WHAT A
DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES
Saturday night it was crisp and cold. Just perfect for waving at adoring crowds along the parade route. Last night it snowed.
It's a stay indoors as much as possible day. Toss another log on that wood burning stove would ya?
I made another batch of soap. This recipe is referred to as a "Julia Child" type of recipe. Not hard but with lots of little ingredients. I'm not sure that's fair to her memory. Her recipes work where others (martha, for instance) do not.
I tried something new this time. I used annato seeds to give the soap a deep, buttery color. I recently did an inventory of what I have in stash (so many stashes, so little time, such a bruised credit card) and found the little bag of seeds bought some years ago.
I very much like to make soap. It's simple chemistry and a lot like cooking but with sodium hydroxide. After trying out a few recipes you end up with a great product with quality ingredients that suit your type of skin.
The previous batch of soap was quite cantankerous, more so than any other that I've made and I ended up with two small chemical burns because I stopped paying attention. You must ALWAYS pay attention when using acids. This batch went together with less effort than making butter cookies.
I have a few gripes though. Recipes flip between asking for teaspoons, tablespoons, a half cup at one point along with the more common ounces and grams. Can you just pick one, puuleeeze???
I am making up my vintage apron at long last. I decided that it needed a nice contrast color for the tabs and pocket so off to equilters.com I went. Trying to pick a matching green (see that little bit of green on the pink squares?) at night under a yellowish light using my monitor, their website and whatever they used to photograph the fabric was fun. I finally just said, this one and that one too. Thankfully, one of the two greens I finally decided upon is a very good match. Oh, and I couldn't resist just a couple more yards of some of their gorgeous Day of the Dead fabric.
When you: knit, sew, make any sort of craft you just love seeing that UPS truck coming up your drive. It's Christmas!!!
My much waited for and needed skein of linen/cotton came over the weekend. Now I can finish the silk open cardi. I also bought a partial skein of Louets Gems on Ravelry. I needed a couple hundred yards but not a full skein. Thank you Veronica!
Taking a break from frogging back the pink Vine Lace Vest I started another Thorpe for my stepson. Seems that he is sensitive to wool so my first hat is itchy. This is Catalina baby alpaca and ever so soft. I went for the size large but it's too large. I tried it on hubby using the logic that father and son probably had similar sized heads. He'll be here for Christmas and this will make a lovely little present. I will have enough to make him a neck warmer too. Yes, the irony of starting a new project to avoid frogging then needing to frog is not lost on me.
AUBURN FESTIVAL OF LIGHTSLast year the owner of the coffee shop where we meet weekly to knit asked us to be in the local Christmas festival. This involved sitting in the back of her 1969 pickup truck which has, I swear, the original clutch and brakes. Sitting on hay bales, even going at approximately 5 miles an hour, is something of an adventure. We live in the
foothills after all. Life is not flat around here and parades seem to have a lot of stopping and starting.
This year we had a Whole Lot More information gleaned from what we wished we had done last time. We also felt that we were nowhere near enough Sparkly for a parade of lights. I mean, there were large dogs with more wattage.
We did what we could with an inverter (thank you so much Hubby - we could knit you up the most fantastic sweater but hooking up an inverter...no).
Along with self decoration there was a Very Cool ball of yarn. Even the needles had lights inside of them.
Auburn is a small town. How small? People come throughout the day and put their chairs along the parade route. It wouldn't occur to anyone to steal them.
The parade involves a lot of animals. Ribbons, bows, lights, you name it.
And it's cold. I have very pink cheeks, nose, and chin. The various bottles of "warming" beverages I was sipping from had nothing to do with it! This year we were much more prepared. More clothes and we showed up later so we didn't just sit there for two hours and freeze!
All in all it was Great Fun (and still bloody cold).
I finished the body of the Vine Lace Vest only to discover that the two fronts did not match. Off by all of one stitch but it makes a difference. Ribbit! It shouldn't take all that long to redo though.
The Squeakers continue to grow. Yes, Becky, they are girls. We were mislead.
Knitting baskets hold the best stuff. The best stuff to dump out, scatter around and chew up. That's all exhausting work so what can a little girl do but take a nap?
BUSY TIMES AT KNITTING HIGH
Things have been hopping at Chez Earin's. Having a crappy, very old camera didn't help with photographing any of it.
But! I have a new toy. I liked the camera that Valeria bought and decided to take the plunge myself. A Canon Powershot SD780 IS. I still haven't worked out the bells and whistles but heck, just pointing and shooting is giving me nice results.
Kate came to visit and that is always a pleasure. She didn't want to sign any autographs though.
She met the kittens and many photos were taken.
Omar wanted to make sure that Kate still thought he was cute. He's the dog after all.
He gladly posed with the new duvet I stitched up. I've made a couple pair of pants but no photos. : - ( More comfy than stylish.
Kate, hubby, Omar, and I went to an old cemetery in Nevada City and many wonderful symbols were found. I will save them for another post.
Kate has not one but two blogs. If you are interested in hearing about cool cemeteries her blog, Grave Misgivings is the place to go.
Another new toy is this yarn holder (No More Yarn Barf!) that I bought on Etsy. I love it. I estimate that it's saving me 10 to 15 minutes per skein - that is having not to detangle the barf that I always get towards the end of the skein.
I knit a hat to go with the Sammy jacket.
I won a very cool Rowan magazine from
Valerie. She and her husband will be coming to visit in a couple of weeks. YEA!!!!
One of my knit night friends went to a knitting retreat and this yarn called my name to her. Apparently, my color is aqua. I have to admit it. I like aqua.
Speaking of yarn. I really, really, really, am trying to knit out of stash but that darn sales rack at Meadowfarm just sucks me in. Half off yarn.
Superwash, purple = perfect baby items.
Ecco Zitron. German. Superwash. Merino. Enough for a top.
A gift from Kate. Sock yarn, self striping I believe.
After seeing my Mason-Dixon mitered hanging dishtowel she requested one in purple for her Christmas gift. My pleasure.
The pale blue,
aqua actually, is Louet Gems. It will be the contrast color on
Acheron. The variegated purple will be the main color. This is an adorable and somewhat unusual little jacket. I can't wait to try it out.
Wait! There is More! Alas, not yet photographed. I've some yummy semisolid rose pink Fleece Artist silk/wool blend that I've been knitting up a storm with. The pattern you ask?
The Vine Lace Vest.
I'm through the back and left front and burning my way through the right side. It's a soft, springy and all together delightful yarn.
Tomorrow is Auburn's Festival of Lights parade. Auburn Knit Night rides in the back of the coffee shop (where we meet weekly) owner's pickup knitting with glow sticks. Last year we about died from the cold. This year: Many.Layers.
There has been soapmaking! Recipe experimentation. And much more!
CALISTOGA
Every year we head over to Calistoga for a little R and R. Yeah, technically we're retired* but we still like to get out of the house and not be able to either clean the litter boxes or run a few loads of laundry.
*(Hubby actually works for himself - he started a small computer repair business nearly four years ago.)
It's always pretty but this year seemed especially so. The sky was milky which made for so-so photo taking but you can see that the grapevines are looking pretty darn nice.
We ate a lot of good food, had amazingly little wine, visited NO wineries but did cruise around a lot of twisty back roads which made hubby very happy. We spent a fair amount of time floating in hot pools mentally drifting. I did very little knitting or much of anything.
Even near town hubby can find dirt roads. It's a gift.
We did a six mile hike up to and past the Robert Lewis Stevenson cabin site. Vintage California scenery. Oaks, scrub brush, great to fantastic views. Manzanita, sage, madrone.
We're always a little smug that we've done The Palisades hike twice. Not sure we'll ever do it again but I hope so. It's about the most beautiful hike I've ever done in California that wasn't in Big Sur.
(Opal enjoying the undergrowth.)
Omar was taken to Miss Courtney's for a two day overnight. All the felines stayed home with massive amounts of food and water.
Lately we've let Opal and Olive do a small amount of outside exploring.
(Olive on the right. Opal giving me "the eye". Nearly 4 lbs as of Tuesday.)
They seem to still think indoors is much nicer. Now that the weather is cold (frost for the first time this morning) a place on the couch nearest the wood burning stove is just fine thank you very much.
CHANCE OF DRIZZLEI have a hard time with drizzle. It means a gray day mostly spent indoors but no real rain. Now the word,"
mizzle" I adore. It just sounds cool. Shades of Jane Austen without any zombies thank you very much. I like my Jane neat.
Summer is over and most of fall too. As we head into gray days with or without mizzle or even decent rain one needs cheering up.
Some cheerful Day of the Dead fabric. Sounds a bit odd. Dead - Cheerful. Pretty fabric that I am going to use to make a vintage apron. My project for next summer's sew-in. The Enabler has already whipped up some Day of the Dead pincushions. It's our theme for the silent auction.
Another item for Sammy.
Baby Sophisticate, a free pattern on Raverly. An easy, fast knit yielding a rather adorable little shawl collared jacket. Knit on size 5's using Lana Grossa Royal Tweed in an unidentified colorway (also using two other colorways for the buttonband touches). The color in the photo is way off. I still need a decent camera. It's a warm red-brown with small flecks of color. I liked the yarn a lot. A merino with a real twist to it. Great knitting for watching TV.
The Classic silk open cardi moves along. One more sleeve to go, a lot of seaming then the picking up along the front for the ribbed collar. It's going to be close going with perhaps not quite enough yarn. I was too embarrassed to take a photo when I seamed the two sides of the back together. Made a nice tube, a possible dog coat. Both fronts were sitting right there in front of me. Brain fritz-out. Alas, not that uncommon these days.
KITTENS
Yes, we have kittens. They chew, they mangle, they poke things (a lot of them knitting related) down the sides of the couch not to be seen again for a long time. They swing off of curtain pulls, they chew patterns through sheet protectors. They tumble through the house play flighting. They fall asleep - plop! They are adorable and growing like mad. 3.5 lbs last time I checked. Instant Purr Machines.
THE GARDEN
The garden needs *so* much work and I am so *uninspired".
STRETCH NO MOREI've given up trying to do a garment out of the Sundara Aran silky merino. Don't get me wrong, I love the yarn but I've also knit so many test samples that have stretched from here to Timbuktu that I'll use it for something like a shawl or an afghan. In fact, while cruising patterns on Ralvery (one of my most favorite things) I found an afghan pattern that called to me and bought the book used on Amazon.
Gorgeous Knitted Afghans
Imagine a photo of the book here.The Lace and Pearls
Imagine a closeup photo of the pattern here.Like all books this one has things I like and dislike. I'm not big on fringes or huge pearls dangling off of things. I've yet to fall in love with bobbles either. But, those details can always be adjusted to suit ones fancy and taste.
If you haven't noticed, there are few, well, actually, no photos. My dear Fujufilm has broken yet again. It has been mailed off and my old Canon brought out of retirement. I discovered that the rechargeable batteries didn't. Age creeps up on us all and somehow the household was currently experiencing a shortage of batteries. Some very deep scrounging around produced three rather vintage double A's and cannibalizing a small hand held recorder produced another ancient battery. Thankfully, there was just enough charge to take take a few photos of knitting.
The Minnowknits bib overalls.
Done at last. 3/4 done in the newborn size and frogged due to excessive baby growth.
There was a pm comment from The Enabler about how my nails needed some Red Hot Pink. so I did a little Photoshoping. A bit more on the red rather than pink side but why be so picky?
Little dragon buttons. A pain to button up but so very cute.
Size 4's and about 5 skeins knit in the Year One size (let us hope they fit and that he hasn't just grown right past Year One's). Lana Grossa Multicot Print in some sort of colorway that was mostly gray with some purple shades. The purple stained my fingers and made my bamboo needles dark. I switched to metal and they had to be washed now and again otherwise the yarn just wouldn't slide. It was AmaZINGly splitty but despite all of this I rather liked it. I bought it at the annual sidewalk sale at Meadowfarms.
One of the insidious things a LYS can do is have a sale rack. An annual sale is nice but a regular, you just don't know what is going to be there so the rack just
calls to you as you walk in. What knitter can resist finding yarn at half off? I can't. I don't NEED 14 skeins of linen/cotton but it is HALF OFF!!! Discontinued!! SOLD!! Despite my deep desire to knit from stash (it having now overflowed it's original storage area) I still find myself picking up yarn on sale.
Emmy keeps bringing beautiful yarn from her stash to knit night and giving it away. Even better than half off.
Not on sale though I wish.
I suspect that Gail must be in cahoots with The Enabler. She brings various yarns that she has bought to knit night and showing them to me.
This rather terrible photo is of two skeins of Eidos from The Sanguine Gryphon. I'm making Demure from it. My first somewhat lacy shawl. It's intended for my stepson's girlfriend but it might be awfully hard to pry this out of my fingers. I ADORE the yarn. They have the most charming website too. I want more of this and I want it NOW.
I did my annual Celtic Festival in Sebastopol. Lots of photos on the memory card! Inaccessible!!! It was outrageously hot all weekend long. I went over to Petaluma with my gf and we again enjoyed what a wonderful LYS Knitterly is. I bought yarn that *will not stretch* for my continuing efforts to make the Silk Open Cardi. The left front (my fourth? fifth?) did not stretch and I'm almost finished with the back. Success may be just over there near the counter. Wish me luck. It's a linen cotton blend in a pale blue. Linova, Colorway 2474 . Thankfully, it doesn't split very easily and isn't making my hands cramp like the Lana Grossa did. Cotton, so lovely, so difficult on the body to knit with.
Kittens
The kittens continue to thrive and I have no photos to prove it. I would happily show you all the puncture marks all over my body, the chewed off earbud from my Zune, the nibbled ziplock bags, the carpet covered in toys, shredded pieces of paper....well, you get my drift. They are adorable. They are getting Very Big. They are pretty much sure about what happens in the litterbox. We are grateful.
I BLAME THE INFORMATION AGE
I seem to be unable to read a pattern correctly, probably because I tend to skim then just jump in. So, I got to spend a lot of time scratching my head wondering why I kept ending up with too many left over stitches as I did the shoulder shaping on the Classic Silk Cardi. Finally, focus! - it's 28 bound off at the neck and 24 on each side. Not the other way round. Duh!
Then things got even better. I washed and blocked the back and it grew from 25 inches to 36. Now, this is gorgeous Sundara Aran Silky Merino and I loves it but it is driving me bananas.
I suspect that there is a great afghan inside this yarn waiting to come out, NOT a cardi. Sigh. So much knitting, so little to show for it.
I did three left fronts trying to see if I could control the stretching by using a smaller needle. Cascading down...6, 5, 4... Seemed to stretch a little but only by an inch. Why is this happening to me.? I've cruised Ravelry and other folks are blithely tossing off amazing FO's with no apparent problem.
I knew it: It's ME. I am also frogging the baby overalls but that's because by the time I finish them (and the weather is cool enough for anything more than shorts and a t-shirt) the baby will be too BIG. I'll knit the one year size and hope I can get them off my needles before Sammy grows into year two sizes.
The Squeakers
We've taken to calling Oscar and Owen, "The Squeakers" because, that's what they do. We're weaning them right now and they really, really like the bottle so it's not being much fun for all involved. They eat kitten food and various other bits and pieces (tuna juice, fish, chicken fat on dry food) so they're more than ready. That and they've chewed off all the nipple tips so no more bottle feeding. They continue to be adorable as only kittens can. Thankfully, everyone but Otis seems to be taking them in stride. I hope he comes around to accepting them as members of the household. He does have the most amazing growl though.
I am off to the Sebastopl Celtic Festival this coming weekend. I'll get to go over to Petaluma and visit Knitterly again. It's an amazing yarn store. Perhaps I'll find some yarn that cries out to be made into a cardi. I bet I do!
