A little of this, a little of that

The mittens are done!

The mittens are pretty cute, after having ripped out the top of one of them three times. The cable isn't perfectly centered because I didn't account for it being tighter, but I still think they are cute. I think I will give them to my friend Nicole who lives in Indiana, because they wouldn't do a whole lot for the type of cold here.

This is a picture I took on my way to school the first day. It's the mighty Mississippi! I have to walk/bike over it every day to get to school. It was about -15 so the water was lots warmer and you can see all kinds of steam coming up. It was a gorgeous day if it weren't so cold!

And then I must show you all my handywork in the kitchen. I made biscotti this weekend, and of course burned the chocolate so only a fourth of them got coated, but they are delicious nonetheless.

Last weekend I made spring rolls and this delicious sauce that my friend gave me the recipe for. They were delicious! Here's the recipe, I'd highly suggest using it sometime. It's more of a summer type of meal, but perfect for the spring, which hopefully will be on its way in no time?

Spring Rolls

Ingredients:
red cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, and fresh cilantro & basil (and whatever else you might fancy), vinegar, sugar, lime juice, rice paper, rice

Cook some rice or rice noodles first. Chop up some cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, spinach or lettuce, and cucumbers (chop up according to how many you want to make).
Cover the cabbage with a little vinegar and sugar. Squeeze some lime juice over the carrots, lettuce and cucumbers. Dip the rice paper in warm water for a minute or two to soften it up. Then lay it flat and put a little of each ingredient in the middle, fold the sides in, and wrap the roll like a burrito. Make a bunch of them.

Peanut Sauce:
Ingredients:
Sriracha sauce, soy sauce, tomatoes, peanut butter, peanuts, sprig of basil
Here's the recipe, straight out of the email my friend sent me.
"sauce, yes yes threw stuff together but it wasn't half bad you know? there's this stuff that you can get almost anywhere, and by almost anywhere, i can imagine that it's found in the asian section of most conventional grocers, don't know about the coops (wtf about north country by the by? i'm ever so pissed), but you can always try united noodle in seward or some place will have it on nicollet south of like
24th or so. it's a ubiquitous vietnamese red spicy garlicky delicious magic sauce (called Sriracha) that shouldn't be terribly difficult to find. then add some soy sauce, or better yet, some gomaicho (sp? it's the toasted sesame seeds with sea salt and sometimes, if you are sassy enough, wakame flakes) which you can use to salt in a less conventional manner. then, make sure you have enough tomatoes, at least 2 and enough peanut butter, at least 2 table spoons, but i don't know why i bother giving you these measurements because this is really where the subjectivity runs wild. just make sure that the balance is slightly harmonious and fits to the number of people you are going to have. i don't recommend skippy peanut butter or any of that processed stuff, but i am in the land of groundnuts right now. you may want to opt for crunchy to add some texture and if you already have smooth and don't just want some paste or what have you, then maybe try crushing peanuts and tossing them in. ooh, don't forget little sprigs of basil!!"

Maybe you have to know the guy, but his recipe cracks me up every time I read it. The sriracha is this stuff, but if you can't find it, you could also make your own, using chili paste or chili peppers and tomatoes, a little water, and some chopped fresh garlic. Happy knitting, or cooking, or "schroomin", or whatever you two are up to!

'Schroomin'

I've been looking for instant gratification projects lately since I don't have much knitting time on my hands these days. Myriads of Mushrooms is perfect! These adorable mushrooms are really cute, really easy, and really fast. Not to mention great for those of us trying to use up odds and ends. I used four different colors of left over Paton's Classic Merino. The bigger stem you see in the picture was my third try, all because I didn't know what yarn in my stash was wool and what wasn't, but even with that set-back, I knit both of these in about 2 days. Very fun!

Check out the creepy ghost schrooms:

Winter knitting

So, I remember the days of holiday break being numbered. I wish that I had been a knittter at that time! I did go home to visit family and that was sort of like Christmas break, so here's what I accomplished. My mom and I finished the entrelac bag that I completed the knitting on this summer. I wanted to line it and sew on these really cool green leather straps.

Here's a veiw of the liner:

I wanted to wait to go home to finish the bag because I don't have a sewing machine. I really dislike hand sewing, but I think I mostly dislike it so much because I'm really bad at it. It was a fun thing to work on with my Mom. I'm not sure I'm finished with it quite yet, because I've carried it a few days and I don't like the fact that there is no way to close it. A zipper is out of the question due to the shape of the bag. I may do a hook-and-eye closure or even a button....I'm not sure....any ideas?

We've been trying to get back to our usual routine since coming back to NV on Tuesday. We did get some skiing in yesterday and I'm probably going to head out for a few runs today. I have worked a bit on the KAL II sweater. I'm not crazy about the yarn I chose, it's really sticky because it has silk in it. It is also full of slubs, which makes the gauge off a little (it is labeled worsted, but I'm not sure about that!). But, I have a lot of it, and I'm trying to stay on my "yarn diet" until the bulk of my stash is used up. Here's what I have completed so far:



It's hard to see because the stitches are all bunched up on the needle, but I think that I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the garter stitch on the yoke. I sat by this elderly gentleman on the plane ride back to NV who was just obsessed with my knitting. His main concern was why the sweater was called the "tree jacket". I told him that I had no idea. He seriously spent the majority of the flight coming up with reasons for the name. He was really entertaining and cute. He finally decided that the eyelets looked like leaves and that the "jacket" part of the name was a typo.

I also wanted to share with you one of my favorite Christmas gifts from my mom (I had lots of favorites this year.....the pottery mug made by my friend Melissa, WV wooden spoons, a scarf made by Jill....)



It's wool yarn spun from sheep who live in my hometown! The yarn is undyed, and the picture does the actual color no justice. It's a deep chocolate brown with natural color variation flecks. It's way too scratchy to make a garment out of it (those sheep must have had a really high-protein diet), but I'm thinking of blanket made from squares of complimentary colors. The owners of the sheep make old-style felted blankets out of the wool (think military blankets). I may end up lining the back with a soft fabric to ease the itchiness, but I'm very excited about the yarn and the fact that the sheep live in West Virginia. Go Mountaineer sheep!
I hope you both are doing well. Jill, good luck with the writing, keep making good progress. Molly, good luck with the new semester, it will be midterm before you know it! And Molly, I have some geology questions to ask you, but I'll send them via email. Cheers!

My days are numbered

Four more days until school starts, and my knitting binge will have to come to an end. Until then, I am cramming in as much as I can. I started these mittens that I am designing myself tonight that are really cute.
Plus, I'm using up the last 2 skeins of sweater yarn. If I have some leftover after the mittens, which I feel like I might, I am going to make one of those headbands that I made for my friend Julia.
Also I re-did the bottom of the sweater and finally blocked it, so hopefully after this you won't hear much about that anymore. It's cute, but not exactly how I envisioned it. I think the yarn was chunkier than I imagined. Oh well.
And, I also churned out yet another hat last night.

I wasn't sure who it was for, and when I got done, I really liked it and couldn't think of anyone else that would wear a bright yellow hat, so I decided to keep it. I'm really proud of coming up with these patterns myself. I know I keep it pretty basic, but it's so much more enjoyable to me to knit something I'm coming up with rather than just follow patterns. I think that is why I have already gotten sick of the little green (blue) clutch It looks really good, and I've probably spent more time admiring the pattern than actually knitting it.

But when I get around to it, I think it'll be very cute. So, that's a real workload when my deadline is next Tuesday when school starts. We'll see how far I get. If I'm housebound by this 0 degree weather all weekend, I probably won't do too bad...

Cream of Carrot

Pattern: Cream of Spinach

Yarn: Classic Elite Miracle, 2 skeins

Needles: US 8

Start: 12/26/07

Finish: 1/6/08

Another winner! I feel so lucky that I have been ending up with some awesome suff lately... you never know how things are going to turn out, but I love this scarf. Its very delicate and feminine, but in an organic, earthy sort of way. Kind of how I like to think of myself :)

This yarn is an alpaca/tencel blend, and it drapes just beautifully. It is incredibly soft, has a great sheen to it, and just a little halo. Its delicious. And the color is amazing. I don't think these photos capture the color in all its glory and I just don't know how to describe it. I guess you'll just have to come here to visit the scarf sometime.

P.S. I love scarves. I don't think I could ever have too many.

Finished socks....in the St. nick of time!

These are the socks that I wanted to finish in time for our us to open gifts with my parents. The second sock was completed in the wee hours the day before we opened.

My mom loved them and tried them on before they were completely dried and blocked.
We've had a great visit and will be on our way back to NV tomorrow morning.

Tie-Dye Socks

Tie-Dye Socks

Pattern: Toe-Up Sock Formula from Knitty

Yarn: Knit One Crochet Too Wick, 2 skeins

Needle: US 4

Start: 12/28/07

Finish: 1/13/08

These turned out really cute... the yarn pooled (or chunked, as Molly says) like crazy, but I like how it looks - like it's tie-dyed. The yarn is soy/polypropolene blend (thus the name 'wick') and it is super warm. Good thing the yarn wicks, because my feet are toasty warm whenever I wear these socks (like right now).

These were my first toe-up socks, and boy were they easy. Toe-up socks are so much more straight-forward than top-down socks. And making that toe is kind of magical, too :) With the formula/pattern Knitty provides it is super easy to custom fit your sock for any size foot and yarn in any gauge. Plus, you can knit until you run out of yarn! No leftovers makes me VERY happy, cuz I'm kind of weird about leftovers. When I pay $15 for yarn to make a pair of socks, I want to use up every last bit!

Warm Necks

Jill's Christmas scarf: The pattern is Clapotis from Knitty. It turned out really well. I used this great green shade of Kraemer Yarns Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair, which turned out really well on the size 8 needles. It took a while and got a little repetitive, but it was worth it. The timing was a little late for Christmas, but you'll get that. And it's gorgeous!







Dave's Birthday Scarf:
This one is for my friend Dave's birthday, to match the hat that I made for him for Christmas. I am quite proud of my timing (his birthday is Jan 21, so I'll have plenty of time to mail it to him in Milwaukee by then). The scarf is a farrow rib, which I copied from the scarf Jill made for our Dad. It is really cozy and warm. The original pattern I was going to use, "My So-Called Scarf," just didn't work well with the yarn, even though I might still use it for something else. I'm happy the way this one turned out.
More photos of these on Ravelry, too.

Boots

Ok. I must have these boots. They are from Anthropologie and are $268.00. Not gonna happen. I spent the entire morning traversing Huntsville in search of something similar... nothing to be found. So then I thought - Could I make them? I mean, they wouldn't be that hard, would they? Just like socks, but where do I get the soles? I looked online, and I couldn't find anything, but I'm not giving up yet. Any ideas? I am completely consumed with the idea and can think of little else right now. I am going to start swatching/trying out a pattern tonight... I am thinking about using a brown tweed yarn with a herringbone stitch. And then lining them with either fleece or flannel (ha! not the kitties!) to make them thicker and warmer. But will they stand up? I could use some of that, oh, whats it called? That stuff you iron onto the back of fabric to make it stiff? Anyway, that might work. I don't want them to be tight like socks are... Oooo, I think this might work if I can just figure out the soles. I'm going to check out the thrift store and see if there is anything I can reuse there - like maybe take apart some old boots and just use the soles? I'll have to figure out how to attach the knitted part to the sole, but I think I could just sew them. Or maybe have a shoe repair person attach them?

Ok, so much for getting any work done today. Knitting is much more important!

More Warm Heads!

Caroline's Hat:
This was made from my huge, annoying stash of Lion Brand Jiffy. It knit up in a night though, and turned out very warm and cute. No pattern, just figured it out myself. It was a request for some sort of patterned white hat, and I think she'll like it.






Will's Hat
This was another request--for just a really warm hat--from about a year ago that I finally got around to making. I believe it was well worth the wait since what I was knitting last year definitely wasn't this cute. I am really proud of the cables on this one, since I have seen hats like this a few times, but I just figured the pattern out myself without even looking at one while I did it. All from the noggin, and it worked out really well. I like the colors I chose from my narrowing selection a lot but I ran out of the gray yarn about two inches from the top and finished with a slightly different color (a little more shiny). You can see a little in the photo of me wearing it, but you can hardly see it at all in person. I gave it to him last night and he really seemed to like it!





Vicki's Hat
Lastly, I reproduced the exact hat that Jill made for me when she was visiting for Vicki so that she wouldn't steal mine. Since I was going to make the white hat for Caroline, I used mauve instead of white for the two narrowest stripes, which isn't quite as satisfying, but the spherocity of the hat is phenomenal on Vicki's head.

Squared Afghan

Pattern: Squared Afghan

Source: Free in-store pattern from Lion Brand Yarn

Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool

Hook: H

This was a gift that I made for my friends' wedding last weekend. I absolutely love how it turned out... I love the colors and the squares and the pattern, and how the crochet stitch looks. It was quite simple to make and I got quite a bit faster at crocheting by doing this project. Crocheting goes so much faster than knitting does! Instead of sewing the squares together, I crocheted them together. If I ever make something like this again, I will use crochet to attach the squares to one another. I hate sewing, so I like the crocheting better, and I think it looks much nicer. It turned out a bit smaller than I had hoped, but it will make a nice lap blanket. I ran out of yarn and time...

This was a really good stash busting project - I had the yarn in my stash for about a year and I used it ALL UP. Every last bit! I have made a resolution to only use yarn from my stash from now until I move... My stash is getting a little out of control, and also, I don't want to have to move yarn across the country. I'd rather move sweaters and hats and scarves :)

As for my current projects, I just finished a scarf. It is blocking as I write & I will post about it when it dries, which may be a while. I am also working on my first pair of toe-up socks... Love em! Toe up is the way to go, for sure. Its so much easier than top down.

And then next on the agenda is a baby sweater from my friend who is expecting in February. AND THEN, I can get to the knit-along sweater.... have you guys started yet? One of us should buy the pattern soon. I am thinking about using a brownish tweed yarn, do you think that will look okay for the sweater? Its what I have... and I can't buy any new yarn, you know?

Finally, the sweater

Pattern: Carolyn Cardigan

Source: Knitty Spring 2007

Yarn: Lion Brand Lion Wool

Needle: US 8

Start: 8/9/07

Finish: 11/30/07

This is definatley the most wearable garment I have made so far... I am really happy with how it looks, how it fits, and how it feels. It is very comfortable. This one took a while and I was very particular about finishing it. And it was so worth the wait. The pattern was really not that well written. The front and the back don't have the same number of rows, so when you are putting it all together, I had to unravel parts and reknit so that the stripes would match up. The sleeves are HUGE if knit as the pattern is written. I ended up knitting one sleeve three times before I came up with something I was happy with. And also, the neck was huge, like a boat neck, so I ended up modifying that as well. I learned the mattress stitch for seaming, which I am so happy with. I had never used it before and thought I would be really tedious and annoying (based on other's comments about seaming), but I didn't find it that difficult. And the seams look so nice! As I am growing as a knitter, one of the things I am learning is patience. Rushing through things and not paying attention to the little details is not worth it in the end. And that inner voice that says "this doesn't look right" is usually right, so I should listen to it more often!

MODIFICATIONS:

Sleeves: CO 38 sts, increase every 14 rows (13 rows St st, one increase row) until I had 48 sts, then I started increasing every 6th row (5 rows St st). Then I increased every other row for 4 rows (64 sts). My sleeve was 18.75" at this point. Then I followed the directions for shaping the sleeve caps.
Neck/Collar: I decreased the neck stitches by half... the first row I k2tog all the way around.
Other: Five buttons instead of seven.

2007: I knit a little too.

These were my projects in 2007!
1. Headband, 2. Sweater, 3. Blanket, 4. Pillowcover I, 5. Cowl, 6. Cabled hat, 7. Legwarmers, 8. Entrelac Purse, 9. Cowl, 10. Cabled Hat, 11. Pillowcover, 12. Lacy Skirt with Bows, 13. patchwork purse, 14. Beret, 15. Leg warmers

2007: A Year of Knitting

2007 was a very productive year for me in terms of knitting... I really developed as a knitter over the year and tried a lot of new techniques: cabling, fair isle, lace, seaming and finishing, entrelac. I feel like I learned quite a bit about different fibers, how they look, how they drape, what they can be used for (i.e., don't use cotton to make a skirt!).

In 2007 I finished:
3 pairs of mittens

3 sweaters

6 pairs of socks

3 tank tops

7 hats

7 dishcloths

6 scarves

1 coin purse

1 felted box

1 skirt

1 shawl

1 baby sweater

1 pair baby booties

2 crochet birdies

1 headband

I've been trying to think of what my favorites from this year are... its so hard to pick, though. The skirt was the first major project that I did and I loved it before it stretched all out... I am very proud of the Swallowtail shawl, I feel like it was a big accomplishment, however it's not something I wear very often. I am also proud of the fair isle mittens... again, it was something more difficult that I had not done before and they are beautiful. As for wearability, I have worn my striped cardigan quite a few times (and always get compliments!). My other favorites are: Wisp, Liesel, and Molly's socks. All in all, it was a tremendous year for knitting and I hope to learn even more in 2008!

Mom Mittens

Pattern: Norwegian Mittens by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Source: Knitters Almanac

Yarn: Knit Picks Telemark

Needles: US 4
Start: 11/30/07
Finish: 12/23/07

Happy New Year! This is the last of the Christmas knits... mittens for my mom. This was really my first stranded knitting project and I think they turned out quite lovely! I did make a simple fair isle hat about a year ago, but this was a tad more advanced. I did have a few problems in the beginning, but once I got a rhythm down and figured things out, it was smooth sailing. It is a bit more puckery than I would like, but most of that smoothed out with blocking. I like Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns because the basics are there, but you still have to do some figuring out for yourself. I will definately be making another pair of these for myself.