Strange beasties occupy a knitter's nightmares..... 














If ever there was doubt that it was a long, cold winter, six pairs of hand knit socks in need of serious repairs should be proof enough.  Darning.  How horrifying.

Knock. Knock.

Who's there?

Irish.

Irish who?

Irish you a happy St. Patrick's Day!
(From my own personal files of really, really bad St. Patrick's Day jokes.  Sorry, honestly I don't know any really, really good ones.)

And from the files of "It's nearly spring so it's Science Fair Time", here's this year's entry in the messiest science fair project...ever.


Yes, that's me, two kids and lots of plaster of paris. 


Yes, we're making craters.  (The one top right was from a baseball sized asteroid of plaster dropped from about 2m (6 ft) into a tub of wet plaster. Nice parabolic pit crater, if I do say so myself.) 


Yes, it took DH and I scrubbing the sun room on hands and knees to get the resulting ejecta of that big one off of everything.  And I mean everything:  windows, walls, chairs, table, floor, refrigerator, drying racks, the kids and each other.   The impact was, well, quite a bit more, let's say, "energetic" than we expected.

(On a different front, I'm almost done with a sweater that I started Jan 2009 -- pictures soon!)

Finally we have a proper snow day! 



The whole neighborhood was out.  DD#1 was cross country skiing while DH shoveled out the driveway.


DS was trying to single handedly shovel out the front yard.


And DD#2 got the best spot on the sled.

1.  I'm a bit of a sci-fi  fan -- pencil me in for a good Star Trek, Battle Star Galactica or Doctor Who show any time.  So I'm familiar with these baddies from decades of battles with The Doctor..



As I was washing up some of the kids' drink bottles, I spotted this formation and for a split second I thought there might be a tiny plastic invasion force in my kitchen....


Well, they totally amused me. 

2.  On a completely different note, we had our own Spinning Olympics at the Genesee Valley Spinning Guild meeting last Saturday.  I competed in the "spinning while balancing a Golden book on your head" event. 


 And won the bronze metal sheep!  Let's hear it for good posture payoff !


DD#1 competed in and had an excellent showing in the "spin while blindfolded" event.

(That is actually quite difficult and her yarn was even despite not being able to see it.)

3. Here is the latest addition to our family...


"I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him. ..."
(Extra double points for those of you who can guess the source of the quote!)
(Here's the link for those of you who might not be up on children-of-the-seventies cartoon culture.)

(Actually it's some lovely fiber that is destined to become another pair of warm rustic socks for DH.)

4.  And have you ever seen a cuter Harry Potter?


(Wish I could say I made the vest.)

It has been a while only because the last couple weeks have been a bit crazy.  Suffice it to say.... Is there an official emoticon for kids with the stomach virus.  No?  Allow me to suggest one       
                                                                                                                     \/
                                                                                                                     \/
                                                                                                                     \/

So as previously promised some knitting and some random thoughts...


1.  For the love of wool, someone stop me from knitting more Maine Morning mitts!



OK, the mitts may look a bit familiar because, I don't know, it may be that I have knitted about 5 other pairs. I saw this ball of Noro Kureyon (Color 170)  at Yarn Boutique and I fell in love with the colors -- I think they look just like a sunrise.  So somehow the skein jumped in my basket and before a full day passed, I had another pair of mitts.  I think I have a problem.

2.  On the not-making-mitts knitting front, I finished a scarf from the Spunky Eclectic roving that came in November.

Here is what the roving looked like sorted and carded


This is the finished Navajo-plied yarn wound into a ball:

(Yes, I added some nylon sparkle to the fiber when I was carding it.)

And the finished project:


My new scarf from the Yarn Harlot's One Row Handspun scarf pattern.  I was going for a slow change of colors as the scarf progressed from one end to the other although I like the slight variation within the progression.  I also like that this scarf pattern is reversible -- kind of something I look for in a scarf.

3.  And for DD#2, who requested a sweater to keep her warm during dance because during these frozen-solid-in-February kind of days, the studio has become a bit chilly.   A bit of a variation on a shrug. 



Of course, anything would look cute on DD#2. 

Pattern:   Short jacket with ties from DROPS
Yarn:   Universal Bella DK Tapestry
Mods:   Clearly given the name of the pattern, I got rid of the ties and replaced them with over lapping front panels with crocheted button holes.  The yarn was also a completely different gauge so I had fun fiddling with the math to make the proportions work out correctly.  
Complaint with pattern:  I really dislike patterns that take the easy way out and don't bother to write out the full set of directions.  The sum of the directions for the left hand front panel: "Knit like right but reverse."   Well, yeah, I kind of figured that.  

4.  I won some yarn!!!   Did I mention?  I won some yarn!!!

 

Two skeins of sock yarn:  one skein of BeBop by sKNITches (several family members have comment how nice this would look as socks for them)  and a skein of the oft sought after, Wollmeise in the color Kurbis.  (I looked up Kurbis and after thinking "what a nice color orange -- look just like a cooked pumpki pie", turns out Kurbis means "pumpkin in German.  They clearly nailed that color.)   Thank you Loopy Ewe for having the drawing!!! 

5. Now from the random thought arena:
Sometimes I have an issue with the media saying things just because it sounds good. So not to belittle the blizzards that have blanketed the East Coast but the media has taken to calling it "Snowmageddon".  Really?  "Snowmageddon?"  Granted that looks good as a headline but is the media implying the snow represents the ultimate foe in the last great battle between good and evil prophesied to occur at the end of the world? I know they received a record amount of snow and don't have the capability to move like we do here in western NY but when all is said and done, sit tight, it's going to melt.   Not much of a battle when your ultimate foe will quietly disappear when the temperature goes above 32 degrees.   

6. Lastly...
 
Happy Valentine's Day!  Hug someone you love!

In our recent and fleeting January thaw, our once noble snowman lost quite a bit of his bulk and has become an homage to Henry Moore's sculpture work.




I think it bares a striking resemblance to this 1957 sculpture entitled "Woman".  (Gotta love simplicity.) 



Now admittedly, I don't always "get" modern art.  I mean I get the rage against the urban jungle forms where art is constructed of metal castoffs or even shocking images that are meant to be challenging because they break social taboos.  But there is a genre of modern are that seems to be largely random organic shapes and blotches of color.  For example, in the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, there is a nearly completely blank canvass, it has a few shades of white painted across it,  about 12in by 12in  that the placard says is called  "untitled".  And, ok, is it "untitled" to reflect the blankness of the canvass or is there another deeper meaning I'm just completely missing or is it "untitled" simply because the artist just didn't really want to bother thinking up a name?  Still in all, my in depth analysis is...that I like it.  (I should probably work on my in depth analysis.)  I find walking through a gallery of organic shapes and blotches of color completely enjoyable and satisfying even if I don't think I really "get" it. 

One of my favorite sculptures was in the Sculpture Garden in front of the Hirshhorn (What kind of name has two consecutive h's??!!!)museum on the Mall in Washington, DC.  It was a series of five giant bronze "spores" and I just couldn't get enough of looking at them.  I was completely bummed when on our last visit to DC,  they weren't there any more but I did find pictures on the Hirshhorn web site.  They are a series of sculptures called "Spatial concept: Nature" by Lucio Fontana.  So if you see these guys sitting around some green space somewhere, please let me know.  I would love to have a look at them again.





Oh, one more I found another sculpture on the Hirshhorn website by Fernando Botero (say that name out loud -- it just rolls of the tongue) and the title for this is the very definition of truth in advertising...


It's more than 3 feet tall and almost 2 feet across.  You wanna guess the title of the piece? 
The Big Hand. 
I love it!
It doesn't appear that Mr. Botero continued in this series with the Big Foot (potentially trite) or the Big Nose (potentially gross). 

(More knitting next time.)

Mid-January in western NY turns thoughts to chucking it all and moving to Florida    making mittens.  (Truthfully, we have had some very welcome sun the last few days...not a lot of warmth but the sun has been wonderful.)  I've finished some mittens that have been in the works since September.  I had my own little scavenger hunt at the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival to find all the colors of rovings required in the patten, spun the wool, knit the mittens and viola!



Sheepy mittens!  All the wool is from local shepherds (lovely ladies all), most of whom I know from the Genesee Valley Handspinning Guild.  I feel very connected to these mittens as I'm only one step away from shaking the sheep's hand  paw hoof that grew the wool in the first place.  Very cool. 

Pattern:  Sheepy mittens by Amy King from the book All New Homespun Handknits.  (Presumably there is a not so new Homespun Handknit once published that has now been lost into the murk of the river of time.) 
Yarn:  All wool.  All spun by me. 
Mods:  Only the typical lengthening of the hand and thumb.  I added an extra row of solid color between each set of sheep and several rows for the thumbs.

Close-up!


I like the tessellating sheep pattern -- it doesn't scream sheep (Who would really?  Not a very profound thing to scream.  "Sheep!") but has a more subtle sheepiness to it. 

Other mid-January activities have, of course,  included building snowmen and I think the neighborhood kids have shown a gratifying burst of creativity on this one....


I love the mohawk and the heart tattoo.  (Hi DD#2!)

Side view to get the full effect of the mohawk:

And a snowman with ears and a backfin, brilliant!

I mentioned we've had some clear skies which have provided a palette for some stunning sunsets.





Since our neighborhood is so full of trees, I really only get to see sunsets at this time of year.  The rest of the year, I have a somewhat obstructed view -- not that I'm complaining about the trees.  One of the greatest sounds in the spring, is finally hearing the wind in the leaves again. 

** Point of clarification from the last post: I was re-reading my last post and  I wrote some flannel about "If I drank beer...blah blah blah...."  I seem to be  implying that I don't drink beer.  I actually do but  have a very small subset that I enjoy.  I don't like light colored hoppy beer.  I do like fruit flavored beers.  Yes, I know those barely count as beer. I also enjoy Guinness, but only on tap.  I've tried the Guinness from a can that has a head-making capsule in the bottom.  Well,  interesting use of compressed air but a poor substitute at best and having the can rattle when it's empty is just unnatural -- feels like someone was prematurely using the can as a penny bank. 

This is my latest project...



Clearly this did not involve, yarn, needles or wool.  (OK, you in the back, stop the feigned surprise.)  What this does represent is the accumulation of kids' souvenirs from our family vacations over the last 3 years.  After some ill-fated searches for appropriate souvenirs, we finally settled on patches.  Previous attempts included:

Post cards: Pluses:  Light.  Inexpensive.  Minus: Largely ended up in a box under the bed.

Tourist brochures: Pluses: Free. Light.  Minus: Again,ended up in a box under the bed.  Only so much room under bed.

T-shirts:  Pluses:  Practical.  Minuses:  Can be expensive when dealing with 3 kids. Kids out grown them, then I save them. Again ending up in box under the bed.  (If you visit my house, please do not look under beds.)

Rocks from various sites:  Pluses:  Free.  Fun for kids to look for unique specimens at each location:  Minuses:   Truthfully, we should have seen the major flaw in this scheme coming.  Um, rocks are really, really heavy.   Even if each kid only picks up 8oz of rocks a day.  With 3 kids, that's a 1 1/2 pounds of rocks total per day.  If we're gone for 10 days, we're coming home with 15 pounds of rocks! 

Patches:  Pluses:  Light.  Inexpensive. Flat and easy to pack. Appeals to our kids' wide age range. Pretty much the perfect souvenir. 

So the plan is, now that the patches are sewn to denim squares, to back each square with flannel, sew the square together and make blankets for each of the kids.   (Denim and flannel have the plus that you don't have to finish seams as the fabric doesn't unravel.)

Here's my favorite square  from last year's trip to San Fransisco and Monterey, California. 



OK, there may be a couple of draw back to patches.  Despite the claims that patches are "iron-on": They are most definitely not.  They must be sewn on if they're going to stay put more than 3 seconds.  And, due to plastic backing,  you do need to use a machine unless you have finger tips made of galvanized steel.  (And it would be tough to hold a needle with finger tips of galvanized steel.)    Also some patches are shaped -- well, they're not round or square.  They have legs or their designers opted for an irregular shape.  This square shows the full gamut of patches from easy to not.


"Cool as a moose" patch is nicely round -- easy to sew.  "Mount Desert Island" -- not so easy.  Too many coves.  And the moose -- legs and antlers!  If I drank beer, it would have been beer o'clock from that one.  Though I do believe there was some chocolate rummaged out the pantry as a reward.  So I guess, I found my threshold for chocolate o'clock.

And because it's winter is western NY, I'm obligated to talk about the weather.  DH has another chore that creeps up this time of year -- shoveling the roof.  Although DH has a special tool for the task -- gotta love "special tools". (Oy!)



(Sorry Sweetie, your face was blotted out by a rather large snowflake.) Our house is about 120 years old and prone to icicles.  The playroom (in picture) is the prime spot for large icicles. Years ago it morphed into being when someone closed in a porch, so the roof is poorly pitched, not insulated and there's only a crawl space underneath.  Although the snow has been fluffy, pretty  and a nice change from early December gray.

And because it's winter in western NY, we also have to talk about ....Hockey!  In addition to following the Buffalo Sabers (Go Sabers!), we make trips to DH's and my alma matter of RIT (that'sRochester Institute of Technology 'case you're interested).  Both the women's and men's teams are nationally ranked, so we get to see some fast, well played games.



Hi, DD#1 and go Lady Tigers!  (The Lady Tigers (ranked #4) ended up in a 3-3 tie with Elmira Golden Eagles (ranked #3).)  Great game.  Oh, and did you ever come across a word that just causes happiness with its saying?  A word that just feels good as it trips off the tongue?  One that makes you giggle when recited rapid fire? 



Zamboni!  Zamboni!  Zamboni! Zamboni!  Zamboni!

Yes, Virginia, there was Christmas knitting...

And now that the recipients have their Christmas woolen snuggies in hand, on foot or around neck, I can post pictures of all the projects. 



As you can see, I went on a bit of a mitts jag this season.  So summing up (Sing along to "On the first day of Christmas..")

Five pairs of mitts
Four size 6 dpns
Three hours embroidering (OK, not that long but it felt like it.  Turns out the letter "S" is really difficult to freehand.)
Two soft wool scarves
and a Pair of nice warm socks for my hubby.
(Hey, I didn't hear you singing!)



There was a small rainbow of Maine Morning Mitts out of Noro Kureyon.



My DDS requested some mitts to go with her Ohio State sweatshirt.  So, tahdah!  Knitting the mitts was easy, finding red/black/white yarn was a fun quest,  embroidering "OSU" on them was not and not just because I wanted the letters to be sized and spaced perfectly.  Perfectly, I tell you!   OK, maybe that was the problem.   My DH kept saying, "The letters looked fine." as I ripped out the stitching for the sixth time. 

Pattern:  Basic mitten pattern from Ann Budd.  I just stopped before the shaping at the top of the mitten and thumb.
Yarn:  Lana Grossa Cento (1.2 balls)



And these mitts, made from my own handspun, went to our Mail Ma'am.  She's just a delightful mail carrier who not only delivers our mail with a smile but leaves our dog a treat everyday.  So she delivered the fiber, I spun and knit it, and returned the finished project to her.  Kind of a whole circle of life thing...only with fiber.

Pattern:  Fetching (According to Ravely (online knitting site), people have knit nearly 14,000  pairs of Fetching mitts.  That's just mind blowing!)
Yarn: My own BFL handspun from AllSpunUp

And finally...


Another pair of Fetching mitts for DearMomRoss to keep her hands warm around the house.  And when DearMomRoss opened them, she was just so thrilled with them she nearly made me cry.   More knitting coming her way....

Pattern:  Fetching  (Um, now 14,001)
Yarn: Sublime DK (Cashmere, Wool and silk)  Lovely soft stuff to work with.



A scarf for my DDS who requested a scarf long enough to wrap around her and keep her warm while walking around the hilltop campus.  Here are the stats on this one.

Length:  Nearly 7 feet
Yarn:  Nearly a fifth of a mile of yarn knit up in that one.  (Brown Sheep bulky -- wool and mohair)
Pattern:  K2P2 over and over and over and over and over.....and over.....and.....over.....K2....P2...in ...my....sleep



And if you ever want a quick buttery soft scarf, pick up some Malabrigo Chunky.  It's like knitting with marshmallows.  If you could stretch marshmallows out to make a yarn and form a stitch without them sticking to each other and degrading when they got wet and drying out over time.  Ok, not the best analogy.  But the yarn is incredibly soft and squishy. 

Pattern: Filippi scarf by Tamara Del Sonno from One Skein Wonders
Yarn:  Malabrigo Chunky (1 skein) in butter yellow (also for DearMomRoss)

Last knitted item:


And DH requested some new socks.  Here they are in a simple broken rib pattern some basic socks made from Berocco's new Vintage yarn.  Vintage has some nylon and acrylic in it so I'm hoping they will wear a bit longer than plain wool socks. 

I love knitting for Christmas because not only do I get pure enjoyment out of just knitting and creating something, but I get to think about the person I'm knitting for while I'm doing it. 

Here are a few pics from our Christmas holiday...


The traditional blinding-of-the-children-with-flash-photography when they descend the stairs pre-dawn on Christmas morning.  The brief resulting exclamations ran something like this   ..."Ahhh! Mom!  I can't see anything!"   "All I can see is a big yellow dot!"  Moms have to have some fun.   Complaints only echoed for about a half a second before they saw the tree with presents under it.



Um, Christmas cookies!

And this is DearSon's prize Christmas gift


Yes, a lego R2D2.  Yes, about an inch tall.  Yes, sometimes the best things do come in small packages.

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and a peace filled New Year!