Cheerful in the Snow

Because I see the signs of spring!
( I know I am stretching it, but a girl can hope, no?)

Hat and fingerless mitts made in Nepal by one of our anonymous underpaid relatives.
Hat-$10, mitts-$10; both lined with fleece.
How do they do that?

Blue Bamboo

First part of PS2 is blue, gray, white. It dawned on me that I don't have hand knit blue socks, and that had to be remedied right away. Don't you think? I knit fingerless gloves with sock yarn and "been there, done that" socks for my son, but for me? Stash diving revealed (OK, Annie and blogless Penelope, stop reading now...) Trekking ProNatura (25% bamboo, 75%wool) in these lovely bluish/grayish/slate colors.

I LOVE Trekking ProNatura. I made a pair from the brownish tones and I have thought about this for the Gentleman's Socks from Nancy Bush's book Vintage Socks. It is meant for a man's foot, so I am knitting it with less stitches. Addi circs US1. I am starting the second sock now, so I can knit them together. Having the pattern in the sock, motivates to keep going. At least 10 rows (of each pattern repeat) at a time.

ETA: It was asked why I love Trekking pronatura. The yarn is 75% wool and 25% bamboo. I like that it is all natural. The bamboo adds a lightness, and softness to the finished product and it is smooth to work with, but not too slippery. It feels great on my feet, less sweaty than yarn mixed with nylon or poly. And, I love the subtlety of the colors. By the way, I just found out there is another bamboo out there: Austermann's"BAMBOOSOFT" (65% Wool, 35% Bamboo. 110 yards, 50 grams. US 7 - 8, 4.75 sts per inch.) Somebody pull me away from the computer...

Modern artist- mother nature

What a difference a 0 can make. last week is was 5ºF (-15ºc) and today, just add 0, 50ºF (10ºc)

The big thaw. The whole city is a melting away. Spring. I can smell it!

Is it spring yet?

Snow is lovely only the first few hours in the park (when you live in a big city).

After a few days- its yuk!

Elegance:

Yuk:

I am ready for SPRING!

But happiness is sitting with your knitting group for a moment of stolen sanity:And your son loving his socks and not wanting to take them off...

And talk about a moment frozen in time!

Very Knitterly week

It was a busy week and I did not get much sleep so I ended up exhausted on Friday afternoon. This was a sign for me to slow down, and I got to bed at 9ish the past 2 nights. We had a snow/sleet/ice storm on Wednesday. So my son and I rushed to the park to use our sled! It was fun, but cold. Lots to do with paperwork at work, and it had to be done at night. Some knitting. Some visiting with my friend Barbara who works at the Point, and a stroll to Purl Soho –fabric and yarn… I was very careful, and I was not going to buy any yarn really, but I just could not resist this little bundle. I was always sure everybody was overestimating Rowan’s kid silk haze, but this was different… Kidsilk Spray , it just grabbed me… On to visit LYS Knitty City to get Lamb's Pride Bulky for my 3D felting project. So if any of you are visitng NYC- WE GOT LYS baby!!

This week I also got rid of a mattress I had for 17 years, it was hard to do, physically (I found myself doing it- you guessed it- late at night) but I did it! With it I also got rid of the ghosts of an X-H, X-BF and a few X-lovers… it was interesting to me to hear at the meditation session I attended last week that when you get rid of an item, or clean the closet, or a drawer, even just one- you create the space for something else to come in… Now I know why all the destashing is going on around blogland… make room for more to come in…
Yesterday my sit n knit group went to see the “Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting” at Museum of Art and Design. It was an interesting show, some very very creative uses of knitting and also some very puzzling projects that found me wondering why. Why go to that length. I think with art in general, that is sometimes the case. Here, clearly there was an issue of scale. From a miniature to a flag knitted by 2 huge cranes (video). The fun part was of course a sit n knit session afterwards… and today (Sunday) is project knitway- 3D. My first felting ever. It was very odd to knit with size 13us. I used the Wine Cozy pattern from Dropped a stitch. I did not knit it all the way to 10-12", just to get the feel for it. I did the felting in the machine, and it took a good few times. I think 2 more times would have been better, but I had to go to meet the group, and wnated to have plenty of time to knit on the bus. The new motto- "Slow it down..." Lots of firsts for me. I feel I am ready to try the clogs.
Oh, and I forgot to mention- I went pro in flicker . I had to; needed to get the pix organized!

My first felting

For Project Knitaway - 3D

ECF- Snow in the City

Or was is Ice?

Multitasking Sunday

Just moved the laundry to the dryer. Put the kettle on. Checks are printing for the work account. Downloading statements from the bank. Uploading to Flicker. Stew is slow cooking. Gathering bits of yarn from all over the house on my way to the kitchen. Oh, here is that skein of Austerman Step I was looking for. Why did I come into the kitchen? Back to the bedroom to try to remember. Ah! Yes, I need the scissors to show my son (4.5) how to cut a paper heart for valentine's day. “No mom, let me show you!” They already did it in pre-K! Water boiling. Make some green tea. Aahhhhh! Checks done printing. Son helps with stuffing them in proper envelopes and stamps them. I hope we did not mix the checks… Going over the statements that downloaded as I talk to my dad (“aha. Sure. Really? Oh…”) “let me talk to grandpa!” Add some mushrooms to the stew (they cook the fastest, add them last). Turn on the rice- cooker (best kitchen appliance after the cuisinart!). Back to my cuppa’. Tea is cold. Where was I?
All this and still have time to ride our bikes with my son- priceless!
Next: his naptime. 1-2 hours. What should I do? Nap too? (I NEED it). Knit? (I have 3 WIP). And yes. you are seeing a lot of blue. I am part of Project Spectrum 2. First colors: Blue, Grey, White. Oh, that purple on the edge of the bird nest shawl? Did I forget to mention I also got 10 skeins of Virtue in Prudence, at the same sale? And that is a good thing, because a quick calculation of yardage made it clear I will not have enough for the BNS (Bird Nest Shawl) with just Faith.




Blog? Blog surf? Return my cousin’s phone call from Tuesday?

Some blog housekeeping:
By popular demand here is the "easy as pie but great bang for the effort" Elizabethan neck hug:
Yarn: I used Esperanza yarn, from Schaefer Yarn, 70% lambswool, 30% alpaca, in the Memorable Women collection (Any Worsted/ bulky/ chunky yarn)
Needles: US 10, 10.5
My finished dimensions: 5.5” wide X 14” long, But: You should measure your piece around your neck to personalize!
CO 20 stitches
[Note: I P the last stitch of every row and slip, K wise, the first st of every row, but you can do any edge st you like]
Rows 1-4 seed st.
Rows 5-8 stockinet st.
Rows 9-12 reverse stockinet
Repeat rows 5-12 until your hug almost overlaps with the seed st band. End on row 8 or 12.
Next row: seed st
Next row- button band: k3, YO,K2tg,K5,YO,K2tg,K5,YO,K2tg,K4 (or you could match it in seed st.Next 2 rows: seed st
Bind off.
Go to your button stash and look for the “just right” buttons. I ended up using just two buttons, cause I like the folded over look.

The cashmere was indeed THE bargain of 2006 private sale by Jodi from Collectors Crafts they have a website with very little content, so contact her.

Alpaca- Dave asked: “Do we see the beginnings of a herd?” coming soon: Confession of an alpaca herder [or is it hoarder?!? (and we DON'T want to get into the definition of that!)]) or “honey, you ain’t seen nothing yet…

ECF- Fire and Ice

ABC- all about me...

Ingrid has tagged me- and the challenge is to use all the letters of the alphabet to describe yourself. (except x, y and z ). I did not tag anybody, but feel free to jump in.
Ahhmm- here we go:
A-Assertive
B -Busy, all the time. Too busy.
C -chilled. I am always cold. Need to knit more…
D- doubter.
E -Eccentric.
F-Furious at many world events. Can’t stand to watch the news. I’ll skim a bit on the internet.
G- global. I have lived in 4 continents and visited a fifth.
H- Homebody
I- Impatient
J- Jealous. Jealous of people who seem to have leisure time all the time.
K- Knitting addict
L- Loyal
M- Motherhood. Changed my life.
N- nurturing.
O - Organized.
P- Procrastinator. Ya’p.
Q- Quick thinker. Ya’p. They are not contradictions.
R- Reader. I wish I could do both at once. I tried reading while knitting mindless stuff. Nah! And books on tape are cool, but not the same as reading.
S- Sleep deprived. I should go to bed right now, instead of writing this…
T- Tough
U- up-front. Too much for some people’s taste…
V- Vulnerable. Can live side by side with tough without a problem. Ya’p.
W- Worrier. I worry too much.
X, Y, Z are exempt.
Phew. That was tough.

What is Virtue?

I have 10 of these. I got them at an insane sale (Dec 2006)- all 10 were $5! you read it right. Says they are cashmere- I was a bit suspicious, but it is real. Artful Yarn's Virtue in the color Faith.

They came up to me yesterday and asked if they could become the Bird Nest shawl from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle, and I said, sure, why not?......
The names of the yarn could not be more befitting! I am going to feel very Virtuous when I finish this, but I'll need a lot of faith!

Now what?

So I finished my first lace scarf ever! The most simple lace imaginable! I started it in September 2006 but did not get hooked on it . This is a multi-tasker (ala Dave). It is for PS2 (blue/grey) and it is lace. (I resolved to finish 3 lace "things" this year). This is only 45" of scarf. I did not finish the skein. To be honest, it is a bit boring, but I do like the yarn. The yarn is handmaiden' seasilk, (no, it did not smell of seaweed when I blocked it) and the pattern is: Storm Water Scarf .
What is next? So many ideas, can't make a decent decision! I need to get some yarn from knitpicks. belive it or not, with all my stash I don't have enough of one yarn for this cardi I want to knit from an old Rowan magazine (Kim Hargreaves' Pin Stripe ). Wool of the Andes, which I used and like very much, or Merino Style . We are talking about the blues. I found 10 skeins in the stash of a great yarn called: Madil Loden, in dark blue. I found a place in Denmark (I think) that still has the yarn- but NO BLUE! Moving on!
So what's a girl to do? Cast on for some kid socks with leftover blue/grey sock yarn of course!