Family Fun Weekend

We had a great time with my father-in-law and his wife. The cleaning was done before they showed up, and we had a lovely dinner cooked by yours truly.

Then, Saturday morning, we drove to Boston and walked the Freedom Trail. The guided tour was fantastic, it was sunny out, and we enjoyed ourselves tremendously. I've been living in and around Boston for 7 years, and somehow, I managed to never really notice most of the historic landmarks around here. A lot of it has to do with rushing to work or classes and trying to catch the T or Commuter Rail, but really, it's inexcusable.

When we were done with the tour and headed back to the car, we saw some British Regulars marching towards School Street (click on pictures to get a better view).


And then, we walked past some rebellious colonists. That really made our 4th of July patriotic activity complete.


On Sunday, we went to Newport, RI. We got there just as the Tall Ships event was closing with the Parade of Sails, where the ships are sailing past one last time on their way out to sea. Here are some of the shots I managed to take, magnified as much as my camera would allow because the ships were really far away from our vantage point on Goat Island.

Yes, they're tall.


I wish more of these were still in use.


We also did the scenic ocean drive past all sorts of mansions, historic and modern. They're gorgeous, but without servants, I wouldn't take them for free. Our little townhouse took forever to clean, can you imagine how long it takes to clean an enormous mansion?

Not much knitting was done. Next up: some progress on some of my WIP's, the number of which has increased alarmingly since last week. I think I'm up to 6...

We interrupt this program...

...while I frantically clean the house. Last night, my father-in-law called to let us know that he and his wife are in Providence, and we're having them over for dinner. We've been putting off spring cleaning, the husband is at work, and I'm turning into a veritable white tornado.

I'm not even going to try to hide the yarn that's overflowed the yarn closet. There's no point.

Knitting and Spinning and Socks!

There has been knitting progress on most (though not all) fronts. The first is literally a front, the front piece of my dad's sweater. The ends need to be sewn in, but I'll do that later, when everything is done and I'm ready to block.


Why is it upside down? Because the photo editing software that comes with my camera doesn't have a way to flip pictures around easily. I kind of like it, though. Inadvertently defying convention, that's me!

My sister's socks are also finished. I loved working with the Opal Hundertwasser. Not only are the colors pretty, not only is it fun to watch them change, but the stitch definition on this yarn is incredible. Had I known how good it was, I might have chosen a more interesting pattern to show it off, in spite of the busy colors.

Pattern Details:
Pattern: Lichen Ribbed Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Opal Hundertwasser in Der Blaue Mond (what a pretty name!)
Needles: US 0
Comments: This variation on the star toe is a pain in the neck. To keep holes from forming, I had to pull the stitches around the purls very tight, and it's painful! My fingers hurt for a while after the exercise. It's very pretty, though. I like it.

Lastly, there has been some spinning progress. The roving is some purple no-name stuff of unknown origin. Although I'm still having some thick/thin issues, I'm very pleased overall. Why?


Because I've figured out how to draft while the spindle is spinning, that's why! Very exciting. One moment, I was all confused and producing crap, and the next, something clicked. It's a huge step in the right direction.

WIP Friday (yes, again!)

We have progress! My right hand no longer hurts. I fell down the stairs the other day and caught my hand on the banister, and now my left thumb is giving me trouble. Can you say klutz? Fortunately, I'm not a lefty, so I can crochet and even knit.

The knitting has been going well. The front of the dad sweater is almost done, and for once, it doesn't look like it's tomato red. I love the way the colors are working out. In the original pattern, the body of the sweater is gray, the stripe with the cables red, and the edge black. I reversed red and gray and am using a dark navy instead of the black, and I think it was a good choice.


The Baltic Sea Stole has been frogged and re-started. I didn't get around to casting on until today, which explains the "progress": 3 rows of seed stitch. 141 stitches instead of 171 in my previous attempt, and I'm using size 3 needles. I already like the fabric a lot better. Because of the smaller needles, I can knit more loosely, which will make the k2tog's and ssk's easier. I'm glad I had the guts to rip it out.


My sister's socks are also progressing. As you can see, I just turned the heel on sock #2. At first, I wasn't crazy about the little holes the YO's on the Welsh Heel are producing, but once they're all there, it's actually kind of pretty.
The Opal Hundertwasser is a blast to knit with, and even though I didn't decide to make the socks radically different from each other, I like the subtle differences in striping.


And now, because it is Friday and because I don't want to strain convention to the breaking point: STR prOn!


I got my Socks That Rock package and it contains this gorgeous colorway. You'll hear more about it when I'm done with my sister's socks and get started on this project.

Coming up: Tangerine Twist, which, in my case, is more a dawny pink color. Also coming up: spinning and more sock knitting. Stay tuned!

SP Goodies!

Today, I got my package from JellySlug, my upstream from the knitty Harry Potter SP round! I'm extremely excited about this. Everything about this package rocks, including the packaging itself. I mean, a velvet pouch, a shiny pouch with velvet on it, and a little package tied with string? That's already darn wizardly, no doubt about it!
And yes, that's a Ravenclaw bookmark. Because you know, us Ravenclaw types need lots of those, so they're always appreciated. This one is special, though, on account of being knit!


What's inside the pouches, you ask? OK, no fair making you wait (I know I couldn't).


Yum. Harry Potter-themed candy. I'm still a little suspicious of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, but I'll try them eventually. There's sock yarn for my very own pair of Ravenclaw socks, and... gasp... Mountain Colors sock yarn, complete with a beautiful pattern. You have no idea how often I've petted this stuff! I've always wanted to try it but kept putting it back for financial reasons. Now I get to knit my very own socks in that gorgeous colorway.

Thank you so much, Slug!

Wide load

Thank you for all the kind words about my Baltic Sea Stole! Unfortunately, I decided it had to be frogged. Let me explain.

Do you see the extremely long thing on the floor? That's the lace taken off the needles. It was 37" wide unblocked. I'm looking for a finished width of 30" or so, maybe a little more, but that's after blocking.


I've decided to make another attempt, this time on US3 needles with 141 stitches instead of the 171 of the previous attempt. Once blocked, it would have been... wide. Very wide. And to make things worse, I probably would have run out of yarn. Not a good thing!

So, for the fourth time or so, the Baltic Lace Stole is a ball of yarn. But I'm casting on again tomorrow because if I don't, this is never going to happen. And I wouldn't want that, because it's such a pretty pattern.

WIP Friday ('cause I'm different!)

Thank you for all the nice comments on the Conwy socks! The pattern is in Knitting on the Road, one of my favorite sock books. The pattern for the Hundertwasser socks is essentially a simple k3 p1 rib, which I found in Knitting Vintage Socks. Why do math when someone has already designed the exact sock I want to knit?

There has been some progress on the Baltic Sea Stole. I'm using US5 needles, and the solid portions are turning out to be not much more solid than the lacy bits. I'm not sure if I'm happy with this and have even thought about frogging.


Here's a closeup. This is the fabric laid out flat, a little scrunched together. If I block it, the stitches will get even bigger. It looks like a hot mess, but then, lace always does until you block it. So... is this fugly? To frog or not to frog? What do you think?


A little progress on the sister socks, but not much. I'm loving the yarn, and I'm waiting for my sister to send me her foot measurements. I know I took them when I was in Germany, but I forgot to write them down. Duh!


And that's it for knitting progress this week. Why? Well, here's the reason (please excuse the frumpy nightie shot, it isn't even 7 am over here):


Some form of RSI induced by knitting with cotton. If you're going to knit with cotton, you need to take frequent breaks, or it'll hurt to knit. It's a bad thing.

Weekend knitting

I finished them! My Conwy socks, the Second Pair Syndrome socks are done!
It's surprisingly hard to get a shot that shows the color properly. It looks lighter with flash, but brings out the purples nicely,


whereas the no flash version shows off the cables and the blue tones.


If you haven't knit Conwys yet, give them a try. The cable pattern is interesting enough to occupy the brain without making TV-watching or talking impossible. It was a fun knit.

There has also been some progress on the WIP front. My dad's sweater (remember, it's burgundy, not bright tomato red!) has gained an inch or two, and I've started on the cables. Granted, they aren't recognizable as such in this shot, but trust me, they're there.


And then, there are my sister's socks. Knit in Opal Hundertwasser, regarding which I have a confession to make.


Just a few days ago, I was reading the Yarn Harlot's blog and chuckling to myself. She was talking about loving a baby sweater pattern so much that she bought several, kept thinking about them obsessively, and even had urges to go back and buy the rest of the kits so she could just keep knitting them. There may have been something self-righteous about my chuckle, just a little bit. I mean, I'm bad, but clearly, this proved that the Yarn Harlot had it much, much worse. I wouldn't go back and just keep buying the same kit over and over again, no, not me.

Until now. In my case, it isn't the pattern, it's the yarn. I confess that I am a process knitter and that I get lots of pleasure out of watching yarn stripe, pool, change colors. But where a normal yarn has a regular pattern, the Hundertwasser keeps surprising you. Because the socks aren't supposed to come out identical, there are all sorts of different patterns and colors in a skein. You just start knitting and keep knitting because you want to know what color or pattern comes next, or how long the section you're working on will be when it turns into something else...
I haven't been able to put them down. Literally. I must have knit 4" just this morning.

And now for something a little less uncommon: the Baltic Sea Stole. What you see here is the seed stitch border. I cast on 171 stitches instead of 111, and unless I thoroughly misunderstood the math involved, I should get either 9 or 10 pattern repeats out of this. I have the pattern and the chart in front of me.


Now all I have to do is math. We'll see how it goes!

Dice bag, socks and lace

The second sock is progressing apace, I just turned the heel. But let me take this opportunity to address a little-known condition, Second Pair Syndrome. It's what happens when you knit a pattern once and like it so much, you decide to knit it again right away. And then you get tired of it. Halfway through, possibly before you even have time to get Second Sock Syndrome. So: this is my last pair of Conwy socks for a while. If you haven't knit them yet, give 'em a try, they're fun.


And now, my crocheted dice bag, all felted up. Thank you for all the nice things you said about it. I am so freaking proud of this thing. It's not a misshapen dishrag, I only added 3 stitches while I was making the single crochet bottom. Then, all the way up, not another accidental increase. Yay!


Here's the bottom. This thing used to be big enough to put on my head, hat-like. Now, it fits into my hand.


And now, the dice bag in action. I have way too many dice. The bag is just big enough to hold all of my d10. That's what happens when you spend years playing White Wolf games and Ars Magica, both systems that exclusively use 10-siders.


There's an even bigger bag full of assorted other dice. Ahem.

My dad's sweater, on the other hand, is no nearer completion than it was the last time I posted. The warm weather is not exactly helping me want to knit with 100% alpaca. I'm constantly fingering my laceweight, I think it's time for either a shawl or a summery lace garment. And a crocheted shawl. I've checked out some patterns, and I think I understand them.
Yes, I want to make lace!

All sorts of stuff (Lots of pictures)

There is so much, where to start?
How about a package. To be more exact, the last SP package I got from Jo, my knitty SP 8 secret pal. I was out of the country so she sent it after I got back. The summer issue of IK, which I love, yarn that's soft and cushy and eminently pettable, some cards and envelopes, and soap that smells like lemon drops. I swear I'm having the hardest time not biting into that bar!


But that wasn't all. I also received two balls of SWTC Karaoke in a pretty rainbow colorway. I took one look at it and immediately had to start crocheting a cute little bag. Here it is, all done and ready to be felted. It's my first ever successful crochet project and I'm immensely proud of myself.


And here's a shot of it from the bottom. It's going to be my hippie rainbow dice bag because I'm a gaming geek with too many dice. It's in the washing machine and felting as we speak.
Jo, thank you for sending me yarn that resulted in crocheting success after over 20 years of trying! You've been a wonderful SP.


Thanks to tendinitis in my right hand, the sock hasn't progressed much. I'm done with the decreases, now another 2.5" of pattern, and I can turn the heel.


And now, another shot of Monica, all done and blocked and ready to go. I used Poops' modifications because knitting the whole thing in the round made sense. As she said, it's a tube, so why seam? I also added 3 to 4 rows of ribbing in places to keep the whole thing from rolling. It worked great!
It took only a few days of knitting, Sunday through Wednesday.


Pattern details
Pattern: Monica (from knitty)
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic, 100% mercerized cotton
Needles: US #5 and US #6
Mods: Body and ruffle knit in the round, ribbing added to body and ruffle to prevent rolling

Syracuse, Knitting, Yarn and a FO! (Image heavy)

This is what happens when I don't post for an entire week. Lots of pictures, lots of catching up to do.
Last Friday, I met Carrie, aka carrieknits from knitty. She was in Boston for a wedding and we went on a yarn crawl. It was so much fun! We went to Newbury Yarns, Windsor Button, and Woolcott's in Cambridge. I mean, it would be so wrong if a knittyhead came to visit Boston and left without souvenir yarn! Fortunately, she found some real beauties. And I bought some sock yarn. But let's not talk about the sock yarn...
I didn't think to take my camera, but Carrie did. A picture of us at Woolcott's is here!

Sunday, Andrew and I went to Syracuse. I tried to take a picture of the tiny blue sign between the red brick building and the traffic pole, just under the green awning, but couldn't get a closeup that wasn't blurry. This is Syracuse's version of Little Italy, and the sign simply reads Catholic Shop. If you ever need Catholic paraphernalia, you'll know where to go!


In spite of the 6 hour drive, my second Conwy sock did not progress much. But, in my defense, I have to say that's because a spontaneous knit jumped onto my needles.


One of our friends has a daughter who is a year and a half old. Monica looked just like the perfect little tank for a little girl, so I cast on Sunday morning and finished yesterday. I didn't get it done on time to hand it to Olivia's dad on Tuesday, but at least I now have an opportunity to block properly.


My dad's sweater is still where it was the last time, no progress whatsoever. It will be the only thing on my needles once the sock is done, so what's next?
This is the yarn my sister picked out for a pair of socks. It's one of Opal's Hundertwasser line, sock yarn dyed to look like the happy colors used by the German artist Hundertwasser in his paintings.


And I had a little accident when I went to buy yarn for Monica: Jitterbug sock yarn in Fruit Coulis. I think of it as the pixieriot yarn because it's all bright blacks, pinks, purples, fuchsias. It's even brighter than it looks in this picture!


That's it for now. I'm off to knit while listening to Tanz der Vampire. It's a fantastic musical, cracks me up every time, and the music is amazing.

A Yarny Prize and Germany (Pt. 3)

First things first: I won yarn on Carrie's blog! It's this pretty shade of STR Bambu, and it's all soft and squishy and lovely and pettable. How do I know? I've been petting it, of course!
And isn't that the cutest tea-themed tape measure?


And now, the last part of the Germany trip. Here is the reason I went in the first place. Meet the Batty people!


Me, my dad and my mom, and


me and my sister. She's back from Thailand, and she loved it there. Poor thing got back on Tuesday and had to work Thursday afternoon and evening. Nothing like being jet lagged and having to work!

About my last post: the yarn is CTH Supersock. I think the colorway is Jewels, but I'm not entirely sure (and won't be until I get the ball band out of the middle of the yarn... yes, I did it again).
The dad sweater is a modified Paton's pattern, no. 4 from their Casual Classics booklet. Instead of gray with burgundy cables, I'm doing it in burgundy with gray cables because my dad looks good in burgundy.
And to all the oompa instrument players out there: Sure, why don't we start a knitting oompa band? If people don't like our music, we'll chase them with pointy sticks.
The less said about the swimming pool experiment, the better. That's why I didn't initially mention the fact that it included bubbles. It was a bubble bath swimming pool, and 15 years later, my carpet still faintly smelled like bubble bath.

WIPs and The MEME

I, too, have been tagged with the 7 random facts. Pixieriot tagged me first, and at least 3 other people have followed suit.

The rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

So, without further ado, here are 7 random facts about me:

1. I used to play the accordion. 'nuff said.

2. I can bend back my left thumb so it touches my left forearm, but I can't do it with my right thumb.

3. I'm a klutz. When I got married, I had to throw the bouquet twice because the first time, it landed in the chandelier and came down in a rain of crystal. At least 6 people have told me since that they saw it coming.

4. For the longest time, I collected erasers. Not the boring ones, but erasers that came in fun shapes and colors. I had over 350, including one shaped like a faucet (3D, not just a flat one).

5. I have an unhealthy obsession with bureaucracy and the way it works. In grad school, my fellow historians used to wonder out loud when I'd write a paper about people instead of documents. Does this make me a boring person? I don't know, but it's just the way I'm wired.

6. When I was 4, I built a swimming pool in the middle of my room by making a square out of rectangular cushions. After about the 10th bucket of water, my friends and I had to admit this wasn't working -- about the same time my mom and her friend decided it was way too quiet up there and we got busted.

7. I'll randomly start humming the Inquisition song from Monty Python's History of the World. Make of that what you will.

Thise meme has been around for a while, and I'm losing sight of who's already done and who hasn't. So, in direct violation of the rules, I'm tagging everyone who hasn't done it yet but would like to. It's so much easier than checking everyone's archives to see if they've already been tagged, or if they dislike memes!

And now, some knitting content. My first Conwy sock is finished, and I'm starting my second today.


The front of my Dad's sweater is about 1" away from getting interesting. So far, it's only lots of burgundy reverse stockinette (the color is not a bright tomato red in real life), but I'm about to start on the blue border and the grey cables.


It's a very fast knit, though I'm getting a bad feeling about not washing the swatch for this one. I think I'm knitting up another swatch (ripped out the old one, bad me!) and giving it the wash and block treatment. This is the first time I've worked with pure alpaca, and I wouldn't want it to grow and surprise me after I'm done!

Germany (Pt.2)

My sister is still in Thailand, and I won't have her pictures until a week or two from now. But in the meantime, here's what else Mr. Batty and I were up to.

First, my parents and I took him to the Autostadt in Wolfsburg. We live less than an hour from the Volkswagen plant, and Volkswagen has built a kind of theme park, sort of a car-themed version of Epcot Center. 'There's a car museum with some seriously nice-looking cars like this little red number, which I really covet. I love the late 1800s and early 1900s, though after cataloging loads of books about the medicine of the period, I'm glad things have advanced! It's all fun and games until somebody gets sick.


Mr. Batty, on the other hand, found a cute little beer truck in the 1930's section.


What he didn't know: my parents' dental office was on our way home, and they decided to take a spontaneous look at his teeth. Here is Dr. Batty, Sr., going about his usual business. My sweetie was lucky, though: there was nothing wrong with his teeth and he didn't get any dental work that day.


Later on, we went to the Millennium Tower in Magdeburg. It's the world's tallest wooden tower (66 meters tall), and it reminds me of one of DaVinci's designs. Inside is a science museum with a really cool exhibit showing the progress of science from the Babylonians and Egyptians to prognoses of future developments. We spent an entire day in there.


Next post, it'll be back to knitting, though. You didn't think there were no WIPs I started in Germany, now, did you?

Jespere's Amazing Socks and German Yarn

Sometimes, a package shows up exactly when it's needed. I was having a pretty bad day until I got home and found a bag with a package from the Netherlands! I don't know many people from that part of the world, so I knew right away that I had received the gift of socks. Jespere, my pal from the knitty sock exchange, knit these beauties for me. I put them on right away and showed them off to my parents, who were appropriately impressed with the perfection of color choice, fit, pattern, and happy daughter who was sticking her foot in their faces shouting, "Look! Look at these amazing socks!"


They really do fit perfectly. The color is the prettiest red I have ever seen, and I'm in love with the pattern, the cuff details in particular. Thank you, Jespere! You really made my day.

Oh, and there were cookies and chocolate in that package... alas, they no longer exist for me to take pictures of them. Somebody ate them...
*looks away innocently while trying to wipe off a couple of crumbs*

And now, as promised: German yarn. I bought 4 skeins of Regia Silk so I can knit Clessidra and one other skein of fancy Regia yarn. The rest of the sock yarn? Skeins that cost between 1.99 to 5 Euros and were mostly bought at a grocery store that had gotten in sock yarn! In retrospect, I wish I'd taken pictures of the yarn on display, but at the time, I was too busy oohing and aahing and stuffing yarn in a basket to do much else.


The stuff in the lower left corner is crochet cotton. I'm usually not a pot holder person, but I found the most adorable book of pot holder patterns. Chickens, sheep, horses, coffee mugs... I'll be crocheting up a storm. Maybe some of them will even look like they're supposed to!

The purplish stuff on the right is a sweater's worth of the most beautiful shiny novelty yarn I've ever seen. And I'm so not a novelty yarn person! But look at these beauties. Here, take a closer look. Click on the picture, make them bigger, see why I couldn't resist. The fact that my mother's patient owns the yarn store and gave me a discount doesn't hurt, but I would have bought these at full price without a second thought.


The color is a bit lighter than I usually wear, but it'll be a pretty summery lace sweater. I can always creep it up by wearing black under it!

The Germany Experience (Pt. 1)

Germany was fun. The rumors about yarn in grocery stores are true! I bought sock yarn at a grocery store, and I think American grocery stores could attract an even bigger number of knitters than they already do. Yes, we all need food, but what would happen if the knitter went to a grocery stores for her occasional yarn emergency? The economic possibilities are mind-blowing.

Some things, on the other hand, are mind-boggling. When I got to the Frankfurt Airport at 5:30 AM local time, I had to go through the psychadelic tunnel of weirdness. Note how long it is. The lights change as you gently roll along on the slow-moving walkway, and strange sounds enhance the utterly surreal atmosphere. Just what you want to see after an already disorienting transatlantic flight! Oh, and look at the length of this hallway. Your psychedelic tunnel experience will take a good 5+ minutes even if you walk fairly quickly. What genius thought changing lights and strange zoioioing sounds were exactly what the tired and disoriented international traveler needs???

But all in all, much fun was had. My sister has a whole series of family pictures that won't be available until she gets back from Thailand in about two weeks, but I'll make sure to post some of the good ones then. My friend Linda forgot to take pictures on the day I forgot to bring my camera (and besides being generally creepy, we are friends because we have occasional flaky tendencies!), so no pictures there.

But here are some German knitters. Jeannine knitting a sock, and


Silke knitting the inevitable Mother-in-law scarf. Who hasn't made one of those? With fun fur?


We had a fun sock knitting get-together. One of her Main Coon Cats really enjoyed it too. Here's the boy kitten checking out the yarn. He is so cute! That's really good for him because otherwise, chewing up Silke's sock yarn could have been a problem.


The only thing I regret is that I was a little too early for the Wave Gotik Treffen, a 4 day goth extravaganza in Leipzig. Maybe next year or the year after that, Linda and I will be able to go again.

More pictures are coming soon, including those of the beautiful socks Jespere sent me and of my yarn purchases. Needless to say, I came back with significantly more yarn than I left with.