pondering possiblities

there are two current vacancies in my clothing staple wardrobe. one is a good summer tank.
the other is a good summer cardigan.

cardigan contenders:
berroco's lucy lu
berroco's madeline
berroco's lucy
berroco's gail
the bright striped tie cardigan in the summer ik
rowan's martha

tank top contenders:
berroco's arlene
berroco's nina
chicami, chicknits
shapely tank, white lies designs

now for a little yarn shopping to help me narrow down my choices. bye now.

w.o.w.

the camera battery is recharging. for now i can share with you that the hoffman family women's only weekend was a great success. the rules were that we could only talk about men we knew over 70 and under 10 years of age. we could only talk about men we didn't know from the waist down. in spite of the nor'easter that blew through our getaway overnight friday and all of saturday we managed to have a blast.

how can a weekend that starts with mudslides on the ferry and ends with a nap on the beach, the sun warming your back, be bad.
personal highlights include:
10) going only 30 dollars over my budget.
9) finishing a good book.
8) no cars equals no driving. i love me a good walk; my favorite was the camp cottages of oak bluffs.
7) the full night's rest i woke with on sat am, despite the relentlessly rattling windows all night from the storm.
6) knitting on my opal socks.
5) not wearing a nursing bra all weekend.
4) the fashion. several of us resorted to sporting our extra sweaters, capris, pajama bottoms; whatever we had, as makeshift scarves and headwear to combat the chilliness brought in the too well ventilated summer house by the storm.
3) meeting the up and coming musician newlyweds. at first we thought the bride had an imaginary groom. he was finally sighted and proven a corporeal human being. we all received first hand evidence of this via his hug everyone and love everything philosophy. truly a feel good couple to whom we wish all the best.
2) the sisterhood.
1) coming home to all my babies.

top 5 regrettable moments.
5) big time sleep deficit on saturday night
4) the fashion, see above
3) we told ghost stories sat evening. i arranged with my sisters to sleep with our doors open so i wouldn't have to be ascared of spirits in the night. when i awoke the next morning mine was the only door open! oh, the betrayal! .... or was it ghosts... shit.
2) wearing underwire in my bra.
1) i waited too long to use the extra deep antique bathtub for a soak; it became too cold to disrobe for a bath. did i mention that our weather consisted of a may nor'easter... and our lodgings were directly on the water?

we pulled names from a hat to see who would organize next year's event. this year's planner drew a name, peeked, proceeded to ditch it and make like she hadn't drawn yet... it was my stay of execution... she vetoed that draw because it was my name. she took mercy on the mother of three small ones who would be wrapping up her first year back at teaching at about the time of next year's trip. what a good girl she is. not much faith in me... but her intent was kind. so the second name was drawn. a willing and able organizer; but, a third stepped up, revealing her secret wish to do it up right for us next time... i can't wait to see what she has in store...

whilst awaiting better pics...

lessee...
in the past week, i turned 37, i had an interview to return to work next year, bea turned 1, and i finished cable 8. cable 8 was actually the first thing that happened. it got eclipsed by all the other stuff though; so, i am just now getting around to telling you about it.

for best results glance quickly, focusing on cable 8 top only, then move along. if you happen to be a lingerer in spite of warning; can you dig aidan being a monkey to the left of the mirror? can you dig that my tongue hangs out when i try to balance myself between the back of the sofa and the radiator to take a picture in a mirror that hangs on the wall in poor light? forgive the craptacular photography.

of note regarding cable 8? i matress stitched the side seams because i worried about running out of yarn. i tried the crochet edging on the sleeves several times over until i got a bearable fit. they were too tight, still tight but certainly wearable. i love the shape of it. i think the the texture of the yarn/pattern combo makes me look top heavy when i have it on. i don't like that it rides up. we'll see what blocking does to alleviate these concerns.

i have worn it, over a slim long sleeved tee. the plain sleeves seemed to take some of the focus off the busy eights so i didn't feel like i looked so heavy. it looks great under a blazer that i have. i think it looks homemade but i still like it.

oh yeah. and i impressed everyone at snb, including myself, by dropping eight stitches back a whole half a repeat, that's about six rows, to fix a cable that had gone wrong. i wish i had pictures, it surely was a fun feat of knitting rescue.

more blah blah

the last hoodie continues to sit, languishing, one hood edging and some seaming away from completion. but, i did cast on some toe-up socks in the stash opal. the impetus for the socks is that this weekend i go away for a women's weekend for three whole days on martha's vineyard sans kiddies. i'm trying to wash some of my recycled yarn to continue with te rosada. also present in the knitting bag will be miss dashwood in case i have the urge to cast on for something new.


i was informed that i would hear the results of my interview by friday. that, of course, is the day that i leave, as early in the day as carpooling allows. i hope my husband will get in touch with me if he hears any news. i have no desire to prolong the agony that is anticipation of any answer they could give me.

more goodies from woolybuns

chris had a fun contest, well documented by karen, for us at the last snb. we were to come up with a name for a variegated colorway in the pinks and oranges. i happened to win with the name raspberry creamsicle. i felt a little guilty as it so often seems that i am the one on the receiving end of woolybuns' generosity streak. that passed though, once the participation prize was revealed. each one of us got to choose a skein from the same pile of merino. the difference was that i had first pick. good thing too, since what i picked was one of a kind. i thought about trading it for a luscious pink, but it looked like some of the ladies might come to fisticuffs over it, if it returned to the pot. so, in the interest of keeping harmony within newington snb, i valiantly held on to my first choice... what i won't do in the better interests of my knitting buddies ;)


the yarn is a lovely merino processed from sheep raised by chris' mother in the past? for details you need to visit her blog, i'm not sure i remember the backstory accurately.

with this lovely treat came a challenge. we are to knit something up with our booty in the next month. i think my plan is to pair the merino up with the yarn pictured next to it, some classic elite montera, an alpaca yarn. together they should make a pretty summertime button hole bag. don't you think?

so far so so so.

i'm digging the knitting on cable 8. the yarn is a different story. i like the lightness and the ply of it. what i hate are the knots! two knots is one ball; i thought rowan yarn was supposed to mean something. if that isn't enough, it looks like i'll need one more ball to complete this. it's a discontinued color and the yarn shop sent it to me months ago, i think the chances of my finding matching yarn are pretty close to nil.


the little wound up bit to the right is what's left of two balls after completing the first piece. i'm hoping twice that amount will be enough to do the finishing. fingers crossed...

coffee, tea, or...

in the last few months i've made the switch over from a daily caraffe of coffee to drinking cups of tea serially. the tea certainly does enough for me. but, there is something less romantic about the fuzzy morning headed excuse being 'i haven't had my cup of tea' in place of 'not before my cup of coffee'. i don't know why that is.
if you're wondering, why such a pointless post?, it's because i haven't had my cuppa anything yet.
ta.

shaking off the dust from the rut

what better way than a knit along? it's cable 8 for me. i was inspired by the lovely fo of lesley to knit mine up in the rowan cork i have. like her's, it is from the kit sent along with an annual subcription to rowan magazine; i'll just have to rip the little bits of cindy i had completed so far to reclaim it all. i wonder if the merino will be too warm, but then i think it would make a pretty vest with a slim shirt underneath as well.

early mother's day

if my picot trimmed ankle is cute enough... can you forgive the stubble?

i'm pleased. the third go finally yielded a suitable cuff. it hits below the ankle bone, the picot is of the right proportion to be noticeable. these socks were knit from the denise's toe up sock lesson found on the sock knitters website. i worked the afterthought heel found on the same website. i made up my own cuff. it took three tries. i finally ended on five rounds of plain ss after the heel, five rounds of 1X1 rib after that, finished with a picot worked with 2 cable cast on stitches preceding each 4 cast off stitches. i think it's pretty near 'just right'. the yarn i used way idena crazy. i knit it on u.s. 3's with the picot on u.s. 1's; i generally knit tightly and up my needle 1 size to reach suggested guage.

i have to add, this is my first pair of handknit socks and, though i generally don't even notice wearing socks, these feel positively dreamy. i walk around on happy feet that say, 'thanks for caring, i'm glad you've finally noticed and appreciate that i'm here for you constantly.' much like what a mommy could say to her innocently reliant kids. so don't take your feet or your mommies for granted; give them a treat. or do what i did and use one stone for both by being a mommy and treating your own feet to a nice pair of handknit socks on your necessitous children's behalf.

rut

stands for r u through?

no! i'm still in the stockinette circle of hell. the socks -after number 2 cuff, i still haven't arrived at a cuff i like, so i'll be futzing around with those some more. the hoodie is so close. i just need to check size with a try on for the hood, edge same hood, and seam it up.

budget constraints have me thinking creatively about my little stash. after seeing some quite lovely figure 8 tanks, i've decided to scrap the cindy project and use the rowan cork for the tank instead. i'll be perusing the rowan babies book to decide on a suitable project for the paintbox merino instead of knitting tigger. i think it's a little too fat for cindy, but there may be a similar pattern in there at a larger gauge. that brings the project count for bea in at a more reasonable 3, including the hoodie and miss dashwood.

miss dashwood is going to come out of the rose colored merino socks i started. the ones that were an argyle texture. i guess i really am a process person as it is nothing for me to rip those socks after hours of expirementing now that i've exhausted my curiosity about that pattern. the wool is too nice for socks more bulky than i will appreciate. no, not true; the process comment is misplaced. i really feel that the knitting rut is due in large part to the current fo drought. why can't i finish anything these days; ack!

in the true spirit of a rut, i leave you with no pics and no links, i've linked to everything i've mentioned previously anyway... for the good it did me.