audioknits

Thursday May 15

This is how far I've gotten on the Patons Grace short sleeve cardigan.  As usual the colors remind me of food- mint chocolate chip ice cream in this case.  I like the color combination all right,  but except for the fact that I had enough skeins of the mint in my stash to be the main color and didn't want to buy more yarn, I would have chosen a more neutral color as the background and relegated the mint to contrast.

J started his first real grown-up job this week, at the helicopter repair company.  He seems to like it so far. 

Today I stayed home sick.  Not a terrible debilitating sick, but a slight fever, probably a cold on top of allergies.  I knew when riding only 3 miles last night felt like too much that something was off. This spring has been awful for pollen; it hasn't bothered me this much in years.  So I've slept a Iot and haven't even touched the knitting yet. I want to take it easy so that I'll be fit as a fiddle for K's graduation(!) on Saturday.

Muriwai bathmat

Here is the Muriwai bathmat, all ready for its first christening by Ruby, who seems to think of anything on the floor in the bathroom as her own personal litterbox.  I stopped a few rows short of what is pictured in the book as it was plenty big enough for the space, but it is still about the specified size, 3' X 2'.  An easy knit, once I learned to put the monster on two circular needles (thanks, Marcy and Judy), and makes a nice cushy mat.  Let's just hope it washes well.

Pattern: Muriwai Bathmat

Source/Designer: Knit 2 Together/Mel Clark

Yarn: Rowan Cotton Rope (doubled)

I've started on the cardigan for the Patons Grace twin set and am a couple inches into the Fair Isle patterning.  Photos when there is more to show.  I am loving knitting with this smooth cotton yarn, and as always it is hard to stop when you are knitting a multicolor pattern.

Debby has written down a summer wish list and a 'not to do' list.  I like this idea.  As summer and the end of school approach each year, I have similar thoughts about what I want to accomplish and what can be let go.  (Housework is nearly always in the latter cartegory.)  One To Do item, already begun, is to expand the vegetable garden (my 'lasagna garden').  Last year's bed has been sown with spinach, lettuces, and scallions.  A second bed has been prepared and I bought tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers at the high school FFA plant sale to set out after the last frost date.  We'll be making one more bed soon. 

I also wanted to refresh the supposed herb garden outside the back door.  Chives, scallions, thyme, oregano, and sage have been hanging on for years, but dwindling, while goldenrod, tansy, and unwanted plants like bittersweet have overcrowded the plot.  I yanked out most of the unwanted stuff and have been replanting perennial and annual herbs and some flowers.

There are several little gardens we've added around the yard since we moved in, but haven't kept up well.  They are on my Not to Do list.  I'm moving out any good plants and then having D mow over the plots.  This year I just want to concentrate on the herb, lasagna, and daylily gardens.

Especially since chickens are on the To Do list.  Still mostly in the research stage.  They will be housed on the old dog pen area behind the lasagna garden. It is overgrown with weeds, saplings, bittersweet, and thorny plants.  I did a lot of pruning and weeding yesterday, mostly wearing gloves, but managed to rip two fingers pretty good on the thorns I didn't notice when not wearing gloves.

Sometimes the trees of spring can fake you out by looking like autumn trees.  Though there is no mistaking a magnificent spring crabapple. 

Impromptu guild meeting

The guild meetings are scheduled for the second Thursday every month, but as we were holding it at an LYS which had classes scheduled on Thursdays, it was changed to the second Tuesday this month.  I was anticipating checking out  this new-to-me shop which many members have enjoyed, prepared to buy yarn for specific projects.  Jacquie and I carpooled and it was good to catch up with her.  When we arrived shortly before 7:00, there was a knot of knitters outside the shop. Hmmm. We waited and waited but the owner never showed!  I'm sure it was just a mix-up.  It was disappointing, but we ended up heading to a cozy coffee shop across the street and had a knit-in there.  I forgot to note the name of the shop, but it was a relaxed and accomodating setting, with comfy chairs we could arrange around tables so we could stitch and nosh.  (Did I really need the giant chocolate chip macaroon?  No, but it was delicious.) The walls were covered with local artwork of all kinds.  Some of the notable knitting pictured: Ann wearing a Jean Frost linen  stitch jacket; Jacquie in the Pearl Buck swing jacket with pleated back detail.  I worked on the cumbersome bathmat, which should be done by the weekend.

Yesterday I bought a flat of various herbs to refresh the dwindling herb garden.  Cow had to check out the plants. 

I'm taking the day off today - nearly all my students are on field trips.  It's another beautiful day, and I plan to get in some errands, gardening, knitting, reading, biking.  (Yesterday I hit 300 miles since I started riding outside again on March 18!)  Tonight our neighborhood environmental group has a second informational meeting with DEM.  I'll have to dig out a small project to bring along.  Possibly even a sock.

Two circ solution

Thanks for the suggestions on the bathmat dilemma.  Using two circular needles hadn't occurred to me - duh- possibly because as a double point needle sock knitter (on the rare occasion I knit socks) I've never used the two circs method. 

So after googling the method, I put half the stitches on the 36" needle, and the knitting is now zooming along.  Now it's possible to spread it out and have a glimpse of the end result.

Yesterday I took a short hike in the Yawgoog area with a small group from URI that is doing research on the hemlock wooly adelgid.  I'd never been on the trail, only 7 miles away from home, and was amazed at the spectacular views and geological features.  Naturally I forgot the camera, but plan to go back with D so that I can share some photos and more information about the hemlock project.

Spring showers

We had a good time at my niece's baby shower/clamboil last weekend- here she is with her own little niece helping open gifts.  And her pug Mickey, (here overexposed to better see his cute face) who will soon have to get used to being a second-class citizen, chews on a sandal, blissfully unaware of the upcoming demotion.

The week has seemed especially long as I had to attend 10  IEP meetings, which I believe is a record for me, and I only work 4 days a week.  Plus I actually went in 5 days this week, as I attended a video workshop on Tuesday.  That was the only substantial knitting time all week, as I worked on the garter stitch Karabella Gossamer scarf while at the workshop.  Otherwise I've been coming home, getting a bike ride in, except when it rained Monday, then getting ready for the next day's work.  Oh yeah, and I had to get the bimonthly guild newsletter out a few days earlier than usual as we are meeting on an earlier date than usual.  Just call me Superwoman, heh heh, or else just tell me to shut up and stop complaining.

I'm in another knitting funk.  My main project is the bathmat.  Do they make circular needles longer than 40"?  I thought the 40" needle that is called for was going to be unwieldy, but it isn't.  The mat will end up with 300+ stitches before it is done.  Right now there are 208 stitches on the needle and it is pretty jam-packed.   I may have to end up making a smaller mat.

There are wome WIPs hanging over my head that I'd like to finish - two pairs of mateless socks; the thick Farmhouse Yarn cabled pullover that I'd put aside during the baby knitting frenzy...a great knit but I want to work on something I'll actually be able to wear now; the black Jaeger vest which could be worn year-round, but I have to figure out where I am in the pattern...

Plans for the weekend include starting to plant the garden and going to a tree identification activity.

I'm almost done listening to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.  Everyone should read this before they eat another meal.  It is a great companion book to Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  Both books have gotten me to think more seriously about what I buy to feed myself and my family.  My family would probably have been happier if I'd never read them, but they are free to do the shopping and cooking for themselves if they don't like what's on the table, because Mom is on another bandwagon.  When I'm done with Pollan's book I will speak more about it.  Meanwhile, Down with Industrialized Agriculture!

 

Dale baby vest

Final finishing details were made on the vest (repositioning top button, stitching in label) this morning, the day of the baby shower.  You see I did end up using the chestnut buttons, which give it a 'refined country woodsman' look.  I liked the look of the more moderne contrasting citron buttons too, but they'll go in the button can for another project.  Thanks for your opinions.

Stats:

Dale Baby Hooded Vest #7204A

Source: Dale Baby Collection #72

Yarn: Dale Baby Ull (brown and slate blue); Plymouth Dreambaby (citron)

Needles: size 2

You noticed I did not make the hood, though I had been considering making it as a detachable button-on.  The vest was enjoyable to knit, but I have had enough of it!  It is not a whip-through baby project. 

My gauge was way off.  I knit the 9 month size, which was supposed to give you 11 3/4" at the widest point of front and back.  I ended up with 14" across.  I'm not fretting and never considered ripping back because of course the baby (by then, toddler) will fit into it someday.

K. and her boyfriend are here for the shower this weekend.   They both took a stained glass class as an elective in their final semester.  I am so impressed by the two pieces she brought home.  And wait until you see what her final project is!  But that will have to wait until after graduation.

We interrupt this blog...

Five months after graduating from his aviation mechanic program, J was hired today for a job in his field.  Big sigh of relief.  He had been moving in slow motion in the job search and we were getting a little frustrated.  He didn't want to move across the country or to Iraq where the jobs seem to be plentiful.  This job is at a helicopter repair company based at the airport, only half an hour or so from here (but the commute on Rte. 95 will stink.)  Once the drug test is completed he is good to go!

Armband number one is done.  I picked up two sets of buttons today.  What do you think, chestnut or citron?

Chicken show!

D and I went to a chicken show at the fairgrounds yesterday.  We only heard of it through word of mouth.  I've been wanting to raise chickens for a while, though I know nothing about it, so the show was fortuitous. I'll be reading up on it and put the guys to work making a coop, Fresh eggs, manure, and pets all in one shot. These are just a few of the photos I took. The freaky looking 'upright ' chickens creeped me out. Give me good ol' Rhode Island Reds. 

My school calendar is filled with end of year IEP meetings over the next few weeks, which means a lot of paperwork.  Can't wait until it's all over. 

I still haven't finished the baby vest, and all I have to do is the armbands.  Maybe I'll get one done today.

A sad note as another LYS is closing. The owners of Yarns at Lace Wings are moving south and did not find a buyer.  There is a sale going on, but it's tough to see another shop go out of business.    

Heavy on the photos

D took the day off work yesterday and a beautiful day it was.  I took the first motorcycle ride of the year (he rides to work nearly year-round except in the dead of winter) and we went hiking in the 'glacier park' that K and I hiked a few weeks ago.  If you are not a native New Englander, you might think the pictures were taken in the dead of winter.  Though we are almost one month into spring, most trees are bare, but if you look closely, buds are swelling and some leaflets are peeping out on various shrubs.  There were lots of little lavender moths chasing each other, and the birds were singing away.  I'll have to brush up on the birdsongs again.  One thing you will see a lot of in New England woods no matter the time of year - rocks, rocks, and more rocks.  The glacier's handiwork.  This is the perfect season to be in the woods- no bugs.

Today I went to the Narragansett Bay Quilters' Show, a feast for the eyes.  There was a little treat in every program, either a mug mat or a yoyo pin.  The show was held at my (and Dorothy's) high school alma mater (North Kingstown) but it was the first time I'd been there since it was rebuilt several years ago.  It's a beautiful 3 story building.  When I attended, it was a 'campus style' school built in 1959, consisting of many buildings which you had to walk between no matter what the weather, dragging your books and coats and whatall.  Now this would be fine if you lived somewhere like sunny CA, but I can't fathom how anyone thought this was a fine idea in RI.

My favorites are traditional quilts, and the redwork and color on color quilts.  I just had to stop and drink in the amazing small 'portrait' of a weatherbeaten old chair, like a painting made with fabric. 

All that is left to do on the vest is the neckband and armbands.  Then comes the search for buttons.

So far, so good

I couldn't ask for a better vacation week.  The weather has been nice - chilly evenings and mostly sunny days in the 50's and 60's.  I've ridden P.W. each day, aiming for at least 8 miles. Clothes can be hung out in the fresh air and dry before the  day is through. The lasagna garden is taking shape.  I've supplemented last year's with added peat, lime, and manure, and started a second.  (Those are not 2 freshly dug graves.  If you look closely, you can see Cow supervising from a far.)  I plan to have 3 lasagna patches this year.  If things go extremely well with them, I'd like to add a few more next year and have them as part of the library's 2009 garden tour fundraiser.

The right front of the baby vest is done and on to the left front.  I picked up the stitches around the center of the bathmat on the 24" needle as per pattern, but immediately switched to the 36" as it was so crowded.  It won't be long before it needs to switch to the 40" needle.

I neglected to mention that I have a load of schoolwork to do before returning to work (reports, IEPs), and sitting here blogging is yet another way to procrastinate.  And I thought I would get a start on the guild newsletter, but it ain't happening yet.

I've finally perfected the yogurt.  After the first burned tasting batch, I made two more that were less burned by pouring the boiled milk into another pan which was sitting in a bowl of cold water.  Still not perfect, but edible.  So I took the advice in the recipe booklet for making the yogurt without boiling the milk.  You heat the milk to the desired 95 degree range, then stir in powdered milk along with your yogurt starter.  (I now have enough yogurt going that I can use some of my own as starter.)  It is delicious!  I could even eat it plain, which I never did before with commercial yogurt.  But my favorite way is to add some granola with raisins and nuts.