Mittenz: Now With INVISIBLE FINGARZ!!!

During the Christmas Gift-Induced Panic Sequence, I started a pair of convertible gloves for my dad. I'm using Knit Pick's Men's Convertible Fingerless Gloves as a base reference. Even after adapting the gauge, the XL still isn't large enough for his freakishly large hands. You can see all the details on its Ravelry project page. For non-Ravelers, I'm using the beautiful brown and grey alpaca I bought at the Fall Fiber Festival (sweet, the VA site already has the 2008 dates up. Mark your calendars!). I figured the alpaca, knit on US3/3.25mm needles, should make a nice warm pair of gloves that he can wear while driving his tractor or seeing to the cattle in the winter.

Mmmm, I love knitting with alpaca. I'm tossing around the idea of getting a mini-herd in a few years. I probably won't (have to get a new horse first), but I'm going to think about it.

Spinning news: my roving from loop arrived and it is gorgeous. I'm hoping to start spinning up the Glowing Hearth tonight.

Switching tracks--inspired by Chateau Petrograsm:
In lieu of knitting pictures (working on that, kids), here's some fun with art and alcohol.
The other night I tried a bottle of Clos du Bois 2005 Pinot Noir. It tasted like this:

Silky smooth, but
ultimately lacking in body,

with a slight acidic bite at the finish.

Last Saturday night I had a bottle of my old standby, Moet & Chandon White Star, NV. It tasted like this:

"Happiness" by Richard Henson, from art.com

Christmas morning we had a bottle of Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 1998 for with breakfast. It tasted like this:

"Exhilaration" by Ulrike Martin, from ebsqart.com

Looking ahead: Winter Yarn Crawl this weekend, plus a visit from the godparents (aka the coolest people EVAR)! Stay tuned...

Solstice Celebrations!

(sung to "Happy Birthday to You")
Happy Solstice to Me,
Happy Solstice to Me,
Happy Solstice to Court-neeeee!
Happy Solstice to Me!

Since I'm not Pagan, I figure I can celebrate Winter Solstice any way I like. I decided that the right and proper way was to buy myself roving on Etsy.

100% Merino "Cowboy Cool," 8 oz.
from CJ Kopec Creations

40/40/20 Bamboo/Alpaca/Merino plus some sparkly stuff "Midnight Magic," 3 oz
from loop

Bamboo/Alpaca/Merino
"Glowing Hearth," 6 oz total
from loop

I also completely finished moving out of the rental and into the new house. I moved into the rental on 21 June 2006 (Summer Solstice) and moved out 21 December 2007 (Winter Solstice). It wasn't planned that way, but interesting how it turned out.

Internet access isn't set up yet at the new place. So... posts will have to be done while at the office. Hopefully soon I will figure out a way to get pictures off my camera/laptop and onto the blog -- I've done a lot of spinning recently -- just finished up 6 oz of 70/30 Merino/Tencel 2-ply Fingering and a I-Think-It's-Blue-Face-But-Can't-Remember 2-ply Worsted.

Also, I finished Spawn of Thrummed Mittens yesterday! Woohoo!

Random note: I'm looking forward to trying a magnum of Belgian Beer... the 2007 edition of La Chouffe. I'm not a huge beer-drinker, but since it was a gift I feel obligated to open it (hey, we all make sacrifices).


So, if there's no blog post before, I hope you have a great Yule/Solstice/Christmas/Hanukkah-Was-Two-Weeks-Ago- And-We're-Having-Chinese-Food-On-the-25th Holidays!

Christmas Knitting: Screw It.

10 minutes ago, I had the brilliant thought: whatever I finish before Christmas morning becomes a gift. Whatever I do not finish by Christmas morning will mean I'm one step ahead for Christmas 2008.

1.5 minutes ago: I realized that I have nothing to give my brother for Christmas--my brother, who is the second-most difficult-to-shop-for person in my family. Begin alpaca manly glove marathon knitting! Or other similar non-wool project that he probably won't wear anyway!

30 seconds ago: Nothing for ten-month old nephew. Seriously? A knitter with nothing for a ten-month old baby?

Begin Gift-Induced Panic Sequence. Happy Holidays, y'all.

General Yammering. Not Much Knitting.

Moved house this past weekend; lots of knitting and blogging were accomplished thought about. Moving actually not finished; the movers are coming back this coming weekend to bring the furniture that was in storage to the new digs. There is a Christmas tree outside; my family is going to decorate it on Christmas Eve. I'm making Beef Wellington for dinner, with garlic mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. The Beef Wellington is my brother's special request--one that I usually ignore, since it's so labor-intensive, but now I have this wonderful 48" Wolf range to cook on, so I figured I had better make use of it. If you are a serious cook, you will love a Wolf range. It really is that much better.

• I spent the past few nights doing this: Behold, the dutch oven full of chicken corn chowder with andouille sausage. Are you imagining it? Good. Now it's at a simmer. I turn the knob to high and in less than 2 seconds, it's at a full boil. I turn the knob down to low, and it stops simmering. Boil. Simmer. Stop. Boil. Simmer. Stop. Repeat until the novelty wears off, or someone yells that at this rate, we're never going to eat dinner.
  
• I roasted a pork loin, and used the integrated probe. It's genius, albeit a little fiddly to plug in when you're trying to lift the probe flap thing with an oven mitt.
  
• It has a setting for proofing dough. It will keep the oven at 80°F. No more worrying about finding the right temperature spot in the house to put your bowl of dough.
  
• After flipping through the instruction manual, I'm pretty sure that there isn't much this thing can't do.
  

Anyway, I was thinking about finishing up the sweater I was knitting for my mom (as a non-specific present) for a Christmas present. It's the "Belled-Sleeved Cardigan" I have on my Ravelry projects page. The trouble now is I have to figure out where I left off. I think it was on the armhole decreases on one of the front sections. What this really means is: An adventure awaits! That, and I will learn to mark on the pattern where I stop working the next time I'm planning on putting a project down.

I'm also trying to finish the second of the pair of "Spawn of Thrummed Mittens" for mom for an Xmas gift. I'm almost to the part where I hold stitches for the thumb. Should be no problem to finish these up.

Just finished up some online Christmas shopping for dad. I bought an assortment of things from Gardener's supply, including some composting accessories, a plastic mulch mat for increasing tomato yield, and a "Summer of Salads" lettuce seed mix.

My spinning buddy Anne (hi Anne!) came up with the brilliant idea to have a yarn/roving crawl in the week between Christmas and New Year's. It's like a bar crawl, but infinitely better, because being drunk on fiber involves far more giddiness and far less hangover than the alcoholic variety--for about the same economic impact, with lasting satisfaction. We're still working out the details, but I will be sure to post pictures of the adventure.

Tea, Art, Knitting, Spinning. (wit took the night off)

Boy, oh boy, do I have updates. Let's start with the most recent.

TEA & ART
I just bought the utiliTEA kettle from Adagio Teas for the office. I've wanted an electric kettle for a while and this seems to be the best for the money, since it has a variable temperature control. I haven't bought one before now because I've been getting by with my morning caffeinated tea and buying 1-2 unsweetened iced teas from McDonald's during the week. Now that the weather is colder I've switched to drinking hot tea all day long.

I took off this past week to paint trompe l'oeil. Painting full-time is the most marvelous thing I can think of. I loved waking up in the morning knowing that I was going to drive to the studio, brew a cup of tea, and sit down to my palette and paint until lunchtime, walk a few blocks to one of the many neighborhood eateries, pick up a cup of tea to go from my favorite tearoom, and settle back in for an afternoon of more painting. It wasn't exactly fun painting--the phrase that comes to mind is "brutally hard"--but it was intensely satisfying. I was really depressed on Saturday because it was over. I don't know when I'll have time to paint again in the near future, but I hope it's not too far off.Anyway, the painting is linked to the electric kettle-buying. Last week I averaged daily tea intake between 5-8 cups between 8am and 6pm: 1 cup chai in the morning; 2-3 cups of rooibos until lunch; 2 cups black tea after lunch; 1-2 cups assorted decaf late afternoon; 1 cup Egyptian Licorice Mint before bed. It was marvelous. My new favorite black tea is Golden Monkey. I want to keep up the tea intake at work, although the hot tab on the office water cooler is for crap and microwaving in the limited kitchen is a pain. (*side note* the GE Profile water cooler has a hot feature that really gets steaming hot enough for tea--instantly. If I were going to buy a new water cooler for the office, I would get this one)

I didn't finish my painting, but when I do, I'll post a photo of it. I painted it all from three--count 'em, three-- colors, plus white. Behold, palette before and after shots:




======

KNITTING

I picked the Thrummed Mittens back up. They had been hibernating for many months and in the desperation to have something hand-knitted to give away to family members for Christmas... Actually, I was trying to think of a gift for my sister-in-law. My brother buys her anything material thing she could possibly want (and many material things she didn't know she wanted), so it's not a matter of buying something really nice, pretty, soft, or useful. It has to be one of those, "from the heart" gifts. Damn. Those are always the most difficult. So I started knitting her a felted wine cozy in colors she likes. I know, nothing screams "I'm so glad to have you in my family!" like a felted wine cozy. It ranks right up there on the Charm Scale with getting an electric leg razor as a surprise gift on your 20th wedding anniversary. It is a damn nice wine cozy, though. My mom came to the rescue and said,

"Why don't you make her a pair of those wonderful mittens you showed me--the ones that are all soft inside?"
"The Thrummed Mittens?"
"Yes, those. Did you tell me, though, that you absolutely hate knitting mittens?"
"Yes."
"Ah well. It was a thought."

Turns out I don't hate them nearly as much as I thought. In fact I plowed through the body of the mitten in less than a handful of hours today. I estimate that in two more hours, I should have the left mitten finished--which brings me to one completed pair of Thrummed Mittens. If I were particularly enterprising, I would also figure out how to make Thrummed Booties. But surely my SIL knows how much I love and appreciate her without me having to make Thrummed Booties. Yes, I think so.

Then I had the second thought: Hey, these things aren't so bad after all... maybe I'll pick up some other color yarn and roving while I'm at the knitting shop that looks more like her and whip up a pair, and give the finished blue ones to Mom. I'm brilliant AND a masochist, apparently. My main objection to knitting socks and mittens is that it tends to make my wrists sore... but that could also have been a tendency to strangle my knitting, which I have fortunately given up. Perhaps my wrists have also become stronger and less prone to injury since I've been doing hour-long weight-lifting sessions twice a week for the past 6 months. My shoulders are ripped and beastly, so why shouldn't my wrists (while lacking in obvious stunning musculature) be stronger too? That, or the weakness in my wrists was psychosomatic. Oh god--what if I'm a hypochondriac?!?

Anyway...

dost mine eyes deceive me?

'Sfaith, I see Thrummed Mittens by the pair.

I knew I shouldn't have left them alone unsupervised.

===========

SPINNING

Looky, looky! My very own handspun 2ply: 50% Corriedale, 35% Merino, 15% Tencel.

New Post Soon

What the title says.

New post, plus a side bonus of responding to emails!
Pictures of *gasp* finished objects!
And much, much more!
Until next time...

UPDATE, 5 DECEMBER:
Just kidding. Things are crazy busy here, and I hope to have a new post Saturday. Ish. Saturdayish. Yes, I do things other than knit and spin. Please don't tell the yarn or the roving. If they knew, they might throw me out of the house. I'm rather outnumbered as it is. And I don't want to even have to think about the silent treatment I'd get once I was allowed back in.

Spinning, Holiday Cheer (Outdoors Edition)

I spent this weekend spinning. I must be getting better at spinning because this weekend I spun about 5 ounces of a luscious 70/30 merino/tencel blend top from Stony Mountain (purchased at MD Sheep & Wool '07). I tried to spin it sometime around June or July and failed utterly. Bits of it kept breaking off and I ended up with more slightly-twisted strands on the floor than yarn on the bobbin. This weekend I had success. I hadn't spun in a few months, so I eased myself into it with a few ounces of Corriedale from the same company. Their Corriedale (or perhaps it's Corriedale in general) is a dream to spin into a sock-weight single. When I had almost a full bobbin of that, I broke out the merino/tencel and had a go. I'm currently spinning a laceweight single. I have two braids of this, so the plan is to spin one on to its own bobbin and then do an easy 2-ply from those. The yarn is so soft and yummy that it needs to be in a slightly looser ply.

Next week I'm taking a class at my LYS on spinning specialty fibers: alpaca, llama, angora, etc. That is the primary impetus for spinning this weekend: I need to make sure my regular spinning is up to snuff before I try to tackle the more difficult things. Although I have a feeling that perhaps spinning other fibers isn't necessarily more difficult, as different. Spinning sheep's wool is difficult until you get the hang of it--and then it seems so easy.

====
HOLIDAY CHEER (OUTDOORS EDITION)

I found this in a mail-order catalog. Their product description, however, needs help. So I helped.

Let snowmen know their kind aren't wanted by displaying
Frosty's Head on a Pike.

Easy to install!
Use your own lamppost for
authentic medieval warning action!

Plus, unlike those heads which simply rot and attract maggots, you can reuse this one year after year.

Charity Knitting Roundup (updated 12 September 2008)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled snark for a Warm Fuzzy Action Alert. It's the holidays, and while you are insanely harried busy knitting gifts for friends and family, please consider whipping up a quick FO for someone you don't know. I mean that in all seriousness--there's an immense power in doing good for someone you don't know and may never meet. Random acts of kindness are not forgotten.

UPDATED 12 September 2008:

Knit Your Bit: The National WWII Museum
" a simple, but cozy, scarf to be donated to a veteran in a Veterans Center somewhere in the United States."

Special Olympics Scarves
Yes, I know, many of us find Red Heart kinda squicky. But this is for a good cause. Suck it up and knit a scarf to show your support for the Winter 2009 Special Olympians.
Please note that while ONLY Red Heart delft blue (885) and white (311) can be used, creative colorwork/patterns are encouraged.

The Ships Project.
"The Ships Project now sends handmade hats, slippers, cool-ties and cool-heads to Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines deployed across the world"


Helmet Liners. from loopette's discussion thread on ravelry:

"In their infinite wisdom, the Pentagon does not issue liners for the metal helmets the troops are issued to wear in war zones. Think about it: Metal gets bone-chillingly cold, and in areas that get below freezing, that is a tremendous thermal loss and major discomfort for the soldier wearing it. It's up to us to provide these vital liners to our troops since the government will not.

During the holiday season, many of us do what we can for others to brighten their holiday. I am asking anyone who reads this, regardless of the time of year, to please knit or crochet helmetliners for our troops."

Small Comforts. ongoing effort from Knit and Play with Fire to comfort patients at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

"The oncology ward and the surgical ward are next to each other on the same floor in the hospital. Bethesda handles the bulk of the neurological cases coming in from combat zones. So there is always a need on one ward or the other for knitted hats and other small items for the patients coming in from combat zones."

There are many opportunities for charitable knitting. Check with your local civic groups, hospital auxiliaries and LYS.


NEED A CHARITY HAT PATTERN?
Since I am all for donating things that you'd be proud to wear yourself, also take note of these cool hat patterns (updated as I find/remember them):

• Traditional Watch Cap by Erica Fire (found via Ravelry)
  
• Brooklyntweed's Koolhaas, avail in 2007 IK Holiday Gifts.
• Approved Patterns for Navy/Marines from The Ships Project (please note that there are also some restrictions/suggestions on color choices, which they outline here)
  

New Needles--Good for Drug Users, Good for Knitters

I was waiting to post this until I had pictures, but until I get around to taking pictures, you guys can exercise your imaginations.

I bought myself some US2 32" circs from Jenkins Woodworking. These babies are beautiful... the joins are smooth, the points are sharp, the cable has much less memory than Addi Turbos (I'm knitting SotS on Addi Lace circs and their cable is driving me nuts) and the wood is beautiful and pleasing in hand. I thought about switching them into SotS, but think I'll stick it out with the Addis and use my Jenkins needles for Mystic Waters.

The only reason I haven't cast on to these gorgeous needles is that I need to wind my Mystic Waters yarn. Yes, one of these days I will break down and buy a swift. I actually like hand-winding; I like to feel the yarn as I wind it--it gives me a good idea of its elasticity and temperament before I start knitting with it. The best analogy I can think of is that hand-winding is (in a very low-key analogy) to knitting what foreplay is to sex--you can do it without it, but it gives you a good idea of what's to come and makes the whole experience a bit more fulfilling. The thing I don't like about hand-winding is the skein getting all tangled; a swift would (mostly) remedy this.

Changing subjects: the feathers for my Boléro Anastase finally arrived--well over a month late--from Aashlok. I'm pissed about this on a number of levels. I called them a couple times and found out that the feathers had been back-ordered--and didn't bother to tell me--after they told me they were available to ship immediately, and after I paid to have them 2-day air shipped. Well, I should say that some feathers finally arrived--they sent me the wrong ones (5" long plumes instead of 2" curled). To add insult to injury, they sent me not the three continuous yards of feather trim which I had ordered, but a total of three yards of various cut-up remnants. I'd call and ask for the item I ordered, in a continuous length, but I'm afraid with a company that screwed up that I'd never see them. So I feel like that was $70 wasted.

The plan right now is to take the scissors to the ostrich feathers (as much as it sounds like a crime) and trim them to the correct length. That way I'll still have an ostrich-feather trim even if it isn't in the way I envisioned. From a designer's standpoint, it's just pissy that I can't get it just the way I want it when it matters. Here ends the bitching. I know there are bigger worries in life, but those niggling ones--such as paper cuts or hangnails--can be so damn annoying.

Happier topic: SotS is moving right along. At the end of Hint #4, I was worried that mine was getting too long (especially since I am known to block things within an inch of their fibrous lives) so I edited out about 2/3 of Hint #5 and started there. This is cheering for several reasons: actually, just one: I'm almost finished Hint #5 and will start Hint #6 soon!

I haven't been knitting anything other than SotS lately, so as much as I'm enjoying knitting it, I'm also looking forward to finishing it so I can pick up some other things on the needles.

Unrelated: I bought a new pair of jeans a couple weeks ago, and finally got around to picking them up from Nordstrom (who does free alterations on stuff you buy there). I LOVE THEM. They are my favorite jeans ever and I think I might have to buy another pair because I'm probably going to wear these every day until they get holes in places that makes them unfit for wearing in public. They're the Dojo jean by 7... I love the design on the pockets. I love the way they fit. I love that they are low-rise without the dangers of plumber's butt or muffin tops. They are--in a word--perfect. I used to swear by Citizens... no longer. I'm a convert.

And Now, This Week's Posting Forecast

I'm immersed in a painting until Saturday... blog post when I resurface.

AVE CAESAR!

UPDATE 10 November 2007: Finished the painting. I'm so fond of it, I almost said something along the lines of "here's a little piccy-poo," except if I said that, Caesar might come back from the dead just to strike me down for that remark. Nobody ever used sappy diminutives for G.J. Caesar. Well, Cleopatra may have... but we all know she was a lying, two-timing little bitch who was so totally messing around with Antony while she was in Rome, ostensibly visiting Caesar. How do I know this? Everybody knows it. And I read it somewhere on the Internet.

Now might be a good time to note that
if you use my picture(s) without crediting me,
I will send gremlins, demons and lawyers with halitosis after you.
Yuh-huh. I so totally will.

Secret of the Stole Progress and Theme Guess

CAUTION: CONTAINS THEME SPOILERS!!!!

I'm almost finished Hint 3 of Secret of the Stole, so I thought I'd pin it out and see how it looks so far. The errors I made won't be noticeable to anyone other than those who know the pattern. No one will notice the gigantic hole made by two dropped stitches. Anyway, here it is:


I already have a pretty good idea of the theme. No, I haven't been working on the theme clues as released, but given this pre-blocked sample, I'd have thought it would be obvious. There are two possibilities right now:

THEME POSSIBILITY ONE:

DISORGANIZED VALENTINE:
HUGS AND KISSES FROM THAT SENILE AUNTIE.

"XxoXOoooXoOoOXooX, Aunt Muriel."



THEME POSSIBILITY TWO:
PERSIAN RUG SPACE INVADERS.

all the hip tribal rugs of the 1980s featured Space Invaders.

Knitters Tea Swap 4!

My box from Lindy, my Australian KTS4 swap pal, arrived on Thursday. I was so excited, I could hardly wait until I got home to open it.

First was a beautiful greeting card and two postcards from her town (wish I had thought of that!):


And tea from a local company:

I've already broken into the Bailey's -- it's black tea with a hint of chocolate and irish cream--delicious!

This is cool: chrysanthemum buds and white tea that bloom when you put them in hot water. Beautiful tea--now there's an idea! Plus, a cup-sized tea infuser--how did she know I needed one? :-)


But the part you were waiting for--look at all this awesome stuff! The periwinkle blue is a wonderfully soft, squeezable wool and the aqua yarn is a 50/50 silk/merino handpainted at The Knittery. There's some yummy dark chocolate... er... there was some yummy dark chocolate, which was last seen in this photo--stop looking at me like that, I do not look guilty. ;-) There are two great FiberTrends patterns--one for a cabled hat and another for a lace shawl I can't wait to get on the needles. Plus, she included a pair of her favorite knitting needles, by Pony. They're short so you can take them with you wherever you go, just pack and go.



To top it off, she included an adorable koala ornament, which will have a special place on my tree this Christmas. :-)