11/30/2005
Grandma’s Alberta Seaman Scarf has grown by leaps and bounds since you last saw it. Of course that was roughly six weeks ago. I confess that it didn’t really get any attention until last Wednesday. I had gotten distracted by the mittens and holiday prep and illness etc. But at SnB on Monday night I pulled out the provisional cast on with some tediousness and started the ribbed section. The provisional cast on would not unzip with the mohair so I had to pick out each stitch indivdually. But it was easy and realatively painless while a few of us bitched about current events in our lives and caught up with all the events of the holiday weekend.
I have roughly another inch or so to go on the ribbing. It was suggested that you knit the ribbed section to be 70% of the circumference of the wearer’s neck, but I have no clue what g’ma’s neck measurement is. She is somewhat short and relatively petite these days so I’m thinking the smallest of the range given (10 - 12 inches) will be appropriate. It doesn’t fit me well at 10 inches, but I’m a sizeable woman (though another 5 pounds lighter despite the holiday and a two week hiatus from water aerobics).
I’m still not positive how happy I am with the yarn. I *love* the color combination, but it seems awful stripey. Though a few said how much they liked it on Monday night. Since it’s a scarf and the same number of stitches across over the whole length I guess it isn’t the worst thing to appear a bit stripey because it’s the same over the whole thing. But, I’ll reserve final judgement until after blocking.
In the meantime, here is a close up shot of the pattern semi-blocked with the aid of my feet while I took the pic…
*Finally* Amanda and I got to see each other. With travel for SOAR and the holidays and my getting sick two weeks ago we hadn’t seen each other since the night before she left for SOAR in early November. She brought me back goodies too!
On the left is Socks that Rock (yes, I’m finally part of the cool kids with just the right yarn, LOL!) in Iolite. This was a fortunate thing for me, as Amanda and Margene‘s yarn choices for Snow overlapped and this was a doubled colorway so I was given the option to give it a home in my stash. And, as luck would have it these should blend wonderfully into my wardrobe once they grow up into socks! Wheeeee! Thank you!
Now that I went and looked at their colorways I have several others I’m coveting. Jewel of the Nile, Pebbles, Sandstone, Jade, Flourite, Cobalt Bloom… *sigh*
Then, the packet on the right has had me drooling since about 6:10pm last night… It’s a sampler of silk hankies from Treenway Silks. The colors are great and I *loved* spinning the silk from the bell in the spinning class in August. I can’t wait to play with this and then dream up something to do with it once it is spun.
Last night was also the first night this month that both Snow and I made it on the same night. Miraculously the universe has not started spiralling inward towards a black hole (at least not that I’ve heard so far). Yeah! It was kind of nice having just the hard core regulars there last night. Ashley’s fair isle cardigan is going to be gorgeous! She’s on a sleeve so it won’t be too much longer! And Linsey is getting close to starting sleeves on her gorgous orange Manos sweater for her hubby. *swoon*
I have progress to report on Grandma’s Albert Seaman Scarf, but that shall wait until tomorrow. I’m trying really hard to not cast on for the second Mitten from Halland, but I’m guessing I’ll cave before Saturday. While I’m making good progress on Grandma’s scarf, because it is mohair and it’s hard to see stitches clearly it just isn’t a visiting sort of project and I shall need a visiting project for the knitting tea. While I would love to report a finished scarf before Saturday I just don’t see it happening amongst work and preparations for the tea. That said, I’m coming into the home stretch enough I don’t think I’ll be in danger of casting aside the scarf in favor of exclusive knitting on the mitten. Wish me luck!
11/28/2005
No, the northern Colorado front range did not get snow as forecasted. But, I got to spend time with Snow TWICE in one weekend!
First, she heard that it was just DH & I for Thanksgiving so she invited us to join her band of merry makers on Thursday. And, a wonderful day it was. I had a big dinner planned and most of the groceries purchased to make a special meal for DH & I already, but since DH is vegetarian I don’t usually get the oportunity to have turkey - let alone pie (and 3 kinds at that from a legendary local bakery which most people just cannot compete with) and fart loaf!
Following for the food fest (I was actually pretty proud of myself for not overindulging much and staying comfortable full) G planned an outing for the late show of Pride & Prejudice. It’s no BBC mini-series, but was it was pretty good (there will be a more thorough review at some point this week at Culture Catalog - probably later today).
Then, on Saturday I cooked our delayed feast and invited SIL3 over as we discovered on Thursday that the remaining siblings were scattered throughout the state on Thursday and we had assumed she had gone to celebrate with her boyfriend, but had not. DH was not feeling well (we think he *might* have given himself food poisoning trying a bit of his homemade cheese from a batch that wasn’t cook quite properly - don’t worry he’s kept careful track of these things and won’t be giving out wheels from questionable batches). I think he’d learned that if it doesn’t smell like the type of cheese you made it probably isn’t a good thing to try a bite. So, I got to scratch one dish of the day’s meal and made a feast for SIL3 & myself. It was great and I sent some leftovers home with her so I’m not eating only thanksgiving leftovers this week. I have plenty but will be able to mix them up with other things.
Following that massive cooking and cleaning frenzy I went to Snow’s house again for knitting and conversation. We were of the delusion that we could watch a movie, but it just wasn’t happening. We’re all too talkative, LOL! I also discovered that g’ma’s mohair lace seaman’s scarf is not a good visiting project. I kind of already knew this, but I made such amazing progress on it on Wednesday night at DH’s write-in that I thought it would be okay. However, in the two hours or so I was at Snow’s I only got 1.5 pattern repeats and the seed stitch edging and BO done. I’m going to try real hard to not cast on for the second mitten until I at least have this gift off of the needles.
It is SnB tonight and I’m looking forward to hearing of everyone’s holiday adventures over the weekend. Two of the gals were on rather lengthy road trips for the holiday and I’m sure they will have stories to tell. I will pull out the provisional cast-on for g’ma’s scarf and start the ribbing sometime today and I’m sure I’ll be able to handle doing the ribbing while visiting and listening to tales.
I have no pics for you and I’m sorry. However, yesterday was spent cleaning and decorating. I’m still not done. I’m doing it in stages, but now I have to alternate cleaning and decorating with baking, for I have a holiday knitting tea to put on Saturday afternoon! I’m not usually much of a baker. I prefer cooking to baking and DH is the opposite so that usually works out well. However, I’ve planned the menu for the tea to give me an opportunity to par take in recipes that are special to me at the holiday time and we haven’t really done that before, despite my not spending the holiday with my family since 1999. Not to mention DH is involved with the last days of NANOWRIMO and trying to complete his novel, but his being sick this weekend has put him quite behind. So, it’s up to me and I’ll be able to do it just fine, I just don’t enjoy baking as much as cooking.
I hope all those who celebrated this weekend had a wonderful time!
11/23/2005
I forgot to mention that I jumped on the Self-Portrait Tuesday bandwagon. Since it is dealing with photography I’m posting it over at my visual art blog. But, over the weeks you’ll get some new views of who I am (besides knitting) if you head over there. http://www.artistisrow.com/designedlykristi/blog/ Or you can subscribe in your favorite blog reader with this URL http://www.artistsrow.com/designedlykristi/blog/atom.xml
My first self portrait is up there now.
Also, if anyone is interested in knowing a bit more about the Swedish tradition in my family of making Ostkaka, you can learn more about it (and see a pic of the fresh cheese curd) here.
