two hogs are better than one

Zach still needs to sew on eyes and a nose, stuff, sew the seam and blog about his new pet. I think I will knit him a friend.

Random adventures with yarn

Last month I joined my first knit-along, since it coincided with my desire to make this scarf anyway. Mountain Stream, designed by Susan Lawrence. I am slightly more than halfway done. The picture does not do the pattern or the yarn justice, but it does show some progress.


I had hoped to work on the lace knitting while the menfolk were off on a boy scout weekend, but I spent the last couple days fighting headaches, so needed something less challenging. Last night I rewatched the first three episodes of Lost and worked on the log cabin.


One would think that I could get more than 7 inches square of garter stitch done in an evening, but the picking up and knitting takes time. And although you can't see the back, most of the ends are already sewn in. Plus, Lost is still exciting the second time around. I purchased 35 ounces of yarn. The above square weighs approximately one ounce. Therefore I can make a throw about 3 ft by 4 ft. Or I can buy more yarn for a good sized blanket. Haven't decided what the final design will be, but that's part of the whole knitting a quilt thing, I don't have to plan ahead too far. Just relax and knit.

Another lacy project I have been working on is Cozy, a shawl, lap blanket sort of thing. She's a quarter the way done. The yarn is Elizabeth Lavold's Silky Wool and I really like the feel and drape of it. I made some swatches in different stitch patterns and decided it would make a great sweater, which is why I purchased some in a dark blue at the yarn sale.





Just to reinforce that there will be sock knitting in the future for The Nerd and me, I joined a hand-dyed sock yarn swap. After reading Dave's color adventures, I was dyeing to try it myself.

Off and on the needles

One sweater down:

Learning Curve Sweater complete!
Design: well, I made it up as I went along. A top-down raglan, knit in the round using a garter/slip stitch pattern. Top down design from Unpatterns, Slip stitch garter pattern from Sally Melville, but I take full responsibility for the dysfunctional marriage of the two.
Yarn: Cascade Sierra (80% pima cotton - 20% wool)
Photographer: me. can't you tell? family is out, camera remote has dead battery, can't figure out if camera has a timer.

I learned a LOT about knitting from the time I started this project last December to when I finished it yesterday. I even learned some things from the making of this sweater. Will I wear it? Yes, in the house, or perhaps in the yard, the back yard, where no one can see me. I would use the yarn again, I would make another top-down raglan, I would not use this particular stitch pattern again in anything but a washrag.

One blanket to begin:


One of the dangers of teaching your kid to knit and blog is that you lose some control over your private life. Like, does anyone really need to know we purchased a lot of yarn at the LYS yarn sale? Does my husband really need to know the word "stash"? Yes, The Nerd and I went shopping. Yes, we bought a lot of sock yarn, yes I bought some silky wool for a sweater (design to be determined). Most of the yarn purchased was Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% cotton, 20% Merino, similar to but a little thinner than the Cascade Sierra) not egregiously expensive even when it isn't 20% off. The goal: a log cabin style blanket ala Mason Dixon. I swatched already and will wash it, just to make sure the colors don't bleed, before putting in all the effort on a full sized blanket.

The Nerd was the only male in the crowded store. Possibly the only customer too young to drink the complementary wine. Definitely the only customer wearing a hand-knit wool hat (It's April already, sunshine, flowers, etc). He enjoyed all the attention he got for the hat, proudly admitted that he knit it himself, and got as excited as anyone there over sock yarn.

ranting about a comic strip--my life must be dull

So what is it with the Phantom anyway? Are we supposed to think he is such a great parent?

See, a while ago he saved a couple teenagers' butts when they started to follow their father's footsteps into criminality. Remorseful, incarcerated father had asked the Phantom to do this for him. Said father then sighed about how it was all his fault, he should have spent more time with his kids. Phantom then slaps his forehead and remembers that he has a couple kids himself.

So he goes back to the Jungle where the kids live and decides to give them a crash course in survival, training them to be the next Phantom. Yeah, so dad shows up out of the blue and just announces that they are going to spend a lot of time together, starting now, get your shoes on we are going to hike all night long. Hey kids, I ignored you too long, but the world revolves around me, so you get to drop everything and do as I say.

Now, I can deal with the above part. So dad is a little autocratic. After all he is a superhero saving lives all over the world. And one of these whiny brats will become the next Phantom, so they do need some training. But here's where I get annoyed. These kids are being raised in the Jungle. While dad is off saving the world and mom is off having meetings at the UN, kids stay in the Jungle with those native jungle type folks. So why are both kids so fraidy cat of the dark and so unprepared for anything. They don't even know which fruits are safe or poisonous!

The bigger thing that gets me though is that dad is a superhero not because he has superhuman strength or bulletproof skin, he is very agile, very keen witted and perceptive. All parents would like their kids to grow up smart and perceptive, don't we? But his kids are going to need to use their senses wisely even more than most kids will. So what does good old dad do? Well he takes them on a hike, just the three of them, in the dark. But to keep it safe for the little darlings, he has whole hoard of tribal warrior types shadow them. So when the kids show actual talent at being perceptive, and tell their dad that they think something or someone is out there, he just says "nonsense. you are imagining it." Way to go dad, that's really teaching them how to trust their senses.

some knitting -- no clever title

It was a quiet weekend in Madorville, lots of knitting accomplished. We had intended to go to the Seattle Riot exhibition game on Saturday, but the weather was really really awful. Sorry, Shannon.I worked on the Mountain Stream Scarf. This photo was taken about a quarter way into the fourth pattern repeat. I now have five repeats done. I am getting faster, but have a ways to go to get to a decent sized scarf. The recommended length is 14 pattern repeats. I am really liking the pattern. It is very well written and the size is just right for a first lace project as it is easy to notice and correct mistakes within the row. Someone very familiar with the pattern would be able to tell that there's a mistake in my scarf. The short rows near the bottom are too loose. Well, they are also symmetric, so they could be a design element.



I made 1.2 dishcloths. The second one I cast on and knit while watching House of Flying Daggers. While there are subtitles, the plot isn't heavy on the verbal, so I was able to knit a bit. There is a mistake in a slip stitch early on though. You can sorta see it from the photo. Heck, this is a dischcloth; I am so not going to worry about it.





This Dulaan hat was finished a while ago. It was made using a strand of Melinda's homespun and a strand of Lambs Pride Worsted. It will fit a child with a head circumference about 16-18 inches. Toddler or preschooler?

I also finished the first sleeve of my red sweater, no picture though. I tried it on and modeled if for Zach. (Franz wasn't home at the time). Zach' s only question was "would you actually wear it?" Well, sure I will, and proudly. But not in public or anything. I am too close to finishing to give up or frog it. I will wear it around the house, maybe to garden in. I want to finish so that I can throw it in the washer and see how the fabric (cotton wool blend) holds up. See if some of the unevenness will be less noticable. I really like the feel of the cotton wool blend (Cascade Sierra) and want to finish the sweater mostly so I can determine if I like the yarn well enough to make another sweater out of it. I am thinking of making a log cabin blanket out of it also. This is a top down raglan designed on the fly. Since I hadn't touched it in months, it will take some calculations to get the second sleeve to look like the first.

This is our asparagus patch! I just get a kick out of having asparagus growing in the yard. Please note that there are two stalks, and that they are starting to flower. Yes, this is the extent of the patch. Franz bought the house from a little old lady who lived here for over 25 years and spent all her time gardening. The asparagus has survived the past 19 years of complete neglect. In fact, until a couple years ago, exactly one stalk grew each year. A male stalk. It grows over five feet tall and is really ferny, pretty when it flowers. I don't know what we did to merit a second stalk. Right up against the south facing wall of the house was probably a wise place for it at the time. But look how hard the sun damages the paint. The ground near the house, especially under the windowsill, is full of paint chips, very likely lead filled paint chips from before our time. Even if we had a healthy crop of asparagus, I don't think I would eat it given where it grows.

Franz cooked asparagus last night and it was yummy. He got it free at the store. Shopping late afternoon on Easter, the selection was picked over. In fact, it was the very last bunch and the produce guy was dubious about it so told Franz he could have it for free. Looked fine to me, and it tasted great.