A Room With A View

And the snow has started. The winter storm has finally broken free of the mid-western states and is moving east. The weather man has been threatening us for days but we haven't gotten anything but dark clouds every day, all day. I appreciated the view from the balcony for the better part of the morning but believe I missed the best viewing while I was gone to a friend's house. This evening there are a couple inches of white covering everything and tomorrow we may see the sun peek through. I missed my chance to go for a walk in the woods on the trail before dark; it would have been lovely with the snow.

A few hours were spent working with the Rowan yarn late this afternoon. I tend to be a tight knitter but went down two needle sizes from the recommended in order to get the gauge I was happy with. Although I'm thoroughly pleased with the yarn, I really wish they had had enough to make my vest because I want to get started so that I can wear it in the spring.

Bowl of Plenty

It has been a fantasy of mine to bring home an entire bag full of Rowan yarn that I could call my own and today I did just that. The quirky, crazy Mass Avenue Knit Shop had their annual blow-out sale today and I was invited to join some knitting group ladies for a drive up to Indianapolis to buy yarn. This store was so packed with ladies that one could hardly move and besides the two devoted (bored) husbands in the shop, I was the only guy there. They didn't carry the exact yarn for the sweater I'm going to knit and when I found a second choice in virtually the same colors, they didn't have enough stock. Ah well, I just bought enough for scarves instead and will get the sweater yarn online. Upon returning home to fill my bowl with all my felty, tweedy balls of lovely Rowan I felt satisfied with a good, full day.

While in Indy, we ate at a wonderful Greek restaurant called Santorini's. The place felt like home, the service treated us like family and if I didn't know any better, I'd say someone's grandmother was in the kitchen cooking from scratch. I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone coming through Indianapolis.

Butter, Sugar,and..........Wool?

The house smells like butter, sugar, toasted nuts and cherries. So much so that I haven't even eaten one of the cookies I baked because the heavy fragrance made me feel as though I'd eaten a dozen already.

The first batch (four sheet pans) was my absolute favorite as a kid, Cherry Winks. I always thought it was a secret recipe from my grandmother but later found out it was quite famous in it's time as it won a Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in the 40's or 50's. Although my mother baked them most years, I don't actually remember being around when she made them however the smell of them in the oven is an unmistakable memory. It just isn't Christmas without them.

Round two was a double sized sheet pan of pecan crescent sandies. I haven't made these before but remember them as a kid. Nutty, buttery and lightly sweet, they melt in your mouth. The ingredients were so few that I was afraid the recipe may have been misprinted. The photo was just going to be the picture of cookies but I couldn't help including the entire spread on the dining table. Yes, the wool and needles were already there, it wasn't staged. Good thing though because now I've included a nod to knitting even though I haven't made stitches for days now.

Bedside table for the sick

Man, I hate being sick. Whats worse is being sick in a lonely, quiet apartment. Having others in the house going about their own business was always comforting to me when I was sick as a kid. The normalcy of other's lives allowed me to feel that better days were ahead for my sick self.

I don't know what exactly is wrong. Last night I felt chilly and very definately, off. I gathered my arsenal of natural medicines in case things got really bad and I didn't want to get out of bed. I never got comfortable before going to sleep and when I woke in the morning, I felt pretty much the same, very off. Its feels as though I have half of the symptoms of the flu and when it came on last night, it came on quickly like the flu. Anyway, I couldn't take it any more so I went to the doctor this evening and she thinks it could be the flu in a mild form or some other virus and that I should just treat it like the flu. Fluids, Fluids, and more Fluids.

Red beet juice is supposed to shut down the flu virus, I read today. At the store I had the deli prepare me two beet/carrot/ginger juices and an all greens juice. Also in my cart were two "superfruits" juices, some lemon/ginger/echinacia drink, three large Smart Waters and and some more Emergen-C. I'm trying to hit the water hard for the electrolites and mix in some of the fresh veggie juices. For dinner I drank some hot vegetable broth which wasn't much considering I had only consumed a small amount of blueberry protein shake for breakfast/lunch. Just not hungry but very tired of going pee.

No knitting happened today, or since the day I ripped back the hat. I gots no motivation because I want to work on the hat to get it done but it isn't enjoyable right now and I can't figure out exactly what to do with anything in my stash for a scarf, figuring that a single strand of yarn and a basic stitch repeat would appeal to me. For now I should go to bed and hope the rest will help shake this virus from me.

Manna or Valomilk?

For the first time in my three years of knitting, I've ripped out a project. Surprisingly, it wasn't that painful but getting it back on the needles is going to be a new challenge. I didn't actually rip out the whole thing, just a little more than half a hat, and I got back to a point with the crown where I can stop increasing and just knit straight down. The first time I knit, I got carried away with the increase rounds and I knew the hat was going to be too big. Of course I just kept going, thinking it would be alright. Then when I realized how big the hat was, maybe blocking would take care of it. After two nights of sheer denial, I came to grips with the fact that the hat needed to be ripped back. I've placed the live stitches on a length of waste yarn and now need to figure out if the eight bar increases are set correctly in order to continue knitting.

Recently, I've been going a little crazy with the sweets. Since losing weight and noticing that my skin tone has evened out I've been shoving candy bars down my throat on a fairly regular basis. (for those who don't know, sugar and fat normally make my skin look like shit though they don't seem to effect my weight) Anyway, I've discovered Valomilks which are pudgy little chocolate cups filled with flowing marshmallow and although I've never been a marshmallow fan, these Valomilks are AMAZING!!! (insert jazz hands here) The filling is somewhere between a marshmallow and a sweet flowing caramel and you must try them. In addition to the valomilks, Hershey now has big milk chocolate bars with corn flake crisps in them. I've always loved simple, basic corn flakes and found the corn flake Ritter Sport candy bar a few years ago but they are pretty spendy. Not only do I indulge in a candy bar each night, I've also been eating a chocolate almondbutter rice crispy bar with lunch at work.

It may seem ridiculous to go on for a whole paragraph about eating candy bars but you need to understand the sense of freedom I'm feeling with this. My entire life has been filled with candy bar deprivation for reasons both clear and unclear. First of all, my parents didn't like us kids eating candy because it wasn't nourishing and it was full of sugar. They then moved on to the arguement that we were chubby and didn't "need" any candy. Sprinkled throughout this time was always the excuse, "we can't afford it". Growing up with these messages I learned to view candy as delicious and evil. It was a bad thing that only unhealthy people could eat and that it would make me fatter. I also realized in my teens that the quantity of blemishes on my face directly correlates with the quantity of sugar I eat. Now, at 35 years old, I'm realizing that I am eating candy and sweets like they are going out of style and I'm losing weight and my skin looks fantastic. Maybe middle-age has it's benefits?

Good Technique

Woo Hoo! The library secured a copy of Twined Knitting and I picked it up the other day. Talk about a rich history. I think in the long run I'm going to use this technique more often than double knitting to make warm hats and such. Reading about the tradition through hundreds of years and seeing the artifacts uncovered has made me fall in love with twined knitting. I want to tend sheep in the mountains wearing a wadmal bodice waste coat with knitted sleeves and drink hot tea by the fireplace at night in a stone cottage.

Knit has been happening but not every day. The twined hat is getting close and I'll probably work a few rounds when I'm done typing.

On the fence

For some reason I've taken a liking to having a walk on the trail behind my house in the evenings now that it has gotten really cold outside. The cold sucks but at the same time it is nice, crisp and calm outside with very few, if any, other walkers. I've been feeling warmer in the house due to walking out in the cold and getting my blood pumping. This is nice because I've felt colder in the winters the past few years due in part to my lack of activity.
Today at the mall, I was stunned to find that I fit very, very comfortably in size 34 jeans. I probably would have jumped up and down at this realization had I been trying to lose weight but it ended up being a balance of excitement and inconvenience. Knowing now that 34s look and feel better than 36s makes me not want to wear any of the trousers that are already in my closet. Making up for this lackluster experience was the cutest damn fleece jacket EVER. This fleece has the body flattering accent stylings that one usually finds on women's sporting gear but it is for men. The nice, dark cocoa brown color that is in style this season with exterior seam overstitching done in kelly green creating flattering lines down the torso. It's about f*ing time someone made flattering mens sport clothing for the average guy who doesn't happen to have a gym chiseled bod.

I'm not the first...but may be the most excited!

At last, a learning experience that is going to turn out a beautiful, wearable garment. Everything with this hat is new for me from the handling of the yarn to the number of needles involved. (I've made a mental note that whenever I purchase double-pointed needle in the future I must buy 2 sets of 5.) As you can see in the picture 9 needles are involved and no stitch markers. I did transfer the work to magic loop (circular) for a couple rounds but noticed that the curve of the round knitting with the tightness of the twisted stitches makes it very uncomfortable to knit on circular needles unless I used a 60 inch cord and broke the hat up into quarters instead of halves. Imagine the juggling of four pieces of work on a cord using magic loops - Yikes! Transferred back onto it's 8/9 needles, the technique has become quite hypnotic and enjoyable. The top of this hat pattern has been done by many folks and although at this point I plan to "borrow" a fellow knitter's pattern for the sides, I may dream up something of my own by the time I get there. The inside is almost as pretty as the outside although my orange floats are longer than in traditional twined knitting because I've broken up the orange stitches with two gray stitches rather than one. This is so exciting.

As the working yarns twist ever tighter together, I find myself speeding up my knitting in a vain attempt to out-run the coil. The only part of this knitting that isn't enjoyable is the untwisting of these yarns which involves stopping every quarter of the way around the work to secure the skeins and untwist the mess. Every time I take this pause my brain tries to come up with a way to easily, if not automatically, untwist as I work. Something will be figured out - someday.

Because of my current obsession with this traditional Swedish folk craft, I've renewed my library card. I neglect my library because I'm a clean freak and library books are filthier than money in my opinion - for christ sake, people take them to bed! They are a hell of a lot cheaper than money though and the knitting books I want are damned expensive. The friendly folks at the library are now reaching out to other libraries around the country in an effort to secure me a temporary copy of Twined Knitting which has been out of print for many years and has now reached $65.+ on the used book market. This book will help develop my skills and hopefully get me over the fear of creating thumbs on mittens.

Off now to dream of moving to Sweden and knit adorable accessories on a comfy couch for the rest of my life. I think there is a cute man in there somewhere too.

Social sloth

Round two of the twined hat has gotten off to a great start but I fear there is still something wrong. For some reason, my orange stripes only show up as half of a V on the stockinette side while the gray looks just fine. Adjusting the tension and loosening up on the orange as I knit doesn't seem to help. Surely when I get a book on this technique I'll have an ah-ha moment.

So last night I posted a response to a question on the twined knitting group over on ravelry.com. I then figured I'd post a question asking for suggestions on books to buy that cover the technique. Much to my surprise I received great responses in less than 24 hours and even received a private email from another group member. Chatting with kindred folks this way is really so fun and the sharing of knowledge can't be beat. I've been apprehensive to take an active role in things like ravelry groups, facebook, etc. because I'm so self conscious; feeling like I have nothing to offer. (Sure I say that on this blog that anyone with an internet connection could possibly see but remember, nobody I know knows about this blog and probably nobody I don't know.) Facebook is another online community where I've started the attempt to express myself a little. With an modest quantity of friends on facebook, I've used it mainly to keep up on their status updates and such but never contributed until recently, again with positive results. My goal with this recent online social activity is to broaden my network of acquaintances, learn some new things and keep up on technology. The entertainment factor is nice too but the last thing I need is a second hobby that allows me to sit on my ass.

Juicy

I do believe that I have roasted the juiciest, subtly aromaticist chicken ever to pass my lips. Thank you, Nigella Lawson, for your Spiced Super-Juicy Turkey brine recipe, it works great with chicken. The brine of oranges, star anise, allspice, mustard, ginger, maple, and caraway to name a few, perfumes the meat with a flavor like I've never tasted. I can't pick out any one of the ingredients as they mingle so gently together. Nigella has a bounty of recipes and I've prepared many of them with great success. A few of her offerings are embarrassingly simple coming from a famous cook but they delight non-the-less. One favourite is her Bacon Tomato Hash. My chicken isn't pretty enough to snap a pic and I wouldn't want to offend any vegans. hehe

The twined hat has begun. Fumbling around trying to figure out the pattern by looking at pics of FOs and knowing virtually nothing about twined knitting, the first inch is unsuccessful. Tonight it will be ripped out because although it would be cute, it is not what I want. Late last night the pattern formed itself in my brain so round two begins tonight and I know what I'm doing.

One thing leads to another

We have all done it. Awakened in the morning with a foggy headache which leads to a nervous sinking feeling in our guts as we exclaim, "What the F*% did I do last night?". This time for me it was realizing that I spend another fifty bucks at 2am on knitting supplies at knitpicks.com. I only needed a couple things but my shopping basket kept taunting me with it's little message, "only $25.49 left till free shipping". This incident is the third of it's kind to happen in the past two months. Damn them, damn me, damn it.

I bought the set of little 4" dpns because I couldn't help myself and I'm guessing they would be quite nice to use when starting top-down hats. I don't care for having four giant needles flopping around when trying to work with 4-8-16 stitches and I don't want to start a project like that using magic loop. Since the needles cost $29, I needed to round it up to 50 so I also got circular needles in sizes 2 and 3; 47" cables. City Tweed DK has been on my mind lately and so I bought 4 colors to do a stripe hat. With thinning hair and super close buzz cut, thin hats are required in the winter time to help regulate overall body temperature. I seem to be the only balding kvetch that bitches about cold scalp.

The idea for the stripe hat came from a vest pattern that I fell in love with this week. I bought the Jane Ellison Queensland Collection book 9 for men because it contains the pattern of the perfect vest that has been in my imagination for over two years now. The vest is shown in a thick stripe pattern which is lovely. For a more immediate gratification, I'm going to make my next hat in a stripe that reminds me of this vest. I shall make this vest over the winter while I wear the hat.

Excuses

Four days without knitting. The issue lies in the starting of a project. I'm staring at a quarter of a scarf which is sitting in a bowl on my coffee table next to two skeins of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool that need to be wound into balls in order to swatch. Sitting in another bowl are two balls of Borrocco Ultra Alpaca just waiting to be a twined hat. The twined hat needs to be knit top down and although I will be making it using magic loop, I need to start on dpn or it will look like shit and I can do without the frustration of a cable pulling and stretching the stitches. In order to start on dpns One would have to go to a store and buy the #4s and One would have to remember to do this before 6pm. I've noticed the yarns I bring home are getting smaller and smaller.

I've been scouring the internet in search of twined knitting patterns or instructions for the technique that may accidentally show me how to go about the type of color changes I hope to make. Seems like a lot of guesswork is the way to play this game if you don't know any Scandinavian great-grandmothers.

For dinner tonight I went super healthy. Half a baguette with some amazing triple cream brie and mochi puffs with peanut-chocolate ganache. I seem to have misplaced my protein and veggies.

On the edge of a nightmare

Okay, a 2x2 swatch of twined knitting doesn't count as knitting, does it?. I can do this technique! Twined knitting is not difficult at all and going back to English style knitting after being exclusively continental for over a year is sort of nice. More comfortable than it used to be. I can see how this technique can easily become a twisted, knotted yarn nightmare with all the twisting of the yarns that go on.

I'm thinking that when I start a project using the twined method, I'm going to set my two balls of yarn in a bowl and set the bowl on a little lazysusan. This way as the twist tightens up, I can just spin the lazysusan to untwist my yarn. Clever, yes, portable, no.

Tea break

No knitting took place in my house last night. A short break is necessary after the Benetton hat while I evaluate the christmas gift situation. As far as Christmas goes though, the people will probably get store bought items for the most part. The idea of having a craft which supplies knit goods for all is just that, an idea. Truth be told it is difficult to give hand knit items to others when you just know they don't really understand the time that went in to making them or the care they require when finished. The baby hat was going to be the next job but since it is only a week long project and the baby isn't due till May....

I wasn't going to knit tonight either but my hands and brain are itching to try twined knitting. Even typing about it is making me antsy. I won't do it! I may just cast on a swatch but I will only knit a few rows.

Getting cavities

These darned lambs are sickeningly sweet; I want one or ten! There has always been a soft spot in my heart for little lambs and kids (the goat kind). My family had a little goat named Surple when I was a toddler and I would run down to his house near the pasture to give him kisses. He would be standing at the ready and promptly knock me to the ground. Lovable, no; cute as hell, yes.

Today I tried to decide my preferred technique for knitting in the round. I've done double points, correctly sized circulars, and magic loop on both 40 and 60 inch cables. Although magic loop is cheaper than amassing an enormous collection of 12 and 16 inch circulars for making hats, I think I have come to the conclusion that I like the comfort of double points the best. Although the initial supply investment can be a touch more expensive than magic loop supplies, it still is cheaper than the regular circular route. I noticed on a blog today that someone has used two sets of circular needles to create a hat by holding the stitches on 8 needles rather than the standard 4 which I have seen up till now. I'm going to give this a try.

Out with the old

With a handle on the fair isle knitting and this silly hat out of the way, I'm ready to embark on a little hat for a baby. The plan is to knit a fair isle design using 100% organic cotton and I've purchased 4 balls of yarn in 4 natural, undyed shades of brown/beige/cream. I'm thinking it should be a fun little project with lots of room for childlike creativity in the design. I'm aiming for super-cute.

Hellish helmet

Yet another hat has turned out unwearable yet pleasing to look at. I hate it. I am basically tying up the top now that all the dupe-stitch is done and because of the lining, it just looks like a gigantic, way-too-thick helmet. I can't believe my head is so damn big. Closing up the last couple decrease rounds just seems daunting and anger-making; I just don't want to do it.

I had a wonderful walk on the trail around the pond behind my house. The weather was cloudy but pleasantly cool for doing four rounds of the pond. Exercise needs to be daily but I just don't know what to do.

This is a lame post

One Down

Enlightening and exciting. I've completed the crowning jewel on what I'm calling my "'80's Label Whore Hat", a nod to the Benetton Group and their original stylized knit stitch logo. Next come the cute little alpacas on either side and some dupe-stitch colorwork. I was so obsessed with Benetton in junior high school, I even wrote to the marketing department and did a full report on the company for my final assignment in 8th grade. I still love their knit stitch logo and I'm sure it was at least a small part of why I've wanted to knit for most of my adult life.

Tonight I learned two things working with this hat. Designs on my color chart had to be altered on the knitting for them to look correct in real life. Duplicate stitch is the other learning experience and although the back side doesn't look fabulous, it is nice and flat. I'm behind schedule for finishing this hat but tomorrow is Sunday knit group and I will at least get the rest of the dupe-stitch designs finished there and probably finish closing the top tomorrow night at home.

Over Mashed Potatoes

Not being a soup fan, I don't have much experience making it. I've cooked my whole life and can be pretty amazing in the kitchen but soup is just not my thing, usually. Last night however, I took the first step to making the best chicken noodle soup I've ever eaten - boiling the chicken and straining the broth. Tonight I sauteed the veggies in butter, shredded the chicken and rolled out some nice fat egg noodles. This amazing pot simmered for about half an hour before I dove in. Couldn't help taking a picture of those luscious noodles.

Today found me knitting at the yarn store after I got tired of sitting around the house nursing what I'm hoping is the ending stages of minor bronchitis. Quite a few rounds of the fair isle/intarsia/duplicate stitch hat were finished. I had no idea that so many techniques would be used in this hat when I "borrowed" the idea from another knitter's flicker set. The hat is going to be so beautifully fun when I'm done and the duplicate stitch portion will begin tonight.

Damn Flu!

The media is making me flu-crazy. I can't stop thinking about keeping my hands clean from everything I touch and making sure my hands don't go near my face. I've been feeling lousy for at least a week now but not lousy enough to do anything about it. Thinking all the while that it's just paranoia, it got worst today. Turns out bronchitis has been lurking in my lungs but I've bolstered my immune system just enough to keep it from knocking me down. Glad I went to the doctor because hopefully the worry can subside knowing bronchitis the cause of the lousys.

I'm almost finished with my first fair isle hat. This hat is going to be so warm that I may give it to my friend in Alaska. I knit a lining in this hat in order to hide all the floats from the fair isle not realizing that the floats would serve as plenty of lining by themselves.

Look at me, I actually started a profile. It needs work though but I'm done with it for tonight.

The setup

Is this what my friends meant when they said, "You just need to put yourself out there!"? Indeed it's not but I'm going to do it anyway.
Finding an outlet for the monsters inside me is a challenge and although it wasn't my own creativity that devised this thing called a blog, maybe using it will spark some creative release. Consider this the first post and we'll see what happens.