New Year Blues!

 For a change, I decided to work up some cowls and infinity scarves as the year came to a close. This first one is one skein of Misty Alpaca Chunky, which I overdyed with BlueGum dye. I love the bright blue color, and this one skein project is very easy. On a size 10.5 needle, Cast on 30 sts using a provisional cast on, and knit 30 sts. Turn and knit 30, then turn,* knit 15, wrap and turn, knit 15. Turn, knit 30 sts  4 times, repeat from * . When you have approx a yard of yarn left,and yarn is coming out at opposite end from beginning tail yarn,  remove provisional sts and place live sts on a needle. Here you can either do a 3 needle bind off, or graft by Kitchener stitch for Garter: which is as follows:( set up leave P front, P back), then work across row as follows:
Front needle:K off, P leave
Back needle:K off, P leave.

 Now, this seed stitch cowl was done with size 19 needles and 2 skeins of "Baby", a kind of big wool. A nice warm merino!

 This infinity scarf was made with 3 skeins of Bocciolo, which was a birthday gift from my friend Cara. I love how the yarn's bobbles of bright blue popped out! I used double moss stitch, which was loosely followed, as this was my knit-in-public knitting for a while, and some wine may have been involved. But I love this scarf!

My final project for December, shown here still in progress, was done with "Crazy Sexy Wool" by Wool and the Gang ( www.woolandthegang.com ), which also made the size 19 needles.Talk about instant gratification! This scarf took about 6 hours to knit, and was a lot of fun to watch grow. I have been having fun learning how to graft in seed stitch, and that formula is approximately thus:
front needle: opposite off, same on
back needle: opposite off, same on
with "opposite" meaning the reverse of how the stitch looks to you ( either K or P), and "same" meaning how it appears ( k or P).
So, Happy New Year to all of my faithful readers, and I hope 2012 brings you all health, peace and prosperity, but also joy and delight!

Thanksgiving Roast Vegetables

When I visited my kids at college last month, we had the most delicious vegetable medly for dinner. I recreate it here for your enjoyment:

Roasted Root Vegetables:

Peel and cut into 1/2 inch cubes the following vegetables:( or purchase pre-cubed)
2 Sweet potatoes or yams
1 butternut squash
2 or 3 Parsnips
3 or 4 fresh red beets

Toss with 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Spread one layer thick on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and a small amount of salt. (Other herbs may be added, but caution: they may overpower the delicate flavor of the veggies).

Roast at 400 degrees for 45 min to 1 hour, turning over every 20 minutes, until most of the veggies are soft and lightly browned.

Serves 6-8.

Serve warm. Will keep in fridge for several days, covered. Reheats nicely!
I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Change of Seasons

Changing seasons here in the NorthEast USA is always a challenge. There is no clear demarcation, so the weather can change from summertime 80 degrees down to chilly 50s in a day. Thus one needs an array of clothes to cover every eventuality! Thus I made 2 similar sweaters, one in linen and one in wool/alpaca to chase away the chills. The top photos are of Waterlily Cosmos, so called because of the waterlily edging and the top down construction like my other Cosmos sweaters. I really enjoyed knitting that one after the unforgiving linen, but the second  sweater, Summer Leaves, has its charms also! It is a variation of the Metamorphosis sweater, with same numbers but different lace patterns. It was a pleasure to play with pattern and texture in both of these, and I am already thinking of more variations.

Labor Day blues

I finally finished my quilt for my son, even though he left for college 2 weeks ago! I always underestimate how long quilts take to make! This one is 72in X 88 in, the size for a Twin bed, and is made of mostly blue and white fabrics which I had on hand. Some are rather old ( one was used as a maternity dress when I was carrying him), one was used in his Bar-Mitzvah quilt, several were used in "Crystal Blues", a quilt I made in 1998, whic I still enjoy. I also bought a few  new pieces of fabric for this quilt. It is machine pieced and quilted, with a walking foot for the body of the quilt, but with free motion for the border. I also machine applied the binding. It was a challenge to photograph this huge thing! I hope he likes it...

Baby Cat

As I am getting my kids ready to go off to college, and thinking about my "empty nest", naturally I recall how much fun it was to have a new baby in the house, and fondly recall the fun of each of my children's growth and childhood. It is incredible to me that these young men are ready to enter the world, albeit the relatively safer realm of college, but still my house will be quiet! Except for the 2 cats, of course. They would keep me busy. And my older son requested a quilt for his bed, so I have been busily sewing and cutting and enjoying watching that take place.

Meanwhile, last night at 6pm my son's Japanese teacher  called in a panic, as she had found a baby kitten in the road near her house and didn't know what to do with it, but couldn't keep it because of her dog being too aggressive. She had called her vet who said they maybe could take it later today, but she needed someone to take it  for the night. I agreed to take it over night, so she dropped off this little kitten. And I mean little. Its eyes were still closed, and the umbilical cord was hanging off it, so it probably was 2 days old if that. I had some cat milk and an eye dropper, and Bobby and I made it a warm nest with a hot water bottle and one of those plastic boxes and an old towel. It mewed pitifully, and we tried to feed it while I called shelters and vets offices which were all closed, and I concluded it wasn't going anywhere last night. My younger son, who loves kittens, was up till 4:30 am with it, and I got up at 9 and resumed feeding, trying to get it to pee ( mother cats lick their babies butts to make them pee, so the website I found ( http://www.kitten-rescue.com/) suggested cotton balls and warm water....it was very stressful as it kept mewing for its mother and was kind of freaked out, but so cute and fluffy and tiny! Little claws and whiskers! I was relieved and sorry when Mako came to take it at 1:30, but it was good because by then I had remembered the anxiety and the stress of babies, their incessant neediness, and their inability to be alone for a moment, and the huge feeling of responsibility for a tiny creature, adorable as it was, was too much for me! I am glad and proud of my kids going off to college, and I did my bit, so perhaps it is time for a new phase of life, with a bit more freedom to do as I please! I still have to sell the house, so there is a lot to keep me occupied.....

Hot time

Summer! It has been blazing hot lately, and all I want to do is knit with linen. I finished a couple of sweaters in lovely linen, and am in the process of designing and knitting several more. Of course, with the heat I haven't worn them much, although with the airconditioning in some buildings, a lacy linen sweater is just the thing.The beige one started out as a square block, then grew into a long strip, then I added the sides and followed my "Medallion Cardigan" pattern. You can see details on my Ravelry project page here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/knitbird/medallion-lace-cardigan-3

The blue one is a version of Cosmos Cardigan, which I really must make time for writing up the pattern! Lazy me...but it is tricky to explain, so I have let that one languish.

 But in the meantime, I have published my "Metamorphosis Sweater" which is the result of our BadCat winter KAL where we designed a custom-fitted to your measurements seamless lace sweater, along with the folks who test knitted the pattern with us. It really is a workshop in a pattern. It runs 30 pages, and is available here:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/metamorphosis-sweater. You need to get the 47 pages of lace charts from BadCatDesigns, though, so in total the package runs $20, but it is a goldmine of step by step information to customize this amazing sweater in 8 sizes, so it can really fit anyone.

I have also started knitting the Back To The Garden Shawl, as part of BadCatDesigns Summer KAL ( http://www.badcatdesigns.blogspot.com/ )but that one is taking me a while because it is the most complex lace I've done in a while and not suited for watching TV quite yet..but it is so gorgeous I want to do it. It will have to grow slowly though, as I've never been much of a gardener.!

It has been a busy spring, with one son graduating from High School, and with college and jobs and various transitions happening all at once. I am still in the process of trying to sell and to declutter the house, but it isn't easy to part with my stuff....so, that is what I've been doing...

Waiting for

In the midst of cleaning and decluttering the studio, and my house, it is difficult to create things, as one doesn't want to make a big mess.But what could be neater than doing a big quilting project where the design hinges on the quilting itself?

At least 5 years ago, I dyed 2 pieces of fabric in a radiating color pattern, and drew a design on one piece. Then it sat for a long time, as I was hesitant to find the perfect way to quilt it. Last month I got inspired to use black thread and just go for it, using as many references as I could to find for patterns for the areas to be quilted. I used "The Grammar of Ornament" by Owen Jones as a kind of reference manual, and when I got stuck for inspiration, I would open it at random and see what patterns spiked my fancy. Then I adapted them for quilting patterns. Co-incidentally, my friend Elizabeth (  http://www.elizabethrosenberg.com/weblog/ )    had been doodling with marvelous designs, and somehow I heard about Zentangles, so I was primed to find lots of doodle inspiration to guide my quilting. So, here is the result, "Goodbye New York" 39X39 inches,which won an Honorable Mention at the Northern Star Quilters Guild show this past weekend. And some detail shots:

And I've kind of been on a finish up UFO kick lately, so there are a few sweaters coming to fruition. Of course, in the process of cleaning and sorting I am finding lots of fun ideas and half-finished things which cry out for frogging or for finishing.

So it is fun to make that decision sometimes.

Also, for the Northern Star show, I made a small auction piece, which was kind of a sample, and used hand dyed fabric I made a few years ago, with a portion of the design. I thought it would be good to have a place to experiment, but I ended up doing that piece afterwards. I also quilted the negative space in that one with matching thread, which I thought wasn't as effective as leaving some areas unquilted, as I did with the big one.. It sold at auction, and now has a happy home.

I have designed the outline for the next one, and I'm in the process of quilting that, so hopefully it will turn out as nicely as the first one! . One never knows, in a series. If not, I might have to dye some more fabric...

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