good in the mouth, good on the needles, good on the eyes, good to wear, not so good on the elbow. ouch.
Since I was out of town last weekend, I didn’t get to stock the freezer with homemade bread and sweets. But I didn’t have time to make bread yesterday, so I dashed off a quick batch of butter pecan shortbread cookies. Here’s the recipe I used (wonderful but lots of butter!), and here’s the result:
slice and bake - so easy - and pecan brown sugar shortbread, so delicious
Next up on the delicious hit list – looming yarns and their associated projects:
next on deck
MAN THIS IS KILLING ME. I want to grab needles and cast on for the five projects that will use these glorious yarns. Let’s go around the circle:
- top left, that pale, pale pink? That’s madelinetosh’s tosh merino light, in the porcelain colorway. I’m going to make the Austin Hoodie, designed by Connie Chang Chinchio – designed especially for this yarn, I believe. I’ll have a lot of new experiences with this one, including set-in sleeves and a hood.
- that red, on top? That’s my new Okay Knits Sena, in the sweetie-pie colorway. I’m going to knit the LaReine Shawl, designed by Angela Tong. No new experiences, but loads of pleasure with the fun design and gorgeous yarn.
- that brown(ish), on the right? That’s madelinetosh’s pashmina, in the silt wash colorway. I think I’m going to make the Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan, designed by Nicole Feller-Johnson, but I’m not sure on this one, like I am on the others.
- the red, on the bottom — of course that’s my new Spirit Trail Fiberworks “clotho” in the dragon’s blood colorway, which I’ll use to knit Gudrun Johnston’s beautiful little Laar sweater. Thanks for your thoughts on that one! Right now this one is the most fun to think about.
- and last but certainly not least enticing, the fawn-colored laceweight wool on the lower left is the Jamieson & Smith Shetland Supreme, which I’ll use to knit either the Madli’s Shawl mentioned in the previous post, or the Tree of Light Shawl. Still pondering that one, and don’t want to give short shrift to the gorgeous yarn.
I’m just going to put all these yarns away, out of my sight (in the hopes that my age-related memory loopiness will help them slip out of mind) until I finish the Eve Shrugged and the Lace Ribbon Scarf. I want to finish the shrug, and I need to finish the scarf, and that’ll only happen if I give them both all my spare time and attention.
Do you continually massage your ravelry queue? Mine is extremely organized, and I regularly go through and reorder the items on the individual tabs (e.g., socks, sweaters, shawls), and then reorder the top items on the queue as a whole, matching them with stash yarns. In a way, this keeps my obsession going (the downside), but in another way, it gives me a way to play with projects without actually casting on too many at once (the upside). The top of my queue is now dominated by sweaters, a fact that tickles me. 
A downside issue that warrants my attention…..I’m getting knitter’s elbow in my left elbow. It hurts, a lot, and I know I’d better slow down and do something about it before it gets so bad I can’t knit. THAT WOULD BE AWFUL. Since I spend so much of my day hunkered over the keyboard with long hours of focused attention, and then much of the rest of my time knitting, I hold my elbows in one position for long periods. I’m trying to stop very regularly – predetermined intervals so I don’t forget, like every page, or every couple of rows – and stretch out my arms, flex my hands up to further stretch the muscles and tendons, and breathe while I’m at it. [I forget to breathe.] This part is not so delicious.
If 2009 was the Year of Cowls, I’d have to say that 2010 was the Year of Socks plus the year I got into sweaters. Let’s see them (for complete project details of all the 2010 FOs, see the rav page here).
Begun at the end of 2009, these were my first FO for 2010: Fools Rush Socks by Cassie Thoreson. I’d always wanted red and white striped socks, so I used two colors of KnitPicks Risata – buttermilk and spicy. I didn’t enjoy working with the Risata very much, and they’re not soft to wear. But dang if the color and stripes don’t make me happy! Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass, is one of my favorite books and red and white are important colors in that book, so I call these my Tin Drum Socks:
Continue Reading–234 words totally
If 2009 was the Year of Cowls, I’d have to say that 2010 was the Year of Socks plus the year I got into sweaters. Let’s see them (for complete project details of all the 2010 FOs, see the rav page here).
Begun at the end of 2009, these were my first FO for 2010: Fools Rush Socks by Cassie Thoreson. I’d always wanted red and white striped socks, so I used two colors of KnitPicks Risata – buttermilk and spicy. I didn’t enjoy working with the Risata very much, and they’re not soft to wear. But dang if the color and stripes don’t make me happy! Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass, is one of my favorite books and red and white are important colors in that book, so I call these my Tin Drum Socks:
Fools Rush Socks by Cassie Thoreson, in KnitPicks Risata
Aren’t they cute? I made a 3rd pair of socks for my stepdaughter Anna, whose feet get cold in her dorm. She picked out the yarn and color – KnitPicks Felici, in the cochineal colorway, and I chose the pattern: Hedera by Cookie A. It was a nice mix of yarn and pattern:
a pair of socks for a cold dorm room floor
I realized I’d knitted a lot of socks for Anna, but none for Katie, my oldest daughter, so I presented her with a range of yarn choices and asked her to pick. She’s a pretty Irish girl, so both yarns had green bits. With the Lorna’s Lace Shepherd Sock Multi, I knitted Holes in my Socks! by Nicole Okun. It was a fun pattern to knit, and the fit was comfortable:
Holes in my Socks! by Nicole Okun (Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock Multi, colorway Beverly 209)
Her other yarn choice was Knit One Crochet Too Ty-Dy Socks, colorway meadow 1518. I returned to my old standby pattern, Monkey by Cookie A., which I could knit in my sleep. Katie liked these, too:
Monkey by Cookie A.
I made a new pair of socks for ME, using this beautiful madelinetosh sock yarn in the crow colorway. This pattern, Kai-Mei, is in her new book titled Sock Innovation, and it was loads of fun to knit. I just plowed forward, not quite understanding what was going on, but it turned out wonderfully:
Kai-Mei, by Cookie A. - madelinetosh sock, crow colorway
A pair of pink socks for my worm farmin’ power liftin’ badass daughter Marnie: No-purl Monkeys, knit with KnitPicks Felici (colorway Positively Pink, and they’re not kidding about that).
i call these Minkeys - pink Monkeys
These Circle Socks, designed by Anne Campbell, in a Kaffe Fassett colorway (I call them my Wowie-Zowie socks):
Wowie Zowie Socks (Circle Socks, by Anne Campbell)
A pair of very plain socks (no pattern used, just plain old socks) in madelinetosh Tosh Sport, colorway tweed. The yarn is fantastic, and I hope it’s hardwearing:
tweedie-pie socks
Inspired by this truly gorgeous skein of yarn by madelinetosh (tosh merino light, colorway tern), I knitted the Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante. I looked through the project notes of other knitters who made the pattern, but didn’t quite take seriously enough the caution to bind off loosely. If I make it again, and I think I will, I’ll investigate different bind-off techniques so I’m sure to make it elastic enough to be able to pull out the points. Still, it’s pretty!
Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante, in tosh merino light (tern colorway)
And this lovely little Baktus scarf, my subway knitting project knit with Noro Silk Garden Sock and a skein of KnitPicks Essential:
wearing the baktus scarf
A lace ribbon scarf in Rowan Felted Tweed – pattern and yarn selected by the recipient, my friend Susan Lee. She saw my Peasy and loved the yarn, and asked if I’d make her a scarf like my orange malabrigo sock lace ribbon. I wouldn’t have put the yarn with the pattern, but it’s ok!
lace ribbon scarf (Veronik Avery), in Rowan Felted Tweed
A very meaningful project – an heirloom project – was a wedding shawl for my daughter Marnie. I learned a lot, making this, and while I’m not sure how many more cobweb-weight shawls I want to make, I am very happy with how it turned out.
placeholder shot of blocking - will replace with full shot after I give it to her
I made this sockhead hat to donate to the BSD Project, using yarn that my stepdaughter gave me for Mother’s Day earlier this year. Although I got really bored with all that stockinette round and round and round with sock yarn, I did love the outcome:
a hat in search of a home
It took me long enough, but I finished a cardigan – Peasy, by Heidi Kirrmaier. I used Rowan Felted Tweed, in avocado, and bought some beautiful little Italian handmade leather buttons, oval-shaped. I love the sweater.
Peasy, in Rowan Felted Tweed. LOVE.
Peasy in the park
A second sweater finished on the heels of Peasy, even though I cast on for it Dec 26 of last year. One dilemma after another – it was the high of finishing Peasy that made me haul butt to finish this, the Mondo Cable Cardi – et voila:
At the end of the year, I had 2 sweaters on the needles (Dark & Stormy and Eve’s Rib), a scarf in progress for a friend, an afghan in the works, and a set of monsters coming together for Katie. Not as much knitting as I’d have liked, but that’s life.
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