Knittymom

I stand correctly....

knittymom — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:47:50 GMT

"I stand correctly." one of my current favorite sayings from my DearSon. ( It's right up there with, "What the huh?". ) I think, in his 6 year old brain, that he has heard, "I stand corrected." but that doesn't really make sense whereas, "I stand correctly." makes considerably more non-euphemistic sense. In any case, he uses this phrase correctly as it pops out when he has been proven to be right. Too cute.

There has been knitting as well and I think I've been craving a bit of color this winter. Granted "winter" is a bit of a misnomer as we have had very little snow and the temperatures are absurdly warm for February. But, it's wester NY, so we have got the winter grays.

See? Bright! Bright! Bright! (You know, the more you type "bright" the weirder it looks.)

Details:
Yarn: Chroma in Lollipop and Brava in white from Knitpicks.
Pattern: Peace-out hat by Marinda Maritz also from Knitpicks
Mods: Instead of using the backwards loop cast-on I used a knitted cast on to provide a more stable edge. I also twisted the tassels a bit differently than instructed. A tassel that was made up of 12 pieces of yarn, I made two bunches of 6. Both of these bunches I twisted the same direction, then twisted them together going the opposite direction. Then tied the tassel off. Tassels stay twisted this way.

Future Mods: If I were to knit it again, I think I may do the ear flaps and brim in garter stitch as the edges have a tendency to roll.

Both Chroma and Brava are very soft and didn't receive any comments from DD#2 about itchiness.

One more picture just for good measure.

This skirt, also knit in a near rainbow, I knit the bulk of it during the summer but, as it wasn't the right season to wear it, didn't feel the need to finish it until recently.

Thank you DH for taking the pictures and following my amazing directions like, "Hold the camera the other way." and "Does it look good on me?" (Because, the first one isn't specific and the second really only has one right answer. Ever.

Details:
Pattern: Lanesplitter by Tina Whitmore from Knitty.com
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in color 185
Mods: Shortened the skirt to knee length.

I love the colors that Noro puts out. I wish it was a tiny bit softer -- it has some serious wool prickle. I would love to use it for knits for gifts but it's just too risky. (Risky? Not usually a word associated with knitting. But, if you spend 10 hours of your life knitting a gift that isn't used because of itch, then there's some risk involved.) Luckily, I'm quite immune to wool prickle and can wear everything from Noro to Lopi (all 100% high prickle factor wool.).

A partridge in a pantry!

knittymom — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:45:59 GMT

Thank you DearSon for the most memorable chorus of the season. I loved listening to you sing the "Twelve Days of Christmas" ending with a full throated "And a partridge in a pantry!!" .

OK so first off Happy Week One Birthday to my brand new and perfect nephew!!

Doesn't that picture just make you want to snuggle. Congratulation DDS and DDBinL! The best Christmas present in the whole world was having everyone healthy and happy!

Here's our Christmas family picture.

Please excuse the lack of feet -- I balanced the self-timed camera on top of the toad's aquarium. So this was an amphibian assisted photograph.

This one is mammal assisted (me) so the picture is actually centered.

Thank you everyone for my thoughtful gifts! I loved watching all of you open yours.

Here are my yarn related Christmas and birthday gifts! Thank you all! I will spend hours reading and knitting and thinking of you.

And an extra "Whoot! Whoot!" goes out to my DearBrother for this pile of wooly goodness. (I thought you would appreciate a double "whoot". Bet you don't get those often.)

Merry Christmas everyone and have a happy New Year!

(Yup, I knitted that Christmas ball. Actually I knitted a bunch of Christmas balls in this style. One might even call it a bit of a Christmas ball bender.

Um, Happy December!

knittymom — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:05:43 GMT

I know...another rather long break. I really don't know what's happening to the time. I really enjoy blogging so....here we go.

I think the first project I want to share is what my brother refered to as being "hard core". I don't know if I've ever been "hard core" at anything so I'm kind of enjoying the designation.

When DY#1 and I went to the Finger Lakes Fiber Fest this year, one of the things we were looking for (OK, one of the many things we were looking for) was a fleece to purchase, process and spin. We actually ended up finding 2: One from Amy Klee that is a lovely gray border leicester and another from Nistock Farms which is a white CVM/Corriedale cross. CVM is one of the more dangerous sounding breeds of sheep which is why, I think, everyone refers to it by its initials. Look out for the California Variegated Mutant!

Here it is in its raw bagged glory. I seemed to have not taken a picture of the gray fleece in the bag.

Here is the washing process. Both fleeces were actually very clean as the sheep were coated. Yes, coated. Yes, they make little coats for sheep. Yes, that does seem a little redundant as they're sheep. Yes, it keeps lots of vegetable (and other) matter out of the fleece enabling the shepherds to get a better price for their fleeces from spinners.

Dried and carded into fluffy white clouds of wool ready to be spun.

Beautiful yarn!

I opted to take another route with the gray fleece and pulled out some washed and dried fleece to over dye.

Royal purple dyed in a crock pot.

I played with quite a few colors with this batch. I can't wait to see what the resulting yarn looks like!

Here's a pile of purple fluff after the fleece has been carded. This colored fiber is going to make some really special yarn.

Here are a couple of completed skeins from the fleeces. The gray yarn has lots of luster and the white is just the bouncy and a pleasure to hold!

And just for grins, some kid pics:

Enjoying the first snow on ....November 11th! That is so late in the season for a first snow! (Of course, it's now mid December and we still haven't had a snow that sticks around for any more than a few hours.)

And not to be accused of being too behind, Halloween pics: a mime, Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter. (And, why yes, I made the scarves, thank you!)

Oh, you're back

knittymom — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:33:31 GMT

Well, that was quite the hiatus. Sorry about that.

First:

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!

21 wonderful years! (Does that mean our marriage is now legal?  Could it go off and drink on its own now?)

And what does one receive from a wonderful hubbie on a 21st anniversary? Apparently, the 21st anniversary  is for ice cream!! Not just any ice cream but my very favorite flavor ever! He had it shipped here overnight from Buffalo after calling in a special request to Anderson's (yes, the restaurant of beef-on-weick fame) corporate. Behold!

Two quarts of Anderson's Graham Cracker Ice Cream.  Have I mentioned?  He's good! Really good! (Oh, and it's only a summer flavor so Holly Anderson, of said corporate family, called local restaurants to see which one had any left. So, thank you too, Holly!)

Anyway..... so there was....

The first day of school.

And a trip to Corning Glass works where we saw...

Beautiful glass objects of art.                                                     Ancient glass.

Unusually shaped glass.                                                A glass flute.

And one case of ugly. Sorry, that isn't actually fair. I don't really have an issue with the glass, what can perhaps be described best as, a butt.  The artist rendered that shape accurately and it's certainly an interesting use of color. (Perhaps the artist wishes his/her butt was this colorful. Perhaps it already is.Hmmm.) But...the other object. Clearly the artist is extremely talented but a world of possibilities and he/she went for a clown. A clown?! A glass clown. Combines creepy and fragile. Best of both worlds? (Please see my long running issues with clowns.)

And, of course, there was the Fingerlakes Fiber Fest. My all time favorite fiber event of the whole year!

There were cute animals!

Wonderful DD#1!

And, of course, yarn!

More to come on purchases made and activities since.

Family Vacation: Part Last

knittymom — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:23:23 GMT

Yup, finally coming to the end of family vacation pictures. Last I left you, we had finished up at Old Mystic Seaport and we were off to explore the other attractions around Mystic.

The next big event was the aquarium in Mystic. Now we have recently been to the New England Aquarium in Boston, the National Aquarium in Baltimore and Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. The aquarium in Mystic......one of them. Though it isn't on the scale of any of those, it is nicely done for the scale and size that it is.

Their main exhibit was the large outdoor pools with beluga whales.

Also in outdoor pools were the touch and feel rays. They were used to being hand fed as when you put your hands in the water, they nibbled fingers. Odd being tasted by another animal.

Really where this aquarium excelled was in the small animals department.

The boardwalk over a swamp was an interesting exhibit. Lots of frogs! Frogs are cool.

And here is a picture that makes me wish I could paint.

And what aquarium would be complete without a bunch of budgies tent. (I think it was actually billed as the "Birds of the Outback!" but "tent of parakeets" is much more accurate.) Total hoot regardless.

Everyone received a popsicle stick with bird food glued to it to attract the birds which flocked around each new human entering the tent. Some people dealt with this en masse interest better than others. The occasional screams from the entrance let you know which kind of person had just entered.

Oh yeah. There was the ocean.

And lobsters....

And submarines....

And giant dinosaurs....

Perhaps the submarine and dinosaur warrant a bit more explanation. We went to the US Submarine Force Museum which everyone found interesting. I love museums with hands-on displays. And The Dinosaur Place (Yes that was the name. Creative that.) really was a total tourist trap. But a well done tourist trap -- the scale dinosaurs through out the park were accurate and scientifically labeled. And I mean recently scientifically labeled, not the 1950's labels that sometimes accompany dinosaur models. And you have to enjoy a human sized maze where you get to be eaten by a giant dino head at the end. (Though we could have done without the college student dressed as "Lady Lava" and the "erupting" volcano was less impressive than a 2nd grade science experiment.)

That concludes the Ross Family Vacation 2011 -- thanks for flying with us.

(More yarn, spinning and knitting to come.)

Vacation: Part 2

knittymom — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:07:06 GMT

Before launching into vacation pictures, here are a few knitting/yarnish type items.

Here are the goodies acquired from Webs, the yarn store in Northampton, MA. Actually the green Woolies cup was a gift from my DBIL (Dear Brother-in-law) which he brought back from a trip to Ireland for me. (Everyone knows I have thing for wool.) The brightly colored Woolies cup came from this trip to Webs. The pins say "Koolade -- it's not just for drinking anymore." and "Spinning because knitting isn't weird enough." Boboli is a new single ply yarn from Berroco that should make some lovely mittens and the 3 colors of Berroco Light are for a kerchief.

And here's the result of about 16 hours in the car...

That is the main body of a Lanesplitter skirt designed by Tine Whitmore knit in Noro Kureyon yarn. I had a lot of fun (and a little bit of frustration) getting the colors to line up the way I wanted. I wanted a progression from warm to cool colors and back. My plan was interrupted more than once (5 times to be exact -- Grrrrr.) by knots and broken color sequences within the balls of yarn themselves. I know, I know. Noro kureyon is know for that. Still seems like something they should be able to fix.

OK..back to vacation pictures.

Last we left, I was still reviewing our time at Old Mystic Seaport.

It's hard to think of sailors without thinking of tattoos. There was a detailed and interactive exhibit of sailors' tattoos. How do you make an exhibit about tattoos interactive without bringing home a permanent souvenir, you ask?

Here is DD#1 adding a non-conventional tatoo to our 19th century model.

And here is DD#2 getting her first tattoo...

via a clever use of overhead projectors. Of course, it says, "MOM".

And DD#2 and DearSon had to add a little body art to our favorite sailor...

DearSon's reach left artistic options at a bit of a minimum.

Mystic was the largest boat building port in the 1840s and they are still building and restoring boats here.

This is the stern of the Charles W. Morgan, a whaling ship from that time. I'm not sure when restoring becomes building a replica as one of the carpenters we spoke with said about 80% of the wood below the water line has been replaced.

In the spirit of ship building, the kids got to build their own versions of wood sailing boats. (I should have built one too -- looked like a lot of fun. Instead I manned the hot glue gun for DearSon.)

Most of the buildings, displays and exhibits were interesting and inviting. I happened on this exhibit of figureheads in a sunken, darkened room in the same building as the tatoo exhibit.

Dimly lit torsos in a hushed hall -- gets the award for creepiest exhibit encountered.

Here are a few superlative pictures from Mystic...

Prettiest picture. (One of those mansions across the river built by a sea captain later belonged to Katharine Hepburn.)

Cutest picture of kids.

Spectacle resulting in the most time spent scratching our collective heads. Wheel chair. Deserted dock. Hmmmmm...

Next time -- the aquarium and naval base. (And of course more fiber fun!)

Vacation:Part I or Gee, it's hard to count gauge in the car.

knittymom — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:43:22 GMT

Summer. Finally. Long awaited and glorious.

I now have a 1st grader, a 4th grader and a 7th grader. Amazing. The first thing we do after the end of school is pack up and bug out as a family for a vacation to relax and reconnect. This year we headed to points east. First to Herkimer, NY to play in the diamond mines (aka double terminated quartz crystals) and then off to Mystic, Connecticut to play by the sea.

Herkimer delivered fun in the form of wandering around giant open pits and breaking big rocks into little rocks.

They have hammers and aren't afraid to use them!

Beginning of the excavations.

Excavations continuing.

And continuing.

Off to find better hunting grounds.

The pit mines aren't the prettiest places but right between the two is this lovely little stream. Central New York is really very lush and a bit bucolic.

So after that... Have I mentioned that I knit? ...... Stop that laughing back there. .... Well, of course I have. The biggest yarn store east of the Mississippi (that was fun to type), is in Northampton, MA. Just a short detour off of I90. Way, way, too much fun was had here.

Maybe not quite Mecca for fiber enthusiasts but darn close.

So then we were off to Mystic. Here's a set-up shot..

And another of the town itself.

Yes, I timed the shot so the lift bridge was up. Double points for that.

I found my near Nirvana experience in Webs yarn shop and Mike found his just inside Mystic Seaport.

Pretty much any day, a "Wall of Fudge" sounds like a darn good idea.

We went for the prerequisite harbor boat tour. The boat was a steamer complete with burly man shoveling coal into the furnace powering the steam engine. Surprisingly quite engine compared to a typical internal combustion one. (While we're discussing surprises -- I had no idea Connecticut was so hilly and forested.)

Really what kid wouldn't grab the wheel and give it a spin.

And yes, there is more vacation coming and yes, I knit during the 16 hours we spent in the car and back and have a nearly completed skirt to show for it.

And...why is my font so large. I feel like I'm yelling..... (Added later: Apparently it's the font is only large while I'm editting. It looks fine published. Put that one on the list to figure out....later.)

Living on the edge...

knittymom — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:34:19 GMT

Spring has sprung. Finally.

So I'm living on the edge and packing away the warm woolies at the beginning of June.

It was a long wait but finally, we have flowers and a garden and kids outside without 99 layers of clothing.

So here we have flowers....

Garden.....

6-yo included for scale.

Parade....

Everybody sing, "I love a parade!". Was that Ester Williams? No, she is the swimmer. Ethel Merman.

Our spring duck visitors.

DearSon and I have fed these guys before school quite a few mornings.

And what is this?

This is the sum total of a huge silly string war in the backyard. DearDearSister tells me that I actually hold the veritable napalm of the Dollar Store world in my hand. Apparently there are a perfusion of America's Funniest Home videos of this stuff dramatically bursting into flame at weddings and birthday parties and such as it is sprayed near candles. Because fire and celebrations are funny????

And from the files of "What the .....?!"

We (DearSon, me, his kindergarten class and assorted other chaperons) were waiting for the ladder truck demonstration at the fire safety field trip to the firehouse when what should we hear trundling down the street? The street cleaner. Now, mind you, it had be raining, no, dumping buckets, for at least a half an hour. Why would one try to run the street cleaner in such weather? The brushes were doing a tremendous job of pushing the water out of the overflowing gutters, into the street, where it promptly ran back into the gutters. Useful.

I've mentioned this before. As I mom, I occasionally hear phrases come out of my mouth that I never really thought I would utter. Today I actually said, "I don't think your monkey nut is quite in the right place." Ponder that one for a moment. Are you pondering? Now consider, what was understood but not said was the remainder of that phrase..."I don't think your monkey nut is quite in the right place for the rubber golf ball to land in it after you shoot it out of the miniature catapult that you built with your Dad." Clear? Quite the image, yes? And just in case you think I'm joking....

Behold! The monkey nut, rubber golf ball and miniature catapult.

And of course there has been knitting and spinning. I'll include some new fiber fun in my next post.

Where the heck have I been?

knittymom — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:20:00 GMT

It has been a while, hasn't it? I have been using my spare time to organize, upload and print pictures from our last two family vacations. It took quite a while but now we have nice hard cover books to remember our vacations to San Francisco (2009) and Colonial Williamsburg (2010).

So what kind of knitting has been going on in the interim? Lots and lots.....

Peep socks

One of my most favorite sock patterns for my DDS. I wanted to match the actual colors of peeps which are a nearly fluorescent yellow and bright pink/salmon color. Needless to say I couldn't find commercial yarn that quite met my requirements so I dyed some myself. The yellow is a very saturated concentration of Jaquard yellow. The pink/salmon was harder to come by -- it is also a saturated combination of Wilton Cakes rose, Kool-aid pink lemonade and Kool-aid strawberry.

How cute are those?

Pattern: Marshmallow Bunnies by Debra Baker (a Knit Picks Pattern)
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare with lots of dye
Mods: I changed to US 1 - 1.25mm needles for the picot top. The top is still a little bit large around but the sock is short enough that it doesn’t fall down. I also knit the pattern with 1.25mm which fits fine but I wouldn’t want it to be any tighter. After the decreases to 64 stitches, I switched to 1.5mm needles which is my usual needle to get the proper gauge for the narrow adult female feet in my family.

Shalom Cardigan

This pattern has been knit by literally thousands of people, 4,400 on Ravelry at last look, so I knew it had to be a great pattern that was easily altered. Here's mine:

Pattern: Shalom Cardigan by Meghan McFarlane
Yarn: Noro and my own handspun
Mods: Lots of modifications although not because there was anything wrong with the original. I just wanted a sweater for keeping warm so I added long sleeves, buttons all the way down the front and length so that it hangs to my hips rather than my waist.

It may seem like the Noro is the star of the show but really it’s the cushy dark coffee brown in my own handspun from black coffee fiber from Robin Nistock. (Nistock Farms fiber) It was a joy to spin.

Show-off Ruffle Skirt

Pattern: Show-Off Ruffle Skirt by Kat Coyle
Yarn: Knit Picks Cotlin in Blackberry (6 skeins)
Mods: Following in the foot steps of other knitters, I lined up the bobbles and reduced the number of bobble rows. I didn't really mind knitting the bobbles but at 25 stitches each, they were taking some serious time. (And, yes, I counted.) I also left the slit as a design element. I added a simple slip underneath the top part of the skirt for, well, obvious reasons.

On the spinning front

I demonstrated spinning with DD#2 at Lollypop Farm days and as part of the deal, they were extremely gracious to allow us to have pick of the fleeces shorn that day. So I came home with two -- a white merino cross (probably??) and a grey romney cross (maybe??). The white one was really dirty but since it was free, I just tossed the really nasty bits. Here it is splayed out in my back yard -- it came from an impressive sized sheep!

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the grey fleece. But I washed up and spun some samples from each and they came out quite nice. I like the bounciness of the white fleece and the color of the grey.

It has been good practice for washing and processing a fleece. I definitely have a better idea of what to look if I decide to purchase a fleece.

Order makes all the difference....

knittymom — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:57:00 GMT

If I was going to tell a story with pictures paying attention to the order in which the pictures are displayed....

This story would be the happy sound bite that would make the evening news....



Sadly, this is actually what happened...



The ending... completely buried...

So pretty, yes, but 4 solid months of snow cover may be about enough. (And I generally like winter. I think the snow is pretty and I can bundle up in all of my woolens.)

Anyhoo, on to knitting...

I finished some socks for my wonderful Dad. I couldn't have been more pleased when he asked for them at Christmas. One of the many wonderful aspects of knitting is that it gives you a chance to think about the person for whom you're knitting.   I enjoyed knitting lots of love for a great Dad into the many stitches.

Pattern:   Garter Rib socks by Charlene Schurch (I've used this pattern many times before because it makes nice stretchy socks that are forgiving as far as fit is concerned.)
Yarn: Berroco Vintage in Oatmeal. 1.5 skeins.
This yarn is really nice for socks becuase it is machine washable and holds up well to wear.

Spinning:

I finally got around to playing with our tensioned lazy Kate. (Sounds a bit like an oxymoron, doesn't it?)

Clever little device that stops the bobbins from spinning freely when plying.

Housekeeping note: Unfortunately, I had to move to moderated comments due to the amount of nasty spam showing up. So if you post a comment, it may take me a few hours to approve it and post it. So be assured, the control over the comments isn't anything you have done, or you, or you in the back row.   Unless you're the one offering me various dubious "services" that you are apparently all too ready to provide and if you are....stop it.

Please don't hammer on those bananas.....

knittymom — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:37:00 GMT

I have been a mom long enough that I can rip off a phrase like "Please don't hammer on those bananas.", without even batting an eyelash. I'm not sure why DearSon picked up a small wooden mallet and started to pummel the bananas but he stopped when asked. Although, as you would expect, that poor bunch of bananas are a bit bruised.

Also happy Saint Patrick's Day!

I've got a Saint Patrick's Day joke for you. What's green and sits on your porch? ...... Wait for it. Wait for it. Patty o'Furniture! (OK, I didn't say it was a good joke but it makes me laugh every time.)

There was the traditional building of leprechaun traps. Sadly, the leprechaun got away this year again. Apparently he found some yarn laying around the house (Imagine that?) and used it as a rope to get out of the large glass and shimmy over the block wall.

And lastly for now. If you had to pick one thing to not fall out of the refrigerator door and smash all over the kitchen floor, what would it be?

Simply said, a full glass jar of horseradish. The consistency of the horseradish is somewhere between liquid and grainy solid that resisted my attempts to mop, sweep, or soak it up. So between the consistency, the glass shards and a smell that chased large and small out of the kitchen, it was not a pretty clean up.

I have some pretty impressive knitting blocking that I'll be ready to show next post.

(PS: If you're looking for way to help Japan, here's a link to the Japanese Red Cross. You will have to convert dollars to Japanese yen. Here's today's conversion rate.

Total donation in yen = 78.4900 Japanese yen x (amount in dollars to donate)

So if you want to donate $10, you would enter 785 yen (rounded). )

Probably a bit random

knittymom — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:11:00 GMT

This looks like it's going to be a random type post....

First some knitting:



1. My neighbor asked me to knit a hat for her niece who goes to school in Minnesota. The mascot is a bulldog so I thought it would be funny to intersperse a traditional Norwegian star hat with the bulldog logo. I tried unsuccessfully to draw a bulldog myself but found a pattern for a bulldog washcloth on Ravelry by Lisa Milan. Here's the link .   So I charted it from the written instructions, played with gauge a bit (love the math!) and came up with this hat.

2. I've been working on a new sweater.

The basic pattern is the Shalom cardigan from Ravelry by Meghan McFarlane.  I know it looks like the Noro Kureyon in fall shades that I used for the yoke is the star of the show but for me it's the cushy dark coffee colored yarn that I spun from fiber I bought at the Fingerlakes Fiber Festival** from Robin Nistock . I have spun other of her fibers before and all of it is beautiful! I also heavily modified the pattern. First because the pattern is written only in a size small with a CO of around 65. I cast on 80 and altered all the measurements for the yoke, back, front panels and arm holes proportionally. I'm also adding sleeves and buttons all the way down the front. I can't wait to finish the knitting and block it. Shouldn't take too much longer.

(** The spell checker suggested "Fingerless Fiber Festival" which would really be just tragic.)

3. What is with the spam comments appearing on my blog? The security on my blog used to protect me from comment spam but now every day I have to delete a smattering of comments touting products/services in which I have no interest.  Here's a list of some of the recent unwelcome visitors.

licensed vocational nurse medication aide training (because legitimate schools use spam to advertise (??!!)),
partnership dating and single services (What are "single" services?)
phentermine 37.5 without prescription (I had to look this one up. It's a diet aid in the amphetamine class. Legal?) ,
polysorbate-80-for-hairloss (I recognized this as a food additive. It's a nonionic surfactant and emulsifier derived from polyethoxylated sorbitan and oleic acid, and is often used in foods. Polysorbate 80 is a viscous, water-soluble yellow liquid. Suggesting that it has a use for hairloss.....interesting......)
the magic Donut Maker (Does it make magic donuts or donuts magically?)
links to the cabbage-soup-diet (um...I like cabbage but yuck!)
yachting services available in Australia (truly useful in Upstate NY)
and abacus ads (well actually, an abacus might be fun....).

2. Although I really like a dog better than a cat for a pet. If given a choice between the two, I would much rather come back as a cat rather than a dog.

3. Things that taste gross together: Peas followed by cafe mocha. Tomato sauce followed too closely by chocolate covered marshmallows. (Don't ask why I know these things.)

4. Two foods that taste surprisingly good together: Sushi followed by red velvet cake. Really weird but they make a tastey combination.

(Warned you that this was going to be random.)

5.

I have no idea how DD#2 and DearSon managed to roll a snowball this big onto the sidewalk.

6.

February was also for Daddy/daughter dances.

7. Please note random numbering of random thoughts.

Sharilyn Ross, Professional Knitting Instructor

knittymom — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:10:00 GMT

Yes, that is correct. I am actually getting payed to talk about and teach other people how to knit. (OK, not a huge amount. Turns out sharing knowledge on knitting isn't quite as valued by society as say filling in tax forms or catching footballs.) But still, how cool is that?!    I taught my first classes at our community center last Tuesday and had a total blast. I met a lovely group of ladies (not surprisingly, all women) ranging from pre-teen to post-retirement.

My DH surprised me with these to congratulate me after a successful class. (I'm sure I've mentioned before that he is a good man.)

Now follows some other random bits:

1. It was a colorful Christmas:

Yup, yarn gifted out right. Yup, yarn bought with a gift card. Yup, books about yarn. And, yes, that is 176 different shades of eye shadow. It's a wonder it doesn't take me 3 hours to decide upon what color combination I'm in the mood for on any given morning. Thank you all!

2. It has been cold.

And I don't mean chilly. Cold. That's Fahrenheit and we're not even talking wind chill, people. I generally don't mind winter, but the deep freeze is getting a bit tiresome.

3. What do you do when it's sub-zero outside?

Go see a (comparatively) nice warm hockey game.

Go Rochester Institute of Technology Lady Tigers!

We enjoyed it!

4.   What else do you do when it's sub-zero outside?

Continue on my knitting fingerless mitts jag. These are for my dear MIL.
Yarn: Universal Yarn Classic Shades
Needle: US 5
Pattern: Susie's Reading Mitts by Janelle Masters
Mods: Added a bit of length to the thumb and hand so that knuckles would be sure to be covered. The yarn is just lovely. Soft and the colors are saturated and rich.

5. Meet the new(er) additions to our family

Fish. It's surprisingly difficult to take a picture of rapidly swimming fish, in a fish tank (of course -- where else would they be. It would be much easier to take a picture of fish flopping around on dresser. But the ending would be bad.) , backlit against a window.    You really can't tell but there are 3 zebra danios, 3 red (they are clearly orange. Don't know who named them.) platies and one black molly.

And our last fall addition.

Meet Toady (and a rather too trusting cricket). Toady was rescued from our neighbor's window well in late November.

A few minutes after the above picture, the cricket moved.


Clearly this is a suicidal cricket, or Toady and this cricket have reached an uneasy detente. That picture was taken yesterday afternoon. I haven't heard any cricket chirps this afternoon. So much for detente.

Toady took a trip into DearSon's kindergarten class for show-and-tell this week. In this picture, Toady had just pooped, clearly Toady has mastered public relations for the 5 year old crowd.

6. Thank you Tim Horton's

I was just starting to bemoan the loss of Tim Horton's holiday season peppermint encrusted chocolate dipped chocolate donut when this came along.

A peppermint encrusted chocolate dipped, chocolate filled heart shaped donut. Oh, my. And, thank you.

So what did I knit for Christmas...

knittymom — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:48:00 GMT

The last few blog posts were a bit light on knitting because so much of my knitting the last couple of months had been geared for knitting warm snuggies for Christmas gifts. So here is a picture of the 2010 Christmas Collection:

And for reference purposes and just because I like to number things. (Trying to impose order on my fairly chaotic world I suppose.)

In order we have:
1: Ruffled Scarf from One Skein Wonders: 101 Yarn Shop Favorites
                 Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky
                   I've knit this pattern before and it is a pleasure. Reasonable fast for a scarf and with some fun details.

2-4: Plain sock patterns with yarn that I dyed myself
                    Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK bare
        2: Classic Buffalo Sabres colors  -  I'm really pleased with how these came out.


        3: Camouflage colors - I was actually trying for more of a olive color but the dye broke (too much acid?). But as they say, "it was a happy accident", as I really liked the gold/greens that resulted.
        4. Fun with colors pooling. Burgundy, green and gold. One of my very favorite color combos.

5. WWII Watch cap pattern by Helen Waittes
                    Yarn: Cascade 220
                    Great stretchy pattern if you're knitting for someone with a head size you're not quite sure of. (Or should that be, "knitting for someone with a head size of which you aren't quite sure". ?)

6. Yes another pair of Maine Morning Mitts. (Yes I still have an unstoppable attraction to this pattern.)
                    Yarn: Noro Kureyon -- Not sure of the colorway
                    This is my go-to pattern for fingerless mitts. The mitts are made with lots of ribbing so they fit a variety of hands. Great for gifts.

7. Baby Fan mitts
                    Yarn: Sublime DK - Lovely yarn made with merino wool and silk
                    Made for my MIL who I such a pleasure to knit for. I had to take a whole repeat out of the pattern so they would fit her petite hands. (Lovely mitts made from lovely yarn for a lovely lady.)

8. Another but different patterned watch cap: Seaman's Cap by Brenda Zuk
                    Yarn: Cascade 220
                    I really like the way the decreases were handled at the top of the hat. They made a cool swirl.

9. Owl mitts by Sandra Satre
                    Yarn: Berroco Vintage held double
                    What fun!

10. Cabled mitts made from Mom's Cabled Mitts by Jessica Jensen
                       Yarn: Noro Silk Garden - 1 skein thus the "mismatchiness" of them.
                        Another one of my go-to mitt patterns.

11. Ohio State colors hat
                        Yarn: Handspun from fiber from Spunky Eclectic

12. Cabled mitts made from  Mom's Cabled Mitts by Jessica Jensen
                       Yarn :  Plymouth Superwash Merino.

13. Unnumbered in the middle of the couch. ('Cause there's always some chaos)
                        Scallop-Edge Beaded Necklace by Carol Metzger in 101 Designer One Skein Wonders

(If you would like to look up patterns and examples, check out Ravelry. They're all there.)

Phew...Did you get all that?!

And now for the most unfortunate ice formation ever to appear at our house.   We found this on the top step outside the sliding glass door to the back yard.  Although I will share it with you, I'm not going to make any further comment except it isn't a winter palace.

OK. Sorry. Couldn't actually end with that so, here.

Walrus cupcakes. Better. Yes?

Things that go kwangangangang in the night

knittymom — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 12:02:00 GMT

It's the classic horror flick set up: Late at night. Kids in bed. Hubbie away traveling. The glow of the television flickering across the face of a woman on the couch knitting needles flying in her hands. (OK, maybe the knitting part isn't classic horror flick.) A night shattering crash outside the window nearest her. Fear.

Except the noise went "kwangangangangangang". It was loud. It was night shattering. It was certainly not scary. Clearly the silliness quality of the noise is inversely proportional to the primal fear that it can inspire. Perhaps in order for a noise to cause an instinctual fear, it must trigger a reaction that dates back to the dawn of humanity when we had to worry about what vicious things were wandering around the plains at night that might actually eat us. And I got to tell you, nothing potentially lethal ever went "kwangangangangang" because my heart rate didn't jump one beat. Near as I can figure, I large icicle broke off the roof and hit the wires that enter the house causing the them to vibrate. Not scary. End of story.

Oh and by the way....I FINISHED MY CHRISTMAS KNITTING YESTERDAY!!!! No one gets only one sock. No one gets three quarters of a scarf. No one gets a hat with needles still in the crown.

Merry Christmas! Happy Winter Solstice! Happy Hanukkah (late, sorry)! Happy Kwanza! Happy Holidays! Have a splendid whatever!

Cripes...that's a lot of snow

knittymom — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:05:00 GMT

Yes, I know we live in western NY. Yes, I know Buffalo is only 70 miles to the west. Yes, I know Buffalo is synonymous with prodigious (perhaps seemingly perpetual) amounts of snow. But, geez, this lake effect snow event (can't really call it a "storm" as it happens so often and it's not really vicious, just constant) is, well, a bit surprising.

Cripes! That's a lot of snow!

I don't know why we're still receiving a satellite signal. The dish looks completely plastered.

The icicles off the front porch are so delicate and a bit sublime.

The neighborhood kids were busy in the backyard on Sunday. (This is before the additional 16 inches of snow that has fallen since then.) They pretty much hoovered up the snow in the back yard and converted it to a Cask of Amontillado type snow fort. And, I counted. There were 8 kids. Didn't lose anyone in the snow. Every kid who showed up to build the fort, tromped next door to defrost and have popcorn and hot cocoa. (Love our neighbors!)

Going back another day to Saturday.... (prior to any snow fall)

We went to snag our Christmas tree from the usual place...

Yup, that's the one.

Decorations were hung.

Including everyone's favorite.....

Headless Nut Baby. (Headless Nut Baby did have a head at one point long ago. But has been lost, probably to the bottom of a plastic bin, and is now only a memory. I wrote about Headless Nut Baby and a few other of my favorite ornaments a couple of years ago here .)

And completely unrelated...

Something green and fresh.

DD#1 had a hydroponics unit her technology class and brought home fresh and very tasty lettuce. (Can anyone else think of other possible uses for hydroponics?)

And my new favorite breakfast food.

I like oatmeal. I love dark chocolate. Adding dark chocolate to oatmeal definitely cranks the oatmeal up a major notch. Yum!

And my new favorite snack...

Chocolate dipped donut sprinkled with crushed peppermint candies. Thank you Tim Hortons .

(There is lots of knitting going on right now, but it is all Christmas related. So the discussion of recent projects will be a few weeks off.)

Happy December!

knittymom — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:15:00 GMT

And just like someone flipped a light switch.....it's December and winter all in one day.

Happy December, everyone!

My day with Jared Flood

knittymom — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:14:00 GMT

No, that's not the name of some superficial human interest news story. And for those of you who are thinking, "Who in the name of all that is wooly is Jared Flood?". He is a successful knit wear and yarn designer concentrating on classic lines and very wearable garments. Link here . And it really wasn't just my day with Jared Flood. The day consisted of one group class and a lecture and the lecture included an audience of hundreds. So it was certainly a shared experience but it was a lovely day knitting, learning about knitting, talking about knitting, listening to someone who has made a career of knitting and sharing the experience with other enthusiastic knitters. (Pretty much a perfect day.)

I took a class from Mr. Flood on his popular Girasole design. (Girasole means sunflower in Italian.) Here's a link to an entry on his blog where he shared the design for the first time. Take note of his beautiful photography. I believe he said that photography was part of his university studies and he uses it to its fullest effect to show off knitwear and fibers. (Note to self: I have got to figure out how to manipulate depth of field with my camera.)

The class was in the Cornell Extension building which is a serious built-in-the-1950's-doubles-as-a-Fallout-shelter type of building. Here's Mr. Flood teaching our class. I don't know when I'm going to tackle such a large lace project but I picked up a bunch of useful lace knitting tips and had a bit of interesting knitting to show for playing in the class.

OK, I am showing my extreme knitting geek-a-tude as I asked him if I could take his picture...with me. Yikes. He graciously agreed. (Ever have a day where no matter what you do, your hair just decides to have a mind of its own resulting in you trying to wrest it into submission by pulling it back into an unflatteringly tight ponytail. Yup, this was the day.)

Later that evening , he joined our knitting guild later for a lecture which was just delightful.

It's only my 3rd meeting since I joined the Rochester Knitting Guild and I still can't quite get over the number of people who attend. And at this meeting there were several hundred people (OK. Women. With the exception of Jared Flood and a janitor, I saw no other men amongst the throng.) enjoying the lecture.
I particularly enjoyed the pictures of his texture collages that he uses to inspire a mood for garment design. Beautiful pictures. I also enjoyed that he brought a number of the actually garments (a la trunk show) to view and touch. I have a few designs of his in my knitting queue. Oh, and did I mention some of the garments were knit with his recently launched yarn, Shelter. Shelter is just the kind of yarn I like - heathered, tweedy and "al dente" (i.e. soft enough by with a enough wooly-ness to have a little bit of tooth).
Also on my list to knit with at some point.
Like I said, a totally enjoyable day.

On a different note, I spun an angora blend from the Spinning Bunny a few weeks ago and knit them into some mitts for DD#2. I noticed right from the start how warm and soft they are but I really couldn't see the angora in the fabric. I just had to wait until they had been worn a few times -- the fabric has bloomed beautifully and now shows a lovely halo of angora.

Here they are enjoying a romp outside in the leaves on DD#2.
Fiber: Angora/wool blend from Spinning Bunny Yarn: Handspun on my Kromski Sonata. 2 ply about sport weight.
Pattern: Mitt design by Susan Sarabasha from Spinning Bunny
Mods: Sized down to fit a child. Started and finished with K row, P row, K row

The power of word order and capitals

knittymom — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:31:00 GMT

Item 1:

On the way back from a weekend in Niagara Falls, Canada, we passed a large billboard for a major supermarket in Buffalo. On the billboard, in large yellow letters next to a smiling well dressed butcher, it said....

Meat cut fresh daily!

All other things being equal, I would certainly prefer...

Fresh meat cut daily!

There's definitely a difference.

Item 2:

No wonder so many people don't want to go into politics. Talk about high stakes.

Actually, the local paper properly capitalized Louise Slaughter's (US House of Representatives) name so the headline does make sense to read. Still reading the headline out loud, makes me laugh.

Item 3 -- Seasonal stuff

The kids had their annual romp through the pumpkin patch.

We had our annual picture in the pumpkin patch.

There is a petting zoo at the pumpkin patch and apparently this is what happens when you cross a sheep with an Ewok.

Of course, after pumpkin acquisition, we had the annual gutting of the pumpkins.

We had a great bunch of pumpkins this year: large and not too goopey.

And for Halloween dress up, we had an angel, Queen Amidala (Movie 1 - Victory gown, for all of you Star Wars aficionados), and Luke Skywalker (Movie 6)

Happy 20th Anniversary

knittymom — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:59:00 GMT