Mother's Day Joy

Yes, I'm 2 weeks behind. Yes, I'm playing catchup today. I'm 3 weeks and 2 projects away from the end of graduate school and so my priorities continue to be time-wasters that do not involve knitting or blogging. However, I did want to note my nice little set of Mother's Day giftees.

I was quite bemused the Saturday evening before. The family was discussing a walk, and I suggested we walk to the bookstore. My #1Man and #1Son exchanged glances and said, "Naw, not the bookstore." Me, being obtuse, asked, "Why not?" #1Son said, "Because there's, uhm, a tornado over by the bookstore and we wouldn't want you to get hurt."

His gift to me was the pictured copy of Things I Learned From Knitting (Whether I Wanted To or Not). When I got it, I immediately cracked open the book and sure enough, it was signed! He hadn't even noticed that. I missed the Yarn Harlot's visit, which was a bummer, but again directly related to the amount of schoolwork going down here. So to get a signed book was a nice little gift to make it all better. The book is perfect for an overworked graduate student, you can read short little chapters of knitting hilarity whenever you want to sandwich it in.

As you can see in the photo, I also scored a nicely framed photo, taken by my #1grrl, and a biography of Julie Andrews, Home. As I've long been a fan of Ms Andrews, (Victor/Victoria, anyone?) this was a really cool gift. I'll be reading this on our Monumental Road Trip this summer.

Acquisitions

Check it out! A brand new Laptop Lunch! Actually I bought three of them, although only one is pictured here.



This came from the fine folks at Red Apple School Supply, also home of the Green Apple Earth Friendly School Supplies. I'm sure I sound like an ad, but no affiliation, I'm just glad to support these guys.



I purchased these for myself and kidlets, in support of the new lunch excitement that pervades the household. You see, I browsed pictures of bento lunches with the kidlets, and they were both very inspired.



Now they're making exciting poser bentos, and two good things have come out of this. First of all, their lunches are now packed with colourful and nutritious variety. Secondly, the inspiration is such that they are making their lunches the night before, which makes for much easier mornings.



The pictures show our attempts at making rice balls. I first had rice balls 20 years ago, when us Canadian teens (college age) had cultural exchange parties with some Japanese teens who were attending an English school in our town. We fixed nachos, which was a common party food for us at the time, and involved sprinkling grated cheese on chips and broiling it in the oven. The Japanese girls fixed rice balls, which were far more labour intensive. As we watched them assembling this lovely feast, we were shamed by our lame little addition to the party. The rice balls were so delicious, too!





I attempted making rice balls with the kids a four or five years ago. I had googled some recipes and gave it a try. They were not very impressive, and the kidlets didn't like them. I asked some Japanese mothers at school, and a very nice mom had her husband pick me up some rice ball molds while he was in San Francisco. I'm afraid I was too intimidated to try it again. But now, with the kids so excited, we ventured into that cultural adventure again. We used the molds, which work great. And since they made them themselves, the kids liked the rice balls.

a finished object!

I've been participating in the Sock-a-Month knit-along for over a year, now. I do like the regular discipline of ensuring that I finish at least a pair a month. My wavy socks, started in March, were slated to be my April pair. I didn't turn the heels until the final Sunday before April ended, but I still maintained high hopes of finishing them in time.



Unfortunately, as bedtime approached on April 30th and I was still knitting up the leg, it became increasingly obvious that I wasn't going to make the deadline. While examining my options, it became clear I had two choices: Miss the deadline, or cast off where I was, just so I could finish in April. The socks were at that moment as tall as crew socks, but I have noticed that the socks with a little extra height quickly become my favourites, so I really wanted to add a couple more inches to the socks. I finally admitted that finishing the socks too short was sheer foolishness and admitted defeat.



On May 1, I attended a band concert, and I had enough sitting time to finish the socks, and even did the bind off while enjoying high school jazz. I did a bindoff I believe was recommended by Bordhi, where you bindoff with two strands held together to give the cuff a braid-like appearance. It looked lovely but unfortunately was too tight.

The socks languished, finished but imperfect, since then. Today I was preparing to attend a knitting circle. I know it's a vanity, but I like to wear a pair of hand-knitted socks when I hang with knitting buddies. A peek in my drawer showed that all my hand-knitted socks were in the laundry! (Yes, I know what I'll be doing all weekend.) So I pulled out my finished but imperfect socks, ripped out the bindoff, and finished them with an EZ sewn bindoff. It took me 45 minutes, and I was able to wear the socks to the knitting circle. It's not really showing off, it's more like show-and-tell, or maybe like a group identification object, like the Red Hat Ladies and their red hats.



Pattern: wavy rib from More Sensational Knitted Socks
Architecture: Riverbed Architecture from New Pathways for Sock Knitters
Yarn: Araucania sock yarn
Needle: Addi Turbo Size 2 circular
Notes: For the heel, I dropped down to a size 1 needle. This made a nice tight fabric for the heel. It also attempted to compensate for me knitting the foot a little long, but obviously didn't compensate enough, because when I look at the picture above, I can see the heel is a little baggy. These socks were my first try at a garter stitch toe, as shown in the picture below, and so far I'm pleased with the results.



Unfortunately, when worn, the wavy pattern disappears and it becomes rather blocky, instead.

Life happens, too

Since I'm mired in a slow-knitting quarter (though I do have a finished object to show when the batteries charge), I just thought I'd poke my head into blog land, say hi, and share a few tales from the real world.

Hi!

Yesterday afternoon, my daughter asked if she could have a brownie. I replied "Yes, if you eat three baby carrots, first." We both wandered upstairs to munch on baby carrots. She liked them so much she decided she didn't even want a brownie anymore and took the bag of carrots outside to share with all her friends. Go figure.

Last week, my 13 year old son announced somewhere around 7:30pm that we needed to make cookies for the bake sale tomorrow. Oh really? I whipped out my classic Better Homes and Gardens cookbook to look at a few ideas, and he decided that macaroons looked simple. Now I know that blending eggs to a soft peak and stiff peak and all that is not simple, but I didn't bother to squash his enthusiasm. Especially since we had all the ingredients on hand. The first step is to separate the eggs. He was familiar with the process, so he must have witnessed it at a friend's house, because I assure you, I don't separate eggs on a daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis. He wanted to try it, and the first egg went really well. I showed him how you separate them into a different bowl, so that if you goof up one egg, you don't contaminate the entire batch. The second egg... well he cracked that egg open and wouldn't you know? There was a yolk in both halves! I laughed so hard. What a time to get a double-yolked egg! Incredibly, although we had 2 yolk-escapage events, I was able to scoop them carefully out without incident, the egg whites were not contaminated, and we were able to acheive the proper peakage. There was an emergency call to my mother mid-process, but the line was busy! We had to proceed without advice and the macaroons turned out delicious.

Actual knitting progress

At last! The weather is lovely and i can sit outside and knit at lunch. I turned 2 heels this weekend and i'm working steadily up the leg.

Enthusiastic winner!

 

This fresh in from cafe press--my very own Rainey Sisters mug! It now sits on my desk at work, regularly filled with tea.

I won it in a contest sponsored by these fun knitters. On their post they said:

Finally, Sally’s daughter and her little assistant (who helped with the random drawing), really wanted us to reward the very first person who entered the contest for her enthusiasm. To keep the results from being tampered with or chewed up, we agreed. Therefore, a mug will also be going to Valerie.

When I read that, I was very tickled, and bemused. As a kid, I was known and regularly mocked for my enthusiasm, and I immediately thought, "This is the first time something good has come from it!" The first thing that came to mind was the grade three Christmas program, where our class had to stand up and sing in front of an audience full of parents. I have always loved to sing with a group, and I assure you, I belted it out. It never occured to me to notice if everyone else was belting, too, why should that be my concern? My siblings laughed at me later and told me that they could hear me loudly over the rest of the class.

Enough reminiscing, this post is mostly to say, thanks for the mug! Hurrah!

What's in progress

 

Yesterday I finally updated my progress page on Ravelry to show all my current works in progress. These are all projects I consider "active" and I work on them all from time to time. It was discouraging to see these projects side by side and accept how slowly they have been and will continue to progress.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of knitting time available to me right now. My life right now includes:

• Family duties


• Full time work


• Internship 10 hours a week


• Final quarter in graduate school, a major research methodologies course


• Completing my portfolio, the equivalent of a thesis


• Applying for a number of jobs which all come open this time of year


• Going to interviews for these jobs without using up any time off because I need it for my graduation/vacation journey at the end of the term.


• Daily walks or other exercise, without which I go completely batty and everything else falls apart

Sadly, few of these tasks are knitting friendly. There is occassionally knitting at work on lunch time, and sometimes family duties can include knitting while I talk/snuggle/hangout/whatever with my Most Important Peoples. I have been known to knit and walk at the same time, but I've noticed that I get less exercise under those conditions, and also I get crampy shoulders and arms.

Because of the slow knitting progress, there's not a lot to blog. I can't bring myself to blog: Look, here's the broad spiral ribbing an inch longer than it was last week!

Acquisitions

This is the spot where normally I would show off all my new yarn from shopping in Seattle. If I remember correctly, I have shopped in Seattle on every residency trip I have made. However, on this my last residency trip, I did not make time to shop for yarn. This was a combination of being OHMIGODTOOBUSY and OHMIGODIHAVETOOMUCHYARN. The latter may have been inspired by a small bounty from Knitpicks that arrived the day I departed.

You see, my coworker wanted to order some needles from Knitpicks, and she needed some purchases to pad her order up to the free shipping minimum. Naturally I had to help out a friend in need!

Thus I now am the proud owner of some Felici in the colourway Arugula, and some Shamrock in that blue colourway. (whatever it's called). I also acquired a Harmony size 3 circular needle which I have since misplaced on the disaster that is my desk at work.

 

Thrice as nice

Live from baggage claim... Travelers every where are celebrating the sock's progress. It has tripled its length during travel. Sadly, it will be promptly neglected.

Knitting on the road

Live from the SeaTac airport... Yes i had several works in progress, but i always like a special travel project. This shows my total progress for the short trip. I did have to rip out several rows yesterday because apparently i cannot count to 3 while attending class.

Let's be blunt

This garter-stitch toe makes a remarkably blunt toe. I continue to be bemused by the whole thing, and suspect it will wear well. Time will tell.

The pattern is an elongated version of the wavy rib from More Sensational Knitted Socks. I do a six-row repeat instead of four-row, which works better with the Bordhi 3-row increase pattern.

Knitting In Progress Report

I have been practicing project monogamy, of sorts. Sorts, in that monogamy indicates faithfulness to one, while I have been working on faithfulness to two. I have been steadily knitting upon Jeanie and Pomatoes. I have a very spotty record with Second Project Syndrome, and being that I needed to knit the pomatoes one at a time, I knew I was at High Risk of never finishing the second. So no matter what other projects beckoned, I restricted myself to the two at hand.

Okay, okay, I did swatch. A little. But I refrained from casting on!

With the pomatoes off the needles, I am free free freeeeeee to cast on at will. We start with a glimpse of spiral ribbing from More Sensational Knitted Socks. This is knitted with my Middy Duets. The cuff is made from exactly half of the contrasting yarn, a feat made possible by my new and beloved scale.




This morning I started on a pair of socks that will once again utilize the Riverbed Architecture from New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I was about to start a standard toe, but then I decided to explore the garter stitch toe. The following photo illustrates the start of a garter stitch toe. So far, I'm quite entertained by the different construction.

Pomatoes--The Finished Objects

Pattern: Pomatomus
Started: Feb 15, 2008
Completed: March 16, 2008
Yarn: Miranda, of Sweet Sheep Faerie Feet
Needle: Knit Picks size 2 circular

Acquisitions

Woohoo! I am now the proud owner of a digital scale! The application possibilities for this item are endless. First of all, we can determine that one Hiiumaa sock weighs 38 grams, and the remaining yarn weighs 43 grams. So I know now I can safely make one more Hiiumaa.



We could also determine that one Frogtastic Surf Sock weighs 34 grams, while each remaining ball weighs 55 grams. Therefore, quite a tall sock can be made with the remaining yarn! Also, clearly, I only needed one ball for a pair.



Most fascinating to me has been the ways my #1Grrl finds to use it. For example, she decided to determine the mass of marker ink, although she didn't quite articulate it that way. So she weighed a wooden craft stick (aka non-sterile tongue depressor) and then coloured the heck outta that stick and weighed it again. To her delight, the weight had increased by one gram!



Then we weighed a roll of quarters. One roll is 40 quarters and a value of $10. The roll weighed 228 grams. A single quarter weighed 6 grams. Using our math, we determined that based on weight, the roll probably held 38 quarters, or $9.50. Then we counted the quarters, and discovered that it did indeed hold the proper quantity of 40. This spawned plenty more measuring and the conclusion that... We need a more accurate scale. We've not even had it a day and it's already obsolete!

Acquisitions

If it followed me home, could I keep it?
Araucania sock yarn, hand dyed in Chile. Completely irresistible.

Slow & Steady

Not always a lot to blog about, I just keep on knitting. Jeanie's at about 10 inches now. The goal is 70 inches. I try to work on her every day, at least a few rows. That fell through yesterday. Pomato is getting so close to the toe that I just couldn't stop working on that. Best I can tell, one more chart repeat and I'll be onto toe decreases. Have I mentioned what a tactile delight the pomato is?

Mindless knitting report

As I mentioned in my previous post, I needed some mindless knitting for Saturday night. I needed something so mindless I could knit it in the dark. Finally, Saturday afternoon, I was able to put aside the pomatoes and attend to this issue. I needed a yarn not likely to get uppity on me, so I picked one of the balls of Limbo I got on discount not long ago. As I only had one ball of the yarn, I decided they would be socks for my #1grrl, who doesn't have any MamaMadeSocks at the moment. The plan was: toe up socks, short row heel, and the same easy rib from Sensational Knitted Socks.

I did indeed knit on the socks that evening. I had hours in a theatre, and when it was dark, I knitted fervently on the new socks. Admittedly, when it was light, I knitted on the pomatoes.

Come Sunday morning, I measured the new socks--they were 4 inches long. I browsed through New Pathways and for some reason, decided these socks should actually be the Dove Socks in that book. This was courting danger, for not only do those Bordhi increases suck up lots of yarn, but the Dove pattern was committing me to a predetermined height for the legs. I had to be sure I had enough yarn to reach the top of the big diamond. And indeed, as I worked on the increases, I could see the ball of yarn steadily decreasing. That's when I decided I needed to use an alternate yarn for the heels. My daughter was free to pick out her preferred heels.



The yarn did indeed make it to the top of the diamond. I even got four rows of ribbing above it! I knitted until I completely ran out of yarn, as shown in the photo above. Then my daughter changed her mind about having a bindoff that matched the heels, and I had to pick back a row and a half in order to have enough yarn to bind off.


Finished Object!
Started: Feb 16, 2008 (3pm!)
Finished: Feb 18, 2008 (11am!)
Yarn: Limbo
Needle: Size 5 Knitpicks Options circular
Pattern: Dove Socks from New Pathways. Toe up.



I love the incongruous heels. The little touch of whimsy* completely delights me. Oh, the joys of homemade!



*about whimsy... Imogen in The Blue Girl had a very specific definition of whimsy. I'm not sure if dayglo heels conforms to her definition. But I still think of those heels as a touch of whimsy.

Bossy little faerie

Things aren't going quite as planned. First, let me make it clear... my enthusiasm for Jeanie has not waned even a bit. The thing is, I need some mindless knitting for tonight. Planning ahead, I picked out a yarn yesterday morning. I wound Miranda, my Sweet Sheep Faerie Feet, into a ball, and purused Sensational Knitted Socks for a nice little easy rib pattern I could do with my eyes shut.

That's where the trouble began. Miranda made it very clear that she was not interested in some nice and easy little rib pattern that I could do with my eyes shut. No, ma'am. Turns out, Miranda wanted to be Pomatomus.


As you can see, Miranda was completely right. Not that I ever doubted her, of course, it's just lovely to see the proof. So now I have two beloved but complicated projects in the works... and no mindless knitting yet for tonight. Sigh.

pansy progress

Jeanie is making steady progress. Although it doesn't show in the picture, I have started dropping stitches. This development is both thrilling and alarming. When the shawl gets a little longer, I'll have a better view of the overall picture.

just in time

Just in time for a new weekend, here is the weekend report from LAST weekend. Things like dead camera batteries, strange computer alerts, and a captivating new project kept this update from happening earlier.

I went on a finishing binge this weekend, which was well-timed. First, I finished the little brave babe that has been languishing on my bedside table. She still needs a complete wardrobe, but hey! she's got hair!



I have a pair of BBS (Big Black Socks) for Socks for Soldiers that has been making turtle progress (slow and steady). This weekend they got that final push and were done.



Also finished this weekend was a set of fingerless gloves for the older kidlet. They still need some decorative efforts, but would you believe I've lost that ball of yarn? Hopefully I'll find it this next weekend.