Purple!

I seem to be all about the knitting lately. It is a symptom of avoiding that messy room in the basement that I like to call my office. It is piled with disorganized boxes from out of town and local relatives who have sent things for me to wrap. Photos would be too scary.

While the Leaf Pullover for the Artist was winding down I began to think about what to do next. I'd like to make an every day, utilitarian sweater. I came across a near pound of navy blue wool and I thought that would be a good candidate for such a sweater.While I was buying the navy blue, I fell in love with this gorgeous brick and yellow wool.
I thought setting it against a navy blue background would make the colors really pop and so that is what I have decided to do.

Originally I thought I would make a fair isle yoke sweater, only instead of following all the colors in the fair isle chart, I would use only the brick and yellow variegated yarn as the only color filling in the shapes. Now I'm considering something else.

As I started the knitting with this navy yarn, I became aware of something strange, that I could not quite pin down. Stiffness? Maybe that is the best way to describe it.

I kept knitting, but my mind was not at all on the sit com on the TV, but on figuring out what was odd about this yarn. Then I hit upon the idea of caring for this finished garment. It would be a shame if that beautiful brick and yellow yarn should be sullied by dye bleeds from the navy yarn. Then, in that sudden moment of revelation, I knew the yarn was over saturated with dye.

What to do? The first sleeve was nearly knitted. I was almost through the first skein of yarn and ready to join the second one. So I picked up three new skeins from the knitting bag and began filling my sink with hot water. I used a wee bit of laundry powder and carefully dragged the skeins through the water so as to avoid roughing up the yarn.Wow! The water in my sink turned the most beautiful shade of purple. Not some delicate winsome purple either. Bold, royal purple. It was so pretty! And I was so glad I washed the yarn. This purple should stand alone or be paired with glittering gold, not brick and yellow! It was a little trickier to wash the sleeve still on the circular needles.

The brick and yellow is from the same maker as the navy, so I think I will have to pre-wash it as well. And to show this yarn at its best I think I will forget the fair isle and make the entire yoke in the variegated yarn. As a bonus, it will knit faster that way.

Leaf Pullover Completed

The Leaf Pullover sweater for the Artist is supposed to be embellished with two leaves tacked at the neckline. They are now in place and it is truly a finished product. With some extra yarn I tweaked the Faithful Companion headband pattern from KnitPicks to have an eyelet edging similar to the garment and coordinate with the sweater. I hope she enjoys them!

At Long Last

Years and years I've been wanting and waiting for a pair of nice dress boots. As a young child, back when they were called fashion boots, it was a no-go with my parents.

As a teen I don't really remember the need being as strong. Nearly every day I went downtown, by bus, for ballet class so I wanted and needed warm walking boots more than footwear that completed a look.

When I got married I bought a beautiful pair of western boots. Because I never wore them for farm work they were suitable for dress boots and they served me well for a while. But when I had my children, I outgrew them.

Then there were the years of having to carry car seats and diaper bags, small children growing into toddlers and preschoolers -- all reasons not to bother with dress boots. For several years I wore sturdy pairs of mom-boots. The type equally good for shoveling out the driveway and carrying a toddler, a diaper bag, and purse on my left arm while holding my shopping list and another child's hand in my right (because if I don't write it down I'll never remember and because if I'm going to make this effort I darn well want to get it all done in one trip!).

In hopes that I can leave carrying small children behind me for a while, I ventured to buy myself a pair of dress boots -- at last! I found a pair I liked and tired them on. Very nice. It felt really good to wear a pair of real heels again. Too bad I had about 35 cents in my pocket.

A couple of weeks later I had a moment to stop back into the store and voila! my size was still in stock. I wore them home that day. Rick happened to have the day off. He noticed that I had grown taller when I got home from my errands. And he liked my new boots too.

St.Nicklaus & Artist's Sweater

St. Nicklaus must have made an appearance some time on the night of Dec. 5th. The children found this evidence. Of course I did not remember the camera until we had cut their oranges for breakfast.I'm right in the thick of another sweater again, this time for the Artist. With my friends, the calculator and the tape measure, I began by figuring out how to adapt the adult size pattern to my daughter. It helped that the pattern calls for a chunky size yarn and I am using a worsted weight yarn. The way the gauge swatches worked out, I'm using the third set of numbers in the pattern for stitches and the tape measure for verifying the correct number of rows.
Last night the Artist tried on the finished garment sans sleeves. It looked pretty good. I did decide to take out the finishing on the neck and make it again with ten fewer stitches picked up.

After she went to bed I began sewing up the seam on the first sleeve. Then I pinned and basted it to the garment to check the fit. I am still uncertain whether I'll have to remake the sleeve caps. This is the place where my reducing the pattern did not seem to work with the number of rows I'd take to properly reduce the number of stitches. Half way through the cap I began reducing with sssk's and k3together's to keep it from becoming too large. Now I'm having my doubts as to whether that was the right thing to do.

Once the basted sleeve was in place I got out a spray bottle and did a little blocking on the lace edging all around the hems and neck. The layers facing the carpet are still a little damp this morning, so maybe I'll have her try on the one-sleeve garment after lunch. Then I should be able to judge for certain whether I need to remake the sleeve caps.

One of the first things that attracted me to this pattern was the lace edging at the hems and neckline. Here is a close up. I'm so glad I swatched the lace pattern first. I discovered my product looked nothing like the photo. Then I searched on line for help and found out that I've been doing yarn-overs incorrectly all this time. Strike heel of hand to forehead, feel stupid, repeat. And I've been happy with the lace items I've made the wrong way. Imagine how much I'd enjoy them if they were done properly. At least I have expanded my knowledge base now and I can make higher quality things in the future.

A Date that Will Live in Infamy

Perhaps Pearl Harbor is most remembered today but December 7th has been an important date in American history a few times before and since 1941.

In 1787 Delaware ratified the US Constitution. They were the first state to do so and the vote was unanimous, 30-0.

In 1917 the USA declared war on Austria-Hungary in WWI. It is called The Great War and it was called the War to End All Wars. Earlier in the year the US had entered the war against Germany.

In 1972 the latest moon mission, Apollo 17, blasted off from Cape Canaveral.

These world famous historic figures celebrated birthdays:
1598, Italian sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini
1761 Waxworks museum founder Marie Tussaud

And in various years these people celebrated their birthdays: Noam Chomsky, Harry Chapin, Priscilla Barnes, Larry Bird, Tino Martinez, Terrell Owens, Nicole Appleton, Alan Faneca, Emily Browning, and Johnny Bench

Do you know of any others?

Expecting Chaos

Last night our contractor-neighbor came over to give us a price on the partial remodel we want to do in our kitchen. We were hoping to get this work done around the same time as the bathroom remodel last February, but as it turned out with his schedule and ours we needed to wait.

Maybe we will be spared the 8-10 inches of snow fall per day during the time the work is to be completed this time!

First our floor needs to be replaced. This means the stove and refrigerator, shoe shelf, and waste basket will need to take up temporary residence in the dining room. Everything that is stored in the under the counter cabinets will need to move when the counters are replaced. I guess I'll be saving boxes at Christmas time to store these things in the Florida room.

When this chaos is over we should have a floor that can be cleaned and actually look clean when it is cleaned (imagine that!), a new stainless steel sink with a faucet that does not drip (hooray!), and counter tops the do not clash with everything Thousand thank-yous, Rick!

Christmas Sweater

A new sweater for the Engineer Was completed late Saturday night and was set out to block. This morning, it is almost dry. If the Engineer looks a wee bit uncomfortable it is because he is not used to wearing sweaters that are still a bit damp in the back. I am thrilled with the way the sweater came out and with how quickly this pattern knitted up with my only change being color scheme and ribbing in K1 P1 instead of K2 P1. But I also have made some notes to keep in mind next time I use this pattern for help it fit even better. The Back to School Pullover is the third pattern in the top row of this link.

The kids came home from a weekend with their grandparents to find the Jesse tree and the advent wreath in the dining room. We have the non-traditional advent wreath this year because I thought I had purple candles. I went to my candle drawer and found three ridiculously stumpy purple candles that begged to be put in the trash. Next to them I had several new pink candles, and here we are...Sunday afternoon was dedicated to swatching for the Artist's sweater. I got out my calculator and did all the measurements and math required to reduce an adult size pattern to fit her. I also got started with my cast on and knitted until I realized I had once again twisted my yarn while joining in the round. Drat!

Next time I cast on straight needles and knit a couple of the beginning rows before transferring to the circular needles. This worked much better for me, and I used the little tail to sew closed the three rows I had worked on the straight needles.

But getting any actual knitting accomplished yesterday was doomed. After I had knit about three inches there was a knot in the ball of yarn making an unnatural join between the bright pink and the white. So I cut the yarn and rejoined at a more natural place in the color scheme. I made a terrible join and I grew increasingly unhappy with it every time I passed that place knitting the next several rounds. So before I went to bed I rewound the whole thing.

My big hang-up with beginning this project was getting through all the math and measurements. Now that those parts are done, I am eager to proceed. Before I cast on again I'll knit a swatch of the edging on the pattern (see it here). I could have been happier with the yarn overs in the lace edging and I could use some practice to get just just the look I'm after.

In my knitting marathon weekend I did not get lesson plans printed for the kids this week. On Wednesday, the Artist has a Latin final going beck to second semester last year. Her time will largely be dedicated to studying for that. I made a giant stack of flash cards for her to learn.

The Engineer and I will go through a few subjects then start some house cleaning. Won't he be thrilled!