BklnQ

Winterish, and dark outside. Finally not sweaty.

Resisting

I keep picking up Jane Sowerby’s Victorian Lace Today. I’m so tempted. I’m resisting; it is only a month and a half until the Χ–thing and there is no way I’m finishing a shawl in six weeks. I’m down to one or two conference calls a week and staff meetings are down to a minimum.

Work, though, is why I have nothing to show. Unless you are interested in SQL scripts and funds transfer pricing analyses. I do have a lovely cap plodding along in a Tunisian rib with cables in a smaller sort of gauge. Lots of knitting with very little progress. And a Manos de Uruguay Cotton Stria scarf at work for those conference calls I’m not having. Nothing significant enough for photos.

I now have a laptop for work. Which I carry home every night in case I should finally come down with a cold or the flu and be compelled to stay home. I haven’t yet, but I check my e-mail and end up wasting time at home that I could be wasting at work.

Question

If you are knitting a hat with cables and ribbing, is it better to decrease into the rib or the cable?

Specifically, a hat in Noro Blossom.

When I started knitting the Noro Blossom, I thought, “This strongly resembles dust bunnies that a cat has been sick on.” Still, it’s not my favorite yarn, but it turned out nice enough. Completed in less than a day with slightly more than one skein of yarn.

The bulk of the remaining yarn will make a nice wine bottle gift bag. I doubt that I would ever use this yarn again. Why?

1. mohair
2. clumpy
3. obvious nylon bits
4. bad feel when running through my fingers

On the plus side, unlike other Noro skeins I’ve suffered through, this one had no knots. And everyone else seems to like the hat.

The relatively flat top was achieved with by decreasing nine stitches every other round until tying off the crown. I have to remember that.

[K₁: if you think A₁ will think it looks like cat barf, warn me off now. Otherwise, it's in the (holiday) mail. Eventually.]

Backtracking

I had what I thought was a relatively fine Thanksgiving day. J went off to his folks in the Crazy State and I stayed home alone, being antisocial. The highlight was snaking the cheap low-flush American Standard toilet that the condo sponsor had installed when the place was built. I kid you not, the last time it clogged, it clogged on three sheets of unwadded toilet paper. Literally, it’s cr@p. If I could find the model number I’d warn you off it. The snaking seems to have worked: fifteen days without a stoppage.

I had store-bought Thanksgiving tortellini for dinner.

Friday I drove up to the Crazy State (not to be confused with the Nutmeg State or the Bay State), picked J up at his parent’s house and drove to Ptown to visit Mike and Tom, our friends at the Grandview Inn. It was the last hurrah. They’ve sold the place and are moving back to Chicago. It was a fun, but too short weekend. We’ll visit them in Chicago, and we’ll still go to Ptown, but summer vacation will never be the same. Or fall vacation, or New Year’s vacation.

On the Subject of Vacations

Guess who needs to work the week between Xmas and New Year’s? At least I should be left alone to get some work done. On the bright side, I don’t have to go to an airport. Or sit on an airplane. Or wait for checked luggage. Or…

We’ll see my Mom in January for her birthday. Travelling should be more sane, at least.

BTW, does anyone know what I did with the green chevron scarf I knit last fall? I think I gave it to someone as a holiday present.

J & I went up to Hudson NY for his birthday—he’s Brad Pitt’s age. We drove up on Thursday, stopping at a couple of wineries, one of which was open. We picked up half a case at Millbrook, three each of a Cabernet Franc and a 2005 Chardonnay, both good for the price. We got to Hudson a quarter after three and walked around after settling in at the guest house. We decided to have a margarita at Mexican Radio, which turned into two drinks with chips and salsa and then into dinner at the bar. We stretched it out and left a bit after six.

Hudson is very quiet on a Thursday evening in mid-fall. The street was almost empty. There were only two interesting shops open after we left the restaurant. I bought two coasters from a shop selling Turkish ceramics and glass, and we looked in on a shop that had, among other things, some cute knitted things—women’s and children’s only—some hand-knit locally, but didn’t buy anything. We went back to our rooms and found it was only seven. An early night of TV and knitting.

Friday we drove up to Mass MOCA in North Adams, MA. For J’s birthday we go to museums and restaurants; for mine we go to bars and restaurants, and I go yarn shopping and he goes to museums. The museum was a great space and I liked some of the art, but I still occasionally got that feeling of a joke I just don’t get.

On the way back, we stopped at The Fields Sculpture Park in Ghent. This is worth a stop, a long stop. Acres of fields and woods and a pond with large, outdoor contemporary sculpture and installations. We only had a little over and hour to spend before sunset, but we could have easily spent the whole afternoon. Most contemporary art doesn’t appeal to me, but the big sculptures do.

We had dinner at Ca’ Mea. It was good. We stretched it out with appetizers, entrees, dessert and coffee. J really liked the rigatoni in pumpkin cream sauce.

We still got back to the rooms by eight. We played a board game and watched Roseanne on HBO. How could anyone marry that voice?

Saturday morning, we had brunch at Red Dot, walked down to Parade Hill the look at the river, then did some shopping, but didn’t buy anything. We hit another winery on the way back, but it wasn’t worth the effort.

I did try to get some knitting in, but couldn’t come up with anything I liked. I knit five or six different patterns, frogging them all as doing nothing for the Fleece Artist kid mohair/silk I have. It’s a beautifull yarn. Frustrating. I came back to Brooklyn with nothing more than frogged yarn.

I have finished my hat made of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino leftovers, mostly knit during conference calls.

That’s the outside; this is the inside. [The color is more blue than purple.]

Generally, it’s reversable, but the inside has a k4p1 rib to fit better inside the k8p1 rib on the outside. Cast on 90, btw.

Otherwise. Doesn’t Brad Pitt’s middle look a bit thick almost human on the cover of Vanity Fair?

As the purple hat for J was not particularly successful, I made another.

The wool is Debbie Bliss merino dk, knit on a #4 Addi Turbo circ and Inox dpn’s. The diagonals are twisted stitches as per Barbara Walker’s method. They carry up into the decreases to form a spiral in the crown.

The color is closer to actual here, but it does make the detail harder to see.

In other news, I went to work yesterday happier than I’ve been in a long while, not because of work or because I have today and tomorrow off, but because the Republicans lost on Tuesday. You know that it’s bad when the Democrats can’t screw up an election.

It was a slightly disappointing weekend, so I focused on finishing things and cleaning up. The weather was not permitting. Rain all day Saturday, high and gusting winds Sunday. I had no chance to wow bystanders with my biking outfit. I did eat, however.

I finished J’s hat, another disappointment.

It’s too big for J, whose head, while larger than mine, still does not have enough hair to make it work. On my head, it seems a bit too feminine too. Probably the purple. I did swatch; I just overestimated the size of his head. The yarn is Debbie Bliss aran cashmerino, which I find too thick for a decent masculine hat in that color.

I finally finished the chair cover I made to protect my clothing and head from my chair at work. Pictures later.

I finally altered the whippet coat I made last year. I kitchenered the front together and added a d-ring to replace the velcro. I hope it arrives in time. One more whippet coat to go. Btw, the front is on the left.

Today, I finally caulked around the air-conditioner boxes. I’ll cover the air-conditioners later this week.

Saturday, I went to the LYS to buy #7 dpn’s to finish J’s hat and left—shockingly—with only the dpn’s I came for. Today, because the hat didn’t work out and because I had nothing in the stash that met the new requirements—soft in grey and black—boring—I went back to the LYS and came back with ten skeins of yarn and two circs.

Upper left: five balls of Debbie Bliss dk merino in grey (2), black (2) and navy (1).
Upper right: the circs.
Below them, two former hanks of Reynolds Rapture, one of my favorite yarns, in off-white and pale green.
Lower left: three hanks of Koigu Kersti Merino Crêpe (one not shown), in a beautiful shade of blue—I bought it because it was pretty.
Below, the edge of the ever-present Feather & Fan.
Left: the whippet coat.

Dear Ms. Bliss:

Generally I like Debbie Bliss yarns, but Ms. Bliss needs to work on the quality control.

One: the only way to get a decent center-pull ball of yarn out of the Bliss line is to rewind it. Hours can be wasted trying to find the end inside that cinnamon-bun-shaped coil. If it’s any consolation, Rowan isn’t much better.

Two: See those knots? Both were within twelve feet of the end of the inside end of two different skeins. I know knots are inevitable, but that close to what should be the starting point?! See those bobbin lengths? Those are the leftovers. Cheap economizing on not cheap yarn.

Contemplating felting and winter soltice gifts.

So I bought bike pants and a torso-covering-thing. This is the best shot you’ll get. Please remember that I’m short and even my own camera is treacherous.

It was one of the shorter weekends. I actually did things. Saturday I went out to buy bike pants—tights, let’s be honest—and other cool weather gear to extend the cycling season. Then I went out for an easy and incredibly fast ride out to Gerritsen Beach and an incredibly grueling grind back into a substantial headwind. I think the pants helped. 2:05. Or maybe I was just trying not to be seen in one place too long.

Secretly I hope that the pants flatter my butt and passing motorists think, “Wow, I wish my butt looked that good!” but somehow I doubt it.

Then I finished the laundry I started before I left. And then we walked to dinner at Alma (Columbia & Degraw) and walked home and watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean.

Friday night we watched The Brothers Grimm. Confused, at best.

Sunday, it was an excursion to Fairway in Red Hook. I can’t tell you what we spent, but let’s just say we shouldn’t have to buy more than milk and veggies for awhile. Then I went for a bike ride. It was only an hour-forty, but after the ride of the day before my calves were cramping and I did just pick the right direction out —Maspeth & Long Island City—to fight the wind on the way back again. Cold & sweating. After showering I made braciole and we had dinner and we watched something on TV.

J made me biscotti.

Somewhere in there I also passed the 54% mark on Feather & Fan.

Diminishing Yarn Cake

I also started a new hat on the subway out of leftovers of Debbie Bliss baby cashmere.

Why F&F is a good cool weather project.

Yes, I can still sit cross-legged with my feet tucked under.

Still listening to The Decembrists: The Crane Wife

Because this is primarily a knitting blog and I do feel the need to fill in the gaps between weekends, I present this pointless photo of a circular swatch floating in the bathroom sink. I also want to see how may hits this gets on Google Images.

The swatch itself is to determine gauge for the hat I’m starting for J. I wasn’t trying for any particular diameter, just stitches per inch in stockinette and seed stitch. And since I wasn’t trying, the resultant swatch would fit loosely around my thigh and dwarf any head. It’s another reminder that I always should check gauge.