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Tempus Fugit and all that

Brenda — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:54:38 +0000

Holy Space-Time Continuum, Batman! Where do all the days and weeks go? I didn’t plan to be gone so long, but I have been busy. Just what have M and I been doing? Well, we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary with a day in Napa Valley. We took the “Wines and Vines” tour at Artesa Winery, which took us out into a vineyard of Pinot Noir vines (drinking wine all the while):

We hiked in Bothe-Napa Valley State Park:

We had chocolate lava cake for dessert at dinner at Greystone Restaurant, which is the restaurant run by the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena. They decorated the plate to honor the day (the dessert was very tatsy):

M bought me two skeins of sock yarn at a little yarn shop called Muse in St. Helena. On top is a lovely cantaloupe-colored skein of merino/bamboo from Sincere Sheep, a local dyer who I met in the shop. She uses all natural dyes. The bottom skein is Madeline Tosh Sock in Tart. It was a red I had to have.

Later in May, we celebrated M’s birthday when his parents and grandmother came out to visit. We are drinking Kir Royales to put us in a celebratory mood:

I’ve done some cabling on my Dryad scarf:

And I’ve been swatching for different pairs of socks. Good thing I have lots of sets of dpns, no?

Now, if I could just get some FOs blocked and photographed. Hope you are all doing well!

Catching up in photos

Brenda — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:41:43 +0000

April has been much more busy than I would like, and busy with picky, piddly stuff that drives even saints, which I am not, crazy. But progress and lovelies have been made and acquired despite April’s cruelty.

I cast off my purple and black Frost Diamonds shawl, but I’ve not been able to block it yet. To counter the void finishing this project left, I reached for some lovely crimson Malabrigo and knit up a quick Tamarind Cowl (Rav link) by Kristen Hanley Cardozo. I knit only two of the three repeats, but it is plenty long and cozy.

While knitting it I could look at the orchids M has gotten to rebloom:

I don’t know how he is so good at getting them to rebloom, but he certainly has a green thumb. I only hope selling his soul to the devil was not involved.
I also bought a bouquet of flowers at the Farmer’s Market in Sacramento, and two of the lilies turned out to be stark white and about 8 inches across in size. Their scent filled the entire living room.

I took this Peaks Island Hood I knit in Berroco Blackstone Tweed

And turned it into this:

It was too loose in the PIH and therefore was not warm at all. I had finished it before Christmas to take to Wisconsin over the holidays, but when it didn’t keep my head warm during an evening walk here in CA at 10+ degrees above freezing, I decided it had to go. I’ve (just) started Dryad by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed, which he knit in Blackstone Tweed. I am excited by cably, tweedy goodness.

Finally, we spent part of this past Sunday (the only non-raining Sunday we’ve had in April) at Folsom Lake, where the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains were visible in the distance. Yay! for lots of snow on the mountains. That helps alleviate our drought.

I hope your April so far has been peaceful and full of beauty.

One April Sock and a Nice Surprise

Brenda — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:18:18 +0000

I’m already thinking about the socks I need to knit for Christmas gifts. I like to get them done early. Word back from last year’s gifts was that Berroco Sox proved unshrinkable in M’s grandmother’s laundry. I decided to order more, so I went shopping at The Loopy Ewe. I vaguely knew that they had a Loopy Groupie group, but I had no idea what that entailed. Apparently, with my new order, I now met the criteria. What a nice surprise on a Monday!

The Romney Ridge Farm thing you can see sticking up out to the red tissue paper is a sheep pin-up calendar. The April sheep is Pixie an Olde Babydoll Southdown-Columbia cross. She’s a cutie. I also received two sock patterns, candy, a stitch marker, the tote bag, and a gorgeous skein of sock yarn:

Fiber Optic Yarns, Foot Notes in Spice Batik

All this loot caused a conversation along these lines:
Me: Look at all I got!
M: Wow! You must have had to buy A LOT of yarn.
Me: Not so much! Just 2/3 of a dresser full. Over time.
M: *rolls his eyes* The Loopy Ewe people are good, smart business people. I wonder if they also own stock in IKEA or Rubbermaid storage bins…
Me: I made this order to purchase yarn to knit socks for YOUR MOTHER and GRANDMOTHER for Christmas.
M: Then why are there 5 skeins of yarn?
Me: To get free shipping!
M: *laughing* Very smart business people.

Now I just have to decide which yarn to go with which relative:

And what I want to knit for myself with these:

Madeline Tosh Sock in Jade and Fiber Optic Yarns, Foot Notes in Afternoon in Paris.

But first I have to finish my April pair of socks; I have one done:

The Hunt for Strawberry Red

Brenda — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:49:32 +0000

I’ve wanted to knit the Child’s French Sock from Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush for forever. I tried knitting them in Amethyst from Cherry Tree Hill. Wrong color. I nearly cast on in Malabrigo Impressionist Skies (medium blue) and Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Pine (med-dark green), but I realized that they were the wrong colors too. I wanted Strawberry Red, and I couldn’t find it. I found scarlet, vermillion, crimson, barn red, apple red, Christmas red, rosy-red, orange-red, you name it. But not stawberry red: a true but soft red.

Then a few weeks ago, M called me at work from the chair lift he was riding while taking the day off to ski. He was having a wonderful time. The weather and skiing were glorious! I went shopping at Sundara Yarn. And there it was: Confessions! Confessions! a.k.a. strawberry red. I bought it (and perhaps some other colors too) and waited for it to arrive. It looked good. And then I waited for the strawberries to come in to compare.

How do you think I did?

Socks 2010: March is a done deal

Brenda — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:51:12 +0000

Well, M is back safe and sound, but while he was gone last week, I did get quite a bit done. Most importantly my March socks are completed.

To review, these are Roger Socks from Knitspot (Rav link) knit in some 100% BFL wool dyed by Little Dog Designs (which only lists merino sock yarn now). She called the colorway Poseidon. The BFL doesn’t have the sproing and bounce of merino, but I really like the feel of it and how it knits up. In The Knitter’s Book of Wool, Clara Parkes points out the BFL takes dye beautifully, and I agree, plus there is a definite luster.

As for the pattern, like all Knitspot patterns, it is very well written. Anne designed the Roger Sock for a guy named Roger, and it is a good pattern for a male sock. However, in the brighter colors here, I think it makes a nice tailored sock for a woman too. The only mods I made was to have 3 garter stitch edges to the heel flap and to knit the foot at 60 not 64 st. I knit 4.5 repeats for the foot, and when I knit this again, I should only knit 4 repeats and a couple rounds plain. I grafted the toes at 24 stitches, and the socks are a wee bit long over the little toes. The stitch pattern was easy but not boring, similar to Cookie A’s Monkey sock in complexity and ease of memorization.

One evening, I went out to take some sunset photos at the field next to our building. I had that feeling I was being watched, and sure enough I was:

I spy a neighborhood kitty! And in the cropped image below, readers of mine familiar with dairy farms, will understand why I refer to him/her as Holstein Kitty.

Holstein Kitty doesn’t let me get close, but it does meow at me, and I’ll meow back. After we got bored staring at each other, Holstein Kitty went out into the field, no doubt to hunt field mice, and I took some photos of the sunset. The colors weren’t spectacular, but the multiple layers of clouds were pretty cool.

18 mm, f22, ISO 200, 1/13 sec

What to do when alone and a little bit lonely…

Brenda — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:34:50 +0000

At 4:20 a.m. this morning, M boarded the airport shuttle and flew to Keystone, Colorado for a conference. I’ll pick him up Friday around 5:00 p.m. This gives me quite a bit more free time than I am used to. Plus, Friday is a university holiday, Cesar Chavez Day, so I can stay home without taking any vacation time. I’ve been thinking what I would like to do during that free time, and this is what I’ve come up with.

Finish my March pair of socks, Roger, by Anne Hanson of Knitspot.

I noticed that the Yarn Harlot has already finished an entire pair of Roger socks for her March socks. I’m just going to assume that I got more biochemistry experiments done than she has done so far this month.

I would also like to get my Frost Diamonds shawl done, which currently photographs like a big lump. I still have 56 g left in my first skein! I’m half way through a third repeat of the main chart. It takes me nearly an hour to do two rows. I’ve got about 10 hours before the bind off.

Now that M is not in his office for a few days, I’d like to get my shawlette, fleck stitch version of the Frost Diamonds shawl blocked on its vast floorspace. I may have forgotten that I knit this for a few ~~months~~ weeks.

Finally, I want to get this sweater I bought, which fits me nearly perfectly, measured so I can use Ann Budd’s The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns to design and knit a different version with a simple stitch pattern from Annie Maloney with this Venezia worsted I received as a Christmas present a couple years ago. The sweater has 3/4 sleeves and set-in sleeves and classic ribbing as edges. Very basic and wearable.

All this should keep me busy!

Week in Photos

Brenda — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:20:11 +0000

The past week has had its share of highs and lows. The big low is that I have been somewhat sick with something. It’s a respiratory-digestive crud. Dr. M prescribed a Benton Park Swizzle for what ailed me. It’s much like a mojito except it has a float of Fernet Branca. Fernet Branca is a Italian digestivo amaro or digestive bitter. I didn’t think it was that bitter straight; it did have a eucalyptus taste. I don’t think it made me better but rather made me care less that I was sick. It is a pretty drink:

Due to aforementioned crud, I only got my March sock barely started. It’s the second Roger sock. I love BFL wool for sock yarn.

M found morel mushrooms growing in our oregano. After an internet study, he claims these are real morels and not poisonous. If you never here from me again, you will know he was wrong, or he has “done me in.”

I bought two lovely bunches of dutch iris at the Sacramento Farmer’s Market Sunday morning. And my gerbera daisy is in bloom.

And the best thing this past week was that I won a skein of Wollmeise from The Loopy Ewe! I’m thinking a shawl, as the yarn is quite fine, although it looks pretty durable so socks are an option if I’m in the mood for tiny needles. The color is Rhabarber, which is German for rhubarb. Very aptly named in my opinion. I’m delighted to have won!

I hope this coming week is less crud and more knitting.
Have a great week!

Socks 2010: February: Check!

Brenda — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:40:10 +0000

My February Socks are done! Retro Rib Socks by Evelyn A. Clark from Favorite Socks. They turned out fine. Just fine.

I kind of hated knitting these. The stitch pattern is attractive if understated. It’s not mindless enough not to pay attention to it but not interesting/fun to knit. Tedious. But attractive.

And the yarn, Knit Picks Essential Tweed in Blue Ox, is fine, but the tweedy bits are like lint more than part of the yarn. How’s that going to wear?

So good riddance to February and on to March! I can’t decide which of my two single socks to finish. It’ll be a surprise. But in the meantime, I’ve decided to try some arch-shaping on a striped sock I started a while back:

I’ll do the foot in stockinette, and it should all work out. I think the stripes might be fun with the shaping.

And I’m to the heel flap of the first Rib and Cable Sock, although you can’t tell that from the photo. Turn your back on a posed sock for a second, and it will just flop right over! But I still love how this is turning out.

I’m planning a pair of Calvin and Ripple socks, which are two different yet complimentary socks using Cat Bordhi’s Riverbed sock architecture. They were designed by Cristi, and they are named after her two orange tabbies Calvin and Ripple, and they look good in multi-colored yarn. I may knit two Ripple socks, which are top down. We’ll see. Right now I’m trying to pick a yarn. I have it narrowed down:

Left to right: LL Shepherd Sock in South Shore, CTH Supersock in Spring Frost, STR Lightweight in Waterlilies, LL SS in Puple Iris, CTH SS in Potluck Purples and Huckleberry Knits Willow in Winesap.

This could take a while!

Progress Report: Frost Diamonds and Seussian Vine Scarf

Brenda — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:18:00 +0000

My Frost Diamonds shawl in BMFA BFL Sport in the Corvid colorway has two repeats of Chart B done, so I am supposed to do the 8 rows of edging now. This is 1/4 of the shawl, which is shaped like a pentagon with one triangular fifth removed.

It’s too small I think (20 inches stretched dry along the increase lines), so I am going to do another repeat of B. I have enough yarn. Remember the giant ball of yarn? It’s now down to the size of a 400+ yd skein of sock yarn; I’ve used about 60% of it. I have a second skein too.

Now that I finally understand how chart B creates the diamonds, I am doing pretty well on this. I did put in a lifeline after having to rip back twice screwing up the transition into chart B. Super glide dental floss is a BAD, BAD choice for a lifeline. It’s all slippery and curly; I don’t like it for dental floss either. Stitch markers to mark the middle stitch of each repeat keep everything straight.

I think this pattern is looking great in the Corvid, and I LOVE THIS YARN!

I have a new dark green rain coat, which goes well with some Mini Mochi I bought. Bowerbird Knits had a lovely scarf knit in some Zauberball Yarn, and I liked the look. I also knew the stitch pattern, and I even had it marked with a post-it in Barbara Walker #1, so I made a chart for the lace and cast on. The lace pattern combined with the colors reminds me of Dr. Seuss, so I’m calling it my Seussian Vine Scarf:

I have a 2-stitch garter edge on each side which is folding under, and I am hoping I will be able to block it that way and keep the side undulations. We’ll see.

Goodness, it nearly the cocktail hour! I must dash. Last night M and I had a Delmonico’s No. 1. I really like it; M is more ambivalent. He’s not much of a gin drinker, but I try not to hold that against him.

Kitty No. 34 and some Stripey Socks

Brenda — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:03:27 +0000

Hello! It’s me again–Kitty No. 34! You must be delighted to see me again! I’ve been spending the inclement weather of winter indoors, snug and warm. But now it’s Spring! Flowers and trees in bloom, Brenda is sneezing, but most importantly the weather is warm, and the pavement is dry. So I am out and about in the perfect weather. Or is the weather perfect because I am out and about? That must be it; that makes much more sense. I journeyed over from No. 34 to No. 30 to dig in the new mulch of Brenda’s and M’s garden and to let Brenda scratch around my chin and behind my ears. I behaved very graciously by purring a lot and shedding all over Brenda. Aren’t I just a perfect kitty! Yes, of course I am. Well, I think Brenda wants to talk to you about her sock knitting. What sorts of creatures need socks? Not perfect ones, that is for certain.

Even though I have spent time entertaining Kitty No. 34 on our patio, and getting coated in tabby fur in the process, I have made excellent progress on my February sock, the second Retro Rib:

The navy blue yarn makes it hard going in the evening to knit, so I decided, I was far enough along to risk starting a sock in lighter colors for late evening knitting when I don’t want hundreds of watts of light messing with my circadian clock.

For sentimental reasons I decided to knit a new pair of Rib and Cable Socks by Nancy Bush (IK, Fall 2005). In my very first blog post, I wrote about the first pair of these socks I had knit. However, they have succumbed to 3.5 years of wear.

I’ve decided I should always have a pair of these socks, because they were the first socks I knit that were more than just a simple rib, and the Welsh heel and star toe were fun. I’m using some Panda yarn from Seacoast Handpainted Yarn in the Truffle colorway, which I bought eons ago. And it’s knitting up stripey!

Well, it’s still daylight now, so I should work on my Retro Ribs or my Frosted Diamonds shawl, which is black. Much easier to see when I’ve repeated a double decrease instead of a single in the daylight. Don’t ask me how I know that.