Halloweeknits and Ravelry

First off, Happy Halloween! I'm feeling chatty tonight, so a reasonably long post is forthcoming...

This is how halloween went at the Parallel house:
Knit 4, Purl 4, Knit 4, Purl 2... ding-dong! Trick'or'treat! "You can take 3 candies"... "How many have you got there? You can take three" (to small boy, old enough to count I'm pretty sure, clutching big handful. Response: "tree!"). "Really, how many do you have?" ("tree!"). "Can you show your dad (standing at the end of the walk) how many three is?" (boy turns around displays handful of 6 or 7 candies to waiting father, who grins and shakes his head)... "OK, happy halloween, give some of those to your dad :D".

So. Cute.! (and yeah, maybe he was old enough to count but not to interpret). We had relatively few surly teenagers, though we did have one group of ~16 year olds dressed in far less clothing than I would have ever considered wearing at that age, including some kind of "sexy gypsy" type thing with massive cleavage and even a couple of beads shoved in there for decoration. But at least they were polite!

Anyway, in between answering the door (Andy and I alternate the primary candy-wrangling duties, but usually both open it to see the costumes), I would knit some. The previous example would probably end up: "sit down... Purl 4, Knit 4, Purl 4, wait, this doesn't look right, dangit!". I'm working a diagonal rib in the round which is all K4P4, but each round is staggered. Takes a little more concentration than "K the Ks and P the Ps".

And what am I knitting? My latest WIP, the Peekaboo Cloche from Lace Style (pic is a FO by someone else; book is linked on the sidebar since the blog is a KAL (got that acronym, mom?)). It's a stockinette inner layer with a lace outer layer in contrasting color. I picked up some gorgeous Misti Alpaca Suri Silk in Phoenix: Peridot (bright green) for the inner layer, Amethyst (bright purple) for the lace top. And since the pattern calls for yarn that has more yards/skein, 1 skein for each inner and outer, I grabbed a 3rd, sapphire (medium blue) for extras just in case.

I've now exhausted the green and had to use a bit of blue for the last inch of the inner layer. I'm halfway through the brim (aforementioned K4P4 diagonal rib) and should get to start the lace tomorrow! My row gauge is off, so the hat is a bit longer than the pattern - but that's OK, I prefer a hat to pull down over my ears rather than the really tight cloche style anyway.

Here's the inner lining in progress a few days ago:


and the current status, in the spirit of the evening. I've just joined the purple for the outside of the brim. I can't wait to get the lace started.
And oh, the yarn is so very soft! Just like baby alpacas! Andy and I petted a couple of those last weekend (real live baby alpacas) and they are so so so soft - softer than their mommies. We visited Cascade Alpacas in Hood River, and they have a little vending machine with alpaca food and the 'pacas come running. They're awfully skittish though...

Anyway, I have pictures of the yarn and other bits up at Ravelry now, too. Don't know Ravelry? If you're a knitter (or crocheter), add yourself to the invite list yesterday! Even if you're not into cataloging your stash, tracking your projects and posting them to the searchable database, or chatting in forums, you'll find the searchable pattern and yarn database, with tons of user-uploaded pictures, irresistable (if a teeny bit clunky sometimes - but it's still in Beta). My handle over there is Parallel :)

Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf - finished (last month...)

I figure I have enough things to post about to try to do at least 3 posts this week, so I'll continue to clear up the blogging of my recent knitting.

I blogged here about (among other things) the Noro Silk Garden Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf I was making for a charity auction at work. Well I finished it on time, have pictures, and and proud to say that it made more money than the yarn cost, which has to be at least the minimum goal. Not too much more, mind you - big moneywinners in that auction seem to be apple picking with G***** M****, a former CEO and major name in the field (how many people have a "law" named after them?); as well as the ubiquitous "front row parking spot for a year" which seems to go for several hundred dollars at many campuses but isn't offered at mine (we're too practical at my campus...)

Anyway... here are a couple of pictures!

Note the lovely afghan on which this is modeling... a Mom special of course (the largest thing I've knit so far would be my felted bag...)


As for the picture.. ignore the odd fuzziness of the model, aka me... it was raining out and hard to get the lighting conditions right. I ended up tweaking the contrast a bit to make the scarf colors look more true-to-life, which ended up making me look a bit paler-than-life

All in all - a fairly quick, easy knit, definitely recommended if you have a self-striping or variegated yarn with fairly long color changes. The Silk Garden did end up coming out softer in the wash, though the mohair still had a bit of itch to it. And all the hay washed out :)

FOs: Early Christmas hat, baby booties

I've been somewhat delinquent in posting my knitting here recently... some of this is from sheer busyness, some from the problem that KT refers to here, and some because I'm kind of knitting serially at this point and only have one thing at a time that I'm working on.

But I have utilized a unique method to get around the second problem - knit a Christmas gift and then send it early! Since he's received it, here's Andy modeling Carl's Early Christmas hat:


(yes, it came out a little big for Andy, but Mom assures me that Carl has a large head :). Carl, if you're reading this, you can always flip the bottom up for a brim!

Pattern: "Sideways Hat" from Not Just Socks by Sandi Rosner.
Modification: Using a stranded pattern (from Crusoe socks on Knitty) instead of straight stockinette for the body of the hat. Idea stolen from here
Yarn: Knitpicks Memories, "Redwood Forest", now discontinued. I still have one skein left.
Needles: US 2 but really 3.00mm and not the 2.75 that is generally assumed for US 2. Dang metric / US confusion

Notes: A hat with fingering weight yarn on size 2 needles takes a while, but I really enjoyed the stranded pattern and the way the color changes occurred. The yarn is not so much self striping as continually variegated. And I could tell if my gauge changed - I started knitting more tightly in the section to the right in this picture, and suddenly the colors weren't moving diagonally anymore. So I loosened up, and it returned to the nice diagonal movement.

This is the mystery project pictured here and here :)

I sent it early, in hopes that it would be useful for cool fall days and nights on the east coast. He tells me it's warm!

One more quick FO picture, and then it's about bedtime (which for me is normal time tonight, unlike for my East Coast family and friends Red Sox fans, who stayed up past midnight watching them win the World Series!). These are baby booties for a work friend's twins - but I took quite a while to knit/finish them, and I'm a little afraid they won't fit any more. and for obvious reasons, they can't be re-gifted to anyone else!

Pattern: "Easy Toe Up Baby Socks" from The Magic Loop booklet by Bev Galeskas.
Modification: Rather amateurish colorwork to add in their initials. Striping on the cuffs.
Needles: US 3 (I think...), 32" circular.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino.
Notes: Took me far too long. Of course, I took a break to knit the diagonal triangle scarf (which I need to blog! It's finished and done and sold for charity!). Hopefully still will fit the twins - I think at least the girl's will; I did hers second and worked a bit more loosely. They're only 14 weeks, but apparently growing fast! I need to just give them to my work friend ASAP, but he works in a different building and I keep forgetting...

I enjoyed the toe-up method (the magic cast on from the booklet is great - you use it and don't have to do any dividing or grafting for the toe), but got gusset holes in the short row heels on all 4 socks, despite knitting my wraps and everything. Next sock I think I'll try a different toe-up heel technique. Anyone have one they love?

Fall into Autumn Dishcloth Swap - with pictures!

OK, well, it wasn't really "tomorrow", but I did dig up batteries for the camera and take pics of my swap goodies! I needed to, since I wanted to start using the towels, dishcloths, and vanilla lotion!

In fact, this morning we did some volunteering at our local middle school with the local volunteer group SOLV. We do this twice a year (at different parks and schools in the area), and are never sure quite what to expect. In the past we've planted trees and flowers, spread mulch (barkdust as they call it here), helped put together a walkway at a school, and pulled tires out of a local wetlands. Today we cleared a ton of wet, soggy leaves out of the courtyard of the school (amusingly, the courtyard isn't covered by their grounds contract since it is technically in the school!), trimmed the bushes and trees in there, and pulled blackberries from the corner of the grounds.

In short, it was cold, wet, very tiring, and rewarding. Even Andy admitted it was "a little fun", even though he'd had to be cajoled over when we woke up and it was pretty much pouring. So... when we got home, I immediately headed for the shower and used the lovely vanilla shower gel from the swap. It smelled so good! Thanks again, Cynthia! Hopefully you are having a wonderful time on vacation!

And... I got my swappee's gift mailed out today. And in the process of visiting for the first time a post-office-inside-new-mini-mart down the street, I discovered a great-looking independent coffeehouse. They've been there for 6 months and I had never noticed them! I forsee some visits in our future - with free wireless, board games, and comfy couches, they're comfier than our neighborhood Star$$, even thought they're not quite walkable.

Phew! Not a ton of knitting content, sorry. I'll post more once present packages arrive! Oh, well, if you insist - here's a sneak peak at a corner of the dishcloth I made for my swappee. It's taking its first bath in the hotel sink in Phoenix last week :)
(hmm, blogger's image upload is not working. Well, here's a linky instead.)

Edited because I forgot to add - it's the beginning of game six - go Red Sox!

Fall into Autumn goodies!

My F into A dishcloth swap package arrived today! I swear I'll post pictures tomorrow (tonight I have been busy getting my swappee's stuff ready to send - and I need to dig up fresh batteries for the camera that eats them), but I just wanted to send a quick "thank you so much!" to Cynthia! 2 adorable dishcloths and several patterns, a great variety of kitchen towels to replace our ratty old ones, yummy smelling vanilla body butter and shower gel, yummy tasting halloween chocolates (from a gourmet tennessee candy store!), and of course yarn! I love the sugar'n'cream colors - the blues in them will go extremely well in our guest bath.

Thanks so much! Pictures tomorrow, I swear :D

Cactus Pr0n

I wanted to just post a few (heh!) pictures of my week in Phoenix. The work I was doing was really sporadic, requiring me to BE THERE NOW! but only occasionally - most of it was waiting for the times I had to BE THERE (which oddly almost always ended up at 3AM). I know this is very vague, but it's really not all that interesting; it was just annoying and a bit amusing. So I did manage to do some desert hiking / geocaching in South Mountain Park on one day, and to visit the awesome Desert Botanical Garden on another. Thus, I have many pictures of cacti to present. I also visited a very nice LYS (not much of a website, though) where I picked up yarn for hats for Andy and myself (baby alpaca for me; non-wools for him), and sat and knit a spell with the locals.

But anyway. I want to show off these cacti! So, so different than the vegetation in rainy Portland!

These are growing wild in South Mountain Park, encountered while geocaching. I was very grateful that the AZ analog to a parallel pile of sticks is an artfully arranged pile of rocks, and not a spiky pile of cacti!


(self-portait in the desert with camera balanced on a rock)


From the Botanical Garden (which conveniently has a take-your-own-picture stand):


(there was also a butterfly exhibit in a nice humid tent-type thing)




I should note - not only does the camera lens have spots, it is now deciding that perfectly good batteries are drained after a very short time (and when we put them in another device, they are still "full"). So we are probably in the market for a new camera - any suggestions, either raves or cameras to avoid, are welcomed!

Still here, too

I just got back from work travelling (during which I did manage to knit - and visit 2 yarn stores) followed by pleasure travelling (induced by work travelling having taken longer than expected and the proximity of the Grand Canyon to Phoenix, site of work travelling), and wanted to just pop up a quick note similar to KT's. Still here. I don't feel like butt (I'm sorry, KT, and hope you feel better soon...), but I'm sure I will tomorrow. Andy being a huge Patriots fan, he TiVo'd the Pats v Dallas game today to watch when we got back - at 11PM! So it's 1AM and we're watching football, with work looming tomorrow morning. Only 4:10 left though, and to be fair I could have gone to bed much earlier - but I had to get my email cleaned up anyway.

Knitting accomplished recently: finished charity diagonal scarf; finished dishcloth for exchange (I need to pack that package up ASAP); half done with unspecified Christmas project. Also found 3 geocaches in the desert in Phoenix!

Apologies for the run-on-sentences; that's what happens to my brain when I'm tired :)