Trip to Pennsylvania and "Daphne and Delilah"

Well, I am back home from a week long visit in PA. Ron and I went down to visit my parents. Our original intention was to be there for the Bloomsburg Fair which is a favorite attraction of mine, ever since I was a kid. Ron has come to like it too and we were both looking forward to it. However mother nature had other plans.

 A few weeks before the fair was to begin the rain started and then the flooding. And Bloomsburg became one of the hardest hit towns in the whole state. At one point twenty five percent of the town was underwater. While it was thought for a while after the flood water started to recede that the fair might still take place, the fair board made the wise decision to cancel. This was, I am fairly sure, the first time in the 157 year history of the fair that it was ever cancelled.

We still made the trip and got to visit family and friends which was great. But we also got to witness the damage that was done. Not only were basements and first floors flooded, but some of the hardest hit houses were actually swept right off their foundations by the force of the water. Some families abandoned their houses altogether while others have started the process of cleaning, repairing and rebuilding. It was really a sad sight to see and I am very thankful that my family was spared.

On a lighter note I got to make a fun present for a co-worker of mine. Well, actually for her daughter. I had been saying for a while that I wanted to make something for her so with her first birthday coming up the time was right. I decided to make her a "Daphne and Delilah" which is a momma and baby monster as designed by Rebecca Danger. My co-worker told me that her daughter's favorite color is yellow, so I made sure to incorporate a lot of it. I actually thought that the baby monster would probably be her favorite since it it all yellow, but she said that she actually carries the momma monster with her most of the time.

 If you take a look at the original pattern on Ravelry or on Rebecca's site, you'll see that both of the monster's have pointier teeth than what I decided on. I just figured that for a one-year old, rounder teeth might look a little more friendly!

Well, I guess I'm off to bed. I have to head back to work tomorrow. While I have a little bit of that end-of-vacation blues I must say that I do really enjoy my work and it will be nice to see my co-workers again (yes, I consider myself to be one of the lucky people who actually has nice co-workers!).

LISTENING TO: Blondie - "Panic Of Girls"

One of Ron's favorite bands is Blondie. I myself have enjoyed a lot of Blondie's hits over the years, but before I met Ron I wasn't one to rush out and buy their albums. The one exception to this is Parallel Lines which was one of their most popular and one that I still really like. However in the five years that Ron and I have been together I have heard a lot more of Blondie than I would have on my own and I've come to like them even more. So we were both excited to hear the new material. The good news is that the new album is quite a nice surprise. The band sounds refreshed, full of energy and ready for the airwaves again, some three decades after they began. The first single off the album is "Mother." I've linked the video below so you can take a listen for yourself. It's hard to believe that Debbie Harry is 65!

Geet! Claude!

A few projects ago I knit what has become one of my favorite "toy" projects. It's a "Geet" monster from Rebecca Danger's awesome Big Book Of Knitted Monsters. Now granted, I am an adult man, almost forty years old, but I love this little guy! What can I say, he just has so much personality! He has gone on road trips and camping trips with us. Here you can see him on our last camping trip having breakfast...

 And later that night we snapped this shot of him warming himself by the fire...

He was such a big hit that I decided I better make one for Ron, as I think he was feeling a little left out as far as pet monsters went. So I had him look through the book and he picked "Claude." So I went to work and here's the final result...

The two of them get along well and recently went on a bike trip with us in Acadia National Park. Here they are on the way to the park in their cupholer/carseats...

And finally, here's a shot of Geet on the trail, safely strapped onto the back of the bike. He wasn't wearing a helmet, but the way he's sitting under the seat I guess that could work like a helmet?...

All in all, very fun little guys to knit. FYI, the only modification I made from the original patterns was to stitch the eyes on instead of using safety eyes...the eyes that I had would have looked too small on this size monster so I grabbed some black yarn and stitched these on in place of the plastic ones. But I think they came out quite nicely anyway!

Testing, testing...

In an effort to expand the ways in which I can post to my blog I am trying out the ability to post via email. The thought is that if this works, I will be able to post from anywhere, at any time, and hopefully that will encourage me to post more frequently! Let's see...

Sent from my Palm Pixi on AT&T

The finished shawl...

Well, the shawl has been done for a bit now, but I just haven't gotten around to posting the pictures, so here we go. This first shot is a mostly-over-all-view of the whole shawl.

This next one is a close-up of the top edge...

...and then the bottom "point."

This last one is a detail of the "lily of the valley" pattern.

I hope you enjoy seeing the pictures of the finished project and I hope it was worth the wait to see them! I have actually made 4 other items since then so I'll have lots of reasons to hop on here much sooner than later and get them posted!

LISTENING TO: 

VEDA HILLE - "This Riot Life"

This album is a real beauty by one of Canada's finest singer/songwriters. It came about after a year of personal tragedy, the details of which are left unidentified by Veda herself. However following the impact from that year, Veda found her attention turning to her grandmother's copy of The Hymnary, a collection of traditional hymns printed in the 1930s. Six of the final album's tracks are based on hymns from this book. Most of them as they are altered in some way, though some are almost verbatim. While she defines herself as non-Christian, she found a power and intensity in the way that these songs channel ecstatic feeling. This may all sound a bit heavy or artsy, however it is handled with such skill that there is a real sense of joy and wonderment about the whole affair. Well worth a listen...click the image below to check out "Book Of Saints."

More On The Shawl

The work continues on the Triangular Summer Shawl. The time that I've spent working on this has been busy, so the progress has been a little slower than I'd like. But unlike the previous shawl I made, this one starts at the top (shoulder) edge. So I am working on the longest rows first and decreasing my way down to the bottom-most, narrowest portion. I think that this makes progress feel slower, but in a sense I have gotten a good percentage of my total knitting done in this part.

I am just finished with the first of three charts for the main body of the shawl. After the next two charts, all I'll have to do is create a lace edge that will then be sewn (kitchener stitched) onto the lower body of the piece. Hopefully I'll make some good progress tomorrow which I have off all by myself!

The picture above shows where I'm at right now. It's interesting to see the lace in this state because it really doesn't look like much. But I'm excited to see how it looks when all is done and it's been blocked. It should be quite amazing!

For the love of "nupps"

So I've already started my second shawl. It is the Triangular Summer Shawl from Nancy Bush's "Knitted Lace Of Estonia." I am making this as a gift for my partner's Mom, Nancy. Below is a picture of what the finished shawl will look like...

What I'm discovering with this project, and the last one, is that I'm really loving knitting lace. This is coming as a revelation to me as I avoided it for so long. I thought it would be too involved or fiddly. How would I keep track of where I am in the pattern? What if I drop a stitich? But by taking my time, learning the techniques involved and picking up tips from other knitters sharing their experience, I'm now wondering why I waited so long to try it?!

Part of what I'm really having fun with on this shawl is the inclusion of the "nupp" (rhymes with "soup"). A nupp is a bobble-like feature that adds depth and texture to the shawl. They are used frequently in Estonian shawls. In the case of this shawl in particular, it makes up part of "lily of the valley" pattern.

A traditional nupp is started on the front and finished on the back . It is made by knitting into a stitch but leaving it on the left needle. Then do a YO. Then knit again into the same stitch, then do a YO, etc. Your last stitch will be a knit stitch and you will end up with either 5, 7 or 9 loops (your pattern will tell you how many) on your right needle, all originating from the one stitch on the left needle. Then remove the stitch from the left needle and continue with the pattern as usual. When you turn your work and purl across the back you will be faced with those groupings of loops. You will need to "close" the nupp by purling all 5, 7 or 9 loops together. This can be a tricky maneuver if you've made those loops too tight. That is why you need to take care when making the nupp on the front side to not only keep the tension loose but actually pull the loops a little with your right needle. This will assure that they'll be loose enough to allow you to purl them together. Nancy Bush demonstrates how easy the technique can be in this video.

My first attempts at making nupps were not very fun. In fact it was plain time-consuming and frustrating. I found that is was almost impossible to get my right needle into all the loops. So I looked into how others were doing them and found that people have come up with all kinds of "cheats" to making nupps in different ways. Some use crochet hooks to close the nupp. Some close the nupp on the front side instead of waiting to do it on the back. Some slipped the first half of the stitches to the right needle, purled what was on the left and then slipped the remaining stitches over. These all produced similar looking nupps. But after watching Nancy's nupp lesson, I found that I was able to purl them together easily. And now that I can make them without any trouble, they have become a fun element that I look forward to. And I like knowing that I am making them in the traditional Estonian way.

Here is a sneak peak of where I am on the shawl now. I sorta sloppily pinned it out to show the pattern a bit and you can see how the nupps are beginning to form the lily of the valley pattern.

You will no doubt notice that I have two lifelines across the work. I suppose there is really no reason to have two, but it's a habit I've gotten into. When I get to the point that I am ready to add a new one, I take out the one that is further back and make it the newest lifeline. Though I hopefully will never suddenly realize that I had so many mistakes that I'd need to frog back to the second lifeline, I figure it certainly doesn't hurt to have that double protection...just in case...

Leaf Pattern Lace Shawl

Hi there! Sorry it's been a while since my last post. But things have been busy, life moves at a fast pace, time flies when you're having fun, etc, etc, you know the routine...grin. What I've been doing with myself, knit-wise anyway, is working on a shawl for the last two months and it is now finished!

The pattern is the "Triangular Scarf in Leaf Pattern" by Nancy Bush from her book "Knitted Lace Of Estonia." It seems to be way too large and triangular to be considered a scarf to me but what do I know? In any case I made this for my Mom for Mother's Day and can't wait to deliver it to her. We are heading down to visit Mom and Dad in just over a week, so it will be a little late, but I'd much rather be able to give it to her in person than mail it down.

This is the first lace project I've worked on. I must say that it made me a little nervous at first. All those yarn overs, increases and decreases...how do you keep track of them all? But I found that with a little patience and practice I got pretty good at it and my comfort level increased. One thing that I would recommend is using a lifeline. It isn't mentioned in Nancy's book (unless I missed it...), but putting in a lifeline every six or eight rows was a life saver on a couple occassions.

As I was knitting along it was hard to imagine what the final project would look like. Granted, I had the pictures in the book, but my blob of bunched up yarn looked nothing like that. So I kept on knitting, keeping the faith that mine might end up looking like the beautiful piece of lace pictured alongside the pattern.

And lo and behold, it did! The blocking process was actually pretty cool and made much easier using the blocking wires I got from Knit Picks. I imagine it would have been much more time consuming and a harder task overall to have to pin out each individual point. But using the blocking wires, t-pins and some foam interlocking flooring squares that I got at a local discount store, I had it done in no time. And what a transformation! Actually I enjoyed making this shawl so much that I've already started on my next one. I'll post an update soon to show you how it looks so far. Til then...

Penelope!

Well, the quilting and patchwork is still something I'm playing with, but I took a step back to knitting to make a present for a co-worker. She didn't really give me any clues as to what she would like so I chose to make her a Penelope monster by Rebecca Danger over at Danger Crafts. Mostly because I've just been wanting to make one for awhile now!

The monster turned out really nice and I didn't go off track too much while making it... Usually when I make something I do something wrong that I end up having to work around or fix in some way. It happened again with this one and was a simple mistake of not following the directions closely. I was supposed to work on placing the eyes BEFORE closing the bottom of the monster. Well I closed the monster up, put on the ears and feet and then said to myself, wait, how am I going to attach the safety eyes if I can't put the backs on them. D'oh! So I just decided to use embroidery thread to add the eyes. I also left off the round patch around one of the eyes because the brown color would have been too close to the black that I used to make the eyes. All in all I think it turned out pretty well. I especially like the bow that I made up out of some of the material I had for quilting.

So now that Penelope is finished and on her way to her recipient, I'm off to work on some more quilty stuff. I hope to have something to show you soon!

Trying something new...

My great aunt was a quilter. Her work was beautiful, hand-pieced and hand-quilted. She made one for all of us nephews and nieces for our graduations plus many more that were given to friends and family. It was always something that I was interested in when I saw my great Aunt's quilting, but as a young boy I knew that I shouldn't be interested in it, that it was certainly something only girls did. Well, I'm an adult now and just like my knitting I have decided, to hell with it, if I'd like to try quilting I'm going to.

I'm starting with some small patchwork projects with the thought that someday I may tackle a whole quilt. So I got myself a couple of books. I found a few on Amazon, used and cheap, that were for quilting beginners. And I found a few at Joann's that were new but 40% off. And I found one more at Borders that I had a 50% off coupon for...what a deal! After reading through a lot of the information I decided to take my first project from this book:

And actually, the first project I made is the very one featured on the cover, a set of patchwork coasters. I started out by hand piecing all the coaster tops. I wanted to do this instead of machine piecing them to get a feel for how things are done by hand. Hand piecing was easy and enjoyable to do, but definitely more time consuming. For something of this scale it was not really an issue but I imagine that hand-piecing a whole quilt top would take considerably longer than doing it by machine.

The rest of the project I did by machine. This included sewing together the three layers of the coaster (the pieced top, the batting and the linen backing) and the quilting of the coasters themselves. I also used the sewing machine to make the coaster tray. This was a fun re-learning process because I really hadn't used a sewing machine since middle school Home-Ec class and it allowed me to figure out how everything works before moving on to something bigger.

The "I Love Patchwork" book is a great one for beginners as it is very detailed and teaches you everything you need to know along the way (with the exception of how to use a sewing machine). Though I will certainly not make even the majority of the 20+ projects presented, I know of at least 5 or 6 that I want to tackle. Not only are they well thought out and beautiful to look at, but they are also practical household items such as a placemat, napkin, pincushion, pillow, table runner, kitchen towel, etc...

So I may be taking a bit of a break from the yarn for a while, but I hope that in taking up patchwork I have found something that will not replace knitting but be a nice compliment to it. And I'm hoping that after a few smaller patchwork projects that I will be able to say that I am about to take on a quilt, one that would make Aunt Sarah proud...

Post-Christmas post

How was everyone's holiday? We had a really nice one, spending time with Ron's family both Christmas eve and Christmas day. We managed to keep the gift exchange to a minimum which was great and just spent a lot of our time together visiting and eating...a lot...like everyone else. Next year we'll head to PA to spend the holiday with my parents which is what we did last year. It's kind of nice to alternate the holidays like that and that keeps all the parents happy!

We ended up getting both sets of parents a silly little gift that ended up being a big hit. It was a scalp massager that we got at Bed Bath & Beyond for a whopping $4. It looks pretty much like a whisk with the bottom end cut off leaving a bunch of wire hanging down from the handle. The ends of these wires are coated with rubber.

You then hold it by the handle and press it down onto the scalp. It opens up as you press down and you use it to 'tingle' your scalp. It's actually a pretty fun little gadget and for what ended up being a last minute addition to their packages it was the one that got the most attention. If you're interested in checking them out they do sell them on Amazon as well. Just click here... (and no, I am in no way affiliated with Amazon, nor do I get a kickback...in case you were wondering!)

Knitwit!

The other day Ron and I headed out to the grocery store and on the way there I mentioned that I had just been emailed a 50% off coupon for Borders. Borders is right next door and I hadn't been to browse the knitting books in a while. And a 50% off coupon is pretty rare, so I thought I might as well at least take a look. Well, it definitely paid off as I found the new toy book "Knitwit" by Katie Boyette (FYI: the following images are not mine. They are all the property of Katie Boyette and have been used by me to show what can be found in the book).

Katie's designs are great. They run the gamut from traditional creatures such as a bird (albeit a make-believe one)...

...a lobster, an elephant, owls...

....and a ninja...

 ...to totally original creatures like a vampiric panda...

...a cyclops dressed in a bunny suit... 

 ...and numerous monsters including a rather forlorn-looking yeti...

As you can see she makes a lot of the creature's faces using felt that is cut out and then stitched on giving them a lot of expression. I can't wait to get started on one of these guys, but can't decide which one to pick. Stay tuned to find out which one it'll be!

New music...

I've gotten interested in a new, up-and-coming artist. Her name is Aly Spaltro but she goes by the band name of Lady Lamb The Beekeeper. She used to live in the next town over from mine but has just moved to NYC to pursue her music full time. I knew her, kind of, because she worked at the independent DVD store in town, but sadly I didn't even know of her music until after her move.

In a time of such artificial and label-dictated music, she is refreshingly herself, real and sincere in what she does. If you HAD to give her music a label I would lean towards folky-rock with some similarity to Cat Power, more by chance than design.

If you would like to check her out, you can find her on Youtube, her website, and for a limited time you can buy her first two albums here. They are titled "The Tingly Circus" and "Someday We Will Levitate." She has decided to post these for only two weeks, so get 'em while you can!

Here are a couple of videos you can check out...enjoy!

Maddox

Well, there's been a slight delay on the aforementioned project so that I could make a house-warming present for a friend. The present just so happens to be a monster by the ever-talented and lovely Rebecca Danger. I've added a picture below so you could see what I've been working on...I've been busy, really I have!

Maddox was very fun to knit and I'm sure he'll be welcomed in his new home.

Tomorrow finds Ron and me helping a different friend move, so probably not much knitting on the horizon until next week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!

Mystery project

Today I started work on a new project. Like the Mini Banana, it's a two-piece pattern. As of this evening I have one of those two parts done and I couldn't be happier with how it came out. Now I'll need to do a little brainstorming on how to make the second part and make sure it fits with the first. Sound mysterious? Well hopefully it won't take too long to complete and the mystery will be over soon.

In other news, Ron and I took a trip to some of the local flea markets late this morning. We both enjoy poking around and seeing what we might be able to find. Though today's trip didn't unearth any treasures, we still had a good day browsing and had some great pizza for lunch. Fun!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

This is just bananas...

Well, I had so much fun with the Mini Eggplant that I decided to attempt designing something else. But I was fairly stumped and unsure what to make next. And then it came to me and what I ended up with was this Mini Banana. I'm really happy with how it turned out and hope you give it a try. Just follow the link below for the pattern. By the way, if you do make one and you are on Ravelry, please post a pic of your project...I'd love to see it!

Here's the pattern for the Mini Banana

Mini Eggplant

Well, after a long period of inactivity in the blogging world, I'm back. Guess I can't stay away!

I've recently developed a sudden interest in developing my own patterns and would like to share them with other interest knitters. In fact, I have one to share with you today for a mini eggplant!

Here's the pattern for the Mini Eggplant

I hope that you give it a try. If you do, please let me know how you make out. Is the pattern easy to follow? Are the instructions clear? Are there any mistakes that I missed in typing it up? Please let me know your thoughts and comments, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

Vespergyle Mittens

I've been working on a pair of Vespergyle mittens. The pattern is by Elinor Brown and they have a two-color stranded "argyle" pattern. This is probably only the second pair of mittens I have made and maybe the second or third colorwork project I've done.

At this point I have one mitten finished and the other one started, maybe 25% done. I’ve learned over the course of the first mitten that something very simple can make a dramatic difference in the look of your finished fabric. Let me explain how this relates to these mittens…

I haven’t done too much two-color knitting yet, but when I do I hold one strand in each hand. While knitting this mitten, I didn’t pay much attention to what yarn I was holding in what hand and didn't imagine it mattered. The pattern started out great, showing the “X” in each diamond of the argyle pattern very well. However somewhere along the way, things started going wrong.

If you take a look at the pictures of the whole glove, you can see there are some dark colored diamonds where the “X” is almost non-existent, having sunk into the fabric (see the orange circled area for a good example of this). I couldn’t figure out why this was happening and decided to do a little research. And at my local bookstore, I found the answer.

 

I picked up Margaret Radcliffe’s “The Essential Guide To Color Knitting Techniques.” On pages 152-153 she discusses positioning the yarns. She shows how something as seemingly trivial as which yarn is held in which hand can change the outcome of your finished work.

By reading this and with a little experimenting, I learned that I need to hold in my left hand the “foreground” yarn, or, in this case, the one which will be forming the “X”s in each diamond. That allows the “X” to show up boldly and not to disappear into the design (See how even the pattern looks on the upper third of the glove). I’m not totally sure I understand the technical side of it of why this works, but I’ll type in the paragraph that really helped me.

“The stitches made with the lower strand (held on the left) are just a bit taller than the stitches made with the higher strand (held on the right). When the foreground pattern is worked with the lower yarn, these stitches are more prominent and stitches neighboring each other diagonally actually touch so the pattern looks continuous. If the foreground color is worked with the higher yarn, then it is less prominent and diagonal stitches appear to be slightly separated. Be careful not to change the yarn position in the course of your project, because the change can be very noticeable.” Also see the accompanying photo below.

This was great info, however I realized that with this pattern of alternating foregrounds (“the X”s that I need to stand out) I DID have to change the hand I was holding the yarn in. So each time I finished working on the “X” of one color, I would need to switch the yarns to opposite hands so that the new, opposite color “X” would stand out prominently. This was one of those great knitting “A-Ha!” lessons that will stick with me and surely come in handy as I continue my color work.

What I’m doing to make the “X”s work for me, may not work for everyone working this pattern. There are most certainly some other small factors coming in to play too. But I did want to pass this information on and make others aware that some fine tuning to your technique can clearly make or break how things will look when it comes to two-color knitting.

What this all means, though, is that I may decide to rip out the first mitten back to the top of the thumb gore so I can ‘fix’ the sunken “X”s. I don’t think I’ll be happy with them otherwise. It’s a bit of extra work, but something I’ll certainly appreciate once all is said and done.

That being said, onward ho!

New Knitting Bag!

A week or so ago, Ron and I were at a local discount/salvage store called Ocean State Job Lots (it's similar to Mardens, Ollies and other such stores...). While we were there Ron noticed that they had a knitting bag. Well, not technically a knitting bag, but a "General Tote" that would work really well as a knitting bag. I checked it over and it looked pretty nice, not to mention the price was right at $10. So I snagged it and I'm really glad I did. It has so many pockets, inside and out, that I'm still finding them! I like that I am able to fit everything that I need in it. While it would make a nice take-along crafting bag, I imagine that I'll use it mostly at home, to contain all the yarn, needles, rulers, etc, that are usually floating all over the coffee table. Here's a pic of what it looks like.

I was going to take some pictures of it, but took the lazy route and looked online instead. I found the one above. The actual bag is identical to the one I have, though the box in this picture is labeled as a Quilter's Tote. Now that I have mine, I was thinking it would be nice to get one for my Mom who has gotten involved in sock knitting recently, but has been knitting in general for a long time. However, it seems like they aren't making these bags anymore. Damn. If I get back to the store and they still have any, I'll be sure to get one more.

LISTENING TO:  Elizabeth Fraser - "Moses"

I was very excited to find this single on iTunes a couple of days ago. It has been such a long time since Cocteau Twins called it quits and despite some guest vocals here and there, Liz Fraser has been pretty quiet. Which is a shame as she has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. So it was a real treat to find out she's still making music. Could this mean a solo album could be in the works? I've got my fingers crossed!! Hit the Play button above to take a listen...

The finished Octopus!

Well, the octopus is now complete. It didn't even take all that long. Probably the most laborious part of the whole process was making the eight tentacles, but even those weren't hard, just a bit repetitive by the time you get to the last couple. I love that he has the pipe cleaners in his legs making him pose-able. I think he might actually look kind of limp and sad otherwise!

I have made a lot of different crocheted (and a few knitted) Amigurumi, but never kept one for myself. So this was going to be the one. However, he kind of decided, all on his own, that he wanted to live atop the water tower on Ron's train layout. That way he can wreak havoc on all the unsuspecting citizens there. And that's ok with me. I can go visit him whenever I want.

On a non-knitting note, I have been totally drawn into the web of pop-hooks spun by non other than Lady Gaga. I managed to resist her for about a year now, but finally gave in and let The Fame into my psyche. I must say that it is a catchy disc and her follow-up, The Fame Monster, while a bit darker, is just as good. Now if I could just get the songs out of my head!

Speaking of music, I used to do a "Listening To:" thing at the end of each post, and with my extended break, got out of the habit. That being said, it was fun for me to share what I had going in iTunes or on the iPod at the moment. I often heard from others who had similar taste in music and got a few tips on bands that I ended up really liking. So, I think this may be the time to resurrect that little section. Here goes...

LISTENING TO: MANSUN - "Kleptomania"

Mansun was a great band from the UK. They started out in 1995 and ended up releasing a series of four EPs before their first proper album, "Attack of the Grey Lantern." The single "Wide Open Space" was the first thing I heard from them and I was hooked from that point on. They eventually disbanded in 2003 after 14 EPs and 3 albums. They were in the process of recording their fourth album when they decided to call it quits. Fans petitioned and those recordings were finally released as "Kleptomania." Here's a live video of the song that started it for me...