Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Yarn choices

Sadly I have nothing to take pictures of. I made some good progress on St. Brigid, but found a mistake about 7 rows down and needed to drop down and try and fix it. Not good soccer-watching knitting. The cabled sock number one is done and I have not cast on yet for number two... because I started a tea cozy. My LYS is having a contest on the best tea cozy and entries are required by the 31st. Mine is for my little two cup tea pot that I use nightly. I always wished I had a cozy for it. I have cast on 3 times and ripped back twice. 3rd time's a charm I hope. It will be totally impractical because the tea will drip down the spout and stain it, but I didn't want one that I had to take off and put back on every time I poured a cup. I actually thought about knitting it up in a brown yarn, but a pink alpaca won over. I'll post a picture later.

The baby sweater pieces are blocking before I sew them up. Meantime I did some surfing last night and found someone who knit a beautiful sweater in some Sublime yarn (not the baby yarn) that has totally pilled and gotten fuzzy with very little wear. I hope that doesn't happen with the little hat I made, but I am going to run it through the wash a few times to see if it is worth using that yarn for a baby sweater. In the past I have used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for baby sweaters. I thought it was great because it was machine washable, but since all the sweaters I made were gifts, I never really saw how well they stood up to multiple washings until I made my son fingerless mitts with the same yarn. He wore them to school in the winter for several weeks and then I noticed them on his desk, ignored, looking shabby, pilly and old. I could not believe how horrible they looked. I used the sweater stone on them and it did revive them, but now I have re-considered my choice of wool for baby items. Maybe the microfiber in the cashmerino is what makes it so pilly? I don't know, but a mother of a baby has lots more to do than have to use a sweater stone on a baby sweater. Also, if one is going to spend the time to knit a sweater (especially an adult-sized sweater) with fairly expensive yarn, it had better hold up through several wearings/washings. I love knitting blogs.... I get so much useful information!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Sick Day


Yesterday was a total washout weather-wise, but I was home with J. who was sick with the stomach bug. I spent half the day with a headache probably from poor sleep during the night, but managed to do a few things later in the day. Here is the picture of "Sunday Best Cardigan" from The little Sublime hand knit book. I just love the bottom edge (and the fact that you don't have to do all the edging at the end by picking up 300 stitches).

I finished the two front pieces and the back, started a sleeve while watching Ballykissangel series 3 and realized I had decreased instead of increased (not once but twice). So sleeve one is still only about 2 inches. Obviously the dynamics between Fr. Peter and Assumpta who recently got married held my attention far more than the directions did.

I also made these:

It is a chocolate cupcake with brown sugar icing from the book Perfect Light Desserts which I received from my friends Brigid and Kate at Christmas. (They know me so well.) I am not usually much of a cake fan but these cupcakes are so moist and delicious. They are a perfect chocolate pick me up. They have 280 calories, so not exactly light when you eat two of them, but not so bad if you eat just one (a real challenge). The texture is dense but not heavy and the brown sugar icing is a perfect compliment to the rich chocolate taste.

Friday, March 16, 2007

March

I hate March. The month of mud. Because in New England you get these teaser days where everyone says "spring is here" but you know that is never true. It always turns back to winter several times before spring sticks. The crocuses pop up and it looks hopeful on that sunny day until you get this:

Winter storm warning in effect until 12 pm edt Saturday. flood watch in effect from 8 pm edt this evening through Saturday afternoon,

Tonight: snow and sleet this evening, then freezing rain and rain after midnight. Precipitation may be heavy at times. Snow and sleet accumulation of 4 to 8 inches. Brisk with lows in the upper 20s. Northeast winds 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.
Saturday: rain in the morning, then rain likely with a chance of freezing rain in the afternoon. Rain may be heavy at times in the morning. Brisk and cold with highs in the mid 30s. North winds 15 to 25 mph, becoming northwest 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.
Saturday Night: mostly cloudy with a chance of flurries. Lows in the lower 20s. Northwest winds around 15 mph.


There is no place for all that water to go when you live in house without gutters... except for the basement. Now why, you ask don't we put gutters up? Because this house is old and has a hip roof that is slate. In order to put gutters up and to not look ugly, someone would have to figure out how to attach them to these strutt thingys and it would probably have to be made of copper. Not an easy job = expensive. Maybe we should do it ourselves? Hahhahahahahahahahahah surely you jest.

In knitting news, I put aside St.B. for a new quick project. I was browsing AC Moore the other day and they had all their yarn on sale at 25% off. So I picked up some cotton blend yarn to make that little sweater from the Sublime baby book. I had read on someone's post that a particular brand of cotton blend yarn worked up great for baby items because it was washable and held up well despite multiple wearings/washings. I didn't find that yarn, but I found something similar I think. It is 51% cotton and 49%Acrylic. I like to use natural fibers, but with baby clothes washability is important, although not so important that I would use totally man-made fibers any more.

I don't know what posessed me to knit these in pieces like it says to. It makes more sense to knit a raglan in one piece I think. But I didn't do it that way, so seaming will be in my future. I hate seaming almost as much as March. Progress pictures later, as the camera is out of batteries again. (I know, I know, rechargeables!)

Monday, March 12, 2007

One foot of Saint Brigid

Saint Brigid is slowly progressing. I have a foot's worth and it is getting easier to knit, still checking the chart but not nearly as closely as before. I have even ventured to bring it out for knitting in public.
I also found the most adorable baby knits book from Sublime . I bought 2 skeins of yarn intending to do this sweater, but cast on for this hat instead. It was super easy to make. I adjusted the pattern a little to work in the round once the ear flaps were done.

It looks a little like the crown of the hat is too shallow, but I think it is just the angle of the picture. I also started a bootie, but I'm not crazy about the shape. I think I didn't pay close enough of attention to the rows as a I was knitting it, so I think I'll be frogging and redoing. Also, it seems like I should do a provisional cast on so that I can graft the edge together and it will more closely match the other side of the sole. More on that later.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Saint Brigid at One Week

This is all the progress I have on St. Brigid. It is slow going, but I love the feel of the yarn and am determined to get to the finish line even if it's a while from now. I am already on the 3rd ball of yarn which is a bit anxiety provoking. What if I get to the sleeves and I don't have enough after all this work? I started with 20 skeins and the yardage is similar to the pattern yarn. I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Here is a picture of my progress next to the pattern picture...


I don't plan on making mine quite as long as the pattern and I am omitting the fringe. While knitting last night, I watched my latest Netflix dvd: Ballykissangel. It's good motivation to watch while knitting an Irish jumper! I really wish it was still in production, it's a very well done series set in Ireland with a whole mass of great characters living in an idyllic Irish town. I used to catch it here and there on PBS on Friday nights (I think), but at the time my kids were much younger and I never got to watch it every week. So my Netflix queue has the whole series lined up. I love the quirkiness of the characters and the relationship between the priest and the athiest pub owner. It's great, I love Netflix.