Leftovers

These are the Leftovers socks, because I made them with the yarn I had leftover from my knee-high lacy socks from a couple of years ago. There was more than enough for a regular pair of socks and I could have even made these a little taller, but I was ready to be done with them. The Leftovers socks were supposed to be plain and quick, like their namesake. Instead they have taken me forever which is mostly because of my failure to focus. But they're done now. Plain stockinette with a picot cuff and bind-off. The yarn was from Fearless Fibers, Kildare colorway. They are sooo soft and comfy. In the few short hours I have worn them they have become my favorite socks. Yum.

Sugar Glass and the Tooth Fairy

So last weekend was a long weekend for both Nico and I, and this is rare. We wanted to do something special. We thought we'd drive the Olympic Peninsula on Monday as a last summer hurrah and get it neatly crossed off the to-do list. But when I was telling a friend about the plan, she made a teensy tiny comment: "Oh, that's a lot of driving for one day." Hmm. It didn't make much of an impact at first, but it stuck with me and kept ringing in my ears until Sunday night, when I finally decided to Google the route and found out that it would be 8 - 10 hours. Of driving. Oh, and then the next day? I'd be getting my wisdom teeth out.

Yeah. Not so much.

So we decided to drive to Tacoma instead, which is only about half an hour away. We went to the Museum of Glass. It was pretty awesome. If you're not familiar with it, the Museum of Glass is this very cool but relatively small art museum devoted to (you catch on quick) glass. There's a cone-shaped room called the Hot Shop where you can watch glass artists actually making and working with the stuff, then there are a couple of galleries and a number of installments. Outside of the museum is the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, which is like a gallery in and of itself. All of this has to do with the fact that Tacoma is Dale Chihuly's hometown.

Here's the Hot Shop as seen from across the bridge:


Here's part of the Seaform Pavilion on the bridge. These are actually looking up, at the ceiling:



And here are the Crystal Towers, which are not actually glass but are instead a synthetic (Polyvitro). They make me think of sugar crystals. If I remember correctly, actual glass would've been too heavy to achieve this:



And after that my camera crapped out, so that's all you get. No pics of the Venetian Wall or of anything inside the actual museum.

I had seen photographs of Chihuly's work before and even though I thought it was impressive I never had gotten too excited about it. I thought glass was, well, maybe just a little bit boring. Paintings I can get on board with, sculpture and photography? Sure! I just never thought that glass was that interesting. But I was wrong. I found myself pretty intensely fascinated the whole time, and it wasn't all about Chihuly either. A couple of the galleries were closed because they were in transition, but I'm looking forward to going back again. I would very much recommend this museum to anyone in the area or anyone who makes the trip out here. And if you're arriving by car? The best thing to do is get free parking at the Tacoma Dome and take the Link lightrail (also free) to University Station, walk across the Bridge of Glass and you're there. Beautiful.

And then on Tuesday I had my wisdom teeth out. They put me to sleep, which was pretty awesome. One minute they're putting the IV in the back of my hand, and the next minute I'm waking up in a dark recovery room with my mouth packed full of gauze and Nico at my side. I couldn't have asked for anything easier. Hopefully this will be my only medical adventure for the year. The oral surgeon as Tooth Fairy was easily a million times better than the podiatrist as Toe Butcher, which was last year's adventure. Eaaugh.

So, mostly all week I've just been hanging out on the couch and crunching down the Vicodin. Which I love. I finished knitting some cabled wristies for a friend in AZ:


I'm also working on a good wool garter-stitch scarf, because last winter convinced me that all those pretty, flimsy scarves that worked so well in an AZ winter? Not cutting it in the Pac NW. I have big plans for this scarf. Secret plans. Secret, secret scarfy plans. Shhh.


And I started a new sock last night. This is the Pumpkin Pie yarn I bought last fall. I want to be wearing these socks in plenty of time for pie season this year. So far it looks less like pie and more like Tigger. Oh well. I've got a good pie-like stitch pattern planned for the cuff.


And the last thing is that yesterday, I. Well. I sort of ... signed up for a sock club. Over at Cables & Lace. This was totally unplanned, because I'm supposed to be on a budget, dammit. A simple little moment of weakness. I blame the Vicodin.

Upside-Down Blue Monkey

That's the name of the new socks I just finished knitting this week:




That's Cookie A.'s Monkey worked toe-up with an eye of partridge heel. I did the foot on a half-size smaller needle than the pattern calls for, then switched to a larger needle after the ankle. The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, colorway Tropical Storm. I'm pretty pleased with them, and they're a bit lighter than the other socks I've made so I can wear them in slightly warmer weather.

It's been a while since I mentioned my chile plants. Well, those that were eaten by beasts of the forest have recovered quite well. They are all flowering and they all have peppers growing. I had to pick 3 off one of the mystery plants because they have some spectacular blossom-end rot going on:



I've run into this once or twice before while growing peppers and tomatoes. It has something to do with the amount of moisture and calcium the plant is getting. Sad. Hopefully this won't be too big a problem. I'm really hoping to make some home-grown hot sauce this year.

First Sweater

Here it is:



This is the Wicked, finished, blocked and modeled. This is my first sweater, started in January and finished in August. Despite the pooling, I am very proud.

In one of my recent posts one of my friends commented that the trouble I had had with Wicked has convinced her to never start knitting. Whenever I hear someone say something like that I have two very strong gut reactions. One is, 'More yarn for me!'. The other is, 'How sad. You don't know what you're missing.'.

Yes, this sweater took forever and yes, I had to rip it back a lot and try things again. It was a straightforward pattern, but it wasn't easy for me. I struggled, it's true. But now look what I have: I have a garment made with my own hands to fit no one else but me. I have a sweater made from 100% wool, which is tougher and tougher to find these days. My sweater is warm and soft, thicker than anything store-bought, and it clings to me where I want it to. The sweater's boat-neck is nice and wide, and it sits on the edges of my shoulders just the way I hoped it would. The sleeves are comfy and over-long, which is my favorite way for sleeves to be and which I can almost never find in a store-bought sweater. Roll your eyes if you will, but wearing this sweater feels like wearing a warm hug. It feels just right.

And you know what? My next sweater will probably be a lot easier and will go a lot quicker. There is a learning curve for these sorts of things. Just look at my first pair of socks, for example: they took forever (May 2006-January 2007) and they came out weird and too big and at first I thought I would probably never knit another pair of socks again because they were such a pain. But now I knit socks all the time, they're not that hard and they don't take too long and THEY'RE AWESOME! And maybe it'll be like that with sweaters too: the first one takes a while but I learn, and it gets better.

So. I also wanted to share that last night another friend had a New Kitten Party to honor her new kitty. It was of course lots of fun and there was dancing and wine and snacks... and these:



These are Cat Poop Cupcakes. I made them firstly to honor the new little cat but also because I promised I would and because they crack me up. They were, you can imagine, a big hit. The original version is over here.

Wicked Finish

I'm done. Last night I bound off on the Wicked sweater and I am finally, finally satisfied enough to call it done, and to say that I knit the best first sweater I could. I will weave in the ends, block it, and post pictures once that's done. I may still overdye it with black in the future, but that's a different adventure. For right now, the sweater is done.

Ghosts and Gurus

First, I must show you the very cute little ghost-in-a-tin that I received from the lovely Sara in the Monster Living in a Tin swap I was in. He's a bookworm ghost, and he's very cool.



Alright, so remember when I said that the Wicked is my guru? Well, the problem with gurus is that they test you. Observe:



Looks like the sweater's pretty much done, right? Just a few ends to weave in and then... But wait....
What's this?



It's the hem. It looks like it's...



Why, yes. It's rolling. It's goddamn rolling! The seed stitch hem called for in the pattern is all F'ed up. So I'm going to, say it with me, rip it back and knit it again. How many times have I ripped back on this sweater? I've lost count. When I reknit it I'm going to do it in the crossover ribbing of the neckline and cuffs on a size larger needle. This means that almost nothing of the written pattern has worked out for me. I have changed almost every detail on the pattern. But it still looks like a Wicked, doesn't it?

Also, look at that pooling! Geez! Why why why didn't I choose a solid color? Blech. So, should I leave it the color it is, or should I try to overdye it with something darker? Any thoughts? Vote now!

The Wages of Knitting Is...

Bowls!



Yes, these are the bowls I received in exchange for the knee-high stripey socks I knit. They came in the mail today and they are very lovely to behold. And my very cool partner sent 5 bowls, when the swap was only supposed to be for 4! I'm getting swap-spoiled all over the place, here.

Check them out. There's this beautiful bluesy-greensy one:



There are these two lighter blue ones, each alike in dignity:





There's this checked one that I absolutely adore:



But my absolute favorite is this one. I think the glazing on this is really sort of stunning:



So there you have it. Who's a lucky knitter? I am.

Making it with needles and string

So this is what I've been knitting.

First off we have the finished socks that I knit for my grandma out of Lorna's Laces yarn and gave her for Christmas. She says they fit great, and that her friends admire my knitting skillz. That's right, farm ladies think I knit well. That's probably the best compliment I've ever had...



And then I finished the beaded lace scarf that I was making for Bev. Finally. This sucker took me a year to knit. The yarn is a blend of baby alpaca and silk; very soft, a little fuzzy, lightweight anchored down a little by the beads. I sent it to her for Christmas. She cried. I hope she wears it.



Let's look at that from another angle, shall we?



And then I knit a pair of black alpaca wristies for Nico. He needed something to keep him warm at work, and this is some of the alpaca yarn I got last year from Estrella. I thought it would take all 4 skeins to complete, but they only took 2.



Next I had agreed to do a 1-on-1 swap with someone on Swap-Bot. She would make me a set of 4 pottery bowls if I would knit her a pair of stripey knee-high socks. So here's what I came up with, no pattern:



And after getting all of that done I decided I could finally concentrate on knitting for myself again, for a while. So the first thing I did was whip up a pair of socks. This yarn is from A Swell Yarn Shop and the colorway is Midnight Romance, although to me it looks more like a berry smoothie. Yum. They are warm and soooo soft. These are my new favorite socks.



I'm working on a second pair of socks which are from a very pretty pattern and which have faux cabling. This is the Azure pattern from the most recent issue of Knitty, and the yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the Rosehips colorway. This yarn is 25% mohair which makes it extremely soft and fuzzy. At first I worried it would be too fuzzy to show the stitch definition well, but I think it does OK. I'm past the heel on the first sock and it fits perfectly.



And a close-up if you please:



And then I finally got the guts to start my very first sweater. I'm making Wicked out of Artyarns Supermerino in blues and greens. I'm not very far yet, but you know what? This type of sweater is way easier than making socks. It's totally simple, and there's no seaming. It's truly less complicated than a sock! I just can't seem to get over this fact. I'm not very far yet, but the Artyarns Supermerino is much softer than I expected. I can't wait to wear it. Mab approves.



And for anyone who remembers the bright green knee-high socks I was working on last spring... well I did finish them, a while back. I just never took pictures. So, here ya go.

Springtime in the Old Pueblo

Ah, nothing says spring like a cliched blog entry on the topic, no? So, watch for the usual: discussion of local spring versus national spring, discussion of the weather, picture of flowers, reflection on knitting during warm temperatures.

For a few weeks now I've been noticing a springtime trend in other people's blog entries, complete with beautiful pictures of blooming bulbs and daffodils, etc. And I enjoy reading about spring in other parts of the country, I really do. Now, according to the weather reports and several recent blog entries, parts of the country have backslid into winter's last hurrah. Newly-planted flowerbeds have been blighted with frost, and lovely sprouting bulbs have had their genitals freeze and wither (it's true you know: those pretty pretty flowers are the plants' baby-making gear).

To this I have one response: Luckyyyyyy.

Here in southern Arizona, spring is a razor-thin month and a half and is defined by two natural occurrences: temperatures in the low to mid 90's, and the presence of pollen. Lots. Of pollen. Arizona has one of the highest pollen counts in the country. For the past month, according to weather.com, Tucson's pollen counts have been either 'high' or 'very high,' with few exceptions. But in case you're wondering, it wasn't always this way. We used to have one of the lowest pollen counts in the country. Sure, the desert would always bloom in spring, but compared to other parts of the country it was nothing. That is, until people with bad allergies moved down here and brought their allergen-producing plants with them to a region with an early and long growing season. Smart: S-M-R-T.

Now let me take a step back and remind you of the other big springtime signifier: temperatures in the 90's. In some parts of the country temps in the 90's is as hot or hotter than it gets alllll summer. But here, it's just part of spring's glory. When the temperature is in the low or mid 90's, we know it's spring. But when it edges into the upper 90's, it's summer. Even in the desert, 98 degrees cannot masquerade as spring's gentle warmth. 92 degrees can, but 98? No.

So for anyone lucky enough to reside in a cooler part of the country I say count your blessings. Your flower bed may have been destroyed by a late frost, but you can replant. We here in the old pueblo will not see cooling temperatures for another 6 months. Literally.

But springtime in Arizona isn't all bad. Witness our palo verde trees, which bloom abundantly into brilliant yellow firecrackers each year:









OK, so the color quality on these photos isn't super. But trust me, these blooms are bright, bright yellow. Lovely.

And come summertime, what's a desert-dwelling knitter to do? Knit socks? Knit lace? Well, yes and yes. I am hoping to knit some lace, a few sweaters (we'll see), and plenty of socks this summer. Socks are a good choice because they don't cover your lap as you knit, and the superwash sock yarn has the added bonus of not felting in your fingers. Seriously. When it's 110 degrees outside you've got to plan your projects carefully.