PI for MOSS?

There are always so many things to tackle before going on vacation, aren't there? One week from today I will be halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. I have most of my clothes selected and am still pondering what knitting to bring.

The last time I posted I told all of you that I was going to be testing Elizabeth Zimmerman's proclamation that the Pi Shawl was an ideal project to take whilst traveling. Several of you encouraged me to start it before I left which I have done. I started with double point needles, graduated to 16" circular needles and have now increased to a 24" circular (288 sts). I have one more increase which will take me to 576 sts.
I have some reservations about taking the Pi Shawl along on the cruise. The first concern is the ....um......."sheepy" smell of the wool. Several have commented about it on Ravelry but not being sheep savvy, I had no idea until now what sheep actually smell like! I'm not sure I want my packed clothes to end up smelling like sheep.

My second concern is about spit splicing. One must use a very light touch with this Unspun Icelandic wool. I'm not opposed to spit splicing - and, believe me, there is quite a bit of spit splicing being done with this wool. It's just that I'm not sure I want to be doing so much spit splicing in public :-)

Lastly, I already have a significant cocoon knit and I have not yet finished the first wheel of wool. I'm a bit concerned that this shawl is going to be of monstrous proportions at the end of my fourth wheel! Not sure I want to be lugging around a monstrous cocoon around the Mediterranean.

So.......what to bring? I pulled the Vickie Cardigan out of her plastic bin last night to knit a few rows and found myself in love with her all over again.

Vickie is on my list to work on during the current "Earth" stretch of Project Spectrum. The "Moss" colorway fits the color requirements and moss is a rather earthy plant, don't you think? The color is difficult to capture but I think this photograph does a pretty accurate job of displaying the browns and greens intertwining.

The Black Water Abbey pattern is pretty straightforward and easy. The heathery tweed of the yarn does not lend to 'popping' those cables as much as I would like. But nevertheless, I am satisfied with the overall effect.

I'm actually thinking of packing less clothes so that Vickie can join me on the cruise. I will most definitely be taking along socks to work on.

G is for Garage Door

Now I ask you, "Doesn't everyone's garage door have a story to tell?"

From initial glances my garage doors look pretty commonplace. Your driveway is most likely paved instead of being gravel. And, your siding is probably not made from logs, but other than that your garage doors are probably similar to mine.

You may have an occasional animal lurking around your garage door wondering what is on the other side of your door. Most likely, this animal is either a cat or a dog. In fact, your garage door may have many a tale to tell if it could only communicate with you!

My garage door has tell-tale signs upon it that make me wish I had a hidden camera attached nearby. First, there are the animal signs - as in wildlife.

These are the claw marks of a brown bear. These claw marks have been scratced into the wood for about six years now. They have weathered several harsh winters. They have weathered the logs being powerwashed and stained three times. They are here to stay. These marks tell the story of one husband who left the garage door open overnight and one bear who feasted on three 20-lb bags of wheat and the contents of one dustbuster pulled off the wall and emptied. The claw marks were made on the subsequent night when the bear payed a second visit only to find the garage door properly closed. The claw marks stretch all up and down the middle partition, this is only a sampling.

The next sign of wildlife are the "nibbles" on the garage stripping. I used to think these were little chipmunk nibbles of which we have quite a few. They are hibernating right now and will be coming out soon. Now I say, 'I used to think...' because the nibbles are getting higher and higher as each year passes. These chippies must be standing on their tippy-toes to nibble away at the stripping. Once again, if I had a hidden night camera I just might discover who the culprit is! I'm not sure why they want in the garage. I'm beginning to wonder if their family members live in my storage room. Perhaps Papa Chippy scrounges around in the day and returns at night after the garage door is closed. Any ideas?

And lastly, we have another kind of animal that has left tell-tale signs upon my garage door. This animal is of the 'teenager' variety. I will say two words and let the garage door picture tell the rest of the story. The first word is TEENAGER. The second word is DRIVER'S PERMIT.

This is the attempt Allison, my nurse daughter, made to "patch" up her collision with the garage door. I'm quite confident that she is doing a much better job patching up patients these days than garage doors.

I will now leave you with a frontal view of my garage door. Now that you know the story it tells you can see how high the little chipmunks are devouring the side stripping, on all sides of each door. It is a good think all this activity happens on the exterior. If it happened on the interior side I just might walk out to my garage one day and discover the doors lying on the ground!

Does your garage door have a story to tell?

Cast-On ~ April Sockdown

The April Sockdown challenge on Ravelry is to knit a pattern by Jeanie Townsend. I had not heard of this designer before now but learned she has a Yahoo Sock Knitting group. After joining the group I discovered she has designed many beautiful socks. The sock I have selected is called Cascading Leaves.

In keeping with the current Project Spectrum colors I selected a lovely Shibui yarn in green. I then went to Ravelry to see all the socks knit with this yarn and discovered that it does have some issues with pooling. I'm hoping that this sock pattern will camoflauge it some. You can see the pooling already in my cast on stitches. I guess I will just have to imagine that it is sunshine shining through on my cascading leaves :-)

Project Spectrum ~ EARTH

On April 1st Project Spectrum moved into the EARTH element - brown, green and metallic colors.

These are my favorite colors so I am more than ready to pull out some old unfinished projects and make some serious headway on them!

My goal for April and May is to tackle and finish two sweaters:

1. Must Have Cardigan in colorway Taupe
2. Vickie in colorway Moss

You can find more information about them in my sidebar and, if you are a Ravelry member, you can click the links.

Perfect Travel Knitting?

Recently I have joined the Zimmermania by becoming enthralled with Elizabeth Zimmerman's ingenuity in design. Her style of writing appeals to me and whatever pattern I am reading about captivates me and makes me want to knit it right away.

One such pattern is the PI SHAWL which EZ deems is 'perfect travel knitting.' While reading about it in The Knitter's Almanac, this proclamation caught my attention because, as many of you know, I will be leaving on a Mediterranean cruise in a couple weeks. I'll be gone for 17 days. And, instead of contemplating my wardrobe I've been contemplating what knitting to bring for, naturally, I never go anywhere without it!

EZ says that a shawl is perfect for traveling because it takes up little space. It can be knit on a circular needle which is also perfect because one of my greatest traveling fears is loosing a needle and not being able to knit. And since the shawl is knit on circular needles it can be tossed here and there with no dread of accidently pulling out a needle as you pick it up.

Now there is something you must know. I have NEVER knit a shawl. I've never enjoyed intricate lace patterns with all those yarn-overs. So to me a shawl seems like it would be a nightmare waiting to happen on a trip. However, after reading great reviews on this pattern, the concensus is that it is an easy, mindless knit. I think even I can manage this!

I decided that this would be an ideal project to take on the cruise. The knitting will be mindless because this will be a circular shawl with only six shaping rows in the whole shawl! That means that there is quite a bit of mindless knitting inbetween those shaping rows.....endless rounds....no thinking.

I set out to choose the best wool in a color that I love since there will be much mindless knitting involved. Ravelry is a fantastic place to see patterns knit up in different colors and yarns. BTW, there are two EZ groups on Ravelry. I spotted JARED'S PI SHAWL and immediately knew I would also be using the Un-spun Icelandic Wool from Schoolhouse Press. It took me a few weeks to decide upon the color.

The package arrived today. Do you see Meg Swansen's name on the label? Proof positive that knitting talent can be genetic.

One of my favorite colors, Eggplant. This wool comes from hardy Icelandic sheeps. It is put up into 'wheels' that look more like cow patties than skeins of yarn. When I saw them on Ravelry they looked small but here they sit in a pie plate to show you how large they really are.

Someone needs to tell me that I CANNOT start my PI Shawl yet! Hide my needles!

I'm very curious to see how many of you have knit this lovely garment. If you have, what length circular needle did you use? Did you use wood or metal needles?

F is for French Press

My favorite coffee is made with a FRENCH PRESS. It takes a little longer to make coffee this way and there is a bit of mess to clean up afterwards but, in my opinion, the effort is worth it. If you have seen these coffee gadgets and have always wondered how they work I am about to give you a brief tutorial which is bound to make you tea drinkers run and grab your favorite tea bag shaking your head in dismay.

Each French Press comes equipped with a plunger-filter unit inside it. The plunger is removed and the French Press is warmed with water as you grind dark roasted oily beans to a coarse grind. Finely ground coffee will clog the filter.

The coffee is then placed in the bottom of the French Press and the warming water is discarded.. Hot water, not boiling, is added to the pot leaving a minimum of one inch at the top. The coffee and water is stirred gently before placing the plunger unit back on top of the pot.

The lid spout opening is closed and the coffee is allowed to brew for at least four minutes. Do NOT press down at this point.

The pot handle is held firmly with the spout turned away from you. Using the weight of your hand, slight pressure is applie on top of the knob and the plunger is lowered straight down into the pot. Lowering the plunger slowly with minimal pressure produces the best results. Do not use excessive force, which can cause scalding liquid to shoot out of the pot or cause the pot to fall over spilling coffee all over the place!

The lid is turned to the strainer position and the coffee is poured. Yummy! French Press coffee lacks the 'burned' taste that you so often get when using a traditional coffee maker.


The downside, as I mentioned earlier, is that you do have coffee grounds to deal with in the pot. They have to be scooped out with a spoon and discarded. BTW, does anyone know if you can put coffee grounds down a septic system?

So, this is the French way to make coffee. Or, at least one French way. When I was in college one of my roomates was a Cajun girl from the deep Cajun country of southern Louisiana. Cajuns, as you most likely have heard, are descendents from the French Arcadians and are steeped in French tradition and language. My roomate made coffee in a similar way without the nifty French press filter that we have now. She used a plain old strainer. This, of course, was back in the days when folks used a percolator to make coffee, shortly before Mr. Coffee came along. And, the coffee we used was chicory coffee which had a unique flavor of its own.

This is my "F" entry for the ABC Along. And, if you are wondering what happened to my "D" and "E" entries I now confess I spaced them out and forgot to post them. "Forgetfulness" would have been another "F" entry I could have made. This attribute is something those of us who grew up in the percolator generation can identify with these days :-)

Mindless Knitting

I am a firm believer in having mindless knitting on hand for those times when I just don't feel like concentrating on a pattern. The brain can drift of into a state of relaxation and enjoy the rhythmic clicking of the sticks and all is bliss.

The Yarn Harlot's One Row Handspun Scarf is a perfect example of mindless knitting. There is only one row to memorize, over and over again. The pattern is reversible and looks great on either side. And, what makes it even more sublime is knitting it with Malabrigo! It will be difficult for me to want a scarf knit with anything else from here on out. This yarn is simply heavenly.

Ahhhhhh........relaxation......

Back to Blogger

I've decided to switch back to Blogger. Wordpress just did not have the versatality to play with the layout like Blogger does. It appears Blogger has made some improvements this last year.

The Project Spectrum colors are getting ready to change from FIRE to EARTH. I'm ready to move out of the red-orange-pink spectrum and knit some nice earthy tones. The new colors will be brown and green. But, before the colors change I will give you a Project Spectrum FIRE slideshow - hopefully on Friday.

Cast-Off February Sock

A few of you have reminded me that I never posted about my completed Kaffe Fasset sock for the February Sockdown on Ravelry.

We were challenged to try a new heel. I choose the Eye of Partridge heel and then ended up making my own modifications so the brilliant Kaffe Fasset colors would ‘pop’ more. BTW, I love, love, love this Regia Kaffe Fasset line! I want to collect all of the dyelots. I knit this pair of socks very quickly because I couldn’t wait to see the next color unfold.

Popping Eye of Partridge Heel (even # sts)
Row 1: Sl 1 purlwise, *k 1, sl 1 knitwise,* repeat from * to * end.

Row 2: Sl 1 purlwise, p to last stitch, k 1.

Row 3: Sl 1 purlwise, sl 1 knitwise, *k 1, sl 1 knitwise,* repeat from * to * last 2 sts, k to end.

Row 4: Repeat Row 2Repeat these rows till heel flap is about 2 1/2 in or desired length.

This is definitely my new favorite heel flap! I really like how it looks and will try to incorporate it into my upcoming socks.

Cast Off - January Sockdown

I finished my challenge socks for the January Sockdown Ravelry. Fortunately, they only had to be cast on in January and not actually finished until the end of February. I started them January 26th and finished them February 10th.



PATTERN: BFF Socks by Cookie A.
YARN: Koigu Premium Merino (31655)
NEEDLES: 2.25mm

This pattern was an interesting one to knit and I learned something new - how to do a cable decrease/cable increase. I’m a little disappointed in the fit. I initially frogged one complete sock because I used 2.5mm needles and the resulting sock was too baggy. I thought the cause was the needle size so, accordingly, I went down to a 2.25mm and knit these two socks. The fit is slightly better but still not great.

The pattern increases stitches after the ribbed cuff to accomodate all the cables. It then decreases down at the heel for fewer stitches on the heel/foot. 72sts around my ankle is just too much and it causes the ankle to bag some.

My Conclusion: This is a nice pattern which offers three sizes. I should have gone with the smallest size rather than the medium size.

2008 Project Spectrum - The Elements

Project Spectrum THREE has started and this round is all about the elements - fire, earth, air and water. I have enjoyed participating in Lolly's past celebrations of color because, by doing so, my eyes are opened to color all around me and it causes me to slow down to notice them.

FEBRUARY / MARCH - FIRE- orange, red, pink

Not only will I be knitting with these colors throughout February and March, I will be carrying my camera around with me and then posting pictures of objects representing FIRE. How fun is that!

Are the creative juices stirring within you as you read this post? If they are, go immediately to Lolly's blog and become more inspired! Go there now! Don't hesitate!

Koolhaus for Christmas

I had a few false starts on this lovely pattern found in the 2007 Interweave Holiday Knits. The yarn used is Moda Dea Washable Wool which I initially had some doubts about. But I wasn’t too far along into the pattern when quickly decided it was quite suitable for this pattern.

Koolhaus was designed by Brooklyntweed (Jared) and is another of his ingenius designs. Actually, love every single thing he shows us on his blog, his tastes are sublime! In fact, a couple times I thought about knitting only the things he knits for one year but I quickly abandoned that idea……a little bit too much like stalking for my tastes. But seriously, if you have never read Jared’s blog you should hop on over to it.

I enjoyed knitting this Christmas present and will probably knit another Koolhaus. I’m glad I stuck it out with this pattern. My careless mistakes caused me to frog twice in the beginning. I have now completed another item for the TOP 10 STASH PROJECTS KAL!

Shedir for Allie-Girl

SHEDIR is finally finished for my baby-girl, Allison. I purchased the yarn for it 13 months ago and it has been in and out of the knitting basket since then. So, here it is - belated 20th birthday gift, belated 2006 Christmas gift, belated 21st birthday gift. It wasn’t a difficult pattern once my mind finally got a hold of it but it also was not a very relaxing knit.

I used Jaegar Matchmaker DK for the yarn in a color that ALWAYS looks fantastic on my girl. Hats look much better on her than they do on me. I’ll have to have her model it when she is home for Christmas.

Allison - the sunshine of our family and the one who can ALWAYS make me feel better when I am sad. I know she must be a ray of sunshine to all her pediatric patients.

Visit Me at WordPress

Come visit me at WordPress. I will be blogging over there for the rest of the month. I have decided that this is the only way for me to decide if I like it enough to switch.

Thanks for your patience!

http://socksformum.wordpress.com

Ravelry

RAVELRY . Wow! That is about the only word I can think of to describe it! It is everything everyone said it would be.

And membership finally comes to me after spending 3 days camping with girlfriends!. Just in time since part of my camping time was dedicated to solitude and prayer. I had lots of time to evaluate many things in my life and one of the areas was knitting. I came to the conclusion that I need more focused direction and organization in my knitting!

I hadn't planned to evaluate this area of my life but after I casually mentioned to my non-knitting friends that I had four sweaters on the sticks that needed to be finished this year the look on their faces alone and their SILENCE (when are women ever silent?) quickly convinced me it was time to examine this area. I felt like some crazed, obsessed knitting fiend who never finishes anything. I didn't digress still further by mentioning all my OTHER WIP and UFO's to them. I could have but did not!

The sad thing was when I got home and made a list of all the sweaters I have purchased yarn for -- lets just say, there were far more than FOUR sweaters, my friends!

Ahh-well, friends are good to us and love us despite our idiosyncrasies don't they? And THAT is a very good thing or some of us in knitting-blogger-land would be committed to mental institutions.

Ravelry seems to be the unorganized knitter's answer. And, I fear, it will also become the conscience of all of us as well. At least for me it will be. It is awesome! Check it out!

Blogger vs WordPress

Someone left a comment telling me that they, too, wanted to reply to people leaving comments on their Blogger blog. Their solution was to install Haloscan on Blogger to remedy this. I really like this idea and am going to give it a try before making my final decision about switching to WordPress.

I have been playing with WordPress all weekend and am not sure I want to 'grow' through another learning curve. I think I would rather be knitting! There are pros and cons with each provider that I am weighing but, to me, Blogger seems easier to use.

In knitting news, I am busy working on my RED Central Park Hoodie (Project Spectrum) and my Colorado Trekking Adventure socks. I am thoroughly enjoying re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird and will be posting some thoughts on that later this week.

Here is a peek at my 'Cabin Themed' sock..................

Hufflepuff socks for the Hogwarts Sock Swap are finished and ready to be sent by owl to my Hogwarts Pal. It is nice to have them off the needles. Speaking of socks, have you guys seen Kathy's cool Sidewinder Socks? I'm itching to give them a try!

WordPress

I think I may be switching over to WordPress so that I can reply to bloggers posting on my blog.

The new site is http://socksformum.wordpress.com/

Come by and tell me what you think. I have not made up my mind completely yet. Both Blogger and WordPress have there pros and cons...............and I really hate having to learn something new, but if it allows me to reply back then I might have to make the move. If you have aversions to WordPress or have anything you know about it, please leave a comment!

Reflection Tuesday ~ Musical Instruments

If you learned to play a musical instrument, tell me your memories of lessons, practice, and your music teacher. If not, what instrument did you want to play and why?

Me? After failing miserably in the fifth grade with the flute I moved on to another woodwind instrument, the clarinet.

My clarinet and I had many happy years together. I attended a school with a highly competitive music department. Competition was a regular occurence and I did not mind ithis since most competition was done as one orchestra against another. Now, on the other hand, I absolutely hated it when another clarinet player "challenged" my chair in the orchestra. The ability to loose my place on the second row if I lost a challenge kept me on my toes and I practiced a lot. I don't recall ever loosing a challenge.

What a glorious feeling it was when the conductor raised his baton and when it was lowered my 'note' came out as many notes! Magical! It stirred my soul! I have many silly memories of splitting reeds during performances, rendering the instrument useless, and 'faking' that I was playing . That I could do, but have me march across a football field faking it and I was all giggles.

I still have my clarinet but it only squeaks for me these days.....due to the player, not the instrument. Going to symphony concerts is one of my favorite things to do!

So how about you? Did YOU play an instrument?

Owl Package Delivered

A package arrived by owl today from one of my Hogwarts Sock Swap pals. The very talented Abigail, a.k.a 1870 Pearl, put together a very nice package in the midst of getting ready to move. For this I am especially grateful!

Abigail knit some lovely GRYFFINDOR Hogwarts Socks in GRYFFINDOR colors. Since they are anklets they will be perfect Birkenstock summer socks. She also included some Lantern Moon DPNs -- huzzah! huzzah! And, last but not least, some candy in GRYFFINDOR colors in a GRYFFINDOR tin. Thanks, Abigail!

As for me, the Hogwarts socks that I am knitting for my first Hogwart Pal will be finished soon. I am knitting these on 2 circular needles. Every once in a while I get a hankering to knit socks on circulars. However, my preferred sock knitting method is on double-point needles.

When I knit on 2 circulars, I often forget where I am in a pattern sequence, at the beginning or the end. Since I already need 2 stitch markers to mark where the heel gusset ends and the instep begins on each needle, I devised dual-purpose stitch markers. Each marker has either the #1 on it for 1rst needle or a #2 on it for second needle. I put one on one needle and the other on the second needle. Now I can knit mindlessly!