first world problems

One of my biggest problems with getting entries done is pictures. I want to show you all pictures of my work! But I seem to be in this technology limbo, similar to what I felt ages ago when the internet was a new frontier.

I have a camera, a pro flickr account, an ipad, and a desktop computer, so everything should be easy? yes?

Well actually no.

You see if I take pictures with my camera, I have to download them onto the desktop, and then move them over to Flickr. The quality is good even if the photographer is bad. I just need to remember to take the pictures, and then download them. And then if I just dumped everything to flickr right then, well half the work would be done.
Problem is, I often forget to take pictures. Then when I do remember, it takes me a long time to get the camera downloaded. Then usually someone needs me before I can do anything with my downloads. Or getting the downloading to the computer and then edits (usually rotating or cropping) and uploading again take up all my allotted blog time (and I must get back to my life outside the computer).

I could and do take pictures with the ipad, which I use more than the desktop computer on some days (my husband is currently working at home, so the ipad has become my "laptop."). I didn't buy the camera connector kit because I figured I didn't really need it, as I can connect to the desktop. But the ipad does have a camera. I just don't always appreciate the quality. Plus it took me longer than it should have to figure out how to get pictures from the camera roll onto flickr. (an iphone app for flickr exists, but not an ipad app--and the uploader from flickr uses flash I think--anyway won't work. But iphone app works!)

An example of the quality is this picture of the poodle skirt in progress:

A little grainy for my taste.

So, what this means is that most of the days that I have time to write something, I'm relegated to the ipad and usually I don't have a photo that I want to share already on flickr--or even on my camera half the time. So then I have to decide, grainy photos taken on the ipad as I'm updating (and WHY are they so grainy?!) or entry first, pictures second (really it takes me two days to get one entry?) or no entry?

I don't have answers. I wish I did.

Oh I do have a sort of answer--I'm thinking of going over to the dark side for Christmas/holiday gifts. Yes, novelty yarn. Specifically Redheart sashay scarves. If they had a lime green colorway, I'd probably already be casting on for a gift, and I may still do some discreet "what color appeals to you" poking around. These just seem like the kind of hip thing that wouldn't take much in the way of technique and yet would still impress.

September

So September escaped from me. For some reason I always always think: "once school starts I will have SO much time!"

I'm not sure if that means that then I put off stuff until school starts and I spend September playing crazy lady catch-up or if it really is that busy. Maybe both. I know I certainly worked my job like that, I did only what needed to get done (without working ahead). Meaning of course that when school started I was behind.

Also indicative of life right now is the fact that my nine year olds have somehow morphed back to preschoolers. The two paragraphs above took 20 minutes to type because suddenly they need me for everything from mediating arguments, to keeping them from getting into everything. I swear I need to babyproof more now than I did when they were 3.

At any rate, here is a project update:

-Halloween costumes! Yes, they have begun. Every year I think maybe the girls get too old for this, but I hope I have a few more years. Anyway they chose to be a 50's girl (complete with poodle skirt) and medusa.
I was initially worried because medusa started as bride of frankenstein and as we talked, the only sense I could get of what the bride of frankenstein looked like had to do with hair. As I was trying to figure out how to do the hair, she casually mentions: either that or medusa.
Well my brain started ticking and let's just say, this will be one cute medusa.

Progress on these is slow, but I do have medusa's hair underway and have mostly finished the blouse that goes with the poodle skirt (saving the buttonholes for that mythical time when I can concentrate).

-Knee socks. I started the second knee sock and have gotten the foot done, and started up the leg, not quite to the point of the increases yet, but I'll get there. I am a little sad that she won't be able to wear these with shorts, as the weather has turned cold, but eh, she'll figure something out.

-Misc. I have started thinking about Christmas, especially my gift knitting. My daughters are in different classes this year and so that doubles the teacher gifts. Also, the aide in one daughter's class has been the aide for her class every year except first grade. She manages to balance helping her assigned student and helping the class as a whole, and so I have in the past knit her a gift too. Since I've known her a few years, I was thinking socks (plus she always admires mine), but I'm debating how to figure out her size.
Also complicating things, on the farm field trip I learned that one teacher is allergic to wool and alpaca (or at least sensitive to it). So no wool scarf for her. But I'm debating about what replaces that.

It hasn't been all busy busy busy, I had time to enter a contest run by the lovely Annie Modesitt on her blog (which you should be reading if you are not already, because she not only has fabulous insights into knitting, but she's funny to boot). And I WON! A skein of buffalo gold earth lite. (I think I got the name right--I'm too lazy to get up and go look at the label, despite it being draped over the arm of my knitting chair, where it has been since it got here). In the contest you had to say what you'd use it for and I thought a scarf. It is too small for a scarf but would work for a cowl. Although after draping the yarn around my neck (yes, I am weird but BUFFALO people), I'm not sure I could wear a cowl for very long. So maybe fingerless gloves it will be.

I'm open to suggestions, on knitted teacher gifts, sneakily finding a person's shoe size, or what to do with 200 yards of red buffalo yarn.

sorry

In almost a month you'd think I'd have SOMETHING to show you. Something finished and marvelous or at least edible.

But no. I have finished a Christmas present I can't show you, canned some tomatoes (and forgot to take pictures), and finished this sock:

Halloween costumes are on the agenda, as well as the second knee sock. My goodness that was a long long sock to knit. I'll try to be better about blogging now that the girls are in school.

canning

Ok this post isn't about knitting. But it is about what in some ways is behind the idea of summer knitting. Getting ready for winter. Every summer I feel like I gorge myself on fresh fruit and vegetables and mourn that one day winter will come, and all that goodness will be gone!

And really that's what the freezer jam is all about. Saving some of that fresh fruit for when you can't get it any more. A way to save strawberries and peaches and cherries when they are at their best.

I also freeze cherries, blueberries, and peaches. The cherries I use in chocolate cherry crisp, which is as good as it sounds. The peaches get used in cobblers or crisps and smoothies. The blueberries get eaten frozen (and used in stuff but I prefer to eat them frozen). I'm weird and frozen is the ONLY way I tolerate blueberries.

I also freeze sweet corn. At any time in the winter there will be a piece of summery goodness I can drag out and dream of the days of butter dripping down your chin. (I prefer the cook for 10 min, ice bath, cut off the cob, but I do understand you can freeze them on the cob raw). And I've tried freezing green beans, but they didn't taste all that great to me. I've frozen tomato sauce as well, but found it to be eh.

What I have never tried, until this year, was canning. So this year I did a bunch of research and discovered that for most of what I want to do, waterbath canning would work. Green beans sadly need a pressure canner. So I bought one of those "discovery kits" that ball sells.

It comes with 3 pint jars, and a basket that you can list out of a stockpot. And I THOUGHT my big pan was big enough. Alas, it was not. So I purchased:

It was on clearance, even though the red ones were full price. Go figure.

Peaches are up first. Now this spring was very wonky here in Michigan. We got 80 degree days in March. A bunch in fact. Enough in fact to cause the fruit trees to think it was spring and start to leaf out. And then it got cold again. In fact we had a frost in May (which isn't unusual--our last frost date is May 25). The cherry crops were decimated, as were apple and peach. My regular vendor for cherries had NONE this year. Sour cherries, already on a short season were here for exactly one week. During which I washed, pitted and cut 5 quarts of cherries. Ok, but back to peaches. The same vendor that I buy cherries from has the best peaches I have ever tasted. And this year they lost 70% of their crop. They started showing up at Farmer's market with peaches about 3 weeks ago.

Of course I bought some to eat. We can finish off 1/4 peck easily between market days (twice a week). Then a week after that we bought more. I've made one batch of peach jam (probably all I'll make). I have enough peaches frozen for a cobbler or crisp (my step father loves cobblers, I prefer crisps and I usually make one or the other during their annual visit).

I also went a little overboard and bought um a whole peck at a time.

But this year, canning was the thing. So I surfed around the ball recipe site (which has a terrible search function) and found the only recipe for peaches was honey spiced peaches. So I made those.

They look brown with all the spices and the honey. I had leftover everything so I made popsicles out of that. (sorry no pictures, we ate them before I could think of it.)

But of course, I have this whole community of people who pester give me helpful advice and so I searched around some more and realized you can just make a plain simple syrup (of varying sweetnesses) and cold pack peaches and pour hot syrup over them and process. So I did that.

They look prettier.

Tomatoes are just starting to come in and we're hoping to get a bunch from our CSA (yes, I am hardcore--I do 2 farmer's markets and a CSA every week--and we eat most of it--we do lose some to spoilage because even I cannot eat 20 cucumbers in one week--and we aren't big into pickles), and so next up several variations on tomato sauces/crushed tomatoes.

Anyone have any good recipes they like for tomatoes?

Entrelac

For a long time I have thought about trying Entrelac.  At least ever since I saw Danica.  I think I even decided to make it and bought some light blue yarn for the accent squares.  I never quite believed it was as easy as they said it was. But then I started seeing what people were doing with noro yarns and entrelac and Stubled across the most beautiful scarfs.  I don't have that much silk garden in my stash, but learning the technique would be a good first step.  So I dug through my stash for leftovers.

At the same time, I had decided that it might be time to conquer my fear of the dollar and a half cardigan (it isn't) and dug out the Interweave knits with that pattern in it.  Coincidently that issue (Spring 2007) has an entrelac tutorial in it. Then came a rainy day when the girls wanted to watch a  tv show we'd taped (and I wanted to see it too or ahem, I needed to ff through the commercials for them) It seemed like the fates were saying--do this.

And so I did:

It was pretty easy too.  Now to figure out how to justify the pruchase of 4 skeins of noro silk garden.

Gray sweater

The girls are at daycamp this week and I've never felt so productive or so worn out as I have this week. Today for example, I pitted 4 quarts of sour cherries and made jam (1 batch) and froze the rest. Sour cherries make excellent cherry crisp, and there is nothing better in my mind than having warm cherry crisp in the middle of a cold winter.

There must be something in the preparations for a cold winter, because today is the second installment of "kid sweaters I've finished when it got really hot."

This one is again made from Knit Picks Brava Worsted and again on US size 6 and 7 needles. The pattern is central park hoodie. This is the third I have made. Because sizing runs small (you didn't want to button it did you?) I made her a small women's.

I love how it turned out.

I only missed one cable, but it is hidden by the hood.

She does love it. When they get cold in the mornings (because after a week of upper 90s, 72 feels chilly) they both run for their sweaters. I also have tons of pictures of her posing it it, mostly in her nightgown, so I'll spare you all that.

And because we love a good button photo:

purple panda sweater

In looking over the pictures I took of the sweaters, I realized that I don't have a lot of suitable pictures of the gray central park hoodie. So instead I guess I'll separate the sweater entries.

First up is what we are referring to as the purple panda sweater. In fact I should probably update the ravelry page to call it that. At any rate, I made this for my daughter who loves purple and pandas. The yarn is Brava worsted by knitpicks. I used size US 7 needles and basically created the pattern by using the top down raglan calculator. I added a hood using other patterns as guidelines for length and shape. Instead of ribbing, I used seed stitch for the edges, and used a buttonhole I found in The Knitters book of finishing techniques.

And we were very happy with the finished product:

Given that it was over 80 outside and 77 inside and she sat there wearing it until we said--really aren't you hot? I'd say she likes it. It wasn't even as big as I thought it would be.

And just in case you missed it we're calling it the panda sweater because two of the five buttons are pandas. Purchased 1/2 price at Joann's!

travel socks

I just got back from vacation. We left our house in Michigan, drove to Indianapolis, then on to the Champaign, Il area for a family reunion, then up to Chicago (and Skokie) to hang and see the sights and then back home to Michigan.

I finished the sweaters before I left, but they deserve their own post. When I left I decided I'd start a pair of toe up socks and try to photodocument my road trip with them.

I had very limited success.

Here we are at the Indiana State line. When I realize that this probably isn't going to work.

The beef house is right along the IN/IL border and was always a fancy place to go when I was growing up outside Champaign, Il. We stopped for lunch there and couldn't resist the photo op.

After trying on the socks, I decided to start the first heel at the IL state line:

People were mocking me at this point about the sock, and so when my mom insisted I take her picture with the sock, I did and then put it away

Well until we were in our hotel and then I had to have the girls stuffed animals pose with the socks:

Stillwater the panda

Harry Otter

I finished the first sock as we headed back to Michigan. Then I started the second sock and immediately got second sock syndrome. I did work on it some, but we've been home a couple of days now and I'm not to the heel yet. There is something to be said about taking more than one project along even if you know that the one project will be enough travel knitting. Plus people really do mock you when you whip out a half completed sock and try to take pictures.

I need something new so the second sock can be my travel take along project.

procrastinate

I am the biggest procrastinator.

I usually put off things though for specific reasons. Well one reason really: I don't want to do it.

So it probably comes as no surprise that the one thing holding me back on the purple sweater was the button holes. It wasn't that I didn't understand how to do them. I watched this video:

It was just that I was going to have to swatch to be sure that the size I made fit the buttons. And you know what? I didn't want to do that.

I mean I really did not want to do that.

I'm not sure why--after I finally decided that if it was going to be done in a quiet house while I was awake and alert, it needed to be done today --it went easy.

Seriously easy. Like less than 1/2 hour easy. The panda buttons will work with a 3 stitch version, the smaller buttons probably would work with a yarnover, but to keep consistent, we'll do a two stitch buttonhole.

Now to actually do it.

button button who has the button

On Saturday, I hauled both girls off to Joann Fabrics because our local store was having a Memorial Day sale and buttons were 50% off. I love it when sales correspond with my needs and I get a good bargain.

We ended up spending $11 and getting buttons for the purple sweater, the grey sweater AND my poor black calorimetry. So yep, three projects and the buttons would have been $22. Now everyone knows why I was so excited by this sale.

What does $11 (or $22) buy you?

These are for the purple sweater. I'm going to have to do some swatching to be sure I get the buttonholes right--since we have two different sizes. I kind of wish she'd have picked just one kind.

She's my panda queen so this was not unexpected.

The grey sweater is getting these

Which I was surprised at, but they look nice with the grey.

And my poor neglected Calorimetry gets a sparkly button, that hated the camera.

Now I guess I don't have any excuses for not finishing and better get knitting. (and sewing).

Sweater update

As we head into summer (last weekend marked Canada's unofficial start to summer, and Monday marks the US start to summer), I head into the final stretches of sweater construction.

I picked up my daughter's sweater again, after a nice weekend where there was actually no mouthing off about anything. I adjusted the sleeves and picked up all the stitches for the button bands and decided on which buttonhole stitch I was going to use. I marked where I wanted them and knit up to the row where I would need to put in buttonholes and then realized that whoa, I need to know what buttons we're using.

And coincidently Joann Fabrics has buttons 1/2 price starting Friday.

So, I picked back up on the gray Central park hoodie and am almost to the armhole shaping.

I feel like I'll finally have both sweaters done, and then no one will want to wear them until September. I know it isn't true though--I use a lot of cardigans in the summer. In fact, in the summer, you can usually find the following in my trunk: 2 camp chairs, 2 pool noodles, 3 sweaters. I find that this is all you need to be prepared in the summer. And I can't tell you how many times, I've ended up fishing out those sweaters for cold stores/restaurants/movie theaters. (My husband is never cold, which is why there aren't 4 BTW) So while these sweaters probably won't be shoved in the trunk, they'll be what gets grabbed when we KNOW we're headed someplace cold. Or when nights turn chilly. Plus, they'll still fit in September.

I have resisted the lure of the felted project but I swear I feel the pull of the wool that the local fabric store carries (they carry about 4 or 5 lines of yarn, not a HUGE selection, but some basics). Plus I know there would be great fabric to line it with. But I am strong! Not strong enough that I can go through patterns for ideas though.

I am not sure why, but it seems that I am always making sweaters in May. Or finishing sweaters in May.  At any rate, I know I always think about making sweaters in fall and winter, but it seems that by the time the temperatures start rising, I'm sitting there dreaming of how people in this house will look in their new sweaters.

Last May I finished my all wool Central park hoodie in time to wear it maybe twice before putting it away for the fall.  And this year I'm on track to finish two sweaters in time for memorial day!

I am feeling better about the purple sweater.  We've had a good weekend with little eyerolling and huffing and sighing, so perhaps we've turned a corner.  In the mean time I started in on a sweater for her sister.  She requested "something with twists like this" while pointing to my blue central park hoodie.  I looked around to see if anyone had done any smaller measurements to that pattern, and on ravelry, most of the kid sized sweaters had the helpful information of "I just scaled it down." Gee thanks.

I measured the girl in question and realized she's only a few inches away from the smallest size in the pattern.  I also know from the two I knit that it runs a bit small.  So I decided that I'd make her the smallest size and my "scaling" down would mean that I'd make 3 instead of 4 inches of ribbing, and I'd watch to make sure the length was appropriate.  I may have to shorten the sleeves a bit too.  

I have the back done, and about 3/4 of the left front, so it is zipping along pretty fast.  After I finish the left front, I'm going to finish up the purple sweater sleeves and then I'll need to find a day or two when I can sit and think WHILE I knit and figure out the button band*. 

*I want to do all the edging in seed stitch as one long piece (pick up 2 gazillion stitches) and put in the button holes as I go, so I need to a) decide which side to put the button holes, b) figure out which method to use, and c) mark where the button holes should go.  Given that most of my knitting is done after a full day of stuff, this gets to be a bit much to ask of my regular knitting time. 

I'm having a bad case of starter-itis though that I am having to fight. It seems that all I really want to do is knit something I can felt.  The sweaters are winning based solely on not having enough feltable yarn to make anything.  So I've been promising myself that after the sweaters are done, I'll be making a felted bag (maybe) that is lined (maybe) in some funky fabric.

project on hold

I'm nearly done with the first of the kid sweaters. I had an entire skein of yarn left and so offered to add a hood. The hood offer was accepted, and so I started knitting a hood.

Yesterday, I was knitting what I felt must be about the last few rows on the hood and then tried the sweater on my daughter. She complained that the sleeves were too short (which means they actually came to the perfect sleeve length--a first for me!), us agreeing that perhaps an additional 1.5 inches couldn't hurt, and then I put the hood on her.

"Almost there!" I chirped.
"not if you expect me to *wear* it" she snarls back.

Oh my.

We've dealt with increasing sassiness, increasing rudeness before, but never have I been so shocked and quite frankly devastated. How long have I been planning this sweater, so everything is just right? Months. I've been actually knitting less than a month, but I agonized over style and swatches and patterns before I started actually knitting. What came next was me slipping it from her shoulders and as calmly as I could saying, "I don't really feel like knitting more on this tonight. I think I'm done working on this for now."
Of course there was more, she's had this attitude for a while and this wasn't the first incidence of her rudeness even last evening. But man that hurt.

So here's what is left to do: lengthen the sleeves, finish the hood, add the button bands/edging. However, I think I'll be setting this aside for a while and maybe working on her sister's sweater. I don't like knitting something when I feel angry or resentful. Plus, even though she apologized (and honestly not the snooty one that came when I called her on this), I think I still need some time.

mango jam

I think over the years I have made so many batches of freezer jam that I could probably do it in my sleep.  But yesterday was a first for me.  You see every batch of freezer jam I have ever made has been with fruit grown locally. Well sort of locally.  Strawberries and blueberries both within 10 miles of my house and peaches and cherries purchased at farmers market from a farm that is a few hours away. 

 Yesterday though, I decided to make mango jam. Mangos are not local to Michigan.  But I love mangos, particularly Ataulfo mangos (and actually didn't realize that all winter I've been looking for the champagne mangos I had last year and had been seeing them all along under a different name!).  They are for me, easier to tell when ripe, easier to peel, and easier to cut.

I've been buying them every time I go to the store, usually to use in lassis. Although at times they've been getting too ripe too fast and then I've been freezing them.  (cut and peeled) And they've been getting cheaper as the season wears on.  They are delicious in smoothies and lassis. 

If you've been reading a while, you know that I love Certo brand Pectin. And I happened to have some leftover from last fall's peach jam fest. The certo recipe book says mango jam should take 4 medium mangos, 6 cups sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice and two pouches of certo.  So when I saw mangos at the store on sale for 2 for $1, I bought 6, hoping that would be enough and knowing if it was too much I could freeze the leftovers.  Well, Ataulfo mangos are smaller than the "normal" (Tommy adkins?) mangos and so, this jam really needed eight to get to the 3 cups mashed. Thankfully, I had enough in my freezer stash.

Mangos on the counter all lined up ready to be peeled and chopped.

I did one cup fully blended, as I do sometimes with peach and strawberry.  I like my jam chunky but blending 1/3 of it makes mashing manageable. (you could blend the whole thing, but then your jam won't be chunky)

Six cups of sugar later...

Ok a note on sugar here.  I have friends who have literally gasped out loud and looked like they were going to fall over at the amount of sugar required.  I don't worry about the sugar because first it is jam and the definition of jam is sugar preserved in fruit and second I don't eat huge globs of it raw, I mean what do you put on a PBJ a tablespoon?  two maybe.  Ok, I do love me a huge glob of jam on greek yogurt but even then I think I max out at two tablespoons.  If the sugar thing bothers you, you can buy a different brand of pectin that calls for less sugar.  I know they are out there and a facebook friend posted a recipe that used some insanely tiny amount of sugar.  So go for it!  Personally I like the sugar, but if I ever started eating jam straight out of the container, I'd probably switch too.

I didn't photograph the pectin step, because I was getting my kids ready for bed and got distracted, but I added it and dealt with many many complaints about teeth having already been brushed as I was ladling jam into containers (mango jam and toothpaste not really being compatible tastes) preventing kid tasting.  

We had mango jam for breakfast this morning and the verdict is mixed, but basically everyone who likes mangos to eat plain liked the jam. And I thought it was especially tasty on my strawberries and greek yogurt. 

Updates

I don't have many pictures to show today because, while it has been sunny enough to catch my purples at their truest, it has also been so windy as to blow every thing away while I compose a shot.

I did though want to say that I blocked my purple scarf and it looks fabulous. I even wore it. I even took a picture of myself wearing it. But then after I wore it I realized that probably after two wearings it is going to need to be re-blocked.
 

 I also have been knitting fast and furious on the purple sweater. So much so that on Saturday April 14th I realized I had given myself a blister from poking my finger on the knitting needle pushing the stitches along. I'm on the second sleeve now--the sleeves tend to go faster for me. Also, contrary to my usual sweater MO, I am not feeling the "yarn pinch" as I still have 2 skeins of yarn. It made me realize I could add a hood!

 My other daughter wants a central park hoodie. And while she's too small for the smallest size, it is close enough that I'm thinking I could probably shrink it down. So, I'll be swatching that soon. So many things to knit, and hopefully many more lovely days in which to bring my knitting with me to the park.

Darn it! no! Reknit it!

My local friends of the library has 3 used book sales every year in which they sell donated books and magazines. Well at the sale (or rather the pre-sale because I'm a member!) I scored a whole stack of Interweave knits magazines. I bought 15 of them even though I had a few thinking I'd sort out what I already owned and let my knitting friends choose from the leftovers. One thing I like about the older magazines is that you can really tell which styles are "classic," they are the ones that still look good 12 years later.
Another thing I like is that the articles can be really helpful. So when I saw that the Winter 1998 issue had an article on repairing your knitting by darning and a few other methods I decided to save it. Good thing too because I discovered to my horror a hole in one of my hand knit socks.


So I decided to dig out this magazine and read the article and try, not just darning but maybe something new (because I already darned some socks). Of course it took me a while because somehow even though I have no qualms about knitting in public, or making homemade jam, or baking bread I seem to have in my head that "mending" is old fashioned old lady work.
Which is stupid because I don't think "mending" things around the house is old fashioned or delegated to old ladies. I think of that as practical.

So today I decided to get over this and read the article and figure out what I needed. Lo and Behold, I learned several things. First is that you don't need to darn, you can re-knit. AND if you don't have a hole yet, you can swiss darn. So today, I reknit this hole.

First I gathered my supplies:
The magazine, the sock, the extra yarn, several sets of needles as two sizes are needed, and a tapestry needle.
I forgot to include my egg and my scissors. But I had them.
The first instruction was to make the hole square--which meant making it wider! It also was supposed to be an odd number of rows.

Then you were to pick up stitches using a needle two sizes smaller than you originally used, two before the hole, all the way across to two after. How were you supposed to know what size needle you used before Ravelry? I have no idea. But I looked on ravelry and discovered not only did I use size 2.25mm needles, but I finished these socks last July. So tsk tsk tsk on longevity! I'd have more to say about this yarn if I wasn't a firm believer in the adage: if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all (except to your husband who just hears yarn yarn yarn yarn no matter what I say about yarn)
It looked like this:

And then you are supposed to knit the same number of rows you are repairing in the pattern of the area you are repairing--in this case stockinette.
So then I had this little flap:

AND THEN...
well and then the instructions said to graft it or kitchner it to the top and I got so engrossed in the directions I neglected to take pictures. This is why it is called "disasters with yarn" and not "perfection with yarn"...

I managed it and my patch looks like:


Then I sewed up the sides using the tails. I'm fairly happy with the result.

I think sometime soon I need to do a complete entry on swiss darning because you can use that to shore up the "thin" spots on socks that eventually wear into holes, and I have a few of those.

purples!

This last week was spring break for my girls, and we did a bunch of crafty type things, but I neglected to photograph any of it. Mostly we worked on Brownie projects, we made two of the snacks required for the snack badge one daughter is working on, and made spool dolls for a local display on the history of girl scouts. For the record, the snacks were homemade trail mix (both girls made a recipe where they use the measurement of "hand-fulls") and cookies where you took a chocolate chip cookie recipe and added something that was not chocolate chips. I think my baking soda is old or something because they came out all flat. Each girl added two things (I divided the dough in fourths) one added craisins and pop rocks candy. The other added butterscotch chips and york pieces. We added all of these to the growing column called: things that are nasty that I taste for my children while smiling and saying Aren't you clever. Actually 3 out of the four weren't THAT bad, but the flatness added a layer of yuck. Plus the girls did all the measuring themselves, so something else could have been off.

But you didn't come here for the brownie crafts, you came here for the knitting! the disasters! When I last wrote I was working on a lace scarf for me just like the ones I made for the teachers for the holidays this year. I finished that but have not yet blocked it. I was also struggling with a cardigan I wanted to knit for one of my daughters. Actually I'm knitting one for each, I'll get to that later.

To refresh your memory on the cardigan thing, I was driving myself crazy because I was afraid to just make up a pattern and/or wing it. I had in mind I wanted to do top down raglan style and found a pattern similar to what I wanted. Try as I might though I just could not get gauge. When I looked at going with what I had and doing a smaller size, I realized that for my size 10 child, I'd be making a 4! That is probably what made me say--Look this yarn is cheap (Brava by knit picks) and you want this sweater to get done, just fire up your raglan calculator and cast on already. So that's what I did.

I have pictures, but I also have to talk about those. See both projects (along with a lot of other stuff I knit) are purple. Purple is really hard for me to photograph true to color. I don't have a fancy camera, a simple point and shoot is what I use. So I struggled, googled and finally decided that my makeshift light box needed direct sunlight. Fortunately we had that yesterday.


This is actually really close to the true purple. Might be just a tad on the blue side, but pretty accurate.


The unblocked scarf. Hopefully there will be more sun when I have it blocked. Because the colors are pretty true on that as a well.

the cardigan of FEAR

One of the things I think is hilarious about having knit for quite a few years now is how much more fear I have now than I did when I was first knitting. You see, I learned to knit and purl (but NOTHING else--not even casting on/binding off) at age 12, but then learned for real about 8 years ago. After I made the class's two dishcloth patterns twice each, I tackled baby sweaters! I had no fear that they would come out wonky (they did, the babies didn't care). I had no fear of other people seeing my handiwork and sitting in judgement (no one looked beyond the babies!).

And now those same babies are nine and growing out of their sweaters and I am paralyzed with fear. I worry that I'll make something wonky or too big (they'll GROW) or something hideous. I have an idea in my head what I'd like to have the sweater turn out as, but I fear I won't be able to match the picture in my head.

It is a paralyzing fear.

I started this journey looking at patterns and I found one that came close: the Tomboy Cardigan. I showed the sweater to my girls and they said... but in a different color, and with long sleeves, and with different buttons! Ah the children of knitters, so confident that their wished can be made into reality.

But then my swatch didn't even come close to getting guage. So I went back to thinking about my own design. Maybe using a Raglan calculator. But then I got scared. So I swatched again on a smaller size (at this point I'm at US size 6 on worsted weight yarn) and it feels about as tight as this yarn wants to be (and still move a bit!) and I'm fearing it might not be enough. I haven't measured it though.



I think I need a big dose of confidence that I can tackle this, do the math if I need to, to make this one come out right.

sweaters

It is 80 degrees. In Michigan, in Mid march. Last year on the first day of spring, we had a huge snowstorm that cancelled school and I took some beautiful snow pictures. Today, 3 days short of a year later, there are daffodils in full bloom.
And so why the weather report on a knitting blog? Well, maybe it just goes to the project I'm working on.

I wanted to make my daughters each a new cardigan. The last time I made them each a cardigan was in 2007. They still get worn but they don't really fit.





A few weeks ago--ok a month or two ago--my daughters were wearing their sweaters to school regularly because it would often get chilly and a cardigan was just the thing. So I thought, I'll make them new ones. A search of ravelry found exactly nothing like I wanted. This doesn't surprise me, because what I have tended to notice is that you can find a TON of baby sweaters and a TON of grownup sweaters, but try to find a non colorwork sweater for a kid who wears a 10-12 and you'll find lots of I made it up myself sweaters.

Of course the purple and grey sweaters above are both I made it up myself sweaters.

So I set out to "design" my own. I'm using quotes because I am terrible at design and pattern writing. That grey sweater up there, no notes, no idea what I did, figured out how to incorporate shaping into the pattern, no idea how. Then add to that that I sketch terrible, well what you have there is a recipe for one of a kindness. (I know not every designer sketches, my favorite project runway star Mondo does not sketch and I think he's a great designer.)
My sketch:


I decided to start with my purple loving daughter--in part because the purple sweater above is way too small for her. So we have some purple yarn (Brava from knitpicks)
Anyway, what I envision is a top down raglan style cardigan. I am trying to decide which type of increases I like best. I know it needs to have some sort of collar on it, but I have no idea what that should look like. I know it needs a button band or a zipper band. I know it needs some sort of ant-curl thing on the bottom--ribbing or a pattern of some sort. I know my gauge, in that I have a swatch that I like. (running an average of 4.25 stitches an inch).

But it is 80 degrees. And I don't feel like making sweaters at 80 degrees. But now I look at the long range forecast and it says Thursday's high is 70 and Friday's is 61. Sweater weather!

knitting philosophy

I have been test knitting this week--no photos or details on that right now, but I did want to write a little bit about what I have learned about myself as a knitter this past week. So here goes.

What I have learned about myself as a knitter

* I might be a process knitter after all. For so many years I thought of myself as a product knitter. I want something so I make it. While I do like what I'm knitting this time, it isn't stuff I usually wear, and yet I am having a lot of fun knitting it.

* I am bad for gauge. I tend to do gauge swatches and sometimes decide that I like the feel of a fabric better at a different gauge and work around that. I also tend to be very slapdash about gauge for my own purposes. No wonder so many of my knitted things don't fit the way I want them to.

* I tend to think of patterns as jumping off guides. In this instance I find myself reading this pattern and following it to the letter, but several times I've had to reign myself in from going off in another direction altogether.

* I'm a loose knitter. I don't know what to say about this except I didn't think I was. Oh and we used to make lots of loose jokes at the LYS I worked at so go ahead.

* I knit faster than I think I do and I actually have more time to knit than I realize. This has been a tight deadline, and I discovered that I have more time to knit than I ever thought I did.

*I get more distracted in my knitting than I had always thought. Maybe the positive thing is that I zen out, but then realize I have no idea how I got to the point I'm at. but it leads to ...

*I'm pretty good at reading my knitting. I always thought I was, but this has helped me knowing where I need to backtrack to if I need to.

* I maybe think reading patterns is kind of fun. I realized this when I realized I know a bunch about style of language for patterns. Clearly that means I read a lot of patterns. I may or may not read patterns I do not knit. I'm not saying.

* I have a lot of yarn that I bought for projects that never came to fruition. I pulled out 400 yards of worsted weight yarn and didn't even bat an eye... one skein I could not even remember the intended project. I'm sure other people have stash issues like this, but generally I don't buy yarn for the sake of yarn, generally I buy it with a plan. A plan that may never ever see the light of day, but still. Oh yes, my yarn is totally paving the way to hell.

Overall, I've had a blast with this test knitting, I hope I get to do more in the future because I think it is having a positive effect on my knitting.