where was I...

Saying, "Things have been busy around here" is quite an understatement!

Last Christmas I made everyone at the Shop similar project bags for Christmas; they were so popular I was ask to put some up for sale. They've been selling fast enough that sewing has been using up much of my free time.

The hardest part of making these bags is finding zippers in colors that work with my fabrics. I'd never noticed but zipper manufacturers don't change their colors to keep up with the changing fabric pallets. (Most blue zipper colors are stuck in the grayed out 1980's hues, for example.) Wonder why these zipper companies are so out of touch with what fabric is currently on the market?

I've still been knitting but getting items finished, blocked and photographed has really been neglected. My latest FO is a shawl from the pattern Springtime Bandit knit in Canopy Fingering Weight Yarn. Of course, I didn't knit the pattern with the right weight yarn; the pattern is written for a worsted weight.

The pattern was knit as written except I did 16 repeats of the Body Chart. Using two skeins of Canopy I finished with just a few inches of yarn left. (I hate that nervous knitting when you're worried about running out of yarn!?

I used the Macaw colorway; these photos don't do it justice. This yarn in the hank looks very different from the knitted item. This colorway has a prismatic color shift depending from which direction you look at it. I've never seen a yarn do this before. Oh, and I have to mention the yarn is a dream to knit with, never had one split stitch!

We lost our 13 year old Siamese, Ty, last week. We'd been running Cat Hospice upstairs for him the past six months so it wasn't a surprise. He had a degenerative disease called Cerebellar Abiotrophy and lost most of the use of his hind legs. We sure miss him, he was a very loving Boy.

Little Entrelac Bag

When I looked through the new Interweave's Holiday Gifts magazine and saw Susan Lawrence's Little Entrelac Bags pattern I knew I was making it as soon as I got home.

It was a fun quick project with Noro Kureyon. The pattern called for a twisted cord, I made a square cord on a Lucet with several strands of thread and pearl cotton. The hardest part has been finding a button for the drawstring.

I have other finished objects but they all need a little something before I take pictures and blog about them.

Ysolda Teague has some great patterns and I'm drawn to her patterns on Ravelry. There's one through that always makes me smile and remember some mystery books I've read. Have you heard of the Aunt Dimity books by Nancy Atherton? The main character has a knit bunny from her childhood that was made for her by Aunt Dimity who lived in England. Well, Ysolda has a knit bunny pattern called Sophie that is exactly the bunny I envisioned while reading. It makes me smile every time I come across this pattern.
(This just proves that you can play "7 Degrees to Knitting" with anything.)

The sun is so low in the south now that it comes further into the house than any other time of the year. The cats are loving it! They follow the sun around the living room during the day. Bright sunlight, the best way to photograph our Sam.


Old man Ty really loves the heat.

Weaving Class

Weaving has been encroaching on my knitting recently. I'm attending a 4 Harness Weaving Class at The Craft Center at UCSD. Week One was how to warp our rental looms. Week Two was weaving (in my case TRYING to weave) 14 different Twill patterns with varying success.



It's amazing how easily I got confused about what pattern row I was on! Even when there were only four rows to the design!!

Week Three we finished our sampler and warped again. This time I'm doing a hounds tooth two-color pattern. Turns out for me the hardest part is counting (who would have thought). Anyway, after several mistakes, pulling warp out, string everywhere and re-doing I got the loom warped and the pattern started. If I sound surprised that's because I can't believe I got it to work.



I'm enjoying the 'learning something new' part of this class but I don't think weaving will ever replace knitting as my craft of choice; my need to do it so I don't go crazy and take everyone along with me. There really is something in my brain that is soothed with knitting; if I have to wait in line or on the phone I can remain calm if I have my knitting otherwise by the time I get to the head of the line I'm really not fit to be talking to anyone let alone trying to solve a problem.

Speaking of Knitting, only two finished objects this past week. The first is a Pinwheel pillow, a sample for the Shop. It's a pattern from the current issue of Knitscene Magazine out of Marble Chunky. (BTW this is a great 100% acrylic chunky yarn. It really sells well, everyone seems to like it as much as I did.)



And Saartje's Baby Booties made for my niece who's expecting a girl this May.


Oh - I should tell you it's been raining off and on this week and should continue through Monday and Tuesday - YEAH! It's been fun seeing the reaction to our mini-summer in winter from Bloggers talking about TNNA. (Great pictures from Anne on Knitspot. Mid-January entries)

The Photographer passed along a couple of photos of Sam and Annie from Christmas:

Sam trying out all the extra chairs around the table


Annie with her stuffed chick present. She always knows there's a present for her; we have to hide it because she can smell which one is hers out of all the other wrapped presents.

Just made it to 2009

Those 10 days leading up to Christmas were my busiest of the whole year but I made it. The presents were bought and wrapped. The house was minimally decorated. The cookies were baked, packed, wrapped and distributed. Food was bought, cooked and served many times over. And the dishwasher was run two or three times a day! The time spent with Family and Friends was my favorite part of all. It's taken me a couple days with my feet up and knitting in hand to recover but I'm ready to face the New Year. I hope all you were better prepared and enjoyed your Holidays.

I did very little gift knitting this year, I don't know why. Maybe I didn't see any patterns that seemed perfect for anyone on my list or maybe I just wasn't very imaginative this year. I did knit a hat for Laura. It was Black Forest Hat made from Noro Silk Garden edits/leftovers. (I've admitted before to editing skeins of Noro when there's a color in a skein that I don't care for in a project.)


This was fun knitting; both the pattern and trying to select yarn bits that looked like they could be from a regular skein of Silk Garden. The scalloped edge is what initially caught my eye and I like it as much in my finished hat as I did when I first saw it on Ravelry. (The pattern is only available through a free Ravelry download.)

While I was stalling finishing my green sweater I pulled out and finished a sock UFO. These are a 2/2 rib pattern in Cherry Tree Hill, sorry I don't have the band so I can't tell you the color name.


Ty, kept bothering me while I was wrapping gifts. He kept trying to sit on the paper, to give myself a few minutes break from his attention I gave him his own piece of tissue. Little did I know that was all he wanted. He's been on that corner of the sofa sleeping on his paper for over a week now. I have to give him a new piece every other day as he shreds it kneading on it.


I think we all deserve a NEW Year, 2008 is broken and can't be fixed!
Happy New Year 2009 to all

Stuck in Squares-ville

Not until I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of my current knitting projects did I realize that everything I'm working on is square.

First, I pulled out Mitered Thing after Laurie sent me more sock yarn leftovers. Thanks again, Laurie, I always appreciate the kindness of knitting friends.


Since the time I first blogged about my "affair with mitered squares" I've received many questions about my method. I'll briefly describe how I make my garter stitch mitered squares. Hope it doesn't confuse more than it explains.

Cast-on an uneven number of stitches.
Do not slip first stitch on a row.
Knit half the number of stitches minus 3 (example: cast on 13 stitches, half minus 3 would be 5)
Here's the decrease you work on the right side only. Slip 1, K2tog, pull slipped stitch over K2tog
Knit wrong side row with no decrease.
Repeat these two rows until you have one stitch left.
Now pick up half the number of your cast on stitches down the side of the square and either cast on the other half plus one of the stitches or pick up along the edge of the square that is one down and over from the last completed square. Picking up one stitch for each garter ridge and one in the very center usually gives me the right count. (hope you understand that picking-up stitches part - I'm sure there's a better way to word it.)

Second, the Shop received a shipment of Trendsetter Yarns Tonalita, a long color change yarn that is great for Entrelac. I'm knitting a sample for an Entrelac class I'll be teaching.


This is color 2345; blues, purple, pink, turquoise, teal and jade.

(photo is true to color on my monitor.)

Third: I was exploring on Ravelry and was searching everything made with Noro yarn when I found Quant on Knitty, an entrelac headband.




By chance, I had a single skein of Silk Garden, sorry I can't find the ballband to tell you the color.
I'm going to have to hunt further because I really do like these rosy colors.


Any other square projects I missed? Can you tell I have a strong quilting background to be so enamored of everything square?

Taking pictures isn't as easy around here as you might think. My helper Sam one second after I took the first picture of Mitered Thing.


He's cute but a little too curious!

The Yarn goes to...

Thanks for all the Good Wishes, both private and public. No more gushy stuff now, you want to know who gets the yarn. Random Number generator gave out #4 and #2, in that order. So, the Socks that Rock goes to Shanidy and the Yarn Pirate goes to Laurie M. (Shanidy, sorry, you'll have to contact me as I have no email address to reach you. tcty123 AT yahoo DAT com When will they fix Blogger's comments??)

I finished for the second time the Fiery Bolero from(Interweave Knits, Summer 2005.)



I knit it and finished the first time Fall of 2005 but it was too small. I ripped it out and knit it again over the next two years; now it's too big. Neither the yarn nor I are up to a third try. I used Debbie Bliss Cathay color 12004. This yarn feels wonderful and I love the sheen that 15% silk gives it. Unfortunately it has a tendency to split as it has very little twist. I used metal needles as even the best bamboo snagged on the yarn.

I forgot to take a finished picture of my little baby sweater. (F. Pea wrote me on Ravelry and reminded me.)

This is my adaption of a Free Pattern Friday baby sweater pattern on F. Pea's Blog (You should check out her other patterns they're really well written and so cute.)


My Mitered Sweater is still giving me lots of enjoyment. I finished the back and the left front.

The last section on this is knit together with the three-needle bind-off. It's rather lumpy hope it blocks out flat.

Yoke and Back with double miter


and left front with single miter


I laid this sweater out to photograph and it wasn't more than two minutes before I had helper Sam up in the middle of it all.

Trying to stay cool

It's HOT in San Diego - hot (90's) and humid (high 50's). For San Diego this isn't record setting temps but it's d#@ uncomfortable! So I've been hiding out in our north facing downstairs family room, sitting right in front of the tower fan. Watching DVD's, historical stuff off the DVR and I totally caught up with my Bloglines backlog - (I was something like 400 entries behind, never thought I'd empty it out.)

Even with the heat I've been knitting, small things that don't have to rest in my lap.
(there aren't many pictures this post as my main computer is upstairs - 3rd floor, where it's over 100. Nothing is worth doing if it requres sitting up there!)

I'm up to line 171 on Mystery Stole #3. Still enjoying this project and I'm getting much better at getting to the end of the row with the correct number of stitches.

Finished the first sock of a plain vanilla ribbed pattern in a gray tweed superwash sock yarn. (The label is upstairs and I'm not going up to find out what brand it is.) Cast on the second sock and knit three inches today while we went for a drive to appease the dog.

This morning Annie was beside herself with energy after being closed up in the house with us for four days. We loaded her into the car ("in the car" is her second favorite activity right after dinner) this morning, cranked the air conditioning and drove up to Carlsbad on Hwy 5, took the Village off ramp and drove west to old 101. Then we slowly crused south enjoying the beach views (packed with people and no where to park). We drove through Leucadia, Encinitas, stopping in Solana Beach for gelato at 11 am. The things you'll do during a heat wave. Then we returned to 101 in Del Mar; enjoyed the sights while we drove over the dog beach bridge - there was this black lab bounding through the water - very cooling sight. Del Mar was full; the beach and the races really packs them into that small town during the summer. Torrey pines was beautiful as always; the sand was wall to wall umbrellas and shade tents. Lots of surfers no waves to speak of; I think they may have just been enjoying the coolest spot in the county. Then past The Lodge and UCSD, a short jog onto 52 and we were home.

All over blogland and Ravelry people are knitting a very colorful stripped baby sweater. If one where to buy the yarn called for in the pattern the sweater would cost over $100; there are sites where you can buy a kit for $40. I wanted to try the pattern so I pulled out all the colors of Knit Picks Wool of the Andies and Cascade 220 that I had and put together some colors that I thought would work. The original called for nine colors; I used six.



The i-cord ties and both sleeves are all that's left to do.

I have been spinning my Alpaca/ Rambouillet from Black Sheep Gathering; due to the heat I've only been spinning after 9pm when I can turn down the fan. Fans on high and super light pencil roving just don't mix - we won't even discuss what sweaty hands do.

The cats are just limp puddles, hiding from the heat by sleeping through it. Here's Ty who's only awake because of the camera's clicking noise.

courtesty of The Photographer.

Miter Report

Here's the current progress shot of my miter thing.


I've been toying with the idea of a bag but I'm still just playing. Several very nice people have offered to send me some sock yarn leftovers. Thank you very much - this is the kindness of knitters part. I've also done two yarn swaps on Good Yarn Karma
Yarn for sock yarn leftovers.

I have people write to me in the comments section asking questions that I would reply to but I can't because I have no address. When you comment as annoymous I see no address to reply to. Really, it seems so rude not to answer you; I would if I could. In the top left hand corner of my blog, next to my picture, my email address is right there if you would like to get in touch with me without posting a comment.

The San Diego County Fair is coming up and I've been working on entries in the Spinning Division. They have a new catagory this year of Hand-dyed, Handspun. I started playing around with dry dyeing. Usually you soak your fleece before applying dye; as you have all ready figured out dry dyeing is where you apply the dye to dry fleece.

have to say the method is a mess since the dye doesn't soak in. I'm pleased with the end product.

here's a close up of the fingering weight 2-ply I spun from this dry-dyed merino superwash


I also played with dyeing a DK weight I spun


here's a close-up


which would you enter?

Changing the topic to cooking, have you seen the blog My Husband Cooks? Just for fun here's what my Husband made two nights ago


#2 Daughter gave him a wok for his Birthday and he's been stir-frying like a Pro ever since. This time he made a Cantonese Chicken and Mushroom Stir-fry.

And lastly a good picture of my little black cat, Sammie. (It's not easy photographing a black cat; The Photographer gets credit for this one.)


That's what's been going on here...