picture color- day 25 {heavy metal}

picture color- day 19 {color of calm}

chacha yarn

Eva picked out some funky yarn at the yarn shop a few weeks ago. (Trendsetter yarn Chacha in color 29, purple.) They had a scarf made out of it on display and Eva loved it and thought it would make an amazing purse (and then a smaller scarf with what was left over...).

I wound up the yarn on a toilet paper roll the other night and read through the instructions on exactly how to knit with this yarn because you don't knit with the actual ribbon but instead knit through holes above the ribbon. This proved to be trickier than I had thought it would be and I ripped out what I had and set it aside. I waited until I had some quiet time to myself this evening to check out the yarn again and found this youtube video to help.



Sample of Chacha. It's a little under 1 inch wide and knits up in ruffles!

knit knots

I'm writing this out on the patio, squinting to better see the computer screen, so that I can be-out-in and enjoy the lovely sunshine we are currently having...

I have been doing quite a bit of knitting- some satisfying, some knot-so-satisfying. I knit the Movie Star Scarf from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson for my sister {and forgot to get a photo. oh well.} (Finally, after over four months on the waiting list at the library!) I loved the first Last Minute Knitted Gifts and am finding the second one to be a lot of fun as well. (I'm trying to decide if I am going to buy this one {now} or knot.) Knitting the little loop to tuck the scarf into was thrilling- I love learning that sort of new (to me) knitting construction. It makes me want to make several more just for the thrill of that loop. (As an aside, I had made my sister a pair of fingerless gloves several years ago and she recently gave them back to me because they had stretched out quite a bit. Turns out the yarn I used had something in it silk? cotton? not sure...that gave a bit too much to be good for fingerless gloves. I ripped them out and re-used said yarn for this scarf. I blocked the scarf *severely* and you absolutely could not tell the yarn had been re-used. I'm hoping the yarn holds up better as a scarf than it did as gloves.)

I'm also currently knitting the Big Lace Scarf with a bulky cotton yarn (for Spring!) by Punta yarns in a whitish-creme color because I love my warmer creme scarf and wanted something in a similar color but a lighter weight for Spring. I'll try to remember to get a photo when I finish.

I also finished the Oatmeal Pullover, which I enjoyed knitting but which I do not enjoy wearing. I even ripped out the bottom seven inches or so and re-knit it to get the sizing better. I am finding it is still not a flattering sweater for me. What I like is the neck line. I also changed the sleeves to long sleeves because 3/4 length drive me batty. I've thought about ripping it all out and re-knitting it at a tighter gauge because the pattern is really nice but am now leaning toward an entirely different sweater. It's the kind of thing where I keep looking at patterns for bulky yarn and nothing seems quite right. And yet I have the yarn. Or rather, will have the yarn {again}, after I rip this sweater out (that I bought the yarn for....) Oh well. I'm setting it aside a bit to reconsider its use. I've thought of knitting hats and mittens and blankets with the yarn as well but feel a little sad because I like the color quite a bit for a sweater.

Eva's knit skirt

And I finished Eva's skirt!





Close-ups of some of the yarn and the i-cord cinched waist. Let's see, it's about 14 inches long and wide. The main yarn/color is a worsted weight from Malabrigo at 5 stitches/ inch.

knitting

While I did not finish Eva's skirt today, I did buy yarn for a new project, to be started once said skirt is finished-



I'll be trying this sweater featured on SouleMama. The pattern for the Oatmeal Pullover is found here. I will be using 5 skeins (maybe 4?) of Cascade Yarns 128 Chunky in color 9581. Although, I'll be honest here, I may be heading back to the yarn shop in the near future to exchange it for another color, because once I got it home, it turned out to be not quite what I had thought it was in the store. I thought it was more on the reddish side, when really, it is much closer to a warmish brown. The color chart doesn't do it justice either. We'll see how I feel about the color tomorrow morning. I'd love to see it in the sunlight just to be sure.

knitting

I started a new knitting project for Eva- the kids' club skirt from Greetings From the Knit Cafe. (Here's an example. And another.) We went through some of the yarn in my stash and found some fun colors and textures and then took a trip to the yarn store and bought some *really* fancy yarns, complete with sequins and pink feathery textures. I'm also trying out a popcorn yarn with pinks and greens. Should be fun to knit up, although I was reminded last night how quickly the different skeins can become tangled. The sequin yarn in particular was trying my patience and I ended up having to cut it because the tangle seemed irreversible. Now that I'm onto those fancy yarns, I have them better organized while knitting. It is not, unfortunately, going to be a good traveling project. I'll have to find something else for that.



Sample of some of the yarns I'm using in the skirt. The sequins are knit with another "regular" yarn, in this case, the purple worsted weight by Malabrigo. {And check out the popcorn yarn in the upper right hand corner. It was the last skein. I feel lucky to have found it.}



Close-up so you can see the sequins. Can you tell we are very excited about the sequins?

I also recently finished mittens for myself. Rather than buying another skein to finish up the last little bit, I used some purple that Eva chose for her fingerless gloves. That purple is, by the way, going to be the main color in her skirt as well.

hat knitting

I finished my hat! Here's a link to the pattern at Purl Bee. I modified it slightly by casting on 108 stitches and knitting at a gauge of 6 stitches/ inch (stocking stitch) rather than 4.75, with #3 needles for the ribbing (I did knit 1, purl 1 rib rather than knit 2, purl 2.) and #4 for the stockinette stitch part. I used roughly 1 1/4 skeins of Jojoland's sport weight cashmere, which, can I just say, has been fabulous to knit with. I think I might even have enough in the second skein to make a pair of matching fingerless gloves!



Here I am in the hat and here is the hat all laid out. It is *much* longer with the ribbing being 6 inches and the height of the rest of the hat being 7 inches.

knitting woes

I'm about 3/4 of the way done with a hat I have been working on (more hats = more head warmth = more health. or something like that.) and I ran out of yarn. Yikes. It definitely happens. I was surprised this time, though, because I thought I had enough. {grin} To be fair, I *did* change the gauge from the one in the pattern and that is most likely what did it. So- I was upset and in yarn-crisis-mode, calling around to yarn shops in the area because, of course, the Knitting Bee, where I had bought the original skein (and which is one of my two main yarn shops), was out. {It was gorgeous yarn, after all. And the holidays. Etcetera.}

I wasn't really freaking out, just, you know, a little louder than usual. Definitely dismayed. And that was clearly conveyed in both my phone conversations and in my self-talk as I mumbled around the kitchen about my hat.

While all of this was going on, Eva wandered into the kitchen and said in an incredibly nonchalant voice, "What's going on? Out of yarn?"

And then me, sadly, looking up, "Yes. For the hat I'm working on."

And then her, "Sorry." Sad face. She understands.

Then she wandered out of the kitchen and into the living room where Samuel was sitting and she said to him something like, "All of that over some yarn."

And Samuel chuckled and said, "Yeah, I know. Crazy, huh?"

And then Eva, "Yeah. Crazy."

And then me, chuckling in the kitchen. It was one of the few good moments between them this whole week and hey, if they can bond and feel good over my yarn woes, so much the better. I knew there had to be a fortunately in there somewhere. (Oh- and I found a place that had two more skeins in stock. And all I need is one. So we'll be going there tomorrow. And I'll get to check out a new yarn shop.)

poncho love

OK- turns out I love the poncho. I am actually wearing it right now. We have been having lovely fall weather complete with sunshine and warm winds. I took my sweater off today and put on a short sleeve shirt. The poncho with that out on the patio is just the thing.

Today I was going to write about this migraine that I had yesterday, all last night and half the day today. I am actually still recovering from it and have to take it easy and go to bed early lest it get reved up again and return, as migraines in the past have been known to do. This morning I had an amazing time out on the patio with the sunshine and fall leaves and migraine. The wind was blowing and the trees were dancing. This type of high pressure, warm wind weather, while lovely, also reminds me of migraines, probably because it seems to be a trigger for me for migraines, at least some part of it. I'm not sure if it's the dry wind or the sudden increase in pressure or both, since the warm winds don't seem to exist without the increase in pressure, at least not around here.

For the geese, though, this weather seemed to be all about flight practice. While I sat on the patio eating potatoes and drinking coffee, enjoying the fresh air after a sleepless night, the geese flew over our house and back to the park several times. Each time I would first hear the build up a few blocks away. Then I would see a few of the first geese to take off, just behind the trees a few houses over. Then a rush of dozens- perhaps 200 geese?- as they flew up and around the trees, past our house, over to the left and back to the park. What I love most about watching the geese stretch their wings is just how much they have to say to one another about flying, while flying. It felt to me at times like their energy, their sheer numbers, could pull the migraine up out of my head and release it into the air. Free. The migraine now free of the boundaries of my head, constricting it's movement to dull pounding, could pulse unbridled through the air with the geese. My head, now free of the migraine's insistent pounding, could bask in the silence. In the peace. I breathed a sigh of relief just thinking of it.

But now- even more than then, I am tired of the migraine's presence in my life. It should have gone away hours ago. It should never have come. And I don't wish to talk about it- much less write about it- any more.

So, there will be pictures of Eva's art project today. And a video of how it's done.

poncho gone shawl-ish

I finished up the poncho I had been working on. Actually, I knit the second panel while spending time with Maxwell during his last week with us. It's a nice memory, thinking of him sitting on my lap while I knit that poncho. Which is probably the main reason, now that I think about it, that I will keep it regardless of its actual likeness to the poncho I had imagined it would be.

After I finished up the bath puppets a few days ago I decided to sew up the sides and *finish* the poncho once and for all. There were a few issues with the size and shape, it turns out, the first being that how I had conceptualized it looking and how it actually looked varied enough to get me thinking about other ways to construct it. I looked at several poncho designs and finally decided on sewing one of the edges to an end and adding buttons to the other side to give it the flexibility of being either a poncho or a shawl, depending. (I found the buttons at the Button Emporium.)

But once I had sewn it up and added the buttons, I realized it was still too big to be worn {by me} in the way I had wanted. Oh well. It still makes a lovely shawl-ish throw type garment, though, and both Eva and I have used it today to warm up. It seems actually quite appropriate for us to be using it while sitting warmly inside. I'm positive that if Maxwell were here with us today he would have found a way to wrap up in the poncho as well. It really is the perfect bit of cat knitting.



One of the buttons before I realized that idea wouldn't work. Also- the many colors. The yarns come from various sources- a few from Flock and Fiber, a few from my stash, one bought for the project and two waiting around for the perfect rainy day.



Here it is on me. See what I mean about the size, particularly on one side? The yarn is pretty heavy, which also contributes quite a bit to how it drapes. I think, though, it could be doable if I get one of those shawl holder thingies (can't think of the name). It's worth a try. I have a stitch holder keeping it together in the picture and it isn't quite strong enough.



And really, this is the best possible use for it. Here is Eva warming up with the poncho in the morning. I guess I will keep calling it a poncho, for lack of a better word. Shawl-ish is good but doesn't seem to quite roll off the tongue, at least not yet.

bath puppets

OK- I finished up the bath puppets today. Having a project like this has definitely helped. The knitting was finished a few days ago and I did then faces yesterday and today. One of the especially fun parts about this project was the trip the kids and I took to them Button Emporium in downtown Portland. This was an amazing shop filled with buttons and ribbons. We went there on a Wednesday so we could also check out the downtown Farmers Market (for apples!), a few of the food carts (for tacos, frozen yogurt and a Jarritos [one of Samuel's favorite drinks]) and the art supply store (for paints). We took an extra side trip to one of our favorite toy stores, Finnegans, and a short walk up to Stumptown for some coffee. It was a fine day in the city by any measure.

The pattern for these bath puppets is from Kids Knitting by Melanie Falick.



Here they all are. Two owls and three cats. The purple and pink cottons were the yarns that I hand dyed years ago. They were knit double stranded with #8 needles at 4 stitches/inch in garter stitch. The yellow is some leftover Patagonia chunky cotton from two summers ago and was knit with one strand at 7 stitches/2 inches, also on #8 needles. I used various scrap yarn for the face. {I almost think the variegated yarns' coloring detracts from the faces and might decide to use solid yarns if I do these again. Part of the appeal of the project, though, for me, was using up some of the cotton in my stash and this was what I currently had on hand in large enough quantities.} The yellow guy with the teal mouth and purple eyes is my personal favorite and will be staying with me {grin}.

zen and the art of missing maxwell

This is a cotton yarn that I hand dyed around eight years ago or so. It has been sitting with other unfinished knitting and knotted skeins of yarn all these years just waiting to be wound into neat little knit-with-able balls of yarn. Apparently my cat-missing-mind is just the right mind to undertake this task. I was pleased that this particular unwound skein was not as knotted and gnarled as I had thought it would be. Still, it's not a project I would choose for just any day. Obviously. I am planning to use this yarn to knit cotton bath puppets. All I can say is that people are going to be receiving A LOT of hand knits for Christmas gifts this year. Keeping my hands busy is definitely helping me with my missing-maxwell-mind.

look closely

eva's shawl

I finished Eva's shawl today. The top part in blue is garter stitch and the bottom purple/pinkish part is a feather and fan. I used 4 skeins of Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran and number hmmm 3 needles for a gauge of roughly 6 stitches/inch in garter stitch. The pattern was the Multnomah shawlette from Hello Knitty. Now I am definitely onto a fall poncho for myself...



Eva posing in her shawl. (I think I need to block it to keep the feather and fan part from curling upward. I don't currently have a good space for blocking, though, so I put it off for now.)



Close-ups.