Yarn Along

Our local library has begun its annual adult winter reading program, and this year's theme is food/cooking, so for my nonfiction book I chose Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. I loved the movie; Meryl Streep was fabulous as Julia Child, and Amy Adams was winsome and quirky as Julie. The book is rubbing me the wrong way so far though. I enjoy the parts about cooking and about Julia, but the author's harsh ironic tone and occasional sweeping bitter stereotypes about people's politics and morality are less enjoyable. She paints herself with relish as the quintessential hipster, and for the first time I'm beginning to understand why so many people complain about hipsters.

I am thoroughly enjoying working on this Hemlock Ring, however. The Yarn is just good old RHSS, but the colorway Dove makes me giddy with adoration for its lovely shades of grey. The photo on my screen makes them look brown, but they're all grey, ranging from silver to dark ash. It's not obvious in all lights, but there's a really stunning blue grey that flashes now and then nearly the color of Ezra's eyes or Silas' before his turned mossy brown.

Ezra:

This baby is all chin

The Never-ending Blanket

I'm beginning to appreciate mindless garter stitch a little bit more. Easy to pick up, easy to put down, easy to work on while holding a clingy baby who will only nap if he's being held. This blanket for Silas that felt like I would be working on it until he leaves for college is somehow actually progressing.

When section on the needles is done, its bound off edge will form part of the side - no new rows will be picked up from that edge. That is mind-boggling to me.. I could reasonably start planning Ezra's in earnest. On the other hand, the sections are only going to comprise of more and more stitches, so this may be the edge of a black hole after all.

Ryan didn't understand why I giggled when I looked up from feeding Ezra to see this, but it's rivaling Milk-drunk Silas in FB popularity.

This picture got more likes faster than anything I had ever posted, and I'm still not sure why

It's as close to viral as I ever expect to be.

What I Did on My Christmas Vacation, Pt 2.

This was a really cute way to display our Christmas cards.  It was also wildly impractical.  The cards are stuck to the door with loops of off-brand Scotch tape, which does not hold well to begin with, and certainly not when a two year old is practicing his door-closing skills.  Next year we'll try something a little sturdier . . .

The star is cut from felt.  I made a stencil using these directions for cutting a five-pointed star with one snip, attributed to Betsy Ross.  Sounds apocryphal to me, but whoever the inventor, it works like a charm.

I had a hard time parting with this last minute gift for my brother's girlfriend.  For that matter, I had a hard time parting with the C.S. Lewis anthology that I gave her, too.  Absolutely should have bought myself a copy, too.

The ornament is a dressed up yarn doll, a model that has been around for decades (I made my first one in fifth grade (almost two decades ago), out of directions from a book from the fifties, and I'm sure the idea is older than that).  There are quite a few variations online; my inspiration came from these directions for an Angel Ornament, with a few mods.  Everywhere she directs to use hot glue, I used needle and thread instead.  Hot glue is messy (and I would have had to dig the gun out from who knows where in the basement).  Instead of wrapping wire around bead garland I made my halo out of size 6 (E) seed beads on 24 gauge gold wire.  For the doll itself I used basic string from the hardware store - I liked the way it went with the plaid ribbon and overall I think it gave the angel a sweet and rustic look, well suited to the recipient's home on the ranch.

Silas likes the ranch

Ezra slept through the ranch

Yarn Along

I just finished reading "Hind's Feet on High Places" by Hannah Hurnard. It's a truly beautiful allegory for the Christian life, and I found myself drawing a lot of encouragement from it. I've always found the interpretation of Song of Songs as Christ's love for His Church to be a bit far-fetched when the Song seemed to be so explicitly sensual, but "Hind's Feet" does a beautiful job of illustrating the idea of Jesus as a loving bridegroom through its language without becoming entrenched in the symbolism.

The Center Blocks: Swedish Two-Ended Mittens use a new technique for me, twined knitting, also called Tvåändsstickning (which is a wonderful looking word that I am undoubtedly mispronouncing in my head). At its simplest (ha!) it's done by using both ends of a center-pull ball, alternated every stitch, one yarn twisted over the other between each stitch. It makes a firm, warm fabric. At first I assumed it would be basically like double-knitting or fair-isle, but it's as different from either of them as they are from each other.

Yarn-wise I had to get the two colors (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes sport, Marina and Peapod) wound into a single center-pull ball. The first time, for the first mitten, I used an empty mini-M&M's tube as my nostepinne; I couldn't find it yesterday when I went to wind the yarn for the second mitten, so I used my P/Q (15mm) crochet hook instead. I wound the green on, and then laid the end of the teal over it and kept winding until it was one big ball.

Once I got the cast-on figured out (somewhat unorthodoxly, but it worked), I fumbled with several different ways of juggling the yarns, cursing the YouTube videos I was trying to follow and my stubborn fingers in turn, until something clicked and it was smooth sailing from there. I had to make some adjustments at the thumb (it was enormous). I cast on the second mitten with great confidence, only to discover nearly an inch into it that I was well on my way to making another right hand mitten instead of the lefty I needed to complete the set. Rip it, rip it, rip it.

 I've really been into teal and lime for a while, expect to see more of this combo in future.

The Weekly Dishcloth

Week 5:

Crocus
Lily Sugar 'n' Cream, yellow

(I deviated again from the Knit Picks schedule; their week 5 can be found at their website. I do still plan to sync back up to that list at some point, though it may be wild delusion on my part.)

There's half a foot of snow or more on the ground here in Iowa, so I feel a little silly knitting a buttery yellow spring-themed dishcloth (to say nothing of the peculiarity of working with cotton during perfect wool conditions), but this pattern has been marinating in my queue for ages and it feels nice to accomplish something that I've been planning to do for so long, even if it's just an 8 inch square destined for scullery work.  It's a very simple lace pattern, so naturally I had to frog it multiple times before making any progress.

One of the nice things said about lacy dishcloths is that they dry quickly, which helps to prevent them from developing that musty smell people complain about. I have never had a problem with odor from any of my dishcloths, though, except the one time one was left scrunched and sopping under the sink. Not naming any names, but my husband did it. I keep a length of yarn suspended between the cupboards above the sink as a clothesline for washcloths and bibs. No mildew!

Silas and Ezra Monday

Even a work in progress can keep you warm

-Chicks with Sticks: It's a Purl Thing

A Year of Dishcloths

Oh, Knit Picks, what have you done to me?

I was vaguely aware last year that Knit Picks was posting a dishcloth pattern every week, but since my awareness didn't start until, oh, August-ish, I wasn't really piqued by the idea.  When I got the newsletter last week, however, I thought, "Hey, I could knit a dishcloth every week, use up my cotton stash, have an excuse to buy more cotton, and have a whole bunch of cute dishcloths!"

Silly me, I thought it would be a minor detour that wouldn't detract much from my knitting time nor put the rest of my projects completely on hold...

Week 1:

Snowbobbles by Gillian Grimm
Peaches and Creme, Hippi

I have a whole cone in this colorway, and I was tickled by how neatly the colors lined up as I was knitting it.  The bobbles, while providing a good scrubbing surface and plenty of visual and knitting interest, mean that it takes five times as long to make this dishcloth.

Week 2:

Lizard Ridge by Laura Aylor
Peaches and Creme, Bright Blue and Tropical Sea

This is a terrible picture

This is not the actual pattern from the Knit Picks sequence; that can be found here. I fully intend to make that one once I can procure the yarn for it, but in the meantime, I opted to make something out of my Ravelry queue. The short-rows, like the bobbles, mean lots of turning and thus a longer time commitment. Also, my failure to read the pattern through led me to miss the direction to offset the ripples, so I had to rip back most of it and start over.

Week 3:

Market Day Dishcloth by Marjorie Dussaud
Peaches and Creme, Psychedelic

Now here is an ideal dishcloth, whipped up quickly even though I had to tink back several times due to not reading the directions because I assumed I knew what was coming next. Once again, pride goeth before a frog.

Week 4:

Textured Stripes Dishcloth by Kiel Lemon
Peaches and Creme, Juanita Rose

Another detour from the schedule. Knit Picks pattern of the week here, I plan to make it, too, but not until I get the yarn, as I didn't care for how it was working up in worsted cotton. I tried three other patterns before ultimately settling on this one. It turns out that I really dislike mindless crochet. The results are a nice, sturdy washcloth, but oy, it was a schlep getting there.

So stay tuned for more dishcloths - now that I'm caught up I hope to post one every week and bring some semblance of regularity to this much neglected blog, but we all know how likely that is.