library enhancement

The mail brought me two books today: Inspired Cable Knits and Knitting Rules. I'm really excited to dig into the them over the weekend (provided I get that dreaded paper done).


I've never attempted cables before, except for a little swatch that did turn out pretty well for a first try (if I do say so myself). There are some amazing patterns in here, and I can't wait to graduate so I can get some knitting time back in the schedule. I especially like the yoga bag (so very clever), the ripples in time baby sweater (now that's an heirloom), and the celtic icon (i'll have to be on a sabbatical to ever attempt it). It does have some of the knitting book photography that I hate: the soft focus on most of the garment, and only a little portion that's clearly in focus. Now, I like art and art photography probably more than the next person; but if I'm thinking of spending days of my life making one garment... yo: I want to see the whole thing in a clear focus. (This is not the only book that does this, and it's better than some that are obsessive about their new "style". I just don't like it.)


I also got Knitting Rules by the Yarn Harlot. (No photos, so there won't be a repeat of the rant above.) The first thing I flipped to in the book was the "Ten Reasons Not to Knit Socks" and it really tickled my fancy. Frankly, I think of those quite a bit myself. There's a lot more reading in here, so I haven't gotten to delve in as of yet. I'm certain that I'll enjoy it as much as I have Stephanie's previous two books.

I sent my mom to her reading in my hometown, because I was concerned that the turnout would be fairly paltry compared to her triumphs in the knitting hubs. Happily, Canton did pretty well. Was it the first time that an international book tour made a stop there? I imagine so.

Knitting this weekend? Probably not much. I messed up the Retro Rib heel already, so ripping will be next up.

oh, happy day

I thought hard about getting out of bed this morning. I just wanted to sleep. I watched the shower run for about 10 minutes before deciding that I did need to go to work, and therefore needed to get moving. I wasn't feeling much better afterwards.

But Hubby had turned the news on, and I got the news that Jill Carroll had been released in Baghdad, and the day started to look up. I remembered a very similar morning about a year ago, when I heard that Marla Ruzicka was killed in Baghdad. Marla was a squatter in my office for a while, and I was introduced to her at some point.

Jill Carroll wrote a very lovely tribute piece about Marla in the Christian Science Monitor. I'm very relieved that Jill is safe and that the story is different this year.

news flash: sock in progress

I'm pretty proud of my Retro Rib sock progress. I'm spending more time on them than I should be, but... life is short. (Please don't remind me that the semester is even shorter.) I really like the stretchiness of the ribbing patter, and think that it's going to wear really well.

I'm ready to start on the heel. The Jawoll came with matching reinforcing thread for the heel and toe, which I've never used. I tried to thread when doing Hubby's Koigu socks, but it looked really icky (he's pretty rough on them). I chose to only do 14 pattern repeats for the leg, because I like my socks a little bit shorter than most. It's about 6.5", and that's just fine with me.

I have a conference running from Sunday through Tuesday. I wonder if I can hide in the back and finish my socks during the boring bits?

baby needs a brand-new bag

Next up in the knitting queue will have to be a little felted case for my iBook. I got these colors of Lamb's Pride Bulky at Patterworks last summer. (Yes, we took a rather significant detour to visit the shop. It was underwhelming, which is why I ended up buying the rather prosaic Lamb's Pride.) This yarn was intended to become a Buttonhole Bag, but I think that the colors will work well with the new computer.

Again, I'll get to use the AlterKnits book pattern, and maybe I'll get the enclosed knitting notebook out to record the process.

tres erres

At some point in the future, I'm going to try my hand at recycling. We were about to drop a pile of clothes off at a donation site, and I remembered that Leigh Radford's book had a fun pattern for a t-shirt rug. I pulled the old shirts out of the pile, and will proceed with cutting them up as soon as I get a free afternoon. I need to take a break from the sock knitting, and get something going on steroid needles for a change.

stash enhancement

I was really trying to follow along with Amelia's New Year's Resolutions with respect to yarn buying. It was acceptable to do on trips (because it was a souvenier); it was fine to purchase yarn at 50% off; it was encouraged if you were going to start a project immediately and nothing in the stash would do. So far, I've followed those rules. There was Portland yarn shopping (and I used some of that immediately), there was a purchase from Knit Picks to try out cottons for all of the impending babies that need knitwear, and there was discount shopping at that the store-that-should-not-be-named (now closed, so it's probably ok to name).

But this past week was really rough at work. I got the Elann email, and saw that they had Regia Cotton Surf. My blue stripey socks were from this yarn, and I've really grown to like them. Hubby liked them as well, and he doesn't have handknit cotton socks... so I was weak. I bought three colors of Regia (guess which one is for me?) and he was very pleased with the selection.

The Den-M-Nit was just for the stash. I really want to try a piece from the Miss Bea's Seaside collection, and didn't have enough leftovers from the Taro blankie to complete a garment. So I got a bunch of that too.


Of course, this was a purchase from Elann, so the prices were 50% off retail. Does that mean that I've kept the resolution?

oh, papa.

(First post from the iBook! So exciting to write from the couch!)



I pass by a Beard Papa cream puff shop every time I leave school and head for the subway. There have been nights were all I can think about is how marvelous a cream puff would be to savor on the train home. Usually on those nights there is a long line, and my desire to not miss the next train overrides the sugar potential. Most often, though, I just tell myself "You've been sitting for the past four hours, will sit for another hour on the train, then go to sleep. You really don't need a cream puff." But last Sunday I was leaving school early. I would be active for hours before going to sleep, and thought that it really wouldn't be so bad to have a cream puff (and one for hubby, of course).

So I went in and ordered my Japanese cream puff from a Latin American, and clutched the precious bag all the way home. There was also a race to make a train (which I missed), so calories were certainly burnt in preparation for the feast. After the first bite, I knew that I should have given in to the cream puff impulse earlier.

The cream puff was terrible. The pastry was really salty; the cream was flavorless. All of these months, I've been passing by thinking how special it would be to have one, and that it was going to be a great occassion when I finally went in and treated myself.

The lesson? Don't deny yourself, because there's a good possibility that whatever it is won't live up to the high expectations you've created in the denial process. The iBook is the exception, of course; this thing ROCKS.

now contains actual knitting!

(I have no idea why the picture is sideways. Tilt your head.)

I finished up a little hat and set of booties for a friend to gift at a baby shower this weekend. I used the little hat pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and the booties came from Weekend Knitting (the easy booties). Friend was thrilled to receive them. They are done up in sporty red Cascade Pima Tencel, which is soft and affordable. It does seem to split more than it should. The set is done in red because Future Mom and Dad are Chinese, and red is the most auspicious color for the Chinese.

Next up is some work on Retro Rib socks. For some reason, size 0 needles seem much smaller than size 1 needles, so the progress hasn't been swift.

the year of the baby, continued

The next set of booties (commission from a friend) and my new baby! I'm very excited to get my iBook up and cranking, once I figure out the battery configuration thing.

from the archives

So, school is currently kicking my butt. Work is currently kicking me around too. Pressure is building from all sides, including the pressure to knit a hat and booties for a friend who is attending a baby shower this weekend. I know the expecting dad slightly, so I really want to get them done, but....... WHEN?

As a result of the fact that my knit blog has had no knitting content for quite a while, here's a picture of a little scarf I made for one of my LA nieces. Knitting for girls out there is hard, because when do they need wool? It's always 70 degrees!


This is the laceweight yarn from Morehouse Merino, my favorite yarn source forever. My favorite, favorite is the 3-strand, but all of it is pretty great. This handpaint had lots of flecks of purples and really hot pinks every once in a while. Through the magic of blocking, all of the wrapped stitches untangled, and I was very pleased with how it turned out. She liked it too!