Sunday, June 10, 2007
 Pattern: Vestee, hoodie version| Knitty Spring 07 | smallest size
Yarn: Koigu Kersti, 4 skeins (maybe?)
Needles: US5 (I think?)
Modifications: I knit garter rib for the cuffs only, and the rest of the body in stockinette. Dude. I completely forgot that I hadn't finished this. It's been awhile since I've done any seaming, and it wasn't much. Upper part of the body was knit in the round, and it's peanut-sized. But. I think I really hate seaming.
I'll be mailing it out ASAP to its intended recipient who luckily is still very much a baby. Charlie will be going too. The poor thing has been has been folded in a fetal position for months now. Oops. 
PS I loved working with the Kersti yarn. Soft like a bunny!
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Vestee
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Pattern: Twisted Flower Socks by Ms. Cookie A. As if I had to remind anyone.
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Burgundy, one skein
Needles: US1
For: My Sockapalooza pal xoxoxo
Modifications: I have a favorite toe thanks to knitting Meida's Socks by Nancy Bush - decrease at each side of the foot every other row until you have a total of 32 stitches (or 8 sts on 4 needles), then decrease every row until there are a total of 8 stitches (or 2 sts on 4 needles), then cut the yarn, take a tapestry needle, thread the yarn through and tighten the hole. I find this makes for a very natural fit that curves nicely over the toes, much better than the straight edge produced when grafting.
So after posting about these last week I immediately ripped the first sock up past the heel so they would match what I did with the second sock, which was to follow the lovely heel pattern as written and extend the foot by another leaf pattern repeat.
We match now.
If you were to take a peek at this pattern, at the heel and foot chart, every single row of them meticulously laid out from bottom to top, all those twisted cables, traveling in a precise direction, where the tiniest of missteps would derail the whole effect, you'd probably want to rip your eyes out before having to start over again.
But it really didn't pain me to do this. I was so zen. It had to be done. I hardly demand perfection for myself; in fact I practically revel in my own knitting disheveledness. But for Sock Pal, for someone whom I will probably not meet in person? My socks will be my proxy. They will be my Goodwill Ambassadors. And like Angelina J0lie they will have to be perfect.
(Maybe I will name my socks Angelina J0lies. They are beautiful, they are complicated, and Br@dPitt would want a piece if he met them.)
And in any case, I just really enjoyed knitting these socks. No second sock syndrome in the slightest. They went by so quickly, despite all the slow-downs of cabling and having to refer to the chart. I'm not normally this patient, but I think having that entire chart for the foot written out that you could tick off, row by row as you finished, kept me focused and paced so that I wasn't constantly badgering myself with Are we there yet? How much longer? Can we go now?
I'm really glad I picked to do these socks. Sock Pal definitely made things easy for me by specifying semisolid to solid colored yarns. Picking the right yarn out of a whole universe of lovely yarns would overload my processes, but when you can disregard the variegateds (ie the hardest ones to resist), the patterns to choose from for strictly solids become obvious. Twisted Flower was obvious. And not only did I have a great time knitting, I was able to do it in confidence, without worrying whether or not my Sock Pal will like them.
Unless of course she thinks Angelina J0lie is ugly.
The only problem I have is to not mail these off right now. I hope I don't misplace them in the moving shuffle!
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Socks | Sockapalooza | Twisted Flower
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Ah, if only these were truly finished. I used an eye of the partridge heel instead of following the pattern for the first sock, then decided while knitting the second sock that I should have just used the pattern as written afterall (much prettier), and also while I was at it with all the inconsistent knitting, I went ahead and made the foot longer. If I were to keep these myself I would consider these done and call it a day, but I don't think my Sockapoolza pal would appreciate my mismatched/lazy aesthetics...
Duck and I are still here in Rhode Island until this evening. Kitty and her crew left yesterday. Man I just hate to be the last to leave.
Newport, RI
Filed Under: Socks | Sockapalooza | Twisted Flower | Travel
Sunday, May 27, 2007
We are in the midst of our 2nd Annual Memorial Day Getaway with Kitty and her fiance. (This trip has been planned much more in advance than our plans to sell our house, if that gives any indication to how well Duck and I ready ourselves for major life events...) Last year we were in Ogunquit, Maine. This year we are in another seaside town of Jamestown, Rhode Island, just adjacent to Newport.
We have been eating seafood and making cocktails, of course.
A "Jamestown"
Look how pretty this drink is! Kitty has made an old-fashioned of sorts, which comprises of: fresh mashed cherries, sugar, a splash of orange juice, a dash of bitters, and bourbon over ice. We have dubbed this drink "The Jamestown" in honor of our week here.
Meanwhile, I made this...
A Pink Mojito
It's a pink mojito, the pink courtesy also of two mashed cherries. There is no cherry flavor per se, so they're there for color really. Pretty, no?
I have finished my glass and now must refill.
How I love the summer. Cheers to you all!
Filed Under: Life | Cocktails
Monday, May 21, 2007
Actually I don't think our offer was so much gratefully accepted as it was begrudgingly accepted. It was rather an interesting / worthy-of-a-case-study-for-burgeoning-real-estate-agents / wouldn't-really-recommend-it-to-others kind of transaction which I might talk about later but won't now because at the end of the day WHO THE !@#& CARES THEY TOOK OUR OFFER.
** Insert maniacal screaming here **
Some choice descriptions from the MLS entry regarding this property that make my eyes dilate, hyperventilate, and gestate (ok not quite but needed a third word to complete the cycle) as they read them:
Under Agreement! They agree! With us!
South End! It's in the US National Register of Historic Places!
1890 Rowhouse! Owning not just a home, but a little piece of history!
Fireplace! I smell the roasting chestnuts!
Roof deck! PRIVATE! ALL OURS! NO SHARING! CITY VIEWS!
Everyone's invited for martinis on the roof!
** We now take a short break to run around in circles **
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pendulum, the inspection on our house came back and the basement passed the radon test! Hooray, House, for passing! Whatever that was about!
Maybe now I can finally get a decent night's worth of sleep...On second thought, sleep? I'm too excited to sleep!!
Thanks all for sending your good vibes. Thank you thank you thank you! xoxoxoxoxoxo to all!
TEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEEEEEEEE!
Filed Under: Life
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Tulips | Boston Public Garden
Lilacs, my favorite flower, which I only encountered during my first May in New England, up in rural Connecticut. There are no lilacs in the South where I grew up. It was love at first smell. | Backyard
Wisteria, my other favorite flower, which grow as wild and thick as the kudzu in the South: up pine trees, around telephone poles, dripping from cables. Up here in the North, the wisteria behave in a more more civilized manner. | South End
Our house (in a color of not our choosing, fyi) for sale.
As it turns out, a house with a yard and picket fence is just not our thing. So, we're trading it for a shoebox with no parking in the middle of the city. And we can't wait.
After a lot of painting and prepping and touch-ups over the last month and a half, our house officially went on the market last week. We had an Open House on Saturday, 4 offers by Tuesday, an acceptance on Wednesday, followed by the inspection on Thursday.
Meanwhile, I'm one good swipe away from gouging my own eyes out as we wait for our offer on a condo - our DREAM HOUSE in the city! - to be accepted. I can't talk much about what this place is like because I'm afraid...to talk too much...would mean getting hopes up...better safe to be a glass half-empty kind of girl right now...that's the only way I can deal with the stress...
If you have good vibes to give, I'll take good vibes in any form you wish to send them: a coin tossed into a fountain, a warm thought, or body of a freshly decapitated animal. Anything will do.
Dude what a week it's been.
EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Filed Under: House Stuff | Life
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Sockapalooza 4 is barely underway and I've already revealed myself to my sock pal.
I left a comment on her blog, signed with an alias, left the url and email fields blank (blank! I tell you I left them blank!), hit publish...and voila. There's my blog url for all to see.
!@#$!? cookies.
That was an amateur move. I feel like I'm not wearing any pants.
Goddamnit. Hi Sock Pal. Hi.
Filed Under: Sockapalooza
Friday, May 11, 2007
Pattern: Meida's Socks from IK's Favorite Socks. Pattern by Nancy Bush.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Poppy, just under one skein
Needles: US size 1 Phew. I got a pair of socks with barely a skein of Poppy at my disposal. I actually decreased the stitch count by 2 for each pattern repeat, resulting in a pair of very small socks. They're too small for me (you can't see in this photo, but when I wear these the heel of the sock is practically at the soles of my feet), but just right for a certain diminutive mother whose feet are the size of a pixie's. I sent these off in the beginning of the week, and she's already received them, just in time for Mother's Day.
E-mail from her this morning: You are something, the gift is so marvelous, can't believe you have so much patient! Heh heh. So much patient.
And so much pink! Socks and spring are marvelous!
Dutch tulips from the garden
Flowering apple trees, Boston Public Garden
Pink blossom overload, Boston Public Garden
Meida's Socks, for Mom
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Life | Socks | Meida's
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