Alison's Parallel Pile of Sticks

2009-11-25T22:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving (tomorrow)!

Sorry yet again for the lack of updates here. We've been busy getting the new house to a livable-yet-still-boxful state, and prepping the old house for selling. If you know anyone who wants to buy a nice 4-BR in Hillsboro, send them my way :)

We haven't taken very many pictures here yet - the clutter and the early sunset (plus the fact that a default location for storing the camera has yet to be determined) make for an uninspired photographer. But I do have my phone on me when we are out and about in more photogenic surroundings, and so I have managed to get a couple of cute videos recently, which Andy has kindly stuck on YouTube.

The first will give you a toddler perspective on (a portion of) our new backyard. Malcolm is carrying and attempting to eat small green tomatoes - the house came with some plants, but just before the video I had ripped them out as the weather has definitely become too cold for them to ripen. They were pretty loaded with tiny green fruit, though, which bounced all over the yard and were a perfect target for toddler hands and mouth. Please note the lovely helmet - a Grandma knit, of course!

Second, we have a video from last night, when we went out to dinner at an all-you-can eat salad bar place (Sweet Tomatoes) which also has all-baby-can-eat Mac'n'cheese (and soup, pizza, etc). This restaurant is quickly becoming one of our go-tos, because a) it's halfway between work and our new home, b) kids under 3 (I think) eat free [and kids love mac'n'cheese], c) we could always use more veggies in our diet, and d) if you sign up on their email list they will send you coupons for a free adult dinner on a regular basis. Plus, they have ceiling fans and generally lots of hustle and bustle and kids, which seem to be key to Malcolm's enjoyment

ANYway, at the restaurant Malcolm encountered a lucky confluence of sticky mac-n-cheese and optimal angle of spoon-to-bowl, and managed to feed himself successfully for several spoonfuls. We were quite impressed. He's dabbled before in dipping into yogurt and oatmeal (and even sweet potatoes), but mac-n-cheese is a whole new level of tool use :)

And that's today's update, folks! I'll try to check in with Thanksgiving pictures soon :)

Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:32:00.001-07:00

Isn't Malcolm the cutest lil cheetah ever? He enjoyed helping us give out candy to the bigger kids, too - probably more than the brief walk-around-and-see-the neighbors that we did early in the evening. He thought it was very cool, if a bit intimidating, to watch dressed-up kids dive into the candy bowl.

Also - we're moving! This week! Closer to Portland, in the "better" school district, a block from an amazing park, library, and elementary school. The house was built in 1959, and we found the original plans rolled up in a closet. Pretty cool...
More later... though maybe not til we've unpacked...

A year and a walker

2009-09-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

bSo... yeah, it's been a while. Again. And here I am at 9:30pm trying to bang out a quick entry - and since Mr. M. is often up at 6 (if not earlier squawking, though usually he will go back to sleep for a bit after a 5AM squawk-babble session) that leaves limited time. Especially since bed was late last night.

Anyway - Malcolm had a birthday! His first, in fact :). We had a nice day (I took him in late to daycare and Andy visited him at lunch), and that morning he actually took a couple of steps. Just between me and Andy - stagger stagger collapse/hug - but it seemed like very good timing. Over the next few days he started making quick progress, and less than a week later we captured this video:

(at this point he was much more comfortable holding our hands while walking, but would do it unassisted if something really special [like Mommy's video camera] presented itself)

We took another video tonight, 3 weeks exactly after his first steps on his first birthday. It's amazing how babies change so quickly at this age - though the first months have a lot going on, the transition out of babyhood happens in the blink of an eye, really. May I introduce, then: Malcolm the Toddler!

(and yes, he's not just toddling, but toddling with definite goals, however mercurial they may be. Cabinets beware!)

Hopefully this will inspire me to get back on the blog train (and hint hint, comments would be very inspiring as well). We really need to get a 1-year (and 3 week) bear-chair picture. We'll make that a goal for this weekend :)

A final note - one of the drawbacks (or benefits) to using Youtube for video hosting is that there is a lot of extraneous clutter on the site - including suggestions for similar videos. Right now, "Malcolm Performing for his Raisin" is one of the top videos suggested to me. Hee!

Sushi, 10 months later (plus corn)

2009-08-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

Back when Malcolm was one month old, we took him to our local sushi restaurant.

He wasn't too impressed by the menu

or the foodbut conveniently slept through the meal, allowing us to eat in (relative) peace.

10 months later, eating out is not exactly peaceful, usually, but can be a lot of fun! The neighborhood sushi place is still a favorite, and they've even expanded. Malcolm is happy to look at (or chew on, or throw around) the menu...

And eat yummy noodles, and tofu, and green beans, and rice, and teriyaki salmon...

And wash it down with a sippy of water.

Mmm, sushi.
(actually, we are holding off on giving him raw fish for a while yet, but much of the rest of the Japanese cuisine is baby friendly)

One very cute pic from tonight - we had fresh corn (must be August!) for the first time this season, and after Malcolm and I had our kernels (which had been scraped from the cobs - we are both dentally challenged, me more so than him in the lateral incisor department), we gave him the denuded cobs. They amused him for a while and then he was ALL DONE. Here he demonstrates the ALL DONE sign (though he also uses it for "Oh My Gosh I Just Spotted The Kitchen Clock Up There!")
Hopefully I'll be better at updating this blog going forward. Feel free to find me on Facebook, too, where the short updates are more frequent but the pictures are fewer (shoot me a note if you don't know my full name but want to friend me :).

Still here!

2009-06-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

We're still here! I know it's been ages since I updated, but we're doing great. Just very busy, at home and at work :). In the last month and a half, we have had:

a) A visit from Grandma and Grampa and Uncle Carl, complete with a beach day

b) pulling up on furniture / couch / people - on Memorial day weekend when we also went for a nice mountain hike

c) real crawling! (finally, right at 9 months)

d) cruising the furniture (has just started in the past week)

e) love for avocados still endures, lots of other foods tried with joy (beets! crackers! ) or indifference (cauliflower... deli turkey...)

f) hung out with second cousins Braden (14 months) and Henry (2 weeks!)

g) waving bye-bye, clapping and prompted hi-fiveing

h) diagnosis of slight anemia, but on-and-off-willingness to be fed (!) applesauce mixed with rusty-nail-tasting vitamin drops

i) first expedition to swimming at the rec center; and probably unrelated but you never know:

j) another ear infection just this past weekend :(. He's only had the two, not too bad for a daycare boy, but he was just miserable at night before we got it diagnosed. Antibiotics have perked him right up, though.

k) and of course, multiple bumps and bruises from the mobility milestones b through d. He doesn't know much fear yet, though he is getting progressively better at controlling his falls.

Anyone have any requests for pictures of any of these? I am overwhelmed by the photo possibilities. And it's time for bed now, but really quickly:

To the other point of this blog, I finished Malcolm's vest, started and finished the Wisp that's been in my sidebar for ages; am working on afghan squares, and then it will be on to a baby sweater for a friend/coworker's baby. And I'll be going to the Sock Summit in August - yay! I might want to brush up on my sock knitting skills, since I will be taking a baby socks class there :)

Genre-mixing picture from Worldwide Knit in Public Day a few weeks ago. Mmmm, gauge swatch! Note the lovely vest (if I do say so myself!)

Munching and pseudo-crawling

2009-05-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

In the past week, Malcolm has figured out a couple of things. First, that solid food is actually good to eat! He still mostly doesn't want to be fed by spoon, but give him some appropriate finger foods and he now goes to town! At least until he gets sick of it and rubs his eyes... we've had an interesting time at bathtime recently!

To demonstrate, a quick video of pear-slice-noshing that occurred Saturday night:

Malcolm noshes a pear slice from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

And the other big development - as of Sunday night (yes, it was a busy weekend) we have forward motion! The legs are not really involved yet, but he manages to drag himself where he wants to go by his arms and sheer force of will. The little dude is going to have very strong biceps, that's for sure! As you'll see in the following video, grown-up glasses (the drinking kind) are one of his favorite things. When he sees us take a drink, he often gets very insistent until we give him a sip (if water), or distract him. We're working on sippy cup use, but so far he is not very good about tipping it up enough to get much - or about not tipping it over to pour everywhere! (we're trying them without valves since he doesn't seem to get the concept of sucking on the valve yet)

Here's the pseudo-crawling video. We're not sure what to call this - pull-crawling? Dry butterfly stroke? Please don't mind the dirty floor, it was just fallen bits from dinner.

Malcolm almost crawling - 8 months! from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

Edited to say - if the videos aren't showing up in the blog post, click on the video title link to go to Vimeo and view it there. Not sure why it doesn't appear to be working at the moment...

Rugrat!

2009-04-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Continuing the rug replacement recap...

While we were tearing out the old rug, padding, and baseboards, Malcolm spent some time hanging out in the livingroom in his Pack-n-play, filled with nearly all his toys:

Then once we were down to the subfloor, he was allowed back in for a snack:

And a gander at the naked floor:

Once the new carpet was in, he had a fun time in the big empty room on the fun, clean, patterned floor. It's loop-style (berber), great for small baby fingers to feel the textures, and hopefully better at staying clean than a plain cut style would be.
And eventually we got the furniture back in (note nicely sorted knitting stash in the cabinet behind his head...)!(the ball is one of Malcolm's favorite toys right now, just squishy enough to pick up with one hand, interesting enough to chew on for a while, and light and bouncy enough for Mommy and Daddy to induce giggles by bouncing it off of his head!)

Bits and Pieces of March and April

2009-04-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

I'm at that point where it's been so long since I've blogged that it's a negative feedback loop - something neat happens, or I take a great picture, and I think "I should blog this!" but then the thoughts of all the other things I haven't blogged crowd in and the whole task just seems overwhelming. So I'll just jump in with some this-n-that and pictures of late March and the first bit of April.

Malcolm got an ear infection (preceded by about a month of daycare colds) and spend more time than usual napping on us.He was back to his normal self after the first dose of antibiotics, thankfully. And we have now learned that the best way to get said antibiotics into him is to lay him down, have Mommy perform a manic rendition of the Itsy Bitsy Spider while dancing about, and have Daddy squirt the stuff in a bit at a time any time he opens his mouth to grin.

KT had her baby boy, and we sent him a knitted, stuffed bass drum (KT and I met in the marching band in college). Malcolm test-drove it and pronounced it yummy. I did wash before sending :)

Malcolm turned 7 months! And he now pulls Bo the Bear completely in front of him, which makes the picture not so great for showing his growth...Bo knows babies...

Sans Bo.

In early April we got new carpet in the family room - the old was in pretty nasty shape by the walls where, well, the cats (ours and probably previous owners' too) had had their way with it. We figured something new before Malcolm got mobile would be ideal.

Here's a before, in the process of clearing out the room:

And Malcolm, having a last roll on the old carpet:This is all I have time for tonight - new carpet in the next post!

Beware the Turtles!

2009-03-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

Just another quicky post. Malcolm's daycare notes today were funny. He got his first "incident/accident report for parent". It's a very official looking form which had to be signed by the director of the center. Here are the details (don't worry, it's amusing):

Nature of Incident/Accident: Malcolm hit himself in the forehead with a turtle (plastic).
Action Taken: Picked him up and comforted him. He recovered quickly. Slight mark.

(we couldn't see a mark and he was fine when I picked him up)

His daily sheet (which lists his diapers, bottles, and naps, and has a space for a day summary) said "Malcolm sat and played and played with the stacking turtles. Then he smacked one into his forehead (see accompanying accident report) - after that, bottle and bed"

Poor guy, attacked by a turtle at daycare. I'd want bottle and bed too, after that.

Really, it's all good. See?

Belated Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

Malcolm had the following to say to the loyal readers of this blog, after having a meal of sweet potatoes on St. Patrick's day:

Malcolm's first St. Patrick's day from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

That's our boy!

Half a year old!

2009-03-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

As of almost 2 weeks ago (I plead illness for the delay in blogging- the first daycare cold, of course, hitting me worse than Malcolm, but hitting Malcolm enough that his sleep has been a bit rocky some nights) - Malcolm is half a year old! He's experienced the end of summer, all of fall, and most of winter. We took him out in the stroller today during a brief "sunshower" amidst the rain, and he squealed with joy to see the sun and be out and about. He's loving daycare - "wow! They have babies here!" - and his teachers love him, and always rave about his smiley and observant disposition. And he's rolling all over the place!

Let's see, what else has he been up to recently? The 6 month bear photoshoot pictures aren't that great, mainly because he would grab the bear and wrestle with it before I could get set to take the picture. So we have the great half-yearly bear-chair wrestling tournament:

ding ding! The match begins!

Bo is off to an early lead. Where's the baby?

Malcolm recovers (with some help from Mommy) and goes on the offensive...

Malcolm for the win! 6 month olds always beat stuffed bears :)

What else has he been up to lately?

Video-chatting with Grandma and Grampa in Wayland. Pixelated area is a knit gift-in-progress which I don't want to spoil for the recipient('s mother). Grandma's on TV and plays peekaboo!

Snoozing in the carseat... (note the lovely hat, and the corner of a knitted blanket from KT!)

Sitting in the box in which two pairs of baby shoes arrived. We were proving the ridiculousness of the size of the box, which could contain both pairs of shoes (in their fancy cases no less!) plus the baby!
Attempting to eat banana pieces (with Mommy and Daddy keeping a close eye!) - making this face ("what the heck was that? Eeew! or, mmmm?!?" - then squishing pieces back into his mouth - lather, rinse, repeat... He does seem to like the idea of finger foods, though of course we're only letting him try a few very soft things. But he also likes one puree in particular:

Sweet potatoes!

We can't believe that in less than 6 months he'll be eating off the table with us (well, with modifications, of course)!

6 months - preview

2009-03-01T20:37:00.001-08:00

We got some professional photographs taken today to celebrate Malcolm's upcoming 6 month birthday :). The photographer, Jennifer of All That Jazz Photography (click "family and wedding" not "boudoir"!), shot us in her garage-turned-studio, and we got digital copies and rights to all 300+ photos. She was great and we had a great time, with just a few tears. It will take me a while to go through them, but here is a small sample:

Cute!

Cute and snotty! (we may be able to photoshop out the runny nose)

Where did he get his blue eyes?

Not more pictures (loooove the pout) !!

ZOMG!

Cuddlin' with Mommy...

Half smiles with Daddy...

There are tons more good ones - if you want a link to all 300+, drop me a line and I'll send it to you. Now I need to go get stuff ready for his first full day of daycare tomorrow!!! (eeps)

Cereal and videos

2009-02-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

For the past few days we've been offering Malcolm some (highly milked-down) rice cereal after his evening bottle-feeding. He's generally been happy to play with the spoon, but would make a "yuck" face if any got in his mouth, and would push the spoon away and clamp shut. We didn't want to force the issue, but were wondering when he would decide this stuff might be edible and actually seem interested in trying some (after all, he's almost six months old!). Tonight, he made the same "yuck" face when we put some on his lip, but then opened up for the spoon! He kept opening and lunging for the spoon while making the yuck (or maybe just skeptical) face at each spoonful! Funny little guy... most of it ended up on his chin, but we think some made it in. It's amazing to think that in just 6 months he will be eating the same foods as we are!

And I have two videos to present (these are especially for Grampa, who requested recent videos). First, Malcom splashing in the bath tonight! He just figured out how to do this last night!

Malcolm learns to splash in the bath! from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

And second, a very cute boy giggling in his Bumbo a couple of weeks ago. For some reason he decided that me bobbing my head up and down was the funniest thing ever. It was very nice, especially since Daddy gets more of the giggles usually... I'm glad to have the laugh for posterity, because it is such a cute little heh-heh-heheheheheheh.

Malcolm's giggles from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

6 month update coming later this week...

Things Malcolm has been up to...

2009-02-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

since turning 5 months... (i.e. Mommy doesn't have time for a lot of text...)

Attending his first non-relative dinner party.

Learning to sit (pants and sweater by a knitting friend of mine).

Sitting in the bath.

Chewing his toes.

Helping me prune the roses.

Turning 5 and a half months!

and, after all that tires him out...

Napping without a swaddle*!
(doesn't the cuteness just slay you? :)

* we put him to sleep initially on his back, but since he can roll over (oh yeah, add that to the things he's been up to, though he does it inconsistently), the AAP says he can sleep on his side or his tummy now. He seems to prefer the side or 3/4-rolled positions. This is just for naps, right now, but we will be attempting un-swaddled night sleep soon!

FO: Matching hats!

2009-02-21T16:26:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Circular Bicolour Prime Rib (Brioche) Hat by Megan Mills
For baby size, started pattern after first set of decreases (though the adult is pretty small unstretched and actually could have fit him, just very loosely!)

This was fun! Since only one color is used per round (despite the striped appearance), it was fairly easy to pick up and put down as baby allowed. I used Cascade Fixation (the green) and some brown Madil Zaffiro, the other ball of which had become Andy's Coding Gloves. The pattern has a lot of stretch, and the Fixation of course is part elastic, so Malcolm's should grow with him - until it runs out of length! Both father and son needed spring hats, and I'm hoping these will serve for a while.

Next up - gift knitting; not sure what after that. I am trying to knit from stash for a bit as I have more yarn than I really need at the moment (don't we all?).

5 months!

2009-02-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

Wow, time sure flies. I'm pretty sure it was just the other day that I was posting that Malcolm was two months old...

This 5-month picture is late because a) my Mom was in town and we spent time with her rather than blogging, and b) I went back to work last week so wanted to spend time with Malcolm rather than blogging. b) will always be the case from now on, but I should manage to sneak in the odd blog after he goes to bed (but there goes the knitting time!) or during naps (if only they'd become > half an hour). Or, you know, during my breaks at work. Heh. Work was pretty quiet since my boss was out sick for the first couple of days, so I still got to come home early; and Andy and I availed ourselves of the free babysitting which Grandma offered, and went into Portland to our favorite restaurant (though, I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as previously, I think they're trying a little too hard). Of course we mostly talked about Malcolm, but it was nice to go to a grownup restaurant and have time to order appetizers and desserts!

Anyway, the best bear-chair picture this month shows a somewhat grumpy Malcolm - I think he was getting sick of being posed in the chair. He has taken to whining sometimes - kind of a sheeplike bleating - which is better than all-out wailing but still kind of annoying. But annoying in a cute way, of course. We still get the all-out wailing on occasion, most often when overtired - like the other night in the bath where we had the gall to take away the washcloth he was chewing! Looks like we'll need more washcloths per bath since he has decided they're toys - I'd better get knitting!
Lots and lots of developmental stuff going on recently - not so much rolling (he's only done back-to-front a couple more times), but he's gotten very interested in sitting unsupported. He can do this for a couple of minutes, or more if we gently place a leg or pillow behind and around him. It's a whole new way to play with toys! Here he is sitting (highly supervised by Daddy!) on the kitchen counter and playing with a nearly empty plastic cookie box:

He also grins a ton and giggles a lot, especially for Daddy. One of his favorite games is to be carried by Andy, feet out, and be rushed over to me so I can kiss or raspberry those chubby feet. Here's a blurry action shot - I love this picture for the wide grin!

And one final pic - he is not hating tummy time as much now, though it still becomes crank-worthy after a few minutes. He has figured out that he can grab at toys from that position, which keeps him occupied a bit. Somehow I managed to take a really great picture of him - not sure how, but I got the camera to do that "fuzzy background" thing. As opposed to the fuzzy foreground in many others :D. Just a bit of demon-baby redeye, but that's not a big deal...

I have also done knitting (huzzah!) and will blog about it in another post... As a matter of preview, matching baby-daddy hats are very cute!

4.5 months and on a roll

2009-01-20T21:09:00.000-08:00

Sometime around now, Malcolm is 4 and a half months old! So we went back to the bear chair.

Playing with Bo the bear is old hat by now:
look at those chubby feet! Compare this picture to his 4-week chair picture :)

He likes to have dinner with us when his naps allow (though if he's napping during dinner, we honestly don't mind eating just the two of us either), sitting in the Bumbo, trying to chew on Sophie le Giraffe. He's started watching us eat, but not with any particular longing to join in yet, we think. We have a (belated) pediatrician appointment on Friday (his doctor had surgery and so his 4-month appt was delayed) and will ask about her philosophy on starting solids. Even if we wait til 6 months, that's not too long now! Andy is excited to cook baby food and introduce Malcolm to new tastes.

He has also started enjoying his new Exersaucer - though mostly it is a venue for him to practice standing (he LOVES to stand, though not so much to sit or be on his tummy) without Mommy or Daddy holding him, and chew on his hands or the towels we sometimes use to prop him up. But he has discovered one of the toys on it, and will sometimes play with an intense look of concentration:

Finally, today Malcolm and I watched the inauguration (well, it was interrupted by a diaper change right at the beginning of the inaugural address, unfortunately, but we caught most of it). I was glad to be able to watch history being made, but Malcolm was not so interested, so spent most of the time on his playmat. I guess he wanted to get my attention, because towards the end of the ceremony his playing got especially thrashy and he rolled over onto his tummy! He looked surprised and pleased for a few moments and then began the "I hate tummy time" crankies. Now, we'll have to see if that was a fluke or if we really have a roller on our hands! It hasn't happened again so far...

Milestones

2009-01-14T21:41:00.001-08:00

We are loving 4 months over here! Malcolm is so smiley (when he's not cranky), and has started reliably giggling (usually at Daddy's wacky antics). He now actually likes going out and about, maybe better than staying in - we made a fun and calorific expedition downtown over the weekend - Malcolm's first ice cream shop, city-block-wide-bookstore, and gourmet drinking chocolate cafe. He hung out in the front carrier looking around, took a nap there, had a snack in the Art section of Powells, and enjoyed his first streetcar ride.The past week or so he has achieved some milestones!

He finally got to pet the cats, actually getting a handful of Sasha's fur and then her collar. She was remarkably patient. Cirrus is a little more skittish, but a couple of days later also got grabbed a little bit.
He is working on mobility - and while we don't have consistent rolling and certainly no crawling, he can rotate like clock hands while working on rolling onto his side.

The other day he started in this position, looking at that kooky baby in the mirror:

And pulling up his knees for the side roll practice, which also served to rotate him:

After a few minutes of this, he was almost 180 degrees around:And then 270 degrees:
And a full 360, yeah!
Self-satisfied portrait in the mirror, with new favorite toy Tigger (who is an amusingly bizarre hybrid of classic Tigger and a fuzzy beach ball gifted from Uncle Carl)

The final milestone explains why he's been so into gnawing on his hands, our noses, our chins, and Daddy's delicious head...
Malcolm has his first tooth! Yes, at only 4 months old, the bottom middle left tooth has popped through just this week. We noticed last week that his gnawing had become distinctly sharp, and a few days later the tooth came through. I was also an early teether - it seems to run in my Mom's family. We are hoping this explains some of his crankiness!

Of course I couldn't get a picture - the camera has a bit of a delay and he kept getting his tongue and lips in the way. But there is definitely a millimeter or so of white (sharp!) tooth poking up. We wonder if the next one is starting because he's still quite gnaw-ish and more cranky today. Though he did enjoy an outing to the local sushi place for dinner tonight

4 months!

2009-01-10T14:16:00.000-08:00

Since I can't remember how many weeks old Malcolm is any more (er, 18? 19?), I guess it's time to go to monthly pictures. I'll still try to put something up weekly, though, since his skills are developing faster than ever. And I'm even getting back into knitting a bit (we'll see how long this lasts since I'm going back to work in a few weeks too) so maybe there will be actual knitting-related posts as well.

Malcolm turned 4 months old (on January 3) while we were in Boston at my folks'. So for this picture, he's in a different chair, and the part of Bo the Bear will be played by "Rexer", my childhood stuffed T-rex.

His pants were made by Grandma ("Loisknits" on Ravelry), from the "Pimp My Longies" pattern (Mom, let me know if that isn't the right link). See how she pimped 'em? This way we know which side the short rows (in the bum) are on.

They are super soft and comfy - she also made Andy a sweater from the same yarn. I'll have to get a picture of "the boys" in their matching wear.

We had a great time: made it to the airport (had to put chains on the car to get out of the neighborhood, but the highways were OK), did OK on the plane (only 3 meltdowns), and on the return trip (also 3 meltdowns, but shorter in duration). Vacation was nice and relaxing, and Malcolm(and us!) really enjoyed hanging out with his uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins, and various kinds of 2nd cousins with a great aunt and other friends thrown in there too.

Well, someone's nap is ending so I will wrap this up, but will try to make another entry later this weekend.

16 weeks and Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T15:34:00.000-08:00

Malcolm says...

Happy Holidays everyone! And tomorrow I'm taking my first plane ride to see my Grandma, Grandpas, Uncles, Aunts, and Cousins! P.S. - I love this bear! (and Daddy making faces at me behind the camera...)

(fingers crossed that the melt that started this afternoon continues - it would be nice not to have to drive to the airport in chains...)

Arctic Blast!

2008-12-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

So, we are having TONS of snow (with a lovely layer of ice in between). TONS. Not just tons for Portland (which would be maybe a few inches) but tons for snowier cities. Well, I haven't lived in a snowier city for 10 years, so I may be misremembering (especially since we have a distinct lack of snowplows here, so it builds and builds), but it's over a foot! And there is the matter of that lovely layer of ice... the city is pretty well shut down, and in fact Portland's county (which is not ours) has declared a state of emergency so that they can get state and national guard resources. Yikes!

Anyway, we haven't driven since Saturday, and going a bit stir-crazy, decided to make an expedition to the grocery store, about half a mile's walk. Malcolm doesn't have a snowsuit, so we put him in a largish fleece pajama over his regular clothes and sweater, a nice warm Jayne hat which a friend knit for "wee cap'n Mal" (KT has an adult-sized pattern here), and red furry socks as mittens. I eventually zipped my coat around his feet and tucked my scarf (Christmas gift from KT a couple of years ago!) around his neck too. He was content (as long as I was moving) to chill (hah!) in the Beco baby carrier and watch the snowy world (and Daddy). Here are a few pictures:

starting out:"whoa, it's all, like, white out here"
We made it! Lots of folks stocking up, and our neighbors toldus later that they had talked to the grocery store manager - the chain (Albertsons') had told him that they couldn't make deliveries today (some of the highways are closed!) so he called up local restaurant supply places and got produce that way. Hence the garlic, yams, etc looked a bit rough as they were not meant for display. Yay, local grocery store manager!

On the way back, Malcolm had a nice nap while I had a soda. Then we stopped in at the aforementioned neighbors' for tea. One of the neighbors is from Ireland, so of course they had Barry's tea - nice!
Oh, and we're supposed to fly out of here on Thursday, and there's another storm forecast for Wednesday... wish us luck!

15 weeks

2008-12-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

Whoops, well, we skipped 14 weeks... but Malcolm is getting big enough that weekly pictures aren't a necessity. See how Malcolm is admiring the bear (or maybe the thought of his cute self) here!At 15 weeks (yikes, 3 and a half months!) Malcolm is definitely reaching for things, studying things intently, and even will tolerate having a book read to him if it is interesting looking. He didn't used to like to sit on laps! We've had some laughs/giggles which sound more like "heh heh heh", particularly in response to the "Daddy far away.... DADDY UP CLOSE!" game, which in the right mood will result in Malcolm chortling, opening his mouth, and attempting to shove both fists in :)He's also gotten into standing, and will suddenly go straight and stiff in our arms, our cue to prop him up on his feet to look around (especially at whoever is not holding him) or even try to reach for things. I wanted to add a picture here, but we don't have any great ones... will try for one later.

In the right mood, he'll take to tummy time like a seal... for short periods, anyway. No rolling yet except the occasional accidental front-to-back.

He's still got an odd schedule - during the day, he can only be awake for an hour and a half before needing a nap, which might last between 30 minutes and 3 hours (though the 3 hour naps have gotten rarer, sadly). He can nap in the baby carrier or the carseat, though often not as well as in the bouncy chair. I'm not going to mention nightime sleep since I have now learned that to do so invites smiting by the Sleep Gods... ;)

More posts tomorrow, probably - we're having a blizzard and an ice storm, and so there should be more time for the internets...

3 months (=13 weeks)

2008-12-07T20:11:00.000-08:00

Malcolm's month- and week- birthday lined up this week - he was 3 months (or 13 weeks) on Wednesday! We took his photoshoot in the morning, and for the first time, he actually seemed to notice the bear! He's been grabbing (or waving at and randomly opening and closing his hands near) things this week, and decided to go for Bo! The best pic I got is a bit off-center, but includes both a grabbing hand and a smile for the camera :)

We even got a little video:

Malcolm notices his bear! from Alison (& Andy & Malcolm) on Vimeo.

He's also gotten really into sucking on his hands this week. He discovered them a few weeks back, but didn't really do anything with them. Now, it's drool, slobber, suck... If we give him a napkin or burp cloth to hold at the same time, he will kind of wipe up his own drool :)

No knitting update today - I am rather behind on the one thing I am trying to do for Christmas. Hmm, I should go get it...

Napping in the bouncy chair

2008-12-05T09:14:00.001-08:00

a comparison.

2 days old:
4 days away from 3 months old:
At his 2 month appointment he'd grown 4 inches over birth (from 20" to 24"), and I'd guess he's added at least another one or two to that. He's growing lengthwise out of his 0-3 month onesies, but the 3-6 month ones are a bit roomy in girth. Andy and I both have height in the family, though neither of us is particularly tall (and I also have plenty of short in the family). It will be interesting to see if he continues long and lean...

And yes, we still swaddle him for naps and bedtime (and for calming him down when the crankiness takes over). Good thing I bought these extra-large swaddle blankets on Etsy (from this seller's shop) before he was born! Regular receiving blankets certainly wouldn't cut it now. We're using the Miracle Blanket (i.e. Baby Straightjacket) at night and slightly dreading what will happen when he grows out of it. Knock on wood, but last night he slept for 8.5 hours!

Bumbo bumbo bumbo bumbo... (and sweaters)

2008-11-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

One of those words that's just fun to say! Til we took an interest in baby gear, we had no idea what a Bumbo was. Is it a variant of the cheesehead?

No, silly Andy, it's a baby seat for babies who can't sit up yet! Technically they're supposed to have complete head control, which Malcolm doesn't quite, but he's small enough that the back supports his head a bit, and he can hold it up really well when he wants to.

He will sit in the Bumbo while I have my breakfast in the morning... and it makes a great seat to showcase knitted sweaters...
Yes, I finally finished his Baby Surprise jacket! Just in time, too, since it just fits him. I'll try to block it bigger when I remember to wash it. This was made with line by line notes by Dawn Adcock to help keep track of where I was. It was a fun knit which would have been pretty quick had I not started it 6 days before he was born, just 3 days before I went into labor! After that, it took me about 11 weeks to get through it :). Here's another view on his playmat, where Malcolm likes to gaze and swat at his ladybug and his sun:
My knitting goals are much reduced for the rest of the year - just a scarf for a Christmas gift, which I really need to get working on. And I guess I'll need a project for the flight to Boston, assuming Mr. M. cooperates and sleeps for a good bit.

Here is the promised other view of the lovely blue sweater, one of a couple his Grandma brought from Boston for him. Grandma, you need to put these on Ravelry!

taking advantage of a nap for 12-week pic

2008-11-29T17:44:00.000-08:00

I promise, he had socks earlier, but baby feet and most socks don't seem to be compatible! Malcolm was 12 weeks on the day before Thanksgiving. He's been working on slow, deliberate arm and leg movements, and also more frequently finding his hands. When you give him a pacifier, he will often reach up his hand and either hold it in or pull it out depending on the luck of the draw!
I'm sure eventually he will notice the bear, but so far it's still "Mom, why am I propped in the chair"?

And since these far-away pictures never show off his gorgeous blue eyes (they're darker than mine or Andy's, but may still be lightening), here's a feature picture from today, en route to lunch. The sweater his Grandma knit him sure enhances his big blues! (more on this sweater in another post). He did remarkably well at lunch (just a local place in Hillsboro here), staying awake as we ordered, then starting to crank, taking the pacifier, and drifting to dreamland as we ate.

Too bad the carseat has that giant warning sticker - otherwise this would make a lovely wall hanging. Maybe I'll have to try my Gimp (free photo-editor a la photoshop) skillz...

11 weeks!

2008-11-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

Hey, a more-or-less-on-time post!

Malcolm turned 11 weeks yesterday! He's still a cranky baby if things are not going right to his specifications, but he has really turned on the smiles lately. His whole face just lights up, and he sticks his tongue partly out... it's so cute! He must think I'm some kind of crazed clown since I'm always just grinning at him trying to elicit a grin from him.

Of course he won't smile on cue in the chair for his weekly picture - maybe one of these weeks. Instead I get the "mommy, what are we doing here" expression again :). But I will post smiles in a different entry!

He seems to be starting to grasp at things, too - we made a mall expedition on Sunday, and at the food court he was awake in his carseat/stroller, with his little hands just grabbing at his blanket edge and the little toy we have attached there. And while I was trying things on and Andy was doing mall laps with him, Andy report that he grabbed his pacifier and waved it around. I don't think these grabbings are too intentional yet, but the hands are opening up and grasping. I can't wait til he is really reaching for toys instead of just batting around. Fun stuff!

I, of course, am getting pretty much nothing done except baby care and the occasional blog entry. But I guess that is to be expected. If only I had a nap predictor which could tell me which would be 2 hours and which would be 30 minutes! I expect he will get on a more routine schedule in the next couple of months, though that will be interrupted by Christmas travel (lookout fellow passengers on the PDX-BOS flight, cranky!Malcolm is onboard!). At least our sleep is decent (knock on wood) - he usually wakes up to eat just once at night. On the other hand, it's been months and months since I've had a complete night of sleep, since my whole 3rd trimester of pregnancy was plagued by back pain when lying down, and of course the whole pressure-on-the-bladder-causing-multiple-bathroom-trips issue. Well, I assume he'll sleep through the night sometime in the next few years!

Enough rambling, time to watch Andy make dinner :)

10 weeks, very belatedly

2008-11-18T17:02:00.001-08:00

I am more likely to get these up if I don't do much commentary... will try for more on tomorrow's 11 week update. Here is Malcolm last week at 10 weeks. I could have done a longer post during his 2-hour nap this afternoon, but a) I didn't know it was going to be 2 hours! and b) I was actually doing some knitting. BSJ is finished except for buttons! (oh, and I was having lunch, too, always important when free time comes in small and irregular chunks)

Malcolm says "ah-loooo" to the loyal readers of this blog. It's his favorite thing to say. He finds it amusing when I counter with other types of Indian food: "aloo gobi, chicken korma, zaag paneer..."

New and exciting tummy time position

2008-11-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

Exercise ball!

(10 week update coming later....)

9 weeks, belatedly

2008-11-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

It seems that I'm getting later and later in posting these weekly pictures. Now it's Saturday, and I need to think back on what we did during Malcolm's 9th week - since he turned 9 weeks this past Wednesday (and 2 months on Monday). He was pretty zoned out for the bear picture this week - not cranking, but not really that interested either (I think he went down for a nap pretty soon after). He also looks remarkably "chinny" - I think due to his posture. He's not actually too chinny yet!

He had his 2-month pediatrician appointment on Monday and was pronounced perfect - long and lean, 90th percentile for length and 50th for weight (and 70th for head circumference!). He got 3 immunizations (2 shots plus an oral) and will go back in 2 weeks for the other two. He seemed super-cranky for a couple of days afterwards, but no fever or other bad reactions, phew.

A couple of shots from Halloween, when he was 8 weeks 2 days old. He had a nice happy window where he let us pose him in his orange and black striped romper:(orange dudes)

(gourd dude)

But he melted down when we tried to put him in a chili pepper bunting. Too much costume!
(we've noticed he tends to get overtired really easily, and if he's melting down it's probably time for a nap! It's hard to try to catch him before he "melts", though. Hopefully this will ease up as we get closer to the end of the "4th trimester", but I'm not holding my breath at this point since that's only 2.5 weeks away!)

Happy Halloween! (and 8 week picture)

2008-10-31T14:33:00.001-07:00

Malcolm turned 8 weeks on Wednesday. There is starting to be less difference week-to-week now, though he continues to grow, and we'll get his official weight on Monday (2 month appointment and - oh no! - shots! I'm hoping the shots in conjunction with Daylight Savings time falling back the day before don't wreak too much havoc on our sleep...). He was almost 11 pounds on Tuesday at the mom's group, though. That's, like, 57% more baby than 8 weeks ago!

This week he's been working more on head control, and more on smiles (he likes to smile at Mommy after eating sometimes, usually in the middle of the night when she would rather he actually be sleepy and not social. He also gives very good smiles on his changing mat, and randomly while enjoying his mobile or looking at his parents), and more on noticing things around him and tracking with his eyes. Also on unexplained yelling and getting worse at napping. Silly boy, doesn't he know that in 30 years he'll kill for a good 2 hour nap?

Here he is wearing a halloween outfit we were given. Boo! Too cute! Unfortunately it (and my shirt, and the couch...) got majorly spit up upon later in the day, but we have a couple of alternate options for Halloween itself. I'll post a picture of him in his official costume later. I'm hoping he'll put up with being dressed up for a little photo session, even though we're obviously not taking him trick-or-treating... (He doesn't do candy yet, and also I'm avoiding dairy for 10 days to see if it improves either his temperament or his poops - doesn't seem to be doing much, so I'll restart cheese, then yogurt, then milk starting in a couple of days - but for now most candy is verboten to me...).

"Ho hum, the bear again..."

"Whoa, there's a new toy in my Pack'n'play! Can I hit it with random flailing?"

Smile!

Hmm, blogger's picture sizing is still wonky, apologies if these are huge!

7 weeks!

2008-10-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

Week 7 was much like week 6 - plenty of crankiness and discussion of the finer points of baby's poop (who knew it could become such a mainstay of conversation...). But we're finding that, when he's in a good mood, he's become more interested in looking around at things in close view, like the toys on his playmat, or Mommy or Daddy making funny faces. His random arm flailings sometimes hit the playmat toys and make them move, but I don't think he's got cause and effect down yet.

And at 7 weeks he hasn't really noticed the bear in the picture yet :).

(apologies for the huge in-blog picture, it seems that something has changed about how Blogger scales things)

He's wearing the same blue suit, with the addition of some supercute babylegs and red socks. Even Andy, who is anti-baby-fashion, admits that the babylegs are functional because they don't get in the way of diaper changes the way pants do. And I'm maintaining a long sleeves and legs dressing rule, now that it's colder out and we're keeping the house a bit cooler. I may have to splurge on a couple more pairs.

I'll do another post later showing some tummy time adventures. Right now I'm going to try to do a couple of rows of BSJ before he wakes up!

6 weeks - height of crankiness?

2008-10-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

I read in some book or webpage that 6 weeks (or 6-8, but I'm hoping for 6) is the height of crankiness and crying. Let's hope so! We think we have the 6-week growth spurt going on here - lots of eating and fussing. Hence I have not much time to post this (I think... maybe he'll sleep longer than expected!)

6 week picture: (not sure what kind of sign he's making with his right hand!)

Representative crank:
No knitting update today - I'm hoping to get to a knitting meetup this afternoon, but I am reluctant to disturb baby's sleep, so I'm going to be late.

Oh, OK, one more picture. We met my work friends and their babies yesterday - here's Malcolm catnapping in his buddy's fancy cradle swing. Doesn't he look angelic? He was supposed to be wearing the same blue suit as in the bear/chair pictures yesterday, but soon after we arrived he had a major poop-blowout and I had to go to the backup outfit... (luckily some soaking rescued the blue suit and it will feature in future weeks's pictures)

Farmers' Market

2008-10-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

Mr. M. actually gave us decent sleep last night (two 3.25 hour chunks, yeah!), so we had energy on this beautiful fall morning to make an expedition to the farmer's market. Not that it takes a lot of energy - it's only a mile and a half away (but we drove, yes, the idea of being over a mile from home with baby waking up hungry is just not appealing yet) - but we haven't been in months and wanted to get there before it closes for the seaon.

We decided that a crisp fall day deserves baby knitwear!

Aunt Carolyn's hand-spun, hand-dyed, fall leaves-inspired sweater...

And his Mommy-made coming-home-hat (and into the carseat for the ride to the market!)

Moments later - "Mom, Dad, I hate getting buckled in the carseat!"

"Oh, that's better". Sucking really calms him down. We avoided giving him the pacifier for his first 4 weeks, but he really does seem to enjoy it, to combat the "not the carseat!" screams (he will go to sleep once the car is moving) and sometimes to zone out and be zen with before sleeping.

At the market, while Daddy gets green beans for minestrone. We are making soup today completely out of CSA and farmers' market veggies (well, not counting the canned beans and tomatoes).

"Oh no, not a giant leek!"

Rainbow surprise

2008-10-09T16:18:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd do a quick knitting update while Mr. Malcolm is still sleeping... exactly 6 weeks ago I started a Baby Surprise Jacket out of beautiful Koigu multicolored sock yarn (Rav link). I'm at the point where the pattern's author, Elizabeth Zimmermann, says "Work will start to look very odd, indeed, but trust me, and PRESS ON". It certainly doesn't look much like a sweater yet:

Until you flip it over (so the working stitches are on the bottom), fold up one sleeve...

And then the other....and it starts to look cardiganish (baby's head goes at the top)! I need to find some wee buttons and hope that the garter stitch will have enough stretch to make it wearable for a decent amount of time... though first I have to finish the thing... OK, he's still sleeping, maybe I can get another row in!

Next up will be a special holiday something made from worsted yarn from a local dyer. Who I actually met at knitting group last week (and dang, didn't make it to group this week due to the aforementioned cranky fussy sleepiness, and me forgetting it is Thursday!). My knitting goals for the rest of the year are not high, just this jacket and a couple of Christmas gifts. But yikes, it's mid-October already! Only 2.5 knitting months til Christmas!

5 weeks (and counting)

2008-10-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

Well, that post about the beach never materialized, did it? Maybe I'll post some recap pics later...

But for now, Malcolm is 5 weeks old! Yes, he's been out of the womb for more than a month! At his last (unofficial, in a Moms' group) weighing, he was 9.5 pounds, which is almost 2.5 pounds over his birthweight, and 3 pounds heavier than when he left the hospital.

Our days sometimes have routine: eat, "play" (i.e. walk around the house and look at lights; do "tummy time" on the playmat; sit in the bouncy chair and observe the world; be held and observe the world), nap; lather, rinse, repeat. If we have an outing, I try to encourage him to eat before we leave since he will then zonk out in the carseat (once the initial "how dare you put me in the carseat" yelling festival is over). The carseat docks onto the stroller for neighborhood walks; I have several baby carriers (Ergo, pouch, sling) but haven't loved any of them yet, and feel like they'll be easier when he's a bit older and has better head control.

Sometimes (often?) this routine goes to pot, and he doesn't play, or doesn't sleep. He always eats, though :). Right now he's asleep, swaddled, on the playmat - play was cut short by a bout of cranky fussy sleepiness.

And here he is. We're going to try to have him wear this blue suit for the next few weeks or until he outgrows it. Er, not wear it continuously, just for the pictures! It's still a bit big on him now.

I think we'll caption this "Mom, please, not another picture with the bear!"

And here's a portrait at 5 weeks, mid-"play" session in his crib. I think he was thinking about getting cranky here, too. He's definitely skeptical about something... :D

4 weeks!

2008-10-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well, at least we're keeping up with the weekly postings... so far! And wow, the weeks are going fast!

I will attempt a longer, more picture-filled post about our beach time this past weekend (two of the most gorgeous days at the Oregon coast that I've ever seen) later this week. For now, here is Mr. Malcolm at 4 weeks old. And turning 1 month in 2 days!

His eyes, of course, are not actually demonic red. They are blue (started out super dark, and have been steadily lightening), with a gold circle around the pupil (he gets this from his mommy). But isn't it nice how his red eyes match his socks? And heh, as I type this we are watching the Red Sox (losing to LA at the moment, d'oh!).

There's such a difference from his 1 week picture! Weird to think he is 4x as old as he was there (not counting in-womb time, of course). Oh, to answer the comments from last week - Wendy, I will send you an email, we can do a weekend gtg :). And Carolyn, the bear's name is Bo, and I think I've had him since high school.

Grandma left yesterday, so today was my first day alone with Malcolm (for the 9 hours Andy is at work, anyway). We took a walk with him in the sling/pouch thing (which is hurting my shoulder, so I'm probably not doing it right), and went to our "girls' lunch" with my coworkers and their babies. That was enough activity for the day!

Oops, someone is fussing... more later in the week (she says, but doesn't promise...)

3 weeks!

2008-09-25T21:00:00.001-07:00

Boy, these entries are getting predictable! We have just enough chaos to our "routine" that I don't tend to get time to sit down and write a real entry - and it's not like I've been knitting much (I'm something like 18 rows into a fingering-weight Baby Surprise Jacket which will have a (hopefully greater than) small chance of fitting him when I'm done). Grandma, on the other hand, is plowing her way through an afghan. Way to go Grandma! Don't forget to put it on Ravelry...

But we have managed to keep up with the weekly pictures - and I forgot to give credit to Stephanie (and Dan) for the idea. They have pics of little Max in a chair with a teddy bear on his birthdays :)

Here's the official pic for 3 weeks, which was yesterday. 3 weeks! They are going fast! That means that 4 weeks is coming up, then 1 month, then 6 months, then kindergarden, then college! Yikes!

And here's a sequence of what happened next:

"Hello, Mr. Bear. My name is Malcolm..."

<twiddles fingers diabolically a la Mr. Burns. >

<faceplant> (parents LOL and then rescue him)

In other news, this past week Malcolm found his first geocache (it was Mommy and Daddy's 700th cache!), enjoyed 2 baths, went out for Vietnamese food, and hosted a lunch for 4 friends ages up to 12 weeks (email me for pics if you are interested). We're headed to the Oregon Coast this weekend for a bonfire with some geocaching friends (and a 2-bedroom cottage for Fri and Sat nights) - wish us luck!

2 weeks old!

2008-09-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

...Still no knitting, at 2 weeks (and 1 day) out - so far it's more "web surf when the baby sleeps" than "sleep when the baby sleeps" or "knit when the baby sleeps". But it's all good - I'll get back to it soon I'm sure. And my mom arrived on Tuesday bearing multiple knitted garments so he is not lacking for handmade things!

Anyway, here's his 2 week picture from yesterday. He's arching against the chair in protest - little muscles getting stronger! He's also holding his head up more and tracking our faces with his eyes a lot more than a week ago.

Here's a picture (from when he was 5 days old) of the lovely sweater his aunt Carolyn spun and knit for him! Such beautiful fall colors, and it should fit (we suppose) later this winter - nice to have bright colors when it will be grey and rainy here in Oregon!

And here's a sweater from my Mom, which arrived by mail in advance of her visit. Isn't it cute? (he's 8 days old in the picture):

Finally, Malcolm (2weeks old) and Grandma (or Gramma? the spelling hasn't been decided yet) having a chat:
He's making his little turtle face - it's so fun to watch him try out different expressions. We're starting to see little gassy smiles too, though they don't correlate to much yet. Such fun!

Baby calibration

2008-09-10T21:54:00.001-07:00

Malcolm is growing fast! According to the lactation consultant's scale today, he's up to 7lb 10 oz a week after birth - so a gain of 9 oz in a week (and he lost some initially). Even if there's some scale-to-scale variation, he's gaining really well. We're so proud! But oh, our little baby is growing up so fast! :( :)

We want to take a picture of him in the same place every week, to visually track his growth. I'll tag these all the same (Malcolm-growth) so they can be viewed together. We chose the rocking chair in his nursery, with a big stuffed polar bear (his name is Bo, and he's very friendly) for scale. These first two pictures have slightly different zoom levels, and his outfit type is different in each - we (being engineers) will try to control for this better in future pictures. Oh, and this will give me the impetus to blog each week, too :)

Here he is at 4 days old:

And today, at 1 week exactly (camera is more zoomed so some of his growth is artificial, but he's definitely starting to get some chub):

Major update in a quick post

2008-09-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

I meant to do a whole August wrapup during Labor Day weekend, but, well... I went into labor! Here's just a quick photo and I'll try to do a longer blog at some point later - I'd been putting it off without time to do a nice long one, but realized I can just post a quick update...

Malcolm Wolfgram (Andy's lastname) was born at 6:32AM on Wednesday September 3. 7lb 1 oz, 20" long, and neither Andy nor I can remember the head circumference (as a knitter, I'm disappointed in myself). He is literally the cutest and sweetest baby in the world, no offense to any of the cuties out there, and we are over the moon with him.

on his birth day in a hospital volunteer-knit hat:
Me and Malcolm, 1 day old:

Daddy and Malcolm (1 day old) sacked out:
2 days old ready to come home from the hospital in a hat I knit (pattern from KT, yarn from Carolyn):
Finally, a video we shot of his newborn walking reflex once we were home. 3 days old!

Malcolm's walking reflex - 3 days old from Alison on Vimeo.

Signing off for now - will update more baby and knitting (probably not so much geocaching in the near future) soon-ish!

June wrapup

2008-07-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Hello again! As promised, I'm trying to wrap up the last 2 months in two posts. Apologies for the somewhat rote nature of these posts... I'm sure I'll provide much more interesting commentary when I actually start posting weekly (or heck, even monthly would be an improvement).

So, I was up to June. In June we got serious about working on the Bip's room, and also took our last "couple's vacation" (we are going to my family reunion in - eek 5 days from today - but that is a family and friends vacation). I also did some more knitting :)

We flew up to Vancouver, BC for a long weekend in early June. I Priceline'd a 4* hotel for a great price (not as great now that $CAD ~= $US, of course), and we decided to get around with cabs and public transit. Turns out you can get a bus/train/"seabus" pass for $9 a day, much cheaper than a rental car + parking! We enjoyed exploring the only major west coast city we hadn't visited before - it felt very familiar and comfortable, a nice Pacific NW mid-sized city.

For some reason I didn't take too many pictures on the trip - I think the camera sort of settled to the bottom of the backpack, and it was fairly overcast/rainy at times. I did take a few, though! Here is downtown Vancouver seen from North Vancouver, which we seabus'd to on Saturday.

In North Vancouver, we took the bus to Capilano Bridge, a fun but rather touristy (and pricey) private park including a huge (pedestrian) suspension bridge over a beautiful gorge, and a series of boardwalks and trails on and above the forest floor. It was neat, but not as informative as I'd hoped, to walk the boardwalk suspended between Douglas Firs. I love the idea in theory, but in practice I guess I'd want a personal naturalist guide and a set of tree-climbing gear ;). I read The Hidden Forest a couple of years ago and really enjoyed its look into old growth forest science and research. Particularly interesting is the role that fungi play in the ecology of an old-growth forest! The touristy park was perfect, though, in that it had restrooms and fairly short trails - about the speed of hiking I felt up to!
Other highlights included a delicious multicourse French dinner in a cute old Victorian house / restaurant, lots of walking in parks, poking in art galleries, a spontaneous ride on adorable teeny ferries, and a busride crosstown to UBC, where we visited the Museum of Anthropology. Lots of interesting native arts, both contemporary and older. Less actual anthropology than we were hoping for, but a good visit nonetheless. On the way back, changing buses, we saw an amusing restaurant - Nunu was my childhood cat!

What else in June? Oh, there was World-wide-knit-in-public day (WWKIP), where I KIP'ped in in the sun with something like 40 other knitters at the local "outdoor mall". We had a lot of fun, and a local yarn store (the Knitting Bee, where I took the Magic Loop sock class over a year ago!) sponsored it by raffling off prizes periodically. I didn't win anything, but some lucky folks took home yummy yarn and books! In addition to the knitters, we also had some spinners who drew more interest from passing shoppers. Of course, we all got some funny looks... my favorite (sort of) was the pair of teenaged boys who slouched by, looking bemusedly at our activities, and finally one said to the other "they're f---ing knitting!" in tones of such disbelief, a couple of us in earshot just about cracked up. It's funny how, as I have become an adult (and closer to a parent!), things like this which would have really aggravated me as a girl or teenager become less upsetting and more amusing. Something about being able to view it more ojectively it as the (relatively harmless) pack behavior of suburban adolescent males trying to fit in... Still doesn't mean I want the Bip to follow their example, of course (heck, next year I'll probably take the Bip to WWKIP)!

Finally, knitting projects and Biproom progress:

For knitting, I finished a pair of baby booties (Saartje's(pdf), the Bockstarck in-the-round way) and a hat (Vine Lace - a Knitting Daily free pattern; requires registration) out of the same sock yarn I had made my "Siffing gloves" from. These were for (pregnant) coworker #3, who had admired my gloves at work. She's due to have her baby girl in a couple of weeks now, and just got off work. I, on the other hand, have about 7 weeks of work left to go. Of course, one of them is a vacation week, yay...

I also finished "swatch" from the "swatch and block" felted bag / coin purse that was on Magknits before Magknits went kaput. The designer graciously sent me the pictures to go with the pattern, which I managed to find in Google's cache. If anyone is interested in making it, I can point you to the cache and to the wayback machine's version of the pattern. My "swatch" came out much bigger than coin-purse sized, more like a wallet, since I'm using bulky wool and size 10.5 needles instead of worsted / 8s. But I want a bigger bag anyway, and I'm adjusting the stitch count based on the swatch. These will be for a raffle and silent auction at late July's big geocaching gettogether at Champoeg State Park. We do a service project which involves pulling up tons of invasive English Ivy from trees in the park - so the embroidered design is supposed to be an ivy leaf!

We are staying in a cabin rather than camping, for which I'm sure my back will thank me. I hope some geocacher will enjoy carrying these on the hunt! I'm still working on the bag ("block"), and hope to get close to finishing it this weekend. Er, tomorrow. Well, before we leave for the beach on Friday, anyway!

As for the Biproom - here is a semi-"before" picture. "Semi-" because we'd already pulled off the flowered wallpaper on the one wall which was blue underneath; and we'd also pulled off the old baseboards (boring dark stained pine) and cleared all the junk out in preparation for painting. Believe me, there was a lot of junk!

The semi-after pictures (room is still not completely done) showcase the beautiful new baseboards and painted white window trim, uniform yellow wall paint, and our assembled IKEA crib! Yep, I assembled it myself (I enjoy following the directions on IKEA furniture; and Andy had done most of the baseboard work, so things were even in the end). (In the pic of me by the crib, I'm about 26 - nope, 29! - weeks pregnant)

Finally, the crib with some heritage quilts and blankets we've been given. On the mattress, on the left is a quilt started by my maternal grandmother and finished by my Aunt, made with scraps of Grandma's dresses. On the right is one made, we think, by Andy's maternal great-aunt (have to verify this, but I'm pretty sure I'm remembering right). On the crib rail, from left to right, are a new baby blanket knit by my Mom for the Bip, an old baby blanket of mine, crocheted by Mom for me probably 33+ years ago, and a vintage blanket which was my Dad's when he was a baby. The Bip will not lack for blankets!

I'm back... April/May wrapup

2008-07-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

Whoa, it hasn't been 2 months, has it? Why yes, yes it has... I don't even have the 1st trimester tiredness to blame, though I did get diagnosed with mild (pregnancy-induced) anemia somewhere around 26 weeks; daily iron supplements seem to have helped with the residual tiredness - just in time for the 3rd tri sleeplessness to kick in :P. But besides that, I've actually been being productive, and spending time in knitting and Bip preparations rather than blogging!

So this won't be a very profound post, but I'll try to get caught up this weekend - a lovely long weekend, should afford plenty of time for blogging, painting, and knitting... I'll see if I can get through May in this post, June tomorrow, and then can write about upcoming stuff on Sunday. I may or may not stick to this plan, though!

Starting mid-April, I/we:

Finished my Eponymous Tote (ravelry link), designed by KT, from one skein of lovely soft Malabrigo worsted in "Marron Oscuro", a variegated brown. Seen here before and after felting. Love it! The flap really makes it - I carried it all over Vancouver, BC in June (probably post about that tomorrow) stuffed with guidebook, GPS, map, wallet, etc. Good thing I'd sewn the button (which I got in Japan a year ago) on extra-firmly! Pictures here are before and after felting - as others have commented on Ravelry, Malabrigo felts extremely quickly and well, so the cables are a bit obscured afterwards, but they are still visible and definitely provide structure to the sides. A joy to knit and use! Thanks again, KT - what a great birthday present!
Went to Boston (see previous blog post in May!), where in addition to hanging out with family, I finished a Mr. Dangly for my cousin's baby Braden, who was born right as we were flying (or maybe the day before?). He's the second of 4 cousins' kids (counting the Bip) who are due this year, but the first I was going to meet in person. The orange is Rowan Purelife Organic cotton, which my SIL gave me for my birthday, and the blue is a bamboo I picked up at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival last year. I knit Mr. D. in the round rather than flat. He's a pretty quick knit, and hopefully his dangly arms and legs and bobbly head will make him a good infant toy.
Returned from Boston, and went to family gathering in Oregon to meet baby Braden. He's only 9 days old in this picture. Aaw. I think this is the youngest infant I've held til now - so tiny, with arms and legs still "sprung". Can't wait to see him again in a week at the big family reunion at the beach!(I can't believe we'll have one of our own of these in just 2 months or so! Yikes!)
Finished a pair of baby pants ("Itchy Fingers Longies" - sorry non-Ravelers, the pattern is free but hosted on Rav) for expectant (father) coworker #1. Ended up delivering them to dad's (empty) desk the day baby Max was born - so he didn't receive them til his dad got back from a 2-week leave. These were fun, and I have no idea what size they are (maybe 6-9 months?) - I told the coworker to tell me when they fit, just for my records :). They're kinda big in the rear end which will hopefully accommodate their cloth diapering. The body of them is 2 strands of sock yarn held together to approximate worsted gauge - and the pattern is customized to your gauge anyway. One strand is grey, the other the same variegated reds/oranges that I used in Carl's hat. You can see the grey ran out at the bottom so I doubled up the red, and when that ran out I did the cuffs and waist tie with a single strand of the grey eco-wool I had left over from my vest. And I'm still not sure they're long enough - see above about having no clue on the size! Anyway, they were a good stashbuster since they took up 2 skeins of sock yarn.
Knit up 3 washcloths for expectant (pregnant) coworker #2: Garterlac (to learn entrelac), KT's eyelets and ridges (quick and satisfying, maybe the first thing I have knit in just one day), and Grr from Knitty (super cute but a little fiddly). You should be able to tell which is which in the pictures - for the non-knitters, Entrelac is a technique where you change direction in the middle of the knitting, making stripes move in different directions :) We'd just taken a baby-care class , and the concept of sponge-bathing a supernewborn was firmly in my head. Now I just need to work up some washcloths for the Bip (maybe good beach knitting?). Aah, sorry about the pictures, Blogger's image placement is always a bit wonky, and I don't have the energy to try to get it perfect. You can see that Sasha, in her accustomed atop-the-couch position, is a willing washcloth model!
Knit a present for cousin #2's baby girl Berkley, born on Leap Day! No pics since said cousin may or may not know about this blog ;). If you do, Lisa, I can't wait to see you in a week and meet Ms. B.!! You'll note that that's 2 of the 4 cousins' kids whose names start with B... but there's no pressure on us to continue the trend :). We're still taking name suggestions, but plan to keep it a surprise til he gets here - partly because I have a feeling we won't be able to agree on one definitively beforehand and may have to wait til we meet him!
Got and installed a new dishwasher. Oh, it's so nice, it gets the dishes much cleaner than the (20 years old?) one that came with the house! Andy did most of the legwork here since I was not in much position to bend over for plumbing.
Acquired a bunch of second-hand baby gear from very generous coworkers with older boys, and started to stress out about having a place to put it all... so...
Sold or gave away a bunch of unused furniture type stuff that had been sitting in the "spare room", soon to be the Bip's room. I was amazed that it all went pretty quick - yay for the work-wide "stuff for sale/free" email list!

So that's mid-April through May. Hopefully I didn't bore you to death! Tomorrow I'll try to blog June. And now, it's time to take our annual sundown 4th of July stroll through the neighborhood and observe what the pyromaniacs, er, neighbors are up to. Fireworks are legal here in the week before 7/4, though only ones that get no more than 6 feet off the ground. That doesn't deter some folks from breaking out the bottle rockets, though! As I've been writing this, we keep hearing rat-a-tat-tat from outside, and at least twice I've asked Andy "is it hailing?" before realizing that no, it's just firecrackers. Happy 4th of July to my American readership!

Oh, and here is a belly pic from June 1st, when I was almost 26 weeks. Between then and now (July 4) I feel like I've really grown - another pic or two tomorrow!

FOs: SIFfing Gloves

2008-05-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

I just finished another smallish project and realized I'm woefully behind on posting my FOs on my blog. I'm pretty good about updating my Projects page on Ravelry, but tend to lag on the blog due to the necessary formatting (does anyone else have issues with getting pictures into the right place in Blogger? I have to drag each one down from the top of the page) and the necessity of adding insightful commentary (or not :). But I do enjoy the blogging once I get around to it.

So, let me present my most tardy FO - completed April 12. I finally finished my half-finger gloves (SIFfing gloves), which were basically started towards the beginning of my first trimester and finished at the end of it. Yes, I was a slow knitter, but thankfully I've picked up the pace! I'm still tired when I get home from work, but have plenty of energy to knit while watching TV :DHere they are showing off the almost-clean stovetop. Hey, it was raining, I was in search of decent light!
Pattern: Serpentine Mitts from Mimknits.com, with my own modification to create the partial fingers (will give directions below). Size 7", though my gauge was a little big. They have a lot of stretch due to the ribbing...
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Seduction (50% merino, 50% tencel), less than one skein (a smidge over half, I think). Loved it! Not itchy at all (well, my wool-sensitive husband says he can tell it's wool, but he tried them on and it didn't drive him crazy...), soft, not splitty, great stitch definition... I'll have to procure some more at some point. This was from the BMFA destashing sale last fall - cheap due to some black dye splotches in the pink, though they were much more evident in the second glove than the first, and even so not too apparent. I'm guessing I will use the rest of the yarn for baby booties or something, though it's probably too girly for the Bip (but I know several folks having girls!)
Here's an outdoor, blurry (not enough light for no flash + one'handed photography - it was raining!) closeup of the cabling and fingers. You can see the dark splotchies in the center light stripe. Here are the details of my mods:

a) made the left and right thumbs symmetric by placing the left thumb before the final purls at the end of the round (rather than immediately at the end of the round) - this was for size 7".

b) crossed the center cable the opposite way for the left glove (because I am a geek!)

c) obviously, the half-fingers. For these, I just continued the ribbing up until the length seemed right to start the pinky. I then set aside 12 stitches from the pinky side (having figured out how to divide it up so it was ~symmetric about the fingers and had an even # of stitches on top and bottom) and knit a couple more rounds on the rest, casting on 2 stitches at pinky/ring boundary. Then I divided up the remaining stitches into groups of 12 - 6 from the top, 6 from the bottom. I had found by swatching that 16 is an ideal number of stitches (in rib) for any finger but the pinky, so added 2 between each (either casting on or picking up the already-cast-on from the neighboring finger), except for the pointer, where I picked up 4 from the 2 cast on next to the middle finger.

OK, I hope that makes sense! I had to fudge the ribbing some, but made sure to continue the ribs from the front and back of the palm. I was happy with how they came out - hey, this pattern modification stuff isn't that hard!

Oh, and I have a funny story associated with this FO - I actually finished the second glove while Andy and I were in the audience at a funky theater downtown for a taping of the radio variety show Live Wire. They had Ursula K. LeGuin on talking about her new book! Anyway, I finished them in the first half of the show, and then wore them up to the inevitable bathroom queue during intermission. What do you know, a woman about 3 people in front of me asked if they were handknit, then, studying them, asked if the yarn was Socks that Rock (BMFA's main socks line). What a guess! Turns out she works at Dublin Bay Knitting Co., a yarn store downtown which we had visited earlier in the day! (it's just down the street from a cafe with the yummiest gelato... so when we are free after dinner in Portland I like to wander by.). I was amazed that she recognized the yarn type, even in a professional capacity. I guess I haven't reached that level of Knitting Zen yet :)

FOs on the docket for writing up - my Eponymous birthday tote from KT's pattern, a stuffed monkey-donkey-thing for my cousin's new baby, and (just finished tonight) a pair of pants for a coworker's baby expected any week now. See, I have been getting stuff done!

Catching up

2008-05-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have continued to be blog-negligent. The funny thing is, I've actually been getting a reasonable amount of knitting done... but let me hit the non knitting highlights first. We had our 20-week ultrasound and found out that... (drumroll please).... the Bip is a boy! We would have been thrilled either way, but it really makes the fact of "baby" in four months feel much more tangible. We're still getting used to saying "he" and starting to think of names...

Here's a set of pics of Mr. Bip; bottom left you see him doing baby yoga with his leg out. At one point he was playing with his toes - so flexible!

Then last week we headed to Boston for a lovely 5-day weekend visiting family. We went with the Somervillians to a sheep-shearing festival and had a lovely time. The nieces were entranced by the animals, and my SIL got a large share of a black-sheep fleece for a steal! We met up briefly with some Boston-area-Ravelers who ooh'd and aah'd over the hand-spun and/or handknit the girls were wearing (made by SIL, of course!)My parents threw a great party with my aunt, cousins and cousins' kids, as well as the Somervillians. These family parties are so much fun, as the adults chat and the kids tear through the family room which contains 30 years worth of toys from my and my brother's childhoods. It's amazing to think that in a year, the Bip will be part of that! (though probably not tearing through things quite yet...). Here's a pic of the younger generation making silly faces for the camera :D

Anyway, I have a few smallish FOs to show off, but in the interests of getting to bed on time I'll save that for a separate post. And those on Ravelry have already seen them, since it is easier to just post the pics there without commentary :). (reminder, I'm Parallel on Ravelry)

Oh, and in the interest of documentation, here's a pic of me (and Andy) at 20w5d along. Now that I'm firmly into the second trimester and have some energy back and am mostly not nauseated, I actually feel less pregnant (except when Bip is moving - then it's either pregnant or "posessed by alien"!), so it's surprising to me to see my belly looking so big in pictures!

FO: 45 and Rainy Vest; and a belly pic stretches my tanktop

2008-04-13T20:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, I really did eventually finish my vest, "45 and Rainy" (pattern is "70 and Sunny"). I've worn it a couple of times to work, and it does what I want - adds a nice warm layer to thinner shirts in the office (unfortunately, most of the cute button-down shirts I planned to wear it over are, well, not so much buttoning any more!). The pattern was very nice, easy to follow, and went fairly quickly since we're talking bulky wool (and silk).

But. I chose a slightly larger size than I might have if I hadn't discovered I was pregnant about a week before casting on. This was not a bad idea - but the sari silk I chose also was much bigger than the suggested yarn/gauge (maybe super-bulky?) and ended up pulling down the front. I have to assume that the pattern author's sari silk yarn, from Artfibers (not Knitpicks as I incorrectly wrote originally), is both better quality and more uniform (mine went thin-to-super-thick).

And I think the huge-ness of the silk is what's making me dissatisfied with the eyelet closure - it's really pulling at the front sides (though I do have plenty of ease at my back thanks to the generous sizing). I guess the individual stitches of the silk want to stretch out, rather than pulling the whole garment in. Picture demonstrating this is to the right.

But, but, but... it won't be too long before I'll just wear it open anyway, and like I said, it has been a useful layer, at least over that particular shirt which is pretty thin cotton.

By the way, these pictures were taken by the rosebushes in the interests of having a record of how they looked just a few weeks after pruning. It will be neat to document them growing as I grow!

And speaking of growing... we thought it was time to start taking some belly pictures :D. I don't really have a "before" picture (somehow it felt like it would jinx things to take one the week we found out), but I do have my tank top FO pics from last July. So I figured to start out, I'd put
tank top back on and take a picture.

Now, keep in mind, I'm pretty sure that a worsted-weight, tight-fitting, cabled garment adds at least 4 weeks to a pregnancy. I don't look nearly so huge in somewhat loose clothes (see vest pics)! This was taken at 17weeks 2 days.

One more thing - Sasha also appreciates the vest, especially when I've thrown it on top of the couch. I don't blame her - wool and silk are a nice, warm, cat-friendly combination!

Thank you, KT!

2008-04-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

Last summer I picked up a skein of Malabrigo Worsted, and my erstwhile college roomie KT volunteered to design a one-skein felted bag for it. Well, just in time for Malabrigo March, she's come out with the pattern!

It's here (along with her other posts in our bag-design conversation - my half is here). Isn't it gorgeous? I think the thing about Malabrigo is that it's so soft and pretty, it's tempting to pick up a skein here, a skein there... and so a cute 1-skein pattern ought to be in high demand! KT, if you make a million bucks on this pattern, then you'll owe me dinner :D!

I will probably pick up a new skein to make this with, as I knit a pretty substantial felted gauge swatch from it and might run out of yarn. Plus, the watermelon-y color combo of my current skein is really cute, but maybe more suited to a scarf or perhaps some slippers for the Bip (as we are calling the baby-to-be). And I haven't bought any new yarn in a while, so it will be a nice excuse to go a-hunting.

But before I can start my eponymous tote, I need to finish my SIFfing gloves (Ravelry link). I'm 50% plus a tiny bit done (i.e. I finished the right hand and have knit 3 rows on the left) and hopefully it will go much faster than the almost 2 months it took its mate! Look, here's the finished one:(posing amidst the tax papers - ack, April 15th is not far away!)

I am quite pleased with how the fingerlets came out, since the original pattern is purely fingerless. Now, hopefully I made good enough notes that I can replicate them for the left glove!

Other notes: Bip and I are doing well, getting some energy back, still very well taken care of by Andy the Maker of Dinner... we have our 20week ultrasound scheduled in 3 weeks, right before we go to Boston to visit family. Yes, we are pretty sure we'll find out the sex (if the Bip cooperates!)...

Excuses, excuses: a month with little knitting...

2008-03-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

... but, as some of you know, I'm going to start knitting for a little one! Yup, that's the new little knitter-geocacher there, to be arriving around September 9! So part of my blog-absence has been due (in addition to laziness) to first-trimester exhaustion... I've just been wanting to flop on the couch when I get home from work, and it hasn't been unusual for me to sleep til noon on the weekends. But I'm 15 weeks pregnant now, and some of that is easing. Hopefully the "golden trimester" will really begin in earnest soon!

In my not-doing-much-knitting news, I had every intention of re-positioning the eyelets on my vest tonight (in hopes of having a truly FO to present here) while watching a TiVo'd episode Top Chef. And then I couldn't find the eyelets! So, after turning my knitting shelves upside down and complaining mightily, I sat down to write this entry anyway... and just now noticed the eyelets sitting on the end table right behind the empty yogurt cup from my before-dinner-snack (I'm eating a lot of string cheese and yogurt these days... mmmm, dairy). Ack. A prime example of "pregnancy brain", I guess...

Well, I certainly should be able to finish the vest tomorrow, so I hope to have a FO post soon. I'll just leave you with a video of what the cats get up to on those lazy weekend mornings.

Catfight on Saturday Morning from Alison on Vimeo.

Randomness and gloves

2008-02-18T20:30:00.001-08:00

Wow, has it been half a month (more!) since my last blog update. Alas, I don't have any FOs to report. I seamed up my vest and got the hooks, but not the eyelets, attached. Dang those eyelets - I'm so close! Maybe after this post I'll be inspired to find the thread and finish it! Or, considering how long it usually takes to post with all the other distractions of the internet available, I will just go to bed.

I have started on a pair of fingerless gloves for myself for the office - Serpentine Mitts in some lovely spring-colored Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Seduction", which is half wool and half tencel, and very soft. I'm magic-looping them and enjoying the cables, which I haven't done since my tank top last summer. I'm partway through the first of them, and am figuring how to make the second symmetric - they're identical except for the thumbs, but I want them to mirror. Oh, and I also want to add partial fingers - have to figure out how to do that. It is too cold sometimes in the morning at work not to at least cover up to the knuckles :)

Here's a pic on the sticks - the colors are not true to life, it's more vibrant in person. All ribbed and tiny looking:

And a pic on my hand (gosh, I love how easy magic loop makes it to try things on). Here they're stretched out and show the cables much better. Love those cables!

Now, as to the randomness part of my post, KT tagged me a while back with the 7 random things meme (here's as good a definition of a meme (technically blog meme) that I could find, Mom!). So without further ado, here are 7 random things about me!

1. I have all of my wisdom teeth, but am missing 4 other teeth. 3 are adjacent and date back to me falling off my bike when I was about 8 (?). I have a denture on those, so it's not too noticeable, and the denture is more comfy than you'd think. The worst part about this is that one of them is a front tooth and that means I can't eat apples out of hand or really crusty sandwiches any more. But corn-on-the-cob is actually better cut into a bowl and mixed with butter. mmm!

2. Every night, Sasha (our portly brown tabby) jumps onto my pillow as I'm getting to sleep and kneads the back of my neck while purring in my ear for several minutes. As long as her claws are kept clipped (and believe me, I know when they need clipping), this is actually kind of soothing. Kind of like a mini-massage. She's been doing it as long as we've had her, so 9 years or so now!

3. Every weekday morning I go into work, put on a gore-tex "bunny suit", and head into the cleanroom. It's kind of like this, but less eyeshadow and implied angst. Oh, and we wear simple face hoods, not helmets.

4. Sometime in middle school, my best friend and I memorized the "McDonald's menu song" (Wikipedia link, I've spared you the YouTube, though you can find it if you really want to hear it), and it's still taking up valuable neuron space. ...fillet'o'fish a hamburger a cheeseburger a happy meal...

5. Apparently I start running out of steam about 5/7 of the way through a meme :)

6. I can't raise one eyebrow or wiggle my ears. I can curl my tongue and cross my eyes, but these are pretty boring, relatively.

7. Of course I love the Decemberists, but lately I've been on a Saw Doctors kick. Authentic Irish classic rock! I just ordered 3 more albums (I love half.com and Amazon marketplace) and I can't wait for them to arrive.

7.5 I was right in my second guess, above. It's now bedtime. And a workday tomorrow; the 3-day weekend is over, alas. Good night all!

PS - to pass on this "7 random things" meme, I'll tag Andy (who hasn't blogged in almost a year - techie things about you count, dear), and SIL Falathwen, when she has time.

By request....

2008-01-27T11:38:00.000-08:00

Here you go, KT! Sorry it's a bit late, we had to dig up the drumsticks and clean off the table. And of course, we had to improvise a drum, since we don't have any real ones in the house :).

Drumroll for KT from Alison on Vimeo.

I haven't done too much knitting in the last two weeks - finished the vest pieces, but it's still waiting to be seamed up. That's probably a project for tonight. I shall report back once it's finished, I promise!

Scooba and misc

2008-01-12T21:10:00.000-08:00

Whew, it's been a while since my last post. How did it get to be mid-January already? I have one FO to present, which I actually finished about an hour after my last blog post (I was gunning to get it done in 2007, and succeeded by about 3 hours :)

But first, I have to share how we cleaned our kitchen floor this afternoon (beware, video is loud!):

Scooba's first run from Alison on Vimeo.

And also test out this embedding video thing, in case we ever take any other ones that are interesting. I did watch a Youtube video of a vintage sock making machine the other night (thank you, Ravelry!).

Anyway, I gave Andy a Scooba (robotic floor washer; goes with our Roomba) for Christmas. It was pretty funny, since he gave me a Dyson handheld vac to replace our ailing dustbuster, and we opened them at the same time. Most unromantic gifts ever! The Scooba went out on its first "mission" today - simple kitchen floor cleaning - and did an admirable job. All told, probably about the same amount of effort as mopping, but higher amusement value. It tends to get stuck in a couple of corners and on the vent grate, so we'll have to either block those or not run it unattended. But not a bad little robot!

On to the knitting - Andy had requested a pair of fingerless gloves for his office, which is often cold in the winter. He wanted longish individual fingers up to about the second knuckle, leaving fingertips free for coding. So I took the Knucks pattern from Knitty, removed the knuckle "tattoos", lengthened the fingers, and added a simple diagonal rib to the backs for interest. Oh, and my gauge was off, so I modified the stitch count a teeny bit. I guess I'm getting bolder about pattern modification (after almost exactly one year of knitting) :). These are a good basic glove pattern, and fun - knitting fingers down is interesting. I'm thinking of making a pair for myself, with a different pattern on the back, as I've been noticing my fingers getting cold at work as well.

Here's one under construction (just after joining the thumb):

And the finished product, in use. I told Andy to try to actually code something for the shot (I named the project "Coding Gloves" on Ravelry, but I think he's faking it ;). You can see a terminal window in the shot, though.

Ooh, I also wanted to congratulate my sister-in-law on completing a wonderful birthday hat for her father. She designed the fair-isle layout and completed it in (what seemed to me) an extremely short time. It even has a 3-color section!

Colorwork is something I'd like to try soon, probably on a smallish project to start (I'm thinking a felted cat bed, since Sasha keeps sitting on our jackets, my felted bag, etc - and felting should be forgiving of beginner mistakes). But I also want to knit a pair of Monkeys, and fingerless gloves for me, and and and... (not to mention the vest I'm working on now - here's where I am so far, both front done, just starting the mindless stockinette section of the back...)

Oh well, too much to knit, too little time, what else is new?

And finally - yeah Pats!

Christmas Knitting wrapup

2007-12-31T21:57:00.001-08:00

The holidays are almost over (we're just waiting 'til midnight so we can go to bed :). And I finished the major knitting projects of my first Christmas as a knitter! So without further ado...

Carl's hat - has already been posted a couple of times, but here's one more action shot, at the Oregon coast on Christmas eve:

Dad's scarf - I haven't blogged this one before - but I got the yarn in Japan, not knowing what I'd do with it. I never did manage to post part II of my Japan trip travelogue (and wow, that was > 5 months ago now!), but I visited a wonderful "natural dying" yarn store called Mother Earth, which was actually rather near the vendor's factory in Yamanashi. It was pretty funny, having my rather proper male sales engineer (who knew nothing about knitting) translate yarn labels - I really do need to finish blogging it. Anyway, eventually (actually, in Arizona in October)the yarn decided to be a scarf, in a simple lace rib stitch. I held two strands together throughout - always a medium brown, alternating a light tan and dark brown held with it. Hopefully the ribby-ness makes it warmish, although even doubled the yarn was rather thin.
Oh, by the way, if anyone reading this can send me a pic of the scarf stitching closeup, I'd appreciate it - forgot to take one...

Mom's bag - (Ravelry project link) - this is the big, modular project that I couldn't post about since she reads my blog. Many many shells! Pretty easy knit (especially since you don't need to weave in the gazillion ends that well, since it is felted), though a tad tedious. It was odd to be knitting a felted item on only size 8 needles (to keep the stitch pattern visible, I presume), but it worked out fine. Note the blue and gray color scheme, of course (Mom is a huge Civil War buff).

final pose:

Closer up views of it post felting (including one with it next to a felted bowl she made me for Christmas!). I love the bottom of the bag, where the shells come together - so symmetrical!

(did I mention I was running around the house, back and forth to the laundry room, felting it on 12/23 while everyone watched football? And that it blocked (on a bucket balanced on a table lamp on a garbage can!) and mostly dried through Christmas eve night? And it was still a wee bit damp when opened Christmas morning. Talk about last minute finishing!)

Here it is after finishing, but before felting.

Finally, a couple of pics of it under construction. It took basically a little over a month all told, though I wasn't working as hard on it as I could have. I might be tempted to make one for myself after I've had time to knock out a few smaller things :). I like the one one the right, since Mom made me those mitts almost exactly a year ago, right before I started knitting.

and finally, a picture from our impromptu day trip to the coast on Christmas eve. May you have a peaceful and/or exciting New Year!

Odds and ends and holidays!

2007-12-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm briefly back from extended blogging hiatus. Referencing the previous post, I finished all the modular pieces (reduced the number of repeats, so it was actually 76 not 84) and most of the finishing on the big modular work. It's actually blocking upstairs, hopefully will dry before Christmas day :).

I got 4 of the minor gift "A" done and shipped off 3 of them (the others will become a New Year's gift instead of Christmas), plus the dragon scarf and gorilla vest. Phew!

Plus, a couple weeks back we went to a geocaching holiday party with a "white elephant" secret santa exchange. We were supposed to bring something <$10 and possibly funny. So I busted into my stash, whipped out the extra-bulky yarn I used for my first scarf, and (using guideline from the book "Knitting Rules" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka the Yarn Harlot)), managed to create a hat that actually was fought over at the gift exchange.

So, FO: White eleph-hat
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-ease thick 'n'quick, ~0.55 skeins oatmeal-ish color, and small amounts of blue and green.
Needles: US 10.5 circular (a longish one to magic loop)
General scheme: CO 48 stitches with MC. Work in 1x1 rib for a couple of inches (I wish I'd done it longer to make it easier to turn up at the brim). Then I did purl rounds in the main color with 8 2-stitch knit vertical stripes alternating green and blue. I did some twists in these, but the yarn is so bulky, they didn't really show. I made bobbins for the vertical stripes, and twisted them with the main color as it went across - sort of a hybrid intarsia / fair isle thing. Knit til it was as tall as Andy's hand, then decreased (K2tog before the stripes) so that the stripes came together at the top of the hat.

Oh, and what did we get in the white elephant gift exchange? Why, a beer mug night light, of course!

Here's the dragon scarf; and I can't show the gorilla vest yet, because there's kind of a cute surprise on it :)

In non-knitting news, my parents and brother are spending the holidays here. We've had a nice dinner downtown, hit Powells books twice now, did a hike, and went to a u-cut tree farm hunting the perfect Christmas Tree. We found it! I don't have a good picture of it all decorated - here is the before shot, though (with Carl cleaning up the result of a small overwatering issue)

And here are a few pics from our hike to Wahclella Falls in the Columbia River Gorge the other day.

<- Mom and Dad in front of waterfall...

Carl contemplating waterfall (note the hat!) ->

Full view of the waterfall:

And finally, a zoomed shot of Table Mountain, which we had a great view of on the way back down the trail. It's across the gorge on the Washington side, and I'm very pleased with how our new camera's 10x zoom performed.

Happy Holidays!

Knitting by Numbers

2007-11-26T20:23:00.000-08:00

Number of major Christmas gifts still not finished knitting: 1
Number of individual (modular) units making up this project: 84 (!)
Number modular pieces knitted so far: 26
Number of additional minor gifts I'd like to do, ideally: 10
Number done: 0
Number of "gift A": 8
Number of "gift B" (which is a sweater for a gorilla :): 1
Number of "gift C" (which is a scarf for a dragon:): 1

Number of all of these that are for readers of my lil blog: 10

Number of posts actually containing current knitting pictures said readers of blog can expect before Christmas: very very few.

In other news, I wore my hat on the long walk from the parking lot to work this morning, and at 34 degrees out it kept me nice 'n toasty. And not itchy! Yay, baby alpaca!

To tide the blog over, here's a picture from June of my first magic loop sock. I finished it a few days later. There is not yet a second sock, which is why I haven't really posted about the project. But eventually there will be! Hey readers, what's the longest you've taken between 2 socks of a pair?

FO: Peekaboo Cloche from Lace Style

2007-11-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

Here she is... finished on Sunday, blocked on Monday (isn't that part of a children's rhyme?). The washing/blocking really made it super-soft and drapey, which is good and bad; I love the softness, but kind of wish it had a little more structure. It's definitely a bit too big; I'm considering folding it in on itself a bit, but will probably test wear it a few times. Should have gone down a needle size! Ah well, I have a small head :)

The only good pictures I could get were in the bathroom (best light) with no flash. So excuse the inanity of this one:

And here is the lovely pentagon decrease at the top:

I've come to the conclusion that I really like lacework - the way the pattern develops, the interesting stitching - but I don't think I'd have the time for anything bigger than this hat. I was coming home from work in the evening and getting 1, maybe 2, lace rows done, which is not conducive to quick finishing by any means. And the rows were only 90 stitches long! (er, wide?). But I look forward to doing more patterns with lace edgings, sleeves, etc. And part of me really wants to try a shawl, and see the transformation from unblocked clump of super-fine yarn to blocked majesty of intricate patterns. But it would take abso-freakin forever. So, probably I'll just live vacariously through lace knitters like Titianknitter, who is also a French Horn teacher!

So here are the stats on this hat:

"Peekaboo Cloche" from Lace Style.
Yarn: Misti International's Misti Alpaca Suri Silk (80% baby alpaca, 20% silk - decadent!). Peridot (green) for the inside, Amethyst (purple) for the outside lace, and Sapphire (blue) for the bottom 1.5" of the inside and top 3" of the outside. It's colorful :)
Needles: For the inside green stockinette: 3mm, which is either US size 2.5 or 3 depending on who you ask. For the outside, purple and then blue lace: US 4 / 3.5 mm.
Gauge: Only the stockinette inner layer gauge was specified, and a I hit stitch gauge at 13 st/2", but was woefully off at 17 rows/2 inches when it should have been 22 rows/2 inches. This was partly why it ended up big (also, as noted above, I have a small head!)

Lace Hat continued...

2007-11-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

I'm almost almost done with the Peek-a-boo Cloche from Lace Style. I've now officially run out of purple for the top outer layer (just before the decreasing starts, dang, that would have been a better breaking point). But the blue will do, and it's so nice and squishy and soft, and almost done... Of course the nice thing about working magic loop on a long circular is that you can pull the needle ends out, leave the cable in, and try it on!

See the green poking through the lace? It's actually a bit brighter - like new spring leaves - in person. Yum.

Oh, and I ordered a ball winder (snicker) from Joann.com using a 50% off coupon. Yay! I am not particularly fond of winding the skeins by hand, so this should be useful, considering some of the stash acquisition that has occured recently.. And we may try to make a homemade swift as well... we (mostly Andy) built a workbench in the garage last spring, but it hasn't gotten much use yet. This might be a nice first major project for it. Check it out in Andy's much-neglected blog (scroll down 3 posts to the one labeled "Workbench!" - it's homemade blogging software and doesn't let you link to just one post)

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week? What the heck?!?

Frust-lace-ion

2007-11-04T19:59:00.001-08:00

Taking a break from my hat to do a little blogging. I got comfortably into the lace outer shell pattern (well, 7 rows in, enough to start to get a sense of the thing), dropped a couple of stitches, must have left my guard down and didn't pick them up correctly, and ended up with a huge hole and several lonely horizontal strand waving at me. Gah! So I just ripped it back and am in the process of trying to get the stitches up on the needle again. Lesson: Lace in front of football = not a good idea, even if you're not paying particular attention (Dallas / Philly; we're just recovering from hosting a Pats/Colts game party).

But, in related news, the twins for whom I knit the booties of a few posts ago were here for the party, and their parents told me the booties are not too small! Yay! I had dropped them off with their dad at work on Friday. I am promised pics in action, but in the meantime, do admire the cuteness of Zach and Izzy - I especially like the halloween costume pics!

Anyway... as a diversion from the lace-tastrophe (OK, I'm being dramatic, but it's fun...), I wanted to point the small but wonderful readership of this blog over to my college roomie KT's blogiversary contest! Give her an idea or two for Christmas knitting (she's looking for fave patterns for fingerless gloves, bulky hats, bags, felted bowls, and other things) and you might win! And of course, if you have a blog, you can get another entry for posting about the contest there. She's also got mad free patterns if you're looking for some inspiration of your own.

OK. Break accomplished. I think I'll head to the living room and knit to music instead of football. Speaking of music, I'm bummed - the Decemberists just cancelled their tour. We were looking forward to seeing them again in December, though at least we just saw them in July at a rocking outdoor show in Portland. They say that an unspecified bandmember is ill, which in any other band would be code for "in rehab", but since they play the music they do ("hyperliterate Prog Rock" according to Stephen Colbert) I tend to believer them at face value. Feel better, unspecified Decemberist!

Halloweeknits and Ravelry

2007-10-31T21:39:00.001-07:00

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...)

2007-10-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-10-20T16:55:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-10-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Flock and Fiber!

2007-09-23T20:26:00.001-07:00

Well, after a rather icky day Saturday (broke my laptop; things fell apart at work and I had to go in twice; many pages during the day and overnight), Sunday was rather better. I made good progress on my diagonal silk garden scarf (almost half done!) - though in fairness, I had brought it in to work when I went in the second time Satruday and did a few rows during some dead time (at my desk! Yarn not allowed in the fab!). Here it is modeling in far and near view. I am loving the colors - from pastel to intense, this yarn has it all, mostly in blues and purples with some greens and golds thrown in. It also has really uneven plying, bits of hay and thread, and some knots for joins. All of which I had read in others' blogs... but I think it will be worth it in the end.

Sunday afternoon I dragged Andy not-too-unwillingly to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, which was about 25 miles away in the rural area outlying Portland to the south. It was really nice - kind of a cross between a huge yarn and roving bazaar and a county fair. I got to pet a camel! We said hello to many llamas, alpacas, goats, and sheep. We saw lots of spinning, and I fondled lots of yarn and petted lots of roving, and did some stash-increasing. Almost everything has a purpose, either a project in mind or as a gift, so I don't feel so bad. I am not sure what to do with the 100 yards of bamboo that was on sale for $4, though! (I thought about a preemie hat for the 20 hats project, but it's not machine-dryable :( ).

Here are a few quick pics and yarn pr0n for my loyal readers...

Hello, llama!

Mother-daughter alpacas. Nice haircut, mom!

The real reason goats have horns (maybe he's allergic to wool? heh, heh, heh)

Pair of antique spinning wheels for sale. From Germany and Maine!

Amazing colors of roving - I think that's what it called, anyway the really soft fluffy stuff that isn't quite yarn yet. This was just one of many, many vendors, but I didn't take any other vendor pics - I was too busy inspecting the goods!

Prize-winning hand-spun skeins. It was fun to read some of the judges' comments, especially comparing the "novice" and "expert" categories.

Career opportunity?

And finally... stash enhancement /yarn pr0n :)

Some good sturdy Idaho wool in significant colors, Socks that Rock (Oregon local, of course!), some nature cotton that was only $4/skein (I'm thinking dishcloths), and the aforementioned Madil Eden bamboo. And yep, that's some Oregon coast handmade soap for my swap pal. The nice older lady who makes the soap was a bit bemused by the idea of strangers on the internet sending each other dishcloths and soap, but she was happy to give me tips on what my partner might like.

That's all for now - I still need to blog Japan and SF, argh! Too much to do! But now I'm going to finish watching Monday night football and work on the silk scarf :)

Another weekly dishcloth topic (i.e. Alison tries to resume blogging)

2007-09-22T06:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm still here :). It's been a hectic week at work since getting back from SF, and I just haven't had the energy to blog. But since both KT and my SIL have updated their blogs a couple of times since I've been back, I feel guilty. And I want to get an entry into the dishcloth swap group for a prize at the end of the swap, so I figured I should answer the question of the week:

When you knit or crochet dishclothes, washclothes or face clothes, what do you use? What size needle or hook? Wood? what type? Metal? Plastic? A specific Brand? Why do you love that needle or hook so much? Is there one you are dying to try? Is there a particular yarn you love and use all the time for clothes? What is so special about it?

Well, since I still haven't made a dishcloth (I am playing with possible patterns for my swappee, but haven't done a full cloth yet), this is hard to answer. In general I am very happy with my metal knitpicks options interchangable circular needles. It's so convenient, having them all in one place. I got some extra 40" cables to make magic looping easier. They only go down to size 4, though, so I got some of their regular circs in smaller sizes. I like the smooth metal, the nice sharp points (except when I have to use my finger to help things along - ouch!), and the very flexible cables. I did see that Knitpicks has a new line of wooden tips for the interchangables, and I am intrigued, but until I have a reason to switch to woodens, I will probably stick with the metal ones.

As far as yarns, I don't have any hands-down favorites yet. I've been knitting up some baby booties for a friend's twins with baby cashmerino, and it's pretty nice! Unfotunately, I finished the boy's set (blue with coral pink designs) on the airplane on the way back from SF. I went to start the girl's set (supposed to be the same colors but reversed) and can't find the blue yarn! I am afraid when I cast off and cut the blue, the ball went under the seat of the plane :(. Oh well, it's not an uncommon brand - time to hit a yarn store!

SF was great - we walked and bus'd all over the place (the Nextbus system, which Andy actually wrote the code for when we lived in Berkeley, was a great help). Ate some yummy food, found a slew of geocaches... and of course I went to two yarn stores. My favorite was Imagiknit. I thought of KT as I perused the whole room of floor-to-ceiling non-wool yarns!

I woke up early this morning wanting to knit (and then nap later on); discovered the missing blue yarn hindering my bootie progress, and so cast on with some Noro Silk garden (I got at Lint's closing sale a couple months ago) for a Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf. If you google this combination of yarn+pattern, you find a ton of bloggers showing off some seriously pretty work. I'm thinking of submitting it to my work's charity auction, though I guess I'd have to figure out copyright, etc since it would be sold (with proceeds going to charity)

Sorry no pictures in this post - we haven't downloaded them from SF yet, and mouse croaked so I'm having to use the darn touchpad on the laptop - doing fancy web stuff is just a pain. Have a great weekend, all!

Mini-vacation and dishcloth topic

2007-09-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging from the Portland airport (gotta love free wi-fi) - we're waiting to board our flight to San Francisco, where we'll spend a long long weekend for our 5th anniversary! We don't have many specific plans - dinner at Chez Panisse in Berkeley (where we never went while I was in grad school!), seeing the musical Sweeney Todd, and getting dim sum are about the only things we know for certain. I will definitely be checking out yarn shops - Artfibers looks really interesting, and is only a few blocks from our hotel :)

So over at the dishcloth swap, we are being "incentivized" to blog at least once a week by answering questions about our knitting habits, with posted answers qualifying as entries for a drawing for prizes at the end of the swap. Sounds good to me! Here's this week's topic:

Now that in some geographic locations the weather is starting to turn cooler, do you change the type of yarn(s) you knit/crochet with? If so, what do you now knit/crochet with instead and why? If not, why do you not switch and what do you knit/crochet with?

Well, I haven't been knitting a full year yet, and this is my first fall. I suspect that what I knit will change (looking towards Christmas presents, scarves, hats, etc), but maybe not so much the composition. The idea of wool in summer doesn't scare me, as here in Oregon the summers are at least dry (though they can be hot). It's true, I have been putting off a sweater for Andy because there seemed to be no point to knitting it during the summer, but it's acrylic anyway as wool makes him itch. But I have some wool lined up for other folks' presents. I guess I'm still pretty much a newbie and figuring out what I like to knit with - I'm looking forward to trying some bamboo, chitin, soy, etc yarns just for the fun of it!!

Oops, boarding is starting soon! San Fran, here we come!

Fall into Autumn Dishcloth Swap!

2007-09-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

So, I've joined my first online knitting swaparoo thingy! It's for dishcloths, which means I get to go to a yarn store (or several - there are a ton in Portland that I haven't been to yet), fondle some cottons, pick a neat pattern, and knit something up for a swappee by the end of October (staying anonymous as I ask her questions on her blog about what kind of dishcloth she would like, and what other goodies should be included in the package). And someone will be doing the same for me. So to elucidate my dishcloth preferences, here are the answers to the mandatory questionnaire required for the swap:

1. Do you knit or crochet? How long have you been doing it?
I knit, just since January this year.

2. Have you made dishcloths before? Do you use them yourself, give them as gifts, or both?
Nope, never made one, but I've made scarfs, hats, a tank top, a bag... I am looking forward to using them as actual dishcloths/kitchen towels - the ones we have are getting a bit ratty.

3. What's your favorite cotton to make cloths from? What cotton would you like to try that you haven't before ?
Since I haven't made any before, I dunno. My SIL gave me a skein of Araucania 'Pomaire' for my birthday in March, and a I enjoyed making a little lacy bag from it - it's nice and soft. That's the only 100% cotton I've yet used. I'll have to consult experts whether it would be appropriate for a dishcloth. So I'd love to try either the "classic" dishcloth yarns, or anything interesting and unique

4. If you knit, do you prefer circular or straight needles? For all, do you prefer wooden, metal, or plastic needles?
I tend to use circulars - with a fair amount of prompting, my husband got me a set of Knitpicks Options for my birthday (yes, it was a knitty birthday) and I love how smooth the metal needles are, and how convenient they are for doing things like Magic Loop socks. I use them for flat knitting too.

5. What are your favorite colors? Any colors you don't like much?
I'm not big into pastels - I prefer deeper or more saturated colors. Blues and greens are my favorites but I've been known to wear purples and oranges reasonably often. Favorite fall colors - browns, forest greens, dusky blues, crimsons, with accents of bright red and orange. Basically, I like most colors except pastels and maybe neons.

6. What do you like best about Autumn?
When living and going to school on the east coast, this answer would have been easy - the crisp in the air, the feeling of anticipation (new school year, new classes, football season for those of us in the college marching band..), the leaves turning. Here in Oregon, in the workforce, with no school ties - the seasons are more muted, and autumn means anticipation of the rainy season. But after a hot, bright summer, the gathering clouds can feel familiar and comfortable. Mist gathers on the fields in the morning on the drive to work. The lawn greens up. Mount Hood turns bright white (instead of dirty-glacier-grey) after the first rainstorm - but I won't notice for a few days because of obscuring clouds. Apple picking in Hood River. And of course, our anniversary - September 14th, 5 years this year! - starts it off.

7. Pies: Pumpkin? Apple? Pecan? All of em? or No Thanks!
Yum! Any fruit except Pecan - the usual version (mostly corn syrup) is too sweet for me. I especially like a nice spicy apple or pumpkin pie. If both are offered, I'll take a slice of each :) Oh, and as a nice twist, my mom's "apple pie cake". Yum!

8. When you were a kid, were you the one who couldn't wait to get started with school , or the one who overslept on the 1st day?
Heh. I was an academic until 4.5 years ago - college, grad school, the works. I enjoyed school and couldn't wait to get started. And I do miss that, sometimes.

9. Do you celebrate Halloween? (The real key here guys is especially knowing if you have an aversion to the holiday or little goodies/decorations associated with it, given the timeframe of the swap)
We don't usually dress up or party, but we do buy excessive amounts of candy to give away, and then are forced (forced, I tell you!) to eat the leftovers. I have a few Halloween decor type items, but not many. We're not really decor people. Goodies are great, though!

10. If you had to choose just 3 edible 'goodies' to eat for a full year, what 3 would you choose?
Hm, that's hard. Let's categorize: Chocolate, citrus, and what the heck, apple pie cake. So probably dark dark chocolate bars, lemon-mint gelato, and apple pie cake (hot, with cream). Mmmmm.

11. Do you have any pets? Kids? Husbands who seem like kids? ;)
One husband, two cats (they are both bad and good, as most cats are), no kids.

12. If you were to describe a particular yarn that shares traits of your personality, what would it be and why?
Hm, I'm going to stick to yarns I've actually knitted with, rather than just drooled over on the internet. I'd say K1C2's Second Time Cotton (from which I made a tank top) - it's practical, ecologically minded, a blend of natural and manmade (I love nature but I am a scientist by training and an engineer by profession), and comes in some interesting, variegated colors (well, I'm not actually variegated in color, but I like to think I'm interesting :)

13. Do you use your cloths mostly for dishcloths, or as facecloths?
I think I'd use them as dishcloths. Dishtowels, really, though don't feel obligated to knit something long - I am planning to keep a stash of facecloths for guests who like that sort of thing.

14. Favorite Fall Holiday: Halloween or Thanksgiving and why? (Feel free to share another fall memory if you do not celebrate either of these holidays)
Thanksgiving! What could be better than a big, happy family gathering (or the occasional intimate one: just me, hubby, the cats and the turkey) with great and copious food? Halloween candy is nice and all, but having grown up, I can, after all, buy a candy bar any time I feel like it (I think this is one of the clear boundaries of adulthood, when you realize this but also realize that you don't often feel like a candy bar any more).

15. Do you have any allergies or aversions your pal should know about?
I can't wear scented lotions on my face, though on my hands/body is fine and fun. With scented soaps, hands/body are fine, and a few scented soaps are OK on the face, but not if they're heavy or "perfumey". I love bright scents, especially citrus, ginger, and mint. Sometimes vanilla, but only if it's clean and not heavy. Don't tend to like flowery ones or typical perfumes. And I don't do candles :)

Wow, this also turned into quite the treatise (it was supposed to be a break from Japan blogging - part II of that soon, I promise!). Sorry about that!

Travels and yarn in Japan (a retrospective) - part I

2007-09-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I never got around to blogging my Japan trip, and since it was coming up on 2 months ago (July 6-12), I figure I should at least hit the highlights. I'll make this part 1 - most of the knitting stuff will be in part 2... (and, after spending a good few hours blogging this (and eating dinner, and taking a walk, etc, etc - be warned, part 1 is huge!!)

I've already shown the progress that I made on my Cabled Tank Top on the trip, mostly on the 10-hour flights there and back. The other major knitting-related accomplishment, besides tank-toppage on various modes of transportaion, was visiting a wonderful hand-dying yarn store near the factory in the mountains near Mt. Fuji 2 hours outside Tokyo. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Day 1 (Friday) - leave Portland in the afternoon. Fly in plane for 10 hours, knitting and watching movies.

Day 2 (Saturday) - arrive at 5 PM Tokyo time, even though flight was only 10 hours. Yikes, international dateline and jetlag! Take "limousine bus" (really just a bus, with cupholders!) to the Imperial Hotel downtown. Narita airport is over an hour outside of the city, so plenty of knitting time. Eat an energy bar from my backpack stash, and crash by 8PM Tokyo time (4AM Portland).

Day 3 (Sunday - a really really long day and blog post) - my only full free day, in Tokyo. Up around 5, found Andy and my brother on chat, stared at maps and guides, and finally was driven out of the room by hunger. Considered the American-style breakfast at the hotel, but it didn't open for 10 minutes and was expensive; one of my guides said one could always walk into a corner store and get a cheap rice roll for a quick meal, so I set out in search of that, with a brief detour through Hibiya Park across from the hotel, noting the prevalence of feral cats and homeless people just waking up.

I then crossed a couple of streets and found the perfect place for breakfast - much cheaper and more authentic than the hotel. Lots of youngish business people were also grabbing breakfast there.

Fortified with rice rolls (one with a sweetish fish type thing - maybe crab? - and one with rather bland red beans I think) and bottled cold green tea (mmmm!), I wandered around Ginza, the dowtown shopping district, for a while, and then hopped on the subway to go to Asakusa, an "old-style Tokyo" district famous for its temple and, apparantly, its kitchen supply market area.

One of the interesting things about Tokyo is the highly efficient use of space (and relative lack of greenspace in the city from what I could see). Here are a bunch of restaurants underneath the raised train tracks, right around the corner from the AM/PM.

First thing in Asakusa (besides a swell of pride at succesful subway navigation!), I headed across the wafer to the giant turd building (er, HQ of Asahi beer) to find a geocache in the plaza there. Yeah, trans-pacific geocaching!

Then I, along with hundreds of Japanese and a smattering of other tourists, headed for the Sensoji temple. After entering the great old gates, one encounters a huge market of traditional &/or touristy goods and snacks. I picked up a few little things (Tabi socks for the nieces, snacks for me) and wandered towards the temple itself.

I didn't get really great pics of the temple itself (and honestly, too look at it wasn't overwhelming or anything, and since I didn't know the history I didn't stay very long), but here are some snippets of the area around it. Interpretations of cultural or religious symbology should be taken with a huge grain of salt (and hopefully no offence if woefully inaccurate), since I am remembering from a borrowed guidebook and quick searchings on the web.

Burning incence in front of the temple - wave it towards any part of your body that needs healing.

Raccoon-dog god statue in a shrine at the edge of the temple complex.

Dragon shrine, same area

I wandered out of the temple and on the guidebook's suggested walking route towards the kitchen/restaurant supply district. But on Sunday, most of these stores were closed (though I did see the building topped by a giant chef's head!). So I walked further up, and happened to wander into a street fair! It was the perfect place to get a late lunch: a 100-yen (<$1) sausage on a stick, a slice of very juicy watermelon... people warned me that eating in Japan would be expensive, but not at the places I frequented for breakfast and lunch!

I think of all my exploring that day, the street fair was my favorite. It was just great to see the mix of adults, kids, dogs (quite a few small dogs in strollers!), mostly modern but a few in traditional dress, doing the market/festival thing. None of my Japanese colleagues, when I asked them later, knew if there was a specific reason for the the festival.

Some of the other onlookers were also fun to watch!

I got back to the hotel from Asakusa sometime around 3PM (I think), took a short nap and debated whether to go into a different part of the city or hang out in the hotel. Although I was pretty tired from the exploring thus far, since it was my only day in Tokyo, I decided to go see one of the high-rise, crowded, shopping areas: Shinjuku

Not too much to report from Shinjuku - I tried to follow the guidebook's suggested walking itinerary, but was a block off for most of it, and lost my nerve when, at the end of a glowing review of a ramen restaurant, it noted "there is no English sign on the restaurant, but it's the only ramen shop on the block". Great! Now, if only I knew how to recognize a ramen shop!

So, I ended up in a 7-story department store, real old-style compared to the small Macys and Penney's and things in Portland - the 7th floor had several restaurants, so I picked Chinese as we have a dearth of good Chinese food in Portland - and I was tired enough to know I wouldn't appreciate sushi or high-end Japanese cuisine. Then a little more city wandering, then train back to hotel, to bed, and the next day to meet my "sales engineer" who would escort me to the factory in Yaminashi.

Just a few (hah!) brief (hah, hah!) photos of Shinjuku - I'm getting tired of blogging, and this is dragging on!!

I'm presuming this was an anti-war protest, by the train station. Ominous music and video played, there were dudes with megaphones... It was in trying to leave the train station area that I got a block off the walking tour in the guidebook.

Shinjuku, according to Wikipedia, has over 300,000 inhabitants. Many of them ride bikes.

Lawson Station, a convenience store chain I saw all over the place in Tokyo (waves to certain readers!)

Toy food from the children's floor of the department store

I wandered around a big bookstore, but wasn't successful in finding an English language section (have I mentioned that I don't speak or read Japanese?). I did stumble upon the knitting (crocheting? crafting?) section :)

Finally, Shinjuku at night. This is how I'd pictured Tokyo, and while I was glad to have found the neon-crowded part, I was really happy to have explored multiple areas, gotten a teeny feel for some of it, and taken lots of pictures. Unlike my husband, who in multiple trips to Japan a couple of years ago, brought back pics of Tokyo Disneyland from the bus, a toilet (granted, the toilets were pretty cool, and I'll post pics of my own in part II), and the electric kettle in the hotel room:P

Man, what a long blog post. Congrats if you made it to the end! Part II later this week!

Summer FOs

2007-08-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

A few small things I've also finished this summer:

Felted Miceys for various kitties. I wanted to knit two and stuff them with local farmers' market catnip for my aforementioned secret santee, so first I made a practice one that looked more like a bug. Cirrus wasn't too interested before the stuffing...

But filled with catnip - yum! (Sasha isn't as into 'nip, but even she has been seen rabbit-kicking it. Powerful stuff!)

The actual gifted mice look much more like mice and less like bugs - and the giftee says her cats are enjoying them as much as C & S seem to like the bug mouse.

I also spent a fair bit of July knitting a pair of ankle socks from a couple skeins of elastic, stretchy Cascade Fixation which I bought at Knot Another Hat in Hood River. After seeing how the colors worked together, I decided they should be Beach House socks for my Mom - so last week they went with her down to VA beach, where the air conditioning is often cranked up. Here are my feet modeling (Mom, feel free to send pics of your feet doing the same, if you like!).

The yarn is so stretchy, I could have done them down a needle size or cast on fewer stitches or something - the tops are a bit baggy as-is in size M. The pattern is free (pdf) - it's just a basic sock pattern, but the ankle socks knit up in ~1 ball of yarn. I adapted it pretty easily from the "on-2-circs" method to magic loop on one circ. I think for my next socks, after I make the mate to my magic loop class sock, should be either toe-up, or lace, or both. I do have 2 skeins of Koigu in my stash, but honestly I was considering a hat or gloves for those - seems a shame to hide the gorgeous colors under shoes. Hm. Suggestions taken :)

The weekend

2007-08-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

A little rainy kayaking on the Nehalem River...

Unsuccessful hunting for an island geocache:

(We did manage to find a different island cache, but I forgot to take a picture...)

A little knitting...

And then some hiking. Oh, deer!

Aaaaaaaaaah, the joys of a not-on-call weekend :)

Answers for Cass's 222 contest!

2007-08-10T19:31:00.001-07:00

KT linked in her blog to this nifty contest in Cass's blog. So I commented for a chance to win! And here, I get extra credit if I post my answers in my blog, presumably so the readers (of whom I think there are 3, and that includes my mother!) will go check out Cass. Phew! The modern world of knitting is so complicated!

It was Cass's 222nd post, and so she asked some "2" questions:

2 favorite knitting blogs:
1) KT's (my college roomie!)
2) Hmm, I'm pretty new to knitblogs so I don't have any other regulars, I'll say Knot Another Hat, the owner of a yarn store in one of our favorite local vacation spots.

2 favorite knitting books
That's easier, though I'm still on pretty basic knit lit :)
1) Stitch 'N Bitch (taught me to knit this past January)
2) Knitting without Tears - I love her humor!

2 favorite knitting patterns
1) Umbilical cord baby hat from Stitch 'N Bitch- I've made 3, great beginner pattern
2) Cabled Tank Top from spring/summer KnitSimple. See it in my blog :)

That's all for now - I have to run out on the complicated errand to go to the grocery store to buy mustard and hamburger buns in order to get coupons to go to the airshow tomorrow, and with our airshow receipts we can get into Bite of Oregon free. So those are the weekend plans - they all start with mustard :) I'll bring my knitting

Hiking - Skamaniac gift bag - and a stranded mystery

2007-08-06T21:41:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick bag I improvised on Sunday morning, after spending the night at Skamania Lodge in the Columbia river gorge, after spending Saturday hiking around Mt. Hood. The trip was fairly spontaneous, so I just threw a bunch of yarn and a couple of inspiration patterns in to my big old knitting bag. I wove in ends for one project as we drove out of cloudy Portland up to the sunny mountain; then, lo and behold, right by the turnoff for the mountain road to take us to the hike, there was a cute little yarn store! (it had a big banner on the side of the A-frame roof that said, simply, "YARN" :). So I picked up a couple skeins of Crystal Palace Kid Merino, for a possible future shawl.

Anyway... we had a wonderful hike, and had been intending to camp, but the bridge to the campsite was washed out, and long story short, the only hotel around that had any vacancies on a sunny Saturday early evening was the local resort. Ah, such tough luck we live with... So we made the most of it, eating lots at the breakfast buffet, staying right up til the noon checkout; and we sat for a good hour in the "lounge", in comfy chairs admiring the river view, Andy websurfing (yes, he brings his computer even when we plan to camp) and me knitting this ridiculous little gift bag out of the silliest yarns imaginable. So I would give it the name "Skamaniac". But it's the perfect size for something small, and it sparkles nicely in the sunlight (or the camera flash)

Oh, and a teaser, when we left at noon and drove up to Mount Saint Helens (unfortunately the only pictures we have from this whole weekend are a few from Andy's cell phone, as we hadn't been able to find the camera before leaving - of course, it was in the back seat of the car, buried under camping stuff....), I cast on for something new, but as it's intended as a gift for someone who might conceivable read this blog, I won't say what. But I'm enjoying the simple slip-stitch pattern, which I stole from Knitty via someone else's blog. It's a variegated sock yarn, but this isn't a sock!

Tank top, finished!

2007-08-06T19:24:00.000-07:00

(pictures before the weaving in, as evidenced by the long flyaway in the left picture. Also note Andy's shadow, taking the picture)

Finished last week sometime! The sewing-up was actually kinda fun, once I got into it, though it took longer than I'd hoped. It came out pretty well fitted, overall - I'm glad I made the Small instead of the Medium, even though it was supposed to have 5" negative gauge. Either my gauge loosened up or (more likely) the cotton-acrylic blend stretched a bit. It's easy to find flaws with it, of course - my cables aren't symmetric, the design doesn't have any shaping to the back so it's kinda baggy, and of course, a tank top in worsted-weight is a tad heavy.

But overall I'm happy with it. Yay, first big project, done! and wearable! Let's see what Sasha thinks!

hmm, what is this thing? Oh, of course, it's a cat bed!

Swatch, felted!

2007-07-29T15:05:00.001-07:00

I perhaps over-documented the felting process for my Malabrigo worsted swatch (from the previous post) for the KT collaboration tote. :D. Ah well, at least I'm blogging. One of these days I'll actually blog Japan.

And... here's the swatch after only 5 minutes of felting. Not quite there yet...

After 5 more minutes, the stitches had really melted into each other and the cabled area was taller than the plain StSt section. Here it is, after rolling water out but before "blocking" (i.e. pulling at the StSt section to make it more even with the cable)

After "blocking", still retaining at least 10 g of water (it's fun to weigh your swatch!)

These were all last night. This morning, I took the now-dry swatch out into the cloudy morning for some "glamour pictures"

And now, for the measurements, post-felting:
(reminder, this was 30 stitches wide by 33 rows tall on size 10 needles...)
~6.5" wide by ~4.75" tall (it's not quite a rectangle...)
The St St section (18 stitches) is about 4.25" wide.

The cable section is about 1.75" wide. The purls to the left of the cable are wider than those to the right! I'm a new cabler, and the ones on my tank top turned out somewhat asymmetrical as well.

Lookswise, I'm not sure I'm loving the cable. It's very subtle post felting, though more obvious now that the swatch is dry (when it was wet, it just looked fuzzy). Also, the stripes moving across it kinda hide it. But on the other hand, it adds a bit more visual interest, as I'd hoped, and you can still see the crossings if you look. I don't know. Maybe a couple of cables on the flap would be good (perhaps a cable both thinner and "higher" if that's possible?), but it's probably not worth the wool to cable the whole thing.

It's a nice firm fabric that still retains the softness of the yarn. It's not stiff, though - very flexible. And the color is still somewhat camo-y, but I'm OK with that. It actually reminds me more of produce - I'm having to fight off the sudden urge to knit up a felted watermelon!w

Final notes: I'm liking this little swatch more and more as I blog it. Folded "the short way" it would make a great little coin purse for inside the bag. Folded the long way, it might make a good pencil case. Oh, and when I was in Japan I picked up a couple of .75" wood buttons that I'd like to use on the bag if possible. Pictures later :)

KT swatch - before felting

2007-07-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

So about a week ago I finished the swatch for the KT collaboration tote, but then fell into reading the final Harry Potter as my recreation after our guests left. Since I finished that last night (and it was goooood), I have time to post and felt!

Here's the swatch before felting. Both pics are in afternoon sun - first on our lattice iron table out front of the house, and then with the rosebushes for comparison.

Cast on: 30 stitches
Knit pattern (RS): K2, P2, 6-stitch cable (NB I think) every 6th row, P2, K to end (18 sts)
WS: K the Ks, P the Ps

33 rows, not counting CO or BO

Total width: 7.25"
Total height: 6.5" (guess I didn't get it quite square!)

total width of (left side) StSt section: a hair under 5"
StSt gauge: ~3.5 st/inch

Total width of P2, 6-stitch cable, P2: ~2 1/8"

Weight (on cheap kitchen scale scale): ~15 grams. Not too accurate, since the scale is designed for more.
Remaining yarn's weight: ~76 grams. Yikes! It's always surprising how light yarn is! I'm open to doing the strap from another yarn if we run out of this one...

Observations on colors - it came out a bit "camo", which isn't surprising for variegated greens, I guess. It might be interesting to knit it in the round to spread out the colors a little more. I do like the colors - they are significantly richer in person than it looks on the screen.

I just felted it and it's drying now - second installment tonight or tomorrow morning! A preview - it felted down a lot, and is much less tall now! And the cable is almost gone :(

Bookscarf in Bend

2007-07-21T07:20:00.001-07:00

I only finished one object on our vacation, and that was a teeny one - a Harry Potter Bookscarf for an online secret summer Santa exchange (I haven't posted my blog to the board, so this shouldn't spoil it). I knit it in the round with magic loop on size 0 (!) needles with embroidery floss. It came out a little lumpy at the joins, but as I put in Santa's note to the recipient, you could consider it as having been through a rousing game of Quidditch :D

Here's my attempt at an artsy photograph; there's Andy in the hot tub (luckily, not decorated in antlers!) in the background...

Winding Malabrigo in the Wild Wild West

2007-07-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

I'm just catching up on some blogging while watching the 3 nieces (A, M, & L) as Andy, his brother E and sister-in-law C all go out for a nice dinner. The nieces have gone to bed, but judging from the songs and thumps emanating from the rooms, they are not yet asleep :). They're out visiting for the week from Boston, and we've compressed quite the tourist experience into 6 short nights so far.

We got back yesterday from 3 nights in Sunriver, OR, a resort community near Bend, and a great gateway to some of the wonders of the high desert (caves! volcanoes! horseback riding!). We stayed in a cute rental house which was practical, cozy, and economical as these things go, but had a few quirks of decor. I decided to wind my Malabrigo yarn (for the KT tote collaboration) while we were there in preparation for the requested swatching.

In process of winding: the dining room chairs are kinda charming, in a rustic knotty way (hopefully no knots in the yarn, though!)...

Now, where to place the wound ball to show off it's lovely wooliness? Perhaps near some other animal parts?

Yes, that is part of an antler set sticking out of a lamp, with a cow skin on the wall behind, why do you ask? Here's a shot of the entire lamp and table set. Even the turner-on-er thingy (er, the lamp switch) had an antler bit attached, which impeded its functionality a bit...

I thought the fireplace-tool-holder (yes, I am making up random-hyphenated-words tonight) was particularly amusing in an antlery way...

Also present, but not photographed, were: A deer skull mounted above the fireplace decorated with random polka-dots; a wire lasso hung within reach of the stairway; a couple of "ceremonial staves" on the wall; skies and snowshoes nailed to the wall (in case of emergency?) and a rabbit pelt randomly placed on the bookshelf. The owners sure have, er, interesting taste! Or they are in fact, Gaston from Disney's Beauty and the Beast: "I use antlers in all of my decorating!"

Begin Travelling Cable Pattern

2007-07-20T18:57:00.001-07:00

Here I will attempt to document the cabled tank top that I mentioned in a previous post. This tank top has been halfway around the world with me (and all I need is to seam it up now - someone, please, make me do it!)

It was cast on in a tent on the slopes of Mt. St. Helens in the rain (pardon the wonky picture, 2 nights camping in the rain and one's hair is not at its best...). The back was straight stockinette and knit up reasonably fast:

And, then, as mentioned before, I learned to cable for the front on a flight to AZ. I didn't have the camera on the flight, but here's a shot of a finished strap:

It languished as two straps connected by a couple of rows for a while...

And then I packed it up and took it to Japan on a business trip! Let me say, a 10-hour plane ride each way is a great incentive to for getting knitting done!

Here we are near the beginning of the flight over...

And after the flight, in the hotel in Japan. See the progress! I wasn't sure whether it was sizing out OK, so I overlaid it on a tank top I had brought with me...

I have more Japan (and Japan knitting!) stories, but on the tank top, the end of the story is... finished on the plane ride back! I don't have a picture, but I had to break into a 4th skein of yarn for about the last 2 inches, and I hadn't wound that one into a ball. Since I was jammed in the window seat next to an old-ish Japanese gentleman who only got up twice (on a 9-hour-flight!), I didn't really have space to wind it, so just tried to unravel from the hank as I went. Of course, I ended up with a huge tangle, and the last two inches of tank top involved sotto voce swearing, yanking out about 2 feet at a time, and probably confusing the heck out of my seatmate. In total, I watched something like 9 movies and knit a whole bunch (including on the trains to and from Tokyo) - knitting is definitely a great travelling hobby! And I was quite amused that part of the instructions was, indeed, "begin travelling cable pattern" :)
PS - if anyone has any idea why the cable on the right (actually a cable-needle-to-front cable, as the tank is knit from the top down) seems to have a lot more dimpling than the one on the left (needle-to-back), let me know. I'm sure my tension is off in some way. I like the look of the needle-to-back one better...

KT's tote questions answered!

2007-07-01T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here are my answers to KT's tote questions to aid in design of a bag from my skein on Malabrigo. Please ignore the weird fonts - Blogger decided halfway through my composition to take away the little "change font" option!

The general picture I have of this bag/tote is something simple with clean lines, taller than it is wide, maybe some stitchwork or cabling that would show through after felting, hopefully that shows off the variegated colorway.

Do you like flaps or no flaps?
I think I would like a flap on this one

Do you want a button (or similar) closure?
Sure - I like the idea of finding a cute button.

Do you like knitting in the round, or do you prefer flat (knowing that it will involve seams)?
Normally I prefer in the round, since I am a bit afeared of seams looking wonky, but since felting hides a lot of mistakes, I'd be OK with either.

Shoulder strap or handle? Knit or non-knit? Two straps or one?
I'm usually all about long shoulder strap(s) that let me sling a bag and leave my hands free. But I recently had to spend time in airport security lines with a backpack on both shoulders while also carrying a small yarn-shop bag with small handles in my hand or on my forearm. And it was quite convenient, since a strap would have slid off the backpack straps.
I wonder if we could design something to serve as both - maybe a long strap that you can loop back on itself (attached to a button/toggle on the back?) to make a shorter handle?
I'm thinking knit , and I'm thinking one strap/handle. If we can't do both, then I guess a long strap - I don't spend too much time in airports, after all!

Do you want it felted or lined (or both)?
Felted! Probably not lined - I have no sewing skills. I do have a small sewing machine, but I broke it after making a cat cushion a year ago, and haven't tried to get it working again. Of course, if you can convince me that it will not be painful to line it (heh), I might give it a try, as I'm sure it will help the sturdiness.

Pockets?
Maybe one - it should be discrete, too, but not so small as to be useless. But I don't have to have a pocket

Should the bag be flat or have depth?
I'm thinking a bit of depth (1-2")

How big are we talking here? (clutch, purse, tote, bag)
Big enough to carry a small project like socks, plus wallet and cell phone. I'm thinking about 9" tall, and something smaller than that for width - 7"? Of course, this may not be compatible with the small depth and wanting to carry a project - I could be convinced to make it bigger, but I don't want a huge bag! (and with only one skein, that's not so much an option.

What do you think of ripples, welting, or other stitch patterns?
I like your wavy days clutch, but I think I'm envisioning something less complicated for the overall shape for this bag. It might be cool if the flap could be rounded. Maybe a simple stitch pattern like a cable or two up the back and down the flap? Any non-fussy stitching is fine - again, I'm thinking clean lines, simple, etc. But some reinforcement for sturdiness might be good, since I would like to be able to hold keys, needles, etc in it.

Can we mix crochet with the knitting (for finishing, button loops, etc.)
I've never crocheted (boy, that word looks weird!), but am willing to try simple stuff.

KT collaboration bag, part one.

2007-06-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a lovely skein of Malabrigo worsted in variagated colorway 'verdes' at a very nice yarn shop in Hood River, OR (we were camping semi-nearby, and came into town to escape relentless rain). There was a sample felted bag in the store with a note that it could be made from just one skein (217 yards - a fairly long skein). And it was only $10.50, and I need a smaller bag to go with the giant felted one I've already made - how could I resist?

Later that week, I discovered that my college roomie, KT, had a knitting blog and was in fact a published pattern-writer. (as she put it, we are terrible about keeping in touch, but love each other anyway :)). In fact, her blog was the inspiration for me to start this one! Anyway, her specialty is bags, so I figured I'd ask her what I should do with this lovely soft, green yarn. She emailed me a list of questions to help her in determining the best design. Then I started my blog, and we decided that we'd collaborate on the bag via our blogs! So she posted her questions, and soon I will answer them!

Quick note from Phoenix

2007-06-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

So, I made a fairly last-minute trip to Phoenix (Chandler, to be exact) for work, and wanted to note that a direct flight from PDX to PHX was exactly the right amount of time to knit one (1) tank top strap from the Cabled Tank Top that I am working on from the Spring/Summer KnitSimple magazine. Mind you, this was my first ever cabling, so I was pretty proud to initiate it at takeoff, squashed in a middle seat between a couple of rather grumpy seeming folks.

It's so cool how the cable emerges - after the first one I was convinced that I had done something wrong, but pressed on, and it all became clear. What most knitting books don't seem to show is how the fabric really is doubled around the cable, and how much the width pulls in compared to an equivalent number of plain stitches.

Pictures later - I didn't bring the camera on this trip! I'm flying back tomorrow afternoon, and expect to have the second strap done and be working the front body by the end of the flight!

Edited to add a the picture from the magazine - this is what I've been working on, but in glacier blue "2nd time cotton". Ain't the cable nifty?

Finishing up FOs

2007-06-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

Last FO, and from here on out it's all WIP (heh, that's a slightly different acronym at work!) until I actually finish something else. I made a lil lacy bag (pdf) for my Mom - an early mother's day present before my parents went off to Africa to visit my brother in Botswana:

The yarn is Araucania 'Pomaire', a lovely skein of variegated blues given to me for my birthday by my sister-in-law. It's 100% cotton and quite soft. This was my first (and so far only) lace knitting, and I quite enjoyed it once I had finished ripping out the first 5 rows for the third time! (I suspect that is common to first-time lace-knitters worldwide!)

Here's a detail of the stitching - the pattern came out quite nice. Andy (old-school D&D player) likened it to a hip pouch. I haven't heard from Mom yet if she found any small treasures in Africa to store in it.

Next post: WIP! And possibly geocaching, too!

As a preview, let me post a random geocaching/PNW (that's Pacific Northwest, of course) picture from Memorial day weekend. We canoed across a gorgeous mountain lake and found a geocache on the other side...

Finally, congrats to KT on posting her first patterns for sale! They're supercute! I think I need to find some of that yarn...

More back-dated knitting FOs

2007-06-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

Documenting previous FOs...

#2 was the umbilical cord baby hat from Stitch and Bitch, knit for a college friend's newborn son. Finished Feb '07, made of TLC 'Amore' - I wanted a soft, washable acrylic, and this fit the bill. It came out well; my Mom turned out to have knit an afghan for my cousin out of the same yarn (I found this out after I bought mine) and recommended it, but warned that it tends to split, which it did somewhat on the icord part. Here, Cirrus is not-quite-modeling :)

March was a knitting, not a finishing month, I guess. #3 is was finished in early April, and is now my staple (huge) knitting bag - Brown Sheep lamb's pride bulky wool, knit according to a Fiber Trends pattern but with one strand bulky rather than 2 strands worsted, and felted reasonably aggressively.Oh, and there's some novelty yarn in there too :). I love how it came out, but the mohair content makes it rather fuzzy - I had to give it a good shave with Andy's beard trimmer! Shown before and after felting.

About the same time I finished 2 more baby hats for a friend having twins (and I still have tons of the TLC yarn left, now in two exciting colors). These baby hats were all knit on DPNs, by the way, but I have since taken a Magic Loop class and will probably go that way in the future. Much easier cast-on!

Hello, sticky world!

2007-06-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

It's bedtime, so of course I'm posting a brief note. Let's see, can I display a picture? My first finished object knitwise was a garter stitch scarf, of course, at the end of January 2007. (And of course, blogger won't rotate this, and Andy's homebuilt image management system won't either, so I'm stuck with sideways-Andy modeling. Or maybe it's the amazing gravity-defying husband (and scarf)!)

And, our first geocache find, back in 2001, was White Sand Beach, near Monterey, CA, where we had gone for an Andy's birthday / Thanksgiving getaway. The cache is long since gone, of course (though amazingly our 3rd cache find, at the Berkeley Marina, is still in existence), but I remember leaving Andy in the car with a sore back and making my way into the scrubby bushes by the beach to find treasure!

(gah, geocaching won't show archived caches, and won't show much cache data at all unless you're logged in. Sorry to the non-cachers out there (it's free to sign up with geocaching.com...)!!)