This Just Woven-In

I just finished my Jaywalker's. I joined a group on Ravelry to knit one pair of socks a month. Each month has a theme and Jaywalker's was February. I duly cast on in February but so late in the month, I couldn't have finished them. I was working on the No-Purl Monkey Socks with my local CWS group. Now that both pairs are finished I can cast on my March socks. Yes, I know it's beyond the ides of March, but it is earlier than when I started in February!

About these socks:
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Fingering 100% Merino hand-dyed by me
Needles: Knit Picks DPN's size 1 (2.25mm)
Pattern: Jaywalkers by Grumperina on Magknits
My rating: Love them! The fit is great and the color is very eye-catching (I'm calling them my Gigi Jaywalkers because they remind me of Gigi's grandmother's house in the 1958 musical)

Monkey, see? Monkey deux!

First off, nobody die of shock, yes, I posted something new...

My first Monkey is done and the second is not far off. My knit group decided to have a Monkey knit-a-long this month. I chose to knit the no-purl Monkey's in Fixation. I love that they look so smooth compared to the regular Monkey's I knit last November. Of course, I went down 2 needle sizes for these so that could be the reason they fit so well. I can't wait to see everyone else's finished socks.

I also can't wait to see again what everyone got at Stitches last weekend. I must say the Stitch-n-Ride train this year was excellent. None of the glitches that plagued last years ride. The market worked out better for me this year as well. Last year I was the proverbial deer in the headlights and came home with almost nothing. Not so this year. I have Brooks Farm yarn for my neck-down hoodie, ShiBui yarn for socks, a great sock yarn I bought from Beehive, some hemp/wool blend for a hat (pattern, too!) plus a few more things. Cher and I also got to meet Vickie Howell at the SWTC booth. Knit On!

My new toy this month is an iPod. I have spent much time today loading more music on it. Still trying to play with iTunes so I don't have to sync every time I want to add a few songs. I also spent computer time today emptying my camera so it will be ready for...uh huh, another trip to Disneyland (I'm taking my nephew on Saturday.) Now I'm kinda burnt out on the computer. I had planned on adding pictures to my flickr, but I may save that for another day.

Ladies in my knit group, guess what is drying right this minute? Yarn I dyed myself! Yep, I finally took the plunge and mixed that toxic dye. Scared me to death and I thought I had poisoned myself last night because I had trouble breathing (no worries, I just forgot to take my allery pill!) It came out okay for my first dye job. If it dries by tomorrow morning, I'll take it for Show and Tell.

Ta Ta For Now!

Starsky Struck

The picture above was taken earlier this year at Panera's during one of the Chick With Sticks meetups. I had only completed the back and one of the front panels at that time. I loved the way the Banana Tree cabling turned out and decided then and there that I needed to finish this project before fall had fully set in. I started knitting on my Starsky exclusively for the next month. By October 25th, I was done! I loved the way it turned out. Since our group didn't meet on Halloween, I wasn't able to Show and Tell until November. Here is Felted modeling the finished project:


This project was made from the Jordana Paige pattern "Starsky" on Knitty.com using Cascade 220 in Charcoal Heather and size 8 needles.

Scones and Skeins

Today I met with a few people from my Wednesday night knitting group for Scones and Skeins. This brainchild of my friend Cher is a get together (not on Wednesday) at one knitter's house to which you take scones and other baked goods along with your current knitting project(s). Maybe because it was just Thanksgiving or maybe because we think alike, most of the baked goods featured pumpkin. I took pumpkin cranberry scones. There was also pumpkin cream cheese muffins and pumpkin raisin bread. Things that weren't pumpkin- croissants with Nutella and asparagus frittata!

Right now I have 13 WIP's that I'm counting although only 4 are on needles. The other 9 are projects I started but have since frogged back to skeins. Projects I'm currently knitting are Tweedy Vest from Knit Scene, Mystery Stole 3, Monkey sock (2nd one!), Toe-up sock using Lombard Street lace pattern. The projects that are waiting are a moebius, a tie, a Clapotis, Meadow Flowers shawl, Andean Treasures Sampler vest, a Malabrigo sweater, a Whiskey vest, a project made from leftovers, and the original Homespun Pants.

Note to My Dear Readers: I've been trying to upload my knitting photos to Flickr to no avail. So when I see you later this week, don't give me grief about my Ravelry page.

Leaf Lace

Here is a picture of my recently completed Leaf Lace shawl. I added beads to the points in the same color as the shawl. I've been wanting to work with beads since one of my fellow chicks (Hi, Darla!) started a beaded project from Romantic Style. My own first beaded project was mystery stole 3, but I'm not finished with that. Someday! This is one of my last year projects that I wanted finish up. As I was reading the finishing notes, I saw an option for adding beads in the last row. Hurray!

Ahoy, Mateys!

Today, being a holiday from work, I pronounce to be a "catch up on my blogging" day. The picture above is from about 4 months ago (yep four) when "Punk Knits" Share Ross went to Knitique. She had a mini-class on controlled-drop stitches.

Do you recognize this yarn? I purchased it to complete my Malabrigo Rich Chocolate ribbed sweater but not having the sweater with me, the dye lot was way off. I unravelled my sweater and started a new pattern that would take less yarn. It was not to be, again one skein short. Not one to be discouraged, I ordered a skein from Yarnzilla (very nice and prompt shipping to boot!). The dyelot is much closer but still requires unravelling and blending the yarn.

In the meantime, I started some new projects and finished a few others.

This is a lace scarf pattern from Louisa Harding, knit in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino. I liked this pattern even though I had to back up a row almost everytime I picked it back up. The yarn was so soft and slippery, the stitches fell off my needles in my knitting bag!

I finished my Leaf Lace Shawl (Hi, Teresa!) finally. I started this last year during the shawl knit-a-longs at Frog Pond, along with the Flower Basket Shawl and Shoal Water (Both finished!) but only just finished this one about a week ago. I even put beads on the tips. That was an inspiration from my first use of beads on the Mystery Stole from this year. My MS3 is only 1/3rd finished. I've been on quite a few flights lately and MS3 was too hard to work on while travelling, hence the finished Leaf Lace.

Here is another now finished project. My Cascade Fixation socks. I used a simple rib from Sensational Knitted Socks. I turned out great and the elastic in the yarn keeps them up nice and snug!

Okay, here's a list of other recently completed projects (to make me feel good):
- Phoenix Tears Scarf (from Charmed Knits)
-Ravenclaw Beanie (Also from Charmed Knits)
-Plum wristwarmers (My own pattern!)
-Knitted Babe

Darn! I thought there were more!

Here's a list of my WIP's
-Malabrigo ribbed sweater (Based on Lucky from Knitty)
-Homespun pants (From Interweave Knits Spring or Summer 2004)
-Meadow Flowers shawl (From Knitter's Stash)
-Loopy (from Knitty)
-Spiral Boot Socks (From Interweave Knits Summer 2007--started out as Clessidra from Knitty and then went to Anniversary Socks from Favorite Socks before Spiral took over)
-Andean Treasure Vest (From Knitpicks--this is my first stranded knitting project!)
-Clapotis #2 (From Knitty)
-Knit Tie (From Interweave Knits)
-Simple Stripe socks (self-striping yarn from Knitpicks in a rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks
-Mystery Stole 3

That makes 10! Not bad if I say so myself, but still got to get knitting, Ciao!

Red Mohair Scarf

I got this pattern at the Yarn Shoppe in Elk Grove. I thought I bought the yarn there to make it but when I looked at the ball band, the yarn was from a different store. Still can’t figure that out. I made the ruffles a little longer than the pattern called for because I wanted a “new romantic” look (remember Simon Le Bon and the Taylor boys?). Knit in Crystal Palace Kid Merino Red Cinnamon with size 8 and 10 needles.

Kim Possible doll sweater

This is the second sweater I completed, but the first one I started. I wanted to try out an idea I had with something that would knit up fast. Also I wanted to use yarn left over from a sock project I had just completed for my niece. Since I had given her a Kim Possible doll for her birthday, I thought a sweater in the same yarn would be a fun gift (shown on a Bratz doll). It’s knit in Knitpicks Dancing (discontinued) with size 0 needles.

Bohemian Rhapsody Poncho

I started this project in September 2004. Then restarted it January 2005. Then moved it to a stitchholder until April 2005 when I ripped it out. Recall that the impetus to knit had only hit me around January 2004. Recall that I had problems going beyond a garter stitch even into 2005. Therefore, it will come as no surprise that when I got not much farther than the cast on, I was completely lost in the pattern. My previous forays into knitting never advanced beyond garter stitch squares and rectangles. Even the No-Sweat Pants, in a simple stockinette, gave me a problem when it came to increasing (BTW, thanks Violet and Cher for demonstrating various increase methods way back when). Can you imagine trying to figure out "yf" "sl1" "psso"?!

So last Wednesday I started again. Today during my morning break, I wove in the ends. Amazing how far I've come in two years. Not only could I understand the pattern, I knit pretty darn fast!

This pattern is from Paton's in a booklet just for Bohemian. It took 3 skeins of the main color (really should have had four because I ended up doing the collar out of one of the coordinating colors instead of the main as stated in the pattern) and 1 skein each of two coordinating colors for the stripes. It is knit on 10.5 needles.


Dear Chicks, You'll see it tomorrow. Unless my book club meets tomorrow, I'd better check that out.

No-Sweat Pants

This is the pattern I learned to knit for. I saw these in the Spring 2004 issue of Interweave Knits (I bought it because it had a crochet insert). As soon as I saw them, I knew that my previously disastrous knitting attemps must be overcome. One year later, I felt I had advanced enough to try something bigger than a skinny garter-stitch scarf. One year after that, I ripped out the two leg pieces I had completed because I found out my stitches were twisted. One year after that, I started again. One month into them I thought, "Why don't I knit these in the round?" Hence the state they've been in for the last three months. Should I rip or should I knit now?

This pattern was designed by Joyce Wang in Lion Brand Homespun using size 10 needles.

Oh the Voices! (or Where Have all my Needles Gone)

I am posting because the voices in my head are insisting. (I am not usually prone to hearing voices in my head, but after weeks of badgering from my fellow Chicks, I'm starting to.) This is a picture of all the projects I have cast on. This includes WIP's and Orphans (worse than UFO's-UnFinished Objects, these are projects I didn't even remember starting!) but does not include PIW's (Projects-In-Waiting, for which all materials are gathered but nothing is cast on) or TaDa's (Behold the finished project). There are twenty projects pictured above, including one poncho, one tie, one pair of pants, one doll sweater, two me sweaters, two wristwarmes, three shawls, three scarves, five socks, and another clapotis (not quite a shawl, not quite a scarf). I shall post about these individually in the days (weeks?) to come.

What a Tangled Web!

I thought I found a way to only re-do the cuff on my socks. I would put in a life-line right afer the cuff (no problem), then undo my knitting up to that point, then pick up stitches from my life-line and knit the cuff from the bottom up. Sounds like it would work, right? The snag: undoing the cuff is proving to be very time consuming and messy. See picture above. I think I knit a whole sock in less time than I've spent so far picking out the cuff. My consolation is that I will have knee socks that stay up when I'm done.

All that work!

I was so excited to start knitting these knee socks I didn't take the time to check my gauge, or really measure my calf. Apparently, my legs aren't as fat as I thought. So while they look great if I'm not moving, they start inching down with every STEP (They're made from STEP sock yarn with jojoba and aloe vera). Remedy? Rip them out and start again with fewer stitches. The bright side is they will be quicker to knit and have a smaller number of decreases. I don't quite have the heart yet to start unravelling them, though.

Thanks, Wreatha!

I haven't had very much luck with internet swaps lately. As a matter of fact, I just sent the last package for an internet swap in which I received only one of three sends, and that one was from an angel assigned after my own pal flaked out. All this I have lamented during my Wednesday night knitting group meetings ('Hey' all you Chicks with Sticks!) several times. I decided not to participate in anymore online swaps because of these allegedly uncommon experiences (alas, all too common for me). So when my group decided to swap I was thrilled. After all, I know where to find any one of these people should they try to flake.

I put together a nice little package for my kit-ee expecting something similar from my kit-or. Imagine my surprise at the extra-special package I received from Wreatha. She, being sensitive to my lamentations, put together a wonderful gift. First, a pattern for legwarmers and a pattern for a scarf (she thought the yarn might work better for the scarf). Second, three skeins of Elizabeth Lavold yarn in a lovely shade of blue. Next, some matching ribbon (in case I chose the legwarmer's). Plus some beautiful blue bead stitch markers and ... homemade caramel! All that would have been great in itself, but the goodies continue. I love to read, so she included a mystery novel involving a knit store! In the book, I found a knit bookmark. And all of this bounty was in a vintage-inspired box with the Singer sewing machine logo on it. It reminds me of my Grandmother's treadle Singer every time I look at it. Thank You, Wreatha for a sweet swap!

I Resolve...

I made this hat for my KayliePrincess (not her name but what she calls herself.) It's from knitty and uses baby cables. Love them! I think it's called Sugar on Snow. I may make one for myself to use as a neck warmer.

So my one New Years resolution, to blog more often, is already out the door. What is it about resolutions that make them so hard to keep? Is it that we choose extremely improbable (nothing is impossible) goals? Do we not give ourselves enough lead time to get used to a new routine? Whatever it is, I can't remember a single resolution I've made that I've kept more than two months. Maybe a better idea is to set a resolution each month. Then I'll have a "do over" 11 times!

My Three Hats

I decided to give handknit gifts this year for Christmas. Since my sister and brother-in-law just had a baby in August and they live in oh-so-cold SLC, I chose to make them coordinating hats. I used a pattern from Interweave knits for the baby hat (I made it a little big so it will fit him next year too), and a pattern from SnB for the daddy hat and I made up my own pattern for the mommy hat. All three hats were made from Cascade 220. I chose two shades of blue and one yellow. I had enough yarn to knit the hats, the icords for baby and mommy hats and have enough left over for an Auntie hat if I choose to make one!

Home for the Holidays

The house was rockin' this Christmas Eve. We had eight adults, three cats, three dogs, and an infant all staying here. Then the rest of the local family arrived (four more adults and four children). We started our celebrations with some traditional snacks (like cheese log, apple cider, etc. ) and then began the talent show. Yep, the talent show. My sisters presented a belly dance. The Slaughter Family Singers presented "Must be Santa" (See Ben above). My brother's-in-law performed an original Christmas song. It's been recorded for posterity. Then came the puppet show of "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

Finally we got to eat the infamous Boneless Turkey. This is a recipe my dad makes by de-boning a turkey and stuffing it with a mixture or ground beef, sausage, boiled eggs, and spices. It takes forever to make but makes slicing a breeze.

The kids were anxious to get to the presents. Normally, we only get to open one on Christmas eve and the rest Christmas morning. But since some of the family wouldn't be with us in the morning, we decided to open more gifts that night. Joanna helped her kids into their Christmas PJ's and then started the Sleeping Potion.

Sleeping Potion is a tradition at the Slaughter home for Christmas Eve. It consists of hot chocolate mix, a chocolate bell candy, marshmellows and a candy cane to stir it with. Supposedly it makes the kids go to sleep inspite of the excitement so that Santa can come at Midnight without being spotted.

Make your own for next year. Here is the poem that goes with it:

It's Christmas Eve, time for bed, but not an eye will close. Too much excitement in the air to let you even doze. So make a magic potion to help you fall asleep, then Santa and his helpers can down your chimney creep. Pour this cocoa in a mug and with hot water mix. Then drop in a magic bell and stir with candy stick. Add a few marshmallows and sip it slowly down. Crawl into bed and snuggle in, the magic sleep will soon come around.

It's here, it's really really here.

I got my first gift in the Sockret Pal exchange this week. Look at the beautiful Lorna's Laces yarn! It's called Gold Hill. It reminds me of going to Tehachapi during the fall when I was growing up. My family would go to a certain apple orchard every year to buy apples and apple butter, but also to enjoy the wonderful baked apple treats like pie or crumble with apple cider. We live too far from Tehachapi now, but Apple Hill is not too far from here. While it is quite a bigger operation than the one orchard back home, we can find apple butter, apple pie, and apple cider and revive that old tradition. Thank you pal for bringing back sweet memories and for such a lovely gift!

Looking for Sconcey

My sister plays a game with her son Josiah called "Where's Sconcey." The way this game is played is very simple. Anytime Josiah is fussy, Barb asks "Where's Sconcey?" Immediately Josiah stops fussing, looks around until he spots one of the many sconces hanging throughout my sister's home and breaks into angelic smiles. What does he see? Why a sconce? Who knows, but I've seen it with my own eyes.


My sister will be moving into her new home in a few days and already has decided that she will hang a sconce in Josiah's room. I wonder if the sconce magic will happen there.

I call it magic because it doesn't matter who asks the question, as soon as Josiah hears "sconce" he starts looking. His dad is a doctor and has frequently mentioned that infants don't have anything close to 20/20 vision. Apparently the sconce is visible to his less than perfect eyesight, because Josiah spots it right off and fixes his gaze.

We'll see what happens in a couple of weeks when we all get together for Christmas. Will the sconce here catch Josiah's eye? I hope so.

The Pressure to Blog

How hard is it to write a few words and post a picture or two?

Sometimes I feel like it's too much of an effort to wait for the computer to boot up (do they still do that?) and to log in. I have excellent intentions and I even make it to the office, then I take one look at the computer armoir and turn the other way. I'd rather be knitting. I'd rather be stamping. But the pressure to blog eventually wears me down. Now here I am, over two weeks since my last post.

It's not like nothing has happened. I went to SLC to help my sis pack up her apartment (she's buying a house) and I got to see my nephew (not pictured above, well, not that one anyway). I finished several knit projects (pictures to come) and I've read a couple of great books (Blink by Malcolm Gladwell is one). I'm hooked on a cancelled sci-fi tv series (Farscape) and I had some great tamales that my aunt made. I think all those are blog worthy, I just let the blogpertunity slip by.

So let me tell you about my trip to Salt Lake. The flight from Sac is short, less than an hour and a half. I did have time to finish a hat I'd started earlier in the week and I wore it a few times while I was there. The weather was perfect for just a warm tee or sweatshirt and a hat to keep the heat in. Of course, wool socks helped a lot too. My sister keeps her apartment pretty warm (something about not wanting the baby to be cold) so I had to go around barefoot inside. She is mostly vegetarian, as a result I got to try some things I normally wouldn't. She also loves to cook and finds new recipes constantly. I learned how to make ratatouie and coconut curry. I taught her how to make apple dumplings and veggie filo triangles. We planned a picnic to Big Cottonwood Canyon, but it started to snow and the picnic areas were closed. The drive was nice. We went to visit Lily, who lives walking distance from the apartment (my sis thinks most things are walking distance so I usually lose 5 lbs when I visit her, she forgets we grew up in car-happy California). Lily is almost a hundred and one but you wouldn't think so to look at her. She has trouble with her eyes and last year developed diabetes. She loves to crochet Mile-a-minute afghans (the only patterns she knows by heart, although she recently retaught herself the granny square). There is absolutely nothing wrong with her mind. She is sharp as a tack. She remembers what the weather was like the year her son went to jr high (he's a grandpa now). What an inspiration! I hope I'm that together when I get to 70 and can only dream of reaching 100.

Next time: My nephew Josiah