Category: Blather

So I never did a year-end post, did I? Guess what? This is as close as it gets, because I’ve been running around since New Year’s.

So I counted, and I had 41 FOs for 2010, including 8 shawls, 6 pairs of socks, and 2 sweaters — and lots of gift knitting. I think that’s an excellent tally. In lieu of a more formal wrap-up, how about a slideshow from the Flickr set?

And this year is off to a rousing start. I spent the New Year’s holiday with Melissa and Jennifer, my two best friends. We watched a lot of TV and enjoyed some fine libations, and spent most of the weekend yakking and having girl time. We went to Longwood Gardens, where we had lots of fun geeking out and taking awesome pictures. (Melissa took a really lovely one of me that puts me in mind of Narnia. I love it.) We also, because who doesn’t, went yarning. At Loop, I discovered a sale bin. And in that sale bin, I discovered some Noro Silk Garden. And that Silk Garden became mine, and now it is a scarf. May I present the first FO of 2011?

STRIPED

Pattern: Noro Striped Scarf, as written up by Jared Flood
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden in colorways 279 and 274, two balls each
Needles: US 6/4mm
Notes: So we got back to Melissa’s and I looked at the yarn, looked at Melissa, and told her that I was stealing needles, because I could not wait one more second to cast on. I spent the rest of the weekend knitting every free second, and ended up borrowing the needles to take the scarf home with me. (They’ve since been returned.) I put off making one of these until I found a bargain, because Silk Garden can get a little spendy, but oh my I enjoyed every second of knitting this scarf up.

My favorite, of course, is this part:

That mauve-and-teal that flows into the purple-and-pink? I love it. I’m so glad it’s on the end of the scarf so I can admire it every time I am wearing it — and I have worn it every day since I bound off. Even thought I’m really late to the party on this pattern I don’t care. This was fun to knit and it’s fun to wear and it’s the perfect sort of thing to set the tone for the year: practical and fun and scratching a long-held knitting itch.

Bring it, 2011. I got big plans for you.

There is an honest-to-goodness blizzard outside. Wind gusts of 50mph+, show so thick I can barely see the lights on the other side of the street, and chill trying to creep in around the doors and windows. I am curled up in the living room with yarn and my laptop, the tree glimmering to my left and a toasty fire in the woodstove on my right. (Almost too toasty; I had to start shedding layers!)

My Christmas was spectacular. My family was almost all here (my sister in Vermont worked Christmas Eve so we had good long phone chats over the weekend) and I got some really awesome gifts: some new pattern books and a Verena magazine from my mom, assorted straight needles from my Dad (I think he was fascinated by the existence of US35s and US50s, hee!), and a really beautiful Namaste needle case and a KP sock yarn collection from my other sister. I also got lots of B&N gift cards for my Nook, and my Vermont sister got me Alton Brown’s new Good Eats cookbook, which I have been very, very happily devouring. Pun intended.

And I am happy to report that all my holiday knitting was entirely worth it.

This turned out to be the year of the hats, as well as some catch-up stockings for my sisters’ fiances. Patterns and notes are all in the Ravelry project pages if there’s anything that catches your eye. I, however, want to brag about one project in particular:

MITTS FOR MERMAIDS

Pattern: Swedish Fish Mittens by SpillyJane
Yarn: KnitPicks Palette in Cream (MC); Iris Heather, Pimento, Golden Heather, Clover (Fishies).
Needles: US 0 (2.0mm)
Notes: Hoooooooooly snowballs, these were a true labor of love. There’s a story here, you see, and I will tell it. Settle in, get your eggnog.

See, my sister and her now-fiance went out to visit family of his this summer. They live in Breckenridge, Colorado. If you know anything about geography you will know that is rather high up. 12,000 feet above sea level, or thereabouts. We… are not mountain people. We find them pretty, we enjoy them, but we are from sea level. We live in a coastal region, and my house is maaaaybe a couple hundred feet above sea level. We like our oxygen.
Long story short, my sister had hideous, awful altitude sickness and ended up fainting while they were out in the mountains. Her fiance caught her in time to prevent her from hitting her head, and after a visit to the doctor and some quality time with oxygen, she perked up and they sent her off with instructions to take it easy for the rest of her trip. (Her fiance’s brothers found a shirt for her in one of the tourist traps. It read “Got Oxygen?” We were highly amused.)
We have concluded that my sister, like Ariel the Little Mermaid, shouldn’t leave the sea. And because we’re a loving and supportive bunch, we promptly hit the stores to buy all the sea- and mermaid-themed stuff we could find.
And that was when I thought of his pattern. And I had a wonderful, terrible idea. And thus, this Christmas present.

This is the first major project I’ve knitted on size 0 needles, which are teeeeenytiny little things. I had to really readjust my tension out of fear of snapping a needle. I also switched around the chart a little, so the fish swam in opposing directions — it reminded me of the way the little schools of tiny fish would dart around in the water during our childhood summers at the beach. I think if I did these again (and I just might) I would do them all in red, mainly because weaving in all the yarn ends once I was finished was a pretty thankless job.

The end result was totally worth it, though. My sister’s reaction was along the line of: “[speechlessness]. Did you do these yourself? You really knit these? Shut up. Shut. Up. You’re ridiculous. You knit these yourself? Holy [you can guess]. This is ridiculous.” I should note that while she was saying all this she was putting the mittens on and admiring them from every possible angle.

I gave them to my sister with a bag of actual Swedish Fish candies, conveniently one of her favorites. She immediately stuck her hands out when I took out my camera, so I could share with you all. They fit perfectly (thankfully, our hands are about the same size, so it makes guessing easy) and I’m over the moon at how much she loves them.

Reactions like that are why I keep knitting for holidays. Once the storm moves out and we have decent lighting I’ll have my mom model the scarf I made for her.

And now… time for more tea, I think, and I am going to curl up by the fire, hang my head over, and listen to the wind blow. Stay warm!

I would ask where the summer went, except that it’s September 2nd and for the last few days the temperatures have been pushing three digits again, which is not…pleasant.

I have been off doing summery things. Would you like to see? Never mind. That’s a silly question.

I had a houseguest in July, my best friend J, and we played tourist at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens:

I’d never been before, but I will absolutely be going back. There’s something very satisfying about knowing just a few hundred feet away there’s a whole city outside you, but you can’t even hear it, surrounded by so many beautiful trees and flowers. Even if we did get rained on. And by rained, I mean poured. It was still fun!

And then we went to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. There were some very long lines involved (protip: the “flex ticket” is not the same thing as the “reserved ticket.” See also: things I know now I wish I’d known in July) as well as some sunburn and some surprisingly decent if overpriced cafeteria food. And of course gift shops, because nothing says National Site of Historical Significance like a snow globe.

I brought the traveling sock with me that day:

We enjoyed the view from Ellis Island, and then we went and found my great-grandfather’s name on the Wall of Immigrants. He and I share a birthday, which is one of those random facts about me you will probably never need to know again.

I did other stuff this summer, too. My little brother’s baseball team made the championships, so I spent a lot of time on bleacher seats drinking ice cream sodas while I cheered him on:

(I have titled this picture “Badass.”)

And my friend Melanie and I went to see our favorite artists Vienna Teng and Alex Wong perform in the city:

I love Vienna Teng‘s music so much I cannot even tell you, and if you do not know who she is I suggest you scoot over to her website and check her out. Or you can listen to the short video I managed during one of her encores. (Bonus points if you can pick out where I’m singing along.) It was a marvelous concert, and an entirely suitable birthday present for myself.

Oh, yeah. And, uh, I had a birthday. They keep cropping up every year. My family gave into my begging and gave me the best thing ever.

Oh yes. Red velvet birthday cake, and a Nook. Now, I know there’s people out there who think e-books are the sign of the apocalypse, but I am not one of them. I grew up reading sff and watching Star Trek (part of the reason my Nook is named Tiberius) and all of my reading in grad school was done through pdf files I read on my laptop. So reading a book on a screen is second nature to me, and the fact that I have so many books squeezed onto that little delight makes me giddy. Also? I can read and knit at the same time now, since I don’t have to worry about holding the pages down. This isn’t to say I’m giving up my hard copies of Pride & Prejudice or any of my Zimmermans, but I really love having the choice. And (geek alert) it’s like my very own PADD. I even have a bunch of knitting patterns uploaded to it.

At the moment, I have the Hunger Games trilogy waiting for my attention, but as there is a hurricane barreling up the East Coast threatening to soak my weekend, I am going to save them for when the power goes out. That, and my new yarn:

Melissa spun this for me, out of BFL roving from the Painted Sheep, in a colorway called “Wild Flower Honey.” I’m thinking a Rhinebeck shawlette, but I haven’t settled on a pattern yet. It’s got to be something worthy of such a gift, you see. (Suggestions welcome!)

Here, have a closeup:

I KNOW, I’m such a lucky girl. Also, how talented is my friend?

Clearly, I will not be lacking for amusements if our power does get knocked out. I’m almost kind of hoping it does, for the excuse to sit around and read and knit and not have anything more pressing to steal my attention.

And…now we’re caught up. Hi, internet, how have you all been?