Molecular Knitting

As usual, M and I spent two weeks over the holidays in the Midwest visiting family. It was fun but exhausting. I have to show you my parents’ Christmas tree. I took this photo with the camera on the floor looking up. The tree was over 15 feet tall.

I had some nice presents under that tree on Christmas morning including enough of this lovely Quince and Co. Osprey yarn in Cypress to knit Leaflet by Cecily Glowik MacDonald from Knitty First Fall 2011. I love the dark blue-green of the yarn, and I may start this vest soon.

You may remember my disappointment with the Rose Quartz colorway in the STR lightweight, a.k.a. the lunchmeat-colored yarn. Well, Kristy of Eleven Stitches, who has a delightful blog, mentioned that she had recently purchased some STR in PeePee Weepkins, and she thought it was a lovely pink. M decided I should have it, and he also bought me a skein of Jabberwocky, which due to my keeping a list of STR colors I like on my Evernote, he knew I would also like. PeePee Weepkins, is NOT a lunchmeat pink, and I am looking forward to knitting with it.

Even though, I had NO TIME to knit even ONE stitch over the holidays, I have since picked up my string and sticks and have made some progress on the Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood, which I am knitting in Quince and Co. Lark in Lupine. I didn’t think I would have enough yarn, even though I have 100 yd more than the pattern called for, and I have gauge, but I needn’t have worried; I have enough.

And if that doesn’t keep me busy enough, I signed up to learn how to code in Java during Code Year at Codeacademy. It’s free, and I should be able to code in Java by the end of the year. We’ll see how it goes. I like the mental challenge, and with a PhD in biochemistry, I think I should be able to learn how to do this. The logic is different, but the coding is logical. I did go out and buy a book about Java, but I don’t know how important that will be (it wasn’t suggested by the course).

If I start writing blog posts with lots of semi-colons and curly brackets, you’ll know the coding drove me off the deep end!

I hope your New Year is off to a great start!

Our Christmas tree, 2011
M and I leave this Monday morning for the Midwest to celebrate Christmas with our families. The airport shuttle picks us up at 4:30 in the morning. If the coffee places are not open at the airport by 5 o’clock, I will not be held responsible for my actions.

Anyway, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 2012 is going to be a very big year for M and me. We are talking new jobs/careers and a new place to live. At this point we have no idea where we will end up! I suppose we should find that scary, but frankly we don’t very much (at least not yet). We are ripe for change. I hope to keep on knitting and drinking cocktails and sharing them with all of you, perhaps with even more regularity.

When I was little, and we had sunsets like this, my dad said the colors were a sign that Mrs. Claus was baking Christmas cookies up at the North Pole. If this sunset is any indication, the cookies should be good this year!

M and I hope your holidays are filled with good cheer!

Kir Royale 38

Notre Dame de Grace in Cascade Ecological wool is in the final finishing stretch: seaming. That’s the completed collar and the first sleeve “pinned” to the body.

Usually I finish one garment before starting another, but I had the desire to knit and not seam after work in the evenings, so the back of the Sebasco vest is completed in Wool of the Andes in claret. That’s daisy stitch (BW #1, p 153) along the bottom edge.

And I’m slowly working my way through Jared Flood’s Guernsey Wrap, which is knit and purl ’til you drop. How I like things!

The yarn is Quince and Co. Lark in Lupine. I love this yarn, the colors are fabulous, and the price is very good. I like it so much, I asked my parent’s for some for a sweater for Christmas last year.

12 skeins of Lark in Rosa Rusgosa! I think this will become a Crane Creek cardigan just as soon as Sebasco is done. That pattern has texture too with a diamond brocade pattern and double moss stitch collar and bands.
Texture everywhere!

I have not been able to do much sock knitting since I slept on my elbow wrong in late June. Using barbecue tongs and knitting tightly on sock needles makes it ache. It’s odd but slowly mending. But doing just a few rounds at a time has allowed me to finish my Rose Quartz Calcareous socks.

I really like the Socks that Rock lightweight for good cable pop!

Although, I have to say this Rose Quartz colorway is not my favorite, and I do like pink. Here though it has too much lavender in it, and it looks more like luncheon meat than rose quartz.

You can also see that the gusset decreases are on top of the foot. The pattern is Calcareous by Hunter Hammersen of Violently Domestic. It’s a well-written pattern and the top-of-the-foot decreases fit the feet very well.

Hunter does interesting things with sock construction while maintaining top-down knitting, which is what I prefer. This cable pattern is rather ingenious in that it looks complicated, but most of the rounds are in fact just ribbing.

With those done, I went to knit the second sock of what I call my Corn on the Cob socks. It’s getting there.

I may have purchased that black/white/yellow boxy bag just for this pair of socks. I got it from ZigZag Stitches. This is my third bag from her, and they are really well constructed. I love the contrasting lining.

Once I get this sock done, I plan to use this beautiful purple sock yarn.

It has cashmere in it!

Happy knitting!

While we were in Wisconsin, Labor Day happened. Mom decided on bratwurst and sweet corn for dinner. So after a trip to a local vendor for picked-that-morning sweet corn, she left it for Dad to shuck. He told me I’d want to watch, as Katrina, their tabby cat, would be very involved. A bit perplexed, I brought my camera with me.

Dad looks pretty normal, but you can see he has his eye on the furry blob, a.k.a Katrina, at the bottom of the photo.

What are you doing with that camera thingy? There is nothing to see here! Move along!

Come out my precious sweet corn!

Yes! All mine! It’s so green and grassy!

Why are you showing me that silly, yellow, inner part? That part is useless! You humans are so stupid!

Mmmmm! Better than catnip!

She’s a nutty kitty!
Also while we were there, my dad celebrated his birthday. He loves Mars bars with almonds, which are very difficult to find. But thanks to the interwebs, my mom found some and bought him a whole box (it must have weighed a couple of pounds). Dad was happy!

And the day M and I left, our flight wasn’t until late afternoon, so we took my brother out to lunch at the Caramel Crisp Shop in my hometown, Oshkosh. I really liked the Halloween/autumn candy display over the deli case of healthy salads.

And here are M and my brother, Thomas, before a tasty lunch.

You’ll notice that although I have a healthy salad and some soup, they have a Chicago style hot dog and a pork barbecue sandwich and malt. O.K. the molasses cookie was mine.

You may remember that in July I wrote about the death of my paternal grandmother, Grandma Adeline. You may also remember that in January I posted about my maternal grandmother, Grandma Frances, turning 100 years old on 1/11/11. Well, on August 30th I got a phone call from my mom, saying that Grandma Frances was in a very bad way and there was nothing to be done. She died the next day. The last thing she did before dying, after getting dressed and having breakfast in the dining room because pulmonary edema and failing kidneys were no excuse to change one’s routine, was to laugh. We have to score that a good death. I know she was at peace before she died, and I know that I miss her.

Since she was an avid knitter to the age of 95-96, I wanted to wear something I had knit to her funeral. Recently I had finished the Cleite Shawl by Miriam Felton in some lovely Handmaiden Sea Silk in Blackberry, so I wore that with a fine-gauge cotton sweater in navy. Several people noticed the shawl at the funeral and told me they were pleased to see Grandma Frances’ love of needlework passed down. Everyone was confused about the yarn having seaweed in it. I obviously didn’t take photos that day, but last week, M took these in the field outside our place.





My pattern notes can be found on my Ravelry project page.

It’s almost September! How did that happen? I may need a sweater in a couple of months. Good thing I have one on in progress!

This is the body and partially-unattached collar to Notre Dame de Grace by Veronik Avery from the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits. I’m knitting it in Cascade Ecological Wool, which is very wooly, and so I lurves it with a deep and abiding passion. Comments on Ravelry suggested that the sleeves were written very long, so I have seamed the shoulders and tried it on before attempting the sleeves. And since I need to make the sleeves 3 inches shorter than written, this was a good plan. Good thing I can do maths! (I like how the Brits and Canadians say maths instead of math–makes it sound so much harder.)

I also swatched for Amy Herzog’s lovely vest, Sebasco.

Amy designs such attractive sweaters that there are many I would like to knit, but at this time, a vest, especially one that opens like a cardigan, is what I need, so Sebasco it is. The textured stitch is the daisy stitch from Barbara Walker, and it is fun to do and really a great look. The yarn is Wool of the Andes in claret heather: good thing I had this in stash. Amy knit hers in Ultra Alpaca for great drape, but my eyes and nose don’t let me do the alpaca thing. I really think my eyeballs will burst out of my head in a gush of tears if I ever handle baby alpaca again. Alpaca is not a good thing at chez Molecular Knitting.

However, a tasty cocktail is always a good thing (except perhaps for breakfast). This is a Royal Gingersnap.

It’s royal because it calls for Crown Royal Canadian whiskey, and it’s gingersnap because it also contains Domaine Canton ginger liqueur. It has other things in it, especially something that makes it orange, probably OJ, but I don’t remember what they are exactly. I just pick out the cocktails and then drink them. M does all the technical stuff, including occasional maths with fractions.

And finally, what could more of a good thing than masses of flowers at the Sacramento Farmers’ Market?


The man who sells these is always beaming; growing acres of flowers must be good for the soul.

Thanks, BTW, for all the reading advice from my last post. I’ve been trying some things out in the graphic novels and space operas, and I’ll give an update soon.

Over the years on the interwebs I’ve seen several of these book stacks, and they’ve always tickled me. I finally couldn’t resist making my own, as I have a bookish request to make.

As I like to explore the world of reading, I would like to try a couple of things that I have no experience in.

First, I would like to read a graphic novel–one written as a graphic novel, not a classic novel made into a graphic novel. As for sub-genre, perhaps fantasy or urban fantasy? Any readers of graphic novels, suggest away!

Second, I would like to read a “space opera.” But which to choose? Looking at online reviews of perfect strangers is next to useless, as opinions for any given book tend to be polar opposites: “the best/worst space opera ever written!” “the shallowest/most in-depth characters ever!” “most imaginative/boring world-building in fiction!”
Your suggestions please!

On the knitting front, I am planning on knitting the Tsunami Sock from Knitted Socks East and West by Judy Sumner. The pair in the book are knit in a perfect stormy grey. But a grey tsunami is not for me. The question is do I want an orange tsunami or a teal tsunami? Such a difficult decision!

I perhaps enjoy making book stacks a little too much:

Slowly, our summer improves. Since summer easily extends through September, there is still plenty of time to enjoy weekend afternoons and many evenings on the patio. Last Sunday, we finished off a batch of Limoncello Fizzy Sangria that we had made for a lab member’s moving away party. It was a big success at the party and very refreshing. It also looks good photographed with the sun shining through it:

We got the recipe from 101 Sangrias and Pitcher Drinks by Kim Haasarud. The publisher is Wiley, who I thought published mostly textbooks. Hmmm….

I also finished knitting a crazy sock:

The pattern is Chouwa from Knitted Socks East and West by Judy Sumner. Chouwa means harmony, and this sock obviously bypasses that concept, but since I have so few wild socks, I say it’s a keeper. The best part of knitting this sock was that I figured out how to knit stockinette in the round while reading. Using my iPad, and making the text large, I was able to read and knit simultaneously! This made the stockinette portion fly by, and I didn’t have to decide whether I wanted to read or knit.

Now, I can knit many of my more vividly colored variegated sock yarns into simple stockinette socks without becoming bored to tears. That is a victory in my book. I even started a new sock in that very vein:

That yarn is Seacoast Panda (merino/bamboo) in Cinco de Mayo. And it’s stripey!

Kitty #34 would like me to say that reading and knitting is nothing compared to her victory. She made it up onto M’s lap!

Usually as she walks around she keeps up a constant meowing commentary, but one morning she was quiet, and she took M by surprise (I’m told she was in “super secret kitty, silent, stealth, invisibility mode”–something beyond human comprehension). He let her stay up there, blissed out, for several minutes; he even pet her a bit, being careful not to rub his eyes before washing his hands. Lucky for Kitty #34, he isn’t super allergic to her. She purred, which she informs me was real love-purring, whereas when she sits on my lap, she pity purrs. Hmmm… Pity Purring…like one of my babysitters when I was little would say when she thought we were fibbing about something, “My Great Aunt Fanny.”

This has not been the easiest summer. Just when I thought things might ease up a bit at work, I needed to rapidly get some data done to help a labmate get a paper ready for publication. And just as I was getting started with that, I found out my younger grandmother (only 96), Grandma Adeline, was in the hospital with pneumonia and kidney failure. She only survived a day in the hospital, where all they could do was make her comfortable. So, we hurried back to the Midwest for her funeral.  She had planned her funeral, and a deacon of her church, who was a close friend, led the service with great love and sincerity. She was very smart, was a wonderful story teller, and had a great sense of humor, so she will be missed.

Then it was back to California to all those experiments to do and all the housework and laundry to catch up on. When I am under stress, I have trouble focusing. And since I am normally able to focus bizarrely well, a lack of focus is all the more upsetting. I must have at least 6 books started. I have so many socks started, that I can’t knit any second socks until I finish another first. Even though I have a third of a sweater done, I’ve swatched for several other garments and large projects. I have two FOs to weave in ends and block. It’s all a little too much right now.

I finally downloaded a whole raft of pictures from the small point-and-shoot camera I carry in my purse, and I’ve chosen some of my favorite images that cheer and calm:
A neighbor’s tree in bloom

Kitty #34 looking disgruntled; she’s probably wondering where M, her true love, is.

Kitty #34 wondering why M, her true love, won’t let her up into his lap (he’s allergic).

A neighborhood view during an evening walk (I love the light).

Another view of our neighborhood.

Roses at the university arboretum.

M making cocktails.