Cattywampus

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

I love that quote.  Don't you just love that quote?

Sunday night rolls around once again and despite some food poisoning (mild) over the weekend, I am in a stellar mood.  We have decided to go to Belgium this spring.  

We spent our honeymoon in Paris and loved every minute of it and have been meaning to go back to Europe for a few years but life kept getting in the way.  This year we only own one home(such an odd statement, but such a huge one!), we are living where we want to live, we are both employed AND we will both have enough vacation time to make it work.

Combine that with a fellow we met during Beer Week last year, he does these fabulous sounding tours in Belgium, sort of a behind the scenes tour of breweries and some of the monasteries that still brew beer.  The other part that appeals to us is that the whole tour isn't extremely structured, there is a lot of independent time with time to visit museums or just relax in whatever town we happen to be in.  Also combine the whole not having to plan a trip and find decent places to stay on our own - all that is decided for us! - and we are IN.

We had been talking about it for a while and today in the ride home we ended up on a 'you only live once' note.  We don't want to be those people who keep putting off vacations like this because it's not the right time and end up with a life full of 'I wish I had...'

So assuming we can both get the time off approved from work, we are GONE BABY GONE.  In nine months.  

If you are interested in reading about the craziness, here's a link to the website, we will be doing the Ardennes tour.  And as it happens, our anniversary will fall while we are there.  Darn the luck, eh? 

Now then, what do I immediately start thinking about?  What to knit to bring with me, of course!  I have 9 months to do it, so I think I should be able to manage to finish a Pi Shawl, and this seems like a good motivator to make the Pi Shawl, it will serve as an impromptu blanket for traveling as well as a cozy wrap in the chill mountain air.

LOL - I'm totally romanticizing it already, I have no idea if the mountain air will be chill, but it should be, even if it isn't.

Will you help me decide while yarn to use?  I have two fabulous choices.  One that I originally picked out with the intent of doing the Pi Shawl and one that DH bought me this year on our anniv and it would seem fitting.  

Choice number 1, Whorled Peace in a lavender to gray color 2500 yards/8 oz.

Choice number 2, Blue Moon Fiber Arts Laci in Valkyrie, a black/purpleyredish/grey colorway 1750 yards/8oz

A few things to think about.  I am going to make the Firmaments Pi Shawl Version

Which, of course, does look lovely in a solid color, that is a consideration here as well.

This calls for 1700 yards, the Blue Moon is 1750 - that makes me a tad bit nervous, but the Blue Moon is also quite a bit heavier than the Whorled Peace, so the shawl will be more substantial, while the Whorled Peace shawl would be lacier and more featherweight.  

I am also a tad worried about the color variations in the Whorled Peace, the grey being such a different tone than the lavender, I realllly don't want to end up with a stripy shawl.

Given that, I am open to suggestions, should I use one of the two above or should I choose a solid color in another yarn entirely so I don't lose the the gorgeous pattern?

Please vote and help me decide what to bring with me to Belgium!  Did I mention I'm excited??? 

Click Here to take survey 

(Didn't you used to be able to put the survey in a blog post?  Did I miss something here?)

Saturday...Saturday

why oh why are you so few?  couldn't we have monday tuesday wednesday SATURDAY thursday friday SATURDAY sunday.  wouldn't that be better?

we are getting to the point in the academic year where work is overwhelming.  the freshmen get antsy, needy, excited, and freaked out.  I left at 5 pm yesterday and I already have 30 emails in my work inbox.  ugh.  and each email is a student with a problem or what they THINK is a problem that needs to be solved.  I don't even want to think what it'll look like by the time I actually get there monday morning.

theoretically I could do what's there today, but that would be about two hours of my saturday and I really don't have those two hours to spare.  we are on our way out of town to see some relatives, which I am very much looking forward to.  

In a not so brief moment, let me tell you how I got obsessed and bought yarn yesterday.  

That Kelly from Knitpicks, she is crafty.  Did you get the email with the fair isle vest in it this week?  Here it is, in case you didn't get it.  I have been wanting to do fair isle for a while, but the alice starmore kits are...um...OMG out of my price range and as much as I've tried to pick out my own colors I never found something I really was sure enough about to commit to.  I do have some yarn to make an EZ fair isle yoke sweater, but I'm talking full on fair isle.  lol Full On Fair Isle - sounds like a WWF smackdown, doesn't it?

Anyway, I don't like either of those colors.  Like I discussed last week, me and neutrals aren't friends anymore so even tho the green & brown is pretty, I'm not doing it b/c it's really just not me.  Likewise, I detest orange, so there you go.  However, I met my knitting group, which we have officially labeled the Philly Knitting Triad because there are all of three of us and it sounds cool, and lo and behold Jennygirl was thinking about it already.  All it took was a little push from me and she tumbled, so the bold kit along with separate colors for me that I managed to pick out with a little help from my friends (thank you Heather, Jen & Susan!)  I went with some teals and softer blues, we'll see how I did in a week or so.  Somehow a vest seems less intimidating than a whole sweater.  Fingers crossed.  

Literally while I was looking at the colors and Jennygirl and I were expressing our trepidations about steeking, I got an email from Loop telling me that Jared Flood would be coming in early October and doing a class on what?  COLORWORK AND STEEKING.  It was meant to be, so I've signed up.  I'm totally excited!  I would also like to go to the afternoon session about EZs 7 seamless sweater patterns, but I will have to see how the budget looks closer to the event.   

Also, the newly published Alice Starmore book is on its way to me via amazon, I can't wait to get that next week as well!  It seems like the stars have aligned for me to try some serious colorwork this year!  (I hope I don't hate it)

Coming next time - pictures!  I am close to being done with my forest canopy with beads and I got my first shipment of the fearless fibers simple value sock club and I am NOT disappointed!

A smattering of things

First, I had a migraine last week & was down for the count, so my progress is minimal.

Second, look, it's dh's finished paperweight, isn't it gorgeous!?!

Third, I finished this slipper in Ysolda's pattern, which was free and I think maybe isn't now, and it's funny lookin'!  

It's comfy, so I'm not overly concerned, but I was going to sew leather bottoms on these so I didn't get any holes in them and now I am reconsidering and thinking about using them until they wear out and then make another pair of loafers, cuz those rocked.

Fourth, I am still, still, still working on the button band of the blue sweater (Ditto).  It is, in fact, going into the black hole of knitting.  This is just the first button band.  I have knitted on it at least 10-12 hours, if not longer, the silly thing is only 16 stitches wide - what the heck???

Fifth, I started the cabled vesty hoodie thing that is all the rage right now and I really want to knit that, but I keep convincing myself that I need to work on the silly button band instead so I'm not getting very far.

Sixth, we went outlet shopping yesterday and I bought a cashmere sweater at brooks brothers on serious sale for $80, my husband laughs when I buy sweaters and always asks 'couldn't you make that?', this time I said, 'not for 80 bucks I couldn't!'  A cuddly, snuggly, perfect cashmere sweater.  When is it going to be cold???

Seventh, I'm gonna rant for a bit.  I know the swing style is very in right now, but seriously, we don't all look good in swing coats, in fact, after seeing people trying things on at the outlets yesterday I'm beginning to think that it's a style that only extremely thin people look good in, implying therefore that for the most part these sweaters & coats will only look good on 16-22 year olds.  And not that many people who knit their own clothes fall into this age range, so why OH WHY are so many of the patterns that are coming out this year in this top button only situation.  Not only do they not look good on everybody but helllllloooooooooooo - when it's 15 degrees out, what the heck is the point of wearing a wool sweater if you are only going to fasten it at the neck and let it 'swing' very stylishly and very, very open to letting in the cold air???

I don't get it.  I am officially old.  Also, while I am willing to try something on to see if the style suits me, I am not so willing to spend the time knitting a whole, entire sweater to learn that the style doesn't suit me!

Also, let's ignore the fact that the blue sweater I'm making is in this style, I hadn't thought it through before I cast on.  I'm not entirely sure this blue sweater is actually going to look good on me, I think I'm aiming for 'not hideous' at this point, which is a shame b/c the yarn is gorgeous.  

Eigth, and you could probably see this coming, I am annoyed at the blue sweater and want to cast on something else.  I'm itching to start something that would classify as a fall/transitional sweater because by the time I finish it will be time to wear it.  Now to just decide what...maybe Elaine's Blouse, I swatched for it eons ago, it will be a very nice early fall piece if I can finish it in time.

Ninth, another slight rant, I'm going to stop buying tan and brown pants and brown shoes.  I buy them, thinking I don't have any because I never wear them only to come home and find that in fact I do have them, I just never wear them because I tend to buy (and knit) tops in vibrant jewel tones and I don't like the way they look with neutrals.  There is no need to wear browns, nobody is going to notice and ask me why I never wear khaki, I don't have to be fair to the color groups and maintain an equal presence in my wardrobe to avoid discrimination...I can. just. stop. wearing. brown.  And I will.  I have already really, a year or two ago, but I am going to stop feeling like I SHOULD be wearing browns more.  I am not breaking any rules by wearing the colors I like even if they are only in one half of the color pallete. 

Tenth, this house had gone wayyyyy too long without chocolate chip cookies and I have remedied that, so I'm going to go eat another one.  

One block wonder UFO

Back last fall sometime I started a one block wonder quilt.  It's a very funky kind of quilt and you can see some examples of it here.

I had all the little pieces done and just needed a place big enough to put them up and figure out the order they would go on the actual quilt.

This is what they look like - this is from last year when I had just cut them out.

I went over to Jersey saturday and used my stepmother's design wall - it's an entire wall covered in flannel so the fabric sticks and you can see what the quilt will look like before you sew it together - to put up all the blocks for this quilt to arrange them in an eye pleasing sort of way.

This is what I ended up with, sorry it's blurry, it's from the phone and I couldn't tell exactly what I was doing.

I went with a light to dark sort of thing with the golds in the middle and there's some teal over on the right that you can't see b/c of the stellar quality of the picture.  Of course now I have to sew it all together so you can see it for real.  

This pretty much used up my creative energies for the weekend, it took us about 3 hours to do, so I have nothing else to show...

Pictures and pretty things

Alright, so when dh got a job I went a little nuts and ordered some things I'd been wanting but hadn't felt like I could buy.  So here we go, below is some of that new Berroco Vintage, it's a wool/acrylic blend, washable and super soft.  These are for matching sweaters for my goddaughter and her baby brother for Christmas this year.  She picked out her color, it's kind of grown up for a 5 yo, but she picked it, so I'm happy.

Cascade Heather in a color I forget but may be sapphire to make the Farmer's Market Cardigan in the new Interweave.

An order from BlueMoon below, a skein of silkie in Lunasea, a skein of the tencel/merino blend in Jabberwocky (because I LOVED LOVED LOVED the poem as a child and still recite it in my head when I am bored or nervous), and 3 skeins of heavyweight in Lover's Leap to make the Shawl that Jazz.  I know a lot of people have used Twisted, but I wanted superwash b/c of the dogs, this is intended to be a cozy house shawl in bright fun colors to keep the winter blues away.

And below is knitpicks gloss worsted in blackberry to make the Maple Street Cardigan, but longer b/c really - I don't get the short sweater thing.

And I also bought Berroco's Lustra booklet, I really like this cowlneck sweater, I just need to find some wool soft enough that I won't go batty from the itching by the end of the day.

I adore the ribbon detailing on this cardigan.

And this is just an incredibly practical, cute & cozy v-neck sweater.

So there it is, my big splurging over the last few weeks.  Now it's time to get knitting!!

It's Stealth-dog!

He blends into the scenery, he challenges your powers of perception, he's STEALTH DOG.  Coming soon to a couch near you.

Alright, so remember back in November when I took the Bohus class (so cool!) and started the cuff?  Well, the first cuff is done, so I had to decide what to do with it before moving on.  I decided mittens, it would be hidden in socks and probably wouldn't fit over my heel anyway and I know I won't wear cuffs, so it has to go somewhere!  

In my last order from webs (coming...coming) I ordered some Louet Gems b/c that is what Susanna said would go well with the yarn.  I didn't think the colors blended well enough so I stopped at my LYS and picked up some drops alpaca in fingering weight.

The texture of the alpaca will match better too, I think.  I also picked up size 00 needles (ACK) b/c I want to knit them tight enough to be at least a little practical. 

Over the weekend I finished the socks I test knitted for Anne eons ago in March.

Made some serious headway on the two sweaters I am working on but continue to take shaky pictures of so I won't share yet, and started a Forest Canopy shawl in Jaggerspun Zephyr black with little black silver lined beads in the center for a little extra umph.

It's looking good, this picture is kind of blah, but it's moving quickly and I'm really loving it.  This was my first lace project ever and I remember struggling over the pattern to get it right, it's amazing how quickly it flies off the needles now!

Longwood Fireworks & Fountains

Yesterday to wrap up our staycation we went to Longwood Gardens for their Fireworks & Fountains show.  We were going to head to the Chadd's Ford winery on the way there, but as it turned out we were tired (apparently the tired that comes with being on vacation is not just from being away from home...) so we decided we could do that another day.

We got there around 6:30 for the BBQ and to walk around the grounds a bit before the show started at 9:15.  This is what we saw

Um.  Apparently you have to claim your spot pretty early.  So we found a spot to plop down our chairs and went to enjoy the bbq (food was really good) and walk through the greenhouses.

I'm going to run through some flower pics, just keep scrolling if you're not interested.

The waterlilies were mostly closed already, but this one was still open.  Aren't these lily pads stupendous?

This one is my fav.  The orange is so vibrant!

After that we went and found our chairs and waited for the show to start, which is when it started raining.

It stopped before the show started though and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Even if we were covered in ash from the fireworks at the end.  I don't think I've ever been so close to being directly underneath fireworks, it was spectacular!

And the fountains are such vibrant colors, they are so cool.  Sorry for the grainy pics, I'm not entirely sure how to use my camera in the dark.

And that wraps up our staycation.  It was great fun, and we are 'home' this morning, going about normal sunday things.  It's funny, I really didn't think I would be as tired as I was since we were staying at home, but we had planned stuff to do just like we were staying at a bed & breakfast so we were quite busy and definitely went out and did WAY more than we would be able to do if we were trying to keep up with normal life at home.

So it turns out, a staycation can wear you out just as much as a vacation can - but the trip home is a lot easier!

I have lots of knitting related things to show you (not much actual knitting, but lots of yarn), I'll have to do that when I have some time later.

DH starts his new job tomorrow so I am wishing him much luck, I hope he loves it!  

Schulkyl River Path etc

Yesterday we walked over to the Schulkyl River path and followed it up to the Waterworks and the PMA.

It was a gorgeous day for a walk, not too hot, just the right amount of breezy.

It's about a 2.7 mile walk from our house, so we certainly got our exercise!

Here's boat house row, a fairly famous Philly sight.  

We toured the waterworks, it's a free little museum/info center.  The most interesting was just seeing the original water pumping system for Philly, it's about 150 years old.

Handily enough, the waterworks was designed to be functional and pretty, so it makes for a nice view from the outside as well.

After that, we went up to the PMA, we were intending to go to Art after 5, on Fridays a band plays in the evening and they serve snacks and drinks.  We wandered around the museum a bit and saw my favorite room.  

This is the courtyard of a french convent from approx 1200, the fountain works and it is an incredibly peaceful place to sit and relax for a few minutes.

We hung out and listened to the band for a while, but it wasn't much to our liking and we had heard rumors of martinis being offered on the front patio (aka the rocky steps) so we wandered out there.  

Sure enough, martinis.

Combine that with one of the best views of the city around.

Okay, okay, that's not the best view, this is.

And chatted and relaxed as the sun crept across the pavement.

They recently redid the frescos (i think that's what they are called) along the top of the museum, they look fabulous!

After that we headed off to dinner and enjoyed a relaxing evening, by the end of the night we had walked about 6 miles, so I think I earned every bite of that dessert I had!

(stay tuned tomorrow for staycation day #3)

Wheaton Village

Down in the Pine Barren area of New Jersey is this fantastic little craft place called Wheaton Village.  

This is a great place to go to pick up an artisan made gift or two, to see a glass making demonstration, or you can buy somebody (or yourself) a 'make a paperweight' experience.  Which I bought for DH for our 3rd Anniv in May, and we're just going to pretend that I knew the 3rd anniv is the glass anniversary.

I have to say, this was incredibly cool.  I want to do it now.  We start with the big, giant furnace.

After a pretty intense safety instruction session, dh picked out his colors, shades of red and orange.

They're red really, apparently the heat makes them turn color.  Then dh gathered glass, which is a little bit like gathering honey on a honey stick, except a few thousand degrees hotter.

You smush the color in

There's a lot of back and forth at this point, you take it to the 'hole' you can see in the background, melt in the color, grab more color, shape it, and so on.  Once the color is all in then it gets really fun.  DH is making a rope-like effect, so you take the glass and stretch it out like a rope.

Then you wrap it all back around.

Then you melt it all up again so it more or less forms a ball

Then you gather clear glass over the top and shape it into a globe shape

And then form it into a ball

And then separate the top part so it will break off easily

And at the end there is a paperweight, but of course we won't know what it really looks like until it cools and they ship it to us next week.  It was really fun just to watch and I know dh had fun doing it, so if you are ever in the area I would absolutely recommend it.

As for me, I bought a business card holder paperweight.  

A little way to bring a bit of beauty into my work day.

There is also a museum of glass on the grounds which has the history of glass from beginning to current, it's fun to walk through.  This piece fascinated me.

Especially after I realized that on one side was the Pope and Mother Superior and on the other side

Rabbis, I'm not sure who the head honcho rabbi is, or if there even is one, so I apologize for my ignorance here.  The set is so detailed and from a distance it just looks really cool and then closer up I realized that the artist is making a very serious statement.  Regardless of whatever the statement might be, it's incredible workmanship.

Ooh, almost forgot - they had a typical Victorian household kitchen and I spotted knitting!

(Staycation day 1, finis!)

Other kinds of updates

I got the latest embrace the lace kit - again, for me, it's 'eh' - this is the yarn, I didn't manage to take a pic of the whole package before it scattered to the 4 corners of my house.

It's a 70/30 merino/silk blend, 1260 yards in 7 oz, Miss Babs, Yearning.  The color is called something about sand, it goes from a really light tan to a cafe au lait color.  

The pattern is a large triangular shawl with a fairly simple design, pretty, looks very summer & beachy.  

Once again...I don't like it.  At this point there have been 3 colors in a row that I don't like, I'm thinking that the Woolgirl's tastes in color differ from mine in the extreme.  I'm also thinking that there is really only one more color group I don't like (yellow/orange), so in the next 5 shipments there are just BOUND to be blues, purples, pinks, reds, or greys.  Pretty please?

In the meantime, if anybody is interesting in buying or trading let me know...

My jaywalker is coming along and I LOVE it.  I will be so very sad if it doesn't go over my heel.

My Pompon sweater is coming along nicely.

Although I can't seem to take a non-fuzzy picture to save my life.

This one, though it's at a super odd angle, really shows the pattern nicely.  This sweater is designed with short sleeves, and I'm not so sure about wool with short sleeves, so I'm hoping that after I finish the body and neckline I will have enough yarn to make 3/4 sleeves.  It shouldn't take too much extra, I wouldn't think, I'm just trying to add 4" to the sleeve, I hope I have enough.

I fell in love with the Carnaby Street Pullover from the new Knitscene (as well as a bunch of things from the new interweave, but that's for another day).

I am looking at this yarn/button combo.  Heather, you were right on with those buttons!

It calls for sport and this is fingering weight, but I think it's heavy enough fingering to use as a sub.  I hope so.

I did some swatching today, first for the Tweedy Aran Cardigan, I have been wanting to make this for a while, and I have a substantial amount of Pear Tree that I bought to make an aran sweater, so I think it's time to give it a shot.  Also, I adore this yarn and bought it over a year ago, I read something somewhere about letting things you love sit because they are too precious to use and then they go bad without you ever having used them.  (it could have been on one of your blogs, I'm not sure)  So I am going to commit and not save it for something 'special', I'm going to make this sweater and I'm going to LOVE it and use it until it gets all pilly and possibly has holes in the elbows.  I hope.  As long as I don't screw it up really badly.

The color isn't showing up well here, it's  a gorgeous pink/coral kind of color.  However, I need my size 7 needles and they are occupied elsewhere, so I must finish that project first!

The bottom swatch is for something I got in my head a week or so ago.  It is unbelievably cold in my office in the winter.  So cold that the guy who had my office last wore his coat all day.  I am not willing to do that, so I live in wool sweaters and wool socks, but sometimes that isn't enough either.  I decided I should make a wool cami out of sock yarn so it would be as thin as the cotton camis I wear to layer, but infinitely warmer.  I am using malabrigo sock b/c it's soft and superwash!

I drew up a little diagram of it, I am figuring on 2-3" of negative ease b/c I don't want any extra fabric to buckle under whatever I am wearing, I really want it to be snug.  I am going to put ribbing on the bottom just to keep it from rolling and ribbing on the sides to help with the snugness.  I am going to use darts instead of side decreases b/c with the sock yarn it takes a lot of decreasing to decrease & increase that much!

This is going to be my next bus project, that's a lot of stockinette in a circle and I certainly have plenty of time to get it done before the cold hits.  (if those aren't famous last words I don't know WHAT would be...)  I only have one skein and I doubt that will be enough, but it's supposed to be an undershirt, so it doesn't matter if the dyelots don't match.  

I hope this works!

And today Duke helped me lots. He is incredibly good at holding down the couch, my ipod, knitting, pattern pages, and anything else I might possibly want to use in the next 10 minutes.  But he's awfully cute, isn't he?