Projects!

Just as I say I'm transitioning into wedding blogging... I knit something!

My cousin is due this week - the first baby of the next generation in the family - and I used the occasion as an excuse to knit an oh so adorable Tomten.



The pattern is an Elizabeth Zimmerman classic. I have her book "Knitting Without Tears" and this is my first project from it.

I used some Shibui sock yarn in Peacock (I think that's the color) that had just not been working out as anything else. It clearly wanted to be this sweater, as it knit up nearly perfectly. The pooling you see on the arms is from the additional skein I had to buy to make it through the arms. Now I have enough leftovers to make a cute pair of booties. Probably not for this baby, but one of the other three that will be born in the next six months!

This patttern is fantastic, and pretty easy. No crazy shaping or stitches - it did take some imagination to figure out how to sew the arm seams to the underarms, but really, it just works.

The next project is not knitting, but making the backyard ready for a wedding (we're into the four week countdown!!). Right now, we're working with this:

While it's pretty green, the bed is full of weeds. We took out everything that was planted there, and nothing we planted grew! So, Roomie Liz and I bought a ton of flowers to plant in there:

Foxgloves, hydrangea (four different colors!), a gorgeous red rose bush (that might go in front actually) and a bunch of shade loving annuals.

I also have these to dress up the plain old fence with:

I'll post some "after" shots when it's all pulled together. Cross your fingers for big improvements!

What's Going On Here?

Something strange is happening... I can't quite make it out...

Oh! Hello there!

Would you believe I haven't knit a stitch since January, and today I whipped up one of these adorable little guys?

Well, it's true.

A combination of a crazy busy semester and my brain focusing on wedding things instead of knitting things led to a complete halt in all things knitting.* Until now. When I realized I have at least four pregnant friends, all of whom will soon have tiny little feet that need covering! (Well, that's not quite true- my friends' feet won't be shrinking, but my friends will soon have babies who have tiny little feet in need of covering.)

The semester is over, and I have one week of vacation before I start my summer job. I plan on making as many booties as possible in the next five days.

Ready, set, go-go-gadget-baby-booties.

*Ahem. Sorry for the four month lapse in blogging. If anyone is interested in wedding-related things that have nothing to do with knitting or baking, speak up in the comments and perhaps something can be arranged that would involve posting at a more frequent interval. ;-)

Snowed In!

Since I last posted, we've gotten another 14" of snow! Portland hasn't seen this much snow since 1968, or so they say. We're most definitely snowed in. Not even the garbage collectors or the mail carriers have been by in days!
I've started on my second annual Winter Break Sweater. This year, I chose the February Lady Sweater (Rav link), which bears a striking similarity to last year's sweater. Top down, garter stitch raglan with lace bodice. Maybe I'll branch out in 2009 and try something different. But, because I'm the last person on the planet to cast on for the FLS, I'm just running with it.
Lamb's Pride, because I had a gift certificate and a specific gray in mind. Even though I desperately wanted Malabrigo or Dream in Color, the yarn shop didn't have gray Malabrigo and doesn't carry Dream in Color. So I settled for a wool/mohair blend. I think it will work out just fine.

And, lastly, a momentous occassion.
My very first (successful) pair of socks have finally worn through! They got felted (you lie, Lion Brand!), and I think lasted longer than they would have otherwise. Mike got two years of good, hard use out of them and I think this is a man who deserves another pair of socks.

Maybe even a sweater, now that the curse is broken!

Playing Catch-up

Oh jeez- almost a month since my last post! I am so sorry.

There actually has been knitting going on around here.

I started & finished a Koolhaas with yarn my mom gave me last year. Handspun from North Carolina! It's single ply, and gives the hat a nice fluffy aura and plenty of comfy squishiness.


I meant to be knitting the hat to donate to an auction I am co-directing at the law school, but I ended up loving it too much to give it away! So, I immediately cast on for another.


This one is in Cascade 220, in the color "straw wheat" (I think). I bought a sweater's worth back in the spring and when it arrived, I decided it was too bright for a whole sweater. So, I made a pair of fingerless mitts for a friend for Christmas (no photos yet, sorry!) and started this hat.

I am planning on knitting a cropped sweater out of this yarn anyway. I have 5 or 6 skeins left, and just have to pick a pattern. And finish up Christmas knitting.

This holiday weekend has been quite relaxing and (mostly) wonderful. We spent Thanksgiving at our house with roomie Liz - 12 pounds of turkey for the three of us!! It was an amazing traditional feast, and a great day. We swore off the internet and computers all day and challenged ourselves to play every single board game we own. We made it through 5 or 6 games- not nearly all we own, but a big chunk anyway!

Friday we decorated our mantle (I love having a fireplace!!) and hung some lights up outside.


Then, yesterday, after a fairly grumpy and cranky morning and a rejuvenating walk through the arboretum, Mike gave me a ring and asked me to marry him!

We've been engaged since July when I asked him, and I've (especially lately) been really wanting a ring from him. It's a gorgeous deep red stone on a sterling silver band. We both expect these rings to be worn only until the wedding (in a year an a half), so the soft metal isn't a problem. His is sterling silver too, and I think they really look lovely together!

Reading period starts next week, so don't expect to hear from me until right around Christmas!

Have a lovely December, everyone!

Which Comes First?

The Chicken?


Or the egg?
For us, the chickens came first. On Monday, we went out and bought two Araucana chickens from a family in Washington. There was some drama when we got the chickens home- we got one in the coop and the other managed to get away before we could get in inside. We chased her down Monday evening, then gave up after we got her out from under a neighbor's deck, but lost her in the bushes.

Luckily, yesterday the one who got away came back! I was at school, but the roomies chased her down and caught her. Less than 6 hours later, these two eggs were in the nesting boxes in the coop!

Can you see the light green tint in the shells? Yummy.

Also, check out these yolks.
Delicious.

Coming Home to Roost

Pooling = bad.

I started work on a pair of Monkeys using some delicious bluegreen Shibui sock yarn. It was nice to be working on a project again, as I hadn't knit a stitch since finishing the Charades (below).

Unfortunately, as you can see, the Shibui + 64 st pattern = hideous pooling death.

I ripped back, adjusted the stitch count, and tried again. Same result. Boo. The socks are currently sitting in time out in my knitting basket, and I'm again casting about for something to knit.

In some exciting house news, we got a chicken coop tonight!

Now all we need are some chickens! We're debating whether we'll get baby chicks (super cute) or older pullets (fresh eggs now!). But whatever chickens we get, they'll have this beautiful home.

Another thing we have is a really cute cat. I hate when bloggers just post photos of their cats, as a regular feature, but I promise I won't do that.

Hello- I make very cute facial expressions!