then there's the amazing class I'm taking with Brooklyn Tweed Jared on Saturday... and I'm probably not going to leave home on Sunday.

(Coda to my Christmas tree-cutting escapades: in order to not pay more to have the tree taken away for composting, I had to cut it into three pieces so it would fit in the composting bins we get from the city. It looked rather disturbing, chopped up like that. But the saw I borrowed from our landlord was much better than the one at the tree farm. Note: bring your own next year.)

the time has come to talk of many things

Resolutions! I like 'em, Hubby hates hearing about 'em, so this is my outlet.

1. Be highly judicious in yarn purchases this year. (Already making progress on this one: I did not buy a sweater's worth of Lorna's Laces Organic Wool at the 20% off sale, because I have other sweaters that I'd like to knit that I've already purchased the yarn for.)

2. If the light rail train isn't at my stop when I arrive, walk along its path (on the sidewalk, of course) to the next stop, look back for the train, and repeat if necessary.

3. Have lots of projects going at once, so I can always grab the right, fun thing for the moment.

4. Try for more high points, and fewer low points, than 2008.

5. Learn to crochet.

6. Start playing the piano again. (Got a fantastic deal on a keyboard on eBay. It'll be here next week.)

I think that's it. I have two socks that are begging for attention, and a mitten to start. #3 is looking better and better...