Lorna's Afghan

I finished my friend's little boy's Christmasy hat (basic green & red striped toboggan), the vest is done, the round cape-ish sort of thing is almost done, sooooo--- gotta start something else! When I was in Seattle I picked up two skeins of Lorna's Laces painted worsted, and I had a hank of Cascase 220 Navy. I thought long and hard and decided that heavily variegated yarns just aren't going to look cool on my ample body, and I do really need to make a new afghan or three for the livingroom and den [we crank the heat down in winter.] And Lorna will make a lovely afghan. I worked out something in Old Shale, and we'll see how it looks; you can absolutely count on my having bunged up the math at some point so I'll have to fudge an increase or decrease, but it's an afghan, it's huge, no one will notice (I say that a lot.)

I'm also finishing a few strange objects that were, I guess, learning projects-- like this heap of brown stuff, which is actually a nice piece of lacework but a very strange shape. I dug out the ball of Silk Garden I had stuffed in the back of my stash (see post about hating Noro below) and I'm trying to stir them together. I promise a photo, no matter how weird, when done.

Phil has a house project this week, so I'll be baking & making soup to keep him fueled. Chicken chili, I think, and tortellini soup another night, and a date-nut cake of some sort-- Fall is in the air.

The Moon of Tiny Acorns

You know how some cultures have a Moon of Frost or a Hunter's Moon? We are currently ending the Moon of Tiny Sharp Acorns That Hurt Your Feet and entering the Moon of Bombardment. This has to do with the dozen or so huge oak trees in the back yard and the fact that they sort of loom over the house and deck. If you sit out there quietly minding your own business, so the squirrels lose their anxiety about humans, you can gradually hear an ascending cascade of plink, plop, bonk, poing, etc as acorn caps, chewed hulls, and reject acorns hit the roof, gutters, deck, and one's own person. The red oak nuts come first, which are small and sharp, meaning that we have to start wearing slippers to go get the mail or let the dogs out. Later on the bombardment-- large white oak acorns-- starts and you can lie awake at night listening to them hit the roof [BONK] and roll down [rattlerattlerattle] into the gutters [poinngg]. This is sort of soothing, actually, at about 3:00AM.
In November, of course, we have the Buried-Up-to-Your-Neck-in-Leaves Moon.
At Monday Morning Knit, we all agreed we were knitting more than ever during the presidential campaign to keep our cool and avoid having to pay too much attention to political ads. The whole thing has gotten so strident, that in combination with the approach of fall and the dire financial news, I expect yarn sales to hit a new high. I know knitting helps my blood pressure, and I need it now! The timeless nature of it helps, as long as the realization that I am at least making something useful, even if I cannot do anything to control the winds of politics and the economy.
Perhaps we should advocate knitting at political rallies. Did you see the shot of Barack Obama holding a knitter's sock-in-progress on the Yarn Harlot's blog? Just great.

Grandbaby Fix

So typical, I don't blog for three weeks and then twice in one day. I resolve to Be A Better Person, OK? Just back from a week in Seattle with daughter, son-in-law, and Cate-- world's most stupendous baby (as all grandchildren are.) Can't really call her a baby anymore, at 15 months she is running around and has about a 20 word vocabulary. All birds are ducks, all four legged creatures are pup-pups, and all plants are flowers ("fows".) It beats me how she can categorize stuff so well. She extrapolates from ducks in a lake to sparrows in the yard and crows flying overhead, and somehow knows they all go together. Hey, I'm impressed.

The weather was glorious, mountains visible all week -- Rainier, Baker, and the Olympics. We took the ferry to Bainbridge one day and visited an LYS, where I succumbed to two skeins of Lorna's Laces worsted. They had Malabrigo, they had cashmere, they had... a very well heeled clientele, I think. Capped off the week with a visit to Vivace, the very best coffee in the land, where I got two pounds of beans to smuggle back in my suitcase.

Knitted all the way there and back on a lace scarf and a stash eating cape, which just goes around and around and around, so it's excellent for the plane. We'll be back, hopefully, in December.

My first night back home I watched the VP debate for a few minutes, then I couldn't take it any longer [I was expecting Sarah to start popping her gum any minute] so I read the debate transcript on CNN, which is really a good way to go as you get to digest what is being said.

Phil's back from DC today, and we're making meatloaf and apple crisp for supper since it is blessedly cool at last.

Finito!

I have actually finished a garment that is NOT a hat or scarf and that fits, and is wearable, and has gotten a few compliments! The mitered vest, with a few mods--- instead of knitting in a buttonhole, I sewed on a loop after it was done; I made the collar a bit shorter, and the vest itself a bit shorter, than the pattern. Because of the "open" nature of the yarn, I also crocheted a stabilizing line along the collar-to-body join and around the armholes, to prevent too much stretching. When I soaked it, I squished most of the water out with towels and then threw it into the dryer by itself, on low, to see if it would felt just a wee bit. In hindsight that was a horrible gamble, but... It came out just right, the drying made the fabric just a little firmer and denser, and stronger, without really shrinking it. On the downside, it also bloomed like crazy, which makes me look like a fuzzy bear wearing it. As soon as I had the button on, I wore it to the LYS on the pretext of buying yarn, to show it off. There are always a number of ladies knitting and hanging out there, and the response was totally gratifying; what was the yarn, what was the pattern, etc. etc.

Now I'm finishing up a capelet based on Paris Loop in a group of yarns (stash-eater), and a hat for a friend's little boy, and I still have those fingerless gloves for Andrea to do. The wonderfulness of knitting, that you never, ever run out of projects!

Progress

Have made some progress on knitting projects: The chocolate-malt handwarmers are done, the peachy hat is done, I'm 3/4 done with the Taos mitered sqare vest--- a LOT of garter stitch, I don't think I would do that again. Orange handwarmers still in progress, and I've also started a pullover vest adapted from the Interweave Fall '08 Little Blue Sweater, in Rowan "Cocoon", which my cool daughter sent me for my birthday.

Here's the pot-shaped hat I made to give away-- drying after blocking. It makes a largish slouchy beret.

Once I finish the mitered vest I will have made an actual real garment, which I will wear a lot even if it's funny-looking just to justify all the work.

Lots of rain again this week, lovely, and it's a tad cooler, so I've been making soup-- chili last night with cornbread, and potato-leek over the weekend, so tonight I should make something a little more solid, maybe country steak.

On Saturday we went with friends to the Rising Meadow farm fest, and saw a woman spinning angora yarn Directly Off the Rabbit. Yup. Bun was tucked under her arm, sleeping, and she was plucking fur from his back and rump and spinning it. He was a light gray bunny, and petting the fur was like putting your fingers into a cloud. Quite a sight. They also had a celtic music group and a bagpiper--- I love the music of pipes but it's always sort of a relief when it stops, because of the volume. Fun time, even if it was stinking hot. I hate I didn't bring the camera!

So much yarn...

My startitis is catching up with me, and I now have so many things going that nothing is getting finished. If I stick to my guns over the weekend, I should be able to finish the fuzzy Suri Dream beret which I'm giving to one of my Monday morning knitting ladies [because I can't stand fuzzy stuff. I just wanted to try out the yarn, and I needed to make up the balance in a Knitpicks order. I don't like knitting with it though, so no more.] I might also be able to finish the orange handwarmers, which are on the third re-knit because I couldn't get them "right". I think I finally have a guage and pattern worked out that will work with the yarn. I did make a cool little lace hat in pale orange---OK, I guess it's peach--- maybe it will work for one of A's friends. Pix of all this will follow.
It's raining, glorious heavy rain, the tail end of Fay. We've had 5 inches in two days and may get a little more before it blows off. I think all of the first 4 inches soaked right in, you could almost hear the trees sighing in relief. A dead branch bigger than my arm and about 5 feet long impaled itself in the back yard, thankfully not punching a hole in the house. We're up on a hill, so no flooding worries, but we do look thoughtfully at all the big trees in the yard when there are high wind warnings.
Phil is home for two whole weeks, so I'm cooking supper every day. Soup today, beef-vegetable-barley, since it's cooling off. The farmer's market won't have too many more weeks of good stuff as we head into fall, but tomatoes and cukes are still abundant. This summer we discovered how good the German Johnson and Cherokee Purple tomatoes were, with just a little vinaigrette and some sliced cukes, or maybe in a tomato-and-mayo sandwich on good bread....drool. There were lots of blueberries, and I made a few cobblers that were yummy as well.

Long time no blog

Yeah, it's been awhile. Phil's been out of town a lot and I've been vegetating and knitting, and enjoying my Monday morning knitting (and crocheting and neadlepointing) ladies. I finished the tan wrap thing which I had to re-knit because it was too short. Did you predict this? It was of course now too long. I have a plan to sort of gather it a bit so it will work, because I'm darned if I'll reknit it again. At least the lace is pretty.

Currently working on a pair of fingerless gloves in Sublime (Sirdar) silk cashmere merino. Not as soft as I would have thought, but it is pretty. When I finish these I have some squooshy pale orange to make a pair for my daughter, and enough leftover black, brown, etc to make a pair with some sort of stripes or maybe some colorwork. They go fast.

I also cabled for the very first time, just a black ear warmer for winter dog walking; it's awkward but not as hard as I thought. So, more cables in my future. The sock yarn scarf is coming along, it's my porta-piece for now because it's very simple and not too large to carry around.

There are still the blue Knitpicks Essentials socks, currently on about the fourth reknit; I just can't seem to get the fit right. Maybe I need to take a class & get some pointers. When those are done, there are two more skeins of sock yarn hanging over me.

Hmmmmm. Do I have too many ongoing projects...... there's also yarn for an afghan, and a couple of partly made sweater vests from last winter when I was learning to knit.........yikes.

The Sedgefield/Wyndham golf tournament is going on as I write, and since it's practically next door I need to go over & see what's up later today if the temp stays below 85. Phil is volunteering to carry a score card and having no end of fun, and since he is, there's a set of tickets I can use. It's all a bit snooty and very hyped up, but still kind of neat to have it going on. You can't wear jeans or jean shorts on the course, so I'll have to dig deep into the closet to find something acceptable.

Gratuitous granddaughter picture: