Knotty Knickers

Chakra Chanting Article

I know the blog's been heavy into the knitting since my camera resurfaced, but there is Yoga stuff going on in my world as well.  The Yoga Lunchbox has another of my articles, this time on a practice that is fun, easy, and more approachable than you expect: Chanting Through the Chakras.  

Follow the link, take a read, have a go at it, and be sure to comment either here or there to let me know how you find it or ask questions!  

For myself, I think that I'll chant some abundance into the Buttermilk Spice Cake I'm about to go make.  Bonus points to whoever can comment here which chakra I'll be working on for that, though it's not necessarily in the article!

I Love Zombies

   

Giggle.

Remember My Sock Blanket?

It is still coming along, square by sock yarn square.  Each square has two seams.  Behold: seaming beauty.

I'm very proud of it and I'm hoping that in the next month not only will I finish off the 4th row of squares, bringing the project to 25%, but that I'll get an influx of many more sock scraps (I need under 5 grams!) so that I can carry on boldly.

If you, or anyone you know, have sock yarn on hand - won't you please consider rolling a small walnut-sized ball of it/them and send it to me?  I did start with the intention of knowing each and every scrap, but that's impossible for anyone, so let me know if you know which yarn is what, and what you did with it before it headed towards me and the cozy peace of Savasana/Corpse Pose and I'll put it in my Ravelry notes.  Because I put it down for so long and then picked it up during the crazy visa/passport-not-arrived-but-I-leave-in-a-week period, I'm behind on listing things - if I get more yarn however, I KNOW I'll be on my best behaviour.  So far it has gifted yarn from Village Yarn & Tea friends, a sister Poshie, a Sunshine Yarnie pal, Nelson knitting enablers, and generous folks I've met in person once or twice as well as a couple I've never met at all.  

The Work of Saturday Past

I've finally blocked my first two shawls of the year!  Yeeeeehaaw!!!

I can't believe I was scared to block things for so long!  Admittedly, tracking down a set of blocking wires has made my life immeasurably easier and taken a lot of the stress/scare out of this absolutely, fantastically necessary knitting step.  

The hot pink one was done in the now discontinued Fleece Artist Basic Sock 100% wool - it was my first official stash that I bought, fondled and admired for years before being made (finally) into this.  

Pale pink one is the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, bought on sale at Dancing Ewe Yarn (not out of business!) almost entirely because it is the right shade and feels very much like my old security blankets (called a nini in our family, like 'knee-knee') and the idea of knitting something sophisticated that reminded me I sucked my thumb until I was 12 delighted me for some reason.

Below: silky art shot and portrait of my assistant Toby.

In current news: the Multnomah's been totally ripped and is one chart in on a totally different pattern.  It already is looking prettier than before and I'm starting to think the wool was insulted by the garter stitch heavy pattern.  I still like that one however, so perhaps I'll try with another yarn?  Or not.  For now, it's onwards and giftwards with a Jitterbug Swallowtail Shawl.  

Once More, With Photos

I should be ashamed to acknowledged how many days it took before I remembered I had a second camera in a bag with its cord...but let's forget about that and look at the pretty Diminishing Rib Cardigan and how well it's coming along - that's the third of six balls of yarn!

Pretty and pretty good so far.  With one small issue: I have not made a tubular 1x1 ribbing cast on.  Oh no.  I've got me a tubular (and sloppy) garter cast on.  See below.

Please note that this fantastically annoying gaff happened after following directions exactly.  Major grrrrr.  I was using this tutorial, as it had the best photos and description of what was going on.  My hand to the heavens: until I pulled everything at the end it looked exactly like it should.  Big sad face.  

Happy face news to report as well: Granma is doing well and in a nice place and getting her body as healthy as her mind.  I may venture into some bed socks for her, if I can find both a pattern I like and stash yarn that would suit.  Am seriously on a stash bush/yarn diet jag (of necessity, not by choice) and so no new wool for me.  At least, none bought by me.  Any and all of you are more than welcome to send me yarn.  Pretty, pretty single skeins of sock yarn maybe?  Or even of sport weight?  What about one or two delicious, happy, fat skeins of worsted?  From Sunshine Yarns perhaps?  Which, as it happens, is having a major Harry Potter update tomorrow which I'd be hard pressed to manage even if I had funds; it would require a 5am wake up call for me.  Not happening.  Even though I have seen the pin for this week and I covet it greatly.

Anyway, back on the yarn diet wagon: Mummy reckons a new shawl wouldn't go unused by her mother, who uses the two I knit previously a lot, but in a darker colour than I've done before...stash diving I shall go then for both a shawl appropriate shade and some bed socks.  If only I had my Knitters Book of Wool here with me, I'd love to do another Prairie Rose Shawl (Ravelry link), and if I did it in the dark purple Yarntini then it would be a nice tip of the hat to my lilac one in a generational sort of way don't you think?  Alas, that book is at home in some box and I'm not sure when a care package will be sent or wif it'll include that book since I made up a few boxes so that they could be wrapped and shipped without much fuss or work.  Before stash surfing then I should get an idea of what shawl I even want to make as that will dictate a bit the colour chosen - solid?  variegated?  multi?  After a shower I'll suss my queue and then tackle the yarn bins for a match.

OH!  And if any of you do feel like posting me some sock yarn, be a dear and send Judith Durant's Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders as well won't you?  It's listed online by the book seller here who I have a gift card to, but won't be available until January or February.  Total tease!  I have sock yarn now and summer is coming - I can't be left with only worsted or lace options, it's just not right.  (Never mind the large bin of DK I have in my bedroom, that's heavy and warm too.)  I need more one skein sock shawl/shawlette patterns, seriously.

On the works in progress front:

Multnomah still hates me.  Maybe it really does need to be something else.  Simple math is kicking my ass.

Secret project is now just under 50% complete and I'm very chuffed with it.

Keeping Secrets

It's probably a good thing that I still cannot find the camera cord, I'd have a hard time not posting pictures of the next project I'm going to cast on - it's a secret project!  Secret because I'm going to knit it as a gift.  Regardless of it being something I need tutoring to help me with.  And since I know the person I want to give it to checks the blog regularly...I need to behave and not tempt people overly to guess it's for them or what it is.  

Of course, if I had the camera cord I could post all I wanted over on Ravelry.  But that satisfaction too will have to be delayed, and even stomped upon - project pages with no photo bum me out most when they are my own!

You can know that I'm at the half point in the body of a cardigan I'm making for myself which will be my first foray into anything with actual sleeves.  Doesn't matter that they are 3/4, they get picked up, knit in the round, and are a far cry more sleeve than the yoke sleeves that I've done thus far.  I'm using O-Wool's Classic, a worsted weight, in Robin's Egg Blue.  There is a heaping mountain of the same yarn in another shade in my stash and I was unsure after buying it on clearance, but now that I've begun working with it - I'm sooooo glad to own more!  There was a rumour that the yarn was not just discontinued but that the whole company, Vermont Fiber Co. was closing.  Ravelry states that the same yarns is now under a new name: Tunney Wool Co. rather than Vermont, so thankfully this ethically responsible yarn has just been juggled about, not ended.  Why ever and how ever it's happened, I'm gleeful that I also have some of the O-Wool Balance (50/50 organic wool and organic cotton - stupendously nice) untouched in the stash, and wish I'd discovered their hardy but delicate worsted before now.  

This weekend I'm biting the bullet and pulling the Colinette Jitterbug out of time out.  It's been there since, oh... MARCH.  I was onto the feather and fan at the bottom and first I messed up my math (no surprise there) but then I noticed that it had a giant gapping dropped stitch way up high in the beginning so I ripped, ripped, and ripped.  

With two shawls blocked, and two more waiting to be done, it might seem insane to begin again on the 10 Shawls in 2010 challenge.  However, that's what I'm doing.  Since I have a history of crazy in the realm of knitting - why not!  All I can do is not make 10 shawls.  Anyone who thinks the world will end with that outcome is welcome to let me know how my shawl knitting failure affects the rapture.

So, Multnomah with the Jitterbug first, to make five.  Ishbel in Fleece Artist Suri Blue (I've had for 4 years or so, since one of the first Seattle LYS Shop Hops) second, to make six.  After that...I'm a little unsure.  3 of the 4 done to date are Evelyn Clark designs and I love them (she's a native of the PNW too!) and would like to do more, but I think I'm out of free ones.  And since the fingering weight is proving doable I'm as a matter of course looking more and more longingly at my lace weight yarns beyond the Suri Blue.  I have Posh people!  In 100% cashmere!  In 50/50 silk and cashmere.  In a merino/silk blend that totally matches the shade of my dear Anthemis Nobilis.  I've got a peacock teal Zephyr 50/50 wool/silk.  Sigh.  

Being a sock yarn girl who doesn't knit socks, I've got plenty of that to work still.  I guess I'm just less inclined by the patterns now.  There is one that I like a lot, the Candlelight Shawl, that has gentle flickering lace patterns...but which yarn!?  I seem to have too little of many individual skeins to do proper shawls with, but two sock skeins sort of defeats the brilliance of so much yarn/potential for a decent price (this is I think how I started buying lace: lots of yardage for a wee price, but I'm encountering the same problem with it!).  Ah well, I'll torture myself alone with the unending pain that is matching a yarn to a pattern and leave you all to be happy and unfettered by such pressing issues.

Besides, I've got to pack for our long weekend down in Kaikoura with friends!  My knitting is fairly well sorted (big secret project I spoke of, little secret project I'm just teasing you with now, and the shawl and cardigan) and I know that I'm hauling Yahtzee! and some wine down too.  Clothing though...I'd best get on that!

I'd...but

I'd post a photo of what I'm knitting, but I've lost the cable to download my camera to my computer.

I'd write about the stress of being a quarter of the world away from my Granma when she's in hospital (she's getting better, thanks), but I had my little cry yesterday and don't want a second go right now.

I'd tell you about my first regular Yoga class here in Nelson, but I'm sleepy and want to funnel any energy to knitting on my project that I can't show you because I've lost the cable to download my camera to my computer.  

Victorian Shortbread

Rosemary Shortbread

340 grams butter

1 cup sugar

2 3/4 cups flour

2 heaping tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary

Preheat oven to 190 C or 375 F.

Cream butter, sugar, and rosemary.  Add in flour and mix well.

Plop mixture into a pan - I used ceramic which increased the bake time immensely reminding me why glass is my usual preference.  Bake until lightly golden on top and firmed across top, it should puff up a bit before this occurs.  

Let cool in pan 10 minutes.  Cut and place on wire rack to cool completely.  

Enjoy your noms!

 

 

Happy 33rd to Me!

Had a nice easy entry into the day celebrating my 33 solar turns through the Universe.  A while before Big Spoon got home I popped into the shower and then spent about an hour attempting to wrangle my hair into a asymmetrical braid and finally gave up.  I was teased also about spending another hour applying make up.  The whole lot being aimed at gussying me up for our dinner out.

Yesterday I'd had a short and happy conversation with Miss Emily about seeing one another possibly tonight.  It is her and Rod's 4th anniversary and they were considering dinner at the Hopgoods as well.  We were done with our mains when they arrived and it was a sight I'm sure: two girls squealing with glee while their perennially calm and collected partners shook hands and watched in amusement.  

Above right is my silly playing with the vents on Trafalgar St.  Big Spoon is surprised that I'm posting it since it's not his best efforts, but this is a blog and it's about the recording of things in their imperfect perfection, so here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Below is my art shot of my sweetie.  I'm sure he'll hate it...good thing I have birthday veto!

Say Hello to Spring

When I arrived home there were small vases of freesia all about the house.  I admired them all day and only just found out while chatting about doing a little garden of my own that they are from the back yard!  Just lovely...

As a child I used to pick the camellia blossoms from the bushes in front of my Granma's apartment and attempt to make perfume by mashing the petals with a rock on the cement steps.  It's funny that I've grown up to find mortar and pestle preparation of anything to be more pain than they are worth; I think it goes back to my ineffectual fragrance career back then, as that's essentially what I was doing.  I just didn't realize that not all flowers make perfume (I believed it was inside these pink flowers and that's why the blossoms didn't give off any scent, somewhat similar to my beliefs about rain and blue skies and pegasus...) and that I was mutilating a relative of tea.  Ah well, I'm wiser now, and have an Aromatherapy diploma under my belt.  Who knows, maybe if I get my herb garden going really well I'll try a small distiller someday and make my own essential oils!?

One of the things I love about New Zealand is the citrus fruit.  I was stunned on a trip to Santa Barbara at the daily luck of the woman we stayed with: she made freshly squeezed orange juice from the few trees in her backyard.  Though I've never wanted to move anywhere in the US that would allow for citrus trees, I did think about a small green house or something.  Now I've got the best of things by living in a country I love, in an area I adore, and having a short, fat, heavily fruited lemon tree in the front yard.  Interestingly, while Meyer lemons are hard and expensive to come by in the States, here they are very common and either mutant large or some hybrid that has the soft rind of a Meyer with the thick, sweet pulp of a normal lemon and a juice that strikes the perfect balance between pleasingly sour and deathly acidic.